This is part 3 of the three post series.
Part 1 - Germany 2021 - To go or not to go
Part 3 - Germany 2021 - The city tourist
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Someone asked me - what is the best part of your Germany trip?
For me, it has been the cultural aspects. How much different is Germany from India. The focus on following rules (order) is so natural here. Let me share some examples
At our Berlin walking tour, I booked online which specified the place and time of departure. At the departure point, the tour guide did not check for any list of attendees. He waited exactly 5 minutes for folks to show up and then tour left.
At the train station, the train comes to the platform track 5 mins before the departure time, even when the station is the origin station. It comes and in 5 mins it departs.
People stop for the walking light to turn green even when no car is coming.
Christmas markets were crowded but there was no pushing or jostling.
Focus on preserving their past, even though some of it is so shameful, there is a closure that they have.
It is a culture where punctuality is a fact of life. Following rules is a natural thing. Contrast such things from India, this was something that I cherished most from Germany.
Day 8 (24-Dec)
Germany shuts down for Christmas (and on 31st Dec too). All museums were closed on 24th/25th. All shops/restaurants were only open till 2 pm. Keeping this in mind, we decided to spend this day on touristy places where you can click photos from outside only. Our first stop was the #1 rated place in Munich - the MarrienPlatz
One mistake in hindsight we did was to not book any walking tour of the city. So, without that, it was limited to clicking photos of beautiful buildings with little insight. We climbed up the St. Peter's cathedral (~150 stairs/14 floors) and got a good view from there.
Munich is famous for its Oktoberfest. But they celebrate beer year around. We went to this iconic place - Hofbräuhaus München (a place with 62K reviews as of this writing with 4.4 stars) . They give beers in 1Litre jugs and it is massive. They also had a nice orchestra playing for Christmas. It was packed inside!
By the evening time, everything was closed and we also came back to hotel. How do you celebrate Christmas being in a hotel? For us, the answer is simple. You do so by watching a christmas movie. We saw Klaus - an animation film which deals with the origin of Santa Claus. It is very well made and we had lot of fun watching it.
Day 9 (25-Dec)
Merry Christmas!
We had hoped for snow at Munich but all we got was rain. We purchased umbrella which travelled back to BLR :)
Our first activity of the day was to go to walk in Munich garden - Hofgarten. We did a 2 hr walk inside this garden. There were very few people and weather was really good! (We had come down from -11 of Fussen to positive in Munich) Cities that have such large garden space at the middle of it are really lucky.
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After the walk, we came back near our hotel and had brunch at Coffee Fellows - a good coffee chain in Germany. After that, we had to get a Covid test and finding a centre that was open on 25th took sometime. With the test done, our next step was the The Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism. On Dec 25th, this was the only museum that I could find that was open.
The Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism is one of my best stops in Germany. I had not remembered but Munich was actually the birthplace of Nazi Party. This museum documented the contribution of Munich to the rise of party and how the city has coped after world war 2. This history is fascinating. All the anti-semitism took birth here, Himmler was a Munich man, first concentration camp was setup in Dachau (near Munich)
One of the best part of history was how Munich folks reconciled with their complicity in this progrom. War had impacted them badly, so their first reaction was that 'Hey, even we suffered'. This was followed by active removal of all places related to Nazi party. Only after couple of generations, in 1980s, there was a keen interest to preserve this part of history.
Germany's perseverance of its past, even though it is so shameful is very commendable. We saw this again in Berlin. One of the guides told so, later in Berlin, that Germany's first article of its constitution is 'Human dignity shall be inviolable'. This has shaped a lot of its ethos of nation-building and continues to do so even today.
We spent close to 3+ hrs in this museum. Only to leave because we had a train to catch to Berlin. THe museum building used to be the actual headquarters back of Nazi party in the old days. Aside from historic information, the museum also has this advice boards on how should one behave to avoid a repeat of such episodes. This is one such photo
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Day 10 (26-Dec)
Hello Berlin!
Our stay at Berlin was at Park Plaza, Kundam. Our train reached at midnight and we took the Uber to reach hotel. Hotel was ok. This was only stay with breakfast included. German veg breakfast was common everywhere - Bread (variety and good), carious cheese options, cut salad (cucumber, bell peppers, tomatoes) and boiled eggs. At this hotel, they also had flavored curd, scrambled eggs and some more fancy desserts.
We started the day by taking a walking tour organized by Origin Berlin tours. Actually, this is the first time I recall taking a city walking tour outside. We took a food-walk in Vietnam but it was ok. This one however was excellent. We took two more tours in Germany and guided tours has been a great experience.
This Berlin tour covered some history, key buildings - Museum Island, Charlie Point (a guarded patrol point earlier between East/West Germany), Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Brandenburg gate and few others.
Of all the places, memorials that I have ever visited the memorial to murdered Jews has been the best one. It is very basic, no names, just stones of different sizes laid out in a grid. The stones start with a lesser height early and then move up in height. No explanation is given, our tour guide also left the interpretation to us but perhaps, it signals intolerance. (It does for me)
While it was very very cold that day in Berlin, we were walking in -6 to -8, there was frost on our eyebrows, this particular memorial touched me. I wish we could have spent more time here.
After the walking tour, we rushed to find a restaurant where we can sit and warm ourselves. We found Peter Pane - a burger place with many vegan/veg options. Post lunch, we returned back to hotel.
After resting for an hr or so, we headed out to the Kundam christmas market. Surprisingly Berlin decided to keep its markets open till Jan 2, lucky for us. There were three of those and we visited each one :)
Our night activity was to attend a performance by Berlin Philharmonique Orchetra. They had a concert to play popular classical pieces. The concert was amazing. The last piece was Ravel's Bolero and it still rings in my ears now.
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Day 11
Day 11 was the visit to local zoo & acquarium. This was close to our hotel as well. Berlin zoo is famous for having Panda (thanks to Chinese diplomacy). Overall, the zoo also meant walking a lot and in colder conditions. But the walk was good. Many animals were indoors due to cold weather but we still saw Pink famingos, Penguins, hippopotamus (floating in water), Pandas and a whole variety of monkeys (Gorillas, chimpanzee and the likes)
Acquarium is ok, but can be skipped.
We shifted our hotel and moved to a homestay which was near Mitte - Berlin city apartments. This was a good place, full 1BHK. We moved here to get a washing machine which was sadly not here.
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Day 12 (28-Dec)
28 Dec started by going to a laundromat :) I found one which opened at 6 am. Today's plan was museum visit.
We first went to the German historical museum which has a collection of sculpture and paintings by known German architects. Museums had guided English audio tours which made it easier to understand some of the context behind the art pieces.
We spent close to three hrs here and then headed for lunch at a nearby Thai place. Post lunch, we went to a second museum - Neues museum . This one was ok, mainly consisted of Egyptian history that German archeologist found out.
We went to the geramandermarket - yet another christmas market. We had the gluwien and had a flat pizza along with a new dish - Langos - basically a Bhatoora with cheese and some.
Our night activity was to attend an Opera. This was first opera of our lives. We saw La Bohemian by Giovani. They had subtitles in English which made it very easy to follow. Like a play but mostly with music, this is known as introduction to Opera for noobs. Interesting experience !
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Day 13
Today started by shifting hotel. We went to Hotel Berlin Mitte by Campanile for tonight. Our plans have been dynamic in the trip and we shifted hotels to find a more economical option. This was followed by a great breakfast at Wayne's coffee at Friedrickstrasse.
Day 12's agenda was to visit a concentration camp - Sachsenhausen concentration camp. We took a tour by Insider tours this time. Our tour guide had a PhD in tourism with research in dark tourism (tourism that takes you to graveyards, memorials and concentration camps). The concentration camp was cold, not in temperature but just the history of it. The tour guide was the best part and he did a great job in explaining the history of the place. The history in itself was cruel. 160K prisoners lived here out of which <30K survived.
The camp was outside of Berlin and by the time we reached back, it was ~2pm. Looking for lunch, this was the first time we saw entry denied to a restaurant by not accepting Covishield. It happened at two places back to back but the third one, a Vietnamese place, a sensible one accepted us. This was also the best Vietnamese food of the trip. Everywhere else, we had absolutely zero trouble in getting into any museum/restaurant/anywhere.
Our last Berlin thing was the Pergamonmuseum - an archaeological museum. We only had an hr before the museum closed but the collection here is amazing. Very large scale and very unique!
Before we said goodbye to Berlin, it was time to visit another Christmas market, this one at Alexanderplatz. Our fifth market. We had fancy food, drink and did some souvenir shopping.
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Day 14 (30-Dec)
We boarded an early morning train back to Frankfurt. By the time we reached Frankfurt it was 11 am. Train tickets were getting expensive. But more importantly, we realized that 31st Dec will be a shutdown. So, if we have to have any hope of shopping, it has to be done on 30th December
Our stay at 30th was at 5Elements hostel. Located in the middle of red-light district, you can see drug junkies and all adult-entertainment shops nearby. But even with that, it is a completely safe area. So safe that it also a Sarvana Bhavan at one corner and after two weeks of eating non-Indian food, we were ready for Idlis & dosas
Rest of the evening was spent in shopping first at Skyline Plaza mall and later at Zeil mall / street.
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Day 15 (31st December)
A new day and a new hotel change. This time it was Niu Carly, near to 5 elements. We had booked this while in BLR and continued with the reservation. Breakfast was at 5Elements - regular bread & Cheese.
Nothing was open on 31st. All museums were closed. Due to pandemic, no fireworks (public or private) were happening. I was thinking that we should have flown back on 31st itself. But our tickets were for 1st Jan.
Inspired by Berlin walks, I googled Frankfurt walks and was redirected to frankfurtonfoot.com Their website that they do tours 365 days, no exceptions. So, without booking, we reached at the starting point at the right time and turns out, there was indeed a tour going out.
Our guide was an American who has moved to Germany, 60+ age who was very candid in sharing his thoughts, because he has crossed 60. The tour was awesome, we went to the Alte church, got historical context, went to Jewish cemetery, Jewish memorial wall, saw a local farmer's market and had some great Greek food, German stock exchange. It was a 3.5 hr tour and gave so much color to Frankfurt.
Outside the German stock exchange, there are statues of the bear and a bull. Contrast to the NewYork stock exchange, or at Chicago, there is only a bull. This shows the mindset of German countries who know that there are both sides of the stock market. This was just one of the amazing tidbits that were shared by our guide.
For 31st night, we stepped out for an Asian fusion cuisine restaurant in Frankfurt - Kokumy. It was yummy dinner and a good way to end the year.
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Day 16 & day 17 (1st-2nd Jan)
Our flight was to depart Frankfurt at 1030 am. We left our hotel at 6 am. We had a valid PCR test done. We were set. Reached the airport on time and all was good. Unfortunately, the Air India flight had a technical issue and flight was delayed. After spending 4 more hrs of waiting, they finally cancelled the fight and gave us accommodation at a nearby Hilton hotel - Steinberger hotel.
So, with this, we had one more night stay, at a different hotel, this one free of cost though.
We finally flew the next day and landed in India Sunday midnight 1 am. At India, we had to undergo another PCR test upon landing. We booked the cheapest option, INR 500 per person, with the caveat that results will come in 6 hrs. We were ok to wait.
Result came at 440 am and we reached home at around 6 am. The process was very smooth.
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We stayed at 11 hotels in a 16 night trip. We covered 6 cities (Frankfurt-Trier-BadenBaden-Fussen-Munich-Berlin-Frankfurt)
We gave 12 Covid tests - 11 Rapid free of cost and one PCR at 100 Euros (required for travel)
My top 3 experiences were the baths in BadenBaden, castles in Schwanagu, museum of National socialist party in Berlin and the walking tours (ok, so 4 things)
Overall, Germany is a delightful country to visit, especially during these times. Folks are more jovial than in general. We found folks to be really helpful during our trip. From the Fussen owner who would charge only 6-euros for breakfast and even give plastic bags to pack lunch, to our tour guides who really answered all the questions. Restaurant folks were really kind and patient.
The ease of access for testing, making it free of cost was very well done. Restaurants, malls, museums, it was checked everywhere and they were patient to hear us because ours was a non-EU certificate.
The connectivity via trams/buses/underground-metro is excellent. We used all modes of transport in Berlin & Munich. It was very easy to follow once you understand how it works. Google-maps integration is also very helpful.
In not so good things - water. It was ver difficult to get normal water to drink at restaurants. For some reason, they refuse to serve tap water. It was difficult, especially for me who likes water every few hrs.
The only other thing is that at few places, signs were in German only. We used Google translate app many times to get the english version. This was ok at many places except in few museums where you could not get anything to read.
I may not visit Germany again, only because there are so many places to travel. But, I could see myself living there, like New Zealand :)
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These blogs were written during self-isolation at home which is required by Indian govt. We are in the last day of a 7-day quarantine because we travelled from Germany.
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