Day 10 - Saturday
After a bit of messaging with our driver we finally located our
van and we (Cindy, me, Jasper, Vivian, Nicola, Cheryl) were on our way to
Frankfurt. The van seating was arranged
like a limo, with an open space in back containing three forward facing seats
and three backward facing seats. I was
facing backward, so I wasn’t really able to see the landscape; although, there
were a lot of vineyards in Germany, growing Riesling and Gewurtztraminer. I’m not
sure what route we took, although I know we drove north inside France for a
good bit, and we were on a small road instead of a big highway when we crossed
the border. The driver kept changing his
route to account for traffic.
After a couple of hours we arrived at the gargantuan
Frankfurt airport, where we had booked rooms at the Sheraton airport hotel. Two of our three rooms were ready, so we
deposited our bags and tried to eat at the restaurant shared with the next door
Marriott. The service was really
terrible. I think they were understaffed
(maybe only two wait staff?), but it took them 15 minutes to get us menus, and
then we got so impatient waiting for someone to take our order (for overpriced
food) that we walked out. Meanwhile,
Cheryl had figured out how to get to the train line to take us into the city,
so we bought tickets, and hopped on a train. I was surprised by how crowded the
train was, and pitied travelers who needed to take luggage aboard. There were all sorts of shops and eateries
directly as we got out. We chose a Turkish
restaurant. We probably got our meal at the same time as at the hotel for 1/3
of the price. I had lamacun, Cindy had falafel, others had doner and kebabs.
Frankfurt was rainy, and we don’t really know where we are
going, but Vivian took us northeast to the Goethe-Haus and Deustches
Romantik Museum. The house is reconstructed as the original was destroyed
in WW2. If his house is any indication, Goethe came from a well-to-do family.
It has four stories with several well-appointed rooms on each floor
(there are a total of 18 rooms). There
was an ingenious ‘central’ heating system.
What I liked best was the puppet theater on the top floor - - the floor
was drawn in perspective, so a viewer of the puppet play would think the stage
had much greater depth than in actuality.
The house also has a beautiful grandfather-sized astronomical clock.
The museum next door has a collection of paintings from the
German Romantic era, including Casper David
Friedrich (there was a mobbed exhibit of his work in Berlin). The upper floors had an unusual exhibit on
romanticism.
After the museum we walked in the nearby area. Jasper and Vivian took us to a large
multi-story bookstore. I would have
certainly enjoyed it if had been in English, maybe even in French, but all of
the holdings were in an incomprehensible language (to me)! We wandered further
northeast, and came upon a large mall that had a gigantic food truck festival.
I think this was on Zell Street anchored by the Frankfurt Hauptwatche subway on
the west, and a whole bunch of big retail stores along the north side. Too bad we were still too full of Turkish food to
partake of the offerings, but we did stop at an ice cream shop for a snack. We
were feeling pretty tired by this time, and the weather was iffy, so Vivian
navigated us back to the airport hotel.
Jasper and Vivian had been thinking about going back into town, but they
decided to try the tavern restaurant in the hotel, which advertised German
food. I guess that worked out. The rest of us went to bed.
Day 11 - Sunday
This morning Cindy and I said goodbye to everyone else in
our party, they were heading back to the US, while we took a little domestic
flight to Hamburg. I had last been in
Hamburg in 1984 while I was on a three month wander to France before starting
medical school. Included in this trip
was a long visit with Tim Crump in India, but my friend Betsy Kolbert was on a Fulbright
in Hamburg, and we met (if I recall correctly) in Strasbourg, and I took a
train with her up north. I remember
Hamburg as cold and wet.
My experience this time is quite different. First, we had glorious sunny warm weather. Moreover, we are staying at Cindy’s friend’s duplex in the city. Cindy met her friend Katrine in high school when Katrine was a Rotary Club sponsored exchange student. Cindy visited her in her hometown of Bremerhaven in 1982, and they remained in touch on and off for many years. Katrine’s family visited us in Hinsdale in 2012. You may recall that her son, Luke, lived with us for a semester at Hinsdale Central about ten years ago. Nikki visited her one weekend, and Cindy also has visited sometime in the last ten years,
Luke met us at the airport - - now an adult with a full
beard. We take a taxi to the apartment
building that Katrine (a city planner for Hamburg) and her husband, Claus (a
former engineer) own. They are the
majority owner/landlords of three separate apartment buildings that they have
rehabbed, and have about 50 tenants over the three buildings. Their duplex is
on the top floor, and they have a rooftop terrace as well. The apartment building is in the central
city, about a half-mile east of the Aussenalster, an
artificial lake that is surrounded by the city’s most desirable residential
properties. We have some coffee and cake on our arrival, and then we get a Miles car share, and drive
to the western edge of the lake and walk around it. There are tons of Hamburgers enjoying the sun
and warmth, and many small sailboats on the lake. Katrine describes ‘white’ Hamburg vs. ‘red’
Hamburg. The white area is near the
lake, and home to the families of rich merchants, industrialists, bankers, or
other high bourgeois. Family dynasties hold onto these properties. Red Hamburg had
many long dorm-like apartment buildings, built of red brick for workers. Many of these red brick buildings lacked
kitchens or bathrooms, hence community bath-houses (I’m not sure where food was
cooked). A lot of Hamburg’s
infrastructure (such as tunnels, bridges, ‘public’ transportation) was
developed by private interests to enable the proletariat to get to work! Katrine and Klaus’ current residence is in
red Hamburg, but I think they have at least one apartment house in white
Hamburg. By the way, not only does Luke have an apartment in their current
apartment building, one of the other tenants is Katrine’s niece.
After our walk we go to a restaurant near to their home and
have some traditional Hamburgian food. I
have a dish that is a several types of fish (one was salmon) on fried potatoes
with a mustard sauce. Claus has some
kind of potato fry-up. Afterwards I get
some ice cream, and then back at the apartment we settle in to watch the
Olympic women soccer group match between the US and Germany. The US wins handily and Katrine is gracious
enough to not kick us out for cheering the win.
Day 12 – Monday
Cindy and my sleeping quarters is on the lower (fifth) floor
of the duplex. The upper (sixth) floor
is the main living area, where there is a sleek modernist style kitchen, and
a large glass sliding door with a balcony that looks out towards the Elbe. It’s warm and sunny, so the door is open
while we have breakfast - - seeded buns, cold cuts, cheese. Then Katrine gets a Miles car, and we drive
to the gorgeous symphony
hall, a confection of glass, resembling waves or a sail, built on top of a
triangular shaped old brick warehouse. It was supposed to take two years to
build; it took eight. It was supposed to
cost 250 million euro; it cost 850. However,
Katrine thinks it was worth the money - - it’s definitely a tourist attraction
like the Sydney opera house. However,
Katrine also thinks that Hamburg should have put in a bid to be the Olympic
host city for 2024 (a referendum had a slim majority voting against it).
In any case, the symphony hall also hosts a hotel, a
restaurant, and three musical venues.
You need to take an escalator to reach the plaza on the eighth floor
(the top of the warehouse). There are
elevators, but they are few in number, which leads to problems when there are a
lot of disabled patrons needing access.
A walkway runs around the periphery of the plaza, and there are
magnificent views of all of Hamburg.
Leaving the symphony, we walk along the north fork of the
Elbe, past some other touristy areas such as the Cap St Diego, a
decommissioned cargo ship, now a museum.
We walk all the way to the St Pauli landing (Do you remember Roger drinking St Pauli Girl beer in
the 80’s? However, the beer is from
Bremen, not Hamburg). This is a big public transportation center. Right near here is an elevator that takes you
to the old Elb
tunnel, now only for pedestrian and bike traffic, but at one time open to
cars. This tunnel connects the southern
part of the central area with the docks, shipyards, and industrial areas on the
other side of the Elbe. We take the
elevator down, and walk a little way into the tunnel. They are reconditioning
the tunnel; it is walled with pretty terra cotta tiles with occasional larger placard tiles with fish or crabs etc. depicted.
Katrine tries to entice me with a herring sandwich at a fish
sandwich (fischbrochten)
store. It’s a bun with a slab of (what
looks like) raw fish, still with skin on it, tomatoes and onions. There are also salmon, lox, and other fishy
delicacies, but I decide to pass - - I wouldn’t mind a bite of one, but I’m not
sure I could handle the entire thing.
Now I regret it! We take the
subway back north and are forced off the train a stop early due to construction. We are a bit northeast of Katrine’s home, in
a small park where there is the TRUDE
(a giant drill for boring out tunnels under the Elbe) and the small Museum of Work. Katrine calls Claus, and he comes
and picks us up. We go onto a small
supermarket where we pick up food for grilling this night’s dinner - - lamb,
pork, beef, and salad stuff, including orzo.
After stashing the food, we drive west of the lake, and
visit the Planten un
Blomen, a lovely park with abundant flowers, small water parks for kids,
and a Japanese tea house (which we never seem to find). It has a large children’s playground where
Katrine once took Luke in years past. We stop for a coffee near a pond
surrounded by university students, enjoying the rare sunny day, before continuing
our walk.
We have dinner on the rooftop terrace, and finally get to
meet Luke’s girlfriend, Julie. We hadn’t
seen her before because she was suffering from a severe cold. She courteously sat away from the rest of us
during dinner!
Day 13 – Tuesday
We had breakfast as we did the day before, and then we got
into Claus’ van and drove to Berlin with Claus and Katrine. They were nice enough to drive us there and
stay overnight in the city. The autobahn
is flat and straight, according to Claus, one of the more boring drives in
Germany. We drive past a lot of solar and wind farms. This was once ‘the safest road in Germany’,
because once you left Hamburg you were in East Germany, and there were many
watchful eyes on you.
My first impression, one not shaken after a couple of days,
is how much grimier Berlin is compared to Hamburg. All the storefronts seem unkempt. The grass swards on the avenues are unmowed
(whether this is environmental policy, or economic necessity is not clear to
me). There is more graffiti. We have a small issue getting to our hotel because
the Bundestrasse (the road that runs from the victory circle in the Tiergarten
to the Reichstag is closed. It is often
closed for demonstrations and processions.
We get to our hotel (the Grand
Hotel Esplanade) with a small detour and check in. The hotel is surprisingly empty. We were not sure if Claus and Katrine were
going to be able to check in, because the internet reservation system kept
sending them notices of cancellation, and the phone lines to the hotel had been
broken for several days. Kaput!
After offloading, we get a Miles car and drive into the city
center. We walk around the museum
island, but I am thinking about the almost kitsch buildings all along the
center of the city. Berlin is the
IMPERIAL CITY! Of course, most of these
monumental edifices to 19th century German pride are riddled with
either bullet holes or patches. It’s a
real contrast with Hamburg, whose citizens seem to be more interested in making
money than political power. We walk
around a bit and see the facades of several large museums.
We decide to go to the I. M. Pei designed extension of the German Historical Museum
that only has a single exhibit running on the lower floor. This was a pretty interesting exhibit (Roads
Not Taken) that highlighted turning points in German history (starting with
the fall of the Berlin wall, and receding in time to WW2, WW1, the
Franco-Prussian war, and ending in 1848.
They showcased eleven such events, and posited alternate realities for
each of them (such as, what if the GDR security forces had met the Berlin wall
protestors with force). Of course, we
will never know how things might have been different (what if the Grand Duke
had not been shot?), so what might have been more interesting was the eleven
historical points that were chosen.
Obviously there is some kind of historical consensus that these were
important dates in German history - - but it is interesting to
wonder if there are little known events that might have been just as
consequential. In any case the exhibit
is in both English and German, so it is not hard to follow; and it is thought
provoking.
Only Katrine, Cindy and I went to the museum; Claus stayed
outside, and took a nap on a plastic bench made for stretching out on. Then we went across the street/over the river
to eat a snack in the café of the James Simon Gallery.
Afterwards, we get in a car and go to the remnants of the Berlin
wall on Bernauer strasse. Obviously,
the wall is gone, but the outer line is marked by rusting steel rods, with the
outlines of structures marked by cobblestones. You know there is something
wrong with a country when people are desperate to leave it.
We go back to the hotel for a bit of a rest, and then walk
about ½ mile west to the beer garden in the zoo – too bad we don’t have time to
visit the zoo the next day! Anyway, the
scene at the beer garden is a bit chaotic.
There are separate lines for beer, spritzes, and several different kinds
of food. I get two half chickens for
Cindy and myself because it is too much of a hassle to get something else. There is a separate line to pay for our food! Nevertheless, we eventually get stuff to eat
and drink, and set at shared picnic tables with Katrine and Claus and feel very
German. Katrine amuses herself by
watching and commenting on a party of young folk who are sitting behind
me. She can be pretty sarcastic.
We finish dinner and walk back to the hotel, where we have
nightcaps in the hotel lobby. The hotel
is really empty.
Day 14 - Wednesday
We say goodbye to Katrine and Claus early in the
morning. They are driving back to
Hamburg (about a 2 hour drive), and we are going to visit the Reichstag
dome. I had to book an appointment to go
see this (it is, after all, an active government building) and when doing so I
had to give up individuated information like passport number. We take a taxi from the hotel. He starts to drive to the Reichstag, almost
gets there and then realizes that the Bundestrasse is still closed. He has to double back, all the way past our
hotel, go up to the victory circle, and take an alternate route to the Reichstag. Cindy thinks he did a good job figuring out
how to get there when his GPS keeps trying to route him onto a closed street. Alternatively, I think that he knew the
Bundestrasse was closed to traffic (it is more often than not), and he
basically doubled our fare.
We have to go through a security protocol in an offsite
building, and then we are led to an elevator in the Reichstag, which lifts us
up to the roof. The dome
is a really impressive piece of architecture.
Immediately after exiting the elevator, we are able to get free audio
tour machines (in multiple languages).
The tour leads us up one half of the double helix to the internal top of
the dome, and then down the other side.
The tour must have some kind of RF tag associated with it, because every
once in a while it tells the tourist to stop, and then either talks about the
history of the Reichstag, the architecture, the business of the bundestag (the
German parliament), or the surrounding city scape. It is quite well done, and
the visit is much more impressive than I thought it would be.
We spend an hour and a half there, and then descend and walk
to the Brandenburg gate. It’s hard to think of a building that tries to mimic
ancient Rome more than this. We walk up
the famed Unter den
Linden. We stop for a coffee and croissant
at the Hotel Adlon. This is a rebuilt
replica of the famed hotel, the original having been partially destroyed by
WW2, and finally demolished in the sixties by the GDR. For me, this is the part of the perfecta of spy
stories, the Hotel Adlon being the site of many Phillip Kerr’s excellent Bernie Gunther detective thrillers (the other being the Berlin Zoo metro
station, the location of many shootouts in Len Deighton’s triple trilogy of the spy game in the cold war
[re: Bernard Samson]).
We walk to the Friedricksbrucke pedestrian bridge over the
Spree to meet up with our Secret Berlin food tour. Our tour guide’s name is Felix; he is a tall,
thin, lanky fellow with a short beard, and is a born Berliner that makes his
living as a visual artist and tour guide.
He recently returned from a two week art festival in southern Germany,
and he apologizes if his voice is a bit hoarse.
Almost everyone on the tour is American.
Felix starts out by giving everyone a sample of some kind of crumble
pastry with a sour cream and cherry filling.
Then we follow him into the Hackescher Markt
area. In the daytime it is a relatively
quiet plaza with lots of small local fast food joints (it is one of the
nightlife hubs of the city). We sit down
and have chicken doner
at Mustafa Demir’s. The meat is carved off an enormous spit of
pressed meat, about 2-3 times the size of a gyro spit in Chicago. After this we take a short walk to the Haus Schwarzenburg, a small
courtyard building that boasts some impressive, commissioned street art (and
plenty of additional graffiti). The area
is becoming gentrified - - at the fall of wall, many parts of the city would
rent for the equivalent of 40 euros per month; the same locations now go for
4000.
Next we go try some currywurst. This was once a staple of cheap German street
food, but it has (thankfully) been eclipsed by Turkish imports. It’s a mediocre sausage like a hotdog
slathered in ketchup with some curry powder.
As a proud Chicagoan, all I can say is blecch. I do have an interesting beer with some fruit
flavoring though. The most fun is a
large mural of Brezhnev
and Honecker
about to kiss but with a currywurst between them like the spaghetti scene in Lady and the Tramp.
Passing out of the courtyard, we go to visit a small Jewish
cemetery, adjacent to a revitalized Jewish high school. The school is surrounded by a security
fence. Afterwards we go to a bakery
where many sample a plum jelly filled doughnut, similar to a paczki. There are a lot of plum orchards near Berlin,
and this is the time to eat them! I have
pistachio ice cream instead. They are
both delicious.
Our last stop is a local brewery. I have a flight of beers (they are only ok),
and we are served flammkuchen
(German tarte flambee) and spaetzle. I think the spaetzle is better here than what
we had in Alsace; the sauce is a little thicker – maybe the cheese is different
(in Alsace they traditionally use Munster cheese). The flammkuchen is ok, but clearly the
Italians do it better.
Our tour is over, and we are at a bit of a loss as to what
to do next because it is really hot and we’d prefer to not walk in the opposite
direction of our hotel. We think about
taking a bateau mouche tour of the spree, but there are no English language
tours (that we can see) for at least an hour.
We decide to skip the DDR
Museum (could have been very interesting, but Cindy had already been). So
we decide, on Owen’s recommendation to go to the Humboldt Forum. This is an absolutely marvelous combination
of museum and learning experience. The
building has one wall and an interior courtyard from the 19th
century, but like the Reichstag, it has a large amount of added and rebuilt 21st
century spaces. We see a portion of a large ethno/anthropological exhibition
that ranges across Oceania, the Americas (Aztec, Inca, North America Plains),
and Africa (particularly Berlin’s collection of Benin
Bronzes), and then we see a portion of their East Asian collection. This is a museum that would be worthwhile
going to once a month for at least a year to see all of their many offerings
(and the main museum is free!).
After the museum, we take a long walk back to the hotel
through the Tiergarten. We are too full to eat dinner. We pack up, watch some Olympic coverage in
German and go to bed.
Day 15 – Thursday
We leave our hotel and take an arranged ride to the airport,
about a 30 minute ride. Going through
security at the airport is crazy. We
have to go through security, then past a passport check, and then another
security check point before getting onto the plane. It’s a bit anxiety inducing, especially as Cindy
keeps getting pulled aside for additional searches. But our flight to the US is smooth, our
connection in Newark is easy to make, and we actually get into O’Hare 30
minutes early!
All in all, this was a great trip. Cindy and I did not have any travel issues
(we have been lucky this year! We just
escaped an airport shutdown in Ecuador also). It was great having family on
this relaxing barge trip where were super pampered and had great food and wine
(especially the crystallized licorice gummy bears Andy bought). We had great experiences in Strasbourg, on
the barge, and in Germany.
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