There is a chocolate company in Switzerland called Laderach, and they have stores in Freiburg (and I'm sure other German cities) and one of their specialties is all kinds of chocolate bark -- white, milk, and dark -- filled with all kinds of delicacies from fruits to nuts to caramel to toffee. They cut the bark into squares, and stack different flavors, wrap them in a plastic sleeve, and sell them by weight (kilo) so what you end up with is something like this:
This package cost me 13 euro, and I enjoyed about half of with a cup of Starbucks for an afternoon snack; the rest I had after dinner as a dessert. One of my favorites was the white chocolate with almonds and pistachios. Another was the strawberry cream with bits of crystalized strawberry. And the chocolates were heavenly, as only the Swiss can make it, creamy and melting at body temperature so you cannot hold it in your hand for very long. I think the Swiss do that on purpose to get it inside your mouth as quickly as possible!
My last full day in Freiburg was not very eventful, except to ride the tram (trolley) and explore a bit more of the old town portion. I did get a little bit of scare when I checked my hotel bill on Thursday to avoid any surprises on checkout day. I found there was a miscommunication and that the hotel had booked me as double rather than a single. This was based on a letter I had sent them back in April 2013 in which I said I might bring a guest (thinking I might be hooked up with a girlfriend by now, silly me) but as departure time approached and it became evident I would be going stag, I neglected to contact the hotel and tell them for sure I would be arriving single.
So anyway, the hotel was prepared to bill me almost 2,000 Euro for my stay. I spoke nicely to one of the assistant managers and suggested to her that the clerk who checked me in might have clarified whether I was a single or double. All guests are required to show ID upon check in, so if I had a guest with me, would it not be logical to assume the clerk would have required ID from that person as well? Well, she agreed with my position and said she would speak with the manager, and most likely adjust the bill. When I checked back in about 1/2 hour, they had adjusted the bill to 982 Euro. I was so relieved that I bought the lady a small box of Laderach chocolates, and hand delivered them to her with my thanks. So the lesson here is never be afraid to check your bill before checking out, particularly on a long stay, and particularly in a European hotel, where they charge by the person, and not by the room. I cannot imagine the fracas that would have ensued had I been forced to make this argument on the day of checkout.
My train ride on Thursday April 3 to Berlin was 6.5 hours, and I passed much of the time transcribing an interview I had conducted at Baselworld with the general manager of Eberhard. I also read a good quantity of "Divergent," which I had loaded onto my Kindle prior to departure, I was introduced to the "water closet" aboard the intercity trains. Men are expected to pee sitting down on the toilet, by the way. Saves errant pee from splashing due to train rockage!
The main Berlin train station (Bahnhoff) was a veritable maze of tunnels and passageways on three levels, connected by multiple escalators. I accidentally exited the rear of the building on street level, and of course could find no "Europlatz" where the city buses stopped. After wandering around for while (and talking with some passers-by who spoke no English), it finally dawned on me that I was perhaps at the rear if the Bahnhoff rather than the front. So I walked through the station, exiting the other side, and BINGO signs were all over the place for the Europlatz and the city buses.
Buying a ticket from the surely driver of Bus #142 for 1.50 Euro, I endured a thankfully short ride clinging to an overhead strap (I was certain the driver was deliberately trying to make people fall!) until I reached the Rosenthaler Platz, the location of my hotel, the "Circus." I am in the former East Berlin, and the city has an entirely different vibe to it than Freiburg. The closest thing I can liken it to is Greenwich Village in New York.
Friday April 4 (today) was my main day in Berlin, with a walking tour of part of this city's section, including the Brandenburg Gate, the memorial to the murdered Jews, the site of Adolph Hitler's bunker where he and Eva Braun committed suicide (now an open air parking lot with just a small sign marking the spot; the actual underground bunker has been completely filled in and is no longer accessible) and other sites, It was a very excellent tour, led by our historian "Sophie," who is a history major originally from Wales, United Kingdom, who has lived in Berlin for four years, and has been with Sandeman's tours for two years. I think the most haunting part of our visit was the site of the Humboldt Law Library, where on May 10, 1933, the Nazis burned some 20,000 books on the square in front of what is now the law library. A small memorial has been erected which is a small square (maybe 2 meters square) of glass that looks underground to a small room with bookshelves that are empty, A small brass plaque is affixed to the ground in front of the glass which, translated, reads, "Wherever they burn books, in the end will also burn human beings," which was prophesied on that day (or shortly after) and would become reality eight years later when the Nazis began the "final solution." The quote and the memorial brought shivers to my spine. The tour did end on a high note with Sophie emphasizing the significance of the fall of the Berlin Wall, saying that the tour we just took would not have been possible prior to 1989, and that the falling of the wall symbolizes the ongoing challenge of humankind to focus on and celebrate our similarities rather than fight over our petty differences,
After that, I caught a taxi to Fassbender and Rausch, where I had a 2:30 lunch reservation. They gave me a very nice window seat on the café level, which is upstairs from their retail chocolate shop. I started with a glass of Reisling, and they brought a small basket of light rye bread baked with flecks of coarse ground cocoa and a spread made of something delicious which I did not know what is was, but it was a "gift" from the kitchen so I spread it on my bread, and it was delicious. For my main course, I had "Gezupfter Entensalet," which was warm marinated duck breast slices served over greens, with cucumber, bean sprouts, tomato, yellow beet, orange sections, and chunks of milk chocolate with hazelnuts. You might not think it would work, but it was delicious.
For dessert, I had hot chocolate (milk chocolate) mixed with espresso, and a "mini torte" of caramel mousse atop dark chocolate sponge cake, wrapped in a sleeve of dark chocolate, and topped with a layer of gooey caramel, presented as a cylindrical tower on a dessert plate with two sticks of white chocolate stuck in the top of the tower. It is a new creation among their "mini tortes," so they do not have a picture of it on their website, but I have a photo of it on my camera, which I will share later. It is a work of art, and almost too pretty to eat ... almost! It was completely delicious down to the last fleck of chocolate.
In all, my bill was 31.80 Euro (about $44) and worth every penny. I was there for 1.5 hours. I would rank it the best meal on this trip, and among my best meals ever. I also spent another 15 Euro on chocolate in the retail store, and took pictures of the current chocolate sculptures, which included the Brandenburg Gate, and a five foot model of the Titanic, which I found a bit strange,
A taxi ride brought me back to my hotel, where I took a nap. I unfortunately seem to have caught a cold (upper, in the sinuses, with runny nose and sneezing) which I guess was bound to happen with the tons of people here crammed into so many public places. I will carry on the best I can. For dinner, I visited a nearby "wurst" stand where I had hoped to score a bratwurst with sauerkraut, but to no avail. The local "wurst" predominant in East Berlin is something called a "currywurst" and is a knockwurst type sausage seared on a flat top grill, sliced into sections, and a served on a small plate without bun and drowned in ketchup and sprinkled with curry powder. It was that or nothing, so I tried one, and it was good, and I ordered another sausage, but asked to hold the ketchup and curry powder, and just ate it plain, for which I got the "look" from the proprietor that said "vulgar American." No matter; the naked wurst was delicious on its own. For 5.40 Euro (including a tasty beer) it was plenty, and a cheap dinner after my extravagant lunch.
Tomorrow I am off to Munich for the final leg of my journey.
Hope everyone is well.
Bruce
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