After nearly three years of not getting on a plane and almost no travel, I went to Germany. When you put this into the context that I had some years where I was traveling at least 75% of each year, to not go anywhere was…..a luxury! A luxury I had some trepidation of giving up.
When Tante Ingeburg died I was unable to attend her funeral. I promised Isa, Ingeburg’s best friend and executor, I would travel to Germany to celebrate what would have been her 90th birthday. I could have just flown to Wiesbaden and met with Isa, instead I opted to travel to visit friends I had not seen in years. Before I embarked on my flight, I thought it would be wise to buy some comfortable masks to wear on the plane. My thought was I would probably be in the US airport at least 2 hours, on the flight for 8 hours and in the German airport for 2 hours. While I do not hate wearing masks they are tiring and after so many hours the elastic tends to bother my ears. I found wonderful, comfortable masks at Lulu Lemon.
Reaching Wiesbaden, I stayed at a hotel Don and I had stayed at many years ago, in the heart of the city. Ingeburg and Isa, as well as Ingeburg and I had often had dinner at the restaurant in the Casino. Wiesbaden is famous for this casino. Dostoyevsky wrote a book, The Gambler, which was set in the Casino. Ingeburg almost always reserved the same table. Isa arranged for us to meet at the restaurant and have dinner at Ingeburg’s table.
For the next 3 1/2 hours we ate delicious food, toasted and reminisced about Ingeburg. I had a wonderful pasta dish with a delicate truffle sauce. It was a lovely evening. When we started to leave, Isa said she had parked some ways away. I insisted on walking her to her car. She was a reticent at first, but finally agreed. We continued to talk about Ingeburg. It was taking some time to get to her car, so I finally asked her why she had not just parked in the underground garage at the Casino. Isa admitted the reason was her car is old and has a dent. She had parked her car a half a mile away and taken a taxi to the restaurant in order that no one would see her car. Somehow I believe this related to Ingeburg. Appearances were important to her and one would not have wanted to be seen in an old car and then entering an elegant restaurant. How little we care about these things in the US, or do we still? It was a lovely evening with Isa and a fitting way to remember Ingeburg. I wandered around Wiesbaden knowing something was lost. I had never been to Wiesbaden without visiting Ingeburg and it now seemed empty.
When I lived in Waldbron, outside of Karlsruhe, I had several wonderful Sprach Partners. I would help them with their English and they would help me with my German. Leo was one such person. We stayed in touch and I arranged to visit him and his girlfriend, Sophia. They live in a small town outside of Baden-Baden, called Haueneberstein. I booked a hotel in Baden-Baden, near the center of town. They let me know my wonderful masks from Lulu Lemon would not meet regulation as surgical masks were required. I immediately went out and bought surgical masks. We had a lovely time walking around Baden-Baden. The weather was perfect, the gardens were lovely in their late summer colors. Even the rose garden, which is on a hillside, was full of blooms. In the evening we drove to Karlsruhe and had an amazing dinner of pizza, followed by a light show projected on the side of the palace.
Look at the size of those pizzas – one for each of us. I showed one of my friends the photo and explained the crust was very thin and eating the entire pizza was not difficult. He joked, “oh, so really you were just eating air!” 
The palace at night.
Leaving Baden-Baden behind I traveled by train to Munich. I have always needed help with my German language skills and after I returned to Denver from Munich in 2007, Sophia (not the same Sophia in Baden-Baden) became my German tutor. We have also stayed in touch as she moved from Denver to Fort Collins, Colorado and then back to Munich. Sophia lives in a wonderful house in the Nymphenburg area. The house was built by her Grandfather in 1938.
When I was young, 10 or 11 years old, I bought a book (I mowed the neighbors lawn to earn money) titled Great Architecture of the World. The palace of Nymphenburg was featured in the book. I still remember what a dream come true it was to visit the first time and this time walking the grounds was no less exciting. I had some time to walk around Munich. In the center of town, I started to go into a shop, but was denied entry. A surgical mask was not compliant with the regulation, which was a FFP2 mask. I was amazed. I had just bought them the day before. I started to leave, but I saw a worker standing at the entrance watching me leave. She had on the same kind of mask as I was wearing. Being the ugly tourist I stopped and asked her why she could be in the store with the same kind of mask and I could not. In a very unfriendly tone she told me, “I am an employee!” The most absurd thing is the regulation changed to allow surgical masks 2 days later and everyone knew it would change. Still I wanted to be able to go around Munich, so I bought more masks. I now had Lulu Lemon masks, cloth backup masks I had brought, surgical masks and FFP masks – totaling 61 masks – I was prepared!
Some years ago Sophia and I had visited her parents in Landsberg am Lech. Sophia invited me to lunch with them. Sophia’s mother attentively made a lovely lunch – actually 2 lunches as she didn’t realize until shortly before we were coming that I am vegetarian. We started with a spinach soup, then a vegetable course, followed by rice with meat in a wonderful sauce (I did have the sauce), followed by yogurt with fruit. This was all served on exquisitely hand painted porcelain from KPM.
After lunch we walked in the rain to the center of town. Landsberg has a tower, the original gate to the city on the road to Munich, which was built in 1425. We climbed to the top of the tower and then visited a nearby church. Returning to their house, Sophia’s mother had made an Apple Tart Tintin. Needless to say, I was stuffed by the time we got in the car.
The next day, my wonderful friend Michael drove all the way from Goettingen in Switzerland to meet me. We had a great time visiting Lenbach House, an incredible museum in the heart of Munich. The exhibition we went to see was “Unter Freiem Himmel” (translated by the museum as “Under the blue sky”). Lenbach House is famously known for the Blaue Reiter school of painters. Vassily Kandinsky and Gabrielle Munter were great lovers and spent years traveling together and painting. This exhibition showed the landscape paintings they each made on their travels. It was fascinating to see their work and the influence Kandinsky had on Munter. I have always liked Kandinsky’s use of color. Until I saw the exhibition, I had no idea he painted landscapes – I had only see his abstract pieces. Michael and I had lunch at Lenbach House, where I had a delightfully colorful gnocchi made from red beets. The color on the plate was worthy of a Kandinsky painting (unfortunately, I realized too late that I had eaten it and not taken a photo – I will attempt to make this on my own). We spent the afternoon walking and chatting. Michael is one of those people I can meet after many years apart and pick up as though I just saw him the day before.
Kandinsky painting Munter. 
Munter painting Kandinsky.
In the evening I met my incredible friend Alex. We met at a local restaurant near the palace, Metzgerwirt. Metzger translates to butcher and wirt to loosely inn. Meat is prominently featured, but not to be disappointed they had one of my favorite dishes on the menu – Kaesespaetzle. This is Bavarian comfort food at it’s finest and is like eating American macaroni and cheese. I was in heaven! Alex and I walked the palace grounds and exchanged stories of our lives in the past years.
The celebrated writer Thomas Mann liked to contrast the people of Northern Germany with the people of Southern Germany. I do not draw such great distinctions, I know terrific people in both places, so I flew to Hamburg and took the train to Itzehoe, a small town in northern Germany, to visit my friend Uwe and his wife, Kerstin. Uwe was a former work colleague. Six years ago Uwe left the corporate world and bought a wine shop. He never ceases to amaze me with his innovations. He is a wine master (literally – he took all the courses) and along with Kerstin has traveled around the world to select delicious wines.
The first evening Uwe took me to a restaurant, Fuxbau (Fox Den), on the estate of the local Graf (Count). The restaurant is on the grounds of the Graf’s golf club. If you ever visit Itzehoe, which I am sure you will want to do at some point in your life, you will want to go to this restaurant. I had gnocchi (yes again, well – it is pasta and it is vegetarian, often there isn’t much selection). and I really enjoyed it.
The next day we went to the North Sea to a town called Husom. It was full of tourists. The views were spectacular. We walked in the sea along the beach. The water was quite warm and the fine, dark sand felt indulgent squishing between my toes. In the evening we met Kerstin. Kerstin gave me a tour of her amazing garden and we compared gardening notes. This was followed by dinner at a restaurant in Glueckstadt (literal translation – Luck City). I had an unusual pasta which was topped with grilled local peaches, strawberries, mushrooms and cheese. It was such an different combination and it was scrumptious!
North Sea at Husom. 
Kerstin and I at the restaurant. 
Pasta with Peaches and strawberries.
Oest 
Oest
Hills in the Sauerland. 
A sunflower at the start of the hike.
Your’s truly in front of the restaurant. 
Happy to meet you! 
Cake my love! 
It isn’t over until the lady sings. 
What did you want for dinner? 
Preisselbeere cake.
My trip started with reflections on Ingeburg, and ended with new memories of my many friends. Ingeburg was with me throughout, not just memories, but she had also willed something to me. On her death bed, she told Isa to go into a cabinet in the living room. She would find a detailed account of how to dispose of each individual item in her apartment. Ingeburg left me 3 small dishes. We had often used them in her apartment. They would be filled with little candies or nuts, marmalade or some other delicacy. She knew I appreciated them because they were manufactured and hand painted in the area where she was born and originally grew up. It was touching to know she remembered me and I am fortunate to be able to add them to my collection. She, like all my friends is dear to me and I will always recall our many lovely times together.
What a fabulous travelogue, particularly for those of us still housebound.
Thank you for sharing details of your amazing trip with friends.
It is so life affirming, Paul!
xo
Great post Paul. I’ve been to the Spielbank Casino in Wiesbaden. I once took the train from Frankfurt after working a full day in the evening and walked their from the train depot along that magnificent mall. I remembered it had the distinction of being the oldest casino in Europe. Then I motored back to my hotel in Oberursel at the end of the night to where I was staying at the Hotel Scholss Kronberg which formerly was a castle belonging to the German Empress Victoria. What a magnificent stay that was. I’ve twice stayed there.
Your trip looked and sounded amazing. I am glad you shared.
Hi Seth,
Thank you reading and commenting on my post. I know the hotel at Kronberg, the former home of the Dowager Empress. It is wonderful. I have not stayed there, but I have had tea and dinner there on separate occasions. The amazing thing, to me, is this property and others in the region are still family owned.
Take care,
Paul