From Berlin, we set off for Leipzig, a city that serves as a central transportation hub for Europe and a perfect halfway stopping point between Berlin and München. Days 7 & 8 were left wide open in hopes that the Nürburgring would be open for a few quick laps. Alas, it was not. Still too cold and snowy in northwest Germany. I’m not really disappointed, as I never expected I would actually be able to get onto the ring for a lap anyway. Stifled expectations for the win!
We really didn’t mind, as it meant a chance to visit another wonderful German city. Leipzig was a place that I knew of only because it was the birthplace of Der Gerät. Other than that, I had read very little about the city from other European Delivery trips or, really, any American travel to the city at all. Well, I guess they will never know what they are missing. Leipzig has some of the best architecture of any city that we have visited thus far. I wish I knew more about architectural design details and how to identify various styles, but I do not have a clue. I just appreciate the grandness of it.
Obviously we had not booked a place to stay, so I hopped on bedandbreakfast.eu (which I have used extensively on this trip and highly recommend) and found a very inexpensive B&B. It turned out to be more of a private room inside a larger place, but for €35 it was pretty excellent. Great location in the Nördwest Zentrum neighborhood, close to the Leipzig Zoo.
The entire neighborhood was just blocks and blocks and blocks of these types of apartment buildings. In the back, everyone had their own private balconies overlooking shared gardens. Our hosts were very gracious and accommodating, as all of the Germans have been so far. They had food, beer and wine available in the kitchen to purchase at very reasonable prices. They also had breakfast, but we opted out. Our only complaint was that the bed was horribly stiff, like as bad as a cot. In the middle of the night, I got up and switched to the couch. Vicky did not, and grumpy she was. You don’t mess with this girl’s sleep, but more on that tomorrow when I tell you about our last night at a Munich hostel.
We walked a few blocks and found Diego, a “Tex-Mex” restaurant that was about as Tex-Mex as Taco Bell. Nonetheless, the food was AMAZING. Our waiter, who spoke no English, was super nice and excited to have us visiting and enjoying his delicious food. At the end of the meal, he brought us free shots of cinnamon tequila along with a German wish for our good health! Wow, super nice!
English is not nearly as prominently spoken in Leipzig as it was in every other place we visited in Germany. Seems pretty clear that they do not get very many visitors from outside of Germany, which made our time there more special. We only had one night and the next morning to explore, so we chose carefully: Leipzig Zoo. Seems strange? We thought it may be a bust, but it turns out that Leipzig Zoo is one of the most diverse zoos in Europe. It was a cold and rainy day, so we had the entire zoo nearly to ourselves. Score! As an added bonus, tickets were only €16 per person, more than reasonable.
Lots of great interaction with the animals, including some wide open spaces where the animals were allowed to interact with the humans. See below for some of our favorite exhibits. The Schneeleopards were so beautiful and we enjoyed watching them pace around the cage for exercise.
We managed to catch many of the animals at feeding time. The seals were being tossed fresh fish and the feeder tossed a few our way when we stood next to the tank to watch the seals swim underwater.
Next was Gondwanaland, a giant indoor rainforest that features a lot of free-roaming animals. It was extremely warm and humid inside, a nice break from the cold. This was what drew us to the zoo in the first place, as this was something neither of us had ever experienced. It was great to see these animals in their natural habitat. We spent a lot of time wandering around here and exploring.
Inside, you could take a boat ride through a tunnel and explore some more of the rainforest that was otherwise inaccessible, for an additional €1,50. We were treated to an auditory and visual experience, all in German of course, that was engaging. Listen, I speak a little German but an explanation of the history of Earth up to now was a little over my head. Nonetheless, we understood the message contextually: Save the rainforest. After experiencing Gondwanaland, I couldn’t agree more.
Some of the Gondwanaland animals.
Eventually it was too hot to enjoy being inside, so we escaped back to Antartica. Then we realized we were too cold, so we stopped for some rote Glühwein and Brratwursts. Glühwein is hot wine, nearly as hot as coffee. Surprising at first, as the heat brings out the sour taste in the wine (at least that particular one). Again, what makes Germany great is that we carried around our steaming wine while we walked the park. Oh and the brats hit the spot. They were fantastic.
When we got to the elephants, they seemed very antsy and kept checking each door with their trunks.
All of the best animals on the planet and guess who was happiest to find a rando Katze?
Speaking of Katzen…
The monkey house was cool. They went apeshit (pun most definitely intended, you’re welcome) when the food was brought out.
And, finally, a Giraffe having a poo.
We left the zoo having spent nearly the entire day there. So much that we had to skip everything else in Leipzig. If we didn’t already have the “Stay in a castle” night booked and planned three hours away, we definitely would have stayed longer to enjoy Leipzig, it deserves time.
Cool fact: When traveling through Germany, you will notice a nice uniformity with signage, traffic lights, etc. with one notable exception. In former East German cities, such as Leipzig, you will find a slightly different traffic sign man for when you are cleared to walk. In the DDR, this character had a longer stride and wore a fedora. Pretty neat. Apparently these cities chose to keep some relics of the DDR intact because of “Östalgie”, which is a portmanteau of the German words for east (Öst) and nostalgia (Nostalgie). I wish we had the opportunity to spend more time learning about life in the DDR outside of Berlin.
Following our zoo visit, we headed out of town toward Abenberg for our stay at the Burg Abenberg. We were most excited about this stay in a castle. First, however, another speedy trip on the wide open Autobahn. Also, my first chance to check out the awesome M Sport brakes! We were traveling at about 130 mph, consistent with left lane traffic, when we were abruptly halted to zero. I didn’t have to slam on the brakes, as my following distance was plenty, but I definitely had to press hard. The brakes responded quickly and stopped us with plenty of road to spare. Unfortunately, the sudden halt was due to an overturned tractor-trailer. I hope the driver was OK; it didn’t look too bad.
Some more notes on the car. Comfort mode is nice for daily driving. I can see Myles using this mode most frequently when driving back in Richmond. The car is plenty responsive when need be, quiet when not, and a little more posh on the ride but I still know I’m in a sporty car. Sport mode is downright excellent. Hate on BMW’s Active Sound all you want, but I found it nice to have the additional auditory feedback. It sounds very genuine. Sport+ Mode seemed irresponsible to carry on in, so I only used it once on a deserted back road through some forests. From a complete stop, I floored it and the car wiggled a bit before the DTC reigned it in. I wonder how it will respond with DTC and DSC off, but figured I pushed my luck enough by maxing it on the Autobahn. Plenty of time to test this when I get the car back in the states.
We arrived in Abenberg to our castle hotel. This was the most expensive night we booked and we were really excited to finally just wind down and relax, drink some wine, eat some Bavarian foodstuffs and walk back a dozen steps to our room. Unfortunately, the restaurant was closed. Apparently they don’t get as much business during the winter. Disappointing, but not the worst as our hostess recommended a little Biergarten in the Altstadt down the hill. We walked down and enjoyed steak and Spätzle, which I will definitely miss.
In the hotel, we were surprised to find this was the only stop we didn’t have Wi-Fi. This meant I had to upload all of the pictures from Berlin through the prepaid CallYa SIM card from Vodafone. I wound up using all of the allocated 4G data, so the next day I was limited to 32 kbps. Super annoying. The room was great and we stayed in the “tower”, which was an add-on made to the castle in the last few decades. It was super nice, but was very much like a hotel room and not the old-school castle living we envisioned. It certainly wasn’t bad and if you want a nice hotel-like place to stay, I would recommend it. It just wasn’t what we were expecting.
Frühstück, however, was the best spread we’ve had so far. We were met with 6 different kinds of freshly pressed juices, several varieties of meat and cheese, and plenty of other fresh goodies. We also were given a Der Spiegel newspaper, where I read that Boyhood was completely snubbed at the Oscars. Same story, different year. Mr. Linklater, your film was hands down the best of the year. I liked Birdman and all, but 12 years spent on a masterpiece from a director that already has no less than 5 truly great films, I was disappointed. Boo!
Next up, our final day and night in Munich. We go back to BMW Welt for the factory tour and all of the Welt experiences we missed from the earlier flight delays. Oh and we stay in a hostel, a first for me and Vicky frightens an Asian tourist.
Tschüss!
Adverb the Noun 