My Equator Adventure: Palmengarten and Mainz

September 27-28, 2021

The morning of my second day in Frankfurt I went with Sarah to the Palmengarten, a botanical garden adjacent to her university. It was huge, and was basically a zoo for plants, with walking paths between designated plant areas.

The lily pad pond right at the entrance had a heron to welcome us.

The palmenhaus looked like a fancy building from an old mansion, and was filled with tropical plants.

The grounds also had a lake with paddle boats and waterfall with a little tunnel behind it to walk through. And a swan.

There was a butterfly house with tons of butterflies, of course. The ones with eyes really liked the fruit, and we found the coolest little butterfly with mostly clear wings.

The Tropicarium building was interconnected giant glass hexagons, each with a different biome represented. There was a couple types of rainforest, mangroves, cloud forest, savannah and a thorn room, which was filled with cactus.

This one was named 'mother-in-law seat' and we both found that amusing.

We grabbed a sandwich at a sidewalk bakery, then Sarah headed to meetings and I ventured out on my own. My destination was an art store way up in the north of the city, so I navigated three train lines to get there. I found a couple things I couldn't live without, and on the way home found some really cool owl art.

I detoured to walk through a park and go see the old opera house (which was lovely architecture) and along the way found a castle tower next to a skyscraper, which is pretty much Frankfurt in a nutshell.

My third day I went grocery shopping with Avery, bought a long sleeve button up because I didn't bring one somehow, then took the train to neighboring Mainz. I didn't feel like waiting for the right train, so I took a mostly-right one that dropped me across from Mainz proper so I started with a bridge across the Rhine River.