Germany -- Berlin, Day 1

Well, when we FINALLY arrived in Berlin after our overnight journey, I was happy to get my butt into the Novotel Tiergarten. Luckily they had rooms for us at the early hour we arrived, though mine was handicapped. Yea, the bathroom looked like a locker room. But the bed was just right.

It did lose points for two things: not having dry cleaning on the weekend (I was out of the office long enough to write that off!) and not having irons in the room. Having the CEO of a major company walking into the communal ironing room while you're preparing for your meetings that day is slightly embarrassing.

But, after a great nap, I decided to take a walk around the city. Luckily, we were in a great area for this since Tiergarten is a huge park where the royals of old did their hunting. It runs along the main road through Berlin straight from my hotel to the Brandenburg Gate. It was gorgeous.

The Victory Monument about
halfway through my walk:



















A view along my walk:















Of course, the funniest part for me was seeing the cars parked in the middle of the street just like in Philly!
















I wandered a bit by the Gate and took in the history of it all. It was an impressive monument and it was hard to believe the Reichstag was right there and the Berlin wall used to run just a few feet away.

The Brandenburg Gate:
















That night, my co-workers and I had a nice dinner at the Hofbrau House. It was great to sit outside for what ended up being the one warm day of my trip. I had my first Weiner Schnitzel (pronounced: veen-er shnitz-el) and it was delish. All in all, a good day.

Fun German word of the day: Punkt means "mobile"

Germany -- Wetzlar, Day 2

Our trip to Wetzlar was to visit a company that we work with and see their new expansion, but they also gave us a great tour of Wetzlar and the Viseum, a museum dedicated to the history of optics.

If you're a nerd like me, this was really quite interesting. Also, throughout the city of Wetzlar, there are various spots that incorporate this same history and education into fun interactive activities. Of course, it was all in German so we needed a bit of help getting the full message.

The city was adorable, quaint and old, featuring all the characteristics of original architecture, including very uneven beams, floors and doorways. We saw the oldest house in Wetzlar, which was built in the 1300s. Amazing. And there are so many rules and regulations that maintain the integrity of these buildings.

Here are a couple of photos:
















After our wonderful tours, we were taken to a castle where we had a "traditional" German meal. Though we were threatened with food fights and no utensils, they humored us and kept it clean. It was like an intimate version of what we call Medieval Times here on the East Coast, but with yummy German food.

A photo of the castle as we were approaching and our greeter:




























The meal was wonderful and our greeter entertained us by appointing a king and a princess and allowing them to find prisoners and knights among the crowd.

Some photos:






















Unfortunately, our night ended with a 2 hour drive to the Frankfurt-Hahn airport for our Ryan Air flight. I'm the first to espouse cheap airfare, but PLEASE make sure someone figures out how much that lower price will put you out. Between our 2 hour drive (and the gas it took), the outrageous bag fees (only 15 kg allowed and charged for every bag), it would have been cheaper to pay the more expensive fare from the more convenient airport.

Germany -- Wetzlar, Day 1

I just returned from a 10-day trip to Germany so there will be a few posts to cover it all.

Our first stop was Wetzlar, a small city about 45 minutes outside of Frankfurt.

A very easy drive from the airport, though I have to warn anyone who decides to rent a car that there are no North, South, East and West markers on the highway signs. You choose your direction based on a fairly long list of towns that are in a particular direction. I would highly recommend a GPS if you're traveling alone or someone who can ready really, really fast if you've got to decide between a driver and a navigator.

We arrived after an overnight flight and managed not to get lost until we were very close to the hotel. Luckily, there were so many nice people in Wetzlar that were happy to help us.


We stayed at:

Hotel Buergerhof (right)

Konrad-Adenauer-Str. 20

35578 Wetzlar

That night we were treated to a lovely dinner in the hotel restaurant. The soup was amazing, the pork medallions were delicious and the dessert was the perfect ending.

Highly recommended for the restaurant. It was a nice hotel, overall, and I would stay there again.

A shot of the restaurant: