Frankfurt-Am-Main

"Were someone to ask me what place I thought more comfortable for my cradle, more fitting for my bourgeois attitudes, more appropriate for my poetic view, I could not name a better city than Frankfurt," wrote Goethe, Germany's intellectual all-rounder and Frankfurt's favourite son.

Admittedly, plenty has changed in Frankfurt since the 18th Century, and if you look closely you'll realise that even Goethe's House (now a museum) is a painstakingly reconstructed facsimile of the original.

Frankfurt has long been the economic powerhouse of the nation (the German Stock Exchange - the Börse began trading back in 1585), so when the allies started their bombing campaigns in WWII - Frankfurt was an obvious target.

With a blank architectural canvas Frankfurt decided that, rather than trying to rebuild the past, the city would be an ultra-modern one.

A stroll along the Main reveals this progressive image - the river reflects a geometric skyline of high-rise banks that have earned the city the nicknames of 'Mainhatten' and 'Bankfurt'.

Home to nearly 400 financial institutions, including the HQ of the European Central Bank, and with a third of the population drawn from across the globe Frankfurt is arguably Germany's most cosmopolitan city. It's also among the most cultured, annually spending more on the arts than any other European city.

The south bank of the Main is colloquially known as Museumsufer, or 'Museum Embankment' and houses some of the best that the city has to offer, including a wealthy collection of old masters in the Städelsches Kunstinstitut, as well as lessons on film (Deutsches Filmmuseum), and design (Museum für Angewandte Kunst).

Once you've had your fill of culture the surrounding quarter of Sachsenhausen is a historic memento of the old days, with a maze of winding streets and lively taverns specialising in the city's favourite tipple - a heady apple wine named Ebbelwoi.

Across the river is the Römerberg, a charming medieval square that was the site of the first Frankfurt Book Fair in 1480. A short walk away is the gothic cathedral St Bartholomäus. The view from the 96m high steeple is well worth the climb, however it is somewhat overshadowed by Commerzbank's 300m concrete-and-glass monolithic office block.

Idiosyncratically placed in the Altstadt, the Museum of Modern Art is the latest addition to Frankfurt's list of cultural highlights.