Frankfurt, Germany

Photo credit: PhotoDisc

The thriving industrial metropolis of Frankfurt, Germany's fifth-largest city and Goethe's hometown, may well be your first glimpse of Germany.

Most international flights land at Frankfurt's huge airport, and its massive 19th-century railway station is the busiest in Europe. Frankfurt is a heavily industrial city, with more than 2,450 factories operating around the ford (Furt) on the Main River, where the Frankish tribes once settled. As the home of the Bundesbank, Germany's central bank, Frankfurt is also the country's financial center. It's been a major banking city ever since the Rothschilds opened their first bank here in 1798. Frankfurt also has a leading stock exchange.

Frankfurt's international trade fairs in spring and autumn bring some 1.5 million visitors to the city and its Messe Frankfurt (fairgrounds), often causing a logjam at hotels. Fairs include the Motor Show, the Textile Fair, the Chemical Industries Fair, and the Cookery Fair. But the best known is the International Book Fair, which draws some 5,500 publishers from nearly 100 countries and is the most important meeting place in the world for the acquisition and sale of book rights and translations.

If all roads used to lead to Rome, today they seem to converge on Frankfurt, making it the hub of a great network of European traffic routes. Frankfurt today is both a much visited business center and a worthy tourist destination with a distinct personality.

• Amsterdam
• Athens
• Barcelona
• Copenhagen
• Dublin
• Edinburgh
• Frankfurt
• Geneva
• Lisbon
• London
• Madrid
• Milan
• Munich
• Paris
• Prague
• Rome
• Shannon
• Venice
• Vienna
• Zurich