Germany, May'16: Four seasons in three weeks.
 

Introduction

This is a blog about our recent trip to Germany. Perhaps our experience will help somebody who is planning to visit this wonderful country.

So,

Why Germany?

Every year we alternate continents for our vacation destinations: last year was "home", the North American year (we went to Cape Cod and the Bahamas). The year before we visited Asia (Japan for vacation and India for a business trip), and in 2013 our son Daniel, our friends and I went to South America (Peru).
So, this year it was a Europe's turn, but which country? We've already been to Spain, the UK and France, we are aslo planning a trip Italy in December to celebrate my mother's 80th birthday, so what else? Well there were plenty to choose from! It was an easy pick for Dmitry. Being a neat freak and perfectionist in whatever he does, he respects Germans for the same qualities: work eithics, quality and discipline. Visitng Germnay was his long-time dream, and it was time for the dream come true.

When to go?

Last year our sone Daniel started college and we became empty-nesters, so we were no longer limited by school breaks and could go during "shoulder" season when prices are cheaper, crowds are smaller but weather is still nice: either May or September. Well, that was an easy choice: May was the month when 71 years ago one of the bloodiest and most sacred wars in the World history ended in Berlin. We are originally from Russia, where that war has a special place in everyone's heart, so we decided to pay a tribute to our grandfathers and grand uncles, who fought and lost their lives in that war.

Where to go?

3 weeks in Germany: is it too long or too short? On the one hand, everyone was asking me "What are you going to do in Germany for 3 weeks?!", and many suggested to visit neighboring Austria and France. On the other hand, when I started to do my research, I realized that 3 weeks to see everything we want to see is not enough... In the end, we decided to exclude the north of the country (with the exception of Cologne, if it can be called north) and came up with the following itinerary:

PART I: Welcome to Germany!
Day 0, Apr.29 - Night flight Lufthansa New York - Frankfurt
-- train--
Day 1, Apr.30 - Cologne

-- train--

PART II: East Germany
Day 2-5, May 1-4 - Berlin
Day 6, 5 May - Dresden
-- car--
Day 7, 6 May - Meissen, moving to Nuremberg

PART III: Romantic Road, Franconia
Day 8, 7 May - Nuremberg
Day 9, 8 May - Würzburg
Day 10, May 9 - Rothenburg

PART IV:
Day 11, 10 May - Dachau, Munich
Day 12-13, 11-12 May - Munich

PART V: German Alps
Day 14, May 13 - Garmisch-Partenkirchen
Day 15, May 14 - Fussen
Day 16, May 15 - Allgäu

PART VI: Black forest
Day 17, May 16 - Freiburg, the road through the Black Forest
Day 18, May 17 - Baden-Baden

PART VII: Mosel and the Rhine valley
Day 19, 18 May - visit to the Mercedes plant at Stuttgart, crossing in Bernkastel-Kues
Day 20, 19 May - the Moselle valley, Koblenz
-- End car --
-- Boat --
Day 21, May 20 - a river cruise along Rhine from Koblenz to Bacharach

-- a train --

PART VIII: So long, Germany!
Day 22, 21 May - Frankfurt
Day 23, May 22 - flight Frankfurt - New York

How to communicate?

There was absolutely no problem communicating. Typically, before a trip to a new country I attend the relevant language course. Not just for practicality, usually locals appreciate the attempt and help with more enthusiasm. But for whatever reasons I had more difficulties with German than I had with Japanese. At the end I memorized essential "Wo ist die toilet?" and I decided that this should be enough. Local most likely will not be too enthusiastic after this hopefully will point me to a right direction.
As it turned out, none of this is necessary. In western Germany, 95% speak good English, in the East not so much, but. to our surprise, a lot of people especially in their 40-s still remember Russian. One way or another, being fluent in both, there were almost no problem communicating.

What to bring?

As it turned out, we had to pack a lot. Weather in May can vary from region to region, plans included from hiking and biking to visiting casino and fine restaurants with a dress code. We had two big suitcases with absolutely no extra room for souvenirs in our way back.But the day before the trip Lufthansa has made a gift upgrading us to a business class for a small fee , which means we can bring 4 pieces of luggage to the plane. The problem was solved!

Everything was ready, it's time to start having fun!

PART I - Welcome to Germany.
Day Zero - 29th April, Friday.

So long, New York!
We were ready: all bags were packed yesterday, I checked, double-checked and re-checked everything from passports to cell phones - those things that cannot be replaced if lost in a trip. Actually, one can do without a phone, but it has long since become an extension of my arm, so without it I feel amputated....
Our flight was scheduled at 9:30PM and, because we live 20 minutes from airport JFK in New York, we planned to leave around 6:30 PM. But then we arrived at the airport and saw the line to the security check which reminded my years growing up in the USSR, standing in endless lines in the department stores: it was long, it was wide, it had multiple turns, apparently frustrated people standing there more than an hour and no end in sight. I thanked God and Lufthansa one more time for putting us to the business class so we could wait in much shorter line! Nevertheless, we still spent about an hour to get thru security check. Looking ahead I add that upon return I read a series of articles in The New York Times about the "opening of the holiday season," many hours of queuing, delays on flights, etc. Anyway, let's not talk about sad things, let's talk about three weeks of vacation ahead of us!

Day One - 30th April, Saturday.
Cologne.

Out flight went well: we had a surprisingly good dinner, watched a movie and slept through the night. Our ticket was to Cologne and included one-hour trip on DB BAHN train from Frankfurt Airport to Cologne central railway station (Köln Hauptbahnhof). The first thing that caught our attention looking at the train window was unusually bright beautiful yellow fields. We immediately googled and found our it was canola fields that bloom only a few weeks in May, so that is another plus in favor of the chosen timing for our trip ! It was a good sign for a start of our journey.

Cologne Cathedral.
As soon as we arrived to Cologne we confirmed the right decision to make a half-day stop in this city: entering the rail station lobby you immediately can see the famous Cologne Cathedral right behind the glass on the station plaza .
We put our luggage to the locker, and without further ado went to make a first acquaintance with Cologne, and indeed with Germany. Our plan for several hours in Cologne was to see the Cathedral, of course, walk around town, have a dinner and return to the station to get on the 11PM night train to Berlin. I must say that weather was not cooperating, it was cold and there was that pesky drizzling nasty rain, when you hesitate either to open an umbrella or not to bother.
Therefore, after taking must-do pictures of us with the cathedral on the background, we hurried inside. Cologne Cathedral is the largest Gothic cathedral in Germany and you can feel it: the height and power, both outside and inside cannot be described in words neither do a justice in pictures. Insanely beautiful stained glass windows (my favorite element in Gothic architecture), sculptures, details of the cathedral was the best introductory to what we should expect to see in Germany. Unfortunately we missed the English-speaking tour, and remaining tours for the rest of the day were in German, so we just walked around Cathedral, sat on benches and, finally, decided to climb the Cathedral tower.
I would not say that the climb was easy, it was not, the steep spiral staircase was quite long, but worth the effort: a view of the Rhine River, the bridge and the city was really good.

Padlocks of Love.
Going down, we took the city map in the info center and went for a walk around the city. I must say that besides the Cathedral we were not impressed much with Cologne: dirty, a lot of shady characters and beggars, and it says a lot considering that we were from New York! We walked a central shopping area where but did not buy much, the prices were steep, and I repeat: it says a lot considering that we were from New York! The only thing we bought was an electrical converter for our phone chargers.
But our first introduction to German cuisine, when we stopped for dinner at one of the restaurants, was a success: Dmitry ordered a large pork knuckle with a giant glass of beer, and I had a delicious soup with liver dumplings. But the part was a dessert named "Bavarian cream", that was super yummy: something similar to a mousse with cherry and raspberry compote.
After such a calorie-packed dinner, we needed to walk: my ongoing battle with extra weight could not sustain Bavarian cream attack that greatly undermined my position in the war against weight gain.
We walked to the waterfront, which was much nicer and cleaner than the area surrounding the Cathedral, and went on bridge to cross over to the other Rein river bank. Here on a bridge we learned about German tradition of 'padlocks of love" when couples confirm their feelings by chaining padlocks on the fence or a bridge. There were thousands of different padlocks on the bridge: huge and tiny, highly decorated and plain, golden, copper, wooden, you name it! If we knew we would've brought our "Lock of love" as well.

Leaving Cologne.
After enjoying city view from the other side of the river, we were back to the town. It was already 8PM, still a long time before our train, but there was nothing much to do anymore in Cologne. It was too cold to walk and there were even more suspicious characters than before. AS we had a first class train ticket, we decided to go to the VIP area in the railroad station. Unfortunately, it was Saturday and the VIP area was open only till 9PM. There were no regular waiting areas or benches in the station, and when we asked a question where we are supposed to wait for the train, we were politely advised to visit station's cafés and hinted that this not their problem. Here for the first time we encounter what we would call "service without care": politely, according to the rules, but the stone-faced and unwillingness to go beyond to help.
Followed advice, we went and sat in the cafe, I had a cup of hot tea, Dmitry read, but at 10PM they closed. In addition, the locker where we left luggage storage was also closing at 10, so we had our bulky luggage and nowhere to sit and wait an hour for a train. I just do not understand how everything is closed that the one of the biggest railroad stations in one of the biggest cities and passengers has no place to wait for the scheduled train going to the country's capital!
Eventually, we have found some nook (for smoking?) with benches, where we huddled until our train arrived.
I grew up in small town in rural Kazakhstan, and, until there were an airport built nearby, it usually took our family a 3 days trip by train to reach our vacation destinations. I have always looked with envy at the people who were riding first class sleeper cars, and dreamed that one day I will definitely take a trip in such car. This day has come! The compartment in the car was rather small, but cozy and comfortable, with shower and toilet. There was not much space for our luggage, but for one night it was OK. The train last stop was Warsaw, the conductor was a very friendly Pole, with whom we spoke on the mixture of English, Polish and Russian. In the morning he brought us hot coffee and surprisingly tasty breakfast, where we immediately fell in love with German yogurt.
I guess, that is it for today. Tomorrow we are arriving to Berlin!

Enjoying your trip report and look forward to more, THANKS!

Wow, my hat is off to you -- you accomplished much more than I would have attempted my first day on the ground. I look forward to reading more.

Thanks for posting!

PART II - East Germany
Day Two - May 1st, Sunday. Berlin by walking.

Well, not 100% by walking, we still used a subway to reach our first destination in Berlin, but let’s not jump ahead.

Our train arrived to Berlin on time at 6:40 am and right off the bat we were hit by the stunningly beautiful multi-level main railroad station in Berlin. At the end of our trip I became a fan of the German modern architecture, its sort of a techno style which is, in my opinion, very German - functional, efficient and beautiful.
We took a quick 5 minutes taxi ride to our hotel Berlin Marriott Hotel (http://www.marriott.com/hotels/trave...arriott-hotel/). The hotel was an excellent choice: conveniently located on the border of the western and eastern parts of the city in a 5-minute walk from the Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate, next to the futuristic Potsdamer Platz and the beautiful Tiegarten park. Room was also good: spacious, corner with large windows and a French balcony.
Last night in the train we slept very well and had a good breakfast, so after settling in the hotel we did not waste any time and went to explore Berlin. Today, our route went through the eastern part of the city and in mostly done by walking.

Monument to Soviet soldiers in Treptower Park
Website: http://www.berlin.de/sehenswuerdigke...ower-park.html
Free admission

Our first stop was in Berlin Treptower Park. Like I said, it was very important to us to pay respect to the memory of Soviet people who died defending their homeland. Yes, USSR was an evil regime, ruled by an evil man, but it no way makes the sacrifice by ordinary people any less worthy. What struck us in the park is how well maintained it was. We noticed that everywhere else in Germany the number of graffiti surpassed America’s. However here, in the Treptower Park we saw no graffiti, no trash, no traces of vandalism. Big respect to Germans for honoring this monument.

East Side Gallery
Website: http://www.eastsidegallery-berlin.com
Free admission

After visiting the monument dedicated to the liberation from the Nazis, our next stop was visiting a symbol of liberation of the East German people from communism, namely the destruction of the Berlin Wall, which symbolized the end of the Cold War.
Germans brought down the wall, but they did not completely destroy it. Instead, they gave all remaining wall blocks to artists to express what people felt that time. As a result, all these artistic works were brought to one place, an open-air gallery called the East Side Gallery. It is located near beautiful two-leveled Oberbaum Bridge (Oberbaumbrücke).
The wall is quite long, to see it in full one needs at least an hour or even two. There's a lot of kitsch, but also some interesting paintings.

Berlin Cathedral (Berliner Dom)
Website: http://www.berlinerdom.de
Admission: 7 € + 3 € (audioguide)

We walked to the end of the wall, and then continued our way towards our next destination, the Museum Island (Museumsinsels). We strolled through ugly quarters of the former East Berlin along the Spree River until we reached the Nikolaiviertel, the area named after the St. Nicholai church located here. Surrounded by lovely baroque and rococo mansions, this quarter bear some atmosphere of a small town, very different from the rest of Berlin, with its new cosmopolitan futuristic buildings and the remains of socialist realism.
Finally we got to the Museum Island, where in addition to several art museums one of the main attraction was a famous Berlin Dom. In contrast to the strict Gothic Cologne Cathedral, the Baroque of Berlin Dom combined with much better bright sunny sky made much more pleasant impression on us. The interior was stunning, simply beautiful. The same as in Cologne, we again decided to earn our dinner by climbing the Cathedral tower, but here we would’ve actually preferred the cooler weather: although climbing was not as long and steep as in Cologne, but the hot day made it worse. View of the city from the top of the tower however made all this effort worth.

Egyptian Museum (Neues Museum)
Website: http://www.smb.museum/museums-instit...seum/home.html
Admission: € 12

There are 5 excellent museums on Museum Island in Berlin: the most popular Pergamon, Neues Museum, Art Museum, Bode, Old Gallery and the Old Museum. Of course it was no possible to visit them all in one day, so we had to make a choice to see only one of them.
From my childhood I remember a small bust of Nefertiti standing on the desk in my parents' study. My mother considered Nefertiti the standard of female beauty because of ideal head shape and graceful curve of the neck. I still remember how I stared at it and could not understand what my mom found beautiful in this bold woman with a pot on her head. So when I was thinking which museum to see in Berlin, the choice fell on Egyptian (Neues) Museum. Well, I must to see Nefertiti’s original bust and solve the mystery that tormented me since my childhood! :-)
In addition to Nefertiti, in this museum you can find a lot of other interesting exhibits: from a collection of papyrus to Nubia’s art which I liked the most.
Nefertiti has her own room in the museum, where unfortunately no photos allowed. Well, my childhood doubts in Nefertiti’s beauty were finally put to rest: it is impossible to take eyes from the enchanting power of this women.

Gendarmenmarkt
Website: http://www.berlin.de/sehenswuerdigke...rmenmarkt.html
Free admission

It was already five o'clock when we left a museum and started walking back to our hotel, deciding to have a dinner somewhere along the way. On the way we stopped at one of the most beautiful squares in Berlin, Gendarmenmarkt. It is a rectangular plaza formed by classical-style buildings: Deutscher Dom, Französischer Dom and Concert Hall (Konzerthaus). Despite the neoclassicism of these buildings, the plaza looked very cozy because of its small size and many trees. By the way, Berlin in general is very clean, no trash or traces of gum on the streets, just a very clean city. Living in New York, I have to admit that we have a lot to learn from Berliners in this regard. Do not get me wrong, I love my city, where I lived the biggest part of my life, but cleanliness is not one of its best qualities.
We found a nice-looking restaurant near Gendarmenmarkt and decided to have a dinner outdoor watching people walking at the plaza which we liked so much. Restaurant was a mixture of French and German cuisine. What could be better than a delicious meal on a sunny spring afternoon at a table with a beautiful view after such a great and eventful day!

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas)
Website: http://www.stiftung-denkmal.de/denkm...n-europas.html
Free admission

Our day began with honoring the soldiers of the WW2, then we paid tribute to the recent past - the Cold War, then jumped in the earlier history of the Berlin Cathedral, then even further to the Egyptian prehistory, and now we were back to the days of the 2nd World War. Now we were here, at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe or Holocaust Memorial, to pay respect to war victims. The tragedy of the European Jews captured in the center of Berlin in a concrete maze with walls of varying heights. This monument would look much gloomier if not many children who played, jumped and climbed on these walls, reminding us how many children could also enjoy life if they had not perished for a crazy idea in a head of the little monster. We arrived on time for a sunset and the monument looked very impressive in the last glimpse of sun.

Back at the hotel, we decided to wash off the dirt of the first day by going to the sauna. Almost all hotels in Germany have a spa with sauna, a steam room and swimming pools, as sweating in the sauna is one of the German favorite pastime. Our Marriott had 2 saunas and a rather big nice pool, so the day ended very well.

Love reading about your trip. We're off to Germany in about 6 weeks so it's great to read about your experiences.

Day Three - May 2, Monday. Berlin on bike.

Germany is a cycling nation. Regardless of weather conditions, physical fitness, age of the person and his/hers place of residence (urban or rural), you can see the Germans on the bikes everywhere. Bicycles are also different: e-bicycles are preferred in rural hilly terrain that even elderly people can use them effortlessly, but in urban areas traditional bikes still prevail.
I got an impression that for many Berliners it is the most favorite way to get around the city. Firstly, the financial factor: cost of riding a bike is much cheaper than public transportation, leave alone driving a car. Second, the safety: there are separate bike lines throughout the city for cyclists, and they are not on a road next to the cars, instead they are on the sidewalk separated from the pedestrian traffic. But beyond these two practical considerations, biking is a super fun and a great way to keep in shape.
There is a huge number of bike rental agencies in Berlin where you can either take a guided bike tour with a group or just rent a bike for yourselves. There is a network of "city bikes" (here in Berlin it is called "Call a bike": http://www.callabike-interaktiv.de/i...?id=389&&f=500) provided by DBAHN.
We got lucky because our hotel provided bikes for 15 € for a day. Initially we thought to rent bikes 2 hours just to ride it in nearby park Tiegarten, but the price was the same for an hour or for a day, and therefore we decided that today we are going explore Berlin form the bike lanes.

The itinerary for today was:

Tiergarten Park
Website: http://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.d...en/index.shtml
Free admission

Actually the correct name is “Big Tiergarten" (Großer Tiergarten), because it is really a very large park, which belonged to West Berlin before reunification.
It was located right across the street from our hotel, so we decided to start our day in the park to “get familiar” with the bikes on easy roads. Also, we had a booked tour of the Reichstag at 1PM, so it did make sense to stay in the area. The weather was summer-warm, perfect for bike riding. At first we tried to follow the route recommended for cycling, but then just went where we saw something we liked: we stopped in a rose garden, sent to the Victory monument in the center of the park, rode along the Straße des 17. Juni, then just rode on a small park paths.
We ended up at the west side of the Brandenburg Gate. It was already 12:30 PM, time to check-in for the Reichstag, so we chained our bikes to the road sign and walked to the entrance area.

The Reichstag building
Website: http://www.bundestag.de/kulturundges...tur/reichstag/
Admission: free, by appointment

Today was May 2nd, the day when the Reichstag was fallen and Soviets soldiers Egorov and Kantaria hoisted the flag on its rooftop. So it was significant that we visited the Reichstag today.
To see inside of the building is only possible via guided tour, better booked in advance using this official link: https // visite.bundestag.de / BAPWeb / pages / createBookingRequest.jsf? lang = en

Tours are offered in different languages, and you provide alternative dates (up to 3). We got an e-mail confirmation in 24 hours with instructions on date and time, what to bring and what to do next. Nothing much, just come half an hour before the tour time and bring identification documents. Taking photographs inside is allowed, except security checkpoints and the building staff, including a guide.
Our guide Tatiana spoke in clear English with unidentifiable accent, but by her looks and the name we figured she was Russian. We asked why she is guiding an English tour and not Russian one, Tatiana said that in order to be a hired as a touring guide in the Reichstag one must be fluent in at least four different languages. She was actually leading tours in for English, Russian, Italian and of course German speaking groups. Wow.
Well, back to the Reichstag. Well, all left of the Reichstag as we knew it from the documentaries and photographs, was the exterior outside wall and internal portions of the wall with inscriptions of the Soviet soldiers who stormed it. The rest of the building is a brand new modern structure, as if designed so nothing reminds of its dark history. Everything was done so one had no feeling that I am in the same building where the worst decisions in the history of mankind were made.
And once again my big respect and thank you to German people preserving thee walls with inscriptions left by Soviet soldiers. They are all over the building, even on the wall next to the Merkel's office. When I asked whether there were cases when somebody found the inscription made by the father or grandfather, Tatiana said that since the opening of the Reichstag for the visits, there were 25 cases when people found names of their relatives.
During the tour, we walked around the premises of the Bundestag, the Bundesrat, four towers at the corners of the building occupied by the main parliamentary parties, and stopped by the office of Angela Merkel. Very modest door, painted in bright blue color (a homage to the European Union?).
The tour ended and Tatiana took us to the rooftop of the building, where we continued exploring the famous Reichstag Dom on our own. Reichstag Dom is an absolutely magnificent example of modern German architecture combined with stunning views of the city, certainly a must-do when visiting Berlin.

Checkpoint Charlie
Website: http://www.berlin.de/sehenswuerdigke...t-charlie.html
Admission: € 3 for the photo

After leaving the Reichstag, we took the bikes and continued our ride in Berlin. Initially, we wanted to pass through the Brandenburg Gate to the Unter den Linden, but after we saw the beautiful waterfront with the new building of the Bundestag library, we changed the plan and went along the river Spree, then made a turn and rode through a small section of Unter den Linden between Mauershtrasse and Friedrichstrasse.
It was getting hotter, the summer was pounding on the door. If I knew at that time that in about a week we would get into the real snow storm, I would have laughed.
Our next stop was the Checkpoint Charlie, or rather what was left of it. It is more a tourist trap nowadays, but as Russian-Americans having perspective from “both sides” we certainly were interested to visit that place. For Westerners the sign "You are leaving the American sector ..." looks intimidating because this sign was the end of everything that is called Western values. My husband took a picture of me with 2 guys pretending to be GDR border guards, one of whom was a Pole, and the other Greek. They wanted me to put on some shabby Soviet army private cover, which was used before me, God knows by how many people. We laughed together when I told them that I am a daughter of the retired Soviet army colonel, and will no put on my head anything less than colonel astrakhan hat.

Jewish Museum (Jüdisches Museum)
Website: http://www.jmberlin.de
Admission: 8 € (3 € discount) + 3 € per audio guide

We continued our ride to the next stop , the Jewish Museum. Not being Jewish, we initially did not include this museum in the our itinerary in Berlin. However one of my friend (also not Jewish, she is Czech-Catholic) said it is a must-do. I am so grateful to her for giving me this advice. No need to be Jewish to appreciate this museum, especially how the architecture and interior design integrated into the exhibition content. We thought it would be dedicated to the tragedy of the Jews during the Nazi era, but it turned out that it is a museum dedicated to the entire history of the Jewish people in Germany. The Holocaust, of course, represented, but only as a single page in the long history.
It starts in the basement of the museum, where there is this intimidating dark room tapering upwards to the only source of light.
Then we continued to the museum garden, designed similar to the Holocaust memorial we visited yesterday, but smaller. When we went there, we swayed so that the first thought was “oh, we had too much beer in the heat." In fact, it was the architect's goal to make you feel uncomfortable by having the floor with visibly unnoticeable slope so you cannot stand straight. When one walks through this garden, you always tend to one side and feel nauseous.
After the garden we went upstairs to the top floor where the main exposition starts . Each hall was impressive with both amazing interior design and exhibits. The architect somehow managed to create a space combining modern design trends with historical content.
We learned a lot of new information, for example that the famous American brand Levy Strauss were invented by a German Jew Leib Strauss in Germany, not in the United States, as it is commonly believed, and only then he emigrated, took his invention with him and founded the famous Levi Strauss & Co.

There are several empty rooms in the museum reserved for temporary art show and exhibitions by Jewish artists. The floor in one of such rooms was covered with hundreds of iron “faces”, and when you walk on them (if you can, my husband could not), your footsteps clatter, making it unusual sound.
Two ours in the museum flew by like 15 minutes.

Meeting a friend

Tonight we met with my family friend Lilia, who was waiting for us in our hotel lobby. We returned our bikes, together went upstairs to our room and had a little wine.
Lilia grew up in Russia, but she was an ethnic German from a religious Mennonite family, so she knew language and traditions from her upbringing. When she was in college she met a guy from East Germany, who was studying in Soviet Union, they married and she moved with him to East Berlin in 70-s.
She was an old family friend and it was interesting to talk to someone who witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Lilia was wonderful, with a great sense of humor. For example, she said, the next day after the wall fall, she and all her friends were curious and went to the western sector to see department and grocery stores and boutique shops. In her words: "Well, we looked looked at these shops and their prices, and returned back home, to our stores". Now the difference between the east and west parts of the country almost non-existent. Lilia: "We are even better! All new construction and investments are in the East! “ She is a true Berliner who loves her city and very proud of its history and present: “We are a unique city: we have two Berlin Operas, two Berlin Zoos, two TV towers!"

We decided to have a dinner in the restaurant, suggested by the concierge. The poor waiter did not know how to communicate with our group: one speaks German, but does not speak English, the other two speak in English, but no German, and among themselves all speak Russian. But everything was fine at the end, all were happy, including the waiter who received a generous, American-style tip.

>the same building where the worst decisions in the history of mankind were made.

Thank you for your interesting report. Just a minor correction: the Reichstag was burnt down on Feb. 28, 1933, just four weeks after Hitler's accession to power, and was not in use during the nazi era. So it was not the locus of the criminal decisions of the Nazis. Even Hitlers Enabling Act of 1933 already took place in the so called Kroll opera.

very interesting, rellie2 to read your unique take on both your journey and your destination.

I'm enjoying it very much - keep it coming.

Day Four - May 3rd, Tuesday. Berlin + Potsdam by public transportation.

Today our plan included a day trip to Potsdam, and later in the evening we had tickets for the show in Berlin Fridrihshtadtpalas. So we took advantage of an extensive network of the Berlin public transportation: Subway (S-Bahn lines by BVG and U-Bahn lines by Deutsche Bahn), regional trains, buses, trams. There is already a lot has been written about the metro prices, but I will summarize again.
Berlin is divided into 3 transport zones: A (within the ring metro line), B (between the ring metro line and the boundaries of the city) and C (the suburbs within 15 km), and the trip price depends within a zone or zones you want to go.

There are multiple types of tickets and passes and if anyone interested on details I can provide. The most useful way to use Berlin public transportation for tourists is to buy a "Berlin Welcome Card", which includes not only unlimited travel within the zones purchased, but also significant discounts for museums, tours, concerts, restaurants, river cruises, and souvenir shops. It varies according to zones, the number of days and range of discounts (for example the card that includes discounts for museums on Museum Island is more expensive).

There are cards for 48 and 72 hours (counting starts at the time of card validation and ends in exactly purchased hours) as well as 4, 5, or 6 days (counting starts at the time of card validation and ends at midnight on the last day). Prices for all the options can be found here:
https://shop.bvg.de/index.php/group/61

We figured that the most beneficial for us would be to buy a 48-hours "Berlin Welcome Card" eligible for zones A + B + C. It covers our trip to Potsdam and the last day in Berlin, giving a discount for all palaces and other attractions, which we were planning to visit in the remaining time in Berlin. It cost 21.50 € per person. Most importantly, it was very convenient and saved a lot of time. You can buy it in the hotel from concierge, large stations, railway stations and tourist information centers. You also can buy it in advance online and receive either by mail, or print. Unfortunately, online option only exists for zones A + B. Since we needed a zone C, we bought it from our concierge.

Another interesting moment: in Berlin and throughout Germany, there are no check points for transportation tickets, meaning you do not have to pass through the turnstiles! You come directly to the platform, take the train and ride (similar to the railroad in US). If course, there may be controllers who can come and check your tickets, and in this case you are facing a huge fine. But for all time we used Berlin metro, we never seen a single controller. Very important not to forget to validate your ticket on the platform otherwise it will be considered the same as no ticket. I cannot even imagine such "honor system" in New York, we have so many people who would definitely take advantage, unfortunately...
Well, enough side discussion, better get back to my journey.

Potsdam. Palaces and buildings of the Prussian kings in Sanssouci Park.
Website: http://www.spsg.de/en/palaces-garden...oss-sanssouci/
Fee: 15.20 € (discounts BWC) + 3 € photo permit

Using our Welcome Card for the first time, we got off on the "Potsdam, Park Sanssouci Bhf" station, and then took a bus # 695 to the destination. The main rule is to follow the crowd, could not go wrong. We bought tickets for the tour at 10:40 AM + photo permit and went to the entrance to the Sanssouci palace where our tour started. There were no tour guides, only audio guides, but tour time is assigned to break the visitors into manageable groups to avoid crowding.
This ticket, in addition to the Sanssouci palace, allowed us to visit the other buildings in the Sanssouci park.

Schloss Sanssouci

My mom, who visited GDR with tourist group in the early '80s, was telling me about this palace a lot. Before our trip she asked me several times, "Will you be visiting Sanssouci?", "Yes, mom, we will". She made me curious.
It was the first royal residence, which we visited in Germany, so we were completely overwhelmed with the level of luxury and decoration of the palace. Later, in our trip, we visited Dresden and the Bavarian palaces where Rococo style had reached unprecedented peak, but by that time we already were prepared for what we would see. But today were not prepared and thus experienced a cultured shock by the stunning beauty of the Sanssouci palace.
Park Sanssouci

After touring the palace, we walked along the park central alley passing a cascade of vineyards. Of course, in a spring time it is not looked particularly beautiful, during the fall it should be much different, better view. But the alley with its fountains, statues, and lawns was very picturesque. I especially liked (both here and in other palaces) mixed flowers of different colors and textures plated on the same bed, and it did not looked messy, but very inventive and beautiful.
(to be continued...)

... (could not publish my post in its entirety, hence the break)

Neue Kammern Palace

After strolling on alley we went to a small Neue Kammern Palace which was originally intended as a greenhouse, but then converted . Therefore, rooms here are larger than in the Sanssouci and decoration equally impressive. For whatever reasons, there were no many visitors here, the whole place was just for us.

Orangerieschloss

This palace, despite the name, intended as a guesthouse from the start. I liked this palace the most og all we've seen in Potsdam. You can only visit it with the guided tour, but unfortunately by the time we arrived there were only German-speaking tours, with the English printouts. But we were lucky because the group had a lot of English-speaking people, so the guide occasionally gave us the most interesting information in 2 languages.

Belvedere Pavilion (Belvedere auf dem Klausberg)

When we left Orangerieschloss we say a beautiful tree lined alley leading to the small pavilion Belvedere. From a distance, it looked very nice, but upon approach it was clear that it badly in need of restoration. I hope it will happen soon, and the pavilion will be open for visitors.
Neues Palais

Speaking about restoration, we noticed that there were a log of extensive work going on throughout the park. Orangerieschloss, park paths and our next destination, the New Palace, all covered with scaffolding. New Palace is the most powerful and stunning, but today, due to the restoration works it was closed to the public. Honestly, we did not regret it, because we were already overwhelmed with furnishings and decorations in other buildings, so seeing another palace would've been too much.

Chinese Tea House (Chinesisches Haus)

Chinese goods were in great demand in an age of rococo. Unlike today's cheap imports, in those days, China supplied expensive silks and porcelain of the highest quality that only the rich could afford, so any self-respecting king must've had a room or a hall with Chinese motifs.
The Chinese house in Sanssouci did not have a tour or even audio guide, but the check-in lady was from Leningrad. Russian she was very happy to share her vast knowledge (she graduated history major from the best USSR university) not only about the Chinesisches Haus, but also about the park and its palaces in general.

Picture Gallery (Bildergalerie)

The last stop in our walk thru the park Sanssouci was a Bildergalerie built by King Frederick II next to the palace for easy access. There are two big halls where you can find paintings by Rubens and rare works of Caravaggio among others.
This concluded our acquaintance with summer residence of Prussian kings in Potsdam. In addition to the Sanssouci, Potsdam has much more to offer: the Marble Palace, Russian village Alexandrowka and place of the Potsdam Conference, but it was very hot and we had no energy to go there. Based on my last year's experience visiting Japan, I knew when trip is packed with attractions, eventually they are all mixed together at the and seem the same. We did nto want to repeat this mistake. So we took bus # 695 and then the train back to Berlin.

The show "The WYLD" in Berlin Friedrichstadt-Palast
Website: https://www.palast.berlin/en/home/shows/
Ticket price: 66 € (on the Orchestra 8th row with the discount)

Back to the city, we first stopped by the restaurant next to Potsdamer Platz to have a dinner. It was the season of white asparagus in Germany and all menus in all restaurants included an additional section: asparagus menu. In America, at least in New York where we live, green asparagus is everywhere all year around, but the white is rare, so we were glad that we were lucky again with the chosen timing of our trip. I ordered the "Small schnitzel with asparagus hollandaise sauce." They brought a dish where the schnitzel was the size of a huge crepe. It's a small? Yes, ma'am, it's small. And what do you call a large then? That lady is having a large schnitzel . In a meantime the mentioned lady looked with horror at the plate where she had schnitzel the size of the huge vinyl disk (remember those?). OK, no questions, thank you. Looking back I can say that we had eaten enough white asparagus till next year probably.

We freshened up in the hotel and went to see a show. Friedrichstadt-Palast Ballet was a memory flashback to my youth in Soviet Union. It was popular ballet in GDR and was considered a "communist version of Moulin Rouge." When I was creating this itinerary and came across this ballet, I was very surprised that the ballet survived the Germany reunification and actually very popular, so wanted to go and see how it adopted to new times. The show was something between a circus Du Soleil and Las Vegas show. Everything was very well-done, error-free, high quality, German-style, but something was missing. It did not have sophistication of the French Canadian's Du Soleil, and power and creativity of Las Vegas shows. At the end of the show, we were allowed to take photos in the last 5 minutes. Overall we did not regret coming here because anything that brings us back back the memories when we were younger cannot be bad.
Tomorrow is our last day in Berlin:-(

Loving your report. I am looking forward to more!

Day Five - May 4th, Wednesday. Berlin by waterways.

Here came our last day in Berlin :-( How to spend it? One of the best ways to see the sights of the city, especially if you do not have a lot of time, is a river cruise on Spree. Many travel agencies in Berlin offer a huge variety of river cruises: one-two-or three hours cruises, day and night cruises, with or without food, inside the city or beyond, basically for every preference, duration and budget. Having only 4 days to explore Berlin, it was not possible to see even half of what this city can offer, so on our last day we decided to take a river cruise.

Sightseeing river cruise on Spree.
Web site: http://berlincitytours.rezgo.com/det...-lunch-1-drink
Price per person (including lunch with alcoholic beverage of your choice): € 42.50

Originally, back in New York, we bought a 2-hour river cruise, departing at 10 am from the pier in Treptow Park to Charlottenburg Palace. We planned to visit the Soviet soldiers monument, and then to take the cruise from the park's pier. However, a week before the trip, our cruise was canceled. We had to change our plans: as you know we went to the Treptow Park on the first day, and for today we booked a 3-hour cruise departing at 10:00 AM and coming back to the Charlottenburg Palace.

Weather was cloudy in the morning, it got colder and there was a drizzling rain, OK for cruising, better then walking or biking. We decided to skip breakfast because we would have a lunch on a boat.

We took the subway to the U-Bahn stop "Bismarckstraße", and then walked a little to the pier near the Palace Bridge (Schlossbruecke) in Charlottenburg, the district of former West Berlin.

We were the first on a boat and chose seats with the best view. There were not many people when the boat departed, just two families and a group of senior citizens, but more people got on the boat on other stops.
We saw many sights along the way, some we visited in previous days and others that we had not yet seen. Those we passed by:
Former West Berlin's District Mitte
Hansvertel
Spreebogencenter
House of World Cultures (Haus der Kulturen der Welt)
Office of the Federal Chancellor of Germany (Bundeskanzleramt)
Central railroad station (Berlin Haupbhanhof)
Reichstag
Museum Island (Museumsinsel)
Berlin Dom
Berlin City Center (Berliner Stadtschloß):
TV Tower
Märkisches Museum
Nikolaiviertel
Gateways Muehlendammschleuse
Old friend Bridge Oberbaum Bridge
TrepTowers (Molekulemen):
Trias Towers Berlin…
….and other interesting beautiful (and some not much) sights.

Charlottenburg Palace (Schloss Charlottenburg)
Website: http: //www.spsg.de/schloesser-gaerten/objekt/schloss-charlottenburg/
Entrance: € 7.00 (with discount) + € 3.00 for permission to photo

Back to the Palace Bridge, we disembarked and went to see the Charlottenburg Palace, the largest and the main palace of the Prussian kings and later German emperors in Berlin.
What can I say? It seemed with each new palace we visited, it looked even more beautiful than the previous one. Yesterday it was impossible to imagine anything more beautiful than the palaces in Potsdam. But Rococo style in Charlottenburg Palace reached its perfection. And I do not care that half of that is not original but restored after the war as long as it recreates the style and spirit of that time. This palace is not to be missed during a visit to Berlin. The rooms interiors and décor are stunning as well as porcelain collection, collection of clocks and other treasuries.

West Berlin. Kurfürstendamm

After spending nearly 2 hours instead of planned one hour(which we did not regret a bit), we took the bus #109 on Kaiser Friedrich Strasse to the intersection with the main street of the former West Berlin, the Kurfürstendamm. Here we walked to the shopping center KaDeWe.
On the way we stopped by a sculpture of two broken chain links symbolizing Berlin reunion. The Kurfürstendamm was beautiful, in parts resembling Parisian streets, with the stores on both sides of the street.
We came to the KaDeWe, where we had the same reaction as our friend Lilia when she visited here the next day after the fall of the Berlin Wall. We looked at the prices and realized how lucky we live in such a cheap place as New York (ha-ha), where prices on the same goods are 1.5-2 times lower. Wait a minute, we were able to find something cheaper - sunglasses! I just could not believe that I paid twice the price for my sunglasses in New York that the same ones here. Beside the sunglasses the lingerie of my favorite brand Primadonna were 30% cheaper. In addition, we bought our son a great Swiss Army knife and , well, I could not resist to buy hand-knit sweater of the local brand. My husband bought a very beautiful set of coasters for boiled eggs. At the end, despite the prices, we left with a lot of bags.
Near the subway to saw the stele with a list of all the concentration camps of the World War II. I thought this was strange place to put this stele.

Berlin TV Tower (Berliner Fernsehturm)
Website: https://tv-turm.de/en/homepage/
Entrance: € 10.00 (with BWC discount)

Done with shopping, we decided to say goodbye to Berlin by going up to its highest point, the TV tower on Alexander Platz, heritage and a source of pride (justly in my opinion) of the GDR government. Weather improved dramatically at that time, it was much warmer and sunny.
Initially we wanted to stop by the hotel and leave all purchases, but figured if we were going to the hotel, it is likely that we would stay there. So we put as much as possible to our backpacks, got on the subway to Alexander Platz. In addition, we calculated we would reach the tower top by the start of sunset, and views should be beautiful.
And so it happened. The line to the ticket desk was short and in 10-15 minutes later after going through the security check we took the elevator to the top. As we correctly predicted the sun started setting and views of this great were magnificent. Suddenly our friend Lily called and asked what our plans and we want to meet again. I immediately came up with the plan. There was a rotating restaurant at the top, so we asked and got a table! Lilia lived nearby, so she arrived in 15 minutes. The rest of the evening was just wonderful. We laughed as a waiter again got confused with what language to use, we had champagne and ate asparagus.

Day in Dresden.

After check-in, we did not waste any time and immediately went to explore Dresden and see the Zwinger, the city's main attraction. We were walking along StriezelMarkt street when we saw something like a street fair. It was Thursday, not a holiday, so we had no idea what that fair was about. In general, I noticed that the Germans have some kind of festivities going every weekend, when they gather on a main (usually Markt) plaza, drink beer and have a good time. Good for them!

Curious, we stopped of course. We walked around the market, where I immediately bought a very beautiful lacy piece to hang on a wall. Then we saw something very delicious, like cinnamon breadstick twisted around a cone. Delicious!
Anyway, it was already noon, so after having this tasty snack it was time to move on.

Zwinger
Web site:
General: https://www.der-dresdner-zwinger.de/de/startseite/
Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister and other museums: http://www.skd.museum/en/homepage/index.html
Fee: 10 (valid for the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Royal Cabinet of Mathematical and Physical Instruments and Porcelain collection)

Dresden was lovely! On our way to the Zwinger, every now and then we come across picturesque buildings, beautiful streets and landscapes ready to be placed on a postcard. Given that the city was bombed to the ground by allies, what we saw amazed us. I do not know what were Dresden's conditions under the GDR rule, but nowadays it is beautiful, well-kept and clean, lovely sight. The weather also contributed, it was sunny and warm.

Zwinger Palace was certainly impressive. This is a huge complex of museums, galleries, gardens and fountains. You can walk free of charge on Zwinger park, but have to buy a ticket to get inside the museums. You can buy a separate ticket for each museum, or, as we did, to get a combined one for several museums.

Old Masters Gallery (Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister)

The baroque Zwinger architecture, of course, is incredible, but the main attraction here is of course Old Masters Gallery, a treasure of European painting, that include the works by Titian, Rembrandt, Velazquez, and of course the jewel of this collection , the Sistine Madonna by Raphael. My favorite painting here was "Chocolate Girl" Lyotard.
The gallery, by the way, was not as big as I thought, it's not the Louvre or Hermitage or Metropolitan Museum, but it does not make it less valuable. On the contrary, so many great works are together in such a small space.
We walked thru all rooms and enjoyed stunning pieces of European art.

Semperopera
Website: https://www.semperoper.de

After the gallery we went outside to the Theatre Square surrounded by a magnificent ensemble of the Semperopera, Dresden Cathedral and the residence of the Saxon kings.
For whatever reasons we had a bad luck with Semperopera that started in New York. Before the trip I tried to book tickets for an evening performance online on our date, but could not find any tickets available. I searched all: official sites, reseller sites to no avail. We even called Lilia and asked her to assist us to get tickets by directly calling and speaking to them in German. It appeared that today's night performance was reserved for private event. Damn 1%-ers :-(

Well, that's not all, our bad luck continued today. We thought instead of performance, let's take a day tour, but when we came to buy tickets all tours were sold out. Looks like the Semperopera did not want us for whatever reasons:-(

I suggest whoever want to take an opera tour, book it in advance. We visited off-season, and still could not get in.

Royal Cabinet of Mathematical and Physical Instruments (Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon)

Not getting any luck visiting Semperopera, we were back to the Zwinger and went to see the Royal Cabinet of Mathematical and Physical Instruments exhibiting old tools and instruments. I am an engineer myself, and since my childhood I loved all sorts of legos, puzzles, and logical games, but nothing could beat my husband's curiosity and thoroughness when he inspected each exhibit. This is a place for curious minds.

Porcelain Collection (Porzellansammlung)

And that was the place where I could not take my eyes off the exhibits. I love china, my dream was to buy a porcelain figurine of Meissen (where we're going tomorrow). Pieces in this museum looked absolutely incredible, you could not imagine they were made of porcelain! Dmitry was again inspecting very closely ( as far as it was permitted) to understand how such delicate details could be made. I joked "Probably using the tools from the Royal Cabinet".
I just could not wait till tomorrow to see Meissen porcelain with my own eyes!

After that we went up to the rooftop terrace, walked to the fountain and sit in terrace cafe cooling with local Coca-Cola, resting and watching the people walking around courtyard and listening chimes at 5PM.

Church Frauenkirche
Website: http: //www.frauenkirche-dresden.de/startseite/

Rested, we left the Zwinger to visit the Frauenkirche, one of the most beautiful churches in Dresden, completely destroyed during the WW2. It was restored for the 800th city's anniversary in 2005. the church itself was beautiful as well as everything that was going on around her: crowd, living statues, street musicians. After this trip my stereotype of Germans as boring, efficient workaholics, unfamiliar with fun suffered a collapse. Germans are definitely fun-loving, cheerful people ,knowing how to have a good time. Not to the Italians degree, but close:-)

Evening in Dresden

We walked a little around the Dresden lovely streets and then came down to the river Elbe, and stopped by one of the many restaurants with outdoor seating. In the menu, I saw a Solyanka (Russian Hodge-Podge soup), and decided to give it a try. Before the trip we studied regional cuisine in Germany, and we learned that Solyanka, brought to East Germany from Russia, survived the eastern block divorce and frequently seen in menus in this part of the country. The one we tried was good, but not as good as made by my husband:-)

Then we reached the Elbe bank and walked along the waterfront. Dresden is certainly a fairy tale town, I fell in love with this city with all my heart. Being destroyed, the city was revived and became even more magnificent. It became one of my best memories of Germany.

Finally, we were back to the hotel, and immediately went to take advantage of the sauna. The pool and sauna were superb, we stayed there till closure, and then went to the bar and ended the day with a cocktail.

I do not know what were Dresden's conditions under the GDR rule, but nowadays it is beautiful, well-kept and clean, lovely sight. The weather also contributed, it was sunny and warm.>>

Fentinia, from what I have learnt from my german friends, some of whom were brought up in the GDR, the GDR & Soviet government kept most of the damaged buildings as they were [and certainly in Leipzig tried to demolish the one of the oldest churches there which was amazingly left standing at the end of the war] so virtually all the rebuilding you see and all the new roads etc have been accomplished since 1989.

we were only in Dresden for a day but we liked it a lot and would like to go back.

Meissen, the porcelain city.
Website: http://www.meissen.com/en/visit-meis...rld-experience
Museum+workshop entrance fee: € 9.00

Again, we decided to visit Meissen on my mother’s advice, who visited here during the time of the GDR. My family loved fine tableware, and my mother brought home from that trip a great porcelain dinner set from Meissen. During Soviet times, people traveling abroad were allowed to take only strictly limited amount of money, something like 500 GDR deutchmarks, and my mother spent almost all of them on that dinner set. As it turned out it was a great investment into the beautiful high-quality porcelain, the similar dinner set nowadays cost a couple thousand euros. My family still has that set.
Meissen manufactory was founded long ago, 300 years ago, when the Saxon king August requested his alchemists to produce gold from base metals. As we know this activity was absolutely useless, but Augustus was lucky because his alchemists accidentally came across a recipe for porcelain with the quality certainly not inferior to then popular porcelain from China. That was a beginning of the famous Meissen porcelain which drove expensive Chinese off the market. That’s right: at that time cheap German goods replaced expensive Chinese ones !
The production of porcelain in Meissen was the only import from the GDR, appreciated and in demand in the West. My mom did a good job buying that expensive (for us that time) dinner set, it's pennies compared to how much you have to pay now to have a dish with the famous trademark of crossed swords.
There is a fine museum next to the Meissen manufactory, and they offer tours in the workshop with a demonstration, because everything in Meissen is still hand made.
When we arrived, the next English tour was an about an hour, but the Russian was just in 15 minutes, so we took the Russian one. During the tour we went thru several shops where workers demonstrated different stages of making a porcelain dish, a vase or a figurine: pottery ring, burning, painting. Interesting that one of the demonstrators was the same one from my travel book. When I showed it to her, she was genuinely surprised.
After the tour, we went to see a museum, where you can find really unique pieces, absolutely gorgeous vases and many more. And then we went to the museum store. Here I almost had a heart attack: the cheapest porcelain figurine was € 400 and up. I was very upset, but we did not leave empty-handed. We bought a candleholder, a small jewelry box, two mugs, and a lovely tea set for my parents.

The road to Nuremberg.

After Meissen we had no plans other than getting to Nürnberg before dark, about four hours drive. We were not in a hurry, we wanted to take time getting used to new car on unknown roads. However when we were in Berlin, our friend Lilia enthusiastically suggested us to visit national park Saxon Switzerland. It was around 2PM and we decided to follow her suggestion and made a detour.
We took road 172 which led us thru the towns of Pirna, Bad Schandau and drove to the park, shared by Germany and Czech Republic (where it is called Bohemian Switzerland). Of course, we were not quite prepared, and I looked ridiculous in my summer dress and flip-flops among fully equipped hikers with backpacks. I did not care, I enjoyed the beauty of that place, especially when we discovered a bridge going among gorgeous rock formations Bastei. Going back we notices a lone girl with a huge backpack seemingly tired slowly walking. We stopped, of course and offered a ride. She was surprised , but glad. She needed to get to Bad Schandau which was along our route anyway. She barely spoke English, nothing but Thank you so much. Too bad we did not speak German, I love those spontaneous conversations, that is how I learned English. The only German phrase I learned was "Wo ist die Toilette?" hardly suited the situation, and could even be misinterpreted.
That was a last stop in East Germany, highly recommended region to visit. It came a long way since reunification and it is beautiful full of friendly welcoming people.
After that, Dmitry pressed the gas pedal and we were flying!!!. The autobahn all the way to Nuremberg had no speed limit almost all the way, and we completely forgotten that want to drive slowly and carefully on our first day, lol. That was a treat! It is a shame to drive slowly on such roads. We stopped once for bio-needs, and decided to refuel the same time. WOW, look at those gas prices, twice higher than in the US! I wonder how they were before gas prices fell?!
We reached Nuremberg around 8PM. We stayed at the Sheraton (http://www.sheratonnuernberg.com/?&E...AME_&SWAQ=953P). We were tired to go out, so we had a dinner in the hotel restaurant, then went to the sauna to relieve stress and fatigue from the road. Walking to the sauna, I was faced with a completely naked man, but I’ll tell about German bathing traditions in the next installments.

Sorry, my previous post missing the whole very important section and I did not find a way to edit it. So here it is;
Day Seven - May 6th, Friday. “Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz?” (Janis Joplin)
This morning we had a very important thing to do: to pick up our rental car. It was my dream to make a road trip in Germany on its impeccable no-speed-limit autobahns driving the symbol of the German automotive industry, the one an only Mercedes-Benz. This is our favorite German make, although we have never been the owners of this pinnacle of engineering and auto design. Every three years, when we get a new car, we are going thru the same dilemma: should we get a Mercedes? And each and every time we are getting … Volkswagen. Well, our bleeding hearts just can bring us to drive such a great car on such bad roads (who has ever been in New York City, must know what I mean), and scratch its bumper on squeezing in such small parking spots (as in all big cities, parking in New York is in short supply) . Oh well, I guess when we retire and move to the suburbs somewhere in Pennsylvania, we’ll finally drive a Mercedes.
But here and now nothing could prevent me from driving the car of my dreams.

What you need to rent a car in Germany?
Nothing special: valid driver license from your country, passport and a credit card. Dmitry even brought an international driver license he obtained for our trip to Japan, but it was not needed.
Where to start our road trip?
At first we thought to use trains till our last day in Munich and then pick-up a car for the rest of the trip. But the public transportation option was no always the most convenient between some places, for example to get from Meissen to Nuremberg (our next destination) you need to transfer at least twice and lose a lot of time. Also we wanted flexibility and not depend on schedule, cancellations, delays, etc. And after all these considerations we came to the conclusion: “Well, we are Americans, for God’s sake, we are a car-loving nation, driving is always preferable option for us (yes, even for New Yorkers!)”. So be it, we are picking our car in Dresden. It is a pity of course to pay for the 3 days of parking in Munich without using a car, but flexibility was a higher priority than money.
Where to end our road trip?
That was a much easier to decide. We boarded river cruise in Koblenz, so that solved the problem where to drop-off the car.

From whom to rent?
After a brief online search we rented a car in the European rental car company SIXT (https://www.sixt.com). First of all, they had a good price, and secondly their pickup location in Dresden was right across the street from our hotel. They are luring you with the promise to “Rent a Mercedes!” but when you actually trying to book a car it offers "Mercedes-Benz CLA or similar". But I did not want “similar”, I wanted a “Mercedes-Benz CLA”. So I called them up and ask what do I need to do to guarantee a Mercedes? The person on the other end politely explained that they do not have such service even for an extra fee. Damn "service without care” again…

Therefore, going back to this morning, I was in a warrior mood ready to fight to get what I want. Of course, when we came to the SIXT office we were offered “similar” represented by Opel. Opel is a good car, no questions ,but it is certainly not a Mercedes. There were no Mercedes in this location, no class CLA nor the GLC, the lonely Mercedes they had on their parking lot was an enormous GLE Coupe, two upgrades higher than our original booking. The price was 30 Euro more per day expensive, but I was determined to leave this place driving a Mercedes. So after ferocious negotiation we agreed on reasonable price.
The car was well-equipped for the long trip: a huge sunroof, GPS the size of TV, heatable seat reclining almost to flatbed, well, plenty of other things. The only thing I did not like was its color. It was black, the color I hate in cars, but we did not have a choice.

We drove to our hotel to pickup our suitcases, and then started our first car ride to the town of Meissen, 30-40 minute drive from Dresden.

congrats on getting the Merc, Fetinia. I wonder how often they actually rent it out?

very interested in what you had to say about travelling in what was East Germany - we have been there 3 times now and loved it. As you say, people are very friendly, and should you ever learn some more German, you would find it an excellent place to practice as few people speak more than rudimentary english.

<<Enjoying your trip report and look forward to more, THANKS!>>

<<I'm enjoying it very much - keep it coming.>>

Thank you for reading it, more to come!

<<Wow, my hat is off to you -- you accomplished much more than I would have attempted my first day on the ground. I look forward to reading more.>>

Yes, I usually plan very well. But in Cologne I would've done it differently: after visiting Cathedral, We should've taken a city bus tour, there were plenty of them offered, and had a dinner later when it was dark.

<<rellie2 on Jul 20, 16 at 7:51am
Love reading about your trip. We're off to Germany in about 6 weeks so it's great to read about your experiences.>>

Thank you! I envy you, you still have your vacation in this great country ahead of you. Let me know if you have any questions. Enjoy it and be safe!

<<Thank you for your interesting report. Just a minor correction: the Reichstag was burnt down on Feb. 28, 1933, just four weeks after Hitler's accession to power, and was not in use during the nazi era. So it was not the locus of the criminal decisions of the Nazis. Even Hitlers Enabling Act of 1933 already took place in the so called Kroll opera.>>

Than you for clarification. Yes, that is true, I was more like a metaphor and I was trying to make a point, but you are absolutely correct.

<<Fentinia, from what I have learnt from my german friends, some of whom were brought up in the GDR, the GDR & Soviet government kept most of the damaged buildings as they were [and certainly in Leipzig tried to demolish the one of the oldest churches there which was amazingly left standing at the end of the war] so virtually all the rebuilding you see and all the new roads etc have been accomplished since 1989. >>

Thank you. Everything is relative. When my mom came back from her tour to East Germany, her first words were "Who won a war?! They live so much better than us!" One of my colleague was stationed in West Germany when the wall fell, and being curious , pretty similar to our east german friend LIlia, they went to see East Berlin. He said comparing West Berlin to East Berlin was like colored movie vs. black&white.

<<congrats on getting the Merc, Fetinia. I wonder how often they actually rent it out?

very interested in what you had to say about travelling in what was East Germany - we have been there 3 times now and loved it. As you say, people are very friendly, and should you ever learn some more German, you would find it an excellent place to practice as few people speak more than rudimentary english.>>

Many people in East Germany still speak passable Russian, so we did have a chance communicate with many of them, but, of course, it is not the same as speaking in native language. I was even able to learn Japanese before our trip to Japan, but German, for whatever reason was so difficult for me so I gave up.

Enjoying your report. Especially interested in Meissen. Am thinking of doing a day trip from Dresden, on the train, maybe 4-5 hours. Would that be long enough for the factory tour and walking around? Or would I need longer?

travlsolo2,

There are more in Meissen than the porcelain manufacture, there is a church and the Albrechburg castle, but 4-5 hours should be enough. Just to clarify, it is not a factory tour per se, you do not go to the factory. It is a craft demonstrations in the workshops in a museum, which does not make it any any less interesting.

Thank you for info. Recommend to visit the National park Bohemian Switzerland. (save min. 1day in your trip schedule). Tip: Pravcicka gate, Edmund´s Gorge, village and viewpoints Jetrichovice. More http://www.cottage.cz/en or http://bohemian-switzerland.cz

>>the Frauenkirche, one of the most beautiful churches in Dresden, completely destroyed during the WW2. It was restored for the 800th city's anniversary in 2005

A reconstruction, which, by the way, succedeed against the opposition of the Lutheran church of Saxony (»we don't need still another church building«), thanks to an private initiative led by the Baroque trumpet virtuoso Ludwig Güttler and thanks to the generous support of the british Dresden Trust.

sla019 - I cannot tell you how moved I was when we visited Dresden a few years ago. Growing up in Coventry one couldn't but be aware of the links between the two cities and just as my german friends wept in the ruins of our old cathedral, I wept to see the rebuilt Frauenkirche. Having read Erich Kaestner when I was at school, who could not be moved by seeing Dresden rebuilt?

> I cannot tell you how moved I was when we visited Dresden a few years ago. Growing up in Coventry one couldn't but be aware of the links between the two cities and just as my german friends wept in the ruins of our old cathedral, I wept to see the rebuilt Frauenkirche.

annhig - I think I can understand that well. When I was a confirmand back in the sixties, I was told that the bombing of the church I was baptized in, St. Lawrence in Nuremberg, was the logical outcome of what the nazi airforce had done in England previously, and that it was an outcome according to the German proverb »Wer Wind säht, wird Sturm ernten«. At that time, I was able to understand that merely rationally; the emotional understandig followed many years later - in the cathedral of Coventry.

sla019 - it sounds as if we were having the same experiences from each side of the same coin, though because of the outcome of the war, the British underwent somewhat less soul-searching. To my shame I can remember children at my school marching round the playground chanting "we won the war" in the 1960s and "war films" are still pretty popular viewing on dark winter afternoons, not to mention the annual Christmas showing of "The Great Escape".

OTOH the german film "Das Boot" was very popular here and we very much enjoyed watching "Heimat" and "Unsere Mütter, unsere Väter " though I'm not sure how many others were as gripped as we were.

PART III. Three days in the romantic Franconia.

Day Eight - May 7th, Saturday. Bright Sunny Day and Dark Blue Night of Nuremberg.

Before this trip my only knowledge about this city have primarily been associated with The Nuremberg trials, the international military tribunal of Nazis leadership for their crimes during the WW2. But by doing my research during planning, I discovered that this city has a rich history beyond Nazis dark past, it has a beautiful architecture, and it was a hometown of the famous German painter Albrecht Dürer. Also, Nuremberg is situated on the so called "Romantic Road”, the route passing through picturesque amazingly beautiful Bavarian towns.
Nuremberg is also the largest city in Franconia region. Most of this region was annexed to the Kingdom of Bavaria in the time of Napoleon, who, by allowing this, wanted to enlist the support of the King of Bavaria against Austria. We got the impression that Franconians do not consider themselves Bavarians and do not like when they are called as such. They have preserved their own culture different from the Bavarian, a different dialect of German, and a distinct local cuisine (wine here in more popular brewing).
For the trip we chose Nuremberg as our base for exploring the region, making day trips to other Franconian towns: Würzburg, Bamberg and Rothenburg. But today our day was entirely devoted to Nuremberg.

Documentation Centre Nazi Party Rally Grounds (Dokumentationszentrum Reichsparteitagsgelände)
Website: http://www.museen.nuernberg.de/dokuzentrum/
Admission: 5.00 + 3.00 for parking

Throughout our visit to Germany, seeing hard-working people, well-maintained towns and villages, magnificent roads, the same question was coming to my mind again and again: how this nation who gave the world Bach and Beethoven, the Brothers Grimm and Thomas Mann, Albrecht Dürer and Albert Einstein, jeans Levi Strauss and Mercedes-Benz started the most terrible war in human history, that killed millions of innocent people?
How this great nation allowed that ugly little monster to usurp power and to fool the millions of Germans brainwashing them into delusions about the world superiority of the Aryan Nation? That by exterminating the Jews, Slavs, Roma, homosexuals and other "subhumans", their life would be better?
If you want at least partially find an answer to this question, I advise you to visit the Documentation Centre Nazi Party Rally Grounds (or in short DocuCenter). It’s located away from the old town but you can reach it either by public transport or, as we did, by the car. The center is located on the former property of Nazis party rallies grounds, which was built to sort of replicate the Roman Colosseum.
This is not a museum in the true sense, there are no exhibits. There are photos, documents and film footage telling about Hitler, his early years, the birth and rise of the Nazi Party, on how he and his party democratically won the elections and conducting economic reforms, gave the Germans work and bread, but then started taking their democratic freedoms one by one, and eliminating undesirable groups of people one by one.

“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”
(Martin Niemöller)

……………………………………….

Old town walking tour.
Website: http://tourismus.nuernberg.de/en/sig...r-sprache.html
Price: € 10.00

Back to the hotel we parked our car and went for a walk through the old town. There is a daily 1PM English guided walking tour that starts at Hauptmarkt square , and we decided to take advantage of it. Today was Saturday, there ere crowds everywhere, local markets offered huge variety of produce in season and asparagus was presented particularly well :-)
On our way we admired St. Lorenz Kirche situated on the square with the same name, and crossed the bridge over the river Pegnitz, on both banks of which you could see a lot of outdoor cafes crowded with people enjoying the bright sunny day.
The tour starts from the Information Center. Our guide was originally from Slovenia, who lived in Nuremberg for several years and became its biggest fan. In general, most of our tour guides during the trip were non-Germans: Russian, Slovene, English-Italian, and a majority of the waiters we met were Czechs. I guess, it’s the European Union+ in action.
This was our first time visiting Franconia region, we knew nothing much before the trip, so we were eager to hear about the region and its towns from the professionals. Looking ahead, all the tours we took were very informative, but not all that captivating. Honestly, by the end of the trip, after visiting all the towns, castles and palaces all Ludwigs, Heinrichs, Maximilians and other Electors and Crown Princes all mixed up in my head: who conquered whom and when it was. During the tour all of this information, of course, helps, but I usually remember interesting fun facts. Well, for example, why the famous Nuremberg sausages are so small?. Accordingly our tour guide version it was a sympathetic prison guard who helped inmates poking sausages through the small keyhole.
Our tour went through:
City Hall (Altes Rathaus)
Frauenkirche
St.Sebaldus Kirche
The most popular bakery that makes the famous Nuremberg gingerbread (Lebkuchen).
We also walked to the house of Albrecht Durer situated on the corner of very nice small square. Then we went to the Nuremberg’s Castle (Kaiserburg Nurnberg). On the way we stopped at the house of the Nuremberg publisher show first printer the work of Nicolaus Copernicus.

Once we reached the Kaiserburg Nurnberg, our guide left us and we explored the castle on our own. We were walking with another couple from our group, fellow Americans from Texas who were traveling in direction, reverse to ours, heading to Berlin from Munich.

The German National Museum (Germanisches Nationalmuseum)
Website: http://www.gnm.de
Entrance: € 8

After exploring the Castle and its premises, we started walking back to the hotel. We had a reservation in the restaurant at 7PM, and wanted to freshen up and change before our dinner. On the way we stopped at the German National Museum, the largest museum of the German culture, arts and crafts in the country. We did not plan coming here, but our guide highly recommended it, saying that this museum is the only one in Nuremberg that has Durer’s paining. In addition to Durer, there were paintings of Rembrandt and Feit Stoss, but what I liked the most was the collection of musical instruments. Just great! There were are least 30 mini-pianos!

Dinner with Dürer and walking under the blue moon

As I said before, in each town and region we visited, we tried to sample the local delicacies. Here, IN Nuremberg, I found a highly recommended restaurant Albrecht Duerer Stube (http://www.albrecht-duerer-stube.de/welcome). Booking in this restaurant must be done very well in advance, so I phoned and booked a table about a month before the trip. When we arrived, the restaurant was packed! Out table was tiny, just for two people, but next to Dürer’s self-portrait, so it seemed there was a dinner for three of us. The waitresses were dressed in national costumes, always smiling, attentive, in general service was "with care”. I , of course, ordered the Nuremberg sausages and Dima had super delicious pork with crispy skin, yam-yam. And, you guess, asparagus :-) WE also had a dessert with the name I would never remember, but very tasty.
The restaurant was near the Dürer house (hence the name), next to the square we liked so much during the tour. When we finished our dinner and walk there, we saw a huge number of people sitting, standing and lying on the ground, smoking and drinking. We immediately joined, Dmitry joined those sitting and drinking, I those lying and smoking.
The reason for the festivities was the Blue Night in Nuremberg, when the streets and facades of buildings are lighted in bright blue. It happens each year in May, when the Old Town changes its color to blue with different installations reflected in castle walls and other artistic presentations. For example in the main square this year there was an installation with cubes filled with water and changing colors. The most interesting that the sculpture was interactive: everyone could connect through the app in a mobile phone and displays glowed the same colors as the installation (http://www.balestraberlin.com).
For my husband though was the fact that local MacDonald was selling…. beer. Not sure it was only today , but who cares? The main thing is that, as it was great to be a part of this and be surrounded by happy people having super fun!

Thank you, Fetinia, for the additional information about Meissen!

>We got the impression that Franconians do not consider themselves Bavarians and do not like when they are called as such.

How true! Thank you for your support of the Freedom for Franconia movement! :)

As for the Czech waiters: Franconia has a common border with the Czech Republic and Germans and Czechs have a long standing common share of working ethics and cultural traditions, so Czechs are much valued employees.

>> As for the Czech waiters: Franconia has a common border with the Czech Republic and Germans and Czechs have a long standing common share of working ethics and cultural traditions, so Czechs are much valued employees.<<

Yes! They were all very nice ! The guy we met in our hotel restaurant in Nuremberg the first night was particularly friendly. He was younger then us but still old enough to remember our "eastern block" past so we have a very long interesting conversation with him sharing our memories. He was giving us his personal attention during the breakfast every morning.

Enjoying your report very much :)

The ninth day - May 8th, Sunday. Romancing the Romantic road.

We came to the hotel after midnight last night, so today we woke up late by our standards. Our plans included visiting Würzburg and, if time permits, Bamberg. We decided to make up lost time by not having breakfast in the hotel, instead to make our first stop at the local winery Weinstuben Juliusspital (http://www.juliusspital.de/weingut/e...ide/index.html), where, in addition to breakfast you can taste local wines.
If Nuremberg is a well known city, the rest of the Franconian towns were new to us and we had never heard about them until we started planning this trip. After we created the itinerary and identified all sights we wanted to see, we felt well prepared, but missed one important detail, where to park a car. We live in New York City where parking, like probably in any big city, is the biggest headache. But this problem does not exist in small american towns, you can practically park anywhere you want. In Germany it’s quite different. Free parking on the street in small towns, especially in the Altstadt (Old Town) is practically impossible. We faced this problem as soon as we arrived in Würzburg, trying to find any space to squeeze in our car. People looked at us with horror watching how we were doing U-turns on narrow streets desperate for a spot. There were no parking, period. The only spots available were for residents, or for people with disabilities, or only for a limited, usually very short, duration. To make it worse the parking signs in the US and in Europe are very different, so we frantically tried to recall the parking signs we learned for our first driver license a quarter century ago in Russia.
We quickly learned that our only option, especially with car of the size of ours, was to park in a paid garage and going forward we always were looking for a sign “Altstadt parking” in all towns we visited.
Resolving our parking problem, we did not have time for breakfast, only for quick wine tasting, otherwise we would’ve been late for the 11AM English tour in Würzburg Residence. But when we came we learned that the tour was cancelled, and the next was at 1:30 PM only. We bought tickets for that tour and went for a walk around a town, where were so many sights to see.

St. Kilian Cathedral (Dom St.Killian)
Website: http://www.dom-wuerzburg.de
Free admission

Our first stop was the Dom St.Killian, the Würzburg’s main cathedral. Before going inside, we stopped at a nice cafe right in front of it and finally had a bite. It was Sunday, there was a service in the cathedral and it was a completely different experience seeing it “in action”, so to speak. We stayed quiet, listen for organ music and singing, and waited until the service ended before taking a walk around. The cathedral is very beautiful, bright with stunning moldings, murals and stucco. This brought us back a good mood and we forgot about morning parking troubles and cancelled tour.

Marktplatz, the main square of Würzburg.

After the cathedral we strolled towards Marktplatz attracted by sounds of music, where we again found a street fair. It seems like Germans have festivities every Sunday regardless if there is any national or local holiday (Well, today was May 8th, but hardly doubt that Germans celebrated a Victory day:-) Unlike Dresden, I did not found anything interesting to buy (to my husband’s relief), so we just gathered with locals, and took pictures of buildings surrounding the square, the Rathaus and a cute Marienkapelle. Watching the people reinforced my impression of Germans as fun-loving people able to relax and enjoy the day. I always thought of them robotic and boring. Completely changed my mind, completely.
Then we came to the Alte Mainbruke, the beautiful bridge over the river Main, but did not cross it, it was time to go back for the tour.

Würzburger Residenz
Website: http: //www.residenz-wuerzburg.de
Entrance: € 7.50

The main Würzburg attraction, the Residence, was heavily damaged in 1945, but the main staircase and the entrance hall with 2 gorgeous ceilings, painted by the Italian painter Tiepolo, survived. Destroyed rooms of the palace were restored from old paintings and photographs, but furniture was not original, but of the same period.
I strongly advise everyone to take a tour, because only half of the palace can be seen on their own, but the most interesting rooms open only for guided tours.
The main staircase leads to the first floor room with painted ceilings.
Remember I said that each new palace we visited seemed more and more beautiful? This palace just made my jaw dropped from the beauty we saw. It was truly amazing. Be ready for the pain in your neck from viewing details on the ceiling frescoes featuring four continents, known at that time, with Europe as a source of enlightenment, and backward undeveloped Africa and America (well, well).
The next hall sparkles with gold, paintings, tapestries, followed by the room with only two colors: white and gray, but due to the complexity of detail and magnificent stucco impossible not to admire. The last room commuter by the tour, the Mirror room, is just the apotheosis of luxury decoration of gilded plaster and painted mirrors wall to wall and floor to ceiling.
Photos are not allowed in the Residence, even for a fee, but it was a blessing in disguise. I finally just enjoyed the sight without worrying of taking pictures. I suggest you to do the same, be sure to come and see with their own eyes and enjoy!
After enjoying the Residence, we went to its park, sopping at the small but very nice Chapel (Hofkirche) on our way. The park around the Residence is absolutely worth a visit, especially in spring when a lot blooming flowers. We strolled on beautiful park alleys and paths and once again enjoy the amazing architecture of the palace! Surrounded by a large ornamental gates, statues, trees and alleys, it was a magnificent sight!

Marienberg Fortress (Festung Marineberg)
Website: http: //www.schloesser.bayern.de/deutsch/schloss/objekte/wu_fest.htm
Entrance: € 6.00 (Museum)

The fortress was our last stop in Würzburg. It is situated on a hill on the other side of the Main, and hesitated to walk or to drive. It was a terribly hot to walk, but again if we use a car we have to look for parking ... Laziness won and we decided to get there by car, so you do not have to come back to get it.
We found parking (free!) not far from the fortress, but the spot was so tiny, but we are New Yorkers! Parking a car in the smallest tiniest places is our skill practiced to perfection by severity and ruthlessness of the New York parking police. We attracted the crowd watching the virtuosity by Dmitry squeezing our car into that spot! After leaving at half a millimeter on both sides of the car and earning applause from the crowd, we rushed to the fortress only to find a half-empty parking lot for visitors. Damn, at least we saved a few euros ...
WE walked around the fortress can be free. It had interesting medieval architecture, but the of this sight is a magnificent view of the city from its walls. There is a museum here with a collection of tapestries, furniture and jewelry, nice stop if you have time. I especially liked the sculpture where the artist used marble and dark wood, very unusual and beautiful. Do not miss a visit to this fortress, it was a crowning moment of our acquaintance with Würzburg.

Bamberg, the Franconian Venice.

It was about 6 pm, and we were hungry. We decided to drive to Bamberg, take a walk in around an Old Town and then have a dinner there. Dima wanted to go back to Nuremberg, as he wanted to have dinner with a glass of beer, without worrying about driving. But I won (who would doubt :-)) On our way to Bamberg I opened my guidebook and started reading what are the local food in this region. I was surprised to find Franconia is known for fish, a perch and catfish. Before this trip I did not associated the German cuisine with fish! So here we go, we will eat fish! In addition, Bamberg is famous for its smoked beer.

I've never been to Venice and do not know my comparison holds any water, but this is the first that came to mind when we arrived in Bamberg.
Our first stop there was the square with the Cathedral. It was Sunday evening, and the area was completely empty and mysterious with the sun starting setting down. Then, having learned from experience, we quickly found a parking lot and went for a walk through the old town, situated on the banks of numerous branches of the river Regnitz, with overhanging houses over the water(hence the comparison with Venice).
Walking around the half-empty town, we came to the cafe, where we finished the day with perch and Schlenkerla (Bamberg smoked beer). Just a little, allowed to drive:-)

>Würzburger Residenz

Glad to read that you liked it! When I was a young junior lecturer at W. Uni in the end-seventies, my small office was in the roof above the Residenz chapel.

Sadly, Fetinia, the only sight we managed to take in was the Dom, but we were lucky to be there on a Friday lunchtime when it transpired that they have an organ recital, so we spent a delightful 30 mins or so listening to the wonderful playing of their organist. the website tells you all about the organ which I think is particularly fine one.

I had clearly failed to do my research about Wuerzburg as we managed to miss both the Resident and the Festung but I'm not sure that it would have made a great deal of difference if I had as we only had a very limited time there, en route from Bamberg [where we spent 2 nights] to our friends in Landau on the other side of the Rhein. If I say that our itinerary had us crossing the Rhein from east to west on a Friday evening, and going back across it again from west to east on a Monday morning, you will see that some of my trip planning was less than stellar.

FWIW though we liked Bamberg, any resemblance to Venice would be easily dispelled by a visit to Venice itself which I strongly recommend.

>FWIW though we liked Bamberg, any resemblance to Venice would be easily dispelled by a visit to Venice itself which I strongly recommend.<

I know, I know, lol. I am actually going to Venice in December, so we'll update if my comparison is valid.

that's great, Fetinia, I hope you have a wonderful time in Venice - and please do come back and tell us what you think. [and whether you think that there's any resemblance!]

We'll go to Rome (12/24 - 12/27), Florence (12/28-12/29) and Venice (12/30 - 01/01) for my mom's 80-s birthday (she is a Christmas baby). This is my gift to her, as she always wanted to go to Italy.
I'll probably do a trip report as well for that trip.

Sounds like a lovely trip, Fetinia. I hope I'm up to doing the same thing when I'm 80.

Tenth Day - May 9th, Monday. Arrive As Strangers, Leave As Friends!

Internet suddenly stopped working that morning. I have a relatively new iMac, so I could not blame it on my hardware, and yesterday everything was just fine. Each website was taking 15 min to open, like it was 20 years ago. I called a front desk and they sent a technician. His excuse was that too many people were online this morning hence the traffic. How can it be that in the 21st century, the internet was crawling like a snail? The man asked if we tried our handy. A handy, what’s that? It turned out that is how Germans call a mobile phone. They borrowed an English word but used it in a totally different meaning.
Internet worked OK on my "Handy", but I needed it on my Mac! Under pressure, the technician gave me the access to the faster server.
When leaving the guy said something that sounded like “cheers”. At first we thought that was another example of the unconventional use of the English word. But then we googled (the internet was fast by then!) and found that was a word “Tschüss”, meaning “buy” in German.
Anyway, today was our last day in Franconia and our plans included visiting another town, located nearby, Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Although all Franconia towns are located very close to each other and have a lot in common, each of them has a unique charm: Nuremberg where dark medieval and Nazi past balanced by the unique atmosphere of a vibrant city, Wurzburg with its stunning and elegant Residenz, Bamberg where every other building was a candidate for a postcard. And what was unique in Rothenburg? That was what we had to find out today.
Our quest began with a walk on a well-preserved wall surrounding the Old City. We parked near the southern tower Spital (Spitalbastei) for 3 euro for the whole day, so no parking troubles that morning. There we climbed the stairs to the tower and walked all way to the Klingenbastei. It was fun and exciting way to explore the town and its inhabitants. We were at the level of tiled roofs peering to the private patios and observing the daily life of Rothenburgers. On the other side of the wall we could see through the embrasures overlooking the fields and the modern part of the town.
Then we came down and walked on the street toward the main square stopping at numerous small stores. I bought myself cool shoes. My husband immediate reaction was “I am not going to carry it!” Not a big deal, I threw the box, tucked shoes into my backpack and moved on. It was much worse when I bought a painting, good it was not framed. Dmitry is very resourceful, so he rolled it and tied to his backpack, so it did not bother us for the rest of a day.

Imperial City Museum (Reichsstadtmuseum)
Website: http://www.reichsstadtmuseum.rothenburg.de/index.php Id = 51
Entrance fee: 4.5 € + 3.0 € for photo permit

This museum is located in the former convent of the Dominican order, in the 700-year-old building that was very well preserved: the cells, a dining room and a kitchen. There were interesting medieval paintings and a collection of utensils, but we especially liked the huge armory hall.

St.-Jakobs-Kirche
Website: http://www.rothenburgtauber-evangeli.../jakobskirche/
Entrance to the 2nd floor: 2 €

This Gothic basilica would’ve been no different than many others we had seen before and after, if not for its main attraction: Altar of the Holy Blood, located on the 2nd floor. This is quite a unique example of wood carving, both in size and attention to detail. I strongly recommend spend 2 € to see this work of art.
Here we bumped into our fellow countrymen from Texas who we met on a tour in Nuremberg. We were happy to see each other, we sat down and shared our experience in Germany so far, showed each other photos of children and dogs. We told them about Bamberg, showed them pictures and they were impressed and decided to go there tomorrow. Very nice friendly people, like indeed the majority of Americans.

Guided walking tour
Website: http://www.tourismus.rothenburg.de/index.php?id=517
Price: 8 €

The Texans went to the Museum of Torture, where we were going later today, and we rushed to the Market Square. There were a 45-minute sightseeing tour in English starting at 2PM there. Our guide was a very talkative guy, originally from the northern city of Hanover. But as often happens, such transplants are even more patriotic than the natives, and he was a very extreme case. He got offended when I ask if that was a Bavarian flag on the top of the Rathaus? Of course not, it is a Franconia flag! He ridiculed Bavarians beer lovers as low class, not being able to appreciate the delicate taste of good wine. But at the same thing he had tons of knowledge, and most importantly a lot of entertaining stories about the city and its winemaking traditions. He showed us the traditional bottle of the Rothenburg wine shaped the same as city boundaries on a map.
He took us to the St.-Jakobs church , then to the park Byurgarten where we admired the magnificent views over the town. On our way back I overheard our guide talking to an American from Las Vegas and they discussed Baden-Baden, “where Russians, probably Mafia, bought everything." Sigh….. This is a story of my life: when I am in Russia, I defend America from those who have never been in the United States, but listen too much of the government-run TV and blame America for all their problems. In America, on the contrary, I defend Russia arguing with those who form their opinion about Russia and Russians based on Hollywood movies and outdated cold war anecdotes. Anyway, I intervened and educated both gentlemen that Baden-Baden has historically been loved and often visited by the Russian aristocracy starting more than 200 years ago, and these days, not all Russians who come there are gangsters. Surprisingly, our guide became much nicer to me, started joking and in the end gave us an advice which Franconian wine we should buy. I am not a big fan of white wine, so he suggested the good red wines and recommended a good restaurant frequented by locals. At the end we parted good friends.

City Hall (Rathaus)
Website: http://www.tourismus.rothenburg.de/s...e/rathausturm/
Price: 4 €

We returned to the Marktplatz, where we realized that it had been awhile since we climbed any kind of tower. Our guide suggested to go up to the Rathaus tower located here. The tower was 60 meters (196 feet) tall and the last steps are basically a ladder, comparing to our previous adventures it was a piece of cake. The top platform was so small it could fit no more than 3-4 people the most, but the weather was great and it was fun watching people below.
After getting down, we continued our way down the Schmiedgasse, on the way again stopping in the souvenir shops, where we finally bought a beer mug exactly the way my husband was looking for. I bought another painting, this time framed, and, well, a lot of other souvenirs. The store had a shipping service to the US and we took advantage of it. The package came a week after our return.

Medieval Crime Museum (Mittelalterliches Kriminalmuseum)
Website: http://www.kriminalmuseum.eu
Entrance fee: 7 €

I have to say, we found nothing particularly scary or disgusting in the Medieval Crime Museum (or also called Museum of Torture). This is a museum of criminology, where there are a lot of documents explaining how the law practiced , justice system worked and executions carried out in the Middle Ages. Of course there was a big variety of instruments of torture and the death penalty exhibited. In general, my feeling after the visiting this museum was thanks God I was not born at that time.
After the museum, we continued walking down the street to the most visited points of this town, the Plonlein, the beautiful picturesque spot at the intersection of Untere Schmiedgass and Kobolzellerseig. There we took mandatory photos, and then went to the nearest liquor store to buy recommended Franconia wine before all stores are closed. We bought 2 bottles of Franconian wines: recommended Domina and my favorite dessert wine, though terribly expensive, Icewine.

Eat Like Locals, With Locals!

Following our guide advice, we found the restaurant, very popular with local Altfrankische Weinstube (http://www.altfraenkische-weinstube-rothenburg.de). We were offered a choice to seat inside at a separate table or outside in a common table where there were already six locals, both men and women. Of course , we chose the latter.
What can I say, we were not disappointed! The service was very effecient, although our watress was very serious, not a glimpse of smile, stonefaced. It does not matter, as already mentioned, the service was very efficient. Germans at the table politely said hello, smiled, but then continued conversing in German. I’s a very big difference between the Americans and the Germans: the Americans are very sociable, and the Germans are very reserved: they are very polite and helpful when asked, but would never initiate to continue a conversation. One of the ladies advised me with my menu choice though: a very unusual German pasta, more like elongated gnocchi with mushroom sauce, Yum!
Soon another couple joined our table, this time Americans from Wisconsin. They introduced themselves and paused waiting for a response. My thought was “nice try”. As expected the Germans said hello, smiled, …. and continued talking to each other in German. I felt sorry for the fellow countrymen, and came to the rescue by introducing myself and starting a conversation. For the first five minutes, because we have an accent , they thought we were Germans, lol. But then the conversation was around children, jobs, Donald Trump, impressions about German attractions etc. We finished like 3 bottles of wine, and after some time, the ice was broken and Germans joined our conversation and we toasted. We even managed to squeeze some sort of smile from our waitress!

BY the way , it was Victory day in Russia, and here we are, sitting at the same table with the former allies and former foes, drinking and laughing, on the last day in a wonderful Franconia.

Cheers, Franconia, za zdorovie!
Tschüss, Franconia, see you next time!

>>a very unusual German pasta, more like elongated gnocchi<< Schupfnudeln

>>the Germans are very reserved: they are very polite and helpful when asked, but would never initiate to continue a conversation<<
more shy than reserved, especially when struggling with a foreign language