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This and That

This and That

by | Dec 10, 2023 | Blog

Christmas Fun

This week was spent finishing up schoolwork and doing a few festive Christmas outings.

We headed to the Christmas Market to find dinner one night. We ended up at the Swiss Market, which was kinda sad, as it consisted of only three stands and the skating rink. We were feeling adventurous and ordered food that we weren’t quite confident that we knew what we were getting. But we struck out with that one and ended up with a giant pile of french fries with basically some beef stroganoff on top. Not the best. You win some…

The next night we tried again and had a freshly fire-roasted salmon and a salmon wrap at the Finnish Market. It was sehr lecker. Then we followed that up with an ooey gooey cheesy handbrot, freshly pulled out of the oven. Yum! Then we scooted off to the Thomaskirche to hear the first half of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. It was fun to be in the space for which the piece was composed.

I’m hoping to get a couple more videos ready to share with you this week. Maybe then I can give you a little more of a taste of the Weinachtsmarkt spirit!

Other than that, it wasn’t a terribly eventful week here. We got to talk to the grandkids and that was great.

I thought I would take a moment to share some thoughts about lessons we learn and relearn when we are traveling. They are life lessons that we get to practice when we are far from home.

Lessons and Practice

  • Self-care pays off

It’s easy to let things slip when you are out of your regular environment and your regular routine. But I am amazed at how much more fun it is to travel when we are taking better care of our bodies. Fifteen minutes of stretching, a morning run, and a big plate of vegetables do wonders for feeling energetic and ready to take on a full day of walking around a city or climbing up to a castle.

  • Flexibility

We are constantly adjusting our plans and expectations. We had tickets for a movie yesterday and planned to roll out to our regular tram stop to ride into town. The tram was late, so we started walking toward the next stop. Then we found out that the tram was delayed, so we basically ended up walking/running to town instead of riding the tram. From train schedules to unexpected weather, we are exercising our flexibility, and our patience too.

  • How to get by on less

Dragging belongings around is a pain, so we tried to pare down our stuff when we headed to Germany. Since we think we may want to move on from here in a couple months, we have acquired a few necessities, but we often think of buying something and then decide it’s not necessary and not worth the trouble of dealing with it in the future. It’s a good policy for life at home, too. We’re determining what is truly essential for us to have a rich, abundant life.

  • Teamwork

We’ve been working as a team for a loooong time now, but it’s different when we are in a new place. We really have to figure things out together. Sometimes it really takes both of us to notice what we need and to make the decisions that matter. It’s fun and a challenge. And we almost never want to throttle each other!

  • Do something hard on a regular basis

Talk to a stranger. Walk to the market to get your groceries and carry them home. Go out in the cold. Do something hard on a regular basis and you get better at doing hard things. You also don’t get stuck in a rut. I recommend making yourself uncomfortable. Then comfort seems even better when you get to return to it.

Q&A

I think this section will be a regular feature, so please ask your questions in the comments below and I’ll respond in the next post…

Q: Are you making any special plans for Christmas?

A: We haven’t planned anything yet for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. This year might be the most festive we have ever been as far as “Christmas Celebrations” go. We have usually been so caught up in Nutcracker and other performances that we don’t feel much like going out and about.

We also have a birthday, a graduation, and an anniversary to celebrate this month. We will do something, but we might just do something big later when the weather gets warmer and call that our “celebration”. We will probably hear some music and have a good meal and then get cozy at home.

Q: Are you cooking more in your new place?

A: Nathan is probably sick of me saying it, but I miss my kitchen. We do make meals here, but they are simple and sometimes it gets a bit boring. We have limited equipment and limited storage. It’s a bit of a drag for someone who enjoys cooking and baking. Oh well…it won’t last forever.

Jana,

I told Nathan during our bomb shelter tour that it reminded me of when we toured the tunnels at Dover. El and I also toured the Churchill War Rooms in central London in 2017. The Brits were much more prepared and their bomb shelters were stocked and actually deep enough to be useful. The shelters in Berlin were mostly just a sham to make people feel safe, not to really keep them safe. The contrast was striking.

Es ist Weihnachtszeit!

Es ist Weihnachtszeit!

by | Dec 3, 2023 | Blog

We took a long weekend trip to Berlin last week. We booked tickets to a concert (Ben Folds) weeks ago and planned a trip to Berlin around the concert. Then the concert was cancelled (Folds is a pianist and is having tendonitis and nerve issues). But we decided to go ahead with the trip anyway.

We aren’t that far from Berlin, so we took the slower regional trains. Since we had to transfer anyway, we decided to do so in Lutherstadt Wittenberg and complete our “Martin Luther Tic-tac-toe”, adding it to Wartberg and Weimar. Wittenberg is where he was a monk and where he tacked up the 95 Theses in 1517. It was snowy while we were there, but we had a bit of a walk around town. We saw the church where it all went down (the original wood doors are gone, but the bronze doors in their place now are engraved with Luther’s famous “suggestions for improvement” that got him excommunicated). We also visited a cool panorama art installation in town called “Luther 1517 – Wittenberg 360°” by artist Yadegar Asisi. It has a scene of different aspects of everyday life in 16th-century Wittenberg as well as key moments of Luther’s life in the city. There are sound effects and cool lighting and you can listen to the audio guide describe the different scenes. It was a good way to spend a snowy afternoon.

We made it to Berlin in the afternoon. We love cities with layer upon layer of history coupled with a vibrant, global culture. Berlin is one of those cities. It means you can find cool historical sights, learn something new, and eat lots of yummy international food. We made a beeline for a taco place that was recommended to us by a Mexican guy we meet in Weimar. The tacos were really good! We stayed in a little studio Airbnb in an attic in the Prenzlauerberg area. Since we were missing out on our concert experience, we went to a night of jazz at the Yorckschlõsschen. The food was mediocre, but the music was good. We also walked by Checkpoint Charlie on our way to the music venue. Nathan actually crossed there from West Berlin to East in 1988 when he was a teenager. He was working in Switzerland and he traveled around with his sister, Liz. 

Berlin is the first city that we have visited during this trip that is a repeat from our trip in 2019. When we visited four years ago, it was one of our first stops and we were just starting to figure out how we wanted to travel long-term. We decided it would be ok to repeat some of the things we did then, like a walking tour of the major sights like the Brandenburg Gate and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. My favorite memorial is the Neue Wache with its modern pieta.

We are getting better at bundling up so that we last out in the cold a bit longer, but that means we are often wearing 2-4 layers of clothes and feeling like the Michelin Man. Sometimes we just suck it up and freeze. We also plan in breaks now and then to get something warm to drink or take a U-Bahn ride or visit something indoors. The cold weather is slowing us down, a bit, but we are adapting.

One thing we have been missing a bit is live comedy. It happens around here, but we find that things are less funny when you can’t understand the language! We knew there was comedy performed in English in Berlin because we went to a show in 2019. This time, we went to comedy show on a boat in the Spree River called Laughing Spree. It was a collection of different comics, some new and some with more experience. It was mostly a good time.

One of the best things we did during our trip was a tour in the Berliner Unterwelten. They offer all kinds of history tours, but this one was in an old bomb shelter attached to an underground station. During WWII, Hermann Göring convinced Hitler that Berlin would never be bombed because the planes would never make it that far. As a result, there were not really any preparations made for the civilians to take cover during air raids. In London, people could take shelter in the underground stations. The Berliners didn’t really have that option as the underground stations are not very deep since the city was built on swampy ground. So, they quickly tried to make at least some places for people to go. The one that we visited was a series of rooms that were originally just dead spaces left over from the construction of the station. The tour guide was so good for this tour (in English) and the subject was absolutely fascinating. Most everything of the like was destroyed after the war, but this one was left intact since destroying it would have also taken out the U-Bahn station. There is original phosphorescent paint on the walls and some of the artifacts that they have found from the war years. Unfortunately, photos and videos were not allowed, but it was so interesting.

We knew that our trip would coincide with the opening of the Christmas Markets in Berlin, so that was what we did on our last evening. Berlin has 60+ Christmas Markets all over the city. We visited three of the most central and most popular. We went to Alexanderplatz, to Charlottenburg, and to the Gendarmenmarkt. All of them have similarities, but also slightly different personalities. Just as Oktoberfest is an opportunity to drink German beer and eat Bavarian food, the Christmas Markets serve mulled wine, called glühwein, and lots of seasonal food and treats. We weren’t drinking the wine, but we did have a really good barbecue burger, some tasty, candied almonds, and some cheesy “schneeballen”. We made it home on the train the next day, despite delays and missed connections again. I read that November was maybe the worst month in the history of German rail for delays.

It’s finally Christmastime here! It seemed like we were seeing evidence of Christmas everywhere for weeks without really being able to enjoy it. But now everything is decorated and people are out in full force, ready to soak up the holiday cheer. We went into the center of Leipzig last night to check out the markets here and it was so crowded! It was a happy crowd, though, so it was kinda fun. This morning we went to advent mass at the (rather chilly) Thomaskirche to hear another Bach cantata. The organ there is beautiful and the choir sounded great. 

Unfortunately, Christmas time also means that winter weather has set in and the days are getting ridiculously short. We are at about 8 hours of daylight per day. It’s hard to remember that Europe is at a much higher latitude than most of the U.S. We are trying to stay cozy when we are home (we have a mini Christmas tree) and getting out as best we can to get a bit of sunlight and fresh air. It’s gray and snowy pretty much all the time, but so far, we are faring pretty well.

P.S. We had a few questions last week that I will address here. 

The new grandchild will be the third for Lauren and Bo, due in June. We’re all excited!

The string quartet instruments that were pictured with Nathan last week are described here (copied from the Beethoven-Haus permanent collection description):

“Beethoven was given these four valuable stringed instruments around 1800 by his friend and patron Prince Lichnowsky, possibly in connection with the creation of the String Quartets op. 18, Beethoven’s first works for this classical Viennese genre. As one of the composer’s first Viennese patrons, Prince Lichnowsky gave him an annual stipend of 600 gulden. The composer was to be given access to this until he was able to find an appropriate position. The instruments are marked with a big “B” and Beethoven’s signet on the back.” If you go back and look at the photo from last week, you might be able to see the mirrors they have placed by each instrument so you can see the “B” signet on the back of each one.

 

Cathedrals and Beethoven

Cathedrals and Beethoven

by | Nov 24, 2023 | Blog

We had an adventure! Sorry I didn’t post as usual, but we were having an adventure!

We learned that four of Nathan’s former business partners would be driving through western Germany between business meetings. We had been considering a trip to Cologne (Köln in German) and the area, so we decided to take the plunge and arranged to meet them for lunch. The plan was to take the train on Thursday, meet the guys on Friday, then have 3 more days to explore and experience. As we settled in to relax on Tuesday night, we got a notification that there was a rail strike planned, starting Wednesday night and lasting until late on Thursday. So, the choice was between missing our meeting with the Card Access crew or traveling on Wednesday. We decided to go for it. We quickly booked an Air BnB for one night, packed our bags, and planned for an early train west the next morning.

The ride was rather uneventful, except for that, despite being a high-speed train, it was slow due to multiple delays. The German rail system is no longer the solid, punctual system that it used to have a reputation for. We are learning that train travel is generally chaos. Our journeys to cities around Cologne and then when we returned to Leipzig were littered with delays, cancellations, and trying to reconfigure our travel plans. We still like it, though!

We got into the Köln main station and the main attraction of the city, the massive and amazing cathedral is right outside the station doors. It dwarfs pretty much everything else in the city. You can’t miss it!

When I was in high school and took AP Art History from Cheryl Hughes, I was fascinated by medieval architecture, especially Gothic cathedrals. By that time in my life, I had traveled to Wyoming (because family was there), Idaho (because sometimes we drove through Idaho to get to Wyoming), and Denver (because it was a fluke and we did a day trip to Denver on some dinky airline for $25 one time). I thought how amazing it would be to see Cologne Cathedral, but traveling to Europe was far beyond my imagination. I just couldn’t see how a kid like me would ever make that happen. Little did I know that I would meet a crazy, mathy guy with a Swiss family and an itch to travel while I was studying Art History at the University of Utah just a couple years later. Life. It’s always interesting.

The cathedral is absolutely so beautiful and breathtaking. It is one of the tallest in Europe. It took over 600 years to finish! We visited over several days of the trip because we were staying nearby. We stepped inside during our initial walking tour of the city. Then we took a guided tour (in English ☺) from a local monk. That got us into some of the areas that aren’t accessible to the public, like the sanctuary where the shrine holding the bones of the Three Magi is housed. (Side note, as a non-Catholic, I have never quite grasped the idea of holy relics, so these things are a bit wasted on me. But it was still pretty cool.) But the best things about that part of the cathedral are the mosaics on the floor and ceilings. Awesome! Then we also took a guided tour (in German ☹) of the archeological excavation under the cathedral to see the remains of the different buildings that stood on the site previously: a Roman temple and another cathedral from the Carolingian era (age of Charlemagne, more on him later). Even though we struggled to get everything the guide was saying, he did speak slowly and clearly and we got the general idea. Also, we got to go to another cool area of the building that not everyone gets to see. Worth it!

We met the four guys from Card Access at a Turkish restaurant for brunch. We traveled about 25 minutes east of the city on the train and they met us there. It was great to see familiar faces and to catch up on all the family members. It was also nice to have a bit of home come to visit us.

You know that we had to check off another composer, so we popped down to Bonn for an afternoon to visit the house where Beethoven was born. On a previous trip, we also visited the house in Vienna where he died, so now we know it all, hahaha! It was a really good museum. Unlike some of the other composer sites we have visited, they have Beethoven’s instruments, notebooks, and other belongings. I think it makes a big difference if the composer was a superstar during their life or not. If they were, people held onto their stuff!

We took another day trip to Aachen (or Aix la Chapelle), the city where Charlemagne set up his kingdom and kicked off the Holy Roman Empire in the 9th century. There is a really good museum there and we took another tour (in German ☹) of the cathedral. Again, even though it was hard to understand the guide, it was worth it to see some of the areas of the church that aren’t open to the public. The cathedral is mind-boggling. There are gorgeous mosaics and stained glass everywhere. The building is uniquely shaped like an octagon and was built, rebuilt, and restored over centuries. Every European ruler of the Middle Ages who wanted to legitimize their right to the throne would be crowned there, sitting on Charlemagne’s throne. That even lasted until Napoleon. We don’t visit every church we encounter (we wouldn’t have time in two or three lifetimes), but the cathedrals in Aachen and Cologne were worth it!

It was a really good trip. We also spent a drizzly, cold day walking around Düsseldorf, we went to see a movie (in English ☺), we visited an Irish pub to hear some live music, and we ate some really good meals. One very memorable meal was dinner on our last night. We walked a couple blocks to a neighborhood with so many Turkish restaurants to have a döner kebab. Just as we sat down to eat, we received the news that our fifth grandchild is due in June! Dinner with a side of baby announcement!

Now we are back in chilly Leipzig, staying cozy in our little apartment as wintery weather is setting in. We get out for a walk every day, but we definitely have to bundle up now. We went to a nice restaurant for our Thanksgiving meal last night and reflected on how good life really is. We’re so grateful for all of our friends and family and for life. We are gearing up for another journey tomorrow!

A Quiet Week

A Quiet Week

by | Nov 12, 2023 | Blog

It’s been a low-key week here in Leipzig. We returned home from Bavaria and had some catching-up to do. You know: laundry, groceries, homework, etc. So there’s not a lot to report. But we are planning a trip for this coming week to Cologne, then we will celebrate Thanksgiving, then we are scooting off to Berlin, so there are exciting things coming!

For this week’s post, I thought I would share a few things that are different and cool about Germany and a few things that are different and questionable.

Different and Cool

Public transportaion here is awesome. One really different thing is that the Subway stations are completely open–no turnstiles. You do need a ticket to ride, but there is nowhere to scan it or punch it or anything like that. You just walk into the station and onto a train–easy! You do have to prove that you have paid your fare if an employee is checking and the fine is steep if you don’t have a valid ticket.

They are so environmentally-concious here. Almost all products are packaged in recyclable packaging, there are lots of places to recycle glass bottles, and everybody composts here. They are sensitive to conserving energy and water. I like it.

Mineral water is a thing here unlike you can even imagine. Where our grocery stores have a whole aisle for soda, the Germans have a whole aisle (sometimes two) for different mineral waters. Super sparkling, sparkling, flat.

Different kinds of yummy food in the supermarkets here: feldsalat, many delicious cheeses, great bread, great chocolate.

Different and ?

Here in Leipzig, parking on the street is kind of funny. In the U.S. we wouldn’t be able to park everywhere, like within so many feet of an intersection. Not so here. There are cars parked along every inch of the curb at night. It’s kind of a hoot.

I’ve mentioned it before, but I’ll put it in again. Smoking is more prevalant here. There are way more people who smoke and it is totally acceptable to smoke on the terrace at a restaurant or on a busy train platform.

Imagine a Super Target. Now break that up into three different stores. That’s what you get here in Germany. If you want groceries, you go to the supermarkt, but you can’t buy much else but food and a few household goods there. If you want something like costmetics or lotion, like a Walgreen’s or a CVS, you go to a drogerie. But the drogerie doesn’t have the pharmacy part; you have to go to an apoteke for that stuff. And even “over-the-counter” medications that we would just choose off of the shelf, like cold meds, are behind the counter and the pharmacist has to get it for you.

Bedding is weird. The bed pillows are huge, square, and squishy. They have a fitted sheet on the bed, but no flat sheet, just a duvet on a down comforter.

Customer service is a lot friendlier in the U.S. Be nice to the people that are serving you, because they are awesome!

We miss nut butter, bar-b-q sauce, rootbeer, and easy access to great Mexican food. 🙂 Many of the desserts here are not that good.

The leaves here are finally really falling and the temperatures have dropped a bit. Skies are generally gray and cloudy, but we haven’t had any really cold nights yet. The one thing this week that I will mention is that November 9 is a significant date in Germany. You would think there would be huge parties because it is the anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down. However, it is also the anniversary of Kristallnacht as well as some other more difficult events, so things are more low-key. That’s why they celebrated the falling of the Berlin Wall and reunification in October. In remembrance of Kristallnacht, Nathan took some photos of flowers and tributes at some of the stumbling stones in the neighborhood. The brass had also been polished up.

A Journey to Österreich and Bayern

A Journey to Österreich and Bayern

by | Nov 5, 2023 | Blog

In other words, Austria and Bavaria. But it sounds slightly more exotic auf Deutsch, no? We are again in a race with the winter weather, so we decided to take a few days and go to Salzburg, Munich, and Nuremburg. For a lot of people, when you say Germany, this is the part of the planet that they think of.

Our first day was a long train day with several transfers from train to train. We are getting better at navigating the train system, but we are still learning. One thing we have learned is that the trains are inevitably delayed and tight connections are almost impossible. As a result, an already long day was made longer. Nonetheless, we made it to Salzburg and all was well. It’s Mozart’s home town, so there was a little concert that we were hoping to hear. We dashed to check into our hotel, drop our bags, and hoofed it into the old town and just managed to snag two seats in a small room in the museum near the cathedral. We heard three sonatas for piano (actually harpsichord in this case) and violin. It was great! We grabbed dinner and strolled back through the old town and enjoyed some nice fluffy pillows and a good night’s sleep. The next morning, we did a walking tour of the town. The baroque architecture and cozy streets and squares are really pretty. One of the lovliest places is the cemetery at the base of the cliff that inspired the dramatic scene at the end of “The Sound of Music” when Rolf literally blows the whistle on the Von Trapps (it was shot on a sound stage in Hollywood). We also visited Mozart’s birthplace, the cozy (cramped?) house where his family lived for many years. We enjoyed Salzburg. I can imagine that the town is absolutely overrun during the summer, but in the off season, it was quite pleasant.

I had a school assignment that required an internet connection, so we scooted off to Munich around lunchtime. By the time we reached the city and I was able to finish my work, the weather had set in. Decked out in our rain jackets and with umbrellas in hand, we did our walking tour of most of the old part of the city. It was mostly destroyed during World War II, but the people of Munich decided to rebuild as close as they could to the pre-war state rather than build new (like Frankfurt). The Frauenkirche was really pretty. It’s so tall and instead of the crazy baroque and roccoco decor in some of the other churches, it has a simple white and gold interior that really emphasizes the verticality of the space. After chasing Martin Luther sites in German cities further north, it was interesting to see what a city that stayed connected to Catholicism looks like. After slogging around in the dark and the rain for a while, we decided to find dinner and then we headed back to our hotel.

The next morning, since it was cold and still raining, we finished the walking tour, then we caught the subway north to the Olympiczentrum (site of the 1972 games) and the BMW Museum. We don’t always choose to visit museums, but they are a great activity on a wet day. The museum felt a bit like a long advertisement, but it did have some interesting exhibits, especially the more future-focused cars and the quirky vehicles from the past. We warmed up back at the hotel for a bit, then we actually ate German food for dinner. Then we did something that we haven’t done for months and something we love to do when the weather stinks: go see a movie. In Germany, they dub most foreign-made films into German, so to find the original version can be tough. We found a little old theater showing the English version of “A Haunting in Venice”. The theater felt like the old Tower theater in Salt Lake and was pretty full with a lively crowd munching on kettle corn and reacting to the movie. It was a fun evening. 

The next morning was much dryer, if not warmer, weather. We decided to take advantage of it and, since we didn’t get enough of the mountains while we were in Salzburg, we headed south to the Bavarian Alps. Oberamergau has a famous Passion Play during the summer, but in the fall it is quiet and beautiful. There is a tram to the highest peak there. In the Alps, there’s almost always a tram or a railway or some sort of transportation to the unlikeliest of peaks. We hiked up to the top and then rode the tram down. It felt like it was probably the last opportunity for that activity for the season, since it was slightly snowy and pretty slippery in places toward the top. The weather was moving in again as we reached the summit, but the views and tram ride down the mountain were totally worth it. We hopped back on the train for a scenic ride back to Munich, slurped ramen for dinner, and fell into bed after a long and satisfying day.

The last day, we hopped on a train toward home, but we made a stopover in Nuremburg for a few hours. Described by some as “the most German of German cities”, Nuremburg is pretty great. Of course, Hitler thought so too, so there are a lot of Nazi connections there. But the medieval old town was rebuilt as much as possible and the place is just charming. We walked around, sampled the famous Nürnburger wursts (they are little and usually come in threes), and bought lebkuchen (Nürnburg gingerbread cookies). The town was starting to get dressed up for the upcoming Christmas market season, so it was looking especially attractive and delightful. But we had to get on the train for home just after lunch. We watched “All the Light We Cannot See” on our ride back to Leipzig. It was a bit of a whirlwind week, but really worth it!

 

A Bite to Eat

A Bite to Eat

by | Oct 29, 2023 | Blog

So here is the post some of you have been waiting for…food! A small preamble:

1. We are NOT vegetarians. Apologies to those of you who are. Maybe skip this one?

2. We, ironically, have not eaten a lot of German food while we have been here. All I can say abou that is this: life’s too short to eat what you don’t love. We have tried some stuff that sounds good, but frankly schnitzel and potatoes and cabbage aren’t that appealing to us at the moment.

3. We have been eating out a bit more than we normally do at home. We have a kitchen but it is modestly outfitted and there is little storage. We also don’t want to stock up on tons of ingredients, since our plans are fluid and we aren’t exactly sure when we are going to move on.

4. Food in restaurants is generally served here beautifully. We rarely have a meal that is not nice to look at before we dive in.

Here are a few of the meals that have been stand outs since we arrived in Germany two months ago:

Tapas

We fell in love with tapas when we were in Spain for a couple months. We grabbed this tapas meal before a concert. It was so yummy, but the aioli had us tasing garlic for the whole night!

Sushi

Last week we took a little day trip to a nearby town called Machern. On our way back, we stopped at a little Vietnamese restaurant and had various things. Here is the yummy sushi and sashimi.

Solyanka

This is a Russian soup that is popular here in eastern Germany. It’s reminiscent of chili, but with no beans and a different spice profile. Tasty.

Salumeria

Another Mediterranean “bits and pieces” meal at a local salumeria–a lot like tapas, but Italian. With a little basket of bread and a salad, a plate like this is surprisingly filling and oh so good.

Raclette

Ok, Swiss family! We found a raclette restaurant in Krakow. There was just one guy running the place, but this was so delicious. For the uninitiated, raclette cheese comes in a giant wheel. They put the sliced surface under a broiler and then scrape off the melted portion onto a slice of bread. And it comes with good pickles, which was refreshing. Don’t get me started on the abomination that is German pickles.

Breakfast (Frühstuck)

Yogurt with müsli and beautiful fresh fruit is a super popular item on cafe menus. I don’t have a photo, but another yummy breakfast is a Käse Frühstuck: bread and all kinds of yummy cheeses.

Leipzig Pizza

A snack for the train

When we are catching an early train, we will often stop at a bakery for a bite for the journey. This was a tasty ham and cheese pretzel (brezel).

Goulash (gulyás)

Another dish we fell in love with in 2019. We found this goulash at an Irish pub.

Falafel Bowl

There is a sizeable Turkish population here in Germany because of waves of migration over different decades and centuries. Döner Kebab places are everywhere here–kind of like fast food places in the U.S. We love these places for a salad or a veggie-packed bowl or sandwich. Always so good. Falafel is yum.

Empanadas

This was our appetizer for an amazing steak dinner we had in Krakow.

BBQ

This was a crazy meal that we shared in Erfurt. Pretty authentic and surprisingly good barbeque, with a European flair of course.

Brat & Brotchen

Classic street food and the most German thing that we have eaten. Not only is it great for grabbing on the go, but it’s an easy thing for us have at home too.

Dessert

We only order dessert if it’s really going to be amazing. This was worth it! Flourless chocolate cake with gelato and fresh fruit. (Yes, I ate all the fruit.) The round yellow fruit with the wild leaves is a kind of gooseberry that they use a lot as a dessert garnish.

Currywurst

I mentioned this one in another post. Classic street food. It’s a sausage, warmed and sliced, topped with a spicy ketchup.

Eggs Benedict

We love some tasty eggs. Sauces here are often filled with fresh herbs.