Germany 2 - Frankfurt, Showtime!

All photos in this post are (c) Christine Moeller.  Thanks Chris or letting me use some of your amazing photos!

10th August

Show day, we were all excited and headed off to the stadium in the afternoon.  We waited for the band to arrive, it was a very hot day but luckily where we were in the shade of the forest and even had log seat to rest on.  We got talking to other fans which helped pass the time.  One of the security people told one of the German fans that U2 would arrive at the airport at 4.30pm and then come to the stadium.  That seemed to be true as at around 5.40pm security was increased, we were told to stay where we were and if Bono wound down the car window we could go across.  A convoy of cars headed by two police outriders arrived, and sped into the stadium.  I've never seen U2 arrive in such a convoy, it was impossible to see into the cars and no one wound down a window and anyway it would have been difficult to stop a the convoy would have been backed up the road. Of course it was too soon to have a band sound check which was a shame, I always enjoy listening to them.  Ahh well, c'est la vie!

We went into the stadium and had something to eat sitting in the lovely sunshine.  We went to our seats, great ones at the front on a small tier inbetween the upper and power tiers on Edge's side.  Kasabian were the support, they were ok.

The Claw and stage all looked the same to me, though I've heard some people saying they thought the catwalk was smaller.  It must have been difficult to erect as there was a kind of capsule suspended high up in the middle of the stadium which was held in place by horizontal cables.  One of the Claw legs was very close to the capsule and the "spike" had to be placed between the cables, it must have been a logistic nightmare, no wonder it was already nearly built on the Saturday that we arrived in Frankfurt.

I'm not going to review the concert song by song, I'll just write about aspects of it that stood out for me.

As before, Space Oddity opened the gig, but the band's entry was different, they all walked on together from behind the stage and then went straight into Return of the Stingray Guitar (typical long-winded U2 song title LOL!)  I really liked the tune, which was mainly instrumental.  Bono was doing a circuit of the catwalk during it, throwing funny Zoo-like poses.  It was humourous and yet also very touching as it was almost like Bono was showing us he was all better after his operation and we, the audience, were celebrating that with him and sending him our love.  It felt very powerful and I felt very emotional myself, we nearly lost him as a performer and I was so glad to see Bono cavorting around the catwalk in his own inimitable way .

The next song was Beautiful Day, followed by a generally very "up" rockin' set.  I really missed No Line on the Horizon, don't know why they dropped it, it was well received live last year.  I had purposely not listened to Glastonbury on the Net so this was my first experience of it, and boy did I like it, a real rocker!  I'm so glad U2 were brave enough to play new music live, it was a new U2 experience for me and a very good one.  It was very well received by the crowd too.

Bono thanked the German doctors and nurses who treated him recently and said he now had "Made in Germany" stamped on his arse!  He likened U2 to German cars, Edge was a Mercedes Benz, Adam a BMW and Larry a Trabant.

Miss Sarajevo was brilliant, I am still stunned by how Bono can sing opera like that!  The audience clapped and cheered as he gave everything he had,  a spine tingling moment.

The video for The Unforgettable Fire had been changed.  It was more colourful and very pretty, but it didn't have the same link with the music.  The Crazy remix seemed a bit different, the chorus was more upfront, it seemed more refined, and though I liked it, I preferred last year's version.

Walk On and the masks are gone!  Yay!  Instead the people carried lanterns with the Amnesty International symbol on the front to highlight their Free Burma Campaign.  In my opinion this worked well and it touched me much more than the creepy masks.

Hold Me, Touch Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me replaced Ultraviolet in the encore.  The steering wheel was now lit up in red, which was much better.  Now I'd been disappointed to hear Ultraviolet had been dropped, but I loved HMTMKMKM!   It was performed in a very theatrical way, Bono looked menacing, the red of the steering wheel reflected in his glasses added to the overall effect. I'd forgotten that I really liked this song live much more than on CD.  Loved when Bono sat on the wheel and swung on it, he'll be on a trapeze next!

With Or Without You was simply stunning.  The show finished, as last year, with Moment of Surrender, (dedicated to those who lot their lives in the terrible crush at the recent Love Parade in Germany) and I still feel it doesn't work well as a closing song.  I felt that night if the show had finished with With or Without You it would have been perfect.

General comments - Frankfurt had a great audience, very responsive, there were times when the whole field and much of the stands was leaping about, wonderful atmosphere.  There were a couple of minor technical hitches and the sound wasn't the best I've heard.  And finally, I must say that those tight leather trousers of Bono's make me glad that I'm a woman and can appreciate how they cling to his delightful arse, thighs and other bits, fabulous!

 

Review - Depot 1899, Frankfurt, Germany

Location
Textorstrasse, Sachsenhausen, Frankfurt

Cuisine
German

General
Depot 1899 was a tram depot until 2003 after which it was converted to this restaurant.  It has a large, pleasant outside area on Textorstrasse where you can watch Sachsenhausen life go by.  There is also a large, ultra-modern inner eating area.  I had a delicious stew of chicken in horseradish sauce with celery, apples, carrots and potatoes.  Debbi ordered a German dish that was mainly belly pork and the delightful waitress tried to explain what it was (as many people, including myself, hate such fatty meat) by rubbing her tummy and I managed to understand some of what she was saying!  Luckily Debbi was fine with that dish, but it was nice of the waitress to check.

Northern Star Rating  * * * *

Review - Trattoria i Siciliani, Frankfurt, Germany

Location
Walter-Kolb-Strasse, Sachsenhusen, Frankfurt.

Cuisine
Italian

General
Seating areas inside and outside.  Serves until late and we were not rushed by the staff.  We all had pizza, which was good, can't comment on the other Italian food on offer.  The staff were ok but not the most helpful and we didn't get the wine we ordered, we only noticed it after a while, too late to send it back.

Northern Star Rating  * * *

Germany 1 - Frankfurt, Skyscrapers and Forests

August 7th

Debbi, Julie and I met up at Manchester for our flight to Frankfurt, (we all live in different parts of England) we were all excited, we'd been anticipating this trip for such a long time. 

The flight was pleasant and only about one and a half hours long.  As we descended into Frankfurt airport we saw the Commerzbank Arena (stadiums seem to be called arenas in Germany) below, the Claw being clearly visible, only the red spike was missing.  We noticed the stadium was situated within a forest, how unusual

I'd heard Frankfurt was a nightmare airport (it was certainly big) but we navigated our way through it wit no problems and before long were in a taxi heading into the city. 

We arrived at the Maingau Hotel around 9.30pm and were greeted by a very nice receptionist and soon were settling into our rooms (we had single rooms) which were small, but very clean and had all we needed. Soon we were out looking for somewhere to eat, it was now 10.30pm and we weren't sure if we'd find anywhere still willing to serve.  But a short distance from our hotel we found the Trattoria i Siciliani, which was busy and ok about serving us.  As it was a pleasant balmy night we sat on the outside terrace of the restaurant.  The tables had candles in tumblers which in turn were in paper bags, erm, unusual....

Our pizzas were very good and reasonably priced compared to the UK (well almost everything abroad is reasonable compared to UK prices!).  We were fascinated by a tiny, tiny little dog sitting in a young girls handbag at the table opposite, so cute!  Another thing the UK could be better with, allowing dogs in public places more, like France, Germany embraces its relationship with man's/woman's best friend and dogs are welcomed in restaurants, bars and shops.  Nice.

August 8th

We had an excellent breakfast at our hotel before getting a taxi to the centre of Frankfurt for our tour of the city.  Unfortunately the weather wasn't too good, and though it was warm it was raining.  Everyone sat upstairs in the bus and we set off.  The guide was very funny and gave his info in very good English as almost all the passengers either were English speaking or understood the language. 

He told us Frankfurt was over 1200 years old and was situated on the River Main.  It is the major financial and transportation centre of Germany, and it is the seat of the European Central Bank and many financial institutions.  I was surprised the city had so many skyscrapers, and it often is nicknamed Mainhattan because of its distinctive skyline.

The city suffered much damage in World War Two when it's famous medieval area, Romer, was destroyed.  Some of this area has been reconstructed as it was.  As the sun was now shining we decided to have a snack near Romer, but as we only had a short break we did not have time to explore the actual place, so we decided we'd go back there after the tour.

The retractable roof of the bus was taken back, and every time we passed low tree branches we got soaked!  We had "tree alerts" to try our best to avoid a cold shower.  But the weather steadily improved and soon we basking in warm sunshine. The photo lef tis me taking the bull by the horn!

After the tour ended, we got out our map and worked out how to get back to Romer.  We walked along with banks of the River Main, which was very pleasant.  Boats and barges chugged along the river and people promenaded or just sat and relaxed in the beautiful weather. 

The Romer was lovely, I think it is good that it has been reconstructed.  Yes it was touristy, but at least part of Frankfurt's history has been recreated rather than it just disappearing into the ashes. 

We decided to walk back to our hotel as it was just a short walk over the pedestrian bridge that spanned the Main River.  We had a slight delay and had to stand back whilst they filmed a short scene from a film on the bridge.

We rested for a while before going out to look for somewhere to eat, unfortunately the rain had started again.  We found nice Italian restaurant in the narrow streets north of our hotel.  It had lots of atmosphere, and a woodburning stove which produced gorgeous pizza, unfortunately I didn't take note of the name of the place.  We took our time, chatted and had two bottles of delicious red wine so we didn't really notice the rain on the way back to the hotel!

Is U2 playing Frankfurt?!  Julie and me in Frankfurt

August 9th

We decided to go check out the stadium today, Abroad we aways like to see how to get there in advance. We walked to the nearby Sud Bahnhof to get a train to the stadium - that's when our problems started.  I'd heard the ticket machines were confusing and boy was that true.  The stadium - stadion - was on the map but when we tried to find it in the price list it wasn't there!  We looked at other maps, until finally on one map it was marked as F-Stadion.  That worked, after about 20 minutes we had the right ticket!  We had to change trains at the main station, which is huge, again it took us a while to navigate our way through it, we breathed a sigh of relief when we finally sat in our seats. 

The Stadion stop was quiet, surrounded by forest and we had a lovely ten minute walk through this forest to the stadium which you don't really see until you are nearly there.  There were already a few fans camped out in the blazing sun at entrance.  They must be dedicated and determined!  We found where we thought the band would arrive the next day, we wanted to see if we could met them when they arrived at the stadium. 

We headed back and decided to have a meal at a place called Depot 1899 close to the station.  I had an unusual dish of chicken in a creamy horseradish sauce with apple, celery, carrots and potatoes, it was lovely.  We also tried the apfelwein that the Sachsenhausen area is famous for.  It's a kind of cider that can be taken pure, sour or sweet.  We got it pure, I probably would have been better with it sweet as I found it a little too tarty for my taste.  We sat for ages there watching life go by as the sun set and a balmy night fell, I just love living a different kind of life for a while. 

Debbi and Julie in the forest around the stadium in Frankfurt

Review - Maingau Hotel, Frankfurt, Germany

Name and Address
Maingau Hotel, Schifferstrasse, Sachsenhausen, Frankfurt, Germany

Location 
In the Sachsenhausen area, just south of the River Main, yet just 10 minutes walk to the old town of Frankfurt, the Romer 15 mnutes from the city centre.  U-Bahn, S-Bahn, trams and the south railway station are all within a few minutes walk from the hotel.  Sachsenhausen itself is a lovely area full of shops, bars, restaurants.

Amenities
The hotel has a small seating area in the reception area and a large, classy looking dining room.  Apparently the restaurant has a very good reputation unfortunately we were not able to try it out for dinner when we were there.  The breakfast was excellent, and if you ordered one fried egg (which were the tastiest eggs I've had in a while) you always got two!

Rooms
We had single rooms which were small, but had all we needed.  They were spotlessly clean, every area of the hotel was the same.  I have stayed in much more expensive hotels but I can honestly say this was the cleanest hotel I have ever been in.

General
The hotel staff, without exception, were very friendly, helpful and also spoke excellent English.  It is a family run hotel and felt warm and homely.  I would not hesitate to highly recommend this hotel.

Northern Star Rating   * * * * *