9-hrs layover in Frankfurt, advice needed
 

We will be flying from NYC to Croatia and we’ll have a little over 9 hrs layover in Frankfurt. We’ll arrive 6:30 am and leave 15:55 pm.
None of us has been to Frankfurt before, and I’m looking for some advice on what to do. Is it possible to get into the city, maybe take one of those hop on – hop off busses (do they have them?) have lunch, etc.
Since both our flights are booked through Lufthansa, I assume we will not need to handle any baggage in Frankfurt.
Any idea is welcome. Thanks a lot

well, I will throw this idea out and see if others think I am crazy. IMHO, Frankfurt is a wonderful city, but if you'd like to catch more European "charm", I would consider catching the train right there in the airport terminal and taking it about 30 min east to Wuerzburg which has some nice sites to see that are easy to access from the train station, such as the Residenz and the.....forgot the name but it is the large building on the bluff overlooking the city.
Downtown Ffurt is so new and modern it almost feels "american".

elkellyga's suggestion is doable, especially if you can get a train directly from and to the airport. Check www.bahn.de for schedules, enter Frankfurt Flughafen for the airport. The building he/she can't think the name o is the Festung Marienberg. It and the residenz are truly magnificent.

Of course you have to calculate about one hour after plane arrival and two hours before plane departure into your time plan.

Although I am partial to Wuerzburg (was born there), some parts of Frankfurt around the cathedral (Dom) have been rebuilt after WWII to look like the real thing: The Dom itself, the Roemer (old city hall)and surrounding buildings. Across the river on the Eiserner Steg pedestrianm bridge will take you to the old part of Sachsenhausen, and a bit west from there - along the river - to some excellent museums.

From, the airport you would take the shuttle (S-Bahn) to the main station and from there streetcars or subway to the aforementioned places.

Thank you both, ekellyga and treplow – I like both ideas - and I need more than the actual 5-6 hrs I have. But Germany will be a whole separate vacation, so it will have to wait.
I still don’t know what to do, but at least I know I have options…thanks again.

If you have 9 hours you can take the train all the way to Koln and see one of the great cathedrals in all of Europe and see some mighty fine scenery on the way.

txeer
That sounds like a great idea. Does that train follow along beside the Rhine River? I've driven that road, and been to the cathedral. That would probably be my choice, as I love riding the trains and looking at the scenery. A quick visit to the cathedral (it is very spectacular), then back on the train right into the airport?
EK

Wow!
How long of a train ride are we talking about?
Realistically, is there enough time to get from airport to the train station, wait for the train, get there, get from the train station to the cathedral and back, stop and breath and have lunch, wait for the other train, ride back, get back to the airport????
Sounds awesome, but this is too rushed...do they have trains every 1/2 hr between Frankfurt and Koln?

I still think one of the other options is more 'us' - we'll save Koln for the Germany trip. But thanks, Txeer - we'll just make sure we don't miss Koln when in Germany next time :)

Going to Cologne is not that complicated. There are direct trains from the Frankfurt Airport to the Cologne main station taking 55 minutes, and the Cathedral is next door to the station. These trains do not go along the river but rather on the new high-speed line.

However the trip would cost 110 Euro per person, and I would not want to spend that much money for a couple of hours in Cologne. I would suggest Mainz, which is about a 30 minute S-Bahn ride from the Frankfurt Airport.

All of the responses are do-able, however, I assume you will be arriving after a long trans-atlantic flight. I would be exhausted and not particularly anxious to set out on a major trek. Given the same scenario I would opt to leave my bags at the airport and hop a train toward Mainz. I would get off at Mainz Sud and spend the day just leisurely strolling the old town, visiting the cathedral, the Gutenberg Museum, the Chagal windows, having lunch at a small pub and strolling along the Rhine embankment before returning to the airport. A leisurely, but delightful day with minimum hassle!

CharlieB,
You are absolutely right – we’ll be tired, so actually looking for a place to be able to relax a little, stroll, do some sight-seeing, have lunch, all in a leisurely pace. Your suggestion is exactly what I was looking for, thanks a lot.
Is there a train directly from the airport to Mainz?
We’ll save all the other places for the ‘real’ Germany trip

Mainz is a good suggestion. The S-Bahn goes directly from the airport (Regionalbahnhof stop)to Mainz in about 20 minutes. Do get off at the Mainz Sud station, the first one right after crossing the Rhine trestle; it's adjacent to Mainz's "Stadtpark" and closest to the old town area. Mainz Hbf (main) station is a bit further removed. Buy a roundtrip ticket for two or a daypass from the RMV machines at Frankfurt Airport, whichever is cheaper - should be very cheap, maybe 12 Euros or so for the two of you.

Russ,
Thanks a lot for the info – this is really helpful. And knowing that is only 20 min away, is a plus. We’ll have time to look around, enjoy the town, the people, have lunch, sounds great. Now I don’t dread the 9 hrs layover anymore :)

I was talking to a fellow traveler some years ago while we were in the Rhine area. He was looking to go to Mainz, saying there was something "famous" in one of the cathedrals there. I had no clue.
From a previous posting on this thread, is it the Chagall window??? Is that in the Cathedral?? Is it Marc Chagall?
Thanks
EK

The Chagall windows are in the Stephanskirche, not the Dom. It's a walk of several blocks from the Dom west to the Stephanskirche.

The Dom in Mainz (main cathedral in the old town center, surrounded by pedestrians-only streets) is an amazing building as well, one of the finer examples of Romanesque and a place where much good music takes place. Stop in for a look, at least. The old town buildings that survived the war lie behind the cathedral - a nice place for a stroll.

This travelogue...

www.astro.umd.edu/~farnham/Germany_trip/

...has some photos of the windows (#73-76). The very last photo on this page is actually of the Dom, though the photographers have mislabled it as the Stephanskirche. You may enjoy looking at the other photos there; I see the visitors had lunch at the Heiliggeist, a well-known Mainz eatery.

Isn't there a particular train that runs along the Rhine from Frankfurt to Cologne? I can't tell from the train schedule. Possibly a slower train?

I will have an 11hr layover in Frankfurt this November traveling from Paris to the states. The only problem is that it is overnite and I will in fact be travelling alone. Is it best for me to just find a hotel and get some rest or is there anywhere I could go? Thanks?

What about going to Heidelberg during a 12-hour layover in Frankfurt? It sounds like a lovely city. Would it be too much to try after a 14-hour flight from California? Would it be better to go to Mainz, which is closer?