| With a modern Manhattan skyline together with a sizeable Germanic gay scene, OutUK's Adrian Gillan finds that boys mean business in the vibrant and multicultural melting pot that is Frankfurt. It's where German business bods all head for when they can't fix their Euro-meeting in Berlin. |
© Stadt Frankfurt am MainPresse und Informationsamt. |
| Yes, Frankfurt is in fact the in place to go right now in Germany. A charming old city until we bombed the schnitzel out of it during WW2, it has emerged - strangely purged - as a dynamic creative hub. | |
| Check out some spectacular cutting edge architecture and more museums, theatres and art galleries than you can waggle a hot sausage at: from Goethe's haunting house to the jagged, intrepid Museum of Modern Art. And the city has an extremely compact, brimming and walkable queer quarter just north east of its ageing, aching heart - bounded by Seilerstrasse, Zeil and Brönnerstrasse. |
 © Stadt Frankfurt am Main Presse und Informationsamt. |
GRAB A SAUSAGELine your tum at GoldenEye on Alte Gasse - one of the most atmospheric and friendly gay grubberies you're ever likely to stumble upon, dishing up homemade fare whilst dolled-up TVs perambulate through en route to its basement bar below. Just down and around, equally ambient Fräggels on Schäfergasse offers greater choice, at a higher price. Check them both out, and - as you flit between the two - digest Oscar Wilde, well-stocked bookshop worth a daytime browse.BAR LIFE | |
| Bananas, just over from Fräggels, is a cosy café-bar catering to your slightly older crowd - a gentle entrée to any soirée. It contrasts nicely with Zum Schwejk a few doors down - an earthy, unpretentious and noisy focus for all ages where cool is snubbed at the door. Criss-cross yet again to up style stakes at Lucky´s Manhatten - a large, trendy bar-for-the-young, spread over two levels. You'll find both the old and the young at nearby, aptly-named Comeback - the former generally coaxing the latter to do just that with some euro encouragement. |
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Meanwhile Stall on hard-sounding Stiftstrasse is the oldest leather dive in town.
CLUBBINGQueer Frankfurt certainly loves to dance. Piper & Pulse on the northern fringe of the ghetto are a modern, stylish pair, under one roof, continually packed with bright young things. Piper has a large red lounge with small basement groove club, spinning tribal and exotic beats; Pulse serves up mainly pop and cheese plus the odd German classic.Around 1.30am at weekends, many decamp to thirty-years-and-still-standing stalwart Blue Angel, a three minute walk away on Brönnerstrasse, with its dark basement bar and small upper dance floor. Larger Five Traxx back on Alte Gasse gets swinging at about the same time, pumping techno to a generally older and be-muscled crowd, albeit sometimes a bit thin on the ground. STEAMING UPStill horny? Just down from Five Traxx you'll find the Continental Bathhouse, with Finish sauna, steam room, plus cabins, slings and things. Or one block over try GAYrein - a sex shop plus cinema with orgy rooms and booths.OUTDOOR LIFEAnd Frankfurt really comes into its own outside at nights, mainly in parks and at 24/7 subway loos. Try the grassland along Friedberger Anlage near the gay scene - notably the cottage at the top stretch on K.-Adenauerstrasse; or head straight for the cottage in the scene's local Konstablerwache subway; or stroll ten minutes to the cottage in Paulsplatz at the heart of the old town. Failing that, pop across the river to the subway cottage at Schweizer Platz; or cruise Grüneburgpark, a little north west, where you can also bathe nude by day all summer.TRAVEL & HOTELSRyanair fly cheaply to Frankfurt Hahn airport but transfer to the Frankfurt-am-Main city centre by taxi shuttle will cost over 100 euro for two and by bus takes nearly two hours, so we recommend using ebookers for discount booking on airlines like British Airways, BMI and Lufthansa direct to Frankfurt's main airport. Our hotel partners Bookings have a great selection of gay-friendly hotels at great prices.
THE LITTLE BLACK BOOK |
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