I decided to get out of the city by taking the local train to a recommended suburb, Bad Hamborg. The train ride was less than 20 minutes, but quickly took me away from Frankfurt's skyscrapers, past vast farmlands (and a large IKEA store) to a very nice suburb of Frankfurt. Bad Hamborg looks like what one would expect from an old German town: lots of wooden-beam houses with pretty flowers and the occasional stone turret with medieval-looking bridge. The suburb was much larger than I expected, and had a rather long shopping promenade running through its center. The city had several very nice parks, including the grounds of a former palace. I spent several enjoyable hours wandering the city before deciding I should make my way back to Frankfurt.
I got back to the city and slowly wandered before picking up dinner to take back to the hostel. Later in the evening, I ended up at the hostel bar at table with four Canadians (none of whom were traveling together) and two Swedish fellow travelers, and I joined the group for a couple of rounds. One of the Canadians, Scott, was on the older side for hostellers - I'd guess he was about forty-five - and he was on leave from his second tour in Afghanistan. His twenty-something daughter had joined him in Europe to do some traveling on his leave, before he returns to duty in a couple of weeks. His assessment of the situation in Afghanistan was pretty bleak, and he was quite blunt with his opinions. I appreciated that he was willing to talk so openly. While his stories were rather disheartening, the group at the table was quite fun. The evening turned out to be highly entertaining.
I had an early morning planned, so I had to excuse myself earlier than I would have liked. Tomorrow it's off to the Rhine valley, and on my way to Luxembourg.
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