We arrived in Munich from Copenhagen on time at 2:20PM, collected our bags, caught a taxi and made our way to our hotel, the Eurostars Grand Central, which is conveniently located near the main Munich train station and is well serviced by both the tram and metro providing easy access to everywhere.
While Liz and I have preferred to walk, it is impressive to see the level of public transportation available in Europe’s cities. Extensive networks of trams or trolleys, metros or subways, light rail and buses are everywhere making it easy for people to commute to work and otherwise travel without having to get into a car. In addition, we have found, almost universally, the existence of pedestrian-only streets within city centers providing outstanding opportunities for people to casually stroll, enjoy the shops and the innumerable cafes and restaurants that spill out onto the streets with their casual outdoor dining. Combining the public transportation with these pedestrian-only streets makes European cities vastly more accessible and enjoyable than their US counterparts. America’s love affair with cars doesn’t only come with a carbon emissions problem, it also drastically reduces our quality of life.
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| Marienplatz - Munich Town Hall |
Liz had a board call this afternoon and I took advantage of the time to blog. We found an outdoor vegetarian restaurant (not easy to find in Munich), had a good meal and were early to bed.
Friday, August 2, 2019
Woke up this morning to an email from my sister, Gail. She and her husband, Edde, had arrived in Germany in late May for what was expected to be a six-month stay in Edde’s hometown of Karlsruhe, a smallish city of 300,000 in southwest Germany, about a 1½ drive south of Frankfurt and a short distance from the northeast corner of France on the Rhine River. The content of this email was her discovery that she would need a visa to stay in Germany for more than 90 days, in spite of being married to a German citizen, and, therefore, would have to leave Germany and head back home in late August rather than in November as originally planned. Gail, understandably, was wondering how we were dealing with this.
The visa she is referring to is called a Schengen visa which describes a collection of 26 countries –almost the entire European Union – in which citizens can travel freely without passing through passport control. Think of it just like traveling from state-to-state in the US. You drive by a sign that reads “Welcome to Delaware”, but you don’t stop and get checked at the border by Delaware authorities. The experience is different when you choose to drive into Canada. When traveling throughout the Schengen area, the experience is exactly like traveling within the US – no passport control. Very nice and very convenient.
However, if you are not a resident of one of the 26 Schengen countries, and want to stay for more than 90 days, you need to apply for a long-stay visa. We had been made aware of this by a friend of Liz’s whose daughter had violated these rules and, when she left Iceland after over-staying her welcome, her passport was stamped saying she was not allowed to return to Schengen for the next two years. Apparently, they can also levy a hefty fine on violators as well.
And so, we immediately applied for a long-stay visa in France which was the country we would begin and end our European adventure in. Unfortunately, France denied our application citing that our stay in France was too short for a long-stay visa. As our time to depart was drawing near, there was no opportunity to contest our case with France nor to re-apply somewhere else, so we headed off without a visa. At that time, we had understood the rules to be ’90 consecutive days’ within the Schengen region and so we re-arranged our itinerary to make sure we did not violate that parameter. The UK and Ireland are not among the 26 Schengen countries and we had three weeks scheduled here, plus we would be heading to Africa for two weeks in September and then Egypt, Jordan and Israel in November. Problem solved, or so we thought.
Our back and forth with Gail on this day revealed that the requirement is not 90 consecutive days, rather it is 90 days within any 180-day window. Upon learning this, I opened up our itinerary on my computer and began to add up the days. To my horror, we would be cruising past the 90 days within 180-day window in two-weeks, exactly during our scheduled stay with Gail and Edde. Further, we would hit a peak of 148 days in Schengen on October 26th, our last scheduled day within a Schengen region country.
OK, so now I am completely freaked out. We have made extensive plans and financial commitments for the coming months and these might all be dashed in two weeks. Actually, we had a bit more time than this because your only opportunity for being found out is when you present yourself to a passport security officer and the next time we would do that would be when we next left the Schengen region – Sep 1st when we fly from Switzerland to Kenya. That’s one-month from today, but still I am freaked out.
So, I begin to spend hours on the internet to learn more and mostly it is confirming both the requirements as well as the penalty with suggestions to avoid this that essentially boil down to leaving Schengen for 90 days before returning, an option that just won’t work for us.
Next, we try to learn as much as we can about their systems and methods for catching violators. As something of a computer geek having spent years working for software companies, it is easy to believe that a simple software program, shared among the 26 Schengen countries, could keep a tally of the number of days spent in Schengen during any 180-day window and set off loud alarms when someone had breached the 90-day rule. I imagined just this scenario when we left Zurich for Nairobi and the passport security personnel ushered Liz and I into a dark room, with red lights flashing and alarms blaring, and asked us to explain why we had no visa and yet had spent 106 days in Schengen!
Liz, on the other hand, had found some internet references suggesting that the cooperation between the 26 countries was either very loose or non-existent. In terms of catching my sister, Gail, who would spend all of her time in Germany, she didn’t stand a chance of not being caught, but for Liz and I, who would be traveling in and out of 11 different Schengen countries and eight different non-Schengen countries, the question was less clear. Still, I spent much of the day stewing about this until finally reaching the conclusion that there was nothing I could do about it and the worst thing that could happen to us is that we would be kicked out of Europe for two years – a bad outcome, but not life threatening.
And so we moved on. We jumped on the tram, caught the hop-on, hop-off bus and took a tour of Munich. By the way, we have become fans of hop-on, hop-off buses. Yes, they are tacky and touristy, but they do give you a lay of the land rather quickly and we have found them to usefully identify places we want to come back to for longer visits.
Eventually, we ended up at Marienplatz, a large city center square in the heart of old-town with the glorious Town Hall dominating the venue. A word about “old-town” – there is no old-town in Munich as the city was almost totally destroyed during World War II. Everything has been rebuilt post-WWII, and the architecture of this post-war period was rather dismal and unimaginative. There are a few exceptions, like the Town Hall and St. Peter’s Church, but largely, Munich is not an attractive city. This came as a surprise to us while, in retrospect, it shouldn’t have.
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| St Peter's Church |
Having only recently lost my luggage in Spain, Liz took this opportunity while we were in the city center to take me shopping. In the course of the next hour or more, we pretty well replaced everything I needed and we spent nearly an hour in one of the greatest outdoor gear stores I had ever seen, Sporthaus Schuster, near the city square, a 4-story retail shop dedicated to the outdoor enthusiast. Generally, I don’t like shopping, but I actually enjoyed this experience and Liz was a great help.
Later that evening, we returned to the city square area for dinner at a French wine bar, Deja Bu. It was exactly what we needed.
Saturday, August 3, 2019
After breakfast, Liz and I took a walk through the very large Munich train station and out the other side. From there, Liz headed to a pharmacy for shampoo, etc. and some Melatonin. One of the other things I lost with my luggage were my sleep aids. For many years, I have had difficulty sleeping. Falling to sleep is not the problem, but staying asleep is allusive. I have tried many things and have found the most effective to be THC – yep, marijuana. Fortunately, living in California, this has been reasonably accessible, first via a medical marijuana card, but now that recreational pot is legal in CA, the retail store experience is actually quite good. And the variety of products available for sleep assistance is excellent. I find that 10mg of THC taken before bed gives me a good night’s sleep with no side effects. Unfortunately, the pill form I had brought with me in quantity for our trip was now lost. Melatonin would have to suffice although I have had only limited success with it in the past.
While Liz went off on her shopping trip, I headed for the barber. It had been over seven weeks since my last haircut in Barcelona. That haircut had been a disaster with the inexperienced barber practically shaving my head. I was hoping not to repeat that fiasco. The barber shop was crowded (a good sign) with several barbers busy clipping their client’s hair. It was a friendly place where everyone seemed to know each other, swapping stories and plenty of laughter. There were several of us waiting for haircuts and I wasn’t at all clear when it would be my turn or how I would know. Just then, a barber walks up to me and signals for me to get into his chair. I show him a picture of a recent haircut that I want him to emulate, he nods his head and gets to work. I had done the same thing in Barcelona, got the same reaction from the barber, but the end result didn’t look anything like the picture. Creative license, I presume. This guy did a much better job and I left the barber shop not feeling like I needed to immediately buy a hat.
Liz and I met back at the hotel and then headed out to a museum we had spotted during the hop-on, hop-off bus tour. The Pinakothek is comprised of two buildings: Alte (old) covers art from the 14th to the 18th century, while the Neue (new) covers art from the 19th century and beyond. Both are large collections. As the Alte building is under extensive renovation, a large number of the pieces have been moved to the Neue building making it convenient to visit all periods in a single building. This is a museum worth visiting.
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| Pinakothek |
It was raining when we exited the museum so we quickly walked to the Park Café where we enjoyed lunch. After the rain stopped, we headed back to our hotel where we waited for my son, Gareth, his wife, Sarah, and their three children, River (8), Willa (5) and Dax (2) to arrive. They live near us in the Bay Area, and had spent the last couple of days in London before heading to Munich where we will join them for several days.
It was great to see them at our hotel when they arrived late in the afternoon. Although still recovering from a bit of jet-lag, the kids were plenty excited to see Grampies and G Ma and we were equally excited to see them. After settling in to their room, we all headed out for a short walk to a nearby beer garden.
Munich is famous for its large and many beer gardens. Augustiner-Keller, with about 5,000 seats, is the third largest beer garden in Munich, first opened in 1812. Serving a limited menu of Bavarian food (brats, fried chicken, potatoes, salad and pretzels) plus giant mugs of beer, the beer garden is a Munich staple. Honestly, we found the food to be mediocre (inedible for a vegetarian like me) and the beer was only so-so – it all tasted like Budweiser. But the highlight for sure was the outdoor play area for the kids. It occupied an entire corner of the outdoor seating area and had plenty of cool apparatus for the kids to enjoy which they did running themselves quickly to the point of exhaustion. When dinner was over, it was clearly bedtime.
Sunday, August 4, 2019
We all met for breakfast at the hotel this morning. It was clear from the start that River wasn’t feeling all that well. Eventually, Gareth picked him up to take him back to their room and, as Gareth tells it, as he was leaving the restaurant and passing by the last buffet spread, River lets loose with projectile vomit that bounces off of the tile floor and sprays portions of the buffet. Gareth, while trying to capture the projectile as best he can, nearly slips and falls on the now slippery floor. Wait staff are quickly on the scene, explaining that they will take it from here and it’s no big deal, but Gareth, who would later would refer to this incident as Spewgate, knows otherwise.
After breakfast, we would be taking a bike tour of Munich although Gareth and River, bless his little heart, sadly would not be able to join us. We met up with our tour guide and the other bikers in the center square of Munich and, after getting our bikes and helmets fitted, we were off. The tour took us along the streets of Munich and to several important landmarks until we eventually ended up in the English Garden, one of the largest urban parks in the world at 910 acres. The park is beautiful with its many pathways, water properties, wooded lands and wide-open fields. On this lovely Sunday in early August, it was also packed, so, as bike riders, we needed to be extra cautious where we were riding.
There are multiple beer gardens in the English Garden, including the one at the Chinese Tower where we stopped for lunch. With capacity for 7,000, it is the second largest beer garden in Munich and serves precisely the same bad food and mediocre beer that you can find at other beer gardens. In the tower, there was a traditional oom-pah band playing oom-pah music, kind of corny, but also fun.
After lunch, we were back on our bikes where our next stop is a river in Munich famous for surfing. In one of the artificial streams flowing through the English Garden, there is a standing wave where the elevation changes abruptly. Surfers line up along the bank taking turns entering the water with their boards. After a minute or so, successful surfers will voluntarily drop out returning to the end of the line allowing the next person in line an opportunity. The signage states that surfing should only be done by expert or skilled surfers. It was really cool to watch and at least one of the surfers was quite expert as he walked forward and backwards on his board navigating the wave from right to left and back again.
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| Surfing in the English Garden |
Eventually, we returned to our starting place and ended our bike tour. Definitely worth doing. Check out Mike’s Bike Tours next time you’re in Munich.
When we returned to the city center we met up with Gareth and River who had completely recuperated from whatever ailment was afflicting him in the morning. We walked through St. Peter’s Church as well as other places on the square before heading back towards the hotel. On the way back, we stopped for dinner at the Park Café where Liz and I had enjoyed lunch the day before.
On the way back from dinner, we took the tram. I was entertaining the kids by bouncing them on my knees playing horse. We all exited at the stop near our hotel and I immediately became aware that my iPhone was missing. Believing it had escaped my pocket (Liz will tell you that this isn’t the first time) while playing horse on the tram, I decided to wait on the platform for the tram to return. One after another came by and I jumped on, quickly scanned the tram and then jumped off. It became apparent that this was an unlikely effort to recover my phone, so I returned to the hotel and logged in a missing iPhone with the metro Lost and Found. Further compounding my problems, after having my phone reset in London three weeks before, I had failed to reactivate the “Find My iPhone” feature and so this handy utility was unavailable to me. I tried calling my phone several times, but each time I ended up in voicemail. I had resigned myself to it either being lost or in lost and found which is basically the same thing. Crap. I will have to buy a new one.
Monday, August 5, 2019
Today, we leave Munich and head south to visit Neuschwanstein Castle. This may be the most photographed castle in the world and must have been the inspiration for the castle at Disneyland. Built in 1869 by King Ludwig II in honor of the composer, Richard Wagner, Neuschwanstein Castle sits high up on a hillside overlooking a small village near Fussen in the Bavarian Alps.
The place was packed due to it being August in Germany which is vacation month for most of Europe. We purchased tickets for a tour, hiked up the 1½ miles to the castle rather than wait for the bus and arrived a couple of hours before our scheduled tour. The grounds of the castle are so steep that it is hard to get a perspective of the castle from up close. Our first view of the castle from the valley floor provided a much better perspective. We decided to skip the tour, rather than wait the couple of hours, and walked back down into town.
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| Neuschwanstein Castle from up close |
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| Neuschwanstein Castle from the valley floor (with zoom) |
One interesting historical fact among many, during World War II the Nazis had used the castle to store much of the loot it had stolen from other countries. In April 1945, the SS considered blowing up the palace to prevent the building itself and the artwork it contained from falling to the enemy. The plan was not carried out by the SS officer who had been assigned the task, however, and at the end of the war the palace was surrendered, undamaged, to the Allied forces.
We got back into our vehicles and began the 1-hour drive to our AirBnB near Ehrwald, Austria. Gareth had made reservations at an AirBnB in Fernpass which is a small winter ski resort in the Austrian Alps. A husband and wife operate a yoga retreat there called the Yoga Resort Alpen Retreat that they rent out through AirBnB when they are between yoga retreat sessions. It is a funky place for sure, but the setting is absolutely beautiful and the food – all vegetarian and mostly vegan – is fantastic, particularly after what we had endured while in Munich.
We arrived in time for a quick walk around the surrounding landscape and a delicious dinner.
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| View from the front deck of the Yoga Resort Alpen Retreat |
Tuesday, August 6, 2019
We woke up to rain and it rained most of the day, so we mostly hung out at the yoga retreat. That morning, I got an email from a friend back in California asking if I was OK. He had called my phone and some Russian lady had answered it. Wow, he had made a connection with someone who had my iPhone! I had continued to make calls myself to the phone, but always ended up in voicemail. But now someone had made contact. I immediately called my number and sure enough, a foreign-speaking woman answered the phone. It sounded like German to me and there were German speaking folks at the retreat center, so I put one of them on the phone.
After a long discussion, we had managed to get her contact information and it was agreed that I would text her. Apparently, she spoke with an Eastern European accent and her German was not very good. I sent a text right away explaining who I was and that I would be coming back through Munich in a few days and could I pick up my phone from her.
A day went by and no answer. So, I resent the text, but this time used WhatsApp (everyone in Europe uses WhatsApp because it is free). Again, no answer. So, I called my number again and again. Eventually, she picks up and I put my German-speaking friend on the phone. She confirms that she got my text and agrees to have me drop by her house on Sunday at noon to pick it up. He also gets her address from her and I confirm that it is an active address in Google maps. We’re all set. Looks like I will be getting my phone back.
And while this tech maneuvering with my iPhone is going on, Liz gets an email from a hacker saying he has broken into her computer and as evidence tells her what one of her passwords is. It is an old password, but it is definitely one of hers. He demands that Liz send him $800 in bitcoin or he will destroy her life as we know it.
Ouch! So, we are justifiably freaked out about this. What is the world coming to?
This apparently is a popular scam. If you Google “I got an email from a hacker asking for ransom money” you will get a litany of responses on this phishing expedition. Advice if you ever get an email like this: don’t panic, don’t respond to the email, don’t click on any links in the email, change your passwords, and don’t send any money.
Wednesday, August 7, 2019
Today, we leave the yoga retreat and drive into nearby Ehrwald for a hike in the mountains. In Ehrwald, we take a gondola up 400 meters to a mountain ridge and then begin a six-mile roundtrip hike to Seebensee lake and back. It is a beautiful hike in the Austrian Alps and the lake is breathtaking nestled in the basin of surrounding mountains. On the way back out and not far from the lake, we stop at a mountain hut and have lunch. It is simply amazing that way back here in the middle of nowhere, they have constructed a beautiful hut with a fully stocked kitchen serving delicious, healthy food.
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| Seebensee Lake |
After lunch, we load back up, I put Willa on my shoulders and we walk the remaining 1½ hours to the gondola and then back down to the cars.
Tonight, we will stay at the Hotel Alpine Residence in Ehrwald.
Thursday, August 8, 2019
After breakfast, we head to the opposite side of the valley from Ehrwald to the town of Lermoos and take a gondola up which then connects to another gondola which brings us to the top of the ski resort and a combined elevation gain of 1,000 meters. From here we have spectacular views of the valley and mountain ranges including the area we had hiked the day before. Our destination today is to walk from the top of the second gondola down to the top of the first gondola.
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| The view from the top of Lermoos with the town of Ehrwald in the valley (left) |
As we begin our hike, Gareth and River take a side trip which begins with some climbing while the rest of us begin to head down the mountain. Fully expecting Gareth and River to catch up with us, but it turns out they never do, at least not until we actually get down to the top of the first gondola several hours later. But no worries, we are enjoying great views and a relatively easy downhill hike.
About halfway down, our map indicates an alternative trail that is marked as medium difficulty – the same rating that yesterday’s trail had. As it appears to be a faster way down, we take the alternative, but it turns out to be anything but medium. It is steep, narrow and downright difficult in places. Sarah has Dax in a backpack on her back while I started out with Willa on my shoulders, but quickly abandon that and let her walk on her own which she does expertly along with a constant chatter encouraging her mom and telling her what a great job she is doing. Eventually, we reach the bottom, but we are all a bit beat up by the process and so we settle in for a some food and a well-earned beer. After about 30 minutes, Gareth and River come strolling down the mountain and join us for the back half of lunch.
From here, we take the gondola back down into the town of Lermoos. Liz and I will be heading to Innsbruck today while Gareth and Sarah have opted to stay one more night in Ehrwald because the kids had such fun the day before in the pool there.
Our drive to Innsbruck is under 1½ hours where we stay at the Penz Hotel. After a nice dinner out, we stroll through the old town of Innsbruck which is quaint and beautiful.
Friday, August 9, 2019
Today, Liz and I walked around old-town Innsbruck, went to St. James Cathedral, climbed to the top of the city tower, Stadtturm, which offered wonderful views of the city and the surrounding mountains, strolled through the royal palace gardens and along the River Inn (the name of the river that runs through Innsbruck). We also toured the Imperial Palace and the Hofkirche, an ornate gothic church with the tomb of Maximilian I.
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| St. James Cathedral from Stadtturm Tower |
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| Innsbruck |
Gareth, Sarah and family show up around noon and we basically walked through all of the areas that Liz and I had walked in the morning and we ate lunch together in a large open-area pedestrian-only market. At the end of the afternoon, we said goodbye to their family as they headed further south, deeper into the Austrian Alps, the Dolomites and eventually reaching Venice before they would head back to Munich and then back to San Francisco. We had a great time with them including some awesome hikes. We will particularly miss the kids who brought their own brand of energy to everything they did.
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| St, James Cathedral |
Liz and I had dinner at Olive, a super-creative vegetarian restaurant and one of the best meals we have had so far. We spent the night again at the Penz Hotel.
Saturday, August 10, 2019
After breakfast, we are back in the car and headed west to the Eagle’s Nest, about a 3-hour drive, where we have scheduled a tour beginning at 1pm. Our tour will include Obersalzberg, the town where Hitler’s home, Berghof, was located and where the Nazis had set up a secondary command post for directing their war efforts, as well as the Eagle’s Nest (Kehlsteinhaus), a mountain top retreat above Obersalzberg.
Obersalzberg sits in the southeast corner of Germany on the border with Austria. In the late 1800’s, it attracted many of Germany’s intellectuals and artists as both a summer and winter retreat. Hitler’s first visit to the region was in 1923 and it was there in 1925 that he completed his book Mein Kampf. In 1933, when Hitler became Chancellor, he purchased and expanded property in the area in what eventually was named the Berghof. Several Nazi leaders like Göring , Bormann and Spear also purchased properties nearby. By the time WWII was underway, Obersalzberg became a secondary command post and an extensive underground barracks, command post and tunnel system was built in the event the location was subject to Allied bombings.
Information About the Bunker System from Wikipedia
The construction of the bunker complex at Obersalzberg began in the summer of 1943. In the central area around Hitler's Berghof, they built a subterranean Fuehrer Headquarters. This was from where the Reich was to be governed and the war directed, in case the buildings above the ground were destroyed or if the Obersalzberg should temporarily fall into enemy hands.
The bunker system consisted of six subsystems, each of which was associated with an above ground building. The subsystems were connected with each other by long corridors or staircases, so that almost all important buildings were reachable beneath the ground. All important functions of the buildings above ground were also present in the bunkers - living, work, office, storage and technical space.
It was not the officials of the Third Reich who survived in the bunker complex during the British air raid on Obersalzberg on April 25, 1945, but over 1,000 workers.
On May 4, four days after Hitler's suicide in Berlin, retreating SS troops set fire to the Berghof as Hitler had previously ordered.
Only hours later, the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division arrived at Berchtesgaden followed several hours later by the French 2nd Armoured Division and the next day by the American 101st Airborne. The Obersalzberg was placed under U.S. administration. At the time, the Berghof still contained destroyed paintings, evening gowns, medical equipment, and a wine cellar.
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| Evidence on tunnel wall that the French 2nd Armoured Division arrived on May 5, 1945 |
During our tour of Obersalzberg, we were able to walk through portions of the tunnel system and view many of the bunkers that still survive.
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| An underground tunnel at Oberasalzberg |
The Kehlsteinhaus or Eagle’s Nest
After our tour of the Obersalzberg, we headed to the Eagle’s Nest via an elevator. It is said that Hitler only visited Eagle’s Nest 14 times due to his fear of heights, while Eva Braun used it regularly as a retreat and to entertain friends. It is a beautiful building with fantastic views although the day we arrived it was socked in with clouds and a light rain was falling. Liz and I chose to walk down from the top rather than take the elevator and from there we boarded a bus that eventually brought us back to our car.
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| Kehlsteinhaus - The Eagle's Nest |
This is worth a visit. The history is amazing.
Back to Munich
Our original intention was to spend the night in Salzburg after our tour, but given it is only a 2½ car ride to Munich, we decided to head straight for Munich where we spent the night in the Hyatt.
Sunday, August 11, 2019
This morning our goal is to retrieve my iPhone from the Eastern European lady who speaks poor German whose name is Frau Damstern. I have sent her a text saying we have spent the night in Munich and would be coming by around 10AM rather than the noon hour we had previously agreed to. Of course, I got no response.
So, Liz and I left the Hyatt in time to arrive at her apartment complex which sits in a quiet suburb outside of Munich. Liz and I had discussed multiple options of what could go wrong with the hand-off because we both felt that something fishy was possible. However, once we drove through the neighborhood which was full of children, ball fields and farmer’s markets, it felt pretty safe, pretty unfishy, actually.
I parked the car outside of her apartment building and came to the front door. It was a large apartment complex with a large directory of occupants. As I scanned the list over and over, I could find no Damstern. While I was looking, a couple of folks came and went. I asked them if they knew a Frau Damstern. The English was bad to non-existent and I got no positive response to Damstern. Then I tried calling her and she picked up, however, as she speaks no English, we were at an impasse. Just then, someone came out of the apartment building and I put her on the phone with Frau Damstern. We were able to communicate just enough to learn that someone would be by in 20 minutes with the phone.
And so we waited. And sure enough, in 20 minutes a car pulled up. In the car was a young man and woman with an infant in the back seat. He jumped out of the car, looked directly at me and then held up my phone. I took the phone, gave him €100, shook his hand and then asked if we could take a picture which is reproduced below. Notice what it says on his shirt – “Give Nothing, Take All”. Wow. Not sure what to make of that. At any rate, I got my phone back. What an adventure.
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| The iPhone Exchange - Notice the shirt |
Reutlingen
Now it is time to drive across southern Germany to Reutlingen – a 3-hour drive – where we will meet up with my sister, Gail, and her husband, Edde. Friends of Gail and Edde have a house in Reutlingen and will be away for three weeks, so they offered it to Gail and Edde. Apparently, Reutlingen is a pretty cool place, so we will be meeting them there and spending four days in Reutlingen.
The drive from the more mountainous area in the east to the west of Germany is quite beautiful, lush with trees and pastoral farm lands with only an occasional view of scattered cities along the way. The drive is easy and we make good time arriving by early afternoon.
Upon arrival, they fed us some lunch and then we walked around town and visited an old house that has been turned into a museum showcasing the farm life of the late 1800s and early 1900s. That evening they prepared a dinner comprised of numerous vegetables. It was great to be eating real veggies again and items that were actually green that come from a nearby store selling fresh fruits and vegetables.
Monday, August 12, 2019
This morning we drive over to Lichtenstein Castle, not far from Reutlingen. There has been a castle here since the 1100s although the current structure was built in 1842. It is a beautiful building and totally worth the drive.
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| Lichtenstein Castle |
From the castle, we begin a hike to the Nebelhöhle caves, a walk of about 7 miles round-trip that takes you along a mountain ridge with beautiful views across the valley and eventually brings you to the caves where there is also a small restaurant. We ate lunch there, did not enter the caves, and then headed back to the castle. What a great hike!
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| Edde and Gail |
That night we had another wonderful veggie dinner prepared by Gail and Edde.
Tuesday, August 13, 2019
Today, we take another hike, also about 7 miles, in which we visited two different waterfalls, gain lots of elevation only to lose it again, walk through deep forests with lush moss and then farm country and pastures with horses. Everything is beautiful.
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| Waterfalls |
On the way back home, we stop at the town of Metzingen for lunch and then back to Reutlingen where Gail and Edde treat us to dinner once again.
Wednesday, August 14, 2019
Today, we drove to the small village of Entringen to meet up with friends of Gail and Edde, Bernie and Kashi. I have met Bernie a couple of times before in the US when he has come to visit Gail and Edde. We left our car at their house and began a hike to the Monastery and Palace Bebenhausen – about a 8 km hike through a forest preserve. The hike was absolutely beautiful and the village of Bebenhausen is a real gem. The monastery is amazing and a great tour after which we enjoyed a wonderful lunch at a café on their outdoor patio.
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| Monastery and Palace Bebenhausen |
After lunch, we caught a bus to Tubingen where we met up with Bernie and Kashi and Bernie took us on a punting boat. Punting, or stockerkahn, on the Neckar River through Tubingen is a big thing. There are many, many punting boats on the river, and Bernie, in his past life, was a professional punter. He took us up and down the river and then gave each of Edde and I a turn at punting. It looks easier than it actually is.
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| Punting on the Neckar River in Tubingen |
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| Bernie punting on the Neckar River |
After our river ride, we went to the church tower, climbed the stairs to the top, from which you get spectacular views, and later returned to attend a concert of organ music.
After the concert, we headed to the train station to catch a train back to Entringen. Unfortunately, the train didn’t go all the way to Entringen due to track construction, so we got off early and then boarded the wrong bus that took us way out of our way. We got off the bus and found ourselves in the middle of nowhere and, while trying to figure out how we would get back to Entringen, low and behold, this guy shows up. We ask him for directions and while he is explaining, he realizes we are totally lost and decides he will drive us back himself. On the ride back, we learn that he is only recently in Germany having arrived from Turkey. The ride was at least 20 minutes and he refused to take any money from us. What a wonderful experience.
We then ate a terrific dinner with Bernie and Kashi in their backyard full of lots of stories and laughter.
Thursday, August 15, 2019
Today, we will drive to Stuttgart to catch a plane to Stockholm, but before doing that, we grab lunch with Gail and Edde and say goodbye. But this will be only a short goodbye as, after Stockholm, we next head to Berlin where we will catch up with Gail and Edde once again.
Berlin
Tuesday, August 20, 2019
We had a 7:25AM flight out of Stockholm to Berlin, collected our bags, hailed a taxi and headed into the city to our hotel, the 25hours Hotel Bikini. Now, by the name of the hotel, one might imagine that it is not your ordinary hotel, and you would be right. This place is very funky and appears to be designed to appeal to hipsters. For one thing, there is a 1960s convertible car in the lobby with a surfboard in the backseat, every room has a bike in it for your personal use while in Berlin, the bed is on the floor, the floorplan is open and the furniture is modern. As a two retired folk, we fit right in.
Our hotel is in the Charlottenburg section of Berlin which was considered the center of West Berlin before the wall came down. Our hotel sits directly across from the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church which suffered from a bombing raid in WWII leaving the steeple partially destroyed. There is a lively music and outdoor food scene surrounding the church and Berlin’s best shopping is just down the street.
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| Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church |
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| Brandenburg Gate |
After a few hours on the bus, we got off for good near the Brandenburg Gate which is at the east end of Tiergarten Park, a 520-acre urban park that is Germany’s most popular. Our hotel is situated at the west end, 3km away, right next to the zoo (seems appropriate for this hotel). We walked the length of the park, visited the Rose Garden, walked around the Victory Column (in recognition of Germany’s victory in the Danish-Prussian War in 1864), past the Rosa Luxemburg Memorial on a bridge over the Landwehr Canal (Luxemburg was a Polish émigré to Germany in the late 1800s, an antiwar activist and a revolutionary socialist, murdered for her views and then thrown into the Landwehr Canal), around the zoo and then back to our hotel.
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| The Rose Garden inside Tiergarten Park |
Wednesday, August 21, 2019
Gail and Edde also arrived in Berlin yesterday, but they arrived via train very late and are staying at a friend’s house that is several metro stops away from us or a 30-minute walk. We agreed to meet at The Wall Museum this morning. While there are several museums in Berlin that relate to the wall, this museum consists of a small indoor section dedicated to the factors leading up to the building of the wall, life on either side of the wall and then the eventual dismantling of the wall during the 28 year period of its existence from 1961 to 1989. The museum is located adjacent to the East Side Gallery, a series of murals painted on remnants of the wall that runs for over 1300 meters.
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| East Side Gallery - Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev giving the East Germany President Erich Honecker a kiss |
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| The East Side Gallery mural with Liz |
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| East Side Gallery Mural |
Following post-WW II, Berlin had been cut in half by the victors. The Allied forces occupied West Berlin while the USSR occupied the East. Almost immediately following the end of the WWII, the Cold War began as an effort to contain Soviet expansionism and, in many ways, the Cold War played itself out in Berlin where the ideological differences co-existed. During the period leading up to the construction of the wall, there was a constant flow of emigrants leaving the East for the West. At Khrushchev’s urging, the wall was built in 1961 to put an end to this emigration although the official reason given was to halt emigration from the West to the East of ideologies opposed to the Soviet Union and that the Wall was an "anti-fascist protective rampart".
The Wall was over 140km long and completely enclosed all of West Berlin which was an island inside of what was then East Germany. In 1962, a secondary wall was built approximately 100m on the east side of the Wall creating a zone, known as the Death Strip between the two walls. The Death Strip was heavily guarded, with shoot-to-kill orders, from 186 watch towers evenly distributed along the wall.
And the Wall proved to be very effective in halting emigration. It is estimated that only 5,000 citizens managed to escape the East during the 28-year period of the Wall’s existence compared to nearly 200,000 per year before the Wall was built. And while there are disagreements over the number of citizens killed trying to escape, the most reliable number is 140.
The museum is definitely worth a visit for anyone who travels to Berlin.
The East Side Gallery is also a must-see. Walking along this long section of the Wall with its murals and messages of peace and hope is truly an inspiration. Definitely one of the highlights of our visit.
From the Wall Museum we then visited the Berlin Wall Memorial (confusing, I know, but this is a different place) which is a 5km walk from the Wall Museum. The Berlin Wall Memorial is an outdoor site and walking tour comprised of steel rods placed in the ground where the Wall once stood and runs for about a mile along Bernauer Street. Along the way, there are signs describing events that took place there and the families that were affected on both sides of the Wall. There is also a relatively well-preserved section of the intact border wall system, containing both an inner and outer wall, the death strip and a watchtower. Finally, the Chapel of Reconciliation is not to be missed. Constructed on the site of a former church that had been destroyed, this chapel is dedicated to the reconciliation of East and West Berlin.
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| Berlin Wall Memorial |
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| Berlin Wall Memorial - Guard Tower and Wall |
From here we walked to the Brandenburg Gate and then to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (also known as the Holocaust Memorial) which is nearby. It is an outdoor memorial consisting of a 19,000 sq m site covered with 2,711 concrete slabs or “stelae”, arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field. They are organized in rows, 54 of them going north–south, and 87 heading east–west at right angles but set slightly askew. According to architect’s project text, the stelae are designed to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere, and the whole sculpture aims to represent a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason. Other observers have suggested the stones resemble a cemetery. Either way, the memorial is worth a visit and walking among these stelae is both confusing and inspiring.
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| Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe |
That night we had dinner with Gail and Edde and his friend who they are staying with while in Berlin.
Thursday, August 22, 2019
This morning we start by meeting Gail and Edde at Checkpoint Charlie, the best-known crossing point between East and West Berlin during the period of the Wall. There is a museum here that we also visited that is comprised of multiple floors and contains a vast amount of information. The museum represents the life’s work of the founder, Rainer Hildebrandt, and his wife, Alexandra, who is still the director today. It is more a library than a museum and one could easily spend months there and not get through everything. After over an hour, we finally left, exhausted and even more exhausted by what we didn’t see.
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| Checkpoint Charlie |
Liz and I then walked over to the Jewish Museum Berlin which consists of two structures: a baroque-style old building (which was under renovation at the time we visited and not accessible) containing information about Jewish life in Germany; the second structure is a modern building in a zig-zag shape containing multiple vectors, but, most important, the Garden of Exile, which is an outdoor section that reminds one of the previously mentioned Holocaust Memorial, but on a much smaller scale. We were happy to have visited this museum, but don’t necessarily recommend it.
We then reconnected with Gail and Edde and walked over to museum island where the Pergamon is. The Pergamon is actually comprised of three separate museums and is the most visited museum in Germany. We were too exhausted to even enter and, instead, walked over to the Berlin Cathedral and climbed the stairs to the top of the dome from which we had spectacular views of the city. Well worth doing.
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| The Berlin Cathedral |
From the cathedral, we walked along the Spree River to the Reichstag Building (German Parliament) and through the adjoining gardens.
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| The Reichstag Building |
We were exhausted by this time, so we caught the metro back to our hotel and rested a bit. That night we went to the nearby theatre and watched “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”, Quentin Tarantino’s movie starring Leo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt and retelling the Charlie Manson/Sharon Tate murders with a Hollywood “happy-ever-after” ending. It’s a very dark movie and you can skip it.
Friday, August 23, 2019
Today, we took the train to Potsdam, about a 30-minute ride southwest of Berlin. Here we met up with Gail and Edde and walked to Sanssouci Palace, the summer palace of Frederick the Great built in 1745. Sanssouci, which means without a worry in French, symbolized that this palace was a place of relaxation for Frederick. The palace, which is magnificent, sits on the eastern edge of Sanssouci Park, a 700-acre park with gardens and several other amazing buildings.
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| Sanssouci Palace |
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| Orangery Palace |
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| The New Palace |
We then exited Sanssouci Park, walked back into Potsdam, had a lovely lunch at a waterfront restaurant and, then, caught the train back to Berlin.
This would be our last night in Berlin and, therefore, our last night with Gail and Edde as we would be heading to airport in the morning to catch a flight to Zurich. We had a lovely dinner together and then said our goodbyes.
In all, we spent nine days with Gail and Edde while in Germany and seven days with Gareth, Sarah and family. It was great to catch up with family while on our European adventure. And we still have more to go including my son, Jason, and his wife, Lauren, and two girls on the Amalfi coast of Italy in mid-September and a week with Liz’s brother, Dick, and his wife, Janie, in Tuscany, also in September.
But we also have visits with friends including Karen Quint and Chris Griffin who we will see next in Switzerland; Carrie Neiderer who will join us in Poland for the Holocaust tour in October; and, finally, Cindy Black who will join us in Israel in late November.
As we now say goodbye to Germany, we are reminded of how grateful we are for friends and family. We feel truly blessed!
Musings…
Exactly how long have I been traveling? What country are we in? What month is it? Who am I….? I ask myself these questions on a regular basis. It is all blending together and so hard to remember specific places, no less events. Thankfully, I write a daily (or so) journal of what we’ve done each day, helps Malcolm with his blog and helps me not lose track of the past five months. But I still have to admit, when I am reading Malcolm’s blog (supposedly editing it, but editing is rarely needed) I can’t even remember some of the things he’s writing about…God help me.
As Malcolm shared, we spent over three weeks in Germany discovering various regions and drove through a good portion of the country. Beautiful landscapes, each very different as we crossed from one region to another, but all quite lovely. Parts almost felt like Ireland, hilly with beautiful shades of green. And it was the Walter family month - good times with Gail & Edde and lots of fun with Gareth, Sarah and crew (minus the Spewgate incident, which I actually missed, thankfully;). I give Malcolm’s sons huge kudos for the all the international traveling they do with their kids. It’s not easy maneuvering little ones from one place to another, but they (and their beautiful wives) do it with grace and good humor. And, the best part, the kids are troopers and love the adventure. Fun memories.
How about Malcolm’s phone escapade….and my hacker?! Crazy, especially after lost luggage, etc. Malcolm, the true financial guru of this relationship, spent hours changing all of our passwords. I owe him for that effort. Very scary, especially when you’re in a foreign country. Big thanks to Chris Griffin, our friend and Apple aficionado, who guided us through some scenarios on what to do for both the phone and hacking! All's well that ends well, as Shakespeare said.
So Germany… very different than I had expected. Always wanted to visit Munich, but was a bit disappointed. As Malcolm said, it was pretty well bombed out after WWII, so architecturally it’s not that interesting. I neglected to think about this fact prior to arriving. Berlin was filled with history, both world wars and, most profoundly for the city, the Wall. Very interesting to learn the different perspectives and the involvement of the various players in bringing the Wall down. Both cities are quite flat which made walking from one end to another very pleasant. I’m not a huge fan of German food (except what Edde & Gail cooked us!) as it involves lots of pork and potatoes. Outside of the home cooked meals we were treated to, I was craving veggies (actually that issue has followed us through various countries - just what happens when you eat out so much). And, like Spain, so many smokers - still surprises me to see so many people, all ages, smoking and vaping today. It’s almost 2020 people! The German culture seemed more somber than others we visited, especially Spain. Their history and its aftermath following WWII obviously has something to do with that, as Gail suggested. Austria was gorgeous. Innsbruck is a must see if you’re in the area, especially if you like to hike.
We continued to be blessed (it really is feeling rather miraculous at this point) with unbelievably great weather. Makes the journey so much nicer and the scenery so spectacular. Outside of my memory loss, various lost and some found items, and continued overeating of carbs, all is well;) on the Malcolm-Liz journey. Off to more adventures and planning the last month or so of our trip (yet unknown). Glad you’re still reading about it and hope you are all enjoying your own adventures, wherever you may be.
Auf Wiedersehen!
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