Story and photos by Bo Zaunders

From the airport – the third busiest in Europe- the train ride to the city had been smooth and comfortable. Even smoother was the ride up the glass-encased elevator in the soaring lobby of the Hilton Frankfurt Hotel: a swift silent ascent to the executive floor, which featured what looked like a first-class airport lounge. A quick shower, and we were ready to meet a couple of friends, eager to introduce us to apfelwine, the city’s famous apple wine. Apparently, cider has been associated with the region since the days of Charlemagne, over 1,200 years ago, and has been a big deal in Frankfurt for the past two or three centuries.

So there we were, at a popular wine tavern named Wagner, sitting at a long dark wooden table in the midst of a convivial crowd, imbibing apfelwein. It was a distinctly laid-back setting: strangers speaking to strangers and waiters scurrying back and forth carrying blue-gray jugs called bembels, the vessels from which the wine is traditionally served.

Just as Tuborg in Copenhagen calls for smørrebrød and Muscadet in La Rochelle needs oysters, so does apple wine in Frankfurt require its own food complement. Here it was Rostbratwürstchen mit Saurkraut or Frankfurter Schnitzel mit grüne sauce  (a green sauce made with sour cream, hardboiled eggs, and a large variety of herbs). I ate a little bit of both, and found each one the perfect accompaniment. As the evening wore on, you couldn’t help experiencing a sense of well being, heightening with every new bembel arriving at the table.

Thanks to the upstairs lounge, breakfast the next morning was an elegant affair just a few feet from our room. Before we were due back at the airport there was time for a little sightseeing. Our location proved perfect. A 5-minute walk from the banking district, the hotel is also close to the historic old town, and next door to the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, a fact immediately and vividly borne out by the sight of an imposing bull sculpture. Unlike its Wall Street counterpart in Manhattan, it looked rather timid – no lowered head and flaring nostrils - just a bronze bull with a sad, almost apologetic, expression on its bovine face.

Heading for Römerberg, the large square in the center of the old town, we crossed Grosse Hirschgraben, the street where Goethe, Frankfurt’s favorite son and the author of such masterpieces as “Faust” and “The Sorrows of Young Werther,” was born back in 1749. Lovingly restored to its original condition, the Goethe House is now a museum – one of a great many museums in this city. Another block or so, and we were at St. Paul’s Church, where, in 1846, a general assembly met to work out a constitution for a United Germany. Having played such a significant role in the country’s history, it was the first building to be rebuilt after much of the inner city was destroyed in World War II. Which brings us back to Römerberg, with its rows of picturesque 15th and 16th century half-timbered houses – also destroyed in the war, then scrupulously reconstructed.

Particularly outstanding is the Römer, three attached buildings with stepped gables, which have accommodated the City Hall, or Raathaus, for the past 600 years. I understand that the Kaisersaal, one of several rooms open to the public, boasts the portraits of 52 German kings and emperors, beginning with Barbarossa in 1152 to Franz II, who abdicated some 200 years ago. I would have liked to see it, but time was short, and instead we decided on a quick visit to the nearby Kaiserdom, Frankfurt’s old cathedral.

By definition a cathedral is the seat of a bishop. Not so the Kaiserdom, despite its name. Apparently it got its title in the 18th century after it had become the site where German kings and Emperors of the Roman Empire were elected and crowned. Inside, we gazed in admiration at the Maria Schlaf Altar, a splendid piece of art from the 15th century that shows a dying Virgin Mary surrounded by the apostles. For a little while we strolled in the magic twilight of the interior under steep gothic arches.

On Römerberg the sun was out. More people had gathered, in outdoor cafés as well in the square itself. Entertainment came in form of a harmonica player, a guitarist, and an organ grinder, complete with a colorful monkey doll. Last on the agenda, before taking off for the airport, was a brief visit to Kleinmarkthalle, Frankfurt’s most popular indoor market, where we indulged in – what else – a frankfurter.

Harking back to the previous evening, it seems that apple wine goes extremely well with a number of dishes. A juicy rib with sauerkraut comes highly recommended, as does pickled bacon with potatoes and herb butter. You may also want to try Handkäs mit Musik, aromatic cheese, simmered in cider and served with onions. I learned that, during the summer, strawberries are sometimes added to the wine, turning it into apple punch. As the weather gets cold, you can heat it and infuse it with spices, making what to me, as a Scandinavian, sounds like a glögg-like concoction. Sometimes, carbonated water or lemonade is added to the wine, the latter practice of which is particularly frowned upon by true apfelwein connoisseurs – a group of which I now feel I’ve become a fledging member.

© November 2011 LuxuryWeb Magazine. All rights reserved.