Today we said Do Widzeniato Poland and Guten Tag to Germany. We left the lovely Boutique Bed and Breakfast in Warsaw at 7 am, and arrived at Leonardo Hotel Weimar at 5 pm. I do have to give a shout-out to our Warsaw B&B – they are the only place in Warsaw that offers live Chopin concerts for its guests. We enjoyed a classical piano/Chopin concert by a wonderful graduate student in music. She was so talented and there were only 12 of us in a small salon the way Chopin liked to perform. Wine included.
We flew the largest plane in the Lufthansa fleet leaving the states so it’s only fair we flew the smallest plane in the Air Berlin fleet leaving Warsaw. It was so small it had propellers and I could watch the landing gear out my window touch down in Berlin on a wet, gray day. I have to give the Germans credit. It was a touch of class when we were handed chocolate hearts as we exited the plane. We eventually made it to the main train station to buy tickets to Weimar. My mind forgot any German I learned except Guten Tag and Bitte. But we’ve found if you stand in front of a bus schedule long enough with that lost, stupid, tourist look, people eventually offer to help. We arrived in a huge modern train station, and it smelled heavenly. Really. The food court had several bakeries that were outstanding. I splurged on a huge streusel something that was one of the best pastries I’ve ever had. (Ok – I only ate half but I will still need my gym training sessions when I get home.)


So why are we in Weimar, a small town in central Germany? Because tomorrow we visit Buchenwald, ten kilometers outside of town, where Henry spent two and a half years. Not many tourists intentionally include two concentration camps on a vacation itinerary – but then I’m not an ordinary tourist.
Free travel tip – if you plan a trip to Europe don’t pack any suitcase heavier than what you can lift overhead to a train luggage rack, carry up four flights of stairs or race to catch a train with three minutes to spare. Trust me.