"Looking for Freedom" in Germany

Brian and I took a trip to Germany and Switzerland in early December.  Since we were going to be in Saudi Arabia for Christmas, my two goals for Germany were:

1.  To eat some sort of pork product daily.  Pork is illegal in the kingdom, so we binged on pork a little bit.

1/2 meter sausage in Nuremberg!

Train station breakfast in Berlin that was so good, we went there 3 days in a row.

 2.  To get in the Christmas spirit.  As a Muslim country, there are no Christmas decorations anywhere in KSA, and my tiny fake tree just wasn't cutting it to make our apartment feel like the holidays.

A view of the famous Nuremberg Christkindlesmarkt

It's hard to not be in the Christmas spirit when you meet Santa!

I'd say that I accomplished those goals, easily.

Germany far surpassed my expectations with the historical sites, good food, friendly people, and amazing Christmas markets.   We traveled to Berlin, then via train to Nuremberg and Rothenburg.

Berlin had some really great recent historical sites, mostly related to World War II and Communist occupation. 

East Side Gallery, a large section of the Berlin Wall that remains intact.  Artists have painted the entire stretch of the wall, nearly a mile long!

Creepy playground on top of where Hitler's underground bunker used to be.  This is where Hitler spent the majority of his time in the last few months of the war, and where he also committed suicide.  The bunker itself was destroyed and flooded after the fall of communism.

More of the Berlin Wall that remains in the city.

Checkpoint Charlie, the third checkpoint that people would pass to cross from West to East Berlin and back during the Soviet occupation.  Apparently these are German actors, not American soldiers.

The Germans were quick to get rid of a lot of the reminders of their 45 years of being under Soviet rule, but apparently they DID NOT want to get rid of their pedestrian traffic signals, which they call "Amplemann."  Our guide told us Amplemann in the Soviet era was supposed to represent "a happy little Communist going to work."  Now it's one of the last remaining symbols of life in East Germany.

The German Bundestag (Parliament).  Angela Merkel wasn't there.

Looking up into the dome at the Bundestag.  It had a cool spiral ramp up to the top of the dome, with great views over Berlin.

The beautiful Brandenburg Gate at night!  This was the site where not-German David Hasselhoff sang "Looking for Freedom" on the night of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.  This is a most excellent video, by the way.  His light up leather jacket is incredible.

We got to see my friend Steven!  He was an exchange student at my high school who lives in Germany.

We hit up a few Christmas markets in Berlin.  Lots of good things to eat!

And good things to drink! 

And even a ferris wheel or two.

Nuremberg was up next.  Both Brian and I independently asked people which place in Germany had the best Christmas markets, and this city was recommended by everyone.  Whereas Berlin had lots of smaller Christmas markets, Nuremberg had one ENORMOUS one, situated underneath the picturesque Nuremberg Castle.

Headed down from one of the towers in the castle... it was a lot of steps!

One of the main doors to get into the castle complex.

Awesome ceiling in one of the rooms of the castle!

Taking a break from exploring with a lunch beer at Hausbrauerei Altstadthof.  This place not only brewed their own beer, they had underground, rock cut cellars for storing their beer during fermentation (a really cool tour, and that's coming from someone who doesn't particularly enjoy brewery tours!).

We really enjoyed the mulled wine (glühwein) found throughout the Christmas market in Nuremberg.  The one with cherry and apple was my favorite. 

Brian saw this herring sandwich and had to have it.  I hate all pickled things, and that sandwich had pickled herring, sauerkraut, AND pickles on it... GROSS. 

Brian made this face after just one bite.  I'm pretty sure he didn't finish it.

We finished up our stint in Germany with a day trip to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, a recommendation from my friend James.  This was the cutest and most well preserved Medieval town.  Since they were only bombed slightly during WWII (unlike Nuremberg and Berlin, which were both heavily bombed by the Allies), it was like this town was frozen in time. 

The Holy Blood altarpiece in St. James's Church, hand carved around the year 1500. 

View from the top of the tower at Town Hall

It was very windy and cold up there!

And it was not easy to climb... but the view was worth it!

This was not even old among buildings here in Rothenburg!

Rothenburg also had a great little Christmas market!

Schneeballs were a popular treat here in Rothenburg... this place had 20 flavors!

Our favorite thing in Rothenburg was the Night Watchman Tour.  Equal parts humor, history, and cheesiness, the Night Watchman guided the group around the city, telling stories of the past. 

Us with the Night Watchman, complete with lantern and halberd. 

We took the train from Germany into Switzerland for part 2 of our pre-Christmas Christmas trip.  Coming soon..... 

Budapest, Hungary

This picture kind of sums up the weather we had in Budapest, Hungary, for the 4 days that we were there:

This was right after we had to walk through a huge, deep puddle on a bridge, completely soaking our shoes.  The other option was to get run over by cars.  I think I was regretting my decision.

The week before we visited, I checked out the weather and it said "abundant sunshine" for the days we were in Budapest.  Lies.  All lies.  Even with the terrible weather, we enjoyed walking around Budapest, seeing its beautiful architecture, visiting some interesting sites, and eating delicious food.

The Parliament building was a highlight for me.  It's an enormous building right on the banks of the Danube.  It boasts being the 3rd largest parliament building in the world.  We took a tour of the inside, which was really interesting!  It is also the home of the Holy Crown and an amazingly intricate dome (both of which we couldn't take pictures of, but were neat to see).

From across the river on a particularly dreary day

Inside, heading up the golden staircase

Just chilling in one of the beautiful rooms adjacent to the dome

Where laws happen

The building was full of beautiful details

Another view of the outside, from the bank of the river

My Budapest jumping pic

Another famous building in Budapest is St. Stephen's Basilica, named for the first king of Hungary.

Brian's Budapest jumping pic

We climbed to the top of the dome for some great views of the city on a really gray day

Inside the church was beautiful

And the dome, exquisite

The most interesting thing in the church was this... supposedly the right hand of King Stephen.  You could put in a coin and the inside lit up so you could get a clearer look.  We did.  It looked gross.

A picture of a picture of "The Holy Right Hand"

St. Stephen's at night

Brian's favorite thing in Budapest was the Pinball Museum, an underground series of rooms featuring 130 pinball machines.  We paid a fixed price and all of the games were set to free play.  They had some as old as 1925!

If they sold beer here, we might have never left

I got the high score on the South Park machine!

One of their oldest pinball machines

We had a really lovely dinner on our last night there at Borkonyha Winekitchen, a Michelin star restaurant just downstairs from the apartment we stayed in.  We ordered so much food!  Two appetizers, two entrees, a dessert, and a bottle of wine... and we made clean plates the whole night.  And because it's not in Western Europe, this fancy pants dinner was really affordable!  Needless to say, we enjoyed it a lot!

Brian's appetizer

My entree

The food was not only delicious, it was also beautiful!

Though our time in Budapest was short and the weather was dreary, we made the most of the time we spent there before heading back to Saudi Arabia.  Here are a few more random pictures from our time in Budapest:

One of our guides showing us things that Hungary is famous for... Erno Rubik was a Hungarian inventor and architect

This tram was awarded the #7 trolley ride in the world by National Geographic.  We didn't ride it, I just snapped this pic real quickly when Brian told me it was famous.

We took a relaxing dip in Széchenyi Baths, a series of both indoor and outdoor thermal pools.  It was especially nice when the cold rain started up again!

A moving memorial to the Jews who died from the Arrow Cross militia (basically the Hungarian Nazis) during WWII.  The victims had to take off their shoes, since shoes were valuable, then they were shot and fell into the Danube.  The Shoes on the Danube memorial features 60 pairs of shoes made from iron.

Our favorite museum in Budapest was the Hospital in the Rock, an underground hospital in the caverns under the Buda Castle.  This was a working hospital during WWII, and it opened up again briefly during the uprising against the Soviet Union.  During the Cold War, it was used as a nuclear bomb shelter.  Unfortunately no pics from inside, but it was a really great tour!