Day Trip to Frankfurt

Errol thought I was a bit nuts, but I decided to take the kids to Frankfurt on Saturday morning. Errol had been there since Thursday night, and we could ride the train back to Freiburg together. Plus, we’ve already been to the Frankfurt airport several times but had never spent any time in the city.

The train ride is around 2.5 hours, and the kids did a pretty good job. Our seat reservation was in an enclosed family cabin, and that makes traveling with this brood much easier. From Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof, we took a short ride on the S-Bahn to the Frankfurt Kinder Museum.

This children’s museum was great, but it wasn’t like others we visited. Instead of a pretend grocery store or rescue vehicles, this museum had stations that helped teach kids the central theme of the exhibit. Apparently, the themes are temporary, and the current one is “Kids Have Rights.”   There were stations about your rights to privacy, your rights to an opinion and protest, your rights to information. Everyone’s favorite part was making their own protest signs. Lee and Ned didn’t quite grasp the point, but they loved participating. There was a small play area for children 5 and under, but this museum is better suited for elementary students.

We spent the rest of the day walking around. Some of the Christmas Market shops were open, but most were closed. It was pretty crowded as is so I was thankful we got to experience some of the festivities without having to deal with the people they draw.

We stopped in a Lego store, and the kids were thrilled to take catalogs to pour over.  Before walking back to the main station to meet Errol, we went to Hugendubel. It’s a large bookstore with a good-sized English section.

The area around the Frankfurt’s Main Hauptbahnhof isn’t the most family-friendly. It was before five on a Saturday afternoon, but as we were walking through it in darkness, I thought that we probably should have taken the S-Bahn.

However, going this way lead to a conversation with Thom about lust--what it is and how it’s different from love.  It began with, “Mama, what’s an Eros Center?”

Once we got to the station, we all deserved a treat.  The kids were happy to see Frankfurt has a Dunkin’ Donuts, and some of the munchkins were filled with Nutella. I got excited at the idea of an iced beverage.

Our train home was delayed over an hour, but, thankfully, we had the family compartment again. Sometimes animals belong in a cage.

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