An old friend of mine is currently living in Berlin, and I’m going to be visiting him there from May 25-June 5. I tell you this for three reasons:
1. Bragging.
2. If you’re a Thinking Poker reader who happens to live in or around that area, drop me a line and hopefully we can meet up for a beer or something- I plan to increase my beer consumption drastically while in Germany.
3. If you live in, have visited, or otherwise know the area, I’d appreciate your advice about what I ought to see and do while I’m there. I’ll mostly be staying at his place in Berlin, though we’re planning to travel around the surrounding area together for 3-5 days as well. One possibility for this is a loop that would encompass some combination of Dresden – Prag – Chemnitz – Leipzig – Magdeburg. I want to make a day trip to Potsdam as well. Thoughts? Suggestions?
Pargue is absolutely beautiful and happens to be my favorite city in all of Europe. Get over there if you can
Before I came to Baltimore I had spent 4 years stationed in Germany, there is so much to do I don’t even know where to tell you to start. Is it your first time going over there? I’m not sure where your interests lie (or how touristy you want to be), but there’s always places like the Neuschwanstein castle (http://www.germanplaces.com/germany/neuschwanstein-castle.html) or the spa/casino in the town of Baden-Baden (http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/destinations/germany/baden.htm). If snow sports are your thing, the Alps are right there and you can find many resort towns which have skiing/snowboarding. Outside of Munich there is the Dachau concentration camp (http://www.scrapbookpages.com/DachauScrapBook/) walking tours. You can probably ask your friend about the local fests. If I recall, in the spring there were Erdbeere festivals (strawberries in high proof wine/liquor) as well as a myriad of normal summertime festivals in most of the towns. Just northeast of Munich you can head up to the town of Passau, and from there you can make a roughly 4 hour driving circuit first into Austria, and then to Czech, and back to Germany. It’s kind of a fun and quick way to hit some other countries, and the Czech area is interesting with all the hookers and flea markets.
And obviously, if just sitting at a cool Bavarian restaurant tossing back beers is your thing, I think you’ll get a lot of opportunity for that, personally it was one of my most enjoyable past-times when I was in Germany.
Just realized I never thanked you for a very informative comment. We ended up spending our time in East Germany and really enjoyed it, despite some crappy weather. I’d really like to get back out there and visit some of the places you mentioned, particularly Munich and the castle.
Where do you live in Baltimore?
I’m glad you had a good time out there, I’m actually overseas again myself for work right now, although I’m far too busy to really sight-see at the moment.
I actually live in Dundalk, just outside Baltimore.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidelberg
Bring a girl there for a day or two 🙂 Quiet town but extremely beautiful! Since you studied philosophy, figured you would also be interested in this:
Philosophers’ Walk
On the northern side of the Neckar is located the Heiligenberg, with the remains of the Celtic fortress and the Philosophers’ Walk (German: Philosophenweg). Its name comes from the practice of Heidelberg’s philosophers and university professors of walking and talking here. It has excellent views of the old town and castle.
Basically a 2hour hike in the woods that leads up to magnificient view of the city and location of some sweet ancient runes. Epic sexy times to be had here 🙂
If you dont have anyone to go with, i can get you in contact with a local i met in Amsterdam who warmly welcomed me to her … city 🙂 She has a thing for poker players i think 😛
Doesn’t sound like it, but if for whatever reason you decide to come to Switzerland let me know it and we can have a beer somewhere.. Enjoy the trip.
Potsdam is very nice, go to the Spreewald and make a boat tour there. I live close to Frankfurt so if you happen to get there give me a notice. East Germany like Dresden, Chemnitz, Leipzig isn´t very nice and i personally can´t recommend it. Take a day off and visit the Reeperbahn in Hamburg, Düsseldorf is very nice for consuming beer or just Sachsenhausen in Frankfurt.