For those of you who miss my point about why I love traveling to Germany, I’ll give you a quick refresher. I can see and do much better opera more cost effectively there. The transportation system is a dream. It’s safe, clean and informative. The historical, cultural and social offerings are well presented and provide context for a fulfilling experience.

Most tourists prefer to travel to Italy, France, or England for a European holiday. Few people I know travel to Germany. But I discovered that many people from the German diaspora return to learn about Germany in ways that many Chinese Americans go to China to discover their roots. We struggle to learn and retain the language, just as many German-Americans do. I found that similar pattern strangely comforting.

So this trip was a make-up for the years lost during the pandemic and the house construction. I managed to travel at the beginning of 2020 to London and returned on March 12 just before the lockdown. At the other end of 2020 I went to New Zealand and spent nearly a half year there with family waiting for COVID-19 to subside in the U.S.

2022 was the dry spell until September when I made my way to Bayreuth to see the Ring. Only Wagnerian fans will understand the obsession with the composer. He is the only one who has successfully combined both music and poetry into a total, integrated work. My German language training helps me to appreciate and love this unique artistry.

While food is not one of the reasons for going to Germany, I do have to comment on a few items. I discovered an extensive Portuguese food haven in the neighborhood where I stayed in Hamburg. Getting whole fish and a hearty meal was inexpensive, hearty, and healthy.

Leberkase and Bratwurst are not exactly culinary orgasms but the desserts are still to die for– particularly anything Black Forest and in season. The layered dessert with cherry topping was bedded with chocolate and crunchy puffed nougat sprinkles. And you already saw the Schwarzwald Ice Cream bomb in Leipzig–some food porn I couldn’t resist repeating. German buddy and vet here in San Francisco immediately recognized it and was jealous she couldn’t join me in Leipzig.

Berlin

The Berlin Sketchfest, intended for German sketchers, was my initial impetus for traveling to Germany this year. However, attending the opening season concert at the KONZERTHAUS in Berlin the night before was an even more thrilling experience. It overshadowed the sketching event. The new conductor, Joana Mallwitz, was stunning in her debut and delivery of beautiful music. Her gestures and love of music were so expressive. You couldn’t help but feel her joy and delight in every note as she guided the orchestra.

After the performance, I had an opportunity to meet her. The lights and camera crew following her through the adoring crowds were spell-binding. I even reconnected with her operatic partner Simon and hotel owner Ralf from Nurnberg, both of whom I had met the year before!

Staying in Prenzlauer Berg near Alexander Platz was a good bet. The local scene was filled with families, cafes, and trendy shops. I dropped some hefty euros at Boesner, the local art store filled with an extensive collection of paper, brushes, paints and artists’ supplies.

My Air BNB host recommended booking early for the visit to the Reichstag. The English tour at sunset was a double bonus while learning about how much the Russians were a part of the building’s history. An added bonus was seeing the Berlin skyline twinkling at dusk.

Carefully picking only one museum in the Museum Island (Museum Insel) saved me from becoming overwhelmed by the wealth of artistic treasures in the city. An exhibition featuring Uzbekistan, with its fascinating history and UNESCO world heritage sites, was my irresistible choice.

Leipzig

The musical influence of Bach, Mendelssohn and Schumann drew me back to Leipzig for a third visit. This time, however, was even better. Meeting two friends, Hazel from Heidelberg and Vladimir from Meissen, made it all the more exciting. Hazel and I first joined a zoom sketching class and then made our pilgrimage to the homes of the city’s famed musicians.

When Vladimir joined us later in the week, we toured the new Modern Art Museum together and sauntered through the city in the warm, 85 degree weather. We ate Asian food outside the hotel and celebrated at Auerbach’s, where Goethe is purported to have written Faust.

Hamburg

The Elbphilharmonie was the most stunning building I have seen for a long time. There are few buildings that meet my approval from BOTH the interior as well as exterior perspective. Having studied interior design as an undergraduate and architecture as a graduate student, I look for the perfect balance of both.

It was hard not to compare recent visits to the iconic Berlin Philharmonie and the Leipzig Gewandhaus. The concert houses in Germany were just as compelling as their opera houses. Sound and the music were paramount.

So I lost my wallet. That was very distressing. It coincided with buying a ticket for the Elbphilharmonie without any money. After the transaction, I met Annemarie, whom I have described in the previous post. She was a godsend and made the lost wallet inconsequential.

I did, however, make an excursion to see whether I could recover my wallet. And in classic German efficiency, the lost items were all carefully categorized for lost owners at the Lost and Found Bureau. Mine hadn’t shown up yet, but I surreptitiously enjoyed seeing the disasters of others. I’ll have to wait until I get notified of a data breach to get my day of reckoning.

Sketchfest in Germany

From Berlin to Leipzig, Hamburg, and Lübeck, I captured another dimension of Germany through sketches that fold the edges of people, places and things.

Environmental Boomerang

A noon time protest in Lubeck reminded me of our climate crisis.A Demonstrators of all age groups marched peacefully through the middle of town. When I posted this video on instagram, I immediately got negative comments. It made me very sad that there are such outspoken reactions in denial of the need to focus on a concern that affects everyone on the planet.

Before arriving in Hamburg on this trip, I learned that the pollution index was over 100. I don’t normally check air quality in cities during trips. But the app on my phone exists because San Francisco provided real-time air quality monitoring during the fires a year ago in California.

When I inquired about it to my Air BnB host in Hamburg, he dismissed it as a non-event. So I went. Ironically, the day I returned to San Francisco, the pollution index was over 150. That was the worst in the world on that day. Fires in Oregon and Northern California had drifted down to the SF Bay Area and were trapped there.

A Post-Mortem

Some of you may have read in my 2023 summary that I am closing down my website at the end of the year. After seven years of traveling around the world from 2014-2020, two years of pandemic insomnia, and two years of babbling home construction, it’s safe to say that I have exhausted my creative wanderlust!

Knowing me, I’ll no doubt still sneak in a few trips here and there. I miss my German friends terribly. For my local friends, I need you too! For now, I’m looking forward to zooming with my two precious grandsons and recording the stories that Felix tells me about his favorite camper van and his day at the farm.

Bis bald!