A country that knows what to do with a potato: Germany 2023 Trip Report
- Thread starter chuff88
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sayhello
Have Camera, Will Travel
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christannj
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Were there alternate drink options for people who don’t like beer, especially at the breweries?
chuff88
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Yes, as the previous poster mentioned there is the Sharle, and there are also standard soft drinks available. Most places also had wine available for those who drink but don't enjoy beer. Weihenstephan may have been the only location that didn't offer wine.
I will add that we had a few people in our group who did drink but didn't usually like beer who enjoyed some of the German beers, particularly at Weihenstephan. I would encourage anyone who isn't a non-drinker to at least try the beers just because it might be different than what you've tried in the past. But if you're already sure you won't like it or if you don't drink alcohol there are a number of other options.
Oh, that's a terrible feeling. Sorry!
As a former non-beer drinker, I'll second that for those that drink but "don't like beer" it would be worth trying what's offered. I discovered, while living in Japan, that I DO like beer, but it has to be good beer. (Good is definitely a personal opinion, but there are so many actual varieties that it can just be finding the one that suits you above and beyond the standard US beer.)
As a former non-beer drinker, I'll second that for those that drink but "don't like beer" it would be worth trying what's offered. I discovered, while living in Japan, that I DO like beer, but it has to be good beer. (Good is definitely a personal opinion, but there are so many actual varieties that it can just be finding the one that suits you above and beyond the standard US beer.)
chuff88
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So I'm going to admit that I was absolute garbage at taking literally any photos the last two days, so I'm going to combine days 8 & 9 into one text-heavy post. So, without further ado...
Day 8 & Day 9: East Meets West & Auf Wiedersehen
Day 8 started at 8:30 in the lobby of the Regent Berlin to head over to the bike rental location. I had decided by late morning that I would not be biking, as I have a bit of a mixed history with bikes and I haven't ridden a bike with hand brakes (I rode a beach cruiser) in probably 2 decades. My mom is a pretty avid biker, so she elected to bike. But fear not! Two other families elected to do the walking tour, and we were delighted to find out that our guide was going to be none other than Zuza!
After the bike groups headed out, we departed on our walking tour. We were in the Prenzlauer neighborhood, where Zuza used to live, and she talked to us a lot about the remaining architecture (this area was largely unaffected by WWII in terms of structural damage, as it was strictly residential) as well as the way the area was affected by being part of the GDR (East Berlin). We also got a very thorough history of the Berlin Wall, which I learned a lot about that I hadn't previously known, culminating in a stop at a part of the wall that has both walls intact as well as the death strip. Near that area was a man selling gelato out of a converted VW van, and Zuza treated us all to an ice cream (after all, it was my birthday). I will say that I was even happier with my choice to walk when I learned that the bike riders did not get ice cream.
After we finished our walking tour we boarded a tram back to the bike rental location to meet back up with the riders. There was a shop nearby selling books, and I bought a book about the history of the wall, as I was really surprised how little I actually knew about that era of Germany's history.
Unfortunately, my mom continued her tradition of being great on a bike in motion, but not so great in what should be "easy" situations, and within about 100 feet of the rental place she crashed into a wall and hit her leg against one of the pedals. Fortunately it was a "looks worse than it is" situation, but she got a scrape and a pretty nasty bruise. After all the riders were back we reboarded the coach.
I think everyone in our group elected to get the Museum Island passes, and we had the option of getting dropped off at Museum Island or going back to the hotel first. We were the only family that elected to go back to the hotel (to tend to the aforementioned injury and allow my mom the chance to clean up), and ultimately decided against visiting museum island. It was about 12:30pm when we got back to the hotel, and it's a 20 minute walk to Museum Island. We were both hungry and needed lunch, and we had to meet with the group at 5:30 for the farewell dinner, and decided that by the time we were ready to head to the museums we were going to feel very rushed. As a result, we decided to freshen up, go have lunch at Frittenwerk (a french fry/poutine centric restaurant the guides recommended), stop at Rewe (the grocery story) for the gummy bears I wanted, and spend the remaining time doing some packing.
At lunch I had a currywurst meal that was in the style of poutine, and my mom had a big chicken and avocado salad bowl. Both were delicious. At Rewe I got toothpaste (I was out), 2 bags of Haribo treats (gummy bears and berries), and a bottle of grapefruit radler. All of this came to a grand total of..... 5 euro. I can't believe how inexpensive German grocery stores are. A similar selection of items at our local target would have been at least double that.
When we got back to the hotel we were welcomed by a lovely surprise - Zuza and Winston had coordinated having a treat sent up to our room for my birthday! Of course, this is the only thing I have pictures of.
It was a lovely chocolate mousse dessert and we enjoyed it very much.
After some rest and packing, we headed down to the lobby at 5:30pm for the start of our farewell celebrations. I won't go into a lot of detail, but they were very nice. We viewed the slideshow, and then went to another location for dinner. I believe the place we went was called Trofeo, and in addition to a restaurant it was also a classic/antique/exotic car garage. It was very cool, but what was funny to me was that the dinner was Italian food. I think they knew that most of us (not me) had gotten our fill of German food. It was at dinner that I also received my special celebrate pin, as well as a package of Zuza and Winston's favorite gummy candy, and a chocolate bar from the same place we made our custom bars in Rothenburg. The last night is always bittersweet, but it was a good celebration and we all went back to the hotel happy.
The next morning (Day 9) our flight was at 10:20am, so we were picked up at 7:20. Zuza and Winston were in the lobby to see everyone off, and we thanked them one last time for being such wonderful guides. They'd also coordinated breakfast boxes for everyone leaving before or shortly after 7am when the hotel breakfast started. After that it was off to the airport for a very long travel day.
Now we're home, and I'll put some final thoughts in the next post.
Day 8 & Day 9: East Meets West & Auf Wiedersehen
Day 8 started at 8:30 in the lobby of the Regent Berlin to head over to the bike rental location. I had decided by late morning that I would not be biking, as I have a bit of a mixed history with bikes and I haven't ridden a bike with hand brakes (I rode a beach cruiser) in probably 2 decades. My mom is a pretty avid biker, so she elected to bike. But fear not! Two other families elected to do the walking tour, and we were delighted to find out that our guide was going to be none other than Zuza!
After the bike groups headed out, we departed on our walking tour. We were in the Prenzlauer neighborhood, where Zuza used to live, and she talked to us a lot about the remaining architecture (this area was largely unaffected by WWII in terms of structural damage, as it was strictly residential) as well as the way the area was affected by being part of the GDR (East Berlin). We also got a very thorough history of the Berlin Wall, which I learned a lot about that I hadn't previously known, culminating in a stop at a part of the wall that has both walls intact as well as the death strip. Near that area was a man selling gelato out of a converted VW van, and Zuza treated us all to an ice cream (after all, it was my birthday). I will say that I was even happier with my choice to walk when I learned that the bike riders did not get ice cream.
After we finished our walking tour we boarded a tram back to the bike rental location to meet back up with the riders. There was a shop nearby selling books, and I bought a book about the history of the wall, as I was really surprised how little I actually knew about that era of Germany's history.
Unfortunately, my mom continued her tradition of being great on a bike in motion, but not so great in what should be "easy" situations, and within about 100 feet of the rental place she crashed into a wall and hit her leg against one of the pedals. Fortunately it was a "looks worse than it is" situation, but she got a scrape and a pretty nasty bruise. After all the riders were back we reboarded the coach.
I think everyone in our group elected to get the Museum Island passes, and we had the option of getting dropped off at Museum Island or going back to the hotel first. We were the only family that elected to go back to the hotel (to tend to the aforementioned injury and allow my mom the chance to clean up), and ultimately decided against visiting museum island. It was about 12:30pm when we got back to the hotel, and it's a 20 minute walk to Museum Island. We were both hungry and needed lunch, and we had to meet with the group at 5:30 for the farewell dinner, and decided that by the time we were ready to head to the museums we were going to feel very rushed. As a result, we decided to freshen up, go have lunch at Frittenwerk (a french fry/poutine centric restaurant the guides recommended), stop at Rewe (the grocery story) for the gummy bears I wanted, and spend the remaining time doing some packing.
At lunch I had a currywurst meal that was in the style of poutine, and my mom had a big chicken and avocado salad bowl. Both were delicious. At Rewe I got toothpaste (I was out), 2 bags of Haribo treats (gummy bears and berries), and a bottle of grapefruit radler. All of this came to a grand total of..... 5 euro. I can't believe how inexpensive German grocery stores are. A similar selection of items at our local target would have been at least double that.
When we got back to the hotel we were welcomed by a lovely surprise - Zuza and Winston had coordinated having a treat sent up to our room for my birthday! Of course, this is the only thing I have pictures of.
It was a lovely chocolate mousse dessert and we enjoyed it very much.
After some rest and packing, we headed down to the lobby at 5:30pm for the start of our farewell celebrations. I won't go into a lot of detail, but they were very nice. We viewed the slideshow, and then went to another location for dinner. I believe the place we went was called Trofeo, and in addition to a restaurant it was also a classic/antique/exotic car garage. It was very cool, but what was funny to me was that the dinner was Italian food. I think they knew that most of us (not me) had gotten our fill of German food. It was at dinner that I also received my special celebrate pin, as well as a package of Zuza and Winston's favorite gummy candy, and a chocolate bar from the same place we made our custom bars in Rothenburg. The last night is always bittersweet, but it was a good celebration and we all went back to the hotel happy.
The next morning (Day 9) our flight was at 10:20am, so we were picked up at 7:20. Zuza and Winston were in the lobby to see everyone off, and we thanked them one last time for being such wonderful guides. They'd also coordinated breakfast boxes for everyone leaving before or shortly after 7am when the hotel breakfast started. After that it was off to the airport for a very long travel day.
Now we're home, and I'll put some final thoughts in the next post.
chuff88
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Final thoughts:
This is probably not going to be super organized, but I'll do my best.
Positives:
The positives of this trip massively outweigh any negatives for me. I'm going to do some bullet points just to keep my thoughts organized.
I'm going to be honest, there weren't a lot of negatives, and most of them were things out of our control.
To wrap things up, I'll just end by saying that if you are thinking about this trip, do it. It's a really great itinerary with a lot of highlights, and I can't say enough good things about it. I've already said at home that while I'd never repeat an ABD due to cost and time restrictions, but if someone else was paying I'd do this trip again. Also, if you're thinking about the Central European Cities trip, that is usually guided by Winston, who is an absolute joy. I haven't been on that trip, but I'd give Winston a very enthusiastic recommendation.
I hope everyone enjoyed following along! Feel free to ask any questions.
This is probably not going to be super organized, but I'll do my best.
Positives:
The positives of this trip massively outweigh any negatives for me. I'm going to do some bullet points just to keep my thoughts organized.
- The Guides - Between Zuza and Winston, Michael in Munich, Rob and Ben at the street art workshop, and Ingrid in Nuremberg we couldn't have asked for a better group of guides. Michael is everything everyone says he is and more - he's so passionate about teaching people and it shows. He goes out of his way to make everyone feel involved, he's funny, and I genuinely learned and retained a lot of information from him. Rob and Ben were our instructors at the street art workshop and both were truly delightful. Ingrid was a fantastic guide in Nuremberg, focusing a lot on the history of the art bunkers, which I found fascinating. And then there's Zuza and Winston. I honestly don't have words for how truly wonderful, warm, inviting and fun they are. It actually really bums me out that this isn't usually Winston's tour, as the dynamic and chemistry between them was fantastic. Our guides in Norway (including the famous Kira) were amazing and we thought they'd be impossible to top, but Zuza and Winston did it. I was genuinely sad to not see them this morning, and I hope I get to see them again.
- The food - I thought the food on this trip was excellent. We had lots of opportunities to try local and regional specialties, and beer (or wine) was included at every provided meal. In many cases we were able to order a second beer if we liked. The beef goulash at Weihenstephan is now the benchmark against which I will measure all goulash. I was worried the food might get repetitive (and I love German food), and it didn't. The currywurst came from a street vendor, which made it all the more authentic. The Nuremberg food tour was a blast. It was all great.
- The sites - I found something to like (or appreciate) at every site we visited. Dachau was emotionally heavy, but absolutely one of the most memorable stops on the trip. I'm grateful to have had the chance to visit the site and learn more about its history. Neuschwanstein was a dream, as was Rothenburg. I wouldn't remove anything from this tour.
- The hotels - all of the hotels we stayed at were very nice and well-located. I don't have much more to say on that, but the hotels were lovely (though the European shower is still super weird to me).
I'm going to be honest, there weren't a lot of negatives, and most of them were things out of our control.
- The weather - no one could have done anything about this, but the weather was rough for a couple of days and it did put a damper on things. It also changed really suddenly, so we didn't pack well for the weather we got. But that's no one's fault, just something I'm noting.
- A lot of "on your own" time - I don't know that I actually really see this as a negative, but there's more "on your own" time than we had on Norway. We did feel like we utilized it pretty well (and it did offer opportunities to rest), but our guides and group were so great that I would have liked to have more time with them rather than on our own. I also will say that more time that could be spent on Museum Island (or making Museum Island an actual activity) would have been nice, as the main reason we elected not to do it was feeling like it may have been rushed.
- A lot of walking - again, not really a negative, but there was a lot more walking that I expected there to be on this trip. This was only bad for me because I wasn't super prepared for it. As one person in our group said, "that's why it's called Adventures by Disney and not Vacations by Disney," and that's a good thing to keep in mind.
To wrap things up, I'll just end by saying that if you are thinking about this trip, do it. It's a really great itinerary with a lot of highlights, and I can't say enough good things about it. I've already said at home that while I'd never repeat an ABD due to cost and time restrictions, but if someone else was paying I'd do this trip again. Also, if you're thinking about the Central European Cities trip, that is usually guided by Winston, who is an absolute joy. I haven't been on that trip, but I'd give Winston a very enthusiastic recommendation.
I hope everyone enjoyed following along! Feel free to ask any questions.
Mathmagicland
Disneyland - the original since 1955
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Kira is amazing! I’ve had the good fortune to travel with her twice. So this is very high praise for Zuza and Winston.
Thanks again for taking the time to write up a great trip report! Happy you & your mom had such a wonderful time.
chuff88
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Kira IS amazing! We really loved her, and anyone should be lucky to have her as a guide. Our other guide in Norway was Oline, and she was also amazing. But Zuza and Winston seemed to have just a little extra magic.
Minniedoc
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Thank you for taking me back to fond memories of my own Germany ABD! Zuza was my guide too - and the only one as it was a smaller group. I loved every single thing about that trip. ABD really shines with their guides, their itineraries, and the comraderie within the group. Although my 4 (so far) ABDs have all been good, some groups of travelers do gel better than others for sure - but I have always found at least one or more parties that became my tribe. I still keep in touch with some and always hope we can travel again together.
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Thanks for posting. I enjoyed the read! 
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What a fabulous trip!
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