Frankfurt is in every way a modern German city, with sleek glass office towers and plenty of glitzy neon LED signs, but just outside the city limits is an open-air museum designed to show visitors what Germany was like several hundred years ago. The Hessenpark Open-Air Museum has seventy period buildings scattered throughout a gorgeous rural landscape that give visitors the feeling of what life was like in the German countryside before the nation became an economic powerhouse. Since its founding in 1974, the museum has drawn legions of visitors who come to explore buildings like the village school, post office, blacksmith's shop, synagogue, and bakery. This being Germany, there's also a restaurant that serves hearty Hessian cuisine, as well as that most wonderful of German inventions, the beer garden. I wonder if they charge 18th-century prices for beer? Nah, if they did, some people might never leave. The museum is convenient to several Starwood properties, including the luxurious Westin Grand Frankfurt.
[image via Hessenpark Open-Air Museum]
