Frankfurt is the financial center of Germany, much like New York City is for the United States. Joe just had to get his pictures taken with the “Bull & Bear” of the German Stock Market.
This is the “old center” of Frankfurt, though many of the buildings here have been refurbished. Much of the older section of Frankfurt was destroyed during WWII and had to be rebuilt. Some of the buildings dated back hundreds of years, but most buildings in this square were rebuilt during the 1940s in an attempt to bring back the old charm of Frankfurt. The smaller building in the center is original to Frankfurt.
About a block from our apartment is a huge cemetery--the largest we’ve ever seen. It’s full of large, gorgeous trees of every kind. It looks like someone came in and started adding tombstones throughout a huge forest. Germany has a rather “interesting” burial practice. You rent your cemetery plot here for 20-25 years at a time. If the plot is not maintained to standard, or if the rental period runs out, they put a sticker on your tombstone as a warning that you must “pay up or get dug up.”
Often, family members are buried on top of each other in one plot the size of a twin/double-bed. In the plot shown here is buried a couple- together. NOTE: the green tag in front. They have one month to “pay up or get dug up.” It was surprising to see how many plots had warning stamps on them, ready to be invaded by the dreaded grounds-keeper.
