A country that knows what to do with a potato: Germany 2023 Trip Report

[chuff88]

If you can rally the Night Watchman tour is fantastic! And be sure to check out the Christmas store before leaving.

They had already left on it when I posted that. I wanted to rally but I was really struggling all day.

 

[theMoreDisneytheBetter]

Bummer! I hope that you feel better. My husband and I did it years ago and when we brought my kids to Germany last summer it was one of the "must dos" on our list.

How was the Mexican restaurant? I often crave Mexican while in Germany but always get talked out of it because it is "unauthentic."

 

[Jess_S]

Thank you for sharing your trip. I did a romantic road road trip back in 2010 and we had a ton of rain too. So, it brings back soggy memories. I am sorry that you missed the night watchman. I hope your keg feels better and you get to enjoy a bit of Rothenberg.

 

[sayhello]

Thank you for sharing your trip. I did a romantic road road trip back in 2010 and we had a ton of rain too. So, it brings back soggy memories. I am sorry that you missed the night watchman. I hope your keg feels better and you get to enjoy a bit of Rothenberg.

Well, if she *had* a keg, she'd probably feel *much* better!

Sayhello

 

[chuff88]

Bummer! I hope that you feel better. My husband and I did it years ago and when we brought my kids to Germany last summer it was one of the "must dos" on our list.

How was the Mexican restaurant? I often crave Mexican while in Germany but always get talked out of it because it is "unauthentic."

The Mexican restaurant was so good! I had quesabirria and my mom had a burrito al pastor. Both were excellent. Our server, an American who was raised in Puerto Rico, told us everyone in the kitchen was Mexican, so it was no surprise that the food was good.

 

[Jess_S]

Well, if she *had* a keg, she'd probably feel *much* better!

Sayhello

Every time I type on my phone... Sigh. It is Germany though, so I am sure kegs abound.

 

[Donalyn]

Chuff88 - really enjoying your report.

I've been trying to get my younger DD to pick this trip for her HS graduation trip, but I don't think that she will. (I think that Poland/Czech Republic/Austria is the current leader, which would be awesome too.)

 

[chuff88]

Chuff88 - really enjoying your report.

I've been trying to get my younger DD to pick this trip for her HS graduation trip, but I don't think that she will. (I think that Poland/Czech Republic/Austria is the current leader, which would be awesome too.)

Poland/Czech Republic/Austria is the tour Winston, one of our guides, usually does! If she chooses that you'll probably have him and he's wonderful.

 

[Eastridge]

Thanks for doing this detailed report on the Germany trip!

I visited Dachau a long time ago. I still remember it.

 

[chuff88]

I know I'm behind again - we were pretty tired last night and had to pack for bag drop this morning. Today's a bus day so I should be able to do a post for yesterday and today once we make it to Berlin tonight.

 

[Mathmagicland]

I know I'm behind again - we were pretty tired last night and had to pack for bag drop this morning. Today's a bus day so I should be able to do a post for yesterday and today once we make it to Berlin tonight.

Please don’t stress about it, as you are not behind! Your first priority is to enjoy this trip you have been waiting such a long time to experience. The TR comes farther down the list.

Having done an AbD TR while traveling, for the inaugural Japan trip, I know it is a lot of work and very hard to do so at the same time as the trip. There was at least a couple of times where I’d skip a day or two, then play catch-up with my posts. Your days are long, and you need your rest & energy for the adventure. We will be anxiously awaiting your next posts, whenever you get to them.
Until then, eat, sleep, and enjoy Germany!!

 

[chuff88]

Day 5: The Pretzel Twist

I will say that I find it funny that they haven’t changed the name of this day, as we no longer do anything related to pretzels. In the past, this was the day that adventurers did the pretzel-making workshop, but that hasn’t returned since COVID.

We started the day with breakfast at the Hotel Rappen, which was good, but not as good as the breakfast in Munich. After breakfast, we headed to the chocolate making activity, which was held in a little shop and was very fun. The woman who ran it, Melanie, gave us some background on chocolate making and let us taste different types of chocolate. After that, she poured the warm chocolate into molds for us and we got to add “toppings” to our bars.



Mine is on the left. I added the chocolate candies to two segments, caramel fudge to two, and crispy pearls and ginger to the remaining two. We put cards with our names and rooms numbers with our bars so that after they had cooled they could deliver them back to our hotel. We also bought some dark chocolate covered apple rings and candied ginger that was also sent back for us.

After chocolate making, we got a brief walking tour around Röthenburg, and Winston took us to the Pinocchio house.



We were then given a time for our medieval photo session later (we were given 3:10pm) and released for time on our own around 11am. We went back to the hotel briefly to use the restroom and freshen up, and then had lunch at Roma, the Italian restaurant we hadn’t been able to get into the night before. When we arrived around 12:45pm we were told there was a 30 minute wait, but we said that was fine and ordered an Aperol spritz from the bar while we waited.



We lucked out and only had to wait about 15 minutes before getting our table. We ordered a pizza to share and I ordered a “half order” of pasta carbonara. The portion of pasta was so big, I honestly can’t imagine what a full order would be. But the prices at the restaurant were very reasonable, and with the drinks and tip our total was only around 25 euro.

We then killed some time in the famous Christmas shop before our medieval photo shoot. This is an activity I’d seen a lot of people say they ended up loving even though they weren’t particularly excited about it, and we had a blast. We both chose to dress up as royalty, and Winston was also dressed up as a princess (Zuza kept referring to him as Winnifer, which is now what everyone is calling him).

I have so many more pictures, but this is an example of how silly and fun the whole thing was.

After our photo time, we walked back to the hotel to rest and shower before meeting for dinner with the group at 7. On the walk back we stopped a shop near our hotel so that I could get my main souvenir - a zwei backpack. Because my birthday is on Friday, my parents had agreed to buy me a pair of Birkenstock’s while my mom and I were in Germany. But after a couple of days of walking past this store I had become obsessed with these bags and opted for one of them instead. The women in the shop were very nice, and told me that Zwei is a German brand. They have no U.S. store online, so unlike Birkenstock’s, if I wanted one it made sense to get it here.



We had dinner in a restaurant in the hotel, and had the option of roast beef, salmon in cream sauce, or spinach dumplings in tomato sauce. I had the beef and my mom had the salmon, but of course I have no pictures. We also had an appetizer of a brothy soup with shredded savory pancake noodles, and apple strudel for dessert. This meal was not my favorite for the entree (the meat was a bit tough, but my mom really enjoyed her salmon), but the soup and dessert were great.

Then it was back to our rooms to get ready for today’s departure to Berlin via Bamberg. We once again had a 7:30 bag drop time with an 8am meeting time for departure. After packing up we headed to bed for our last night in Bavaria.

 

[chuff88]

Day 6: What’s Brewin’ Bamberg?

I’m just going to preface this by saying that we had very bad weather at the start of our visit to Bamberg, which kind of soured me to the visit. After breakfast we boarded the coach around 8am for an approximately 2 hour trip to Bamberg. By the time we got there it was raining steadily, and like a doofus I forgot to change into my running shoes from my Birkenstock’s before getting off the bus.

Bamberg is an incredibly well preserved medieval town that was hardly touched by WWII. It has a lot of interesting architecture and half-timbered houses, and on a nicer day I’m sure I would have been more invested in hearing about the history.



As it was, though, I was fairly grumpy about the whole thing. I did have a water resistant jacket, but my jeans got soaked and my socks got pretty wet too. After about an hour, we made it to the main square and were released for about another hour of free time. We made a beeline to a cafe for a chai latte and a flammkuchen, which did improve my mood. By the time we met back up, the rain had mostly stopped for our walk back to the coach.

Once back on the coach, Zuza and Winston surprised us all with cute Snoopy socks! They’d bought several packs and we each got to choose a pair, which I promptly changed into, further improving my mood. We then continued on to Berlin while watching Tangled. Along the way we stopped at a McDonald’s, where most people ordered some food. I got chicken nuggets, mostly to try the curry and sweet chili dipping sauces, both of which were tasty. We got to the Regent hotel in Berlin around 6pm and had about 45 minutes to freshen up before dinner. The regent is stunning, easily one of the nicest hotels I’ve ever stayed at.

I don’t remember the exact name, but dinner tonight was at a Hacker-Pschorr location. There were several dinner options, but I had roasted pork and my mom had roasted vegetables. Both were very good (and huge). We also all got a warm pretzel with butter and herbed cheese to start, and apple strudel for dinner.



Tomorrow we meet at 9:30 for our walking tour, currywurst lunch, and graffiti activity. I’m really looking forward to seeing more of Berlin, but already starting to feel sad that the trip is coming to an end.

 

[georgiagirl2]

I'm really enjoying your trip report! Thanks for all the detailed posts. We were on the ABD Danube cruise at the end of June, and added 4 post-nights in Munich to explore Bavaria on our own. It was simply gorgeous and it's been fun to see all the cool things you did with your adventure guides. Enjoy the rest of your trip!

 

[sayhello]

It's amazing how much the weather - whether good or bad - can affect your opinion of a place!! Some places (like Edinburgh) are wonderful either way, but others - just don't benefit from gloom and/or rain!

Nice backpack!!

I totally *adore* your medieval photo!! I want to see more of them!

Sayhello

 

[chuff88]

Day 7: Tear Down This Wall

Today was our first full day in Berlin. We had a walking tour led by Zuza, who lives in Berlin and seemed to really enjoy getting to talk about her city, as well as the currywurst lunch and the street art workshop. And for once I wasn’t totally useless at taking pictures!

We had a nice, leisurely meet up time of 9:30am. We first loaded on the coach and drove a short distance to Museum Island where Zuza talked about the history of the different museums and the ways that you can still see the scars of WWII on many of the buildings.


The bottom picture shows the facade of the Altesmuseum (Old Museum) as compared to the rest of the building - a truck carrying munitions was parked next to the building when it blew up, destroying much of the structure, which was later rebuilt. You can see the “patches” on the columns of the facade, which is where holes from shrapnel and bullets were repaired.


After leaving Museum Island, we went to Checkpoint Charlie and the Reichstag building. The Reichstag was famously damaged severely in a fire, and event that directly contributed to Hitler’s rise to power in the 1930s. Hitler very intentionally did nothing to repair the Reichstag during his time in power, as he did not want anything resembling a parliament in is government. Since the fall of Nazism in Germany the Reichstag has also been reconstructed, and from what I understand is still in use for government business.





After the Reichstag we had our Currywurst lunch, which I was really looking forward to and I was not disappointed. Drinks, including beer, were included. We have one member of our group who is apparently a hot sauce enthusiast, as is Zuza, so they got him a little sample of a very hot sauce available at the stand. He and I were the only two brave enough to try it (me out of pure recklessness and stupidity) and it was HOT hot. It did have a great flavor before making steam pour out of my ears though.



After lunch we saw the Brandenburg gate (which is stunning), and the Holocaust memorial, which is striking in how stark it is, and incredibly moving. A lot of it is being restored currently, but part of it was still open to walk through. Zuza talked about how it was designed to make you feel disoriented, and as the blocks get taller it definitely does that. I’m glad we got to walk through it, and encourage anyone visiting Berlin to take the time to visit this important monument.



I’ve hit my picture limit, so this will be continued in the next post.

 

[chuff88]

Day 7: Tear Down This Wall pt. 2

After leaving the Holocaust memorial we met up with Rob, our street art guide. On the bus ride over to the beach club he taught us about the history of street art, and we also made a stop at the East Side Gallery. The Gallery is the longest segment of the Berlin Wall that is still intact, and street artists were commissioned to add their work to it.



We then got to make our own street art, which was SO fun, and Rob and another artist, Ben, were an absolute delight. Their instructional portion was both helpful and entertaining, and then they were very engaged in helping us create our own works.



My piece is the Volkswagen Bug on the pinkish purple background in the first picture, my mom‘s is the grey lion on the yellow and orange background in the second picture. I drove a blue 2006 VW Beetle for many years (and was so attached to it that I didn’t sell it when I bought my current car), so it was an easy choice of stencil for me.

I had heard that the street art workshop was a favorite of many past adventurers on this trip, and I can see why. It almost inspires me to become a street artist myself. I really had a blast with the spray paint and the stencils.

After the workshop we headed back to the hotel for an evening on our own. I really wanted to create my own chocolate bar at Ritter Sport, which is right by our hotel, so we walked over and both made a custom bar to take home. This isn’t a workshop, they have screens where you can select your ingredients and then they make the bar for you. I thought of it like Coldstone Creamery but for chocolate. We then took a short rest in our room before heading out for dinner at Noumi, a casual Asian noodle restaurant. Now we’re back in our room resting up for our 8:30am meet tomorrow for our bike tour. I’m not sure I’m going to bike, I might elect to walk, but we’ll see. Tomorrow is also my birthday! But it’s a bit bittersweet, as we’re sad that the trip is almost at it’s end.

 

[Eastridge]

Please make sure the guides know tomorrow is your birthday, if you haven't already told them. They'll do something to celebrate that.

 

[chuff88]

Please make sure the guides know tomorrow is your birthday, if you haven't already told them. They'll do something to celebrate that.

They know!!

 

[theMoreDisneytheBetter]

Happy Birthday! I hope you had a great day.