Barb and Baden’s Excellent German Adventure – Part 6
It’s been about 10 days since my last update as there has been some difficulty in getting access to a reliable Internet computer for a while. Anyway, here’s what’s been going on for the past while:
Dec 21:
Today we left the town of Garmisch and headed off to Kempten where we would board the train to the north of Germany. The drive to Kempten was about 2 hours and went through some seriously winding roads. The decision to rent the BMW definitely paid off here as driving this stretch was a real joy.
Once reaching Kempten, we dropped off the car and boarded the overnight train to Flensburg where we would be spending Christmas with Barb’s uncle and his family. We had booked an overnight sleeping compartment for the 11 hour train ride and this was a single “room” with a set of bunk beds. The word “room” doesn’t really apply here as if you were to visualize a closet in your house, add a set of bunk beds, you would get then general idea of how small this was.
Dec 22:
We arrived in Flensburg and were met at the train station by Barb’s uncle Claus. Flensburg is about 10km from the Denmark border and has about 80,000 people. We were introduced to Barb’s aunt Renate (pronounced Renatta) and the their son Steffen. When I was introduced to Renate, I asked if she spoke English and she basically said “no”. Over the next four days, I was to find out that she in fact spoke English more than adequately. This was something that I had observed several times on our trip as people who were unsure of their English skills would state that they spoke no English upon first asking.
As Barb didn’t get much sleep on the train to Flensburg, she crashed on the bed in our room and I was offered the opportunity to go with Claus and Steffen to go pick up the goose for our Christmas dinner. We all piled into their car and headed out to “the country” where we would be getting a fresh goose from a local farm. In Germany, goose is the main dish served at Christmas time as turkey is rarely eaten on this occasion.
Dec 23:
Today we took a drive across the Danish border to have lunch at a restaurant in Denmark. I was surprised to see that it was no longer required to stop at the border as we do when entering the US as the Denmark border was now unpatrolled. We entered into Denmark and the first thing that we noticed was the row of Sex Shops that lined the streets right after entering Denmark. No explanation was given for this but I surmised that the Danish sex shop business thrived given the quantity of them.
Our lunch in Denmark was an assortment of buns, rye breads, cold cuts and coffee. This type of meal was something that we were to experience many times during our stay in Flensburg as well as other places in Germany. We came to learn that during the holidays Germans often would eat a simple breakfast, a hot lunch later (at around 1 or 2:00) and then a snack of cakes or sweets at around 4 or 5:00. Dinner (which would typically be a simple meal of cold cuts, cheeses and bread or buns) would then occur at around 8:00 in the evening. The idea of the big dinner in the evening at around 6PM was not done here.
Dec 24:
Today we decorated the Christmas tree in the morning. The decorations on the tree were mostly hand made wooden ornaments and real candles. Overall, the decorations were put on the tree in a relatively sparse fashion compared to how things are typically done in Canada (well at least at our place). Very few houses have any sort of decorations on the outside – perhaps some white bulbs showing through the front window. The multi-colour extravaganzas with thousands of light were nowhere to be seen here. I got the distinct impression that overall Germans were quite happy with simple, tasteful decorations in a time honoured tradition.
One of the things that I was somewhat disappointed about with the German Christmas experience was the fact that at no time were any German Christmas songs heard on the radio of in stores. Without exception, only English songs that we typically hear in Canada were heard on our trip. Apparently most songs heard on most stations that play current music will be playing songs with English lyrics.
In the afternoon on the 24th, we went with the family to their local church and experienced their German Christmas service. Overall, I didn’t understand any of the words but the general flow of the church service seemed to be similar to that in Canada. Even the hymns were the same as I was used to but in German.
After we got home, we exchanged gifts and everyone opened up theirs. I was curious to know about how they explain Santa Claus as the whole story about him coming down the chimney at night wouldn’t work as they open up their gifts in the afternoon. Apparently their version is that Saint Nick sneaks in the front door when no one is looking and drops the gifts under the tree.
Dec 25:
Today we had our big Christmas dinner consisting of goose, red cabbage and potato dumplings. While this meal is usually server on the 24th, it was done on the 25th because of all of the extra work that was being done because we were there this year. After dinner, we all just sat around just talking which is pretty much how things go for us on that day were we at home.
Dec 27:
We left Flensburg today and headed south to our next destination in the Black Forest: Baden-Baden. Without a doubt, our Christmas stay with Barb’s family will remain a high point of our trip and remain one of our favourite Christmas experiences.
After another overnight train ride, we arrived in the spa town of Baden-Baden. Now let’s face it, when it comes to names of cities, Baden-Baden has got to be right near the top of them all. The name was so good, they had to use it twice.
Barb had made reservations for us at the 5 star Steigenberger Badischer Hoff hotel. This is the kind of hotel that you would see Robin Leech from Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous at talking up all of the amenities (“look at that furniture in the lobby, they’re worth over a Million Dollars !!!”).
We observer that the average age of the hotel guests is about 95 years old. Most are either holding some kind of walking stick of some chic dog on a leash. To say that Baden-Baden is a town of the fabulously wealthy would be an understatement.
Dec 28:
We spend the day in the hotel spa being pampered by the expert staff with massages and mineral baths. This kind of treatment is something that we could both get used to in a hurry. We spent most of the morning walking around in a white terry towel robe going from the massage areas to the outdoor jacuzzi. The rest of the afternoon is spent walking through the town shopping and looking for a working Internet cafe. After going to one after another and finding them closed for the holiday, we’re about ready to give up. I can’t believe that the fabulously wealthy don’t need to check their email.
Dec 29:
We leave Baden-Baden and head off to our final destination of Frankfurt. We are met at the Frankfurt train station by our friend Anette whom we met two years ago in the Cook Islands. We have kept in touch with Anette and she has graciously offered to put us up for the last 5 days of our trip. We will spend New Years with Anette and Frank before flying out of Frankfurt on Jan 2nd.
The final installment of our Excellent German Adventure will follow in the next few days.
Barb & Baden
Continue on to Barb & Baden’s Excellent German Adventure – Final
