How about heading off on a trip from the urban jungle to the tropics? At the Palmengarten, you'll find yourself travelling through different climate zones, exploring flora from all across the globe and observing butterflies. Rest assured, however, the West End and Bockenheim districts have plenty more to offer other than the popular Palmengarten. Here, architectural history and botany meet university flair! Both districts are directly adjacent to the city centre and may be reached in just a few minutes by both bus and train. Alternatively, you may also stretch your legs and make the journey on foot.
On your walk, you'll discover the unique cityscape with all of its facets: On the one hand, it is characterised by the noble, upper-class Wilhelminian-style architecture, but also by residential complexes and office buildings from the 1950s to 1970s as well as by buildings that tell of Frankfurt's history back to the Middle Ages. These time-honoured structures include, for example,the "Bockenheimer Warte" watchtower, a remnant of the city wall formerly encircling Frankfurt that also gives the surrounding square its name.
For an unusual photo opportunity, head to the entrance to the "Bockenheimer Warte" subway station, which looks as if a subway carriage is breaking through the earth's surface to travel underground, or to the Tyrannosaurus rex prowlng menacingly in front of the Senckenberg Museum of Natural History. With life-size dinosaur skeletons, mummies, minerals and many other exciting exhibits, the Senckenberg Museum of Natural History is one of the largest and most important natural history museums in Europe and amazes children and adults alike with its permanent and changing exhibitions.
The former campus of Frankfurt's renowned Goethe University, which has shaped the district for more than 100 years and filled it with a youthful flair, also borders the Bockenheimer Warte. Opposite, one finds the Bockenheimer Depot, a former streetcar depot that today makes the hearts of dance and theatre fans beat faster. The large hall, where trams were once repaired, now serves as an impressive backdrop for the Frankfurt Theatre, the Opera and the Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company.
A stone's throw away, one finds Leipziger Strasse with its colourful, multicultural mix of independent shops and restaurants. Here, extravagant shops and boutiques including designer jewellery shops and esoteric bookshops meet Turkish vegetable markets and charming courtyards that are home to an old traditional coffee roasting house and a wine shop, for example.
Not far from the former site of Goethe University is the new West End Campus. The monumental building ensemble around the Poelzig Building -- with its chequered history – lies at the centre of much of the university's student life. Other university campuses are located in Bockenheim (University Library), Ginnheim, Niederrad and Riedberg. The parks bordering the green university campus merge into one another and form a green oasis in the centre of the city. From here, one is able to stroll through the Korean Garden, enjoy a picnic in Grüneburgpark and explore the neighbouring Botanical Garden.
