Heidelberg to Reims is about a 4 hour drive; so, we scouted some not-so-out-of-the-way options to break up the trip and settled on Trier, Germany en route. It’s the oldest city in Germany and boasts its best Roman ruins. Highlights of which include…

Its gigantic city gate (Porta Nigra):

A huge throne room/ basilica (now a Lutheran church):

Roman baths:

The town also a marvelous Cathedral (which dates back to the founding of St. Peter’s in Rome):

I was especially partial though to the smaller Church of Our Lady next door:

The town itself is also just very pleasant, despite (nor because of) its being the home of Karl Marx.

For lunch, we grabbed some frites and frikadellen (a sort of Germanic hamburger), which were much more akin to the family recipe unlike the version that I had last summer in Denmark.

After lunch, we had a pleasant 2.5 hour drive to Reims, France via Luxembourg and Belgium. Coming in from the north, Reims appeared to be surrounded by farm land, but we saw little to no grape vines (despite Reims being one of the two major Champagne towns — as it happens, the vineyards are largely south of the city). Initially, we were a bit underwhelmed by Reims — the city seemed looked deserted on a Sunday and the area around our hotel appeared clean and safe but rather unspectacular.

As it happens though, the center of town (literally just “on the other side of the tracks” from our hotel) was charming.

Since it was later in the day already, we focused on finding a location for food. After surveying our options (many restaurants were closed due to it being Sunday), we opted for crepes which were surprisingly good for a shop that was “super hero” themed.

We also picked up some local pastries:

NB: In Trier, we stumbled upon one of the single most impressive collections of cats I’d ever seen in one place — seemingly randomly in the bottom of a parking garage. It turned out there was an exotic car rental business in the building, but my word what a fleet of automobiles!

NB #2: Since little, Emerson has taken an interest in lighting candles in remembrance. On this trip, especially being in Lutheran churches, she choose to light candles in memory of Pop, which I found touching.

We snacked our way through the town… the highlight (for me anyway) being Libby’s delicious pretzel bread that was stuff with a kind of bacon and chive cream cheese filling. Yum!

After our visit to Rothenburg, we drove about two hours to Heidelberg. We checked into our (rather forgettable but perfectly serviceable) Marriott that was about a 15-20 minute walk from the historic center of town, dropped off our stuff, and headed back out. The walk along the river was pleasant, though not spectacular.

In many ways, that was my overall sense of the city too. In his guidebook, Rick Steves pans Heidelberg. I actually think it’s a decent enough stopover, if convenient (as it was for us). But, I wouldn’t go out of my way to visit it when compared to other towns (including lesser known places like Würzburg).

We ate dinner–more schnitzel and radlers–at a decent German place in town before heading back to our hotel. Emerson ordered what were described on the menu as a “large ravioli” but turned out to be seasoned ground meat wrapped in noodles (I liked her dish more than she did — it was a little unusual but rather tasty). I ordered a “flat cake” with ham, gorgonzola, and pear, which was actually a delectable flat bread (which I shared with Emerson).

It was great (and a little surreal) to be picking them up at the airport in Europe. The plan for the day was to drive to Würzburg, which is kind of the northern gateway to the Romantic Road in Germany. The drive in our sleek, new Volvo V90 station wagon was pleasant, though the car’s technology was mildly confounding initially — even to me. We checked into our hotel (a Mecure — similar to an Aloft) around 11am and received our rooms right away — two very comfortable suites.

We dropped our stuff in the rooms and immediately headed into the center of town (a short stroll along the river and over the Alte Mainbrucke):

We grabbed some strawberries for Emerson (so fresh and succulent!) and proceeded on a walking tour of the city using the local map vs. Rick Steves’ guidebook (the local tour of the old town is more comprehensive, which might be good or bad — we had the time).

Some highlights included…

The Neumunster Basilica:

The old buildings of the University of Würzburg:

The Residenz:

With its magnificent interior (this was an ill gotten photo on my iPhone — I was too smitten with the silver overlay and silver sage walls to resist the temptation):

And its charming gardens:

The Residenz was clearly a highlight:

We had some time after our walking tour before a reasonable dinner hour; so, Libby and I followed another local tradition of having a glass of wine on the bridge. Libby enjoyed a Aperol Spritz (a wine- and aperitif-based cocktail), and I had a glass of the local rose wine (called a Rotling) — both where quite quaffable and got us in the spirit of the local wine festival that was happening.

After this, we headed to a local biergarten for dinner:

All in all, we had a great first day together in Germany, and we came away from Würzburg suitably impressed. Candidly, I picked it as a stop simply because I’d assumed it wouldn’t be too much for a first day and due to its proximity to “what we really wanted to see” tomorrow. But, it turned out to be a great place to visit and somewhere I’d happily return to again.

My meetings having wrapped up yesterday, I departed the Cotswolds around mid-day for my 3:30pm flight to Frankfurt. It was about a 2 hour drive to London Heathrow under cloudy skies with light rain — more typical of English weather than I’d seen during the week (which had been simply gorgeous):

I arrived at LHR in plenty of time to check-in, go through security, and visit the business class lounge before departure.

Unfortunately, my flight ended up being delayed. First, my inbound plane was late to arrive — thereby delaying our boarding time. Once we were all on board, the pilot reported that we had a potential mechanical issue that needed to be checked out. That concern was sorted out, but the delay cost us our take-off slot, which caused us a further delay. All told, I landed in Frankfurt about 2 hours late — not great, could’ve been much worse.

In the meantime, the ladies had managed to travel to Tampa airport, catch their flight to Atlanta, and were a couple of hours away from departing to rendezvous with me in Germany in the morning.

I spent the evening at the oh-so-conveniently located airport Hilton, which was part of a train station/business park complex attached to the airport terminal. The facility included a number of restaurants, and I opted for the “biergarten” (such as it was in an office block):

Really, it’s difficult to go wrong with German specialities and beer.

After dinner, I stayed up until my crew was airborne and headed toward me. Thankfully, they were on-time in departing, and I drifted to sleep while they raced toward me at 500+ miles per hour.

We spent a happy morning and lunch in this seaside village. It’s really a very charming place. We strolled about the city, took in the canals and beachfront, and also tried to enjoy as much as Germany has to offer–all in half a day: fresh strawberries, a Berliner (donut), a pretzel stick, fried seafood & chips (mit sauce), dark German beer, and an “eis” treat. 

Wunderbar! Wunderbar! Wunderbar!

Canal view:

The girls at the lighthouse:

Beach:

Charming cottages and shops:

Delightful town:

Cool seafood boats along the canal:

Serving a great lunch:

Happy Libby:

Local dunkel beer (happy Paul):

Of course, NCL couldn’t get the logistics right (again) — making us stand in line to board for well over an hour (surprise — more irate guests!).

Speaking of which, I didn’t want to waste another day at sea, and I’ve just grown tired of these morons. Sooo… I made a game time decision to abandon the cruise at our last port of Stockholm (actually a port an hour outside of Stockholm–they changed it shortly before we left for the trip!). 

So, I booked us two nights of hotel rooms and train tickets back to Copenhagen. That’ll give us a full extra day (really day and a half) in Stockholm. Why? I value my time more than I value a few dollars. So this 9-night round trip cruise is becoming a 7-night one way journey. And, I’m once again at peace, even if we’re missing Estonia. 

Happily back aboard the Norwegian Getaway:

I do think cruising with small children is an easier form of travel. The logistics are just more straightforward: your accommodations and consistently toddler-friendly dining travel with you. On balance, this is both good and bad. On the one hand, it saves time and effort spent on ‘everyday life’ activities. On the other hand, caring for a toddler forces you to live more like the locals (in terms of engaging in kid-friendly activities and the chores of daily life). That said, I wouldn’t hesitate to drive again.

The trip had far more highlights than lowlights. Indeed, I think every place we went is now firmly affixed to the “return” list, especially Bavaria and Poland. And, while we were lukewarm on Berlin initially, it has a lot of cultural venues that are worth exploring. Thus, while it’s not the prettiest city, it’s certainly worthy of another in-depth visit. Realistically, it will likely take us another 3 years or so to finish the 157×50 (err 39? 40?) goal. So, if we’re not back in Central Europe before then, I suspect we will most assuredly return soon thereafter.

Finally, this trip reminded me just how much we like experiencing new places. I think that’s been one of the great advantages of the 157×50 project’s goals. By definition, you’re forced to expand your horizons and travel more widely. Fortunately (or unfortunately), once you’re on that path the thrill of exploring becomes addictive and you find yourself thinking: “why not drive from Budapest to Turkey?” or “maybe we should island hop through Indonesia?” Of course, we’re not hostel-dwelling, backpacking vagabonds. We’re far more (and unapologetically) bourgeois by this point in our lives both by choice (why inconvenience yourself when you needn’t have to?) and necessity (traveling with a toddler, while I’m sure it’s technically possible w/ backpacks and in hostels, I think you’d have to be stark raving mad to do it). But, I digress…

Final score: +6 countries and +1 state for us; +13 countries and +1 state for Emerson!

Up next: the Caribbean over Thanksgiving.

We awoke to a drizzly Berlin morning. As our flight wasn’t scheduled to leave until around 6pm, we’d planned on exploring the city more. However, the weather necessitated that we try to do things indoors (which can be a bit suboptimal with the little one). To ease things more, we opted to check-out of the hotel and take the rental car with us, thereby enabling us (in theory) to park at our destination to avoid getting soaked.

We settled on the Kulturforum as a destination due to its variety of offerings. In particular, we wanted to get at least a taste of the Gemaldegalerie, arguably Germany’s finest collection of Old Masters. Once again, Emerson did pretty well in a museum spending an hour or more looking at paintings with us. Highlights included works by Botticelli, Caravaggio, Canaletto (awesome ‘souvenirs’ of the Grand Tour), Rembrandt (though I prefer Hals, who’s work I didn’t see), and Vermeer. Libby also liked Gainsborough’s and Reynolds’s, though neither generally do much for me.
After the museum, we ate lunch at the Sony Center (this time having a much better meal at a place called Josty). Following lunch, we returned to the car, drove out of the city center, stopped for gas, and then returned to the car to Hertz at the airport. Mission accomplished! I managed to drive successfully for 2931km (a little over 1800 miles) through eleven (11!) European countries.

We flew out of Tegel airport (for the first and likely last time, as it’s scheduled to close once the new Berlin Brandenburg opens in a few months). The Lufthansa airport lounge was very nice… they served (among other things) wurst, potato salad, and fresh pretzels!

We departed on time and arrived in London a little early. The flight was uneventful, aside from Libby forgetting her Kindle on the airplane. Trying to retrieve it quickly (if at all) seemed highly problematic. So, I just provided my contact details to Lufthansa/BMI, deregistered it from the hotel, and will call about it from home. If it’s found and they can ship it: great! If not, she can have my Kindle Touch for the time being (which I bought on a bit of a lark anyway for only $79) while we wait for the next generation of tablets and e-readers to come out.

We stayed at the Radisson Edwardian Heathrow, a short ride from the terminals via taxi. The hotel is sort of decorated in the “faux fancy” style… it’s not really great, but it’s fine for its purpose. We ate “Scottish food” for dinner (McDonald’s—right next door) to save time and money (which is always popular with our McNugget anyway), and we then quickly went to bed since our flight was fairly early in the morning.

While I’ve only been to maybe a dozen zoos, Zoo Berlin has to be up near the top. I say this for two reasons. First, it’s aesthetically appealing, as it’s both park-like and cohesive in design. Second, there’s an intimacy with the animals that doesn’t seem to exist elsewhere. While neither the animals nor the people are in any danger from each other (save for humans acting really stupid), there seemed to be few unnecessary barriers and the animals were generally quite close to the onlookers. Highlights included the panda and polar bears, as well as the kid’s petting zoo (especially the seemingly old and blind white goat) and playground (which included this awesome, mechanized toddler-sized excavating equipment).

A distinguished gentleman of a goat...

After the zoo, we grabbed lunch and returned to the hotel. Libby and Emerson took a nap. Mom went out exploring more of the city. And, I thought about a nap but opted to go out as well. I headed up to Unter der Linden and then cut across to Alexenderplatz. In the process, I passed by the Berlin Cathedral, famous TV tower, the ‘red’ town hall (named for the color of the brick’s not as a sort of Communist nod), as well as a few other statues, museums, and churches. Along the way, there were frequent construction projects, which seem to typify this still developing/evolving city.

Berlin in a nutshell: distinguished and old; Soviet-era remnants, funky new buildings, and ongoing (re-)construction...

I left Alexanderplatz via Karl-Marx-Allee, which was originally named “Stalinallee” and contained a series of mostly updated Soviet-style apartments that were originally built as a showpiece of the glories of Socialism. Following my trip down Communist Lane, I meandered my way back to the hotel. All in all, I like the city more… it’s growing on me.

We reconvened for dinner a little after 5:00pm. Before eating, we headed over to see the site of the famous “Checkpoint Charlie” that served as a crossing point between the American sector of West Berlin and the Soviet sector of East Berlin. Ironically, a McDonald’s (amongst other Capitalist symbols) now overlooks the location as if to say “take that, you Commie pinkos!”

For dinner, we went to a Bavarian restaurant (carpe wurstum!) for dinner on the Gendarmenmarkt called “Augustiner am Gendarmenmarkt.” It was more upscale than a traditional beer hall with good quality food and reasonable prices. I wouldn’t hesitate to eat there again and would recommend it to anyone looking for Germanic (Bavarian) fare.

Tomorrow is out last (half) day in Berlin.

Then we’re off to London for our homeward flight on Wednesday morning.

Our hotel—a Marriott in the city center—is located in a residential area in the former East Berlin, a few blocks south of Unter Den Linden. As we arrived early, we had time to explore the city yesterday, walking a fairly large rectangular pattern north to Unter Den Linden (via Gendarmenmarkt), over to the Brandenburger Tor, followed by a slight detour to the magnificent Reichstag building, cutting across Tiergarten (which was fortified as a Euro 2012 Fan Zone), visiting Potsdam Platz (where we stopped for dinner), and back down Leipziger Strasse to our hotel.

The impressive Reichstag...

Our first impression of Berlin? Meh… it’s okay.

Not being one who’s ever overly impressed by the “big sights” (pyramids at Giza? meh, too), seeing something like the Brandenburg Gate in person is enjoyable, but it doesn’t make the experience. Instead, I find the overall vibe/feel of a place—its architecture and environment—to be more important. And, Berlin (at least what I’ve seen of it) isn’t wildly appealing. Indeed, it’s sort of what I expected Eastern Europe—big cities in former Communist countries—to look like before visiting Prague, Budapest, etc. years ago.

Now my vision is finally realized in Berlin. While some of the modern architecture is arresting, there are also a lot of unattractive (presumably GDR-era) apartment blocks, as well as more recent attempts at contemporary and/or minimalist aesthetics that have failed to deliver (as it’s a fine line between ‘elegant simplicity’ and ‘stark brutality’). Given the history of Berlin, my criticism probably isn’t fair. It’s just that the city seems to be neither as spectacularly modern as Dubai nor as charmingly reconstructed as Munich.

Let’s see if our impressions change tomorrow.

Schloss Vaduz

The route to Schloss Linderhoff (one of King Ludwig’s famed castles and the only completed one) was somewhat circuitous. From Liechtenstein, we re-entered Switzerland, crossed briefly into Austria, drove into Germany, re-entered Austria, and finally returned to Germany a few miles before reaching the castle! The route was generally attractive with an especially enthralling section between Routte and Linderhoff, where we found ourselves skirting along the banks of an alpine lake.
Schloss Linderhof—inspired by Louis XIV and the palace at Versailles—was built on a diminutive scale for this rather eccentric king. Both the castle and grounds were fabulous. Unfortunately, the steady rain limited our ability to fully explore the grounds and outer buildings. We were, however, able to take the guided group tour in English (which, thankfully, Emerson handled very well).

Schloss Linderhof

After the castle, we made a quick side-trip to Oberammergau, best known for its religious theatrical production and skilled woodcarvings. According to Rick Steves, Oberammergau represents a tourist trap that is best avoided. I don’t know. Is it touristy? Sure… if not for travel, the village would clearly be a fragment of what it is today. However, we found Oberammergau to be charming and would have enjoyed a longer visit. Indeed, even though this was our second trip to Bavaria, we think an extended third trip should happen in the future—it’s really that nice. We’re also hopeful that the 3rd time might be the charm: a trip to Bravaria without rain.

In the late afternoon, we drove a couple more hours to Salzburg and arrived at our hotel around 6pm. We would have actually made it 30 minutes sooner, but we hit our only significant traffic snag (thus far) a few kilometers before the Austrian border (for our third and final crossing of the day!). After checking into the Sheraton Salzburg, we walked across the river and then briefly along its banks before ascending a little hill to reach the city’s best beer hall / garden: the Augustiner Braustubl. Dinner consisted of various wursts (mit senf), schnitzels, and pretzels along with “radlers” (beer mixed with lemon-lime soda) for the adults. As the rain had long since stopped, we enjoyed our delightful repast under the shade of the beer garden’s chestnut trees — a perfect ending to a great day!

An evening in Salzburg...

Today’s box score: +1 country (Liechtenstein)… +2 for Emerson!