I hadn’t been back to Germany in a few years, but with a good friend from Phoenix living there and willing to travel with me I needed no more reason to get back to the motherland.

I flew British Airways from Phoenix to London, then onto Frankfurt from there.  London’s airport was as efficient as ever, which worked out well due to our late arrival.  I was put into the “fast lane” and made it to my connecting flight with minutes to spare.

The overall route for my visit is below:

The 747-200 I rode in from Phoenix to London seemed to be getting on in years with the bathroom covered in duct tape to hold it together.  The seats were comfortable in coach and I was lucky enough to have an empty seat between me and the guy in the window seat. He was a good person with whom to speak because he was in the entertainment industry and had lots of good stories about the shows and issues that came up as they travel around the globe.  He was reading the book, “American Sniper” about the U.S. military sniper who had an incredible kill count, then came back to the states and was shot dead by some idiot at a shooting range. Guess it goes back to the whole “live by the sword…” phrase.

After arriving in Frankfurt I went to pick up the MB CLA I had rented, but they were out and gave me the MB E200 Bluetec diesel instead.  It was fine with me since it is a bigger car and could possibly go faster than the CLA.  I don’t think it did since I maxed out around 225kph and the CLA was posted as able to go a bit faster. I was hoping for around 240kph, but I’ll try again the next trip. The car rental experience was good on both checkout and check-in, with no big surprises.

I then drove to Wiesbaden to pick up my friend and we then hit the road for Berlin where the NH Mitte Hotel was waiting.  It turned out to be a perfect location for walking to all of the sites in the downtown area.

We spent Christmas Eve night wandering around downtown, then back to the hotel for a few drinks before sleep.  In the morning we left right after breakfast to see as many things as possible in the area.

We first went to “Checkpoint Charlie”, which is a tourist trap, but still fun.  We paid for pictures and passport stamps.

From there we walked to the Brandenburg Gate, the Jewish Memorial, the Victory Column, and many other sights in the area.

Our final night in Berlin was spent enjoying a fantastic meal at a downtown restaurant called GENDARMERIE – Légère Berliner Küche , wandering through the Christmas Market and later relaxing in the steam room at the hotel. It was a memorable day in a memorable city.

The next morning we woke up, had a delicious breakfast in the hotel restaurant, checked out and hit the road.  We were supposed to go through Apolda to see some very important friends on the way to Amsterdam, but I messed up and got days mixed.  I still feel badly about this failure.

On the way out of Berlin we visited the Berlin Wall Memorial.  It was a moving experience and the memorial offers much information concerning it’s history.

 

The road from Berlin to Amsterdam was almost all unlimited so we made exceptionally good time that day.  The weather was a bit chilly, but the roads were dry and safe.

 

We arrived in Amsterdam on Friday night and began the evening properly with a few delicious beers, then wandered around the city until late into the night.

On Saturday we wandered around, checked out the sites, met up with some hashers for the hash that day, but it was raining so the marks were washed away (pre-laid) so the group ended up just doing a pub walk.

 

We stayed at the Renaissance Hotel near the city center and it was lovely.  Nice hotel, great staff, expensive parking, free wifi.

From Amsterdam we went back to the Wiesbaden / Frankfurt area.  On Monday I picked up a former exchange student I hosted back when I was married for a day of visiting places I used to live / visit in Darmstadt and Heidelberg.

In Darmstadt we ate at the Darmstädter Ratskeller Hausbrauerei, visited The Goldene Krone, drove by Lokales Pizza (now closed at the old location) and throughout the downtown area.

In Heidelberg we went to the castle and only drove through the downtown area.  The weather was chilly and there was snow on the ground, but a glass of Gluwein and we were nice and warm.

After taking one day off of travel in Wiesbaden we drove to Hamburg for New Year’s Eve festivities.

Hamburg is the dirtiest city I have ever visited in Germany.  I saw homeless people there begging for money/food.  This is something that is rarely seen in Germany.

Traditionally many cultures celebrate the New Year by scaring away evil spirits with fireworks.  Hamburg is no exception.  It sounded like a war zone with the amount people setting of firecrackers larger than the M80s we used to setoff as kids.  Those are now illegal due to the amount of fingers lost.  I really disliked Hamburg. Some friends in the states talked about people setting off fireworks.  They have no idea.

I drove up with my friend and her boyfriend for the night.  We met up with a few of their friends and partied in the Reeperbahn district at a club called Halo.  It was a nice club, strong drinks, good music and fun people watching.

I left my friends in Hamburg and drove south back to Frankfurt.  There was a big detour, but it allowed me the opportunity to drive through some picturesque farming communities.

 

I stayed with my former exchange student and her boyfriend north of Frankfurt that night.  We went out for dinner, watched a movie and talked until late that night. The next morning I woke up early, drove to the airport, dropped of the car and got on the plane back to the states.

The American Airline flight used a Boeing 777 that had seen better days.  They messed up my seating assignment on both flights, my meal and the flight attendants were the grumpiest group you could ever meet.  If I hated my job that much I would quit and they should have.

The seats were so uncomfortable that I had to get up at least 5-6 times to stretch and just not be sitting.  I only got up twice on the BA flight to London and was quite comfortable the entire flight.  I paid $100 more for the AA flight in comparison to the BA flight and it was worth half as much.  American Airlines is on my do not fly list at this point.  I used my extra miles to get a flight this fall and then I am cutting them off until they get their business back in line.  How can KLM, Lufthansa, BA and so many other airlines (NON US) have better planes, better people, better food, etc. and still charge less?  I really need to investigate that, but I will not support our airlines if making their stockholders/executives wealthy is their main goal.  The customer should be the priority.

Anywhoooo… It was so wonderful to get back to Germany.  I missed it so much.