Three Weeks in Germany

Day 3 – We did Context Travel’s “Divided City: Cold War Berlin” tour, which compared post-war architecture in the two halves of Berlin and, as an aside, allowed us to see some squatters’ tenements in the Friedrichshain neighborhood, along with the broken windows and paint-bombed facades of new developments that had been attacked by the district’s anarchists. A fascinating, amazing, highly-recommended tour that we did with our guide Robert, who is the son of an East German bureaucrat and was 15 at the time the Berlin Wall fell. We followed that up with a trip to the Käthe Kollwitz Museum and then the Marge Schoeller Bücherstube, a bookstore opened in 1929 by Frau Schoeller that remained open during the Nazi era despite refusing to sell Nazi literature (and secretly selling banned books in the basement). While the store has a decent-size English selection of books, I sat in the children’s section, reading German picture books, which was about right for my vocabulary. The day ended with a rousing performance of Anton Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony by the Berlin Philharmonic directed by Simon Rattle.

Day 4 – On this day, we went deep into the former East Berlin. We visited the old Stasi prison and took the English tour, which was quite good. Then we moved on to the Deutsch-Russiches Museum in the former post-war Berlin Soviet military headquarters; it also happens to be the place where the German military commanders signed the unconditional surrender at the end of WWII (a day after political leaders signed it in France). The museum today tells a pro-Soviet history of WWII and its aftermath, though it apparently is much softened relative to its exhibition prior to the Russian withdrawal from Berlin in 1994. After a nice long walk in Volkspark Friedrichshain, we ate dinner at Noctus Vagi, a dark restaurant where dinner is served by visually-impaired servers in a pitch-black dining room. The server helps diners navigate the darkness to get to their table. As I entered the dining room from the transition room, it was suffocatingly dark… to the point that I was not sure I was going to be able to remain in the room and eat dinner. But I took a few deep breaths, collected myself and ended up doing fine.

Day 5 – My friend had recently read a book on Ravensbrück, so we made a visit to the female-only concentration camp. We reached the nearby town of Fürstenberg by regional train and then walked to the camp. The exhibit in the main building is excellent. It’s worth noting that there are minimal to no gruesome photos of atrocities here; much of the story of the camp is told through the drawings of the women who lived there. It was a moving visit. After the visit, we return to Fürstenberg and wandered around, finding a number of nice “backdoor” places to sit and/or to linger.

Day 6 – There were no other guests at the B&B, so we gave our hostess the morning off and ate at Café Einstein Stammhaus, a classy café that allows visitors to step back into 1905 Berlin. While the ambiance was great, the food was even better. After breakfast, we headed to the location of the old Bornholmer Straße border crossing between East and West Berlin; this was the first border crossing to open on the evening of Nov 9, 1989, the evening the Berlin Wall fell. Little remains of the border crossing other than a tiny stretch of asphalt with faded lane markings and a small remnant of the Wall to the right of the bridge; the old border station was torn down and replaced by a Lidl grocery store. Placards describe the events of that storied night. From there, we headed to the Pankow district, and visited the 3 different locations of Museum Pankow – a former school turned into a museum that tells the story of the district (nearly all in German), a master craftsman’s flat preserved as it would have been at the beginning of the 19th century (a brief handout in English was provided), and a factory owner’s flat preserved likewise (all in German).

Day 6 (continued): The last stop is farthest away from the city center, which means there are a good number of buildings that escaped WWII bombing; some of them are simply magnificent, like the Carl-von-Ossietzky-Gymnasium.

Day 7 – We wandered through Viktoria Park on the west end of Kreuzberg. We stood at a bridge that crosses the artificial waterfall in the park and were mesmerized by the magic of an old Prussian monument standing like a castle at the top of the waterfall with water tumbling down the rocks of the tree-lined waterfall; there was some sort of small white fluffy plant particle floating through the air like snow. It remains a favorite memory of Berlin. We popped into Another Country, an English bookstore in the district; it was… uhhh… gross, but I bought an English expat magazine there that I enjoyed. We wandered the Chamissoplatz area to see a residential area spared from bombs and a lovely old brick Wasserturm (water tower). Later in the day, we met up with a Context Travel guide for a tour of the eastern part of Kreuzberg near the old East-West border. Afterward, we headed to the Rausch Schokolade Haus, where we sat in the café and enjoyed nice views and a chocolate treat; this was followed by wandering Mitte.

Day 8 – We had done A LOT of walking since arriving in Berlin. I had unwittingly rubbed a whole in the insole of my shoe and was having some foot discomfort. We went shoe shopping! Which I hate. In the rain. I couldn’t really find anything, so I settled on replacement insoles, which at about 2 euros, was a deal. I then did 4-5 hours of catch-up computer work for my job at the B&B. Typical American. When I finished, we headed over to Alexanderplatz to wander and then ate dinner at the Fernsehturm (TV tower), with reservations carefully timed to allow us to see the city go from light to dark. I love that! We did it last year – it was one of the few things we repeated this year. Just like that… an unpromising day became great!

Day 9 – I’m an airline/airplane geek. The plan for this day was to fly Air Berlin from Tegel to Frankfurt. It would be a new airline for me! Alas, it was not to be. Air Berlin apparently runs a pretty terrible operation at Berlin; I read (after the fact) that they had recently started giving out little chocolate hearts when their terrible operations impacted fliers. To make a long story short, I received a chocolate heart on the plane, but the plane never got off the ground. Flight canceled. Our bags were the last to come at baggage claim, which put us at the end of a ridiculously long line of stranded travelers with one window open for rebooking. We decided just to eat the cost of the relatively inexpensive tickets, so I pulled out my trusty iPhone (how did you pre-smart phone travelers do it?????) and checked the DBahn app. Too late for a train that day, so I booked two rooms at the Motel One across the street from Berlin Hbf, hailed a taxi, and bought two electronic tickets to Gengenbach via Frankfurt for early the next morning with the DBahn app.

SCHWARZWALD/BLACK FOREST. We stayed at a B&B and took full advantage of the included Konus card for free transportation in the area.

Day 10 – We took the train from Berlin to Gengenbach. After settling in at the B&B, we wandered the town, had a couple of great Spargel dishes for dinner (Tis the season!), and then went back to the B&B to relax.

Day 11 – At the recommendation of our B&B hostess, we took the train to Freiburg and then on to Schluchsee. She told us to skip Titisee, thought for a moment, and then said, “No, stop at Titisee, see the foreign tourists, and then go to Schluchsee and see the Germans.” At Titisee, we walked through a residential area to get to the lake (keep walking straight as you exit the train station instead of going right with the rest of the tourists). It was a very nice walk and allowed us to skip the commercial stuff on our way to the lake, which I think made the lake more pleasant and appealing when we saw it. We walked back along the commercial path, which was a little overwhelming. We hopped back on the train toward the larger Schluchsee, which was pretty quiet on the May day we visited. It looks like it can be quite a bit busier during high season, but it was peaceful for us. We rode the boat that sails around the lake and did some hiking. We stopped in Freiburg on our way back to visit the church there and to grab dinner. We transferred trains in Offenburg around 10 pm and had about a 30-min wait. There was a creepy guy who kept getting closer and closer to a German-speaking woman who was alone on the platform with a piece of carry-on luggage; my friend and I walked down and stood near her – the creepy guy took off. That was a little odd.

Day 12 -- We went to the open-air museum at Gutach that exhibits Black Forest farm houses dating back to the 1500’s. There was a lot to see and do there… an interesting place. We hopped on the train and then headed to Alpirsbach. We wandered the city a little and popped into the quite impressive Kloster there. In the 1600’s, the building was used as a boarding school for 10- to 14-year old boys pondering a future in seminary. There is a nicely-done museum with artifacts from that time, including the boys’ clothes, toys, and books. The museum is in German, but the front desk provides a folio that describes each room (as well as the sanctuary) in English. After eating a Döner for dinner, we headed back to Gengenbach and sat on its Marktplatz, eating an ice cream cone and people watching.

Day 13 – We once again traveled by train, but this time to Triberg. After arriving at the train station, we found the Schwarzwaldbahn Erlebnispfad, a hiking trail that takes hikers to various locations related to the Black Forest railway (e.g., a tunnel or an overlook where several train stations can be seen). The hike offered nice views of the Black Forest and Triberg. After the hike, we walked to the other end of the town, checked out some cuckoo clocks, and visited Triberg Wasserfall. Despite the option of a bus, we walked back to the train station, as we aim to get as many walking miles as we can every day.

BODENSEE/LAKE CONSTANCE. We really enjoyed this part of the trip. The lake is gorgeous, and there is so much to do in the towns around it. We stayed in Meersburg at Hotel Garni Eden. This is a small, renovated/updated, family-run hotel with views of the lake. We loved staying here. The owners were exceptionally friendly and kind. Breakfast included bread that was still warm. The hotel is just a 3- to 5-minute walk from the main part of town. To get to the water front/sea promenade (“Lower Town”), one must walk down a good number of steps near the hotel, but this was easily manageable; we got back to the hotel by walking up the (somewhat steep) road to the main part of the “Upper Town” and then hanging a right for the 3- to 5-minute walk to the hotel. There are amazing views of the sunset near the hotel.

Day 14 – We caught the train from Gengenbach to Konstanz, hopped a bus to the ferry station, rode the ferry to Meersburg, and then caught a bus to our hotel. We headed to the sea promenade and wandered around for a while. We then walked to the Upper Town and had an excellent dinner featuring fish from the lake at Hotel zum Bären. We shared our table with a couple from Stuttgart who baled me out on my German a couple of times and engaged us in conversation at the end of our meal.

Day 15 – We spent the day split between Konstanz and the flower-laden Mainau Insel (where we rubbed elbows with a lot of tourists, but only a few of them were American).

Day 16 – On this day, we explored Meersburg. We went to the town’s medieval castle and took the optional tour of the castle’s tower. The tour was included in the cost of admission and was in German; I didn’t understand a lot, but we got to see parts of the castle that otherwise are not open to the public. We also went to the Bibelgallerie Meersburg, a small, remarkably kid-friendly museum of the Bible located in a 500-year-old former Dominican convent with a 500-year-old fresco on the ground floor. The rest of the day was spent wandering, including checking out gardens, parks, and architecture. Sadly, the ice cream in this town is terrible.

Day 17 – We took a 3-hour boat ride to Lindau. It is a gorgeous little town. The best find for this WWI/WWII history buff was Peterskirche, a church built in 1000 AD that was converted into a war memorial after WWI that included a sculpture of a dead soldier and the names of the dead from Lindau engraved in 4 large marble (I think) slabs. After WWII, the names of the dead of the town were written on several standing wooden plaques added to the interior of the building (there were 18 of them as I recall). The town seemingly lost two generations of young men to war. A recent addition to the memorial is the names of Jewish and other victims of the Nazi regime from Lindau. There are many other interesting finds in this town, from a great bookstore to a nice city park to shops with unique items, including artists selling their creations in store fronts. We returned to Meersburg the quick way – by train/bus.

BERCHTESGADEN. The Bavarian Alps are gorgeous. We stayed in Ramsau, just outside of Berchtesgaden, at Anfanglehen, a farmhouse that rents out a few rooms and a holiday apartment. My friend and I stayed in the latter. It was fabulous – a large sitting room, a well-appointed kitchen, a Euro-cool bathroom, 2 bedrooms, and a balcony. We very much enjoyed our stay. This was our one lodging where the owner spoke no English, so I got to test my German language skills; it went reasonably well. While this place is awesome, it would be hard for someone who knows no German to stay here because of the language barrier. We did have a car for this part of the trip, which was quite helpful.

Day 18 -- We picked up a car at Lindau and drove to Berchtesgaden. We departed late because I left my wallet in the hotel safe in Meersburg, and we had to go back for it. Because of that, we took the “fast” route via Munich instead of the scenic route through southern Bavaria. Munich traffic was terrible. We called ahead to let our hostess know we would be late, and she kindly waited for us until 19:30 (original arrival time 17:00-18:00).

Day 19 – The day was filled with the full-day “History Buff Tour” offered by Eagles’ Nest Historic Tours. David Harper, co-owner of the company and author of the guide to Berchtesgaden we used for planning this part of the trip, gave us an exceptional private tour that provided a comprehensive understanding of the history of Berchtesgaden and Obersalzberg, their transformation by the Nazis, and their postwar recovery. I loved this tour!

Day 20 – This day was another nature day! Our morning hike took us through Wimbachklamm, a short (but beautiful) gorge near our lodging place and on up to Wimbachschloß, a house that provides refreshments for those climbing even higher than we went. We got an early start and had the path pretty much to ourselves; on our return, we passed throngs headed in the opposite direction. Before our afternoon hike, we stopped at the beautiful Pfarrkirche St Sebastian in Ramsau, which Dwight Eisenhower (amateur artist that he was) painted during an end-of-war visit to Berchtesgaden in 1945. We hiked from the church to Hintersee via the Zauberwald (Magic Forest), hiked around Hintersee, and then hiked back by a different route. Along the way, we passed a delightful, animated, wooden dwarf community at work and at play, all driven by a waterwheel. The path through the Zauberwald follows the Ramsauer Ache (a river) with increasingly stunning views the closer one gets to Hintersee.

Day 21 – Another nature day! We drove to Königssee and caught the boat across the river to the far end of the lake. We then hiked to Obersee and then through a meadow full of cows on to the Röthbach waterfall. We returned to the boat dock and traveled back across the lake to our starting point and took the trail to Malerwinkl (Painter’s Corner), which has a very nice view of the lake. We then departed Königssee and headed to the Roßfeldpanoramastraße, an alpine road built to provide stunning views of southern Bavaria and Austria to Hitler’s guests at Obersalzberg.

Day 22 – This day was spent in Berchtesgaden. We hit the very nice Heimat Museum, bought some gifts for friends, ate some good Greek food, and then headed back to the apartment to start packing for our early morning departure.

Day 23 – We left Ramsau at about 5:30 am for a 11:30 am flight out of Munich. We arrived at rental car return around 7:45, checked in for our flight by 8:15, and were through security by 9:00. That gave us a decent wait for our flight, but we strongly prefer to be too early than to feel stressed about having enough time to reach the airport.

Dave,

Thanks for your trip report. It sounds like you had a great trip! You mentioned that you have been studying German. Is there a language app or program that you would recommend? I have used duoliingo and babble and am always interested in others' experiences.

Great detailed trip report!!! Lake Constance and the Black forest don't get enough love on this board:) Also great you listed your resources. We have stayed in Freiburg and daytripeed to Gengenbach. Gengenbach seemed so small - I wondered what it would be like to stay there. In 2012 we spent a week biking around Lake Constance which we LOVED! It is one of our best Europe memories! Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for writing this great trip report. You and your friend had so many well planned experiences and a few curve balls thrown in as well. Excellent recovery on the glitches along the way. I'm sure the two of you are already thinking of your next adventure! Glad to hear that you enjoyed Meersburg and the wonderful ferry travel of the Bodensee.

@Sharon... I used Pimsleur at the beginning, which was helpful because it's practical. The most helpful thing, though, has been taking lessons over Skype. There are a few websites that connect language learners with native speakers who do lessons by Skype; I use italki.com. Little helps with learning a language better than immediate feedback from a native speaker. It also helps you "sound good."

@Jill... We really liked staying in Gengenbach. The small town feel was a nice juxtaposition to Berlin. Freiburg was a busy, busy place the afternoon/evening we were there. It was nice to head back each day to a sleepy little town where we could sit on the town square, eat ice cream and enjoy the slowness. Obviously, that's not for everybody. Our B&B owner in Berlin was disappointed that we weren't staying in Freiburg, but she is a big city person!

@Mona -- Yeah, we definitely had a few glitches along the way, but we are able to overcome them, often with the help of Europeans who were amazingly kind to us -- a KLM employee in Amsterdam who helped us when our inbound flight was late and resulted in a missed connection, the KLM ground guy on the tarmac at Tegel who was holding up the bag I left on the plane asking if it belonged to anyone (I was so excited about going down the back steps of the plane for a view that is rare in the US, I forgot the day bag I had carried on!), our inn keeper in Meersburg who grabbed my wallet for me out of the safe (along with my shampoo out of the shower which I didn't realize I had left behind). So, I should thank the lovely people of Europe for their help!

@ Dave....I left Germany on Sat, July 1. That part of this trip is done with. I am glqd you found time to go Berlin-Karlshorst, saw the Museum last year. It is totally redone from the last time I was there in 1999. I found it a bit lax in its historical analysis, told them so since they asked me. Some of the historical realia / material featured then in 1999 is not part of the Museum's current display.

@Fred: Hope you are enjoying your trip. I hope to make it to Seelow Heights in the next year or two to continue learning about the Russian experience of WWII.

Thank you for sharing your experience. Planning our 2018 trip so always great to find out about new places to go and new things to see.

Thank you for an interesting trip report! I biked around the Bodensee about 10 years ago and loved it. I overnighted in Lindau (watched a really good street performer near the harbor) and Konstanz and Immenstaad. Interesting controversial Peter Lenk fountain in Ueberlingen!

@ Dave....great that you are plugging away at the studying. Until you start getting dreams in German, you still hava a ways to go. Keep in mind that you cannot overstudy or over learn; Day 7 at the Viktoria-Luisen Park in Kreuzberg: Did you see the Freiheitsdenknal 1813 to 1815? Keep in mind only the victories or near victories of the Allies are listed. What you don't see are the battles and engagements won by Napoleon over the Allies.

@Fred: I've had one dream in German. So, I think I still have a ways to go. Taking lessons. Watching Goethe Institute videos and German YouTube videos. Listening to bands that sing in German. Reading German chapter books for kids. Watching German movies and tv shows. Studying vocabulary. Trying my best to get it in my 44-year-old brain! Also... I did see the Freiheitsdenkmal. Impressive structure.

@ Dave,,,,,I only saw the Freiheitsdenkmal once, in 2007, noticed right away in that list of battles and engagements that Dresden, Ligny, Montmirail, Bautzen , etc were omitted since the Prussians and their fellow allies lost.

My compliments on your determination and dedication, Dave, in pursuing the language. Use whatever method(s) that works, electronic, old fashion flash cards, visuals, drill and kill method, videos, playing CDs while you drive, etc. Just keep in mind that knowing some polite and useful phrases, here and there, etc, that is not good enough for you to read newspapers headlines, graffiti, historical plaques, train announcements, things you come across in Alltagsleben. Listen to lyrics in Schager music...helps with the romantic comprehension, and so on.

@Fred: Thanks for the encouragement regarding language learning. My goal is to be able to speak fairly fluently and to read a German newspaper. I live in an area with a BMW plant and am a pediatrician. I pull out my German for the occasional German kid I see in the office.

@ Dave,,,I don't mean to say that frustrating moments will not take place in getting that German just right, ie grammatically correct, such as using the correct preposition, or verb and preposition combination, or the subjunctive form of a strong verb, and proper diction in terms of context....all very lovely to tackle. BTW, that BMW plant in your town was featured on the German TV, the biggest in the USA. Notice that they SC instead of Calif...for good reason too!