February 17th, 2020 Germany pt. 1

Hey there,

Finally gonna happen...Christmas in Germany.  The itinerary was this: Fly into Frankfurt, then hit Bamberg, Dresden, Berlin, and Hamburg.  Probably at least a two parter.

We started in Frankfurt cause Emirates flies there and out of Hamburg.  We were told the shopping was excellent in Hamburg, which is why we ended our trip there.  We only had one night in Frankfurt and booked a place near the Christmas Market.

When we were talking about going to Germany for the holiday, everyone said, "oh the Christmas Markets."  We have been fortunate to visit them in Austria, Prague and Italy previously but German ones are the OG.  We visited a bunch on this trip and here is my review of them all.  Lots of food, ate at least one sausage at each, very colorful, arts and crafts fine but not needle moving, and can say with conviction that if you've seen one...  I don't intend on going into any more detail about them going forward although you will see a photo or 10 of me eating a huge wiener.

Frankfurt's market, as with all of them, is located in the main old town square, so they are picturesque.

Let's get this out of the way early too.  The hair is getting longer and the kids are not fans.  It is usually tied up and then hidden with a hat or bandana, but sometimes will let the freak flag fly.  Mad professor is the most common comment and to those that don't like it or feel the need to say something, do your worst.  I have made a career out of commenting on peoples appearance and could give a rat's what you say anyway.  It is a lot of fun, love to let it blow in the breeze and shake it like a dog when it's wet.  Drawbacks are that it is impossible to comb and sometimes wake up with a mouthful of it.  The only person's opinion that matters is Betty's and when she says it's time to go, will consider it. 

We liked the look of Frankfurt but noticed some things that we weren't expecting but would become a theme throughout the next two weeks.  There is graffiti on every surface, people drink openly from sun up to sun up, garbage is strewn about in all corners, and mechanical stuff, like escalators, have a far higher percentage of being out of order than they should.  You go into Germany thinking your gonna be able to eat off the street and maneuver in Jetson's era splendour.  Not the case.

We grabbed an AM train to Bamberg, which was 3 hours away.  Random train station posing with the sleepy/hungover locals.

 Bamberg was recommended as a picturesque Bavarian town and it was that.  We arrived early enough (we would refer to it as Sausage O'clock) for lunch at the local Christmas Market

 It was pretty.  And pretty dead.  It was a lovely city and we did a couple of walks this afternoon and before our train the next day.  Saw the church and scene where the rivers join that is on the cover of the tour guide.

 We were here a little under 24 hours and it felt like just enough.  THere is an old gag about places that came to mind...the best part about Bamberg was packing to get the fuck out.  We did have dinner at a place called Eckerts that was quite good and probably our best "German" meal of the trip.  I said before going that I was gonna eat my weight in schnitzel and had researched this place as having a Wild Boar version, which was quite good.  I had less satisfying schnitzel a couple more times before someone hipped us to the fact that schnitzel is more of an Austrian thing (duh...Weiner means Vienna...how did I not know that?)  Others in our group had the pork cheeks and venison roll and we were all satisfied..

Left town early afternoon for the 3hr train to Dresden.  I crumbed on the mechanics of Germany earlier, but the trains were top notch (top notch).  Clean, on-time and fast.  The had a speedometer readout in places and saw 242kph (150mph).  People asked me why we went to Dresden cause no one recommended it.  Have always had it on my list due to the fire bombing in WWII and was curious about its history.  'Dresden Blues' also happens to be my favorite Cold Chisel song.

We were here for 4 nights and grabbed an Air BnB in the Neustadt quarter and liked it immediately.  Billed as "hip" and did not disappoint.  Tons of cool shops and places to eat with young people, families with strollers and tons of (big) dogs being walked in the streets at all hours.  We later found out this is due to the 36k student population in the neighborhood.  We had great burgers, ramen and tapas on 3 of the 4 nights and saw a couple of other places we were sad not to try.  On the other night, we took the recommendation of our apartment host and went to local pub and eatery Bautzner Tor. 

Betty was sick for the first half of our trip and this night was her lowest point.  As the kids and I were heading out, asked if we could bring her anything back she responded in a frail whisper, "maybe soup or some light pasta."  We were tickled by the 'light pasta' request, not only for the meek way she said it but is there even such a thing?  We get there and the place is full of folks and the decor is quirky with things that had been collected over decades.  I order schnitzel, which was edible at best, and the boy sees a pasta dish with goulash and orders that thinking we can take leftovers home.  They put his plate down and we see it.  Looks like pickles.  Then we smell it and it smells like pickles.  Sure enough, he tastes it and it tastes like pickles.  Good thing we don't step in it.  That last bit inspired by Cheech and Chong.

My aversion to pickles is well documented and sadly, have passed that hatred along to the kids.  Knew going into Germany that they have a thing about them and expected to spend time working on ways to avoid them, but who would have ever thought they would poison an harmless bowl of pasta with them.  Fucking MONSTERS.

I liked Dresden quite a bit and think/hope the family did too.  We always try to take a walking tour early in a visit cause they show you the important stuff, things you don't know but should, and always give some insights as to the character of a place.  Dresden is in the state called Saxony and Germany wasn't Germany until 1871.  Before that it was a collection of kingdoms that fought with each other as much as they got along.  Our guide said that the Saxons always threw down with the losers in these conflicts.  Napoleon, the Poles, Nazi's...their most succesful leader was an Elector (they couldn't even afford a king) named Augustus the Strong.  The whole area was filled with Lutherans, and much to the peoples consternation he converted to Catholicism so he could become the King of Poland.  In elementary school there was a special needs kid that we called the King of Poland.

Dresden has been mostly reconstructed from the devastation of the WWII fire bombing.  It was known before the war as the "Florence of Germany" (of course it was)  and after the war was in East Germany.  The Soviets that ruled East Germany didn't have the cash and certainly were not in the mood to restore it to its pre-war glory, but the folks in town saved the stones from the rubble and have been slowly building it back up ever since, with most of that work being done post 1989 reunification. 

On the banks of the Elbe River

 Block long mural depicting the leaders of Saxony.

 THis is the Catholic church that no one attends.  Most of the old buildings stone are blackened but it is not due to the bombing, but rather is naturally occurring as the sandstone used to construct is high in iron and magnesium, which rusts over time.

 The Protestant church that was jammed for Christmas

 A rare nice family photo

 You can see evidence of reconstruction going on all about and one of the features are all of these blue pipes crisscrossing the town.  Seems the drainage/sewage system in town is still being modernized and these pipes take the excess and dump it into the river.  "That's why the town smells" said our guide.  Put that quote on the tour brochure

Our guide took us to the Green Vault, which housed a complete collection of royal jewels.  I say housed cause it was closed as many of them were stolen a few weeks prior. Bookmark this as it'll be referenced in the Berlin section next time.

She took us by a hotel that had recently been renovated and told us of the time Putin came to visit.  He was the leader of Russia buy that time and while visiting Dresden, he disappeared one day and his security detail freaked out.  Before he became whatever you want to call him of Russia, he cut his teeth in the KGB serving 10 years in Dresden, and he snuck out to go eat at his favorite bakery and catch up with old friends.  Russians account for over 1/3 of all tourists to Dresden with multiple daily flights from the old Soviet Union. 

We also walked through the palace they called The Zwinger.  I said palace, but it is really a public space with gardens and museums now.  It has a big black crown (symbol of Polish royalty) and we spent far too much time trying to take a picture of it as if it were on our heads.

 Obligatory shot to make Betty's head look big.

In that last shot, you can see beneath the clock these white things and they are bells that ring on the hour.  The guide kept referring to them and I kept hearing Mice and Porcelain and just couldn't grasp what she was talking about.  Kids heard it and laughed at me saying the bells are made of Meissen porcelain.  Whatevs kids, have taken a lot of blows to the head.

We left our guide in the square and as it was Christmas Eve, she said she was going home to have a traditional German Christmas dinner of sausages and potato salad.  Uh, isn't that what you eat every day?

Our last day in town was Christmas Day and fortunately, the Opera House and art museum were open, so we had something to do.  It was leisurely...the museum had some nice things but sadly, the prized Van Gogh they have was on loan somewhere, so it was Van Gone.  As Opera Houses are typically the most grand building a city has to offer, trying to see them, while not a must, is usually advised. 

This one was nice, and they were really puffing their chests out about the architect, whose name escapes me, but we were underwhelmed.  The marble isn't really marble but the 18th century formica equivalent, it has burned down at least 3 times, and it was built, as most of the buildings in town are, in a traditional Italian Renaissance style.  We were starting to question why we didn't just go to Italy then.

They did have a cool clock in the auditorium, which is impossible to see below, but it is a 5 minute clock, so it changes every 5 minutes from 12:15 to 12:20 and so on.  As we are sitting in the balcony listening to the very efficient and overly thorough German guide monologue to us about curtains, kids and I are all staring at the clock waiting for it to change and then slap each other with delight when it does.

I forgot one thing about our visit...when planning the trip months previous, we were told of a city to visit called Freiberg.  In planning, saw that Freiberg was a 25 minute train ride from Dresden so planned a day to go out to see it.  Betty was sick so begged off and the kids and I headed off.  As we get there, the place is a freaking dump and do not see any of the things I had been researching.  Turns out, there is another city called Freiburg and I confused the two.  Freiburg (on the other side of Germany) has baroque this and gilded that while Freiberg is an East German mining town that has yet to get back on its feet.  Lost a star on my TripAdvisor review for that misstep.  Our guide from before said that Dresden has a 5% unemployment rate, but that many of the old East German cities nearby in Saxony have not fared so well and their unemployment rate is in the mid-20's.  We could feel that this day. 

I'd recommend Dresden as it has a funky vibe (Santa motorcycle gang below), interesting, if not tortured, history and seems to be a city with potential.  Two full days seems about right.