Category Archives: Germany

Today is the day we start our transition from pampered relaxation and cultural exploration to the familiar family visit.  We had our last breakfast on board and were seated with the most entertaining people:  a Greek couple from Australia who are in the middle of a 7 week holiday.  We had a fabulous chat about travel, the state of world politics, how long you can visit family before it’s not fun any more, and lots of other enjoyable topics.  We were very sorry that we hadn’t met them earlier in the week.

Then it was back to the cabin to finish packing and then to my least favorite activity:  Hurry up and wait.  We took a seat in our designated location, broke out the cards, and played Go Fish until it was our turn to disembark.  The grey clouds were starting to break so we opted to walk the 20 minutes to the train station instead of queuing for the shuttle bus.  We hadn’t bought our train tickets yet because I was never sure what time I should aim for.  I figured out that there was an Intercity Express that left at 12:38 and was by far the fastest option so we decided to purchase tickets for that one.  The very nice woman in the ticket office told us she could sell us tickets but couldn’t assign us seats because the train was completely full and every seat was reserved.  We decided to take a chance that we might have to stand for the 2:07 travel time.  I figured out where the dining car would be and we decided to make a dash for a seat there.  And just as we were ready to stake out the correct carriage, the sky opened up.  We crammed into a shelter on the platform with everyone else who had the same idea and waited for the deluge to pass.

Eventually, it did and we stalked the door to the dining car.  While we were waiting, Frank struck up a conversation with another stalker and when the doors were opened, the dash was on.  We didn’t get a seat originally but the chatty fellow had staked out a table and offered us some seats.  That started a fabulous 3 hour conversation with Peter, the retired psychologist who spends 4-5 months a year in South Africa.  We discussed everything under the sun: how he spent the last 4 weeks sailing around the Baltic sea but had to get home because his best friend died last night, what volunteer work he does in South Africa, what Germany thinks of Trump and Brexit, and just about everything in between.  We grabbed a bit to eat on the train (they had an entire list of allergy stuff for the food offerings!) and arrived in Bremen dry, fed, and thoroughly entertained.

We found our way to the hotel, dropped off our bags, and began our exploration. We wandered all over the old town and through markets, alleys, church plazas, and eventually found ourselves on the water front enjoying the late afternoon sunshine in one of the biergartens with the rest of the city.  There were at least 5 hen parties and one bachelor party working their way through the bars on the water front and we got to see two sets of newlyweds.

We eventually found ourselves in a restaurant under the town hall: the Bremer Ratskeller. It was in a cellar with vaulted ceilings, huge beer vats and little alcoves with art deco glass.  The building dated back to 1405!  A little touristy but the menu had allergens clearly marked and the food was !Although Frank wasn’t that enthusiastic about the pickled herring. So after several hours in transit and 19,841 steps, we’ve retired to the hotel with our 4 euro bottle of wine procured from the local Lidl and it’s time to watch some Olympics and see how long the hotel wifi will hold out.

I would love to say that we slept like the dead and that we awoke refreshed an ready to take on the world but I would be lying. We awoke when the combination of church bell chimes and seagull screeches were too much for us. For me that came about 6:11 am; for Frank, about 45 minutes later.

We trolled the website and called British Airways not long after they opened at about 7:30 where they gave Frank the good news: WE FOUND YOUR LUGGAGE (angels singing in the background).  The cases apparently hadn’t left Newark when we did but were on route at the moment. Sighs of relief followed as we were astounded that the cases weren’t lost forever. We headed to breakfast and tried that we didn’t smell any worse than others in the room with us.  About 10:30 Frank got the call that the cases were on route and would be with us in about 2 hours. Oh the joy!  I had already figured out how to make my trousers act like they couldn’t stand by themselves and we agreed not to discuss Frank’s underwear situation.

Determined to behave as if we were enjoying ourselves, we wandered through the town and stopped by St. Nicholas’s church.  Originally dating back to the 13th century, it had been almost completely destroyed by WWII.  The rebuilt church is a fabulous mix of ancient artifacts and 20th century stained glass. I would post photos of that but for some reason pictures from Frank’s camera won’t upload but those from my iPhone will. Go figure.

Not truly believing that we would have our belongings soon, we did some shopping in town.  Because I believe that every woman on holiday needs red German skinny jeans, I indulged so as to spare my fellow humans the pain of dealing with me in the same clothing that I already spent 29 hours in.  Frank even decided that some new boxers were in order.  We wandered through the town which we suddenly noticed was covered in rainbows. Apparently, we had wandered into the Kiel version of Pride.  There was a large gathering in one of the squares so we settled in with a latte to watch the entertainment.

And then the skies opened up.  It had been partly cloudy all morning but a menacing layer of clouds had moved in an just before noon, they let loose their contents.  It was quite entertaining to watch so many people scramble for cover  as we sipped our delicious coffee drinks under an umbrella.  The downpour lasted for about 20 minutes then the sun peeked out again and we decided, like a dozen others, that the 3 euro umbrella at the local cheap crap store was a good investment.

We headed back to the hotel at 12:30 because it was two hours after we had gotten the phone call saying that the luggage would be delivered in 2 hours.  And an hour later, we finally called the delivery company who insisted the cases were on their way but traffic was bad.  WTF?  We gave them permission to leave the cases at the hotel without us and headed back to the local brew pub for some lunch.  I had the bratwurst and Frank had something like fish and chips. After which we headed back to the hotel to find: OUR LUGGAGE!   Screw you United who told us that the luggage would go with us.  It turned out that our luggage had sat in Newark and when the British Airways desk in Hamburg put a trace on it, the cases miraculously found themselves on a flight to Hamburg.  Grrr.

Not to be bitter, we grabbed the cases and headed to the warf where 10 minutes later we had to hand our cases over to the cruise personnel.  But I just got that back!  Nevertheless, we needed to get checked in and up to our cabin.

And so we were officially on holiday!  The bags arrived, the drinks were procured, the safety drill (in 5 languages) endured and then dinner and an early bed.

Hopefully, we’ll have a good 8 hours of sleep and then adventures in Copenhagen.  Stay tuned!

August 4 –

Today we bid farewell to Frankfurt – goodbye humongous Hotel Intercontinental…  We are off by train!  We’ve lightened the load enough to walk to the train station to catch the 10:20 intercity train to Stuttgart.  I’m very glad we paid the extra €3 to reserve seats because the train was packed and we watched lots of folks get shuffled around as the owner of the seat they were in came to claim it.  By noon, we had arrived in Stuttgart and realized that our hotel was fairly close but straight uphill…. and today was actually hot – upper 70’s and screaming sunshine!  It made pulling the cases a real challenge.

We managed though and after dropping the cases off in the kids room (ours wasn’t ready yet), we wandered into town.  First on the agenda, a light lunch:  yummy sandwiches from stands along der Köenigstraße on wheat rolls with lots of seeds and stuff!  Second, the Porsche museum!  If you were wondering why we would stop in Stuttgart on our way from Frankfurt to Basel, the answer will soon become clear – this is the home of German automotive engineering!  We visited the current museum and gawked at the hull of what will be the museum next year – it will be on a much grander scale than the one room that currently houses the displays.  I was happy to look at the pretty cars for a little while then sit and practice my German (Danke, ich sehe mich nur um – no thanks, I’m just looking!) while Frank and the kids spent billions of mega pixels capturing the small but impressive collection. He was a little disappointed but he knew that of the two museums we had on the agenda, this would be the smaller.  We have much higher hopes for tomorrow’s destination:  the Mercedes museum!

So the automotive destination achieved, we proceeded to wander around the main shopping area looking for ice cream and interesting sights.  That’s when we noticed the tents and stages set up around one of the city squares:  we had arrived during Sommerfest  – a summer music festival for 4 days at the beginning of August.  We grabbed a few local brews and sat on the grass to enjoy the Jailmen Jazz band, a local Dixie-land band who were very good.  I even bought one of their CD’s!  Eventually the delicious pils and the beautiful sunshine wasn’t enough to keep the tummies from rumbling so we wandered over to the Schlossplatz for dinner at a restaurant recommended by our guide book (yes, I confess – I have been consulting “Germany for Dummies”!)  As we have found with all our meals in this fine country:  it was excellent!  I had lamb goulash with homemade spätzle which was yummy but I think Frank’s dish of oxen breast with horseradish cream sauce won the prize for best dinner.

Afterwards, we wandered back to the grass for the last set of the jazzmen while another thousand people sat, drank and danced around us to lots of different kinds of music.  Eventually we had to get back to the hotel since Frank and I hadn’t even seen our room yet – and wow is it nice!  I think I would call it a junior suite – not what I asked for but no complaints here, other than the fact that we only have one night to spend here as tomorrow we leave for Basel, Switzerland.  Yup, I have to work on Monday *and* Tuesday!

/san/

[Pedometer:   23,644 or about 11.5 miles – not including the dancing, cartwheels and wrestling on the grass in the square!]

August 3 –

It was a bit foggy this morning so I opted for 5 miles on the treadmill instead of running by the river. Not nearly as scenic but it was easier on my knees and allowed Gillian to “work out” on the elliptical as well – very interesting! The morning was consumed by necessary tasks: laundry and mailing! We negotiated a German landromat – not too difficult since the machines had a choice of English as a language. We should be good for another week now.

Speaking of languages, I have to say that German is the language we hear *least* often in this city! English is spoken pretty much everywhere – even when we are really trying to use German! They always hand us the English menu in the restaurant… Next would have to be one of the Asian languages. I confess that I can’t hear the difference between Chinese and Japanese very easily – nor am I adept at telling the written words apart on signs – but one of them is heard everywhere! Except at our hotel. Apparently every wealthy Muslim staying in Frankfurt is staying here. I feel like the odd woman out with my hair showing!

Nevertheless, while the clothes were in the dryer we headed to the post office to mail two *more* boxes of stuff home – one box of things we’ve picked up and one box of stuff we brought with us but realized that we really don’t need. 17 more kilos of goods to be delivered to the Cannon household – all for a mere €104! It sounds like a lot but actually works out to be half of what we paid in the U.K.

So chores done, we headed out of town to Heidelburg. I have heard so much about this city that I suspect that my expectations were a bit inflated – “prettiest town in Germany”, “I must have taken 400 photographs”, etc. I have to say that it was a lovely place but not nearly as spectacular as all the recommendations I received would have indicated. One thing is noticable though: it is in very good shape and many of the older buildings are, in fact, old. It was a base for Allied troops during WWII so it emerged relatively unscathed relative to the rest of Germany. Maybe that’s where all the high opinions come from and I just missed it.

We were also disappointed in the castle. Maybe we’re in castle overload but having seen some really excellent examples of restored, unrestored, occupied, ruined, and any other types you can think of, this one just didn’t wow us. And I promise, it wasn’t the walk up the unbelievably steep hill that put us off! First off, you can only see the insides of most of the buildings if you buy a ticket for a guided tour – which is extra over the entrance cost. We’re not really guided tour people; we prefer to get a map and wander about ourselves. Second problem: no maps. Every place we’ve been had at least a single page leaflet with the basics for getting around the castle/cathedral/chateau, etc. Not here – they would be happy to sell you the book about the castle with a map in it for €5 though!

The one truely *wow* thing about today (over and above the yummy lunch with the beer brewed by monks!) was the Grosse Fass or Great Vat which holds more than 220,000 liters! It is truly unbelievable. I have no idea what the story behind it is or why it came about – since I didn’t buy the book – but it was truly unbelievable to see and stand on!

We had our daily eis (ice cream!) and headed back to the train station just as it started to rain. Things were dry again as we got back to Frankfurt and we finalized our visit to Germany – with a lovely dinner of Chinese food! We have now managed to sample Chinese food in France, England, Scotland, Luxembourg and Germany this trip. We’ll be in Switzerland next week so we’ll need to put that on the list and then we debate whether or not Luxembourg covers the Benelux countries or if we need to have Chinese food in Belgium and the Netherlands as well! In case you missed the back story, we have decided to compare Chinese food all over the world – in our book, you haven’t visited a country until you’ve eaten Chinese food there!

/san/

[Pedometer: 31,189 steps or about 15.5 miles (not including my run) which tops our Paris excursion!]

August 2 –

I snuck down to the hotel fitness center this morning to do the elliptical machine since I knew that I since I was going to be working today, I wouldn’t be covering any major miles. Today I visited the European Central Bank (ECB) to meet with the folks in the Division of Statistical Information Management and User Services; I now have copious pages of notes about SDMX-ML and key family maintenance, dissemination strategies, database design for real time data, Excel front ends for OLAP cubes populated from FAME databases and other neat stuff.

Meanwhile, the family had a late morning with Duncan the teenaged one refusing to respond to the call of the grey cloudy morning. They eventually made it out of the hotel just before lunchtime and wandered all over the city making a stop at the Museum of Communication which I understand was really cool. (I try to get a more detailed review from one of the chiddlers at some point.) Unfortunately, they were in wander mode when the major cloudburst hit and sheets of rain came bucketing down. A major clap of thunder chased them indoors and I was very glad that we had made it back from lunch at the old Opera House. Later on, however, the skies cleared and things were much brighter.

After my work day, we headed out for another culinary adventure: Croatian food! I have no idea what most of the stuff I ate was – I figured out the steak and the pork cutlet but the things that looked like sausages and the thing that was kinda like a flattened meatball was beyond me! Gillian had her daily dose of schnitzel and Frank and I enjoyed some excellent house brewed dunkel bier!

Now to decide how to spend the day tomorrow since the updated forecast says it will be nice. We may head out to Heidleburg or some other “quaint” town in the burbs!

/san/

[Pedometer: The family clocked 28,945 steps or over 14 miles! I probably managed about half that!]

August 1 –

Another beautiful morning under blue skies – I think I like Germany! I went for a run along a river through the village in the Black Forest (how cool is that!) about 4 miles before rousing the rest of the family. We had another yummy breakfast (fresh fruit, fresh bread, home made jam…) before packing up and bidding farewell to the Hotel zur Kronen. I highly recommend staying here if you are in the area – a “review” will be up on the page shortly.

We jammed the growing amount of luggage for our final trip in the now beloved Mercedes – 2.5 hours up the autobahn to Frankfurt where I have to work tomorrow. Under normal circumstances, there would be no appeal in this at all but here was Frank’s final chance to go all out on one of Germany’s famous highways – and we hit traffic! Most of the way from Denzligen to Frankfurt there was serious traffic which actually slowed to a crawl several times. He was most upset that he only got up to 175kmph and at that only once (do the math – it’s fast!) We survived though and Helga, our trusty satnav system guided us past the worst roadworks to keep things moving.

We had a serious culture shock: going from a family run hotel in a 400 year old farmhouse in a small village to a 20 storey international hotel in a large city that is the banking center of Germany, if not for all of Europe. Wow – what a difference! Everyone is still very nice but there is a charge for *everything* – we can’t even get ice ourselves; you need to call room service and have them bring it to you and then of course you need to tip the nice man…. And I didn’t choose this place – the nice folks at the ECB booked the room for me. I don’t think they understood that I’m paying for it myself and not my work – or they think I have *tons* of money cuz it’s not cheap.

We said good-bye to Helga and dropped off the car at the rental desk in the main train station – where we bought our tickets for the train on Saturday. For the next 10 days, we are traveling by train – which means that we have some *serious* repacking to do! I see a few more boxes being shipped in my future.

We wandered around town some more to get a feel for the place and decided that Frankfurt is a nice city but it’s like many other nice cities. For some reason it reminds me of Chicago although there is a river and not a lake. We found the old city where the cathedral is (yup, another candle… that’s 8) and a pretty square with old buildings.  We decided to try a local landmark for dinner: Adolph Wagner’s where we had the local beverage: apfelwein – an incredibly dry apple wine which the folks around us were drinking by the pitcher! The food was very good (more pork of course!) and a fine time was had by all.

Now it’s time to get ready to go back to work. We’ll be searching for a cafe in the morning since our fine hotel is charging €15 for coffee and croissants. Oh and you get butter and jam with that.

/san/

[Pedometer: 21,600 or about 10.5 miles (not including my run) over city sidewalks.]

July 31 –

We awoke to blue skies with white puffy clouds and proceeded to enjoy a wonderful breakfast courtesy of our hosts.   We then hit the road to explore the great outdoors around us.  We headed first for a hike in Shauinsland, a peak of about 1243 m with a beautiful view for miles around.  We drove part of the way up (on nice twisty roads that made Frank happy) and hiked the rest of the way up.  To the west was clouds over France (told you it was wet!) but to the south east we could actually see the Alps!

After the hill hiking, we headed for Todtnau and climbing around a waterfall.  At 97 m, it is the tallest wasserfall in Deutschland – at least that’s what my rudimentary translating skills made of the nearby sign!  The kids had a great time scrambling over rocks and trees and Frank must have taken about 200 photos – none of which we’ve had time to go through yet but we’ll definitely bore you with them at some point!

On the way down the hill from the waterfall, we stumbled on a glassblowers workshop and restaurant – what a combination!  So we had lunch which was wonderful – especially the Schwarzwald kircher torten  or black forest cake.  Yum!  After lunch, we wandered into the glassblowing workshop and watched the artisan make a vase from start to finish.  It was amazing!  We decided to buy two small vases and hope they get home in one piece.  I opted not to buy the adorable glass moose 😦 because I knew it wouldn’t get home in one piece.

So we had some torten to work off and we went off to explore the Schluchsee – a beautiful lake nearby.  We rented peddle boats and Frank and I burned off a few calories while the kids hung out on the back.  Of course, they wanted to do it themselves so they went back out just the two of them after our first half hour was up.  We stopped by another local lake – apparently more famous – called Titisee but it was much more commercialized with lots of shops selling cuckoo clocks.  I couldn’t stand the ticking so we got in the car and headed home.

Dinner tonight was at the hotel restaurant and was excellent.  We had great food, fantastic local wines and homemade desserts that wonderful.  Frank and I then sat up chatting with the hosts until this very late hour.  Now I *really* need to get some sleep because I think I need to run 20 miles in the morning to make up for today!

/san/

[Pedometer:  13,142 or about 6.5 miles although Gillian and Duncan probably clocked twice that with their rock climbing!]