Things to do in Frankfurt, Places to Visit & Christmas Market

Frankfurt in Germany is a great place to visit with lots of things to see or do, especially during the Christmas markets. It has many tourist attractions and beautiful places to visit. Visiting Frankfurt with a dog was great fun and in the main found things to be dog friendly.

Frankfurt, Germany Skyline

Ive enjoyed a few brief visits to the German city of Frankfurt with the dog due to it being a crossroads on the Germany rail network. There are lots of options for things to see and do in Frankfurt. A highlight was the Christmas market. However, there were plenty of tourist attractions to choose from. I incorporated seeing some of Frankfurts’ interesting architecture, local beer, and Christmas market food. We also enjoyed some dog walking.

Christmas

The top priority for the stopovers was to give the dog a walk, relieve himself, and to see some of Frankfurt. Knowing these were a time-limited stays, I had planned a loop on each visit to ensure that I kept our schedule. We get refreshed and got so see some architecture of this German city.

Frankfurt a City in Germany

Frankfurt is a central German city on the banks of the River Main. The city is a major financial hub that’s home to the European Central Bank and has a unique skyline for European cities with many high-rise buildings.

Skyscrapers in Frankfurt

Most of the city was damaged during World War II and later rebuilt. The reconstructed Altstadt (Old Town) is the site of Römerberg, a square that hosts the annual Christmas market.

Places to visit and things to see and do?

As we had planned the circular walk, we headed towards the city’s Christmas Market of the same name as the one we had visited earlier in the month in Birmingham. On the way, we passed some green space for the dog to have a run, a sniff and to turn around, job done.

Things to do in Frankfurt

This was a fantastic spot to admire the Frankfurt skyline and its many tower blocks, including the famous Main Tower. The towers were impressive and unique for a European city as they avoided building skyscrapers in most cities in Europe.

Visit The Christmas Markets

Frankfurt Christmas Market

The Frankfurt Christmas markets are near to the station and was a pleasant walk. Frankfurt Christmas market was fantastic to see, and no doubt the lights would have looked better at night.

Frankfurt Church

The Frankfurt Christmas market is in the old town area of the city, mostly in a pretty town square. There were lots of Christmas market stalls and it was a hive of activity and people having fun. The backdrop of St Catherine’s Church was nice, this is a baroque church that they built in the late 17th century.

Stall at Xmas Markets

The smells coming from the area were delightful, with a combination of Christmassy food smells. After walking through and admiring the local architecture of the old town and enjoying the atmosphere of the market.

Bratwurst

There were lots of options for Christmas market food throughout the area. We settled on a lunch of German Bratwurst sausages served with sauerkraut and mustard. These were delicious and had seconds.

Bratwurst in Frankfurt

It would have been a shame not to wash lunch down with some good old German beer. So I enjoyed the 1st pint of the day, a pleasant hells style German beer.

Stollen at Christmas Markets

Another must visit stall for us at the Christmas markets was those welling stollen. Stollen is a fantastic cake and was well worth making the backpack heavier. There were loads of other Christmas cake stalls, however stollen won the race. This was delicious and was a great option for snacks on a Christmas train journey to the next city with a Christmas market, Nuremberg.

Beautiful Architecture in Frankfurt

Lots of the Christmas market stalls were near Liebfrauen, a pleasant church. This is a Gothic style church that they built between the 14th and 16th century. It certainly makes for a pleasant backdrop for the Christmas markets.

Find the pretty Eschenheim Tower

Tower in Frankfurt

Eschenheimer Turm AKA Eschenheim Tower was originally a city gate and part of the late-medieval fortifications of the city. The tower, now a landmark, was constructed at the beginning of the fifteenth century. Eschenheim Tower is one of the oldest and most unaltered buildings in Frankfurter Neustadt. There were also some Christmas market stalls next to the tower on our visit.

Fürstenpalais Christmas Market stalls

Fürstenpalais Frankfurt

Another pleasant thing to see in Frankfurt was the Fürstenpalais Christmas market stalls. They had some nice produce for sale and the backdrop to these was beautiful. Stalls included the Christmas favourite Glühwein AKA mulled wine.

Fürstenpalais Christmas

Fürstenpalais is a beautiful building to see when sightseeing in Frankfurt. They built the building between 1731 and 1739. It has had an interesting history since then.

Dog Walk through Bockenheimer Anlage a pleasant park

Park to walk dog in Frankfurt

From here we headed through Bockenheimer Anlage, a park in the city with a lake. This was great for the dog to do his business and have some freedom to burn some energy. It was a shame the fountains on the lake were not on during this visit. The open space provided another splendid view to admire the city’s towering skyline.

Photograph the beautiful Alte Oper or watch a performance

Alte Oper

After exiting the park, we arrived at the magnificent Alte Oper, the original opera house in the city. The Alte Oper, meaning Old Opera, is a concert hall and a former opera house in Frankfurt. Alte Oper was inaugurated in 1880 but destroyed by bombs in 1944 during WW2. The building was rebuilt, slowly, in the ’70s and finally reopened in 1981.

They performed many important operas for the first time in Frankfurt. This includes Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana in 1937, which is my favourite. For those that don’t know the opera, it was very famous for use on the Old Spice advert.

Opera House At Christmas

They had nicely decorated this for the festivities, including some Christmas trees near the entrance. As a bonus, we got to see a gorgeous sunset in Opernplatz.

Watch The Sunset at Opernplatz

Sunset Frankfurt

Outside of the main entrance of the opera house is a square, known as Opernplatz or Opera Square. This was a place also with magnificent views, some nice-looking eateries, and a fountain that was popular with selfie-takers.

Browse the Shopping District

Gun Shop Frankfurt

We then passed through a shopping district, great if we needed anything, but shopping was not on the agenda today. However, we were drawn to a gun shop and had to do some window browsing, not a sight we see often so naturally were inquisitive. So far, we had seen gun shops and skyscrapers. You could have fooled us at this point that we were in the USA.

See Eurotower

European Central Bank

A nice building to see when sightseeing is the European Central Bank Building. Eurotower is one of many skyscrapers in the German city and has a nice monument of the Euro symbol at the front. They built the tower between 1971 and 1979. It’s currently the workplace of many European Central Bank staff.

Enjoy a German Beer near Central Station

German Beer

From here we were coming to the end of our pre-planned loop of part of the city. To finish up, I just required to get some train supplies from a shop. Then head back to the lockers that were looking after our stuff. They invited the dog into the shop, where we were getting refreshments. He got quite the fuss from the owner, a common theme on our travels so far.

Train Station Bar

As the sun was going down, the station was nicely lit up by the sunset at dusk. We entered and had the option of running with a dog and rucksacks to catch the train. Alternatively, have a beer and catch the next train in an hour unrushed. Option 2 won hands down, so headed for a bar at the station. This again was a dog-friendly venue, to our delight. They also had Wi-Fi, so we could do a spot of work.

Liebfrauenberg

Liebfrauenberg

One of the most beautiful town squares in Frankfurt is Liebfrauenberg. Beautiful buildings surround the square and has a centrepiece fountain with an obelisk.

Liebfrauenberg Christmas

There are various cafes to enjoy a drink in the square, especially during the warmer months. However, during the winter, Liebfrauenberg is home to one of the Christmas markets.

Other Things to see or Do in Frankfurt?

Because of the brief time that we spent in the city, our visit was very limited. However, if the opportunity arises, I would love to return. I would love to visit or experience the following.

  • A walk along the river main as I have an affinity for rivers, or maybe, if possible, a boat tour.
  • Climbing the main tower to the viewing platform.
  • Try more local beers.
  • Try a Frankfurter Sausage in its hometown. I could not find one on our rounds.

Travel By Train To Frankfurt

Frankfurt HBF

As we were travelling with the dog on this Interrail adventure, we broke up the journey. First time was travelling from The Hague to Nuremberg with a few hours for a mooch round Frankfurt, Germany. This was an obvious stopping point, as we needed to change here. Then the trains continuing to Nuremberg were pretty frequent, so our stay length could be flexible.

Trains at Sunset

The second visit was while travelling from Dresden to Maastricht in the Netherlands. The city was a great place to step as the dog had spent a long time being good on the train. Frankfurt is well connected on the German railway network and there are options to visit from most places.

We arrived in Frankfurt Central train station after lunch after a pleasant journey on the super-fast ICE train. Our first job was to locate the lockers where we could leave both rucksacks. This cost 5 euros and was good value for us to enable a quick tour. The train station was pleasant and seemed very busy with some long, fast looking trains.

1 thought on “Things to do in Frankfurt, Places to Visit & Christmas Market”

  1. Glad you enjoyed Frankfurt. To be honest, it doesn’t have a reputation as a tourist destination, but I absolutely love Frankfurt. Spent several years there in total. Fun, party people, good food, especially at the apple wine taverns, and who doesn’t like a good skyline.

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