Once upon a time not too long ago a couple went on a long trip to a place far away. This couple was Rob and Deb and the place was Germany. This is Robs story of beautiful places, interesting people, good food and drink...
It started Aug 1 2004. We left SFO with the US Olympic swimming team on our plane. Deb met a nice young man who said he hoped to get a medal. She wished him well in his quest but be sure to have a good time in Greece.
We arrived in Frankfort, met some of our traveling mates, Marti and Pat, August & Ken, as well as Enzo our tour leader. We gathered up a few more and off to the hotel on our Trafalgar bus. The hotel was nice though a bit remote. Enzo dropped us off at the Romerplatz in Frankfort where we saw several things including a red sandstone church and had our first German beer and a sausage. After getting back to the hotel we were afraid to lay down because we might fall asleep so we nipped down to the bar for a happy hour drink a German beer. In talking to Lynn and Will I mentioned we'd been up over 24 hours and were feeling pretty tired. She insisted we looked great. When I told her I was 30 years old she said "For 30 I'd say you look a little tired" B-) Everyone else arrived but it was too noisy for Enzo to do his intro so we had dinner and went to bed.
Next day up bright and early, as usual. Breakfast was great! Enzo did his intro. At last a country that understands breakfast. A real spread including all the usual plus cheese and various baloneys. Breakfast was great everyday. Off to Cologne with scenic drive to St. Goar where we took a boat cruise on the Rhine river. It was beautiful. Deb accidentally ordered three beers because she forgot the word for "two". Back on the bus for more scenic driving to Cologne. We saw the famous Kolner Dom. While others walked around we went to the Wallraf-Richartz art museum - lots of good stuff there. We always find an Irish pub where ever we go so we had Irish stew and a Guinness for lunch. Later we had a beer in the biergarten behind the hotel, dinner and bed.
Aug 4th. On the road at 7:45 for a long ride to Hamburg. The bus air
conditioning died and we sweltered. We couldn't open any windows. This
was our first real look at the Autobahn with no speed limit. The rule
is
no passing on the right and slower traffic move to the right.
In Hamburg we walked
around
and had a wonderful, though expensive, lunch in
a place looking out at a beautiful lake.
We took the optional harbor tour,
of course beer included. Very nice. Then on to an included tour. This
tour
passed by the famous Hamburg red-light district but we didn't see
anything.
We toured Michaeliskirch which was a beautiful Protestant church.
Then to our hotel, dinner, drinks and bed.
Up and on the road. The bus air-conditioning
is working. We had a fairly long drive to Berlin. On the way Schreber
gardens were pointed out. As I understand it, the plan was to
allow
retired people to have a small plot of land to grow vegetables on.
Usually
along side freeways or other unfriendly places. They were allowed
to build storage sheds. But the sheds have turned into small houses
where
people live, at least in the summer. We saw them all over Germany but I
think mostly in East Germany. We also saw many power windmills.
We were dropped off near the "Ka Da We" department store.
It is supposed to rival Harrods in London. We went to the top floor for
lunch. It was amazing! Talk about a food court!
There was everything there, nicely presented and beautiful. We had lunch
with Julie and Greg. I don't seem to be having much luck finding a good
sausage. I had a hot-dog sort of thing and some German potato salad.
Then
I had an incident with the ATM in the store - ask me later.
We saw the bombed Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedachtniskirche church
which has been kept from WWII, it's called "The
Tooth" for obvious reasons. We then had a tour of Berlin
where we saw the Brandenburg gate among other
sights.
We stayed in the beautiful Berlin Hilton. We had a beer in a biergarten
across the street.
Dinner was at Gendamenmarkt where there was no
air-conditioning
(whew!) and a loud piano player. With unlimited drinks we got
pretty
warmed up. Had a great time with Will, Lynn and
Harry as well as others.
Today we slept in. The breakfast room was a
beautiful
setting. We hiked over to the sparse Catholic church then on to Berliner
Dom which we climbed and took a few snapshots.
Then we experimented with the subway. After much help from a local
citizen
(thank you!) we finally got to the Kathy Kolowitz museum
that Deb had been dying to see. We had lunch at
some book museum next door. Very elegant. The
waiter,
who looked like a typically heavy set German, gave us some grief
for trying to speak German to him. B-) But the lunch was elegant and
the
setting beautiful. The museum was ok.
Then back on the subway and after a couple train changes
we got to Potzdamer Platz which is near the big Berlin museums. We
hiked
over to the Gemaldegaleri Alt Meister art museum.
Fantastic!
Back to the hotel for dinner out and fun.
We toured Berlin by night and saw the Brandenburg gate
again. We almost made it to climb up into the city hall tower
but
it was closing and the guards were not cooperative.
Now off to Dresden. Lot's of countryside. Lot's of cows,
wheat and mace. It was hot! First we had an interesting time finding an
ATM.
It was before noon but we had a beer and
watched
the passing scent. We met up with the rest of the gang and had a
professional
tour of the city. With the tour we saw a vast porcelain collection. We
then hopped on the bus for an optional tour to a hunting castle.
Brunhilda wouldn't let us take pictures. This
was
fairly interesting and a very nice taste of cake
at the end.
Dresden is quite beautiful. We had dinner, of course a beer
and went to bed.
The hotel we stayed in was nice but did not have a hair dryer
in the room so that was an adventure asking for that.
We stopped at Modlareuth, a small country
town
which had been sliced in two by the fence/wall between East and West
Germany.
Residents could not acknowledge each other or they could be shot. Quite
interesting. We saw a movie on the history.
On to Bayreuth opera house,
Wagner's
grave,
beer with Harry outside at an elegant bakery. There were Smarte
cars around that you could sit in so we took a couple pictures. On to Nuremburg
our destination. Yet another beautiful old appearing city.
We had a short orientation tour. Deb and I visited a
couple
churches. One was under heavy reconstruction inside. We then met Harry
and found Helen and Stan and had some famous
Nuremburg
sausages. Sort of like tasty breakfast sausages. Our bud's Will and
Lynn
showed up. Back on the bus, we stopped at a stadium
where Hitler gave speeches. We climbed up and
looked
around. Quite an eerie feeling. It looked like the stadium could hold
at
least 200,000 people.
Back to the hotel and dinner.
On to Rothenburg ob der Tauber. A classic old German village.
Absolutely beautiful. We bought our gifts here,
walked around and saw spectacular views. We saw the Mittelalterliches
museum
(torture museum) but didn't have time to visit it after
spending
most of our time looking for an ATM and shopping. I finally had
the
classic sauerkraut and sausage for lunch. Deb had a liver dumpling
and potato dumpling, very good.
Then because Munich was fairly close we took the "romantic
road" on towards Munich. We stopped at a McDonald's
in Nordinger. Then on to Munich and the Marianplatz for beer
and the world famous glockenspiel. After the glockenspiel
did it's thing we went to the famous Hofbrau
for a one liter beer and oompah band. The band
wasn't too good but the beer was. Then on to a place for dinner -
I had a deep fried pig's knuckle. It was quite good. The
deep
frying holds in the fat juice which explodes when you cut
it.
Mmmmmm.
We stayed at a very nice Hilton.
This day we skipped the ride to Salsburg and Hitler's Eagles nest. We took the subway to Marianplatz and walked to theAlte Pinakothek museum. It was spectacular, we took our time and saw it all. Many Rubens' including one 30+ feet high. We bumped into Philip there. Then a stroll back through a couple churches, one was all white inside, and a castle before getting back to Marianplatz, a beer and one more spectacular small chapel the Asamkirche. We went back to the hotel to meet Philip and take a taxi out to the restaurant to meet the gang. The taxi guy was about 70 years old, Greek and got lost on the way. After a couple screw ups he finally got us there. We almost got hit at the last moment just before we got out of the taxi. Another very nice meal then back to the hotel and bed.
Up extra early to get to Dachau, another beautiful Hilton breakfast.
We arrived first even before Dachau was open.
We
walked in along the barrier fence. There is a large assembly area in
front
of two rebuilt barracks. Foundations for about
40
large barracks still exist. The barracks have interiors
as they were at various times. We walked down towards where chapels now
exist and on to the old
and new crematoriums. It is said this was not
an
extermination camp but a work camp even though there is a gas
chamber..
Many died working and were cremated here. There is also a mass grave
nearby.
Back at the main administration building is a sparse but effective
museum.
Many groups were brought here besides
Jews.
There is a map at the museum showing many
satellite work camps.
Back through Munich rush hour traffic and on to
Oberammergau. A cute little shopping town in a
beautiful
setting. Deb bought the charm for our anniversary charm bracelet. Then
back on the narrow twisty but beautiful "romantic road". We stopped for
lunch below the Schlossneuschwanstein fairy castle.
Apparently there was not enough time to climb up and take a close look.
Back on the bus for a long twisty ride with a stop at Bisilika
Birnau on Lake Constance. A pretty church overlooking the
lake
- spectacular.
Finally we arrived at our hotel
at the base of a canyon in the Black Forest. It is a stunningly
beautiful
setting.
Supposedly Marie Antonette stayed here on her trip to marry the king of
France. Our room was a suite! Dinner was fun, I
had wild boar. Very good! Then back to our room
where we invited Will and Lynn to visit. Then to bed.
This morning we hated to leave this
beautiful
place. We saw the big Cuckoo clock strike nine
and
off we went to Baden Baden. When you see "bad" it means "spa". So this
is an important spa town. People come from all over Germany to "take
the
waters" here at government expense. We had a short stop here, Deb had a
pretzel and I had a strudel while walking around. Then on to
Heidelburg.
We hiked up to the falling down castle
on the hill. Hot, hot , hot! We enjoyed the view and saw
the
worlds largest wine vat, for whatever that's
worth.
Back down the hill we had chicken nuggets, fries and beer for lunch.
Back on the bus an on to Frankfort.
This night we had our going away dinner.
We saw our first bit of rain, Enzo said we were the best group he ever
had, Deb won a prize for naming everybody on the tour. We all got noisy
and said too many good byes but it was fun.
Back at the hotel we had another beer with the gang
plus a few characters from Circ de Solie.
Off to the airport at 10:45 for our flight home. At the airport we had our last "pils" and saw Harry for one last time. The flight home was uneventful though some interesting views out the window of glaciers in Iceland, formations in Canada and big clouds. We arrived home about 7pm.
Everyone lived happily ever after. "Thank you Enzo!"
- You may wonder why we seemed to have many short stops. The German law says the bus driver must take a break every few hours, besides we needed to stretch and pee.
- We drank "pils" a light hoppy style beer not unlike Budweiser.
- We had very good luck with communication. Most people seemed to know some English and some knew a lot. If there was a problem I'd whip out my Rick Steve's book and point.
- We saw many places that were still working on restoration from WWII, especially in the East.
- Trafalgar does a great job. The hotels were very nice even though one was pretty warm and didn't have air conditioning.
- Enzo the tour guide was great - "Ha-loooow"
- Of course Horst our bus driver.
- I think all places had these strange down comforters instead of sheets and blankets. They seemed to be too hot.
- My camera, Kodak Easy Share cx6230, takes pretty good 2meg pixel pictures but is slow to boot up, slow to store pictures and has a strange delay between pushing the button and taking the picture. It is also very sensitive to motion. Beware.
- The exchange rate deterioated throughout the trip from $1.20/euro
to $1.24/euro. Not a good exchange rate. At least the beer was
reasonable.
