Here's a rundown of our Christmas trip to Germany and London. Not a full writeup but at least a log of what we did. Photos can be seen on Facebook ...
The trip was centered around a big family reunion in Bavaria, in the Chiemgau region east of Munich. Nearly all of the Americans were traveling over to Germany for it, and all the Germans would be there, about 40 people in total, all congregating in Traunstein and Mietenkam.
Day 0 / Tue Dec 18th: departed from Atlanta on a direct overnight flight to Munich. Chris can't sleep on airplanes, so took advantage of the on-demand movie system: The Post, A Quiet Place and Fahrenheit 451.
Day 1 / Wed Dec 19th: arrived in Munich, met by Renate. Chris split off and headed to Stuttgart by train, and Sharon stayed with Renate in Munich, ending up at "The Heuweg" with Sabrina and Marc (and Samuel and the dogs). Chris went to Stuttgart to visit Teresa and Nils, and meet the boys Theodor and Fridolin for the first time. Chris stayed awake until 7:30pm and then crashed hard (having been awake for 30-ish hours straight by that point).
Day 2 / Thu Dec 20th: Sharon explored Munich's Christkindlmarkts with Renate and Cornelia. Chris spent the days with Teresa and the boys, including a visit to the Christmas market in central Stuttgart, jammed with people and with lots to see. The boys rode the little train and we had gluwein of course. We finished the day with a dinner at a restaurant in their neighborhood.
Day 3 / Fri Dec 21st: Chris took the train back to Munich and was met by Renate at the eastside train station. After a quick visit to Renate's apartment to spend some time with family cat Sasha, we all ended up at The Heuweg and enjoyed a dinner there. Family friend Nora stopped by and we got to catch up on how we've been.
Day 4 / Sat Dec 22nd: Sharon and Chris split up, taking separate cars with Sabrina (and Samuel) and Marc, respectively, out to Mietenkam where the family reunion was happening. Marc dutifully drove his Porsche 911 at 240 km/h (150 MPH) when the autobahn allowed for it; normally he'd drive faster but the winter tires are speed limited. In Mietenkam, we settled into the "Fischerhaus" next door to Andreas and Monika's house, and welcomed Teresa and family when they arrived. Later in the evening we all had dinner together at the Hotel Sperrer in Grassau, in the back dining hall that Andreas had rented out for the family. It was a good thing we had that big room to ourselves, because the kids were going freaking NUTS. Julienne and family showed up early on, having flown in from Chicago. After dinner, we stopped by the Mietenkamer "Hausl" just as Jennifer and family were pulling up, having flown in from San Franscisco.
Day 5 / Sun Dec 23rd: Our last chance to get supplies before the Christmas holidays, everyone went grocery shopping et cetera, and then we met up at the Christmas market in Traunstein, where we enjoyed more gluwein, feuerzangenbowle, Bosna sausages and roasted almonds. We stopped by the Municom "bistro" where Cornelia was marshalling forces to prepare the little dining hall for the big family dinner happening in two days. Chris got a loaner car (a VW van) from Andreas and we drove back to Mietenkam, and we all eventually all met up in the Fischerhaus again and enjoyed a dinner prepared by ... someone. It was all a blur. Somebody prepared food, I think Teresa and Nils, and we thank them for it!
Day 6 / Mon Dec 24th: Chris went on a hike with Teresa and Sabrina and kids, and then on a detour with Andi. At some point Renate arrived from Munich. Christmas Eve is the traditional day that Germans really celebrate Christmas. In the evening, everyone gathers around the tree, there are readings from the Bible, and then the kids get to tear into their presents. We had a beautiful evening, with gifts exchanged, a meal of my mom's "Super Bowl soup", games for the kids, and general merriment. A little later in the evening, Julienne and Chris were invited next door to join Andreas and Monika (and later Andi) for another dinner, this one of duck. Oof.
Day 7 / Tue Dec 25th: Christmas morning is when Americans traditionally celebrate, so the two American families in the Mietenkamer Hausl down the street hosted a morning(-ish) event for the kids. Afterwards, another hike around the environs, before heading into Traunstein for the bug family gathering. More German family had arrived in town and we were all gathering at the Municom "bistro" for a proper reunion and meal. Nearly forty people! The only people missing from the entire extended family were Oliver, now too old to travel from California, and Susann and Serafine who were planning to attend but had to turn around and head back home upon news of a suddenly very sick pet. Cornelia dutifully took lots of photos of the historic gathering and we all had a fantastic time catching up with each other. More gifts were exchanged -- among the adults we all had "Secret Santa" assignments.
Day 8 / Wed Dec 26th: Most of the family gathered at the Chiemsee shore for some fun there. Chris and Sharon split off to take advantage of their one opportunity to get up into the Alps and do some sightseeing. From Mietenkam, we first drove up into Reit Im Winkl, a ski resort town on the Austrian border, and wandered around there watching cross country skiers passing through. Then we drove east along the Alps to Berchtesgaden, a historic and extremely scenic town tucked among the mountains, and explored the Christmas market there, open for the final day of the season. Sharon found some more Krampus / Perchten knick knacks and we noshed on more food. Then we drove down into Salzburg and enjoyed the old city center there, ending up once again at the Stiftskeller at St. Peters, a courtyard restaurant that was founded in the year 803 (not a typo). On the way, we stumbled onto the astonishing Petersfriedhof cemetery next door. With evening falling, we drove back into Germany and to Traunstein, where the family was gathered again at the bistro for a "leftovers" party, and we returned our loaner car to Andreas. The little VW van did a fine job and we greatly appreciate Andreas' generosity in lending it to us for a few days. Since we would be leaving the area in the morning, as were most of the others, this is where we now started to say our goodbyes, and started to plan the next reunion -- perhaps Fasching in Mainz in February 2021?
Day 9 / Thu Dec 27th: Travel day! Chris and Sharon were heading to London to have a couple days there before going home to Atlanta. Andreas took us to the local train station, and thus commenced a long 10-hour train trip across central Europe. Five train stations, four trains, millions of people, and apparently millions of germs, because by the end Chris was feeling pretty sick. But we made it to London, got to our hotel, and got some rest.
Day 10 / Fri Dec 28th: Chris had full-blown flu and Sharon was heading downhill. But after a morning of sleeping in, we decided to head out and salvage what we could of our London trip, and at least get to the top two sights on our list. Sharon's top priority was the Wellcome Collection, a medical museum, an amazing collection of artifacts gathered by a wealthy tycoon. Then Chris' top priority was the Tate Modern art museum and specifically seeing Christian Marclay's The Clock (click for explanation). We accomplished that, saw a bit of the museum including the "tanks", and then headed back to the hotel for rest.
Day 11 / Sat Dec 29th: Chris's health was improving but Sharon was in terrible shape. Chris headed out and managed to see some sights, but it was less fun doing it alone. The two major destinations today were the Greenwich Observatory and the Borough Market, both equally astonishing and wonderful, followed by a visit to the Imperial War Museum and the Holocaust exhibit there. After heading back to the hotel and checking in on Sharon, Chris headed back out for some evening wandering, combining some bus rides and riverfront walks to see a few more sights including the Tower of London (from the outside) and the Tower Bridge. The CityMapper smartphone app was very helpful in navigating all this, providing excellent guidance on transit routing and status -- fumbling with paper maps and train schedules is definitely a thing of the past, and much more time is spent simply enjoying the trip instead of struggling with travel logistics. You just need a phone with internet access, which is another thing that has gotten easier to pull off in recent years. The evening ended up with a long taxi ride, where Chris spotted and hailed one of the new electric taxis that are now appearing in London, and had a long chat with the taxi driver, who was quite proud of his shiny new EV!
Day 12 / Sun Dec 30th: Travel day! The usual train out to Heathrow was shut down for the day (for planned reconstruction) so we took an expensive taxi out. Checkin and security was uneventful -- what a nice contrast with CDG in Paris, which has been a disaster every time! Our plane departed on time, and Chris got through another three movies: Death Of Stalin (fantastic!), The Party and RBG. We were both in pretty bad shape by the end, and very very happy to be back home after a final taxi ride.
So, the Germany segment of the trip, the bulk of the trip, was fantastic, and the London part was pretty terrible. We'll have to give London another shot someday in the future. Here's a list of places we had planned to go in London, noted for next time: Brixton Village, Gasholder Park, the Old Operatory Theater, We Built This City, Horniman Museum, and a Premier League game (e.g. at Wembley Stadium).
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