I haven’t spent much time in Germany, but the 48 hours I got roaming around two of its most popular cities – Frankfurt and Munich – was pretty rad. We happened to fly in to Frankfurt for our Europe trip, and wanted to explore Munich while Oktoberfest was going on. Here are my recommendations for quick hits in these two fun cities!
Frankfurt
While most of our time in Frankfurt was spent experiencing the wonders of jet lag, we did make it around the city and checked a few things off our Frankfurt bucket list.
Frankfurt isn’t the most popular European hub, but it sure is pretty. Sitting right on the Main River, Frankfurt is home to lots of business but also many beautiful buildings and historic spots, like the Stadel Museum and the Opera House. Romerberg is a historical market square in Frankfurt and one of the most picturesque city squares – I definitely recommend spending some time here.
I also had one of my favorite meals in Frankfurt as recommended by a friend – the Frankfurt Schnitzel at Dauth-Schneider. YUM.
Munich
Munich is much different and quite a bit bigger than Frankfurt. We needed more than a day to explore this city, but we made the best of the time we had.
If you have a chance to go during Oktoberfest, I would highly recommend it. Although we were not able to go to the official beer tents, it was sweet to see all the costumes and spend time at Hofbrauhaus for the true Munich/Oktoberfest experience. Because are you really in Munich if you don’t order a giant beer and pretzel?
Besides walking around and exploring the streets, we stopped at Marienplatz, which is Munich’s city square. The famous cuckoo clock, Glockenspiel, chimes three times a day. I spent so much time just looking up and gazing at the beautiful buildings – they are spectacular!
BUT…. the coolest thing we saw in Munich was people surfing on the Eisbachwelle. A river… they were surfing on a river. And the waves were amazing! It was a cool “local” thing to check out and see how unique this city’s culture is.
There is a lot more Germany to explore, but I’m glad we had a chance to stop in Frankfurt and Munich for our first time!
Rachel Enerson 