Continuation of United Kingdom and Germany trip.
6/16 Thursday. I am not COVID positive, incidentally. Last night I had a sore throat, so I did a RAT test which came back negative (that was 11 pm). However, I didn't wake up feeling so well this morning, so took some Tynenol, hoping the pills would work. The rest of the day was a hit-or-miss, and I felt more tired than usual.
We started the morning taking our laundry to this laundromat, but it was closed. It was open yesterday afternoon when I walked by. Then we remembered the Oberammergau Post Office would be closed today also, for "Body of Christ" day. Given many business were closed, we believe that is the cause. Turns of this day is celebrated by Catholics (and Lutherans!) for this doctrine of transubstantiation. So we will have to try again tomorrow.
We went back to Marienplatz to tour the Residenz as well as the Theater, and went into St. Peter's Church, the oldest church in Munich; indeed the church predates the founding of the city (city was first mentioned in 1158).
Modern U-Bahn Station near the Residenz.
They don't make it clear where the entrance to the Residenz is. Nice courtyard, though.
If you are the monarch or the elector, I guess you can have your own theater.
People at that time were quite content in copying one another's design. The art historian would be very interested in the thinking behind the elaborate details in this hallway.
A grotto-like installation.
Grand staircase
Throne room.
Collection of music instruments.
This church - as an architecture historian would tell you - is more Roman in design. It was destroyed in the second world war, reopened only in 2003.
Inside the oldest church in Munich, St. Peter's.
I cannot tell if it is St. Peter in the middle of this altar piece. Is he holding a cross, or a Bible?
Dinner at Munchner Stubn.
The Vauxhall Crossland is based on this Opel model.
Dinner was at Munchner Stubn, a restaurant right next to our hotel, and recommended in the Rick Steves guidebook. I had the pork, Anne the wurst plate. Food was okay, but probably not worth mentioning in a guide book.
6/17 Friday. First thing this morning was to take the wash to the laundromat. The lady said the best she could do was have it ready at 11 am the next day. Since I had no choice, I paid the 31 euros, hoping nothing will go awry in the process.
Out of the several possibilities, we picked a boat ride on the Staffelsee at Murnau. Train ride one hour each way, "free" because of the 9 euro ticket, although being (close to) a weekend the trains were quite full. The lake is quite small, and the boat had lots of room for the number of passengers on board. It took a little over an hour to go around the small lake, making two stops along the way. Not spectacular, but still rather pleasant. The "beach" (a lot of pebbles) was quite crowded; I imagine it would be even more so on Saturdays and Sundays.
After stopping off at the hotel, we decided to take the tram to Nymphenburg Castle to take a look. Since we would be there close to closing time, we decided not to go in (this palace was patterned after Versailles), instead we walked in the garden. Again pleasant and peaceful.
Dinner was at a local restaurant just outside the Castle (Metzgerwirt). Munchner Schnitzel is made with cutlets that first had mustard and horseradish brushed on, and to my taste is vastly superior to the more famous Wiener variety. The German restaurants we have been to don't seem to make a big deal out of how the dishes are prepared. For instance, there is a trout dish "served with lemon butter ...," but is it grilled, baked, pan-fried? The restaurant (Metzger means butcher) was first established in 1730.
It's a Friday, lots of people taking their bikes out to the country.
We took a boat ride on Staffelsee in the boat Seehausen.
Stopping at a village on the lake.
Swans on the grounds of Nymphenberg Castle.
Dinner at Metzgerwirt across the street from the castle. Around since 1730.
Looks like we will have to take our wash to a laundromat.
It was after 7:30 pm when we got back to the hotel.
6/18 Saturday. First order of business was to pick up our laundry. It was ready when I showed up at 11 am, so we have clean clothes for a few days. Next wash opportunity will be in Leipzig in a few days, the apartment should have a washer and a dryer.
Yesterday I requested and got our checkout time extended to 1 pm (normal is noon), so we decided to buy something to eat at the "Old Botanical Garden." When I got back to the hotel at about 12:40 pm, the key would open the room. It took two trips to the front desk to have the issue resolved. We ended up leaving at 1:15 pm or so. When I remarked that the laundry facilities didn't work out either, the hotel employee told me people could "illegally" go and do their laundry in the laundry room. More aggravation that I don't need.
The words "fallt aus" was posted next to our train number (ICE 1208), and we found out the word mean "was cancelled." Another hiccup? The lady at Information said it was the incoming train from Innsbruck that was cancelled, and the continuation to Nuremberg will operate as scheduled. After a 20-minute delay for "train repairs," we are now on our way. Again, Germans are not Swiss in the way their trains are run. There are very few passengers on this train.
It took us a bit of time to orientate ourselves after we got off the train, but eventually we found our way to the hotel. After settling in, we left for the Dokumentation Center. We visited the one by the Eagle's Nest a few years back, and I recall there was a display describing the four factors that led to the rise of Hitler. We skipped the one in Munich, thinking Nuremberg was where it all happened.
Alas, the Center here is undergoing renovation, and won't reopen until 2024. There was a temporary exhibit which required paid admission, we decided to give it a go. Didn't learn much, unfortunately. The Nuremberg Symphony also calls its home in this Congress Hall, the program tonight didn't look particularly attractive, so we decided to skip it.
Even though the Nuremberg Castle itself closes at 6 pm, we decided to visit that area where I recall from my prior visits a city wall. The moat around the castle was busy with some beer festival, and the old town - with a lot of Albrecht Durer references - had many eateries, all crowded. We decided to get back to the train station and ate at the food court.
The part of Germany is suffering through a heat wave, and per my Apple Watch the temperature reached 97F. The trams either aren't air-conditioned, or they decided not to turn the system on. I do wonder if it's because Germans like the heat, or they are undergoing an energy crisis with Russia cutting off supplies of oil and gas. In any case, with huge windows and a hot sun, the inside of trams were generally hot.
Sigh of relief when our train finally posted. One would think first class would be in Area A ... but not so (in this case, and in general).
Dining Room of train.
I monitored the speed of the train for a while from this monitor at the end of our car, 189 km/h was the highest I saw. We found out later the ICE trains can go a lot faster.
Dokumentation Center is under renovation. Will be ready in 2024.
The Congress Hall is part of the Nazi Rally Grounds used in the 1930s.
The outside of Congress Hall is quite impressive.
Nuremberg Symphony calls Congress Hall home.
At around 5 pm.
This tunnel under the city wall leads to the old town.
Many buildings have Albrecht Durer references.
A rather busy Friday early evening.
Some sort of beer festival, in the moat.
Accommodations: Sheraton Carlton Nuremberg. (2 nights)
6/19 Sunday. We had a few possibilities in mind, and opted to visit Bayreuth, where the famous Wagner Festival opera house is located. It was easy to get on the train with the 9-euro ticket, and the train wasn't particularly crowded. From the Bayreuth staton we needed to take a short walk to get to the grounds. Along the way are these miniature Wagner statues (say about 3 feet tall) on stands saying "Wagner Walk." The opera house is exactly as it appears in the photos, although we didn't get to go inside. To the left (facing the opera house) is a bust of Cosima Wagner. The plaque in front says it was done by a sculptor (forget the name) who did a lot of work for the Third Reich. Then we came upon the bust of Wagner. Surrounding it are these acrylic plagues. One would assume they talk about the pivotal moments in Wagner's life, like when he finished composing the Ring. Instead all the panels are titled "Silenced Voices" in different languages, and the panels are devoted to people who suffered under the Nazi regime. Some were fired from their jobs, some fled Germany, many got sent to concentration camps and were murdered there.
Wagner did espouse many antisemitic ideas, and wrote extensively on the subject. However, the panels also suggest Cosima was the one who was more "virulent," and the thought of blaming one's spouse comes to mind. More importantly, to link what happened about 60 years after his death (1883) directly to him seems a bit too "lazy," in that there had to be a more direct cause for the persecution of Jews by the Nazi regime. As I have observed before, Germans are front and center about their role in WWII, perhaps this is another example.
We decided to take the bus back from the Festival Opera House back to the train station. The train car we were in had a barely functioning AC, so we were drenched in sweat by the time we got back to Nuremberg.
After an early dinner at the restaurant across from the hotel (Osteria de Centro), we went and saw Peter Grimes at the Nuremberg Opera House.
Train from Nuremberg to Bayreuth was quite empty.
Along the road leading to The Bayreuth Festival Theater are small statues of Wagner.
Cosima Wagner. Someone was quoted in Wikipedia as saying "Wagner was a genius, but also a fairly terrible human being. Cosima was just an appalling human being."
In front of the Bayreuth Festival Theater.
Wagner's status is surrounded by these panels ...
titled "silenced voices." They talk about the victims of antisemitism.
Liszt. He was father of Cosima.
Not quite 100F, but warm enough.
Dinner at Osteria del Centro.
Nuremberg opera house. Peter Grimes was on tonight.
Curtain Call, Peter Grimes.
Richard Wagner Platz, of course, right outside the Opera House.
6/20 Monday. The USB transformer I brought burned up yesterday, so I had to get a new one. This shop called The Phone Factory was nearby, and opened at 10. I bought a couple for 10 euros each. We had some time left so we visited St. Lawrence Church, walked to the Pegnitz River that bisects the Old Town, and took the U-Bahn back to the hotel. At the U-Bahn terminal I ate my first Nordsee meal of the trip.
Ever since it occurred to me that DB is not SBB, I began to worry about today's journey from Nuremberg to Leipzig. It involved a train transfer at Erfurt, and there was a four-minute window. In actual fact, that grew to 33 minutes, and eventually shrank to 15 - reason given was personnel delay. Be that as it may, it worked out okay, and we got to Leipzig at around 3:30 pm, and checked into the hotel about 15 minutes later.
It was off to the opera after a short rest at the hotel. By the time we were done most eateries were closed, so we bought something at McDonald's to eat at the hotel.
Nuremberg Old Town: Flowers and fruits for sale.
Nuremberg sausages are the smaller ones in the back of this grill. They serve 3 of them on a bun.
Lorenzkirche became Lutheran in 1525.
Hotel has some Hopper paintings hanging in the hallway. (Note: reflections)
DB First Class has multiple types of seating. Some are "regular" seats. They also offer cabins that seat up to 6 passengers.
On some ICE trains one can access their portal. Here we are traveling at 265 km/h, which translates to 165 mph.
Leipzig hosts the Wagner 2022 Festival starting with his opera, Die Feen. Leipzig had mixed feelings about Wagner: he was born there but never adopted the city.
Curtain call.
Accommodations: Adina Hotel Apartments Leipzig. (2 nights.)
6/21 Tuesday. The laundry machine caused me a lot of problems last night, so I woke up quite late. After having an early lunch at Indian Crown (which we can see from our hotel room), we went to the Museum of City History to see a special exhibition on Wagner and Mendelssohn - War of the Roses. Considering the degree of antisemitism attributed to Wagner, and that Mendelssohn was Jewish (being baptized didn't count with Wagner), the two were at least civil towards each other (they met a total of four times). Wagner's animosity towards Mendelssohn might also be caused by his jealousy of Mendelssohn's success at an early age. We did not find the rest of the museum particularly interesting (it had this elaborate display on dice).
While I tried to catch up on more sleep, Anne went and bought some food from the Vietnamese Restaurant next to the hotel (Hanoi) to have for dinner after the opera.
This opera (Das Liebesverbot) ended at 8:15 pm, so we strolled around a bit. Today was summer solstice, so we had a lot of daylight left. Sunset at 9:30 pm, and a lot of twilight after that.
Wagner was born at 3 Bruhl. However, that area has been transformed into a shopping center. We couldn't find the plaque that marks the location of his birthplace.
This sparrow jumped right onto our table.
Wedding march from Midsummer Night's Dream by Mendelssohn. A lot of weddings are bookended by the wedding marches composed by Mendelssohn and Wagner.
A concert with pieces by the rivals.
Today's opera: Wagner's Das Liebesverbot.
Curtain Call.
View from our hotel room. The spire on the right is St. Thomas's. Can't make out the rest.
6/22 Wednesday. Now we are used to DB delays, so a delay of 15 or so minutes wasn't a great deal. Our hotel for Berlin is Moxy (by Marriott) near the Gesundbrunnen station, which is where the ICE train terminated. A few words about this hotel. The chain is billed as different things by Marriott: experiential, playful, stylish, and "everything you need, nothing you don't need." The last slogan is correct, if you don't need a kettle, a working air conditioning unit, a garbage can in the room, and a customer service that seems to care - I texted customer service about the AC about 4 hours ago, and haven't heard back. And the cleaning staff kept knocking on our door after we checked in. I do give them some credit for letting us check in early, although the room we were assigned (slightly better) wasn't available.
[A friend told us a joke about DB delays. It goes "the P in Deutsche Bahn stands for being punctual." The listener asks, "there is no P in DB." "That's why!."]
We again had home-made sandwiches on the train as lunch, and dinner was at Smack Burger around the corner. They show American Football on their TV.
It was a pleasant surprise to find out Zubin Mehta was the conductor for tonight's performance of Turnadot. It was our first time attending an event at the Berlin State Opera.
We took the U-Bahn both ways. Reasonably easy to navigate.
Smack burger offers items at reasonable prices. What is American Football doing in this neighborhood of many immigrants?
Outside Berlin State Opera. It dates back to 1743, and is located in what used to be East Berlin. It reopened in 2017, and the current music director is Daniel Barenboim.
Rather ornate interior.
Curtain Call.
Walked past this Amplemann store along Unter den Linden. These traffic signs are all over Berlin.
The Brandenberg Gate is a 10-minute walk from the Opera House.
Modern U-Bahn terminal by the Opera House.
Accommodation: Moxy Berlin Humboldthain Park. (2 nights)
6/23 Thursday. Potsdam and its palaces are today's destinations. It takes about an hour to get from the hotel to Potsdam Hbf. The Sans Souci Palace is another 20 or so minute bus ride away - if you can find the train station. Google Maps sent us to the wrong side of the station to catch the bus, fortunately we had enough time to still make the bus. Yet another time to sing the praises of this 9-euro ticket which allowed us to make the journey without having to buy any more tickets.
Sans Souci was Frederick the Great's favorite summer residence. As he rarely used it to entertain guests, it is relatively small and intimate - by his standards. I am no history or art bluff, otherwise I would be fascinated by how Old Fritz's personality and taste were reflected in the collections of paintings, sculptures, furniture, and other items he chose for his residence (and other palace, for that matter). We simply found the place fascinating as we walked through the limited number of rooms. Frederick the Great died in the palace, the sofa in which he died is still on display.
The other noteworthy aspect are the terraced gardens which clearly were used to grow grapes.
For official functions Frederick the Great also built the New Palace (Neues Palais). Evidently monarchs those days are like Joneses of today: there was a great need to outdo the others. And the way they did it was to try to copy each other's ideas. This palace is a lot bigger, we took a look at the ground floor and left.
Many many years ago I realized for the casual visitor, after visiting several of these castles they all looked about the same. I am sure many people will find great pleasure in tracing the design of a building to its predecessors.
It was about 4 pm when we got back to the Gesundbrunnen Station, we decided to have an early dinner. We would have a snack after the opera.
We watched Andrea Chenier at Deutsche Oper Berlin.
Sans Souci, favorite palace of Frederick II (the Great).
Garden of palace.
Gazebo probably little use against the sun.
Terraced garden was a vineyard.
Reception hall.
Some usual (for palaces of that time) "nature" decorations. Monkeys and birds (not in this photo).
Neues Palace is much grander.
Andrea Chenier at Deutsche Opera Berlin.
This is as graphic as the opera gets: the guillotine represented by a slanted curtain.
Curtain Call.
With the trip drawing to a close, a few words about Rick Steves' recommendations. For the UK, we were first planning to visit Dartmoor and Land's End, given what I have heard from his podcasts, seen from his TV programs, and read in his guidebooks. Our friend Greta suggested that we don't venture that far, and it was good advice. Steves didn't mention those places at all. As to Oberammergau, he would represent that as the most "dolled up" village in Bavaria, which may be true, but the place is still worth a visit, even for a second time. What I really had trouble with was his dismissal of Nuremberg, suggesting that one visits only if one has too much time on one's hands. I would put Nuremberg on equal footing with the other German cities I have visited. And the restaurant and laundromat he recommended? Okay, but by no means exceptional. Even a seasoned traveler suffers from a common problem: recommend what one knows. Which is okay, but it's not okay to dismiss places that are perhaps not quite to your taste. If I seem slightly upset, I am. Especially since I lugged his German guidebook around the entire trip.
6/24 Friday. Time to go home! We checked out of the hotel at 7:10 am, and got to the train station in less than 10 minutes. There were already quite a few people on the platform waiting. Even though the train didn't originate at our station (it did one stop earlier, at Hbf), we still managed to find places to sit for the journey, which was slightly less than 30 minutes. DB can learn something from Heathrow Express, as the latter runs comfortable cars with good luggage storage, and can charge a premium. DB simply uses regular train cars (as far as I can tell), but labels them FEX (for Flughaven Express).
Our train got us to the airport at around 8 am. The first thing we did was security, where being a Star Alliance Gold member gave us no advantage. Nonetheless it was relatively quick at this new airport. (We used Tegel in our 2019 trip). Just as we were looking for a place to get something to eat, we heard an announcement that United customers should proceed to gate D17 as there were additional security screening. It wasn't that bad: passport control followed by questions from a security officer. By the time we cleared, it was close to 9 am, boarding time. With one piece of 22" carryon each, and coach seats, we decided to board, which was the right decision as flight was packed, and 767 has limited overhead luggage space for 22" carry-ons.
The flight was a lot faster than I expected, We had tailwind as high as 78 mph, and arrived 46 minutes ahead of schedule. A nice change from recent delays we encountered - indeed both EWR-LHR and LHR-MUC flights were delayed.
The plane landed at Terminal B, MPC (Mobile Passport Control), whose predecessor Mobile Passport worked quite well, wasn't working at EWR. The process was still quite simple, and we took an Uber home.
The airport (BER) may be new, but the process could still be improved.
The new United pillows in coach can work as neck support.
With rare favorable tailwind, we arrived ahead of schedule.
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