our trip to germany

8/9/2019 Our Trip to Germany

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Our Trip to Germany

2007

Thursday 9/6

Daughter Cathy drives us to Stewart airport for our 6 AM flight to Detroit. We land in Detroit at 7:50 AM andhang around the airport until our 5:35 PM North West Airlines flight to Frankfurt. The flight was quite nice,aboard an Airbus A330.

Friday 9/7

We land in Frankfurt at 7:53 AM, on Sept 7th.

I screwed up trying to get 500 Euros from an ATM. I exchanged $150 worth of dollars. There was a 2.2%charge. I finally listened to Cathy and got 250 Euros from an ATM near the hotel. It seems thats all I can get atone time, (Cathy knew that).

We took a taxi to the hotel. It cost 25 Euros, with tip, for the 15-minute ride. He hit 100 mph, (160 km), in anold Japanese cab. We ate breakfast at the hotel, walked around a little, and then took a nap.

We had dinner with the rest of the people, at 6:30 PM. I had my first beer in Germany, ( a liter of Veltins).

Saturday 9/8

We get up early and head down to breakfast. The hotel screws up and runs out of food. They let too many

groups go ahead of us, so much for the great German planning.The bus is the same size as the one last year, but has only 44 seats as apposed to 52 on last years bus. Thehighways look the same as back home. Except, there are no potholes. Lots of farms.

This morning we visit Heidelberg. No planned tour, just two hours walking around. I went too far and we justmade it back to the bus. I did get a pretzel it had butter on it!

Now we drive along the river Rhine and stop for another two hours in Bacharacher, to walk around and havelunch. We had Margherita Pizzas and Coke lights. This town was between the town we got the boat and thetown we got off the boat on our Rhine cruise last year. We make a short stop, down the road, near the Lorelei

Rock, to buy souvenirs.

Now we head to Cologne and walk around an old bombed out Cathedral. It looks like most of the cities inGermany were greatly bombed during WWII. They were rebuilt, some like the old buildings, but most werebuilt new in ugly 50s style, very plain buildings.

We drive to our hotel. Its the same Holiday in, at the Koln Airport, we stayed at last year we had a piece ofchicken, potato and peas for dinner, then off to bed. I remember from last year, that the hotels dont use topsheets. The comforters are too hot for me, so I start slipping the down inserts out and just use the wrapper as asheet. This works fine.


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Sunday 9/9

Up at 6:15 and down for breakfast. The breakfasts are better than most last year. We get bacon, sausagesscrambled eggs and lots of other things. Love those Keiser rolls! We get back on the Autobahn and keepheading northeast. We stop at a rest area outside Munster for a pee break.

We stop the bus in front of the Hilton Hotel, in Bremen. We have another two-hour walk around theMarketplatz. We have great sausages for lunch. We get the ones that look like hot dogs. Its funny, Germany is

really into recycling. They hardly ever use disposable items. We are given our hot dogs on ceramic plates withregular knives and forks. This is at a little outside stand. We see this on the whole trip. Now we stop at a placefor desert. Cathy has cheesecake and I have a piece of cake with berries.

Now on to Hamburg and a 30-minute stop in the city center. There was a wine festival going on. Then anotherstop at a big church. Now to the hotel. This hotel is the best one on the whole trip. We have a suite, with a wetbar, couch and chair and desk, two doors to the bathroom and a separate bedroom.

We take the optional boat tour around the harbor. It was cool seeing the big cargo ships. One had 9,000containers on it. They said they are building one that will hold 14, 000 containers. We get a free drink, Cathyhas a red wine and I have a beer. When another boat went by, we felt the wake. People didnt like the rocking

back and forth. The captain yells down, thats OK, rocking is good. It means we are not sinking.

Back to the hotel, we skip dinner. We are still full from lunch.

Monday, 9/10

We had to carry our own bags to and from the room. The breakfast was the best we have had yet. Its rainingthis morning.

We stop at a rest area for a pee break then on to Wittenberg, for a two-hour walk around and lunch. This is thehome of Martin Luther. Cathy has tomato soup with noodles and I have another hot dog sausage in a little stand

up meat market. We both have doughnuts for desert.

Back on the bus, we head for Berlin. We check into the hotel and go out for the optional dinner at a place calledZinos. Its run by some Yugoslavians. We both have chicken patties. Good thing, the other choice was somekind of pigs knuckles. Now we have a nice ride around the city after dark. We stop at the Brandenburg Gateand Checkpoint Charlie. Of the 18 gates around Berlin, Brandenburg is the only one left. It was heavilydamaged in the war too, but was rebuilt. A very frequent theme.

Tuesday, 9/11

We start out with a local guide showing us around the city. She takes us back to the Brandenburg Gate and

Checkpoint Charlie. Then two hours on our own to roam around the city center. We have McRibs, for lunch, atMcDonalds.

Now we go on the optional trip to Potsdam. We tour around the Sans Souci Park and see where the Potsdamagreement was signed, ending WWII.

Our hotel is in East Berlin. Not the best part of town. We walk around the corner and go to a little market. Weget soda, potato chips and cashew nuts. Then early to bed. We wanted to go to the optional concert, but therewere not enough people signed up.


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Wednesday 9/12

Another great breakfast. The bags are late coming to the bus. The porter is new and working alone. A stop onthe highway then on to Dresden. A really great local tour guide shows us around the old city. She explains thattwo months before the war ended, the city was fire bombed by the British. Even though there was no militaryimportance. It was to break the will of the German people. In less than 30 minutes, 45,000 people were killed.Even though Dresden was in the Eastern sector, the towns people convinced the Russians to let them rebuildthe city using the old plans. You cant tell the difference now. The tour guide was really animated. We gave her

a 5-euro tip.

We had lunch at two stands. One bratwurst and two reustwursts, (they are the ones that taste like hot dogs).More walking around the old area.

Back on the highway and another pee stop just above Hof. We dont get to the hotel in Nuremberg, until 7:30pm. There is traffic because of construction. We have dinner at 8 pm. Some sort of chicken chunks over riceand mushrooms. We take a walk around and off to bed.

Thursday 9/13

We take a tour around Nuremberg with stops at where the trials were held and Hitlers outside stadium. Then anhour and a half free time around the old city center. We see a lot of Lederer beer signs.

Now we head to Rothenburg for a two and a half walk around. Pizza for lunch and a snowball for desert, Cathyhas a cookie.

Back on the bus to our hotel in Nordlington, a beautiful little walled city. The hotel is really nice. It used to bean old convent. We arrive at 5 pm, dinner at seven. We walked around town then to dinner. They served fish!Not for me. I had pork. After that Cathy and I walked a couple of blocks to Lederer alley. A nice lady showedus where it was. Then a good nights sleep.

Friday 9/14

Another good breakfast. A short walk then back on the bus. You can see your breath outside. We head south onthe Romantic Road. A short stop on the road then we get to Neuschwanstein Castle at 11 am. One hour forlunch. We both have potato soup. Now we take a different bus up to the castle. A 35-minute local guide tourthrough the castle. Lots of steps up to the fifth floor. It was well over a half hour to walk back down the hill. Weshould have taken the horse cart for 2.50 euros.

Off at 3 pm for a twenty-minute ride to a woodcarving store. Not many people bought anything. Then back onthe bus for Munich. The hotel has been changed to one that is on the same street as the Hertz rental agency. It isone mile down. The dinner is the best yet. Pork and boiled potatoes with ice cream for desert. Plus they brought

around seconds. We take a short walk around and have a beer and wine at the lounge.

Saturday 9/15

A tour around the city with a local guide, then two hours around the city center. We find Ledererstrass; it is ablock from the Hofbrauhaus. We go inside the beer house and take some pictures. We were going to get a drink,but service wasnt that great. I got a beer and more hot dog sausages at an open air market around theMarketplatz.

Now we get on the bus for the optional trip to Dachau. Not a very pleasant place. Back to the hotel.


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Now we go on the optional dinner at a real cool place. The food was good and they had music, dancers, bellringers and other entertainment.

The bus tour comes to an end.

Sunday 9/16

We get up and have breakfast with the other bus people. Saying our goodbyes.

Its our 40-wedding anniversary and we are ready to start on the next phase of our trip. We plan to rent a car anddrive around Bavaria for seven days and then fly home from Frankfurt.

The Hertz rental agency happens to be about a mile down Landsburgerstrass. The girl at the desk says its a bittoo far to walk and there is a bus that goes down there. Its Sunday, and Hertz is only open for one hour, noon to1 pm. We leave our suit cases at the hotel and walk a few doors down to where we can get the bus. There is amachine that we but our tickets at. The cost is 1.10 euros. We have a seat and wait a half an hour for the bus.None comes, so we ask two girls that are walking by. Through the language problems, they get the point acrossthat buses run on Sunday, but not this bus. So, its a bright sunny day, and we have plenty of time, so we take apleasant stroll down this Munich street. We get there close to an hour early, so we have to wait. We sit at an

outside restaurant and watch some workers working on a street project. Hertz opens and we get our rental car.Its a Renault Clio, a nice little four door with a trunk that fits all our bags fine. We drive back to the hotel andget our suit cases. We find our way out of the city and head south on A95. We get off at Marnau. We drive aback road and make our first stop at Oberammergau. The town is quite crowded, because there is a big bike racegoing on. We walk all around and have lunch, (pizza and spaghetti bolognaise). We head up the Romantic Roadand find a Gasthof in Peiting. I think we are the only guests in the place. The room is up on the third floor, so Ihad a young man carry them up. He says he is very strong, like Arnold Swarchenegger. We walk aroundtown, skipping dinner, and have a beer in the hotel Beirgarden, then up to bed. The cost of the room is 60 euros,which includes breakfast.

Monday 9/17

The breakfasts in the Gasthofs are not as big as the hotels we have been staying in, but just fine. It usuallyconsists of Keiser rolls, a plate of cold cuts, tea, orange juice, cereal and sometimes soft-boiled eggs.

We head up the Romantic Road and stop in a number of little towns. We drive around Nordlingen, one of theplaces we stayed on the bus tour. We fine Lederer alley again. We stop at the most beautiful churches we haveseen. Its out in nowhere. We have lunch in some little town. I point to what someone else was having and say, we will have what she is having. It is some kind meat with noodles and mushrooms. Not too bad, when I getthe mushrooms off.

We start heading toward Nurnberg and stop for the night in Anbach. The room costs 70 euro. We have Burger

King for dinner.

Tuesday 9/18

We drive into the city of Nurenberg and after some searching, we find the old Lederer brewery. The breweryhas been converted into a restaurant. The beer is now made, under license, by Tucher Beer. I showed a numberof employees my passport, with the name Lederer on it. They were so nice to us. We bought some souvenirsand the manager gave us a lot of free stuff. We had lunch there. Cathy had a great chicken cordon blu and I hadchili con carnie and some great Lederer brew.


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We head out of town going north to Bamberg. We stop in a little mall and get Cathy some Abriva likemedicine. Now we go and find Schonbrunn, the town the Kreglers came from. We drive around the little townand stop at the only restaurant and Gasthof. The only two rooms in the town are taken by five guys doingextensive genealogy. Two men that looked like they were in there late 60s and their sons that were in their early40s. They were from Ohio. The fifth man was a cousin from Switzerland, he was 59 and did the translating forthe others. They had about a 100 pages of relatives. They spent many hours in Bamberg researching. It appearsthat the local churches never kept any records. Everything was sent to like our county seat. You have to makean appointment to do any research. Also, all the records are in Latin. They offered us their appointment slot for

the next day, if we wanted it. They looked up their findings and said that the cousin was probably a relative ofCathys.

We backtrack five km to Burgebrach and get a room. We skip dinner again, just some good local beer. Thebreakfasts really fill you up.

Wednesday 9/19

After breakfast we head back to Schonbrunn. It sure isnt a very big town. Its, like all other little towns, it isspotless. I had done some research and found that there were four Kreglers living in this town. Two lived on astreet called Leitenweg. I talked to a man on the street and showed him the Kregler family tree I had. He said

the ones on that block were not related to Cathy, but the family on Hohenrothweg street were. We drove overthere and stopped at the house. Another man from across the street tried to help us. The Kreglers were nothome. He looked all over the property for them. He looked at the family tree and said they could possibility bethe right Kreglers. I left all the family tree information in their mailbox, along with my email address.Hopefully, someday they will contact us.

Now we drive over to the church and cemetery. There are two Kregler headstones there. One has pictures oftwo teenage boys in German uniforms. One died in 1944 the other in 1945. It looks like they were in the wrongplace at the wrong time.

We head out of town down to Route 22, toward Wurzburg. We stop at an American type motorcycle hamburger

place. It must be for the GIs stationed somewhere around there. We have burgers and fries and some greattomato soup. We drive around Wurzburg and head south on the Romantic Road again. We find a Gasthof inSchwinberg. No dinner again, just some soda and great German beer, (you can see a real pattern here).

Thursday 9/20

We had to wait for the owner to go out and get rolls before we could have breakfast. Again, I think we were theonly people staying there. At least it was the least expensive place we stayed at, (46 euros).

We go down The Romantic Road again, almost to Rothenburg, then down route 19 to route 6. We stop forlunch at an Italian restaurant. We have a Margarita pizza and a bowl of spaghetti with marinara. The pizza was

very good, the spaghetti, not! It had all sorts of junk in it that tasted like fish.

We find a place to stay in Heilbronn. A really nice barmaid/innkeeper. She translates the menu for us. Cathy hasa great breaded pork and French fries and I have a goulash soap with bread. The room was 56 euros and dinnerwith three cokes and two beers were 25.10 euros.

Friday 9/21

Again, we are the only ones for breakfast. Besides the ladys daughter and granddaughter. Lots of fog thismorning, but it turns bright and sunny. We drive around the town then head up route 37 and 45 to Dieburg.With wrong turns all the way. We go to a McDonalds for lunch. The young girls behind the counter spoke


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perfect English. When I commented on it she said it was because she was from Maryland. It seems her fathergot homesick for Germany and they had to move there.

This area is different than most we have been. Lots of trees, instead of the rolling hills and farms.

We drive west and find a three star hotel outside of Darmstadt, a really classy place on the road near Buttelborn.They wanted 90 a night, but gave it to us for 85 because we stayed two nights. We go driving around. We drivethrough Grob-Gerau about a dozen times. No dinner again, just chips, soda and beer.

Saturday 9/22

We get up and have a fantastic breakfast. As we are leaving the hotel, the desk clerk asks us if we have ourroom key. It seems that are all leaving for the rest of the day and our key will open the front door when wecome back. I think we are alone again. Its a good thing we didnt get caught in the elevator.

Now we take a dry run to the Frankfurt airport. Good thing, Hertz is not easy to find. I tried to ask some cops,they got pissed for stopping on the road. Now we go riding all around the city of Frankfurt. Its a pretty bigplace.

After getting lost about ten times we make it back heading south on A5. I know it had to happen at least once; Iget stopped by the cops. It seems I am going too slow and not driving in the extreme right lane.

We go to Grob-Gerau to get some lunch. I dont know why, but almost everything is closed. We settle on someTurkish restaurant, (this town is full of Turkish people). We have pizza and French fries. I cant get a beer, theyare Muslims.

We drive around again and stop at the gas station next to our hotel, to pick up some coke and local beer. Thehotel is indeed all locked up. Our key works.

Sunday 9/23

We get up at 5:30 and go to breakfast at 6:15. The one woman working there does the breakfast and mans thefront desk. Everything goes fine.

We head up route 67 to the airport. Not much traffic. Germany has a law that no trucks can be on the highwaysSaturdays after noon and all day on Sunday. That is if they are not carrying perishables like food and livestock.We go to the parking garage under terminal 1 and drop off the Hertz car. They really inspect it for the littlestdamage. We go up stairs and make it to terminal 2. We go to the KLM desk to check in for our flight toAmsterdam. The girl says that there are still seats on the NWA flight direct to Detroit. So, we go stand on thatline for 50 minutes. When we get to the desk the guy says we can get seats, but we cant sit together. I tell himthat is not acceptable and we will go back to the KLM counter. Then, he finds two seats together. Go figure.

Its about an eight and a half hour flight. I watched one movie, and then I broke the controller. Cathy watched acouple of movies. We land in Detroit about 2:30 in the afternoon. Now we have to wait until almost 9 pm forthe flight to Stewart. There are only a couple of flights a day, thats why we had to take such an early flightwhen we left.

Young Cathy is waiting for us when we land at a little before 11 pm. We get home about 11:00 pm. Safe andsound.

our trip to germany

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