Wagners? What a miserable bunch.

So what to do on New Years Day when Germany has basically shut down for the duration?

A less than early morning start revealed that the general plague of flu and cold infecting our little band of happy travellers was showing no signs of abating.  That said we're on holiday and we can hardly spend the day just moping about in the flat doing nothing.

So after a bit of bargaining it was decided we should take advantage of what was billed as The Kings Trail or something.  This was basically a round Frankfurt walk designed to tae you round all the old parts of the town and provide some specific historical information about sites on the way.

The whole thing was sponsored by a group of museums and was focussed on the history of Frankfurt as the seat of the German electors.  What this basically meant was that all the various princes from the different regions would get together to elect a new Emperor.  Apparently they used to all just tip up, have a quick look around, find a house they liked and just move in - whether the occupants were happy about it or not!!

The walk then took you round the old town to the sites of various buildings by the useful device of a series of red dots on the pavement which actually added to the fun by needing you to scan the way ahead for signs of the markings.  At each historical site an information board was erected with the clever device of having an etching of how the area used to appear on a large window which meant you could look through it and see the old buildings superimposed onto the new.

The walk itself was an excellent way to spend and afternoon (despite the inclement weather) and took us round lots of bits of the old town we've never visited before.  The only reason I've not reviewed it as something to do was the fact that it was apparently only temporary and was due to finish in mid January which is a shame as it was all a very good idea.  Hopefully once they analyse the response to it the city might think about setting up a more permanent trail of a similar nature.

Having stopped off part way round to grab some food and drinks in Café Mozart we completed the tour and ducked into some faux Bavarian bar at the back of the Cathedral just as the heavens opened.  As the rain lashed down we sat in the window watching people scurry past as we sipped yet more wine and began to warm up somewhat.

That evening we elected to - you guessed it - find a bar and have some more wine and food.  Illness had abated somewhat so everyone was feeling more chirpy than the previous evening so we duly set off into the town centre in the hope that some of the busier bars would be starting to open by now.

And duly some of them were but unfortunately not all of them.  This meant that the choice was therefore limited but the open places were very busy.

We did try a place called Wagners which is renowned as one of the best beerkellers in Frankfurt but on arrival it was heaving.  Unfortunately not only was it heaving but the staff completely ignored us when we went in, kept pushing past us and then shouted at us when we tried to look for a table.  Highly rude, arrogant and obnoxious - don't go there, with customer service like that they don't deserve customers.

So off we trotted to try and find somewhere else.  This meant we had the complications of finding somewhere that was a) open b) not full and c) served vegetarian food.  Not an easy task and so we wandered around aimlessly for a while, our evening disappearing before us.

Fortunately after some tramping about we happened upon Strewwelpeter tucked away from the road.  The vegetarian options weren't immense (basically it was a choice of Frankfurter Grune Sausse or nothing) but it did meet all three criteria so in we went.

Despite not looking too exciting from the outside this proved to be an excellent choice as what it lacked in image it made up for in charm and friendliness.  We were immediately ushered to a table and the food came in double quick time once we'd ordered (see review below).  As usual we supped wine and beer and amused ourselves by watching the waitress sprinting (literally) from one end of the room to the other serving food - even managing to trip up along the way at one point and fall head over heels.

Poor luv!