Strunk Kristiansen

Day 7 + 8 – July 12/13th

Berchtesgaden to Garmish-Patrenkirchen on The Alpine Road (Deutsche Alpenstrasse)

Berchtesgaden to Garmisch Partenkirchen on The German Alpine Road (Deutsche Alpen Strasse). Watch on Google Maps

The German Alpine Road is really fun to drive. A lot of motorbikes have also found this scenic and curvy road, so watch out for the motorbikes, as they do not care about any traffic rules!

Brannenburg

We stopped in Brannenburg, at the Wendelsteinbahn station, to get lunch. You can take the train up to the top of the mountain, where you, amongst others, can see the highest located church (Wendelstein Church) in Germany at 1.760 m altitude – see also here. So back to our lunch;

The art of a German cheese sandwich

I had a salad with sausage and cheese

Helle had an interesting view;

Hungry or not

We booked one night at the Best western Obermühle Hotel in Garmish-Partenkirschen. On our way we had been talking about staying an additional day in Garmish Partenkirchen. On arrival, we changed our reservation to two nights. The first night we had to stay at the Economy room which we booked and the night after we should change room to junior suite in the main building. Make sure, that you get a room in the main building, as they were newly renovated. While checkin-in we got two creditcards for complimentary welcome drinks (which we did not had time to use) and 2 cards for free public transportation in the city. The hotel also have 10 e-bikes which you can borrow for free.

View from the balcony

I had checked with TripAdvisor, which restaurant were good – so we went, by foot, into Garmish-Partenkirchen. Checking out the city and the restaurants, we ended up at Koch’s, which turnes out to be a great choice !

First we got a starter.

Mustard soup with Bolognese

Then we splitt a salad

Salad with chanterelles

Then Helle got:

Pasta with more chanterelles and bacon

and I got some black pasta with lobster

Pasta and lobster

and the dessert:

Pannecotta

You could taste, that the food was made by passion and also the service was great. We booked a table for the next day when we paid our bill !

The breakfast at the Best Western Obermühle was not the best. The crew were grumpy and  it turns out, that one of the waiter reserved the best tables, so that he could give them to guest he liked (who tipped him, is my guess)

So it was a quick breakfast and the off to see Hoheschwangau and Neuschwanstein Castle. We arrived at 11.00 and when we came to the ticket office, the next available tour was at 17.00 hours. Now I remembered that my friend Volker had said, make sure that you buy the ticket in advance ! 🙁 We could have walked up to the castle, but could not get in – and for us there was no point in doing so, so we returned to our car and drop away.

Neuschwanstein Castle

So instead we drow til Füssen

Füssen

Füssen

There are lot of things to watch in old city center and we ended up at a small restaurant to get some lunch.

Helle got potato soup

Salad for me

Spätzles, mushrooms and veal for me too

Füssen

Going back to Garmisch-Partenkirchen,

Golfclub

German Alpine Road

we partly drew on the German Alpine Road again.

Me and Deutsche Alpenstrasse like the one i have from Route 66 😉

Back in Garmisch-Partenkirchen we decided to find the ski jumping hills.

Ski jumping hills

It is difficult to see how large they are

Ski jumping hills

Drew back to the hotel and went down into the city again windowsshopping

Windowsshopping

Garmish-Partenkirchen is very tourist minded. There are free Wi-Fi several places in the city center.

Later we went back to Restaurant Koch’s. After a heavy lunch, we skipped the first course and went direct to the main course.

Pork tenderloin, sauerkraut and pea purée

Beef files and couscous

Pannacotta on buttermilk

Once again the food was really great. Unfortunately there was an American guide there with 10-12 customers. He sitting at one end of the table and were talking so loud that everyone in the restaurant were not able to hear anything else but him. The worse part of it was, that he told a lot of BS – most from movies which then were believed to be true. The hammer was, when he told that European and specially Germans do not owe empathy like Americans. “We Americans, we stop up, when we see a roadkill and feel sorry for it” WTF, first of all, with the amount of weapons in the US and what they do with it or how many innocent civilian they kill in the Middle East – Dont you come here and talk about, that we do not owe empathy ! We European care about our countrymen, we have free hospitals and doctors. We take car of our old people and our sick people and those who cannot or will not work – What do you do in the US ? Actually you told your customers, that you were living for more than 14 years in Germany – one can wonder why you did not learn more about Europe, specially if you like to be a tourguide for other Americans. I could have posted a picture of you, but I do owe empathy ! Shame on you !

It was a partykiller and we went for a walk around before we went back to the hotel.

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Germany 2015 – German Alpine Road – Deutsche Alpenstrasse

The Eagle’s Nest – Kehlstein

I have for a long time had a wish, to show my wife more of Germany than just Hamburg, which is a fantastic city.

Therefore we went to Germany this summer. With a lot of help from Mr. Volker Pott from Otto A. Müller, a German shipping company situated in Hamburg, we made a roundtrip  down on the eastern part of Germany, then crossing via the ‘Deutsche Alpenstrasse’ and then northwards on the western part of Germany.

The preliminary plan was as follows:

But off course the route were altered !

So, if you like to read a detailed report, follow below links:

1. Hundested to Schleswig – Haithabu Viking Museum

2. Schleswig to Eisenach via Neumünster Designer Outlet

3. Eisenach to Dresden via Gera

4. Dresden to Regensburg

5. Regensburg to Berchtesgaden via Dachau and Salzburg

6. Berchtesgaden to Garmish Partenkirchen

7. Garmisch Partenkirchen to Schaffhausen via Lindau

8. Schaffhausen to Freiburg

9. Freiburg to Rüdesheim via Zweibrücke Outlet

10. Rüdesheim to Hamburg

11. Hamburg

12. Hamburg to Hundested via Kiel

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Day 17 – July 21st

Hamburg to Hundested via Kiel

Last route on this vacation

See route on Google map

Breakfast a t Hotel Hyatt

Checking out

We are not traveling light !

Cool

Around 11.00 we arrived at Citti-park in Kiel. Over 80 shops and 11 places to eat. We quickly ran through the center, feeling that we have seen most of the shops already in Hamburg and actually we were tired and wanted to get home than shop. Next time we make a short trip to Germany, we may go to Kiel instead and spend some more time there.

We made a quick stop at Scandinavian-park to buy beer and soda, some wine and nuts.

Sealand in sight

It has been a good vacation. There were places where we could have used more time. There are places that we have to visit again and there are for sure much more to see in Germany.

Glad to be home and being able to cook ourself, I finish with this photo

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Day 14-16 – July 18/20th

We had a slow morning with a huge breakfast at the hotel.

With triathlon in Hamburg, we decided to go and see the world largest model railway “Miniature Wunderland” – Watch their official video.

Miniatur Wunderland

Landungs Brücken

Make sure that you buy your ticket on the internet, this will save you 2-3 hours waiting 😉

Biergarden

Think they also had a lot of fun making it 🙂

Be prepared that there are a lot of people and from their speed, I would say that they spend the whole day watching all the details. It was fascinating, but also too crowded !

It was partly raining this Sunday, so after leaving Miniatur Wunderland, we took a Harbour roundtrip. I wanted to show Helle how big the harbour is and we also passed the berth where we ship steel scrap.

TSR’s scrap berth in Hamburg

I worked in the building just behind Fischauktionshalle (Grosse Elbstrasse 14), which looks like a glass roof, with a view over River Elbe and when our vessels passed, we were waving at them 🙂

Elbe Philharmonic Hall

We had lunch on Landungs Brücken

and afterwards we went back passing the Danish Seamen’s church, where most of the Danes working in Hamburg when we were jung, came every thursday evening to talk danish, to watch movies, drink coffee and eat cakes, read danish news papers and arrange, what were going to happen in the weekend.

Danish Seamen’s church

Usually we afterwards went down to “Bruno” for a beer or two. Bruno is long gone, but it is still a bar

Ex. Bruno

Then we went into St. Michaelis Kirche – click here, to see a 360 dg panorama from the inside of this church

St. Michaelis Kirche

Jungfernstieg after the triathlon

A day down memory lane. When I worked in Hamburg, we did not have much money, but sometimes when we had just got salary, we did eat dinner at Block House. They still exist, so we went there for dinner. A steak with baked potato and salad – as usual 😉

Block house

Monday July, 20th, the weather were much better. Forecast no rain ! Time for shopping 🙂

The old Town Hall

A lot of houses has been rebuild. They keep the facade, the rest is new

Rebuilding of houses

Quick coffee at Starbucks, with free WiFi, at Gänzemarkt

Lunch at Alsterpavillion

Last night in Hamburg, we decided ti eat at Apples restaurant in our Hotel.

We ordered a five course menu

Fried prawns, grilled peach, Langenpfeffer, Lime-buttermilk

Was good and well made

White asparagus essence, chervil-royal, smoked duck breast

I liked it, but Helle did not like the duck.

Fried halibut, watercress, macadamian nuts, pearl barley and picorino

Also a nice dish – I love fish

Veal/saddle & meatball, potato creme, cellery, summer truffle

For additional euro 7,- we could get extra summer truffle – which we did ! We could have saved our money, as the summer truffle did not tast from anything at all 🙁

Further more; for the second time in this restaurant, we got raw / undercooked food ! The meatballs were raw inside and we had to let it go back. While waiting for our food to come back we got a Sorbet and a glass of wine for free.

Sorbet

Second time the dish was well cooked. The summer truffles still did not taste of anything. Because it has taken so long time to do the dish once more, the staff started to close down the terrance, while we were still eating the main course. That is NOT okay !!

For dessert we had

Clear strawberry soup, lime-sour cream sorbet, lemon and florentine

I thought the clear strawberry soup was made from infusing strawberries, but it was not the case.

There are room for improvement. I am not sure that I will use my money in this restaurant again. There are so many good restaurants in Hamburg, and our experience 2 out of 3 times we had to send our food back, does not tees for a forth time – sorry, but this is my honest opinion !

It should have been a nice romantic evening, but were spoiled by raw food and staff closing down the terrance.

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Day 13 – July 17th

Rüdesheim to Hamburg via Lorelei

See the route on Google maps – The K88 from Loreley was a narrow road with four hairpins turns 🙂

On the last part of the German Alpine Road, I got a stone crackles on the windshield which kept on cracking 🙁

stone crackles

We were also at a point, where we had seen so much, that it was getting difficult to separate from each other and we could not remember which room number we had and where the toilet was, in the middle of the night.

Mäuseturm

Burg Pfalzgrafenstein

So we decided to skip Köln and Hannover and instead drive up River Rhine and drive by Mäuseturm and Burg Pfalzgrafenstein.

There are so many castles on both sides of River Rhein, that you could use a week in this area ! Then we went to see Lorelei and then drive direct to Hamburg.

View from Lorelei

View from Lorelei

View from Lorelei

View from Lorelei

We made a stopp in Schlangenbad to eat lunch at Wambacher Mühle. Most of their guest were locals, so they did not tell you much about what the todays menu were or anything else, mainly because most knew how it works..!

It was really hot, so vi ordered som cold food.

Helle had some salad with chicken

I got cold sliced deer beef with fried potatoes and salad

Honest food to a fair price, is what Marvin Fleschner says in Wiesbardener Kueier

Back on the road, direction Hamburg.

We arrived just after 19.00 hrs

Hyatt Hotel in Hamburg. Checking mails before going out for supper.

Actually we wanted to have sushi from the small Sushi Factory in Levantehaus, but they had just closed. We then went down to Ristorante da Donato on Colonnaden. Its nothing fancy. We have never been eating in this restaurant in the summer, only in december. In the summer, they have many tables on the pedestrian street (no cars allowed) and the kitchen had difficulties getting the food ready.

Yellow saltmine

I have NEVER before seen, that the waiter was throwing salt, from a large yellow box, on every plate they were serving 😮 – It should be the chef seasoning the food, not the waiter !!!  I must admit, that the food used to be better !

The old town hall at 22:00 a clock. There was triathlon competition in Hamburg this weekend

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Day 12 – July 17th

After another breakfast with lazy service, I went to pay our bill, while Helle finished the last packing. At the reception (I think it was the manager behind the counter) the man in front of me, could not get a bill for some extras send to his home address, because it was too much work 😮  WTF !!! Well, with that attitude, I can understand why the service at the breakfast was so lazy ! Gordon Ramsey, where were you, we I needed you ?

On the road again….

Freiburg – Rüdesheim via Zweibrücken.

First destination Zweibrücken thestyle Outlets

See the route on Google maps

Before we left Denmark, I had checked if there were any outlets on our route and it turns out that we, with a small detour, would pass the Zweibrücken Thestyle Outlets  – a lot of nice shops 🙂 Free WiFi in the centre mall and free parking. Bistro, café, gusto and vinothek.

First we drew into France – sofar we have been in Denmark, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and now France – five countries !

In the outskirt of Strasbourg, my wife shot this photo

Too handsome to work

Think we used around three hours in Zweibrücken for shopping and lunch

My favorite store 🙂

Around 17.00 hrs we landed in Rüdesheim, where we had booked for one night, a Deluxe room with aircondition, at Brühl’s Hotel Trapp. It was 36 C when we arrived and I was delighted, that we had a room with aircon. A Swedish couple checked-in before us and when I went down to get some more luggage, they were back at the reception, begging for a room with aircondition – think their room was on the top floor with at least 45 C 😮

Nice room

Free WiFi

All new and very modern

Happy that we got a great room, we went down into the city center of Rüdesheim for a walk.

Rüdesheim city center

After a short walk where we were at the Rhein (last boat had made it last tour of the day) we went back to the Hotel to get some informations where to go for a glass of wine. They were very helpfull at the reception.

So, we went out again and found a the Seilbahn Rüdesheim, (click here for a small tour) which is going up to Niederwalddenkmal

Seilbahn Rüdesheim

Niederwalddenkmal

Panorama view from Niederwalddenkmal

Helle

Benedictine Abbey of St. Hildegard – the reason why we are in Rüdesheim – we are going there the next day !

We then went to Weingut Herbert Philipp, next to the Drosselgasse, to taste some wine and have something to eat.

Weingut Herbert Philipp

Weingut Herbert Philipp

Frau Philipp was sweet and, of course knew a lot about their own wein. We had two different wines and tasted another two and did buy six bottles – so we have some tasting memories from this Weingut 🙂

Brömserhof

Breuer’s Rüdesheimer Schloss

Then we went to Eiscafe Tirreno to get Italian ice cream. I talked to the owner, who told us, that all the ice creams were homemade. I had a wonderful Lemon-Basil ice cream 🙂

After a long day we headed back to the hotel.

I could not fall asleep and even though the aircon had been on all evening, I was feeling warm and rotating around myself. The catch with this room was the bed ! The mattresses had mattress protection with wetness protection 😮  That is DISGUSTING !

Gordon Ramsey WHERE ARE YOUUUUUU !

Mattress with wetness protection

I did not feel recovered the next morning 🙁

Day 13 – July 18th

Breakfast was in the poor end, so we checked out. Guess what – they did not ask if we slept well 😉

So the purpose of getting here at all, was to see the Benedictine Abbey of St. Hildegard or maybe better known as Hildegard of Bingen (on the leftside you can choose languages). You should read it, it is very interesting !

Benedictine Abbey of St. Hildegard

Hildegard of Bingen

Benedictine Abbey of St. Hildegard is the only female monastery in Germany who produce wine. They have a large and nice shop, where you can buy books, gifts and wine.

We bought some wine and a book and on our way out and elderly nun stopped me. She said that I looked like a decent person and that she had a very important letter, which she would ask me, if I could post for her. Whom can say no, so I promised that I would post her letter and she called me an angel. Helle was more honored than I and the letter went into the first mailbox we could find !

Mission accomplished 🙂

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Day 9 – July 14th

Garmisch-Partenkirchen to Schaffhausen via Lindau am Bodensee

German Alpine Road, last part

See the route on Google Map

Lindau-Schaffhausen

See the route on Google maps

After our breakfast, we checked out and drew the last part of the German Alpine Road.

It is a very scenic road and we have loved all of it – so if you like driving – go go go !

Deutsche Alpenstrasse – German Alpine Road

Deutsche Alpenstrasse – German Alpine Road

Around noon we arrived in Lindau. Just drive all the way out on the island – there are plenty of parking places ! We were a little lost at the beginning, as we did not know where to go, but some elderly ladies told us where to go.

First we visited the St.Stephan auf der Insel Church.

St. Stephan auf der Insel

Notes to God

Notes to God

Historic Town Hall

We went into a tableware shop called Hans Erath. The salesman was very kind and very helpfull. We bought a couple of things and after we paid, he gave us many tip about what to see and where to go and get something to eat.

We went down to the harbour to watch the lighthouse and the Bavarian Lion sculpture

Bavarian Lion sculpture and lighthouse

and the former lighthouse from the 13th century

Mangturm, the former lighthouse, which got a new roof in 1970 because of a lightning strike.

Quick history facts about Lindau: It was the site of a Roman camp, Tiberii, and of a Benedictine abbey founded in 810. Fortified in the 12th century, it became a free imperial city in 1275 and was a prosperous merchant town along the trade route from Italy. The abbey was an ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire from 1466 until it was secularized in 1802. Lindau was ruled by Austria in 1804 and passed to Bavaria in 1805

There are a lot to see in Lindau and you can walk all around the small island. We could easily have used the whole day here, but we did not as it was 32 C and we still had about 2 hours driving in front of us, to get to Schaffhausen.

Back on the road – heading to Best Western Hotel Bahnhof. We had chosen this hotel the day before, because they had aircon and were situated direct in the city center.

The white building on the right side where the yellow flags is – one floor above was out room !

And what a pleasant surprise. Super service on arrival. The room was great. They even had thought about placing some fresh fruit and sweets for free in the room. The safe was big enough to store all our stuff and the Nespresso machine were used immediately 🙂 Our window was out to the walking street. You cannot get closer ! At the front desk we got maps with guided tour, explaining what the buildings were and we also got recommendations about where to go and eat supper.

Haus zum Ritter built 1492. One of the most beautiful townhouse of Schaffhausen. Rebuilt in 1566 by the Knight Hans von Waldkirch, who directed the painting of the facade by the famous Schaffhausen painter Tobis Stimmer. The most significant Renaissance fresco north of the Alps.

More or less the beginning of River Rhein

It is a very cosy city !

Munot, the impressive city fortification in the background

We desided to eat at Oberhof Restaurant and Bar where we could sit outside and eat

Cold beer and some bread 🙂

We shared a Ceasar Salad Oberhof first

Ceasar salad

Helle got

Green Thai curry with pickled ginger, chicken breast slices, asian vegetables and jasmine rice

and I had

Perch with spinach and rice

For dessert, we got

Three different homemade with roasted foxtail seeds

At Oberhof the food was good, so was the service.

Schaffhausen is expensive, both food and hotel were at least 40-50% more expensive than what we have paid in the past for similar food/hotel in Germany !

Schaffhausen by night

Tomorrow we are going to Freiburg for two nights

Weatherforecast

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day 6 – Jul 10th

Regensburg – Berchtesgaden via Dachau

Regensburg-Berchtesgaden

See the map

Left Regensburg early in the morning – too early, because we forgot to drive by Walhalla on our way to Dachau Concentrationcamp.

Dachau Concentrationcamp

Neither of us has ever seen one, so we were both anxious about how it would be. My wife father had been in one, because he tried to get to the Spanish civil war and I because my mother was born in Germany.

Dachau Concentrationcamp

I was a little surprised that there were so many people there.

Dachau Concentrationcamp

I must admit, that for me, it was a little difficult to imagine how it must have been back then. I was afraid, that I would feel guilt because my mothers family is German, but I did not ! It is history now and those living today has to 99,99% nothing to do with this.

Dachau Concentrationcamp

It was all very clean.

Dachau Concentrationcamp

Even though the museum was a little outdated with a lot of posters, it was telling the stories of this horrible place.

Dachau Concentrationcamp

We just bought a sandwich to eat in the car on our way to Berchtesgaden.

We arrived there around 16.00 and checked in and got a nice room with a terrace

Kimpinski Berchtesgaden

Hotel Kempinski with Eagle’s Nest, at the higehst point in the background

We walked around the hotel and ended up having a coffee and glass of white wine on the terrace.

My wife Helle

One of the reasons for choosing Kempinski were their gourmet restaurant. We would have booked a table in their gourmet restaurant Le Ciel with 1 Michelin star chef Ulrich Heimann, but it turnes out that the restaurant was closed because they were rebuilding something in the restaurant (but there were nothing to see about rebuilding). Instead we booked at their other restaurant Johann Grill for 19.00 o clock.

Fantastic view while waiting 1 hour and 15 minutes for our food

We came in time and ordered wine and water, which we got after 10 minutes. Then we had to wait till 20:35 – 1 hours and 15 minutes for our food. We decided not to get upset about the waiting time. No apologies from the waiter !

Dry aged Tomahawk Steak from German Fleekvich cattle

One can wonder, when they have used 75 minutes to prepare our food that the meat was still raw

Raw food

I had to ask the waiter to cut meat from the other side, where it was not so raw and where there were not that much fat. Half of the meat I had to cut away. The rest tasted great ! It was not so late, that we skipped the dessert.

The next morning we had a nice breakfast sitting outside in the sun.

Breakfast

The breakfast buffet was really great and with a lot of cheese to choose from.

View from Eagle’s Nest – If you click on the photo, our hotel is a little left from the middle

Kempinski Berchtesgaden

Eagle’s Nest

Eagle’s Nest

The tunnel it to the left.

Tunnel to the elevator who took you up the last 124 meters

On our way to Salzburg, we just stopped at Berchtesgadens St. Andreas church.

St. Andreas church

St. Andreas church

St. Andreas church

St. Andreas church

St. Andreas church

Close by is the Berchtesgaden Royal Castle and the St. Peter and Johannes the baptist

Berchtesgaden Royal Castle

St. Peter and Johannes the baptist

St. Peter and Johannes the baptist

St. Peter and Johannes the baptist

Berchtesgaden Royal Castle

There was a lot more to see in Berchtesgaden, so if we go here again, we could easily stay here for 4-5 days and drive around seeing all the things.

Back in the car, now we are going to Salzburg. In the city center, they have a large parking garage in the mountain – look for Contipark tiefgarage B Altstadt.

First we visited St. Peter’s Church

St.Peter’s church in Salzburg

St.Peter’s church in Salzburg

Then we took a walk in the old cemetery

Cemetery of St. Peter’s Church

Then we went into the Cathedral of Salzburg

Cathedral of Salzburg

Cathedral of Salzburg

Just outside at the Kapitelplatz, you have this fantastisk view of the Castle Hohensalzburg.

Hohensalzburg

We did not go up there, because it was so warm and we did not know that there was a train going up there 🙁 Festungsbahn

Festungsbahn

Halfway up the mouton – on fod – we found a nice beer garden and restaurant Stiegkeller. We sat in the Beergarden and got some nice lunch.

Helle got this nice plate with local cheese and smoked ham

Ham and cheese plate at Stiegkeller

I just had a mixed salad

Mixed salad at Stiegkeller

The view from the Biergarten towards the Cathedral

Salzburg is a really cosy city to visit and I am sure it was not the last time !

Salzburg

I had to take this photo 😉

Last stop for the day was Köningssee on the map. There was a huge parking area, which also indicated that there would be a lot of tourists – which there were !

Schönau am Köningssee

We thought we should take a boattrip on Köningssee, but all was closed at 18.00 hrs ! It was impossible to get a table at the restaurants. Some of the shops were still open and my wife bought me, as an anniversary present, a pair of Lederhosen 🙂 So now I am ready for Octoberfest 🙂

Not being able to find some nice place to eat, we decided to give Johan Grill a second chance. I had started to rain, so we had to sit inside. We did not get a table at the main restaurant but a side room, which were okay, because there was a really nice view, but a little odd was it, to sit there.

The waiter was kind of defensive from the beginning. On the menu they had as signature dish – Roasted salmon. I love fish, when it is prepared correctly, so I asked; Now it is your signature dish, can I assume that this fish is perfectly roasted ? The waiter answered that Signature Dish means, that they are the only one using this recipe ! So I decided not to take the salmon, but ordered as main course the “Sous vide bio chicken breast will wild broccoli and fermented garlic”. My wife ordered “Mountain cheese ravioli with marinated apricots and roasted nuts”

Again it took OVER ONE hour to serve the food – and this was what we got:

Eur 26 – Sous vide chicken breast – nothing more – that it ! And I am quite sure, it was not wild broccoli !

Eur 23 – Mountain cheese ravioli with marinated apricots and roasted nuts

Around us sad two other couples. One with a little boy and it was clear to us that they have been waiting a very long time too. The one couple was Swedish and they complained about the waiting time to get their food. When they got their food one after the other of the staff came and asked if everything was okay and they answered No, it is not okay and now leave us alone to finally eat our food. I went over to talk to them – They were really angry and in the end one staff came a told them they were sorry and that they should not pay for their food. No, we did not get the same offer – but now they can read about it on TripAdvisor instead 😉

It was very clear to me, that they head chef from the kitchen and maybe also some staff had left the restaurant, because it was not okay and the staff were defensive, because a lot of guest had told them the same !

The Kimpenski Hotel Berchtesgaden was good, their restaurant were not good at all, if I shall write it in a polite way !

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Day 5 – July 9th

So leaving Dresden at river Elbe heading for Regensburg at the river Donau.

dresden-regensburg

This time we did go on the autobahn – see the map

Regensburg is one of the oldest cities in Germany. The first settlements in Regensburg date to the Stone Age. The Celtic name Radasbona was the oldest name given to a settlement near the present city. Around AD 90, the Romans built a fort there.

Our hotel was not that old, but close 😉

Eurostars Park Hotel Maximilian, Regensburg

Eurostars Park Hotel Maximilian, is situated very well in the city center and has a parking garage.

Do not think much has been changed the last 20 years

No aircon, the safe was with a key, like luggage box at a train station, but it was clean and there was a refrigerator.

The city of Regensburg is great. First thing we needed was lunch. We found a small Italian restaurant and Cafe called Caffé Rinaldi. Seems that they are more active on Facebook

My wife got:

Insalata Mista Con Funghi in Salsa

and I got:

Pasta alle Bietole Pomodori

both very delicious 🙂 Instead of a small cookie to our coffee, we got this:

We were not sure what it was we got, but some kind of warm pudding

Anyway, it was good and I can recommend this Cafe !

After our wonderful lunch, we were ready to go out and explore the city. We went dont to look at the Cathedral of st. Peter’s

Cathedral of St. Peter’s

When we were looking at the Cathedral, a German lady asked us if were Danish. Yes and the she told us i Danish that she had lived in Copenhagen for a couple of year some years ago and were going back on holiday again soon. She told us what we should see and which restaurants were good. We had a nice long talk with her 🙂

Cathedral of St. Peter’s

Most of the valuable stained glass windows were installed between 1220-1230 and 1320-1370

Back out of the Cathedral, just a cross the street there is a hat-shop. Not just any shop, but Hutkönig – der Hutmacher am Dom. They made the hat for Johnny Depp in Alice in Wonderland. As it was the day before our 22nd year anniversary. I gave Helle a Panama hat. The we both bought one ourselves 😉

Panamahat

We found traces of the Romans.

Porta Praetoria

Porta Praetoria

Unfortunately the Steinere Brücke was under renovation, but I found this picture on Wikipedia:

Steinerne Brücke

When the bridge was completed in 1146 it was the world’s eighth wonder and is today in UNESCO‘s list of World Heritage.

We checked out the menus at the restaurants the woman recommended, but it was heavy Bavarian food and after a hot day, it was not really what we wanted. Instead we found a new burger place Hans im Gluck. Drink, Burger, frites or salad Eur 9,50.

Drinks at Hans im Glück

Burger at Hans im Glück

Burger at Hans im Glück

Dessert, was not what we ordered, so we did not pay for it. Warm pudding and chocolate with whipped cream.

Narrow streets in a wonderful city

Narrow streets in a wonderful city

In the morning we should have visited Walhalla, but forgot ;(  It is on the list for next time

Walhalla temple built 1830-1842 by King Ludwig I

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Day 4 – July 8th

We should have been to Leipzig, but decided to go to Dresden via Gera.

Regensburg-Dresden

See the See the map

There has been living people in the area of Gera for about 80.000 years. Just south of Gera, at the village Weida was the southern part of the ice sheet under the ice age.

The marketplace and the town hall in Gera

The marketplace in Gera was one of the most beautiful in Thüringen and was rebuild after WW2. The town hall is one of the biggest Renaissance town halls in Germany with a nearly 60 m heigh tower, built between 1573 and 1576.

St. John’s Church in Gera, build 1881-1885 in neo-Gothic style.

Town hall

Walkingstreet in Gera

After a couple of hours, we continued to Dresden.

We got a good deal at the Swissotel in the citycenter. The hotel has own parking garage, which is great, when they are situated in the middle of the city center !

Swissotel Dresden Am Schloss

Swissotel Dresden Am Schloss

Frauenkirche

Frauenkirche has a 1.000 year history . It was destroyed in 1945, but rebuild between 1994 and 2005.

Frauenkirche

Frauenkirche

Frauenkirche

Fürstenzug – Procession of Princes – is a large mural of a mounted procession of the rulers af Saxony. It was originally painted between 1871 and 1876 to celebrate the 800th anniversary of the Wettin Dynasty, Saxony’s ruling family. In order to make the work weatherproof, it was replaced with approximately 23,000 Meissen porcelaintiles between 1904 and 1907. With a length of 102 metres (335 ft), it is known as the largest porcelain artwork in the world. The mural displays the ancestral portraits of the 35 margraves, electors, dukes and kings of the House of Wettin between 1127 and 1904.

Fürstenzug – Procession of Princes

Fürstenzug – Procession of Princes

Grünes Gewölbe – Baroque treasure chamber

The Zwinger (Dresdner Zwinger) is a palace in Dresden, built in Rococo style and designed by court architect Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann. It served as the orangery, exhibition gallery and festival arena of the Dresden Court.

The location was formerly part of the Dresden fortress of which the outer wall is conserved. The name derives from the German word Zwinger (an enclosed killing ground in front of a castle or city gate); it was for the cannons that were placed between the outer wall and the major wall. The Zwinger was not enclosed until the Neoclassical building by Gottfried Sempercalled the Semper Gallery was built on its northern side.

Today, the Zwinger is a museum complex that contains the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (Old Masters Picture Gallery), the Dresden Porcelain Collection (Porzellansammlung) and the Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon (Royal Cabinet of Mathematical and Physical Instruments).

Zwinger

Zwinger

Dresden Cathedral

Dresden Cathedral, or the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Dresden, previously the Catholic Church of the Royal Court of Saxony, called in German Katholische Hofkirche and since 1980 also known as Kathedrale Sanctissimae Trinitatis, is the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Dresden.

Always the most important Catholic church of the city, it was elevated to the status of cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Dresden-Meissen in 1964.

Left the Saxon finance department and right the Saxon State Chamber

There is really a lot to see in Dresden and one day was def. too little. We tried to get one more night at the hotel, but the it was double up. Next time we will stay for two/three days for sure.

Tired of walking around, we decided to eat at a Canadian restaurant Ontario.

Rip Eye

Tenderloin filetsteak

The food was good and so was the beers. Eur 88 was maybe a little too expensive, but Hey, there was aircon 😉

Canadian beer – Tank House Ale

Back at the Hotel, we tried to get something to drink in the bar, but they did not have time for us and as we had an ‘all inclusive’ room including minibar, we had something to drink in our room instead !

The breakfast next morning was a little stressfull as there was a lot of people. The breakfast was good – think we would like to come back, if we can get a good deal also next time 😉

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