The Spanish Fly - Travels in Spain

Following our three busy days in Dresden, the bad weather in Schleswig-Holstein condemned us to stay indoors, apart from a short trip to the food market in Uetersen on Friday morning. We bought several nice cheeses, vegetables and some fish, and then it was back to the warmth of Birgid and Uwe’s apartment.

Saturday 23 December 2023

The bad weather had caused massive disruption on the railways. We weren’t sure if our train to down south would run.  In the end it did.

We had to change trains in Hamburg. There, on the platform, I was interviewed about the disruption on the railway by German TV for the Evening News.

We got our next train and for the first few hours of the journey there was no problem, other than the price of beer on the train and a grumpy waitress.

Then as we approached Kassel (Hesse), we were told there was a blockage on the line and that only one track was open. Expected delay 40 minutes. That meant we would miss our connection in

Würzburg (Bavaria). Never mind, there would be another. Wouldn’t there?

There was, and we were met at the station in Heilbronn by Rita’s daughter Katrin.

Christmas Eve

Heiligabend, as it’s known in Germany. This is when the main Christmas meal is eaten in the evening. It’s also the evening when presents are opened around the Christmas Tree.

                                          Heilbronn Station

A visit to church in the late afternoon is also important in South Germany where Roman Catholicism is more prevalent than die Evangelische Kirche.

                                         Christmas dinner

That’s what we did first, then it was presents, followed by dinner – überbackene Auberginen- und Zucchini an gebratenem Lachs mit Kartoffelbeilage.

Christmas Day

This is a quiet day, when families stay at home, or, in Talheim, we go to an open-air carol service by the lake in the village.

                                  River Neckar near Talheim

This year in the afternoon we went for a long walk through the vineyards by the River Neckar, eschewed the Carol Service and spent a relaxing evening in, playing board games.

Boxing Day – der Zweite Weihnachtstag

The main highlight today was the children’s theatre in Heilbronn. The play was 'Sindbad der Seefahrer' (Sinbad the Sailor). Brilliantly staged, the six actors entertained us for just over an hour. Great stuff!

                           Photo courtesy Theater Heilbronn

In the evening our hosts put on a family get-together for a Mexican meal. Expected were 15 humans and two dogs. We actually had 16 humans - Jojo's  friend Vincent, a GP, joined us.

To see what happened during the rest of the week between Christmas and New Year, look out for Christmas Tour of Deutschland Part 5 – Talheim and Maulbronn, nr. Heilbronn, Baden-Württemberg

Photographs: unacknowledged photographs by The Spanish Fly

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Tags: Baden-Baden, Baden-Württemberg, Boxing Day, Christmas, Christmas Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Tour of Deutschland, DB, Deutsche Bundesbahn, Dresden, Hausarzt, Heilbronn, Heiligabend, New Year’s Eve, Silvester, Spanish Fly, Steuerberater, Talheim, Uetersen, Zweiter Weihnachtstag

After all the excitement of the right-wing demonstration on Monday evening, it was back to normal on Tuesday. I got to know the breakfast waiter Mohatman from Syria and we had an interesting chat.

Dresden by Day

After a hearty German breakfast, we drove to the Altstadt.

First up Rita needed a new pair of boots, so the first thing on the agenda was to find a shoe shop. We ended up in the Altstadt Shopping-Zentrum. The first shop was way too dear, so we sought out a Deichmann store.

In another shop I found a delightful wooden elephant head to add to my already large collection.

I had spotted a Tchibo shop. Originally a coffee brand and coffee shop, they also sell a random selection of clothes, kitchen accessories, gifts and souvenirs.

I bought a couple of presents for our hosts later in the week, ie Rita’s daughter and family, and enjoyed a tasty coffee while I waited for the others.

Together again we headed for den Striezelmarkt, the oldest, largest and widely reckoned to be the best of the Weihnachtsmärkte in Dresden.

We eventually tracked down a stand selling ½ metre Bratwurst.

We each had one!

I washed mine down with a Weihnachtsbier – lecker (delicious).

After lunch, we wanted to do a bit of tourism:

Die Frauenkirche, an ecumenical church, was a pure delight.

The Semper Opera House was unfortunately shut, so we consoled ourselves with a coffee in the Café in the C. Bechstein building. This is a celebrated café on a par with the Sacher café in Vienna, Austria.

After our coffee, in my case a beer from the Czech Republic, I popped upstairs to take a peek at the pianos in the Bechstein showroom.

What a delight! The piano I liked best turned out to be their most expensive model, a grand piano on sale at 193,000 euros! Their cheapest was a reconditioned upright for just 2,000€.

Back to the boat

Home time – it was getting dark – and starting to rain. I went to the ESSO petrol station for supplies.

A small bottle of Sekt for Rita, some Bier for me and a Schweineschnitzel. Supplies delivered I went upstairs to the breakfast cabin of the paddle steamer and watched the TV News, followed by “Der Kommissar und das Meer”.

Then to bed and dreams of the gorgeous Bechstein pianos.

Wednesday and check-out time

We had a hearty breakfast the next morning before setting off for the long journey back to North Germany, a super supper of Asparagus soup, breads and spreads, and bed.

***

Epilogue

Looking back, I had thoroughly enjoyed my first visit to the former East Germany. Dresden ranks highly with other fabulous cities that I have visited: Barcelona, Berlin, Bristol, Bruges, Brussels, Chester, Cologne, Copenhagen, Dublin, Dusseldorf, Edinburgh, Madrid, Moscow, Munich, Oslo, Paris, Prague, San Francisco, San Sebastián, Seattle, Vienna, and York.

Photographs:

www.dresden.de

The Spanish Fly

© The Spanish Fly

Tags: Altmark, Altstadt, Altstadt Shopping-Zentrum, Barcelona, Bechstein, Berlin, Bratwurst, Bristol, Bruges, Brussels, Chester, Cologne, Copenhagen, Czech Republic, Dresden, Dublin, Dusseldorf, Edinburgh, Frauenkirche, Madrid, Moscow, Munich, North Germany, Oslo, Paris, Prague, San Francisco, San Sebastián, Schweineschnitzel, Seattle, Semper, Spanish Fly, Striezelmarkt, Vienna, Weihnachtsbier, Weihnachtsmarkt, York

After our long drive from north of Hamburg, through five Bundesländer* (federal states) to get to Dresden, we were glad to step out of the car. We checked into our floating hotel, a former paddle steamer, now docked permanently in a side arm of the River Elbe and enjoyed a short German version of the siesta. We then headed off on foot to the Altstadt (Old Town) to enjoy the delights of one of the many Weihnachtsmärkte (Christmas Markets) and to seek out a Thüringer Bratwurst, a sausage typical of the region.

Pöppelmann Schiffsherberge – Hotel

I’d stayed in/on a boat hotel once before, on the Moskva River in Moscow back in 1990. My young family and I were in the then Soviet Union on holiday visiting Russian friends of my first wife, a Russian graduate. Little did we know there was about to be a coup d’état. But that’s another story!

Back to Dresden, the boat was somewhat basic (eg no en suite facilities), but it was clean and reasonably priced for a big city at Christmas-time. Indeed it was Birgid’s third time staying there.

While the other three “siesta’d” I had a chat with the young receptionist and read up on Dresden. Then it was off on foot into town.

When we got to the bridge over the Elbe that leads to the old town, we were confronted by a police road block! There was to be a major demonstration by right-wingers/modern nazis, and the bridge was supposed to be part of the route.

How do we get to the Altstadt, then? I asked. You’ll have to turn round, go back to the previous bridge and cross there, replied the nice policeman.

Well, I nearly flipped out.

Look. I’m 73-years-old and not very mobile, I can’t manage that. I’m a foreign visitor to Dresden and I just wanted to experience the Christmas markets in the Old Town.

Oh, OK. You can pass.

Amazing! So the four of us, plus several other tourists who were hanging around, were allowed to cross.

The empty bridge reminded me of a 60s spy film maybe starring Michael Caine where prisoners are about to be exchanged.

Die Altstadt-Markt

There seemed to be Christmas stalls everywhere, but we headed for the Altmarkt.

It was already rocking, with people everywhere and stalls selling everything you could imagine. The most popular ones were those selling alcoholic drinks, eg Glühwein, every kind of punch, beer and Schnaps, and food, with everything from Würste, to fish, to filled sandwiches, to what looked like pasties, to French fries.

We settled for Thüringer Bratwurst with wholemeal Brötchen (crispy German bread rolls). Delicious at 5€. I washed mine down with a couple of locally-brewed beers.

Right-wing ‘demo’

We booked a taxi to get back to the “houseboat”, but it couldn’t get to us because of all the blocked streets in anticipation of the demo, now clearly imminent. There were police everywhere (I learned from the local newspaper the following day that 500 police officers had been deployed).

We felt a little exposed. All of a sudden, a group of protesters appeared beside us. Up went a roar as a dozen police ran in a line towards them yelling at the top of their voices. The demonstrators disappeared in a flash! We laughed heartily.

But it was time to go. We headed back over the bridge, still blocked to vehicles but no longer to pedestrians. We could see the march below. The air was full of loud music and chanted slogans, all of them racist and anti-foreigners. The main “perpetrators” were from right-wing groups Pegida and AfD, but there was also a counter demonstration against the right-wing racists.

According to the paper the following day, the whole thing went off peacefully and no arrests were reported.

Meanwhile we trudged the two kilometres back to our accommodation.

Dresden by Night

It was still only just past 9.00 pm and there was no bar on the boat, so I decided to go out for a nightcap in one of the local Gasthäuser. I walked for what seemed like miles, but there was no Gasthaus, no bar nor off-license, just an ESSO petrol station selling booze with a little sitting area. That had to do.

Then it was back to the paddle steamer and an early night.

*Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Sachsen (Saxony), Sachsen-Anhalt and Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony)

© The Spanish Fly

Photographs:

Dresden.de

Esso

The Spanish Fly

Wikipedia

Tags: AfD, Altmarkt, Altstadt, beer, Bier, Bratwurst, Brötchen, Dresden, Elbe, French fries, Glühwein, Hamburg, houseboat, Lower Saxony, Moscow, Moskva, Niedersachsen, paddle steamer, Pegida, Pöppelmann, punch, Sachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt, Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Schnaps, Spanish Fly, Thüringer Bratwurst, Weihnachtsmarkt, Weihnachtsmärkte

The Spanish Fly likes to travel. For the end of the year, he went with the Hausfrau to Germany for Christmas and New Year 2023/2024. They went by car to Málaga airport for their late afternoon flight to Hamburg, the Hanseatic port in North Germany. On arrival, a pleasant surprise was waiting …..

 Ronda to Málaga 

We debated whether to try and do the whole trip using public transport, but in the end it was going to be too complicated, so I booked a parking spot at the airport, we loaded up the car and off we went. The trip down to the airport in Málaga was a joy. The weather was bright and sunny and, although there was a surprising amount of traffic for a Saturday, we got there in good time, gave up the car, passed through baggage drop-off and went through security to our departure gate.

                                    Photo: The Olive Press

Málaga to Hamburg to Uetersen

Although the flight to Hamburg was more than four hours, it passed relatively quickly. Rita got into conversation with a German lady who had just spent a while in eastern Andalucía, and I chatted with a very pleasant 19-year-old from Peru. Marcela had just spent a year studying in Hamburg and was on the way back there after a short break in Spain.

As we exited the EU channel in Hamburg airport, we discovered our surprise. Jojo, Rita’s younger son was there to pick us up. That was unexpected, as he lives over three hours away. But there he was. He even had a chilled can of beer for me. My favourite nephew!

He drove us to Uetersen where we were going to stay with Rita’s older sister Birgid and husband Uwe. Jojo stayed the night also, and we had an enjoyable Sunday in Schleswig-Holstein.

               Photo: www.pinterest.com 

                  Breakfast at Birgid's (Photo: The Spanish Fly)

Uetersen to Dresden

We made an early start as we needed around five hours plus time for breakfast to get to the state capital of Saxony, the elegant city which was bombed to bits by the Allies at the end of the Second World War.

Post-war Dresden was reconstructed as it had been previously and now rates as one of the most beautiful cities in the former East Germany.

I couldn’t wait ….

                                  Map courtesy of Bikemap

To be continued .....

To read about what happened next, look out for Christmas Tour of Deutschland Part 2 - coming soon.

© The Spanish Fly

Tags: Bikemap, Birgid, Christmas Tour of Deutschland, Dresden, Hamburg, Jojo, Malaga, Malaga airport, Olive Press. pinterest, The Spanish Fly, Uetersen, Uwe