Day-Trippin' to Dresden

Saturday morning we set off on a day trip to Dresden. It always pays to check your train connections in advance. We left at 10:45 for a two hour journey. Another train left ten minutes later with a run time of three hours.

We were lucky to find three unreserved seats together for the trip. Around us several people settled in for the trip, only to be forced to move when the seat holder arrived.

The trip itself was a little interesting, as the car we rode in was Hungarian. The ultimate destination was Budapest. The car was a bit elderly and the WC primitive. To wash ones hands, one had to pump a foot pedal to obtain water.

When we arrived at the Dresden Hbf, we quickly found the tourist info booth where we obtained a free map. We also took a minute to check the return connections and buy day tickets for public transit. Always check the options. We saved a significant amount of money by getting a family ticket for Nate and DD and a senior ticket for me.

I selected Dresden for a day trip because I'd seen photos of the Kunst Passage on line and it was on the list of places I'd like to visit. After getting our bearings we set off to find it. According to a plaque in the first courtyard, the art represents the four elements. It wasn't hard to discern which was earth...

 air...

fire...

and water.

I'm glad I saw it, but I don't imagine I'll ever visit it again unless I'm already in Dresden.

After a few close encounters with ice falling from buildings, we chose Restaurant Al Capone for lunch. As one might discern, it was Italian. We each had pizza... Nate nearly making the "pepperoni" mistake. In Germany pepperoni are hot peppers.

After our late lunch we went looking for the middle ages market in courtyard of the royal palace. The website was a little vague about the exact location. We thought we had found the palace, but it was apparently not the right one.

We did succeed n finding the Strieszelmarkt, one of the largest in Dresden.

We wandered for a while, but being Saturday afternoon/evening, it was very crowded. We reached a point where we just wanted to get out of the crowd.

On the way back to the  Hbf, I had the bright idea of stopping to buy some Christmas chocolate. The store I saw on the sign was at the far end of a mall, the candy was thoroughly picked over, and the checkout lines were longer than Thanksgiving morning at our local Wegman's. We abandoned the idea and continued on to the train station.

To give ourselves an opportunity to 1. Sit, and 2. Stay warm, we found a coffee shop in the station where we sat until we decided it was time to find our platform. I'm glad we didn't wait any longer. We were able to find seats on the train that were together-ish. But the train was pretty full.

Two plus hours later found us back in Berlin.

Berlin Hauptbahnhof

Sunday we pack and Monday we head home. I'm sad.

Update: This article on Dresden Christmas traditions appeared after I returned home. Had I read it, we might have chosen the Neumarkt around Frauenkirche instead of the Striezelmarkt.

Berlin... That's A Wrap

After staying out so late, we didn't get anything like a quick start on Friday. We went out for a midday dinner to a Chinese restaurant DD and BF had been wanting to try. Zhous Five has a modern Asian fusion decor with the slightly strange addition of a classic chandelier dripping with crystals. Rather than the buffet, we all had roast duck in varying forms. The accompanying vegetables were cooked to perfection. I ate every bit of the duck, but sadly, the sauce on the veggies was too spicy hot for me and I had to leave far too many of them behind.

It wasn't really this dark at midday, I took the photo a different time.

DD and BF had a salsa class scheduled for the evening, so they opted for an afternoon nap. Nate and I went out for a little more sightseeing on our last available full day.  Since evening comes early in northern Germany, we headed first to the East Side Gallery, which is a remnant of the Berlin wall decorated with art.

The art wasn't really Nate's "thing", so after the obligatory photos with one foot in East Berlin and the other in West...

...we set off for Legoland Discovery Center near the Sony Center, which we'd spotted the night before.

We had planned to go through the exhibit, but after reading about what was inside and then doing a quick "cost-benefit analysis", we decided to skip it. Someday, with kids or grandkids in tow, we might reconsider the option.

We took a Kaffeetrinken break in a nearby coffee shop to warm up. Then we went back outside to walk through the Weihnachtsmarkt in Potsdamer Platz. While DD and I had done a walk-through the night before, Nate had been waiting for us and had only seen a small corner of the market.

On the way home we were attracted by the lights of an enclosed shopping arcade.

Then we headed back to the apartment, opting for an early bedtime when DD and BF returned from their class.

Whole Lot Of Shoppin' Goin' On

Dear Daughter took off work Wednesday through Friday while we're here.

The weather outside has been bitterly cold and DD suffers from the cold more than I do.

I've been here before and have seen the "must see" sights.

Our tastes in museums vary as much as we do.

For all these reasons we parted ways for a couple of days. Nate went sight-seeing on his own. DD and I went shopping.

Wednesday we started out visiting Naehkontor, a shop I'd read about here. It's a little out of the main stream on Boetzowstrasse. When we first got off the bus, I had my doubts about being in the right place. The street was the kind of quiet, lovely side street I'd like to live on (if I were ever fortunate enough to live in Berlin). We knew we were walking in the right direction, as the street came to an end where the bus dropped us off.

But sure enough... when we got to the next corner we found the shop.

We bought a little bit of fabric and some notions, but didn't spend a "fortune".

Then we made our way to Hackescher Markt. Upon arrival we went looking for lunch. We chose a restaurant called Oliva and had Italian-style frittatas with salad. The eggs were tasty, but a bit on the oily side for my taste (who am I kidding... they tasted awesome, but they weren't anything approaching lo-cal or healthy).

After finishing lunch we went into the Hackesche Hoefe. The Hoefe are a series of connected courtyards with small shops. The shops are all high-end, so we only window shopped. But if one were after Berlin souveniers, there's a small shop with absolutely anything you could possibly want sporting the Ampelmann... the distinctive pedestrian traffic lights of Berlin. The first courtyard was ornately decorated. The subsequent ones were each a little different, but much simpler. Since they were surrounded by apartments, I didn't feel comfortable photographing them.

From there we traveled to Hueco, another fabric store. It's in an industrial district and not very photogenic, but it's probably the largest fabric store in Berlin. Nevertheless, we left empty-handed, other than some small vinyl samples for Penni (for a headboard she's planning to build... decisions still need to be made).

Our final destination on Wednesday was the Christmas Market at Schloss Charlottenburg. It was rumored to be the nicest in Berlin. It is arguably the prettiest. There were searchlights picking out the stop of the Schloss as well as illuminating the sky. Some of the vendor stalls had a tent-like roof with the light shining through, as well as all the normal decorations and lights.

The tent-like roofs were covering enclosed (as in WARM) stalls, which were a nice refuge after one had been wandering around in the cold for a while. The goods inside are similar to what's available outside, though perhaps pricier.

Thursday morning we took a walk to the "Toy Store", aka home improvement store to brainstorm hanging solutions for the headboard-to-be and to pick up a needed set of screwdrivers as part of our Christmas gift to DD and BF.

Before you jump to conclusions, the rough translation of the store name is "light way". Inside it looks much like the stores back home, except the brands are mostly German... row after row of Bosch power tools. If only we had the same power grid... I would have come home with a tool.

I also wish we had this system of various pieces made for designing and building your own furniture. Lot's of different pieces... not just these... with lots of possibilities.

But there was one thing I doubt we'll ever see in our Home Depot or Lowes, however we might wish it.

(Wine)

Potential solution found, we headed back to the apartment for lunch. Afterwards we again parted ways and went sight seeing (Nate) and shopping (DD and myself). Early evening we met up again at the Markt in Potsdamer Platz.

One fun addition at the Potsdamer Platz market was a tubing hill. The hill was more ice than snow and very fast. Everyone who came down hit the (fortunately padded) wall at the bottom.

The market extended from the Platz, where it was nestled under the dynamic architecture...

... to Marlene Dietrich Platz, where it ends at a huge Christmas tree.

After grabbing a quick bite of dinner at the market, we headed across the street to the Sony Center.

DD had obtained tickets to an English-language showing of The Hobbit in 3D.

The movie, preceded by a lot of commercials, followed by a long trip home via public transit made for a late night. But it was worth it.

Standing In The Cold For Kyrgyzstan

Our first day in Berlin we did't venture further than the grocery store across the street from Dear Daughter and Boyfriend's apartment. After arriving in the city quite late in the evening, hauling our gear by public transit, and still being under the weather, we felt a day "resting" was in order. Tuesday, however, we ventured out while DD and BF were at work.

Our first stop was the iconic Siegesauele monument in Grosse Sterne.

It was much prettier the last time I saw it in February 2008 when there was blue sky in the background.

After walking back to the S-bahn, we continued on to the Hauptbahnhof to try to track down the missing (and now found, but not yet returned) camera. Who would think the central lost and found would be at a different station?

Our next stop was the Brandenburg Tor (Gate). Unfortunately, they've chosen to put a huge Christmas tree blocking view of the Tor. What statue on top?

The close-up view was obstructed by a menorah.

Then any view was obstructed by the police officers who were moving everyone off the center of the plaza to the sidewalks along either side. That can only mean one thing... visiting dignitaries. So we hung around waiting to see who might arrive. Unfortunately we made the fateful decision to walk through the gate (still possible on the very edges) while we were waiting. The police line on the other side was wider, so once there we couldn't walk back.

So we stood in the cold waiting until the motorcade finally arrived.

A police officer told someone near me it was the president of Kazakhstan, but the flag is actually Kyrgyzstan (I looked it up later).

I don't usually get cold, but I was frozen. I've never been so happy to walk into a warm Starbucks in my life.

An interesting note about the flag... as soon as the motorcade left, the flag came down. There are two flag poles. One has the Berlin flag and the other was flying this flag. So, apparently when a flag is flying on this pole, someone is coming. You may not know when, but there WILL be a disruption to the normal flow of life around the Tor.

So, now I'm two for two at the Brandenberg Gate. The last time I was there, so was the Prince of Monaco.

Because of the cold, we abandoned our plan to visit the East Side Gallery, which is a remnant of the Berlin Wall, deciding that a Christmas Market would be at least a little warmer. We chose the market at Alexander Platz so that we'd get a little flavor of East Germany while visiting a market.

Under the shadow of the Fernsehnturm...

... we found the Alexanderplatz Markt.

The market has an interesting variety in both styles of huts...

... and offerings. Angry Birds hats anyone?

Some interesting features of this market included an ice rink built around a statue (like skating on a race track),

pony rides,

and traditional ornamentation on the ferris wheel cars.

We sampled the specialty of a cheese vendor from Austria.

The big wheel of cheese was put under a warming device until it was hot and bubbly on the surface.

Then the melted cheese was scraped onto a baguette and topped with pineapple. An unusual combination, but very yummy. Of course, while the cheese was melting he kept cutting off samples of various cheeses and sausages, so he managed to upsell me to buy both items. Good salesmanship.

Having had enough cold for one day, we decided to return to the apartment before the onslaught of rush-hour traffic, stopping en route to check the status of the camera in the correct train station. It's still sitting in Garmish-Partenkirchen waiting for us to pick it up. Penni will help us call tomorrow to try to get on it's way home. We've had no luck trying to arrange it on our own, as it seems fewer people in the south of Germany speak English.

If I Didn't Know Better, I'd Swear I Was In Rochester

Remember that nice weather and sitting by the pond watching swans?

That was SO yesterday. The next morning we woke up in Duesseldorf with at least a couple inches of snow already on the ground and more falling non-stop. After breakfast we decided to take a taxi to the Bahnhof rather than walk dragging a recalcitrant suitcase.

From our hotel window. Photo courtesy of Nate.

The German railway system was not amused by the snow. Our 11:30 train was 5 minutes late... then 5 more minutes late... then 15 more minutes late... then 30 minutes more late... until, ultimately, it was about 60 minutes total late. If they'd just told us it would be an hour, we'd have gone down to a warmer area to wait. Instead, they kept tantalizing us with imminent arrival while we froze on the platform. Just to keep it interesting, they changed platforms about 10 minutes before the train got there... to one that had no working elevator or escalator. That was fun, hauling our heavy suitcases up those stairs... NOT!

Our original itinerary included some time in Osnabrueck where we intended to change trains. However, due to the lateness and the warning on the ticket machines about the connecting train perhaps not being available, we opted to take the train all the way to Bremen. At least if we were stranded there, our friends would be able to pick us up more easily, being only about 20 minutes (by train) versus an hour.

The plan was to call our friends when we were on the train from Osnabrueck (now Bremen) so that they would know when to drive to the Syke train station to pick us up. However, we were unable to figure out the correct numbers to add or numbers to delete from the phone number to get the call to actually go through. Standing on the platform in Syke (photo here), I asked a woman for help and finally got through... to the answering machine.

There was a warm place to wait and a DB ticket office, so I went in and asked for help getting through to my friends. While the young woman was still trying to find the correct number, my friend arrived... having just gotten home from Syke after picking up her husband to find my message on the machine. All's well that ends well.

On Saturday Dear Daughter and Boyfriend arrived from Berlin. In the afternoon, despite our sore throats progressing to full-blown head colds, we went into Bremen to visit the Christmas Markt.

The main Weihnachts Markt wraps around the Bremen cathedral.

A couple more gratuitous pictures to make up for the lack at the beginning of this post.

I didn't realize that Bremen also had a Middle-Ages Markt which runs along the river. While it doesn't keep quite as true to the theme as the market in Munich, it did have a more rustic feel with rough-hewn stalls and a good number of craft vendors selling goods that were Middle-Ages appropriate.

And a bagpiper for entertainment.

Walking back to the train station, we passed down Bremen's Mall of Fame where famous Germans have their handprints immortalized in stars in the pavement. (Sound familiar, Hollywood?) The decorations in the mall were particularly lovely.

There are no photos to post from Sunday, as most of the day was spent in family time. Sunday evening, directly after Kaffeetrinken we left for Berlin with DD and BF.

It was wonderful seeing our friends again after 2 years and it was bummer being sick the whole time I was there. I sincerely hope I managed to keep my germs to myself (and Nate, as well) so that they don't get sick with our illness.