One last full day in London and we feel like we have seen a lot of things:
We jumped on the tube and took a short ride to Kensington (Queensway).
Kensington Palace tour with viewing of the new statue of Diana, Princess of Wales, in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace. So peaceful and beautiful. The touring the palace had a lot of historical facts about the different royalty who lived there especially Queen Victoria. I loved it all. Allen is such a good sport. ❤️
We jumped on the tube and stopped to check out Harrods. Eeeks. A beauty department store but way out of our league for shopping.
Jumped back on the tube and went to Piccadilly Circus to see the monument and the “Times Square” like activity. The Hard Rock Cafe called us for lunch and some beer and whiskey sours.
We stopped at Westfield Shopping Center on our way back to the hotel to pick up some tea from Whittard’s.
For an afternoon drink, we stopped at the Defector’s Weld. It is a corner pub right close to our hotel. What a charming little place.
For supper, we went to the Chinese restaurant attached to our hotel. Probably the best and most authentic Chinese food we have ever had. We had gone there our first night here and the hostess was so happy that we came again.
Tomorrow we fly home. It has been a wonderful trip and my heel has healed.
Today had us visiting the Tower of London. Having been there before, we knew a little of what to expect so we went directly to the Crown Jewels which was pretty amazing. When we came out of that part that we had just walked in, the line up was easily 400 long.
We went up the White Tower to see the prison. The steps up and down were a lot. Whew.
We grabbed the tube and went to Covent Garden for lunch and for a little people watching.
This afternoon we attended the theatre watching “Mrs Doubtfire!” So good!
Took the tube back to our hotel and hit the Mexican restaurant in the Westfield Shopping Mall.
Aahhh London! It seems silly, but it feels like home.
We started the day by taking the tube and “mind the gap” to the Imperial War Museum. So many incredible artifacts from WW1 and WW2. This one was Allen’s choice. When we study Canadian history, one thinks the Canadians played a huge role and I think they did, but from the British perspective, it was pretty minor, but still important.
We walked from the museum across the bridge in the rain to see Big Ben (he is finally done being refurbished), Parliament, and Westminster Abbey. As we meandered our way eventually to the palace, we stopped at a pub and had the English stand by of fish, chips, peas and a pint!
We began walking again and went through St James Park and saw the Friary Court where the new kings/queens are announced. It is a part of St James Palace. We went over the Mall and saw Spencer House (Diana’s ancestral winter home), Clarence House (where Charles and Camilla live) and Lancaster House which is a govt building, but was used as Clarence House in The Crown. Allen went on a quest for coffee but I just found a spot to soak in the beauty of London and the Palace. ❤️. We checked out Canada Gate, the Canadian memorial pond and then took our pics in front of Buckingham Palace. Ahhhhhh. I could go home now, but we still have a few adventure planned.
We had tickets to the Buckingham Mews today. It allows you to see the stables and the carriages that are used for coronations and weddings. It was pretty cool!
Our feet were getting pretty sore we made our way via the tube back to our hotel, The Dorsett in Shepherd’s Bush. After a short rest, we had our evening meal at an Italian place in Westfield Shopping Mall which is a short walk from our hotel.
17400 steps today! My heel is feeling pretty awesome. My feet are tired at the end of the day, but so are Allen’s and he didn’t have surgery. ❤️
Today we said goodbye to our travel group from GoAhead and started our journey to London for the last leg of our adventure! Fish and chips, mind the gap and paying tribute to late QEII are on the agenda! 👑
The Munich airport had us check our luggage and do immigration out of the EU and on our way within minutes. Why is it always such an ordeal in Canada???
Goodbye Google Translate! You have been very helpful, but I should be good in England without you.
Does the city speak to you? This was a favourite saying of our tour director after we would visit the each German city. Some would; some not as strong
Chocolate: German perspective is that Lindt wins the race. .
We had an uneventful flight to London. Minor problem with a ride to our hotel, but another cabbie came along and the soothing British accent and mild-mannered voice helped ease us on our journey. The Dorsett in Shepherd’s Bush will be home for a few days. The oriental restaurant in the hotel was a welcome change from our sausage diet of the last 10 days. Tomorrow will bring “mind the gap”. Later.
Nymphenburg Palace. Beautiful gardens where many, many runners were exercising. Palace is similar to Versailles. Hunting lodge for the queen was the ultimate she-shed. Some buildings and fixtures were done in baroque pink or sometimes called nipple pink. 🥴
Had a bus tour of Munich. Some of the group was going to Dachau (duk-ow) this afternoon. We were a little rushed lap the tour seemed shortened. That was ok as we are close to information overload.
Allen and I had not signed up for the concentration camp tour as we had visited it before. We and a fellow traveller, Sally, went to visit a Birkenstock store but didn’t find the selection any different from home. We then went to a German staple, the Hofbrauhaus, for lunch. I’ve learned I like dark beers and today had one with lemonade mixed with it. Delicious!
Today we left cute little Bamberg to eventually land in Munich. From Bamberg we drove to Rothenburg which is a Rick Steves favourite stop.
News from the bus:
Autobahn. There are speed limits. It isnt a free for all
Drinking ages: 16 for beer and wine. 18 for hard stuff
Bamberg means garden city and famous for planting flowers, trees, vegetables. There is a Bamberg potato that is cooked and tastes better than regular potatoes. A little nutty. This is the center for plant breeding.
Bosch: spark plugs are made here.
My thoughts on travelling: I love it. It reinforces our heritage and history. There is a reason that we do what we do and why we do it. It lets us experience new things, such as food, places, and people. It makes us appreciate home all the more as we live in a lovey lovely country: Family, friends, and my pets❤️. Our tour group is truly an eclectic group of people with all kinds of personalities. You can bop around and visit with someone different every day and learn something new and interesting every day. This trip has some couples, some groups of friends (2 or 3), and quite a few singles. Everyone has a story that that they may or may not share: doctor from Kansas, people trying to reconnect with family in Germany, just wanting to explore, some retirement trips. One sad story was a husband and wife were to come on the trip and the husband passed so the woman’s brother in law stepped in to replace his brother to travel with his sister in law so she didn’t have to cancel. A lot of wives came without their husbands as “he has no interest in travelling”. One man came without his wife. They believe that one should stay home with their kids so they take separate vacations to give stability to the kids. Sounds fishy to me 🥴 One lady had foot reconstruction surgery in February so is finding the cobblestones difficult to navigate. I can sympathize with her a lot, but my Achilles hasn’t really bothered me as much as I had feared it would. Everyone has a reason and story.
On our drive this morning, we went through the German countryside to see the agricultural sector. Not quite the same as Saskatchewan.
A lot of yellow buildings with red rooves. It sure feels like home ❤️
On a different trip, our travel mates were fascinated by seeing deer; this trip it is a real commotion to spy a storks nest on the roof of homes. Usually only found in the countryside.
Rothenburg:
When the money tinkles in the collection plate, you elevate to heaven.
This is a quaint little town that is a medieval town with a protective wall and everything in the wall is old – really old. The famous Christmas decoration store is here Kathe Wolfarht has two stores here. A few treasures may have been purchased here. 😊.
On the drive to Munich – our last city in Germany! Pretty quiet trip. Began the movie, “Bridge of Spies” with Tom Hanks.
This morning we had a walking tour of Bamberg. What a charming German town! Everything was so pretty and picturesque. Allen found the beer store where you can just walk in, buy it, open it and drink it. $2.50 Euro a beer. The beer I enjoyed in Berlin is a Berlin thing where the different syrups flavour it. The beer store had one they had tried making and bottling – Weiser or baby beer🥴.
One sad thing from the morning was a lady in our tour group fell in a flat surface in a church and they think she broke her wrist or arm. She is currently in the medical clinic with a doctor. They are guessing she will stay overnight. The only positive was that our group has a nurse, doctor and a fireman. They had it all under control. ❤️ Nite: broken arm, but she will wait for surgery back in Canada and not go home early.
Christ angel or Jesus has become a girl in Germany. She opens the Christmas market and is responsible for bringing Christmas gifts on Christmas Eve. Father Christmas or Santa isn’t a thing here.
We visited the Palace of Justice and the 600 Courtroom where the Nazis were prosecuted in a trial after WW2 for warm crimes against humanity and the Jewish people in particular. We visited the exhibit and watched the media show in the courtroom. This was a very moving experience and one could feel the solemnity of the incident as soon as one entered the vicinity of the buildings.
Then we had a tour of the city of Nuremberg which was good, but we are close to entering the realm of information overload.
Then we went to a traditional German restaurant in the square that was loud and delicious! Sausages, sauerkraut, potato salad, potato soup, pretzels, strudel and chocolate cake were shared at our table.
The food has been very good on this trip, but I honestly don’t feel like I’m having new food. My mom raised her family with good solid German food, which is what we have had on this trip! The meat. The potatoes. The dumplings. The gravy. The sausage. The sauerkraut. ❤️. Thanks mom!
We left Dresden with a minor driving altercation with a grouchy man blocking the bus trying to get out of the parking lot. Our tour director, Baete, took upon herself to inform him how he disappointed an entire bus load of Americans and Canadians. His reply was that he did not care. 🥴. It made for some entertainment!
Interesting facts from the bus today:
Trains do not run from Germany to Switzerland anymore because the Germans were not adhering to time schedules. Their times are now approximate. Swiss trains run on the second with accuracy.
Ways to distinguish cars and where they are from. There is a little picture and letter at the far left side of license plates
How many counties in EU? Idea was install peace. 27. Used to 28 with UK, but they left. It started with France and Germany. Not all EU countries use the EU as a country has to work their way into using the euro. Slovakia has the euro by Czech Republic doesn’t. They used to make Czechoslovakia. Human rights are a component of it as well.
Ausfahrt: Aus=out, fahrt=drive so drive out or exit.
Latte macchiato: almost the same as cappuccino but more milk.
Weimar:
Ginkgo trees. Bach. The writers of the German democracy lived here. Cute little town.
A long bus day today. Dresden to Weimar then onto Bamberg. Miles and miles of solar panels. The rule is that they can only go on non-productive land. Our director says that farmers plant those as the government subsidy is substantial for the power.
Bamberg: whenever you have a river and a hill in a town, you will have beauty. Bamberg is also known for its smoky beer.
Brunhelda. A not so nice woman.
Meal in hotel tonight. Big driving day. Tomorrow will be long as we go to Nuremberg.
Sauerbraten – sour beef. In Saxony without raisins. the sauce is the sweet and sour sauce with wine, vinegar. In the Rhein area they put raisins in it.
There are little garden plots here with tiny shacks on them. You can’t live there all the time but can stay there for the weekend.
Today we travelled to Gorlitz which is on the border with Poland. We are close to the area, Czepow, which the Altwassers originated from. The story the tour director had was that when the Russians took over what is Poland is that if you were half German half Czech, you could stay, but if you were full German who had to leave and were invited to live in Russia. Later they said that to live in Russia, you had to do military service. This may be the reason that the Altwassers left as it seems that many left during that time.
The motherland of Birkenstock!! The factory is situated here in Gorlitz!
German words and our tour directors take on things: Zitzennliebden. To remain seated in school if you don’t advance a grade.
Bikes with basket for kids to sit in while on parents backfiet. $3000euros. she thinks it is ridiculous that kids don’t move themselves.
Today we drove to Gorlitz which is in Germany. Then we walked across the bridge to Poland and had lunch of meat and cheese for an appetizer and then perogies for main course. Very delicious, but honestly, my Ukrainian family and friends have spoiled me. We were the experts in explaining to our table mates what they were. I kept hearing Kathy Hill’s voice in my head telling me how to make them perfect – gentle Pam, gentle Pam!
In our tour of the town, we learned that Gorlitz was never damaged in the wars as they paid off the aggressors to leave them alone. We were allowed to tour traditional homes. In the only here homes, things cannot be structurally altered. They were built in the 1300-1500 hundreds. Very interesting!
We also went to a Christmas store that had the most intricate wooden carvings. So beautiful! It makes one think one should return for the Christmas markets.
After lunch, we had time to shop for mustard which is made in Gorlitz and the area and for Allen to find more beer. I found a cappuccino and a cream puff. It was good, but I think my mom makes them better. ❤️
The drive to Dresden. We have been in three states/provinces so far. Berlin. Brandenberg (capital Potsdam) Saxony (capital Dresden)
Very “bluffy” landscape. Some open areas but lots of trees with a few lakes. Alfalfa plants with some sunflowers with maybe canola.
We left Berlin in rain, but the drive has given us clear sunny skies. We have been blessed with good weather so far.
When the director, Baete, asks us ya, we are to answer with a soft yaya in return for a yes ; if we put an emphasis on the second ya, it means up yours. 🥴. Inflection is important in German.
Dresden. A lot of it was decimated in 1945 by incendiary bombs. Most of it has been reconstructed. The soviets wanted some done immediately after the war and some didn’t happen until after the wall came down.
The wine in this area was so sour it was called 3 Men Wine as it took 1 to drink a glass and 2 to hold him down to finish it. Global warming has fixed the problem as more sun is occurring now.
There was a major bridge in Dresden that just fell down on Sept 11 of this year. The police heard a noise and watched it literally fall down at 3 in the morning. It makes for terrible traffic jams and terrible tourism.
ygtravellers 