(All photos courtesy of Bill Meaney, unless otherwise noted.)

If you visited anywhere while you were in Germany, then chances are that you took a bus, or streetcar, or train, or any combination of the three to get you where you were going. We typically grouped all three of these conveyances into the generic term "Strasse", short for Strassenbahn, the streetcar portion of the network. Like all roads led to Rome, it seemed that all the Strasses led to the Hauptbahnhof.

"Hauptbahnhof" translates to "Main Station". It is the Grand Central Station of Frankfurt (I guess, I've never been in New York). The word "Hauptbahnhof" was never shortened. It was a typical long-ass German word that easily rolled off of the tongue.

You can get almost anywhere from the Hauptbahnhof. Train connections to all parts of Europe, a quick connection to the Rhine-Main Airport would get you overseas, or a simple change of strasses to get you to Drake-Edwards, for example.

But you could also get many things right inside or next door to the Hauptbahnhof. Shops lined many of the walls. There was an upstairs area filled with phones that you could use to call the United States (etc) if you waited long enough for one of the phones to become available. Or you could cross the street to Kaiser Strasse where you could get laid... no waiting there. I called home every month on a Sunday evening. I visited Kaiser Strasse once. That was enough for me.

They finished a major upgrade to the Autobahn shortly before I left Germany. They opened up a large underground area below the Hauptbahnhof. Local Strassenbahns that normally pulled into the big platforms on the surface now pull into smaller platforms in the basement. Lots of room for more shops too.

The furthest places I visited for fun while I was in Germany was the East-West Border and the Heidelberg Castle. Both trips were with Janet and at her urging. I thank her for getting me out to see the beauty that Germany holds.