Days 2: Frankfurt - Erfurt

We woke up on Thursday morning, intending to visit the Main Tower for a view of Frankfurt and the surrounding area and then planning to take a train to Erfurt. However, we started at the Deutsche Bahn Reisezentrum (travel center) to check the train schedules, because things looked a bit questionable on the internet. We were informed that the Deutsche Bahn was on strike and that there would only be one train headed east out of Frankfurt all day - at 7:19 PM. Furthermore, there would be no trains to get us from Erfurt to Dresden on Friday, neither would there be trains to get us to Leipzig on Sunday. Hmmm....that meant we needed to change some plans! We rented a car, which we were lucky to get, as most of the car rental agencies were out of cars entirely - it seems that we were not the only ones who had the idea to rent a car!
So...new plan...we spent the day in Frankfurt. We did go up the Main Tower - 54 floors in 55 seconds and then one flight of stairs to the observation area. We had a great view in all directions and were able to see the stark contrast in architecture between the centuries-old buildings and the modern architecture where the city has been rebuilt following WWII.

We spent some time walking through the shopping area on 'Zeil'. We saw more varieties of Adventskalendar than we have ever seen - including ones for some of the Bundesliga soccer teams. I wish that I could buy one for each of my German II students!

The boys got to try their ability to use the force to guide an X-wing fighter through a battle field - they had mixed success, but both got a prize anyway.

We then continued to the Explora Museum, a hands-on exploration museum with many optical illusions. The building itself felt very deserted and creepy - it turns out that it was built as a bomb shelter in WWII, which explained the lack of windows and the heavy duty doors. It was painted to look like an old castle on the outside so that people inside would be less likely to be discovered.

We had some dinner at the Markt across from the train station and boarded our ICE train to Erfurt. We had expected the train to be packed since it was the only train traveling east all day, but it was actually opposite - the station and the train were virtually empty - it was eery. We arrived at our hotel quite late and pretty much went straight to bed.