Museum for Communication Frankfurt

I'm a bit of a geek so I'm making a separate entry about the Museum for Communication (Museum für Kommunikation). My job is all about various types of communication including mail, landline phones, cell phones, radios, computers, and networking. It's a lot of fun seeing history in the things that have evolved during my lifetime. Like technology, this museum evolved from the Postal Museum so it starts in the lobby with a cool looking postal box.

Frankfurt Museums

There's an awesome 2-day Museum Ticket in Frankfurt for 18 euro or 28 euro for a family. It's much better value than the widely advertised Frankfurt Card. I saw info on the Museum Ticket online but didn't see brochures or advertising for it like the Frankfurt Card. Frankfurt Card provides free transit and only half off at the museums, but that really adds up if you enjoy museums like we do.

This post is about all of the museums we visited except for one, which will be a post by itself. Some of the good museums are in a row along the river and across the street from this wonderful walk under interesting trees. We walked to the furthest museum to work our way back to the pedestrian Iron Bridge (Eiserner Steg).

Frankfurt Germany

A 4 day weekend while assigned in Europe usually means visiting another country. For example, Frankfurt Germany is just a 2 hour direct flight away. There was also a Marillion concert there, which is one of my favorite bands. We arrived around sunset so the pictures start with some night shots. We stayed near Hauptwache S-bahn station for easy transit from the airport and to be near everything we wanted to see.

The Christmas markets started on Monday after we left, so we saw the setup throughout this area. It looks like it'd be a cool experience but it's also probably really crowded, so I have mixed feelings about missing it. There's Christmas markets in Riga so we can get our fill of them at home.

We discovered an awesome 2-day Museum Ticket for 18 euro or 28 euro for a family, which is much better value than the widely advertised Frankfurt Card. I saw info on the Museum Ticket online but didn't see brochures or advertising for it like the Frankfurt Card. Frankfurt Card provides free transit and half off at the museums but paying half really adds up if you enjoy museums. The museums will probably be another blog post so I'll start with the Frankfurt pics here and see how it goes.

Berlin Germany

We took our first of many weekend excursions to another country. It was slightly more than an hour to fly to Berlin which is about how long it'd take to fly from San Antonio to Dallas. Flying around in the European Union feels strange because we didn't have to show passports. I didn't really expect to get around as freely as moving around the United States. Sweden isn't a part of the Euro economic zone so sometimes I forget they're a part of the EU since we did have to get different currency.

The other odd travel thing about Berlin is their transit system with proof-of-payment enforced with random spot checks we never witnessed. There's no turnstiles or any other kind of barriers or toll attendants. There's just fare machines on the platform to buy tickets for 2-3 euros. If undercover Kontrollers catch you not paying then the fine is 40 euros. We bought 72 hour city passes for our tourist weekend which included various discounts and unlimited transit rides. I felt kind of ripped off because it seemed like we could just wander on and off the rail system without it. The bus drivers didn't seem all that interested in the validity of the tickets we flashed them.

Berlin was an interesting trip. We obviously spent some time on the Berlin Wall and the history of the city but we also just soaked in Berlin and did a little shopping since things there are a good bit cheaper than expensive Stockholm. OK, enough writing. Here's a variety of pictures from the trip.

We stayed at Hotel Gat Point Charlie with these cool light boxes over our beds.