We left O'Hare at 7:30 at night on Tuesday and arrived in Frankfurt am Main a little after 11 in the morning on Wednesday. We slept about as well as could be expected on the plane, so our body clocks adjusted okay. Our hotel room, the Hilton, was not quite ready, so we hung out in the Executive Lounge and had a bite to eat. After checking in, we ventured out and had our first German dinner, then crashed at about 8pm.

Day 1—Frankfurt

A welcome sight after our long flight

Our room at the Hilton, and the view from the Executive Lounge just above and around the corner from our 10th floor room

Our walk from the hotel to the old part of town brought us by the Opera House where a little "Taste of Frankfurt" was going on before the triathlon set for the weekend

A walk along the Main River brought us our first of many German churches into view

St. Bartholomäus cathedral, constructed in the 14th and 15th centuries and rebuilt in 1867

Part of the houses at the east side of the Römerberg (city hall square) that were destroyed in World War II and rebuilt in the early 80's

My first German beer and our first real German meal

Frankfurt am Main is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2008 population of 670,000. The urban area had an estimated population of 2.26 million in 2001.The city is at the center of the larger Frankfurt/Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region which has a population of 5.3 million and is Germany's second largest metropolitan area.

Situated on the Main River, Frankfurt is the financial and transportation centre of Germany and the largest financial centre in continental Europe. It is seat of the European Central Bank, the German Federal Bank, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the Frankfurt Trade Fair, as well as several large commercial banks. Frankfurt Airport is one of the world's busiest international airports, Frankfurt Central Station is one of the largest terminal stations in Europe, and the Frankfurter Kreuz (Autobahn interchange) is the most heavily used interchange in continental Europe.

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