Monday, June 5 – Took an Uber to IAD for a 1520 flight to Frankfurt, connecting to Berlin. I got there early enough to kill about 90 minutes in the Lufthansa business class lounge. The departure was delayed by about 30 minutes, which made me nervous about making the tight connection in Frankfurt, but that worked out OK. I arrived in Berlin about 0730 on Tuesday, and took a long, slow commuter train into the city (to the Berlin Friedrichstraße station).
Tuesday, June 6 – My hotel (the Maritim Hotel – Berlin) was two blocks from the train station. I checked in but was too early to get a room, so I spent a few hours doing the first half of the Rick Steves Berlin walking tour. I went back to the hotel around 1100, and was able to move in to my room. The hotel and the room were very comfortable. I rested for a while, then walked to the Reichstag to check out the dome. After the Reichstag visit, I had dinner at a restaurant adjacent to the hotel (currywurst,fries), and then walked around Berlin for a few hours before returning to the hotel for the night.
Wednesday, June 7 – Up early, breakfast at the hotel (excellent breakfast buffet). I had tickets for several museums (timed, starting at 1000), so I stuck around my room for an hour or two, doing Spanish lessons, and Wordle/Quordle. It was a quick walk to “Museum Island”, and I got there early enough to walk around and get accustomed to the layout. At 1000, I visited the Pergamon Museum, which includes the Antiquity Collection, the Islamic Art Collection, and the Middle East Museum. The museum is relatively small (manageable in a few hours), and the collection is spectacular (including the reconstructed Ishtar Gate). The wing containing the Pergamon altar was being rebuilt when I visited. In the afternoon, I visited the Neues Museum, next door to the Pergamon. I had lunch in the museum cafe (shared my table with an interesting German guy), then toured the collections, including an impressive collection of Egyptian artifacts, and paleolithic objects from northern Europe. I headed back to my hotel around 1600, and rested/read in my room until I conked out for the evening (skipped dinner). Not much sleep on Wednesday night (jet lag? duvet overheating?).
Thursday, June 8 – Up early for breakfast, then spent an hour or so in my room catching up on lessons/puzzles. Walked to Museum Island to visit the Altes Museum, which had an excellent collection of 19th century German painters. After the museum visit I did the second half of the Rick Steves Berlin walk, ending up at Alexanderplatz. I took a tram back from Alexanderplatz to the Hauptbanhof (HBF, main train station) and then to the Friedrichstraße station, and had a late lunch there (shrimp and chips). At the station I bought my train ticket for my Friday trip to Potsdam. Rested for an hour or so at my hotel, and then walked across town, through the Tiergaarten to the Berlin Symphony Hall, where I saw the Berlin Philharmonic perform two premier pieces by Lisa Streich and Julia Wolf, and Tchaikovsky’s Frencesca da Rimini. After the concert I walked back to the hotel via the Unter den Linden, stopping for a large beer en route.
Friday, June 9 – At breakfast I met a person who was traveling with the Road Scholar group that I had originally planned on joining. After breakfast, I walked to the Friedrichstraße station and took an 0800 train to Potsdam. I walked from the train station into town and spent an hour or so walking through the city, then I walked to Sanssouci Park. I toured the park for a few hours and then walked to a train staion near the New Palace, for the ride back to Berlin. I had a late lunch at the train station, then rested for a while at the hotel. After packing for the train to Dresden on Saturday, I read for a while before turning in for the night.
Saturday, June 10 – After breakfast, I checked out of the hotel and took an S train to the HBF for the trip to Dresden. I met a nice guy from Nigeria and we talked about U.S. politics while we were waiting for the train. I had an hour or so to kill at the HBF, so I bought a coffee and read for a while. I arrived in Dresden around 1100. There was a huge gay pride celebration going on in town, and the train station was packed. I walked into town, left my luggage at my hotel, the INNSiDE Dresden, and walked the Rick Steves Dresden tour. About midway, I stopped for lunch at a restaurant on the “Balcony of Europe“, where I shared a table with a nice German couple. I had a blood sausage dish (which was a little odd), sauerkraut, and beer. After the Steves walk, I rested at a beer garden in the “new town” (on the right bank of the Elbe, crossing over the Augustus Bridge). Back in the hotel, I found out that my room wouldn’t be ready until about 1530, so I napped in the lobby for about 30 minutes. I moved in, unpacked, and then spent a few hours strolling around Dresden.
Sunday, June 11 – Overpriced breakfast at the hotel (25 € for a pretty sparse buffet), then I spent an hour catching up on email, puzzles, Spanish. Around 0930 I headed out to visit the Palace museums (the old and new Green Vaults, and the palace quarters), and the Zwinger Old Masters Museum. I stopped on my way back to my hotel for handmade chocolate ice cream, then rested for a bit in the hotel. After the rest I walked across the street to the Albertinum Museum, which I toured for a few hours. After the museum visit, I walked to a pizza place that I had spotted on my Saturday walk, and enjoyed a (larger than I had anticipated) pizza (mushrooms, peppers, anchovies). After dinner I waddled back to the hotel to pack up for the Monday train trip to Munich.
Monday, June 12 – Probably the worst day of the trip, I spent most of Monday waiting in the Dresden Hauptbahnhof, and on the long (twice-delayed) train ride to Munich. I had to transfer in Leipzig, and was a little nervous about being on the correct platform, so I asked a woman sitting next to me if she spoke English. She replied (with a heavy British accent), “Yes, I’m from England”. We had a nice chat (I was on the right platform). I got into Munich around 2000, and walked to my nearby hotel, the Relexa Hotel Munich. It had been a long, tiring day, and it was nice to meet the incredibly friendly and helpful staff at the hotel. The hotel was in a moderately funky part of the city (near the train station), but was well-located for walking into the city center. I unpacked and went out for a late dinner at a nearby Afghani restaurant (I had been craving aushak for months). The late dinner didn’t sit well with my innards, so I didn’t get much sleep Monday night.
Tuesday, June 13 – Skipped breakfast on Tuesday (due to the aforementioned gut disturbance), and slept in. Around 0830 I walked to the meeting place for the Gray Line bus trip to Ludwig’s Castles (Neuschwanstein and Linderhof). The tour leader was a German woman named Ursula who did a fantastic job. The bus was described as a “luxury bus” and that was true. The driver made everyone coffee when they boarded, and there was a large table in the middle of the bus with snacks and bananas. I sat behind a young lawyer who lived in Fairfax. The drive to the foothills of the German Alps took about 90 minutes. We visited Neuschwanstein first, spending several hours at the complex of castles and cafes, then headed to the smaller (but more charming) Linderhof Castle. We walked through the village (Oberammergau) that’s famous for its Passion Play, and then headed back to Munich, arriving around 1900. On my walk back to the hotel, I grabbed a sandwich and a beer to have in my room.
Wednesday, June 14 – Breakfast in the hotel, then a quick walk to the meeting place for a day trip to Salzburg. The trip organizer was Radius Tours, who I highly recommend to anyone visiting Germany. Our guide was a young Spanish woman named Lucia. She was very friendly, informative, and enthusiastic. She led a walking tour through the city for a couple of hours, and then gave us a few more hours to explore on our own. Salzburg is mainly know to tourists as the birthplace of Mozart and as the home of the Trapp Family Singers. It was fun to learn that many of the details of the movie were concocted: the family didn’t live in a mansion by a lake, if Maria had run from the Alps to the convent she would’ve run over 50 miles, if the family had actually backpacked into the hills to escape the Germans they would’ve been hiking into Germany (to Hitler’s “Eagle’s Nest”, specifically), Maria was raised an atheist, Edelweiss wasn’t a favorite German folk song but was composed by Rogers and Hammerstein for the film, etc. I walked up toward the fortress that overlooks Salzburg, and stopped for lunch at a brewery/restaurant on the way. I shared a table with an older guy from Germany who spoke little English, but we managed a very entertaining conversation. After lunch I visited Mozart’s birthplace, stopped for some “Mozart Balls”, and wondered around town until it was time to meet the group and head back to Munich. We got back around 1900, and I repeated my plan from the night before (grabbed a sandwich and a beer at the train station to have in my room).
Thursday, June 15 – After breakfast at the hotel, I took off for the Steves’ Munich walk, having lunch about halfway through at a restaurant that Lucia recommended on Wednesday. I ran into a couple that I traveled with to Salzburg, and we talked for a few minutes. They were from Nashville and encouraged me to visit the city (they suggested that I do it in the fall). After lunch, I finished the tour and then rested in the Hofgarten, before heading back to the hotel around 1600.
Friday, June 16 – On Friday, I headed back to Radius Tours for their day trip to Auschwitz. I had planned to visit the camp alone, but I was glad I decided to go with the tour group, since the guide, Steve, was incredibly knowledgeable about the place (having studied WWII history for over 40 years, and having led Auschwitz tours for over 20). On the way back to Munich I sat across from a couple who were from Scotland. The guy told me that he had been in Atlanta recently on business, so I asked about his profession. He told me that he was the lead microbiologist for the “Scottish version of the FDA”, and I told him that that was a pretty interesting coincidence, since I had retired as the lead microbiologist for the “U.S. version of the FDA”. We had a great talk all the way back to town. When we got back to Munich, I walked to the restaurant where I had had lunch the day before, and had dinner (complete with three 17.5% Doppelbock beers). I stumbled happily back to my hotel, and packed up for my flight back home.
Saturday, June 17 – Since my flight was schedule for about 1600, I lingered in my room until almost noon, then walked to the HBF where I took the Lufthansa Express bus to the airport. I hung out in the business class lounge for a few hours, and then boarded the flight around 1530. It was an uneventful but long flight home. I finished re-watching Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (I had started it on the way from IAD to FRA), and then watched Living (a re-make of Kurosawa’s Ikiru). I tried to sleep but without much luck. From IAD I called an Uber and arrived home around 2100.