Bremen, Bremen

In November 2012, we had a trip to Paris all planned - plane tickets, hotel reservation, train tickets.  But, by then we also had learned we'd be moving to Denmark and would have to pay around $2000 for residency permits.

So, Paris was off.  We ate the price of the plane tickets (which, in Europe, were not horribly expensive) and hotel reservation fee.  But we still had our regional train tickets in Germany that we were going to use to get to the airport.

After some research, we figured out that the farthest we could get on our tickets was around a four hour train journey to Bremen in the state of Bremen.  We'd heard it was a lovely city and feeling our usual sense of adventure around Thanksgiving, we set off early Saturday to check it out.

First off, the old town was like a very cute version of Lubeck - all North German brick and half-timber details.  We didn't really have a plan, just wanted to walk around and grab a bite somewhere, which isn't our usual MO.  But, I have to say, it was just a nice, laid-back day and we saw some memorable things.

 

First, of course, was seeing the famous Brementown Musicians statue near the cathedral.  It became a game throughout the day to find small, decorative details around the city featuring a rooster, cat, dog, and donkey - on the lanterns, shop signs, fencing.  I believe by the end of the day we'd gotten to around 52 Brementown Musician sightings.

We also took slow strolls down through the uber-adorable Schnoor district and, my favorite area, pictured here, Böttcherstraße.  It was a long, winding brick-lined street with crooked chimneys and leaning walls - probably the most legitimately Diagon-alley-looking place I'd ever seen.   

We stopped into a bon bon shop and watched them make candy and also chose a little restaurant so we could try some Bremen specialties.

I ended up getting a flammkuchen - kind of like a pizza with very thin crust, onions, and bacon.  Paul got Pinkel und Kohl - Pinkel being a special type of wurst for the area and and kohl being some steamed greens.  

Two thumbs up.

We knew we had a long train ride home, so we began walking back to the station around 4pm, passing quite a number of hammer-dulcimer street musicians.  These guys were the jazziest bunch we saw.  Hammer dulcimer jazz band, huh.  It worked though.

Bremen stands out in my memory since it was the last real trip we took to explore Germany before we moved to Scandinavia.  It was a short visit with a long travel time, but it was still worth it.  We had the freedom, we had the train tickets.  And like we always tell each other when we're trying to get ourselves out the door, we never regret making memories.  Getting out into the world, seeing new things, learning more about how big and diverse and good the world is - we are always happy we did it.

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I'm counting down the days until my third anniversary of living in Europe by recapping trips that I never got around to highlighting.  You can see the list of trips (and links to them as they are written) here.

Saxony: Because You Always Should Go Somewhere in October

Signs in German and Sorbish

In October 2012, we suspected we would be moving to Denmark within a few months and so decided, very last minute (very uncharacteristically) that we would rent a car from our Northern German home and drive down to Saxony.

 

Since we lived up on the Baltic Sea, this meant about a six hour drive to Dresden which, since we are Americans, barely qualified as an actual road trip.  :-)    (People use emoticons a lot in Denmark.  It's rubbing off on me.)

So why Saxony?  Well, that was the German state where Paul lived a decade ago and where he really learned to speak German (and love Germany).  This, interestingly enough, meant that he learned German with what is considered to be the most "southern hick" accent possible and earned him a lot of funny glances when we tried to set up our bank account in northern Mecklenburg a decade later.  

Aaaaanyway, we knew we had to go to Saxony, so we did.  And it was real, real lovely down there, especially in October when all the leaves were changing.  I'm sorry I didn't write more about this trip before because I'm sure I could tell you a lot of stories, but what I can say two years on is that I remember it was beautiful, relaxing, and interesting to get a feel for this rather unique region.  

On to the pictures.

Our first stop was a small town named Bautzen which was also the first place Paul lived in Germany, so it seemed appropriate.  It was one of my favorite places we went because it's also the capital city for the Sorbish people, who have their own language, culture, and history very distinct from the Germans and Poles surrounding them.  Everything in Bautzen was in both German and Sorbish, like this map here.

I actually already knew the name Bautzen before Paul even mentioned going there.  Bautzener Senf (a brand of mustard) comes from the town and is pretty much the German mustard.  And mustard is, at least my impression, the most important condiment in Germany because it's the only thing you get with bratwurst.  And always the bautzener variety - very sharp, not at all like the bright yellow sweeter/sour Frenches I grew up with.

It's an acquired taste, I'll admit, but once it clicks, you'll never want anything else.

And all that is why this next picture exists.  I made it my personal mission to get a sandwich with Bautzener senf on it while we were actually in Bautzen.

It was really. really. good.

The next day was all about Dresden.  We went out to the Saxon-Switzerland National Park, south of the city, to see the famous Bastai Bridge, built up across these incredibly high and steep pinnacles.  

This picture does not quite capture the precipitous cliff-like drop on either side.

 

And off in Dresden, we took our time wandering the old city to see the Semperoper, Zwinger, Frauenkirche, and cashed in our ticket reservations for the Green Vault (which was pretty spectacular).

For being so horribly firebombed in the WWII, Dresden really has rebuilt in such beautiful ways.

Recreating a photo taken ten years previous...we just need to get a scan of the old one now to compare.

Our third day was a long driving loop through the Erzegeberger mountains along the Czech/German border, winding through small villages where Paul had lived in the past.

These dried garlic and onion braids were on sale in the town square market of Annaberg-Buchholz

The view near Paul's old apartment in Annaberg-Buchholz

"Luck-up" which, in Saxony, is a common greeting.  Since there are so many mines in the Erzeberger mountains, people would wish each other a good day with this phrase since you wanted people to be lucky and come back up out of the mines safely.

Paul's Last Apartment in Freiberg

Seiffen, the famous little woodworking village where nutcrackers were invented (and practically anything else traditionally "Christmas").  This little octagonal church is sort of the symbol of the region.

On our drive back home, we took our time by only taking the back roads north and, on a whim, took a couple detours through Meissen, home of German porcelain, and Wittenberg, home of Martin Luther's 95 Theses.  

That church behind me, ground zero for Protestantism, was a fantastically nerdy way to end a fantastically awesome road trip down through eastern Germany and around the beautiful state of Saxony.

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I'm counting down the days until my third anniversary of living in Europe by recapping trips that I never got around to highlighting.  You can see the list of trips (and links to them as they are written) here.

Munich: Probably Should Go Here Under Less Sad Circumstances

Even Paul's reflection in the window is a sad face.

The most recent memory I have of Munich is sitting in a hotel room crying while attempting to eat an entire bag of cheddar and sour cream chips and drink two cans of root beer in under thirty minutes.

It was unpleasant for so many reasons.

See, the thing was...I had just dropped my parents and sister off at the airport and they had brought us American snacks that we weren't going to be able to fit (or carry-on) in our backpacks for our own later flight home.  That should explain both the crying and the binge drinking.

Two years earlier, Munich was originally dumb since it was the place we said goodbye to Paul's family as well.  I remember leaving them in a little family hotel room near the train station, giving last-minute directions to the airport, as we left to catch our overnight train back home to northern Germany.

It was the wooooorrrrrrst.

Munich is THE WORST.

But it's so unfair because, I mean, if all these pictures I have of Munich weren't drenched in the tears of eternal woe, then Munich would kind of look like THE BEST.

I mean, really, it has a lot going for it.  There are a gabazillion churches, for example.  And all of them have an interesting story - example: legit Roman-era mummies on display?  I know this, because I've been through the first 85% of the Rick Steve's Munich Walking Tour twice now.

Also, there's this outdoor market area that's always been gorgeous with its maypole and chestnut trees and adorable stalls selling handwoven baskets and bratwurst (different stalls...not the same stall.  Though maybe I just didn't see that one.)  

Or there's the Englischer Garten - this gigantic and gorgeous park with a lazy-river style canal you can just float along (or surf, in particular spots).  Want to picnic?  Find a spot in a giant, amazing meadow.  Want to go horseback riding?  Sure thing!  Want to ride a segwey while eating weisswurst?  You find it there.

There are palaces and art museums and opera houses and biergartens, and dirndl shops (one of my life goals is to own a tailored, green dirndl...).  It's actually a really nice city.

...if it wasn't actually the worst city in the world!

The real point I'm trying to make here is that...we need to go back sometime.  Munich needs some redemption - and dag nabbit, I want to finally finish that Rick Steve's Walking Tour!

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I'm counting down the days until my third anniversary of living in Europe by recapping trips that I never got around to highlighting.  You can see the list of trips (and links to them as they are written) here.

Neuschwanstein and Environs

Hopfen-am-See

Hi.

We're back from Spain.  But right now I'm going to talk about Germany.  I just feel like it.

So, you know about Neuschwanstein, yes?  Of course you do.  Even if you don't think you do, you actually do.  You just don't know that's what it's called.  Have you seen Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?  Then you know.  Have you seen any Disney movie with the opening credits part that shows a castle with some sparkly arch drawn over the top and the music goes all, "Deeeee naaa na na na naaaaaaaaaaaa?"  Then you know Neuschwanstein.  

I'm just going to call it "Castle" for the rest of this post, actually. It's annoying to type Neuschwanstein.

So, we've been to Castle two times now, once in May 2012 with Paul's family and once in June 2014 with my family.  Why?  Because you have to go see Castle if you're anywhere near it.  Because it's Castle.

Here's the thing though.  Both times there has been something off with Castle.  

In 2012, it was half in scaffolding...

In 2014, we were there during an epic torrential downpour (that only stopped when my family was inside Castle, of course).

But regardless, a visit to Castle is always great.  Because even in scaffolding or hurricanes, the views around it are still beautiful.

Paul told me that I had to be sure to note that his Dad spoke the following words from the outlook near Castle's main entrance:  "This is the most beautiful place in the world."

So.  There you go.

Really quickly though, I want to leave off by saying that the area near Castle is also very lovely and has quite a few sights to see.

For example, there's the uber-Baroque Wieskirche about a 45 minute drive north.  It stands alone, surrounded by dairy cow pasture (and the cows have the bells around their necks!).

Or there's all the little villages that showcase the region's propensity to paint lovely scenes on their buildings...

But mostly, it's just a really nice place to go for a drive through the Alps and into the foothills...

Finally, I would like to end this post by dedicating it to our two rental vans from 2012 and 2014: Diesel-beast and Mom.  I am so glad we didn't damage either one of you.

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I'm counting down the days until my third anniversary of living in Europe by recapping trips that I never got around to highlighting.  You can see the list of trips (and links to them as they are written) here.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber, or German Disneyland

It's So Cuuuuuuuute

The day we drove into Rothenburg wasn't, shall we say, the smoothest travel day.  We started off the morning in Freiburg exhausted from a surreal overnight train experience, ended up getting kicked out of the seats at Starbucks because all of us had not ordered something (my boycott is still going strong two and a half years later, Starbucks!), trying to get our rental van but being told that they actually didn't have the right size (They said, "But we have this nice car you can take!" and we were like, "We...reserved...the big van...because we needed a big van...?  Why in the world would we reserve a giant van if we really only wanted a little car?!), driving an hour away to get another van, and then starting our 7 hour drive through the Black Forest to get to Rothenburg.

Insanity.

But lovely insanity out in that Black Forest area, if you wanted to know.

And when we got to Rothenburg and checked into our amazing hotel right in the heart of the old town, everything was forgiven.  Because, if you want to be in the cutest little German town of Disney-esque adorability, Rothenburg ob der Tauber is the place to go.

Adooooorrrrrrable.  And I'm holding a Rothenburger pastry translated as a "snowball"

Not going to lie.  Rothenburg was the best.  Just a great city for strolling and exploring.  Really just feeling Germanish, you know?  Both nights we ate under the chestnut trees in a little biergarten, drinking our apfelschorle and ordering halves of chickens and bratwursts.  Days were spent browsing streets, checking out museums, and appreciating all the little things that you notice in a place that's been around for nearly 1000 years.

Can't say enough about Rothenburg so, predictably, I won't say much more...

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I'm counting down the days until my third anniversary of living in Europe by recapping trips that I never got around to highlighting.  You can see the list of trips (and links to them as they are written) here.

Stralsund and Rügen

One day in May 2012, we took Paul's family a couple hours to the east to see the white cliffs on the island of Rügen and have a half day in the coastal city of Stralsund.

It's good I'm writing about this because these aren't really places that your average tourist would have ever heard about (and so I may have forgotten about them in the future), but in Germany (particularly former East Germany), they're pretty well known as holiday destinations.

Rügen especially, with its small national park protecting its chalk cliffs, was very popular, particularly in the 19th and early 20th century, as a place to "take the air" and visit the seaside.  Maybe comb the beach for some of that ubiquitous Baltic amber always washing up on shore.

And for us, living so much in the city with no car, getting out to see forests and beaches and a serious lack of concrete was just a wonderful relief.

We made our way back to the mainland and Stralsund for the express purpose of seeing the new Ozeaneum aquarium.  Because, I mean, Paul and the whole marine biology thing and Paul's brother and his whole marine biology thing.  It was just going to happen.

And really, if you randomly find yourself in Mecklenburg-Pomerania, you should go see the Ozeaneum.  It's fancy.

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I'm counting down the days until my third anniversary of living in Europe by recapping trips that I never got around to highlighting.  You can see the list of trips (and links to them as they are written) here.

That One Time? In May?

So, there was this one time? Seven months ago?  Where we traversed all of Germany for a week with Paul's family?

Yeah, it was a lot of traveling.  And yeah, it was our first time trying an overnight train.  And yeah, we maybe didn't know that an overnight train meant we'd be shoving Paul's parents, sister, brother, and brother-in-law into a tiny, pitch-dark compartment in the middle of the night to sleep nose-to-back with four other strangers on two-inch thick sleeping pallets.  Also, there was snoring.  Also, no one slept more than two seconds, I'm pretty sure.

But kudos to them for sticking with us.

Even after leaving them alone in the middle of a foreign city while in a state of unshowered exhaustion for two and a half hours while we drove 60 miles away to pick up the rental van that the company forgot to have waiting for us.

Kudos! In-laws!

Or after we once made them eat lunch at an IKEA because said rental van was so, so big that we were terrified at the thought of trying to maneuver it around anything less than an interstate off-ramp and a massive, open parking lot.

Did I mention kudos to them?

Or after leading them on three-hour long (probably, I don't actually remember) death marches walking tours of various German cities -- oh, even though one member of the group had essentially thrown his/her back out the week before and was using a cane.  (What were we thinking?!?!)

The kudos.  They are yours.

Or being treated to not-so-tasty renditions of goulash, fish, and pizza at various points of the journey.

Or the cold, cold cave that is our springtime, non-heated apartment.

Or a five-alarm couple meltdown at the van drop-off in Munich where Paul just wouldn't park the dang thing in the only open space right in front of the Police Department garage and have done with it (let the rental company deal! It's their fault!) and Heidi just wouldn't understand that we couldn't just park the dang thing in full view of the Police Department in a spot that wasn't for parking!

Heyyyyyyyy.  Kuuuuuudddddoooooosssssssss.

But guess what?  Even though so many kudos were given to their long-suffering that we are still in kudo debt....we did manage to end up doing and seeing some really amazing things.

(And the quarkballs we found by the castle at the end maybe made up a little bit for the bad fish and pizza experiences...I hope)

So stay tuned...

Schlossing in Mecklenburg

There are three major palaces (or Schloesser) in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and we've had a goal for a year now to go to see them all.

First, there was the fairy-tale palace of Schwerin in October last year...

With its lakeside orangerie...

and Rapunzel tower...

Then, in May, we went to see Gustrow's "Manly" Schloss...

With its banqueting hall decked out with fake-deer/real-antlers...

...And Italian-style arcades.

And finally, last week, we checked off the third Mecklenburg schloss, about a two-hour bus ride away in Ludwigslust.

It definitely had a much more...British?...look about it (reminded me of Churchill's Blenheim Palace).  

Where Schwerin won for fairy-tale prettiness and Gustrow for manly-antler-decor, Ludwigslust definitely won for its gardens.  

Acres and acres of what used to be the Duke of Mecklenburg's hunting park...

But eventually, over centuries, made into a beautiful example of English gardening, with trick fountains...

...and long walks through carefully manicured "wilderness."

Around lunchtime, we wandered through the forests, exploring grottoes and chapels and hiking paths and various mausoleums (daughter of the Tsar?  Didn't expect that one.), and we found a small restaurant in what used to be the Duchess' country-style, thatched-roof getaway cottage.  

Sitting with this view, across a wide meadow, with a bowl of Mecklenburger Potato-Plum soup might have made Ludwigslust's schloss my favorite of the three.

But, then again, looking through these pictures...I'm not quite sure which one I love the most anymore.