6/7 Wednesday. Today is a travel day, our next stop is Dresden, where we will be staying for a couple of nights. Taxi from the city to the airport is a flat rate of 30 euros, and there were ones waiting outside. Having checked in on line, all we had to do was to drop off our luggage. Lufthansa has this 9 kg carry-on policy for coach customers they sometimes choose to not enforce. Today they did, and I was okay with it as the FRA-DRS leg is in an Embraer 190 with little overhead storage.
The Lufthansa flight was going to leave 20 minutes late (it ended up being over 30 minutes), so we had time to use the Puerto del Sol lounge, part of the Priority Pass program. While the food offering is minimal, we did get something to eat before boarding. The LH App provides checked luggage information, and we were glad to see our two pieces on our flight.
The plane was at the gate at 4 pm, about 30 minutes late, so we had one hour for the 5 pm flight, with boarding at 4:20 pm. We didn't realize FRA was so sprawling, it took us about 15 minutes to get from Gate A38 to Gate B4, with part of the journey over movable walkways. So we went to the gate instead of checking out another lounge. Then we were told there were delays. We had to be bused to the plane, and the plane finally took off at around 5:40 pm. It was a short 45-minute flight. Again I could have organized my time better if they had kept their passengers informed.
When I checked the LH App (not available on the FRA-DRS Air Dolomiti flight), to my horror "luggage did not load on plane" was shown. Lost and Found told us they would get here tomorrow morning, and they will be delivered to our hotel. They were located right away, but why didn't they load? I asked the purser of the LH flight at Frankfurt and was reassured the luggage would transfer automatically, the captain who overheard my question proudly told me LH owns EN (Air Dolomiti).
Air Dolomiti is owned by Lufthansa, however their websites are different. I didn't realize that our luggage wasn't loaded on the EN flight until after we landed in Dresden. They loaded on the next flight (early next day) and our luggage arrived at the hotel at around 11 am.
Anne took this snapshot inside the large but very quiet airport.
Dinner at "The Loft" restaurant right next to our hotel in Dresden. It is a family-owned Greek Restaurant.
Accommodation: Gewandhaus Dresden (2 nights).
6/8 Thursday. We took the "breakfast instead of points" option, but I woke up late and missed it. I had a cup of coffee quite late last night, so had problems falling asleep. We slept in the clothes we flew in on - I did have a change of underwear, so at least that was going for me. The luggage came in on an early flight which landed at around 8 am. We got a call from the front desk at about 11 am that it had arrived, so not that bad, all things considered.
Meissen is a small town - often described as picturesque - near Dresden, and we decided to visit it. An S-bahn train goes there from Dresden, a one-way ticket costs 8 euros. We saved a few euros by buying a family day ticket at about 6 euros. Conductors do come by to check for valid tickets. The ride out there is about 30 minutes.
As we began wandering around, we notice this small creek (called Triebisch) with a couple of restaurants next to it. We had lunch at Trattoria Illyria.
The Albrechtsburg Castle and the Meissen Cathedral dominate the city view. We made our way up there. The walk should take about 15 minutes, but we stopped to look at other places along the way - including the Market Place and the Frauenkirche. We didn't go in any of them though, figuring castles and churches are pretty much the same all over Germany, if not the world.
With the except of a couple of restaurants, the town was very quiet. Business were open, but there were no customers. I wonder how these towns survive, perhaps people commute to work in bigger cities, or they get busy on weekends?
We had lunch at one of the restaurants (Trattoria Illyria, with the black umbrellas) by the Triebisch.
These peonies are fake!
The town is very quiet today.
Frauenkirche, Meissen.
In front of the church.
The Meissen Cathedral and the Albrechtsburg Castle.
What castle doesn't have a gate?
Many allotments along the train route.
There is a bus that takes one from the Cathedral to the Market Place. When we asked if we could use our family pass, the driver talked for (what felt like) five minutes, in German. Some other people explained that we would need to pay 9 euros. We decided to walk back, and the bus got there at the same time - it had to take a circuitous route.
We got back to the hotel at around 4:30 pm, and took a short nap.
For the evening we attended a concert at the Kulturpalast. It was built in the communist era, and still retained a heavy socialist/communist feet, even after multiple renovations. (And it was leveled during the war.) We had McDonald's before, and some pastries afterwards.
Cities in the former East Germany use "Amplemann" for their traffic lights. Here is an "Amplefraulein."
The Kulturpalast. It's difficult to find a good vantage point for photos, given its location. If one looks closely, most of the artwork seems to celebrate the Proletariat.
View from the lobby of the KulturPalast. There is a lot of construction in Dresden.
Front of the Gewandhaus Dresden Hotel, construction in front too.
Prompted by United using a differently-configured aircraft on our EWR-MAD flight, I began monitoring the equipment used for the BER-EWR flight (UA963). I noticed United had been using 767-300ERs with new configurations on the UA963, but they didn't show these Premium Economy seats until 1 or 2 days before departure. And they would show as E+ seats, but configured 2-2-2. The row numbers are different, so I moved us to Row 20, which is E+ in the old configuration, Premium Econ in the new. That seemed to be happening on a lot of routes going to Europe. My conjecture is United is actively reconfiguring their 767s. (Spoiler alert: we did get these seats on the way back.)
6/9 Friday. The breakfast buffet at the hotel is quite good, too bad we missed it yesterday morning. I ate quite a bit.
We walked around town a it. The sights remained the same: Frauenkirche, Semperoper, River Elbe, and the Walk of Kings are now quite familiar. We had some Asian Food before checking out of Gewandhaus.
View from Leipzig Opera. Across the Augustusplatz is the Gewandhause.
Curtain Call, Carmen.
Frauenkirche.
Procession of Princes.
Semperoper. If we had gotten in early enough, we could have seen a production of Cernerentola. The building to the left is part of the Zwinger Museum.
We were originally booked on the ICE2442 to get to Leipzig. It was going to leave at around 1:15 pm. I got notified (via the DB APP) that the "journey was canceled," without any instruction on what to do. Worried that we wouldn't get on a train (they were marked "very crowded" in the APP), I decided to book the next one, IC1556, which cost about 20 euros more. A better APP (or someone who knows the APP better) would have allowed the user to apply the credit, or - even better - allow the user to change without penalty. That train was indeed full, and many passengers were standing the whole time. The 9 euros for seat selection certainly seemed worth it.
The APP didn't provide any more instructions on what to do after this "journey cancelled" notification.
The DB service counter had a long wait (my number remained 20-40 minutes after 20 minutes), so I left without resolving the possible refund issue. I asked at the Leipzig station (which is much larger) a few days later, the agent said I should have gotten the change without paying a higher fare, and that I could go online to get a refund. I think I will just write it off.
The Leipzig Hbf to Marriott walk is now a familiar one, although now a big hole sits (as part of construction) where we usually could walk across. My first impression is that Marriott is nice, and they have a lounge. We ended up eating some snacks there for lunch, and took advantage of their afternoon warm snack offering as dinner.
We went to see Carmen at the Leipzig Opera. The opera company has decided to limit its offering of English surtitles, and ours didn't have it. Carmen's story is simple enough, but the surtitles would still have been useful. The production was not as macabre as I have come to expect of German productions.
By the way, I was debating whether to see Udine, an opera in German by Lortzing. My Carmen experience, while okay, made me realize I wouldn't understand Udine, so I decided to skip. I wonder how many non-German speakers make similar decisions.
Bach Fest 2023 is taking place in Leipzig. We will attend a couple of their events.
Accommodations: Marriott, Leipzig. (1 night.)
6/10 Saturday. The lounge at Marriott doesn't provide breakfast on weekends, so we got to have free breakfast at their regular restaurant. That's fine by us.
We met David and Vivian at 11:15 am or so, and had lunch at the German restaurant Emil and Moritz. Leberkase (literally "liver cheese" is the term for meatloaf - or sausage loaf.) The Yee's lived in Germany for a couple of years in the 70s, so they still retained some knowledge of the country's customs (yes, Leipzig was in the former East). We would meet up with them several times during the next couple of days.
The Yee's got in a couple of days ago, so they went off to get some rest after lunch. Anne and I stuck around our room and the lounge until about 3 pm, checked out, and moved across to Adina. The studio apartment we got has a washer/dryer combo. It took me a while to learn how to use the dryer - and I was here a year ago.
We had our evening meal at Soup & Nem (fast food), after that we attended an "Organ Concert" at Gewandhaus. This would be our first ever visit inside the fabled concert hall.
Buffet breakfast at the Marriott. I think I can do a better ham and cheese omelet than the chef.
Meeting up with Vivian and David, at the Emil and Moritz Restaurant.
In front of St. Thomas Church.
These people probably performed/will be performing at the Bach Fest. Here they were singing a pop song. In front of Bach's statue. Would Bach approve?
Can't resist the offering at Curry Cult.
Gewandhaus. Mendelssohn and Mazur were some of its distinguished music directors. The current building is the third erected on the site.
At night one can more readily see the mural, "Song of Life," in the lobby.
This time looking towards Leipzig Opera.
This organ has many pipes pointing towards the audience. Per the Gewandhaus website, it has over 6000 pipes. The Inscription above in means "True Joy is a Serious Thing."
The main auditorium seats over 1900.
Accommodations: Adina Apartment and Hotel, Leipzig. (2 nights)
6/11 Sunday. Our two events are Bach Fest No. 36 "Excellent" and Handel's opera "Giulio Cesare."
We met up with the Yee's at the Pepper Restaurant. And after the opera we grab a bite at the Asia Gourmet at the train station. Many places don't open on Sundays, and many of those that open close at 8 pm.
The Leipzig train station is considered the largest in German. And also the largest in Europe by area.
In front of the Alte Borse.
Inside.
Examining German food on offer at Pepper Restaurant.
In front of Wagner's bust, Leipzig Opera.
Statues of Bach inside the Leipzig train station.
After dinner, Anne and I walked to the Wagner Monument, but hurried back because we were either prudent, or cowardly - it was getting dark. Along the way we found this plaque that marked Wagner's birthplace. We couldn't find it last time, probably because the restaurant tables blocked it from view.
Wagner Monument.
Plaque marking birthplace of Wagner at 3 Bruhl.
6/12 Monday. As I mentioned in the "spoiler alert," we did manage to get seats in the Premium Plus section of our flight back from Berlin. Today was a travel day, from Leipzig to Berlin.
We extended our check out to 12 noon (normal 11 am), so Anne went to a morning event at St. Thomas Church (Matte). She said a group from Armenia was doing the music that morning.
DB strikes again! Our trip involves a chance at Berlin-Sudkreuz, with an 8-minute connection to the airport. That train got delayed a few minutes, and then a few more. The customer service at Leipzig had no line, so I asked. The agent helpfully printed out an itinerary that would have us connect at Berlin Hbf to a FEX train. We know about these from prior visits, so should be fine.
As time progressed, the first train's delay got shorter, while the second train ran into some delays. The upshot was we found out we should be able to make the connect at Sudkreuz as originally planned. However, when we got out of the train at Sudkreuz, the signs to connecting tracks (at least 14 of them) were so confusing that we missed the connection. So we ended up taking the circular line (42) to Ostkreuz, and connecting to the FEX (the one that departed from Hbf). By the time we got on, the train was already very crowded. We eventually managed to find seats; and the ride was relatively short.
There was a train that arrived a little before us, heading to Terminal 5. From what I can tell Terminal 5 is sparsely (if at all) used these days. But many people got on it. Wonder if they would get a bit of a surprise when they arrived.
David at one point joked there was no "P" in Deutsche Bahn, because "punctual" is not its characteristic. I would add there is no "R" for reliable service either. But the trains all look quite nice, though. And they seem quite flexible in terms of accommodating passengers.
Check-in at Steigenberger Hotel, which is just outside in the airport plaza, was smooth. The room was also very nice.
We looked for food in the airport, and found very few. In the end it was sandwiches at Cafe Casa. Google Maps shows many restaurants in the area; after a while we realized these may be airside establishments.
Anne went to a morning event at St. Thomas, and took a few pictures. This is Bach.
The Armenian Children's Choir is providing the music.
Signs from Gewandhaus Orchestra, St. Thomas Church, and Leipzig Opera (not seen in this photo) greet passengers at the Leipzig train station.
Saw this gold BMW 4-series at the airport. Still ugly. Although I must say it doesn't look as bad as when it was first unveiled.
Outside the Steigenberger Hotel at the Berlin Airport.
Accommodation: Steigenberger Hotel at BER. (1 night)
6/13 Tuesday. United sent us a link to "BER Runway" so we can make an appointment to get through security at the airport. We signed up for the 8:00 am slot, the latest (for a 9:50 am flight) was 8:15 am. It isn't clear if that helped today as the airport didn't seem busy, and the agent just waved us through without making sure we are within that +/- 10 minute limit. In any case, security was straightforward.
For flights outside of Germany (or Schengen, I don't know) one has to go through passport control. That was also easy. Then comes secondary security screening. For today the agent just asked a few standard questions and waved us through. So we were at the gate at say 8:30 am. The incoming plane hadn't arrived yet.
There is a small shop where one can buy food and drinks, but otherwise no other options. Both the Priority Pass and Lufthansa lounges are in the Schengen area.
Our seats in Premium Economy were comfortable. Both the gate agent and the flight attendant acknowledged my anniversary with Mileage Plus (I joined June 1983) and my 3-million mile status. Food and amenities are coach standard, which is okay. I watched two movies: A Man named Otto, and Antman and the Wasp: quantumania. That whiled away a great deal of time. Anne binge-watched Called the Midwife. She also said the seat was very comfortable.
Flight 963 would take us back to Newark. The flight was about 8 hours.
I hope people generally don't drink from the tab in airplane washrooms. Explicit advisories are still rare, though.
We Ubered home after clearing customs. I must say this trip ended up being very enjoyable. The other thing I realized we spent several days traveling between cities. For example, getting to Dresden from Madrid was an all-day affair.
