First day of Cosmos Tour

After a good night's sleep, I was ready to start the day in Frankfurt.

The breakfast at Excelsior is pretty good for the price of the hotel, it has both cold and hot items; it even has char-siew pau that morning! One juice that is common at all hotel breakfast is the multi-vitamin juice (actually mixed fruit juices) and this is my favorite drink in the morning.

The hotel exterior


First stop after breakfast was at the Hbf to check out the platform to take the train (S-bahn) to Friedrichdorf to check into Hotel Mercure there which is the joining hotel for the Cosmos Tour of Germany. I don't know why they chose this hotel which is 20km out of town and I can only guess that they can make a quick getaway to the highway or autobahn avoiding the early morning traffic jam out of Frankfurt.

Inside the Hbf.

Next was some video shooting before going into the city centre for some early morning shopping, the wife's favourite activity even on holiday! If you plan to use the public transport, the best deal is to get the group day ticket for 5 persons at 9.5 euro. A single one-way ticket costs 2.4 euro so if you make just two trips for two persons, it would cost 9.6 euro so the group ticket is a very good deal. It can be used the whole day on the train, bus and tram in Frankfurt so it is very convenient. One of the DB lady help me get this ticket from the ticket machine; you just push the right button and slot in your money.

The main shopping street is Zeil between the S-bahn stops Hauptwache and Konstablewache and the surrounding streets. I noticed that many people here are using bicycles and also walking with their dogs and this is generally the case in most parts of Germany that I visited. In fact you should be more wary of cyclist than motorist as they ride pretty fast and seems to have the right of way.

Shoppers at the Zeil

The old and the new

After checking out of Excelsior, we boarded the S-bahn to Friedrischdorf which is at the end of line 5 so no problem here. The only problem was that after getting down, I found that there was no escalator and had to struggle with my luggage going up and down the stairs to reach outside the station. Once there, it was just a 7 euro taxi ride to Hotel Mercure.

The tour director was already at the hotel and checking in was a breeze. The best thing about the hotel is there there is a big supermarket just behind and we did some shopping there for water and snacks. The first official activity of the tour is dinner at the hotel. Surprisingly, there was no formal introduction by each member of the tour so we just get to know our neighbours at the dining table. The reasons given later was there most of the members have just flown in at the morning and after a very long flight, most of them would just want to go to bed as soon as possible. Anyway, dinner was set dinner with no options and it was just so-so, probably the worst among those included in the tour and after dinner, most of us went straight back to the room for a much needed rest.

Germans love to celebrate. The hotel has sent up outdoor barbecue food and drink tents with some light entertainment since it is the beginning of summer and supposedly good weather. So there was a crowd enjoying themselves though it was still quite chilly. I did some videoing before I went to bed. Will upload to youtube later since my earlier video is taking ages to upload.

Outdoor fun at Hotel Mercure

Ronald Kwok

Arrival in Frankfurt

My main tour in Germany is with Cosmos Tours (based in UK) and the tour stats and ends in Frankfurt, thus I need to arrange my own flight to and from Frankfurt. I chose Singapore Airlines with a transfer in Changi Airport for the convenience though it was not the cheapest; some Middle East airlines are cheaper but involves long transfer times or an overnight stay in the Middle East. As the flight that we were on was only about half full, we were given very good service during the flight. After 12 hours in the air, we finally landed at Frankfurt Airport.

There were many electric doors or gates that open only in one direction so there is very little chance of getting lost in the airport, you just follow the signs. Just a note, at the immigration, my passport was stamped while my wife's was not. Though we ask the officer for it to be stamped, he just asked us to move on (in a rather unfriendly manner); not sure if he misunderstood us or what. Later when on our way back home, the immigration officer was searching for the entry stamp in my wife's passport and he said that it should be there. Luckily, I had put my wife's incoming flight boarding pass stump together with her passport to prove her legal entry into Germany, just in case. So if you come across similar situation, do the same; it will save you a lot of explanation.

After claiming our luggage and making our way to the S-bahn train station down a narrow escalator, we were faced with some unfriendly looking ticketing machines. Luckily there was a DB (Deutsch Bahn, the German National Railway) office for enquiries and for ticket sales so I bought my tickets there to the Hbf, the hauptbahnhof or main railway station, at 3.8 euros each.
I started looking for the hotel after getting off at the Hbf and before I could ask another DB service counter, I saw the ads for the hotel right on the wall above the side exit of the station. It was Hotel Excelsior, just 20m or so across the side entrance of the Hbf. This is the best location for a hotel if you are arriving at the main railway station and it turned out also to be the best value for money among all the hotels that I have stayed in Germany.

In this case, I paid 73 euros including breakfast and breakfast was very satisfying with a good selection; they even have char-siew-pau and siew-mei during my stay! What's more, internet was free in the room, drinks in the mini-bar are also free and they even have light refreshment in the lobby (coffee and cakes) for customers during the day. No other hotels can beat this and this hotel is highly recommended. This may not be in a choice neighbourhood or the tourist area but it is easy to get anywhere with its central location just next to the main transport hub where the S-bahn, U-bahn, trams and buses meet.

These are the goodies in the mini-bar, 2 of each, all FREE!

(All photos/videos are taken with the Sony XR350E camcorder unless stated otherwise.)

The check-in counter staff was very friendly and after a shower, we went straight to bed as it was about 10.30pm local time so that we will be fresh and ready for the next day.

Just a word about the prices of hotels in Frankfurt, it can go up a lot during trade fair seasons so check when you are staying there as there are many trade fairs throughout the year. You can save quite a bit on hotel bills by just changing the dates of your travel. I chose my hotels by reading reviews in tripadvisor.co.uk and did all my hotel bookings online through booking.com which seems to offer the best prices. It is easy to use and you are not charged until your stay or default for not turning up so you can make changes where necessary. (But make sure you cancel the earlier booking.) If you expect to arrive late (i.e. after 6pm local time), do inform the hotel so that they will keep the room for you.

Ronald Kwok