Frankfurt: town of a thousand festivals

I thought we had been lucky so far to hit so many festivals and special events in the cities we had visited: YorkDays in York, a protest in Avignon, bullfighting in Nimes, a concert in Florence, free cultural sights in Rome (which we mistook the date of and missed), Vienna Festwochen in Vienna, and Prague Spring in Prague. In Frankfurt, we have run into 3 such events, none of which we knew about before arriving.

First, Fressgass-fest. The street known as Fressgasse (street of eating) has been overrun with vendors of beer, apfelwein (apple wine, very tasty), and sausages. It is heavenly; we have been eating one meal a day there since we arrived. There is also intermittent live music, especially in the evenings. This is definitely my kind of festival.

When biking along the riverside, we came across some large obstacles in the form of high school students. They were holding their annual Dragon Boat races on the river, and took up a large stretch of the path with a grandstand and (again) beer and sausage vendors. Apparently each school fields (not quite the right word; perhaps floats?) several teams of Dragon Boat rowers, and the local schools compete against each other. Very cool, and fun to watch. I was cheering for the "Go Go Power Rangers."



Finally, in an attempt to do the tourist thing, today we went to the Goethe Museum and nearby Romerberg, a square for tourists, basically. In the square, people were setting up for yet another festival, possibly around a soccer tournament? Apparently it has been around for 175 years, and I am sure it will include vendors of beer and sausages. Perhaps it was not soccer, but a festival to celebrate many years of celebrating things with beer and sausages.

P.S. We finally discovered why Frankfurt, a city that is 99% banks and office workers, is so smog-filled. This is a Frankfurt garbage man: