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  • The Sadovyis

German Holiday

A 15-day adventure by The Sadovyis Read more
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  • Trip start
    December 9, 2023
    The SadovyisGerman HolidayTraveler

    Hallo Germany

    December 9, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 4 °C

    It's vacation time!

    We're spending the better part of December exploring Germany. We just arrived at the Ritz in Berlin, after an uneventful plane and train ride.

    After arriving in Frankfurt from the states, we caught our train to Berlin. Train travel is truly the best. We got on our train around 10:45 and we're in Berlin ~5 hours later. On board we: napped, ate, had a beer, and enjoyed the views.

    Tonight the name of the game is to stay awake for a late dinner (at 9pm!). Igor booked a cool looking regional place that offers wine pairing. So that's a pretty great incentive to stay up.

    For now we're enjoying a few glasses of sparkling in the lounge and freshening up a bit at the hotel.

    Stay tuned for Christmas markets and winter adventures!    Read more

  • The SadovyisGerman HolidayTraveler

    Parks & Christmas Markets

    December 10, 2023 in Germany ⋅ 🌧 7 °C

    We've had a successful first 24 hours in Berlin!

    We spent most of the day walking around Berlin and enjoying the slightly rainy but not too cold day. After a light breakfast in the lounge we walked through Tier Garten and to the Soviet war memorial. After such a busy morning we decided to treat ourselves to a snack: currywurst and Berlin lager. A perfect pick me up.

    Refueled from our snack we headed towards the Christmas market, stopping by the Brandenburg Gate and the somber Jewish memorial. Doing so we crossed from West Berlin into East Berlin, the wall marked with a line of stones along the road and pieces of the wall found throughout the city.

    The Christmas market was picture perfect. Full of cheery people even in the rain, cute stalls of holiday decorations and places to pop in for a drink. We grabbed a cocktail to wait out some heavier rain, I had to drag Igor away from the festive drinks and potato offerings.

    The rest of our time at the market included a hat purchase for Igor and some sheeps wool mittens for me! And of course more food: oysters, sardines, and champagne.

    We wrapped up our visit with a cup of Gluhwein and a cute take home mug 🤗    Read more

  • The SadovyisGerman HolidayTraveler
    Elevator selfiesJerusalem ArtichokeThe full feeling. Headed into dessert courses.

    Dinner @ Faelt

    December 10, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 6 °C

    After a few hours of downtime we headed out to dinner at Faelt, a 1 star Michelin restaurant in a cute neighborhood.

    I was slightly regretting the number of snacks I had earlier but don't worry, I rallied by the 3rd course.

    The restaurant itself was adorable, sitting 10 couples in total, with 5 staff across the whole restaurant.

    We opted for the full course set of course, but showed some restraint with a single wine pairing split between us.

    The food was amazing, hitting a perfect elevated but local food balance. We started with some cute appetizers with tasty mini pretzels. My favorite course was the Jerusalem Artichoke dish which is basically a root veggie tasting a bit nutty and sweet. Igor fav, the kale wrapped cabbage and meat roll with potatoes.

    Everything was delicious and we had a lovely time eating our fill with many nicely paired Germany wines! We finally rolled into a cab and made it back to our hotel.

    Night night from this side of the world 🌍    Read more

  • The SadovyisGerman HolidayTraveler

    Berlin History

    December 12, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 7 °C

    After dinner at Faelt things turned south for the Sadovyis, with a case of food poisoning. We suspect Christmas market oysters are to blame. Hence our lack of posts the past few days.

    That said, we're on the mend now! So a quick recap of our last 2 days in Berlin. We spent Monday walking around the city and went to see Checkpoint Charlie. On the way we walked through a museum along some remaining part of the Berlin wall. A somber place and a sad history but important to remember.

    We wrapped up our last night in Berlin with a lager before the food poisoning set in good for the night. And after a less than idea sleep, a struggle of a train ride and many waters and tea later, we made it to Cologne!    Read more

  • The SadovyisGerman HolidayTraveler

    Cologne for the Night

    December 13, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C

    We took the train from Berlin to Cologne (or Koln? We haven't quite figured out the right way to reference the city).

    Here we stayed at an adorable hotel, Hotel Ernst. Real old classic vibes. While I was slowly recovering Igor collected some snacks around the city, bringing me back some McDonald's - the ultimate cure.

    This morning things are looking much better and we had a big breakfast at the hotel before exploring the stunning Cologne Cathedral. It is home to some of the best stained glass I've ever seen and the impressive tomb of the 3 wise men. The relic was brought to Milan in 380ish AD and moved to Cologne in 1170.

    We're currently waiting on our rental car that we will take to the German countryside and the Moselle wine region!    Read more

  • The SadovyisGerman HolidayTraveler
    1

    Mosel - R&R and wine

    December 14, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 5 °C

    Yesterday, we straddled the line between lazy and adventurous as Danielle recovered her strengths from the stomach issues that have plagued her since Berlin. We slept in at our posh hotel, grabbed the breakfast (included), and went back to the room to veg for a while - Danielle read her book and I took a very long bath. Eventually, we managed to get out of the hotel for a 3 PM wine tasting at Marcus Molitor winery a few towns over (recommended to us by our friend Ryan Seal). The tasting was great, with some excellent Rieslings as you would expect - plus, a few really intriguing Pinot Noirs, relative newcomers to the region.

    After the tasting, we ran over to Brauhaus Kloster Machern for a tasty dinner of wiener schnitzel and sauerbraten for her and him, respectively. Now full and tired, we got back to the hotel by 8 PM, whereupon Danielle went to check out the spa and pool while I took another long bath and read. Yes, I take too many baths. Plan for tomorrow is to check out another winery, so likely more of the same!    Read more

  • The SadovyisGerman HolidayTraveler

    Onward to Munich

    December 16, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 4 °C

    On our last full day in Mosel we spent the morning reading and at the spa. A nice slow start just like we like it. The spa at this hotel was amazing with 3 dry saunas at different temps, a steam room, and an infrared sauna.

    I think we could have stayed all day had the need for food not promoted us to go explore. We drove out to a cute church on the hill for some nice Mosel area views followed by lunch in town. Igor had a meat & potato soup and lake pike, I had the recently caught boar ragu. And of course some local wine pairing to go alongside.

    This morning we got up early in time to meet our other half of our vacation crew, Ams and Cha, at the Frankfurt airport!    Read more

  • The SadovyisGerman HolidayTraveler

    Welcome to Munich

    December 16, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 6 °C

    After meeting our friends at the airport, we are ready to start week 2 of our vacation!

    Similar to our arrival, we took a train out of the city, this time south to Munich. Travel was smooth, besides the humbling walk from train to hotel.. Nothing is smooth or comfortable about a 15 minute walk dragging your roller bag through a busy city's cobblestone streets basically screaming "HI IM A TOURIST". Anyway, that aside, we made good time and got to our hotel!

    The hotel is in a prime location, basically on top of Marienplatz. The hotel overlooks the square with the main Munich Christmas market and the intricately designed city town hall.

    With another Michelin star dinner at 7, we try to keep it chill with some shwarma and falafel street food, I'd say we mostly succeed.. and only ordered 3 entrees instead of 4 😅    Read more

  • The SadovyisGerman HolidayTraveler

    Food chronicles continue: Mural

    December 16, 2023 in Germany ⋅ 🌙 2 °C

    Our second, and final, Michelin star restaurant of the trip: Mural. It is a cozy, artsy restaurant, seating around 10-12 tables, connected to the Munich museum of modern art.

    We arrive around 715 and of course start with some champagne. 🥂 We promptly lose any semblance of restraint and all cave to the additional truffle add-on course and a wine pairing each. Bringing us up to 7 courses.

    The meal:
    Amuse-bouche or as I like to call it the welcome small snacks. These had a lot of nicely pickled veggies.

    Followed by a light soup course, and the bread joining the table with the fluffiest butter you ever saw. The bread is always a dangerous game, so good but so so filling. We all take different strategies here.

    Our first actual course (of the 7) is the lake trout. Very nicely prepared, it almost resembles salmon sashimi.

    The next course is surprisingly one of my favorites of the whole meal, the onion dish. Individual onion leaves filled with an amazing balance cream/fennel/herbal sauce.

    At this point I'll note, we had many wines along the way but don't recall which went with which. That said, they gave us some really interesting whites - including one that tasted almost like a sour beer, and another that tasted and smelled like a dry sherry. So good!

    The carrots were Amiyah's favorite, earning high priase.

    Our bonus truffle course shows up around now and in a show of calm, we just get two to share. One on the raviolis filled with sweetbread (brains of some animal??) and one with gnocchi. Both delicious, who doesn't love truffles and pasta?

    I was very impressed with the level of approachability of the restaurant giving fine dining establishments can sometimes be very strict on coursing that everyone gets everything.

    Final mains include the pike perch, and pigeon. I loved the pigeon, which was wild so a bit tough but quiet good! This meal has been full of surprises!

    At this point we're about 3 hours into our meal and quickly approaching full. In a show of no-chill (a reoccurring pattern) we add on the cheese course 😅 it is Ams's favorite course and we rally to support her.

    The cheese comes at the very end after 2 other dessert courses. But all in all the meal turns out to be one of the most enjoyable and welcoming fine dining meals I've ever had. The pace was perfect, great atmosphere, and really reasonable portions and wine pours that leave us feeling very full but not miserably so.

    Just after midnight we take our leave and enjoy a quick walk home.    Read more

  • The SadovyisGerman HolidayTraveler

    Exploring the city

    December 17, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C

    I woke up full of energy (finally fully fueled up since the tummy incident) and went out to grab coffee and to enjoy the quiet streets without the midday crowds.

    Soon after, Igor was also up. While our two recently arrived companions continued to sleep off the jet lag, we went and took a little walk together to get breakfast.

    Igor finally got his traditional Bavarian breakfast he had been craving: sausages slow cooked, pretzels, and a crisp stien of beer.

    I tried out the beef broth and pancake soup - shockingly amazing and I am desperate to get it again!

    We met up with Chams around 11 and headed to the Christmas market, getting some classic market food (no oysters!!). We got some tornado potatoes on a stick, frites, pretzel, and Gluhwein.

    The majority of the day was spent wandering the halls of the Munich Residenz. This is the former royal palace of the Wittelsbach monarchs of Bavaria - now museum of all their fancy things.

    After much walking, we got some much needed lunch at a little Brauhaus and a quick ice cream treat on the way back to the hotel to relax.

    In the evening we joined a group for a ghost walking tour of Munich with spirits (the liqueur kind). The tour guide was a quirky and funny woman in her 30s and took our group of 20 so around the city. While some of the ghost stories felt a little silly, there was also a lot of interesting history about Hitler's rise to power in Munich with some of his early coup planning happening here at the famous Brauhaus. Also some stories of the witch trials that occured across Germany and old Bavarian kingdom politics.

    We also learned some German drinking games!

    Fizzy Candy & Vodka - with a packet of basically fizzy sugar candy, you combine it and a shot of vodka in your mouth and shake your head back n forth to mix (but don't swish! Otherwise it will burst out your mouth as a fountain!)

    Fig Liqueur - you get a small individual bottle, find a number on the bottom and tap the bottle on your hand that many times. Then take the cap, balance it on your nose, and shoot the drink with your hands behind your back.

    Guess there wasn't a lot to do in the cold months of Bavarian Winters 🤣

    We wrapped up the night in typical Chadogi (Cha, Ams, Dan, Igs) fashion - a swanky cocktail bar followed by all the food we could find. Given the late hour on a Sunday night, all the food we could find was McDonalds. A tasty finish to our first full day in Munich!

    McDonald's across the world are very fun to explore, here we found: the Royale (basically the classic quarter pounder), the Rosti (cheesey bun, with bacon and hash brown toped burger), curry sauce, and curly fries.    Read more

  • The SadovyisGerman HolidayTraveler

    Hofbräuhaus

    December 18, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ☀️ 10 °C

    We wrapped up our time in Munich with a visit to the famous beer hall, Hofbräuhaus München.

    This cool beer hall is what I think most folks imagine when they hear "German beer hall". Big long tables, boisterous people talking, live music, good beer.

    We stayed for some pints, the guys getting the hefty 1.0 L glasses, and a pretzel. All delicious!

    In the evening, we took it easy by ordering in some Uyghur food. The Uyghurs hail from Xinjiang province in the PRC, a region sandwiched between Tibet, Mongolia, and Kyrgyzstan - the CCP government has oppressed them pretty aggressively over the last decade and it's a fairly small population to begin with, so it's not a cuisine that's readily available.    Read more

  • The SadovyisGerman HolidayTraveler

    Onward to Garmisch

    December 19, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ☀️ 9 °C

    Today we head out from Munich to the German part of the alps.

    While Igor stayed at the hotel to await the car, the rest of us went and did a quick morning shopping around town. We came across Dallymar, a luxury grocery store, the day before where it was packed with last minute shoppers. So we made sure to get there around open and snag some German goods before it got crazy!

    Along with a few other stops, a potato pancake & mayo incident, and another potato tornado later, we were all set to head out to Munich.

    The biggest hold up? No car.

    Enterprise does a car delivery service and while this sounds fantastic in theory, in practice it leaves you waiting on the side of the road trying to navigate an automatic German phone call system where all the prompts are in German 😅

    After many struggles, the car finally made it and we packed up!

    On recommendation from Will (thanks Will!) we stopped at a cool monastery brewery for lunch on our way south. With a tasty beer and even tastier pretzel and sausage lunch, we continued our drive down to Garmisch. (Sadly in our haste for food and beer we took very little photos !)    Read more

  • The SadovyisGerman HolidayTraveler

    Up the mountain

    December 20, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ -3 °C

    On our first full day in Garmisch we trekked up the tallest mountain in Germany: Zugspite.

    Our adventure started with a nice 30 min walk to the train station along the geologischer lehrpfad trail.

    The train part of our journey goes from Garmisch up to Eibsee and then up the mountain in a cogwheel train! The cogwheel train is a cool work of machinery, allowing the train to go up steep slopes of the mountain, climbing over 1,700 meters up. It goes through many tunnels built into the mountain and comes out to one of the mountain tops for skiing.

    From here we have a quick cable car ride up to the peak! Up at the top we are basically in a clouds and eat lunch in the panorama restaurant.

    Up top we strolled around the outside which was very artic feeling. Lots of whipping wind and ice covered equipment. Up here the peak marks the border between Germany and Austria. A short stroll across the top let's us walk into Austria for a few minutes :)

    To get down we rode the big cable car back to Eibsee and got some beautiful views of the Bavarian forest and the Eibsee lake.    Read more

  • The SadovyisGerman HolidayTraveler

    Saunas & Schnapps

    December 21, 2023 in Germany ⋅ 🌧 6 °C

    The rest of our time in the German Alps was more laid back after our trek up the mountain.

    A lot of this time was spent in the sauna, alternating with some cold plunges/cold air cool downs. Our chalet had a nice small sauna that overlooked the mountain which made for a nice pre-bedtime relaxation session.

    Also during our stay we visited a hotel nearby where we were able to reserve the entire spa for ourselves! From 830-1130pm we had full access to the spa facility. They basically closed the place for the night and told us if we accidentally left and the doors locked no one was here to let us back in 🤣 so it was very private!

    The spa itself was amazing with 2 different heat saunas (one at 65 and one at 95! Celsius), an infrared sauna, a steam room, and heated pool. We thoroughly enjoyed exploring the spa and the mountain air from the pool!

    Any time not in saunas included many schnapps tastings, delicious meals prepared by chef Igs, reading, and relaxing.    Read more

  • The SadovyisGerman HolidayTraveler

    Homeward bound

    December 23, 2023 in Germany ⋅ 🌬 8 °C

    After a very relaxing few days at our chalet, we're headed back home in time for Christmas!

    We took our rental back to Frankfurt and checked into the JW. The night consisted of take out and cards, and polishing off the last of our wine/beer purchases.

    At the airport this morning, we all upgraded to Delta One, for a reasonable price! Looking forward to a comfy flight back across the pond :)    Read more

    Trip end
    December 23, 2023
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