Frankfurt, the movie town

It was about year and a half ago when I firstly crossed Frankfurt. I was on my ''Eurotip'', travelling from Marburg to Brussels and changing the bus there, unfortunately only having an hour to spare, so the only place I've seen was the bus and outside of the train station. 

Despite being known and used as a regular transit city, my first and main association with Frankfurt was certainly the well known story of Heidi, that presented it in it's own charming way.

This time my visit was only slightly longer, again as the part of transit; and after arriving by train as early as 7 am on a Sunday, I had 14 hours until my bus would take me further on.

Fountain of Justice at Römerberg square

Again, the visit started at well known train station, only that this time I've also seen the inside, beside the renaissance fasade outside.

But another, best called ''interesting'' event has happened on that day in late April. They found a 250 kg WWII bomb in river Main and closed central river area to safely detonate it.

While kinda waiting to hear a big bang (or boom), our whereabouts in city were slightly limited, but still, while stuck on the northern side, there was plenty to see.

I headed west from the station, towards the modern part of town, crossing the red lights district.

Central business area, many times meaningfully also referred to as the Mainhatten (as Frankfurt is being crossed by the river Main), is seeded with magnificent sky scrapers. Beside several architectural gems, divided by small parks, we can also see the second highest building in Europe (after London's Shard), that, together with anten at the top, measures all 300 m in height. And if UK is about to leave the EU, several financial institutions might find their new place right here.

View at ''Mainhatten'' from the river site, with it's tallest building in the middle

Continuing further on, I did find myself in the old part of town, mostly closed for the traffic and therefor offering great pedestrian areas, with shops and cafes between the old buildings and those renovated in traditional framed fasade style after the war.

Cathedral bell tower

So I ended up on the main square, where the town hall is and most of the houses around are done in this exact same way.

Römerberg square buildings with town hall (second from left)

By that time the bomb was successfully detonated and you were able to access the river bank again, so I crossed it to the south side, where you can visit many different museums. As I still had many hours left, I passed them all and decided to take the inner look at the movie one, as already their shop was so inviting, filled with fun items.

Cone shaped optical illusion picture of a horse

It was certainly a wonderful decision. I was taken on a long and detailed journey from the first depth creating pictures and optical illusions. Beside great explanation and given examples, you're able to try and experience many historical things as the whole exhibition is made very interactive. I've pipped into old machines scrolling photos, I've seen the first cameras developed from Camera obscura and also first projected cartoons. It lead all the way to experimenting with lights, and first recorded movies, some of which were already given special effects and were also screened in separate room.

One of the first projector for screening cartoons

Second floor offered insight into modern movie making from the golden age of Hollywood on. You were able to try yourself as character on the green screen, light or sound director and post production manager, while admiring great works of film industry.

Opera house

After museum closed, I took my last stroll by the river and trough the old town and somehow the whole day passed much faster than I expected.