The Perfect End To Germany

Tonight we finished Germany in the best way possible – completely drunk with a group of random strangers!  Could there be a better way to say goodbye to the country that drinks more beer than any others?  I think not (more…)

Why Not Germany?!?!

When we were planning our trip, a few of our friends discussed the possibility of meeting up with us in May, but when we told them our routing would put us in Germany in May, they all responded with the same “well, Germany was not on the top of my list of places to go to…” and they all decided not to meet up with us in May.  I can’t say I blame them, since Germany wasn’t on the top of my list of countries to visit either, but as we finish up our time in Germany, I have to say I’ve changed my mind and I think Germany should be on the top of more people’s lists!  The sights and history have been interesting, the people are serious looking but friendly, almost everyone speaks English so there’s hardly any communication barrier, and the food has been consistently good.  Germany has surprisingly become one of my favourite countries visited so far! (more…)

Düsseldorf, Why Did We Bother?

Hindsight is always 20/20, and in hindsight, we should have just skipped Düsseldorf, Germany!  Paul had added it to our itinerary after reading somewhere that it was a nice city and the “fashion capital” of Germany, but neither of us found it particularly worth seeing.  The coolest thing we saw was the door knocker in the picture above and in total we only took 15 pictures today! (more…)

Sushi Attempt #3

After Miniatur Wunderland, we walked around the area by the Port of Hamburg since it was nearby, then cut back into the center of town to find somewhere to eat dinner.  We wandered onto a street named Colonnaden where there were a number of restaurants and debated between a German restaurant and the all-you-can-eat sushi place next to it.  My sushi craving won, and Paul agreed to give sushi one more try, but I think this may be our final sushi attempt in Europe!  The reality is, you can only expect so much in terms of quality for all-you-can eat sushi, even if it’s 16.90 euros per person.  At home we can get a pretty good amount of great quality sushi for what that converts into in Canadian dollars, so even though the sushi wasn’t that bad, we’ve come to the conclusion that we just won’t find high quality sushi in Europe so we won’t waste any more money on it!  We’ll stick to other types of food which are cheaper and better and I’ll get my sushi-fill when I’m back home again

Bagels Sights And Shopping

Following a recommendation I found on the Internet, we started today by eating at Salomon Bagels in the shopping center at Potsdamer Platz.  Back home we’re both a fan of bagels, but I don’t think we’ve ever had a proper Jewish bagel (they are a traditional Jewish food) and I had read that Salomon Bagels was a good place to get a traditional-style bagel.  They were one of Berlin’s first bagel stores (I think it’s now a franchise chain with multiple locations) and the Potsdamer Platz location isn’t the original, but it was convenient for us because our sightseeing plans for today concentrated on this area. (more…)

Shopping At KaDeWe

After a rather full day at the zoo yesterday, we decided to take it easy today and just do some browsing at KaDeWe, the second largest department store in Europe after Harrods in London.  It’s definitely the largest department store I’ve ever been in, with a selection of items that would fulfill almost any shopper’s needs, ranging from clothing to gourmet grocery items.  If I lived here KaDeWe would definitely be my shopping haven! (more…)

A Day @ The Berlin Zoo

Before this year, I had never heard of the Berlin zoo, even though it is the most internationally well known zoo in Germany and has the most comprehensive collection of species in the world.  This past April, however, I like many others on YouTube, became familiar with the Berlin zoo because of a crazy lady who jumped into the polar bear enclosure.  Having heard about the crazy lady and the polar bear named Knut she was trying to get close to, this was a zoo I really wanted to see and this morning we set off to spend a day at the zoo… (more…)

First Day Out In Berlin

After another long travel day (which went from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.) we got to Berlin, the capital of Germany, yesterday, but didn’t do anything after checking into the hotel because it it was so late.  Today we headed out to Alexanderplatz, a large sqaure in the Mitte (city center) district of Berlin, where we tried some German schnitzel and went to the Berliner dom, an impressive Baroque style cathedral near Museum Island.  Not an especially exciting first day in Berlin, but it was nice and relaxing (more…)

Hofbräuhaus To End Munich :)

After spending some time at the hotel making phone calls home to wish our moms a happy mothers day, we headed out to try the world’s most famous beer hall, Hofbräuhaus, for our last meal in Munich.  We’re both in agreement that this was the best possible way to finish off our time in our first German city – the food was excellent, the beer was amazing (and back home, I never drink beer!), and the atmosphere was one of a kind.  It’s no wonder this place runs second only to Oktoberfest as a tourist icon of Munich! (more…)

Last Day In Munich

Much to Paul’s dismay, our last day in Munich started with me waking him up to go see the daily clocktower display at the Rathaus-Glockenspiel.  The 15-minute show of chiming bells and figurines moving around didn’t impress either of us much since we didn’t know the story it was telling, and Paul decided to spend the next hour being grumpy at me for waking him up for nothing 

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