You may have come to Germany for half-timbered houses and cobblestone roads. Well, forget all that: in Frankfurt, Allied bombs splintered the timbers and clobbered the cobblestones. During the ensuing reconstruction, skyscrapers sprouted like fungi, multinational corporations moved in en masse, and Frankfurt became the biggest transportation hub in Central Europe and, as home of the European Central Bank, the economic capital of the EU. A shiny sculpture of the euro sign crowns a central square, the Frankfurter Messe hosts some of the largest trade fairs in the world, and the city bears such punny nicknames as “Bankfurt” and “Mainhattan.” So, is it worth seeing? Fortunately, Frankfurt has some ancient jewels hidden among the glass. After all, as the sight of the Holy Roman Empire’s imperial elections from 1562 until the empire’s dissolution in 1807, Frankfurt has more history than all of your grandpa’s scars combined. The Altstadt, Frankfurt’s tiny old town, features some leftovers from its medieval glory days and a Gothic cathedral, which, by the glory of luck or a chance deity, survived the Allied bombing of 1944. The Main River, which splits Frankfurt in two, offers some gorgeous views that almost make you forget the steel phalluses scraping the sky around you. Considered the epicenter of German techno back in the ’90s, Frankfurt also has some of Germany’s most insane techno clubs, so it’s definitely a city to visit on the weekend.