Lufthansa will be welcoming their first Boeing 777F in Frankfurt in October. They are really looking forward to it, but there is still one thing missing: the name of the aircraft.

So, Lufthansa is inviting YOU to help them find a name for their fleet!

Put on your thinking cap and get creative. Go to the contest page, register and submit the names that you have thought of by July 15. Let there be no boundaries to your creativity.

Their top-class jury will choose A NAME from the entries at the end of the brainstorming phase.

The winner will get to be there when they welcome their first Boeing 777F in Frankfurt! This will include a Lufthansa flight and an overnight stay in Frankfurt. And that is not all: you could be one of the first to join Captain Claus Richter on the flight deck!

Think of at least 10 names and then go to the NAME THE PLANE website. By default it’s in Deutch, click on English, ok. And proceed from there. Good luck!

As a nature lover, I will try my best to not miss visiting gardens when I travel. And so during the Frankfurt city tour (sponsored by Sedunia Travel), I asked the tour guide to drop me at PalmenGarten. The bus stopped at Bockenheimer Landstrase and I had to walk a bit and turn to the first right lane before I saw the entrance. Paid 5 Euros to enter the garden.

Built in 1869, Palmengarten features some very different themed gardens and can be visited at anytime of the year. With the motto “Plants, Life, Culture”, Palmengarten points to its function for the community as an educational, social, and cultural institution in the center of Frankfurt.

A haven for plants from all around the world, Palmengarten displays a collections of more than 13,000 subtropical and tropical species. With the recent merging of the Botanical Garden of the University of Frankfurt and the Palmengarten, the collection now has expanded to 18,000 plant species.

From the entrance at Bockenheimer Landstrasse, I started to walk to the left side passing by Gesellschaftshaus.

Opposite to the side of Gesellschaftshaus, there were two small ponds where ducks and geese swam gracefully.

And here are some more photos on my way further up.

A couple enjoying their walk.

Administration building.

Opposite the Administration building, there’s an appealing, geometrically landscaped Rose Garden with a pavilion; Haus Rosenbrunn as the centerpiece. The borders teem with scented roses and rare traditional varieties along with other unique plants.

Next, I walked to the Tropicarium where the plants here are divided into groups according to their natural habitats. The Tropicarium is composed of seven large greenhouse units. The southern group of greenhouses is devoted to plants from the arid tropics, namely semi-desert regions, fog desert, deciduous dry forests, and thorn forests. The northern complex for the humid tropics features plants from monsoon forests, cloud forests, mangrove swamps, and lowland rainforests. Temperature and humidity here are computer controlled.

Further up, there is Goethe Garden. During the 17th and 18th centuries, it had become customary that well-to-do citizens acquired parcels of land outskirts of the city forthe purpose of culrivating and maintaining vineyards, orchards and vegetable gardens and this also included the well-known Goethe family. Johan Caspar Goether bought a plot of land where he and his son Wolfgang planted apple trees. Several sources of literature led to believe that the apple orchard represented a part of Palmengarten.

Across from the Goethe Garden, there’s open area presents mainly herbaceous perennials and annual plants from the grassland steppes of Asia and Europe and prairies of North America. The low nutrient supply and rapid soil drainage are ideal conditions for these plants. The adjoining meadow, which is mowed twice a year, is home to a diverse array of rare grasses and meadow flowers which are seldom observed in nature anymore.

After walking around the Steppes area, I was quite hungry. There’s a food kiosk there and I had a coffee and banana muffin. These were my lunch.

Across where I sat, there’s Haus Leonhardsbrunn. Non-hardy cushion and mountain plants can be viewed from the outside of the two greenhouses flanking Haus Leonhardsbrunn. The greenhouses in between are devoted to non-hardy mountain plants mainly from the Southern Hemisphere. The flower beds in front of the building usually display varieties of dahlias. Adjoining them is a huge playground, a water playground, a kiosk, a miniature golf course, and the northern train station of the Palmen-Express.

My batteries for both cameras went weak after that and looking at the map, I was just half way done exploring. Ah well, maybe this is one of the reasons that I have to come back here to explore the other half. Anyway, here are few more photos before my cameras ran out of batteries.

Log playhouse.

Ash tree (Fraxinus).

Coneflowers.

More trees and birds.

Well, there are actually about 15 – 20 pictures more before the cameras really died on me. And yes, few hundreds of pictures earlier. I’ll share them on my Instagram account slowly, ok.

If you happen to visit Frankfurt, do visit Palmengarten. Here are some information about the place:

Opening hours:
Feb — Oct: 9 am — 6 pm
Nov — Jan; 9 am — 4 pm

Tickets:
Adults — 5 Euros
Children and Adolescents up to age 14  — 2 Euros
Groups( 20+ persons)  — 4 Euros