2023-07-22 50 8

Location

In the Main Cemetery of Frankfurt am Main

Participants

Monotof

Plans

The hash point was in the main cemetery of Frankfurt am Main. About 5 years ago I spent some time in that part of Frankfurt so it would be a bit of a trip down memory lane for me.

Expedition

To the hash point

I took the train to Frankfurt Rödelheim with my bike. From there i rode east through a lot of allotment gardens. Crossing my usual bike path to work at the southern tip of the Volkspark Niddatal i followed the A66, Miquelallee and Adickesallee to the main cemetery of Frankfurt.

I know this part of Frankfurt quite well from a few years ago so it was good to see again, although sadly the biking infrastructure has not improved since then. I left my bike at the entrance of the cemetery and made my way to the hashpoint on foot.

At the hash point

The hash point was directly atop the grave of Mahmod Shefaat, passed away in 2022. The grave was very well kept and cared for, decorated with beautiful colorful flowers. I took the prerequisite pictures and took a break on a nearby bench. I took the time to look up Mahmod Shefaat which the hashpoint had so fatefully pointed me to.

He owned a printing and copy shop in Frankfurt, but he was also known for being the initiator of and proponent for the open bookcases (or micro public libraries) in Frankfurt. The first one being opened in 2009 on the Merianplatz right in front of his shop. Now there are 74 open bookcases in Frankfurt. They are sturdily build outside bookcases which everyone can always access. They operate on the honor system: Bring books you don't need and take books you want to read. Having used these a bunch of times in the past and having read a lot of good books from these open bookcases made the hashpoint pointing to one of the movements initiators grave feel quite poignant.

His printing shop still exists and even though it was closed on Saturdays i had already considered going to the Berger Straße and Merianplatz after the hashpoint for old times sake. Therefore visiting his shop and the very first open bookcase seemed an obvious followup activity.

Berger Straße and Merianplatz

I got back to my bike and rode a short 5 min south-east to the Berger Straße, one of the nicer places in Frankfurt of which i have some fond memories. I stopped at Ginkgo, a Restaurant i last visited 5 years ago, to see how they are doing. I got a excellent Ginkgo Sandwich and sitting outside besides the Berger Straße was very relaxing and to my surprise not as expensive as one might expect. A lot of people were about because it was a lovely summer afternoon.

From Ginkgo it was only 300 meters downhill to the Merianplatz. There i checked out the shop Copy Arté which looked well in order and of course the open bookcase in front of it. I found a small book that tickled my curiosity and took it as reading material for the train ride home.

From the Merianplatz i rode down the rest of the Berger Straße and followed the Eschenheimer Anlage back west. It is a nice sequence of parks surrounding the innermost part of Frankfurt following the old city walls. This got me close to the main station, but instead of taking my bike back home i rode to my place of work close to the main station and left my bike in the secured garage there, as that would fit nicely into my bike commuting plans for the next week. Then just 10 min walk back to the main station and a train ride while reading my new old book.