I’ll Take Mainhattan

Jan 2012

Banking powerhouse Frankfurt is evolving into a hip cultural destination where artful pursuits and culinary pleasures offer a welcome distraction to the world of high finance. NORMAN MILLER is charmed. And your flight to Mainhattan – the nickname for Frankfurt, after the Main River flowing through it – just got more luxurious, with the Singapore Airlines A380 plying the Singapore-Frankfurt-New York route daily from January 15.

Europe's first suspension bridge, the 19th century Eiserner Steg or Iron Bridge lies across Main River and offers panoramic views of Frankfurt's skyline.

The grizzled vendor at Frankfurt’s Saturday flea market on Schaumainkai looks puzzled as I crouch down amid his hotchpotch of items to take a picture. I gesture towards the bank towers glinting on the far side of the river like soaring steel stalagmites and try to explain in halting German about capturing contrasts. He laughs and goes back to haggling.

Set astride the Main River, continental Europe’s leading financial centre may draw together financiers and the world’s leading fiscal institutions, but Frankfurt also welcomes those whose idea of financial instruments doesn’t get more complex than the euros in their pocket.

Start your city stroll at the soaring spire that is the 14th century Frankfurt Cathedral, a majestic red rocket pointing heavenwards. Then amble past moored river cruisers to Eiserner Steg (Iron Bridge), the city’s handsome river crossing dating back to the 1860s, where cast in iron letters above a span are the words “rivers and brooks are released from the ice”. Taken from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s tragic play, Faust, the bridge is a reminder of Frankfurt’s famed literary son whose 18th century home on Grosser Hirschgraben is a pilgrimage spot for tourists and students alike.

Frankfurt provides year-round cultural appeal, focused particularly along the south bank of the Main. Here, the tree-lined Museum Embankment offers a concentration of museums that are just impossible to cover in a day. I dip into this eclectic treasure trove over the course of a few days, including the morning where I explore the flea market before heading to the adjacent German Museum of Architecture (Schaumainkai 43, Tel: 49 69 2123 8844). Here, scale models of ancient human construction going back thousands of years contrast with portraits of modern architectural structures by the likes of Norman Foster, whose Commerzbank building across the river is iconic of the Frankfurt skyline.

At Stadel Museum, I marvel at celebrated canvases from Renoir, Degas and other A-listers, along with an eye-opening retrospective of works by eminent 20th century German artist Max Beckmann. A stone’s throw away, I catch brilliant cinematic collages at the Film Museum (Schaumainkai 41, Tel: 49 69 961 2200) and amuse myself with its evocative memorabilia and fascinating interactive displays. Nearby, the Museum of Applied Art presents a clean white exterior filled with eyecatching objects from places ranging from Renaissance Germany to present-day Iceland. The minimalist Restaurant Emma Metzler (Schaumainkai 17, Tel: 49 69 6199 5906) is a sleek add-on at the rear of the museum, and serves interesting starters like pumpkin soup with crab and balsamic foam, and arctic char with kale and parsnip puree.