Frankfurt Tour in 7hrs of Layover

So the day had arrived, our flight to Zurich was at 3AM with a 7 hrs layover in Frankfurt. We left home early and had almost finished our immigration by 1AM. While hubby and kiddo went on wandering around the new T2 Terminal of Kempe Gowda International Bengaluru, I took a nap around, as we had whole of next day to travel and explore Frankfurt. Since we had a Schengen visa, we thought of making use of our 7hrs layover to explore Frankfurt. Our flight was on time and we reached Frankfurt by 9AM. We were already served with breakfast at flight so we were all set to explore the new country Germany. We had planned to visit Romer Berg the cultural hub of Frankfurt. The metro connectivity in Frankfurt has great accessibility to explore the city. Of the 2 major lines S and U, while U has a nearer metro station to Romer Berg, S has a direct connectivity to Frankfurt airport. So we opted for S line(S8 or S9 route) so that we need not change S to U at Frankfurt HBF station which is the major hub of Frankfurt, instead walk few extra miles from Hauptwache station on S line. Frankfurt metro offers a day ticket for 5 people at 22 Euros, which allows you to travel through out the day. We took our ticket at airport metro station and boarded train to Hauptwache. 

I had watched enough of vlogs on day visit to Frankfurt on a layover and every road seemed so familiar which were watched on the vlogs. A 30mins ride reached us to Hauptwache metro station. You can opt to take a last mile connectivity of a tram or just walk for 5-10mins exploring around to reach Romer Berg. 

Romer Berg square houses the Romer building the city administration of Frankfurt. The square also has the Old St Nicolas Church, Historical Museum and the central fountain of justice which dates to 1543. In 16th century, it was named one of the most beautiful squares in Roman Empire. The square  was bombed in 1944 during WW II which burnt the historic buildings and the present half timber facades were reconstructed between 1950 to 1980. The square hosts the Christmas fair and the place turns magically light. The place has souvenir shops around and authentic German bakeries which are centuries old, which none of the new bakeries could match the taste of their breads and seeded rolls.

Just 5mins walk from Romer Berg Square is The Eiserner (Iron Bridge) a pedestrian bridge which connects central old town to southern Sachsenhausen district. Which was rebuilt too in 1946 after the WW II . Its well known for the colorful love locks couples leave there as a symbol of love and affection.

Breads and seeded rolls of German Bakeries 

We spent almost 3 hours there wandering around, before we took our metro back to airport. Unlike in India, airports have no security check at the airport gates, anybody can just walk into the airport. Since we had also finished our immigration into Schengen in the morning, our flight to Zurich was domestic which was much hassle free. The flight got delayed by an hour and by the time we reaches Zurich it was already 6PM in the evening. We bought our Swiss SIM and picked food at Coops(for our next day travel) at airport. We had to catch our direct train to Interlaken West by 6:45PM. Unfortunately the direct train got cancelled, we took the next train to Zurich HB. The Zurich HB train to Interlaken too halted for maintenance at Bern. A lady in the train with us asked us to take train to Thun and take a next train then after. There we were at Thun at 8:30PM, in the freezing night, in an empty railway station of Swiss, not sure if we were about to get any train to Interlaken. Checked the buses next to the railway station and they informed, no buses run in Swiss post 8PM. Worse we were expecting was to check in to any of the hotels in Thun and then take a train to Interlaken the next morning, but that would disturb our next day travel plans. While waiting and checking around, everybody around and the SBB Swiss Train App showed there was a train at 9:30PM. The display board finally read the next train at 9:30PM to Interlaken. 

We had informed our hotel on our check in at 9PM, based on our direct train from airport to Interlaken, and we were still in Thun till 9:30PM still 20km away waiting for our last mile connectivity to reach the hotel. Most small hotels in Europe have fixed reception hours, they just go off on time. And the other best thing is they have digital locks or manual number lockers with the key card within and they share the pin code if you reach during odd hours. Finally we reached Interlaken West at 10:30PM and walked to our hotel and called off our first day in Europe.