The critic remembers

Best meal (fancy): the lasagna I had for lunch at Kampinski's (Berlin); it was probably meant as an appetizer, given its modest price (8.50 euros), but it ended up being the tastiest heap of pasta, vegetables, and cheese in memory.

Best meal (simple): the falafel and sides at Dada's, on Linienstrasse, right below Friedrichstrasse, in Mitte; another Best Ever.

Best music (expensive): Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, performed by the orchestra, choir and soloists of the Berlin Philharmonic, June 3.

Best music (free): Bach's First Prelude for Unaccompanied Cello, performed in a square in Weimar by a young musician.

Freundlich katz (friendly cat)

Best music (overall): blackbirds singing, from dawn to the very late dusk.

Best animal moments: 1) the endangered white storks, feeding in a field, we viewed from the bus while travelling between Dresden and Berlin, June 5. 2) the mouse with a single stripe down his back Eddie and I saw while strolling around the garden of artist Max Lieberman in Wannsee, June 4; 3) the cat we finally met (after nearly two weeks of all-dog, no-cat streets) in Weimar, who approached shyly but ended up cavorting with us like an old friend.

Max Lieberman house & garden, Wannsee

Sebastian, Topographie des terrors

Best learning experience: Topographie des Terrors, thanks to our guide, Sebastian G.

Most beautiful interior: the church in Aachen, tied with the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig. N.B. This is a correction from the original post.

Most beautiful streets: the old, winding ones in Lübeck.

Best street with mix of commercialism, charm, walkability: Friedrichstrasse, Mitte, Berlin.

Best street with mix of commercial and residential: Tucholskystrasse, same area.

Most overrated tourist site: Brandenburg Tor.

Most touristy big city: Cologne.

Quietest tourist town: Weimar.

Best hotels: Leonardo Hotel, Weimar; Augustinenhof, Berlin.

Best museum: Cologne's Wallraf (European art from several centuries).

Small town charms (1)

German cities, like most cities, have many advantages. They contain some of the country's most famous art works and cultural sites. International cuisine tends to be more widely available, not just local fare punctuated by the occasional Chinese or Italian eatery. And the nightlife, for those who seek it, can’t be beat. The downsides are things like noise, traffic congestion, crowds, and unfeasibly long walks from one end of the city center to the other.
Small towns everywhere tend to be quieter – either dull or charming. At least one small German town – Weimar, in the state of Thuringia – is definitely charming. 

We arrived from Cologne mid-afternoon yesterday, having transferred trains in the Frankfurt airport. The second train was unusually uncomfortable and relatively empty – rendering our supposedly prudent seat reservations unnecessary. The Weimar railway station is situated on a wide, light-stoned square filled with flower gardens. The effect on a sunny day was stunningly bright and welcoming. No throngs of people swarmed the station or the square. It seemed held-breath tranquil, just shy of deserted. But young people waited for the bus, and the bus ended up being crowded with people of all ages.

Before we disembarked near our first hotel, the youths got off at a mall. I guess that in a small town, there is even more need some kind of hangout. They have public squares and parks, but perhaps they are too popular with tourists for the young ones’ taste!

Our hotel, the Leonardo, is situated across the street from a park. The hotel is large, old-world elegant, and bustling.
I hadn’t quite expected it to be so big. Some hotel web site comments cautioned me about certain details, yet when we saw our 5^th-floor room, our suspicions vanished out the open window, which afforded us a fantastic view of an entire section of the neighboring valley. Birdsong (those delightful, ubiquitous blackbirds, among others) poured into the room. We could have rested for hours on the immaculate beds, enjoying the breeze and birdsong, but instead we returned to the (rare) sunny afternoon and explored the town of Weimar.

The main attraction in Weimar is Goethe (1749-1832), who lived here for many years in his early adulthood. A few days ago, I started re-reading the book that brought him his meteoric rise to fame, The Sorrows of Young Werther. I noted things I couldn’t possibly have appreciated at the age of 20 or 22 when I first read it. I will have to include excerpts at a later post. What insights! He made them in his 20s, in the mid-18^th century, yet they could have sprung from the pen of a middle-aged 21^st-century poet.

Goethe (L) and Schiller, famous friends

Since it was Saturday, many stores had already closed by 2:00 or 3:00. That more or less forced us into the touristy sections, but even those were charming. Peering over the fence into Goethe’s garden, we encountered some Germans from elsewhere. We had a delightful chat about Goethe, our trip so far, and where they were from. They were very friendly – perhaps the first people quite so effusive and warm.

Supper had to be in an Italian place, and I had a strawberry (erdbeer= “earth berry”; peanut is erdnuss= “earth nut”) gelato afterwards. Had a hilarious “conversation” with two friendly women in a shoe store who could barely speak English but tried gamely for my benefit.

As the long fade into night began - twilight dragging out for about two hours long near the solstice this far north - we listened to the birds sing well past 10:00 p.m. And they didn’t have to compete with traffic!