In-house tour-program manager Robyn Stencil embarks on a journey across the Germanic world with guide Holger Zimmer. We visit Berlin, Hamburg, and Munich before enjoying Bavaria’s fairy-tale Neuschwanstein Castle and medieval Rothenburg. In Austria, we tour the grand capital of Vienna and Mozart-crazy Salzburg, along with the charming Danube Valley. We finish in Switzerland — licking gelato in Italian-speaking Lugano, savoring cosmopolitan Lausanne, and ascending cut-glass peaks to a nature-lover’s nirvana.
Recorded 1/27/24. *Promotions may no longer be valid.* #festivalofeurope #ricksteves
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Guten aend and welcome to the sixth evening of the Rick Steves tours Festival of Europe my name is Gabe gunning and I have the privilege of serving as your moderator this evening as we explore the storybook charms and high Alpine Thrills of Germany Austria and Switzerland with Robin stencil and a
Very special guest now without further Ado I would like to turn turn things over to our host for this evening designer of tour itineraries climber of mountains the one the only Robin stencil Robin over to you thanks gab it’s great to be back here for my second Festival
Of Europe um travel Aon I’m really excited to be here once again not just talking about Switzerland but covering all of Germany Austria and Switzerland um and I’m going to introduce you to our special Co co-host in just a moment but for now just as a reminder as Gabe was
Saying um we’re really happy to have you here for our presentation of Germany Austria and Switzerland tonight um as a reminder one of our co-host tonight is one of one of our amazing guides who are here to inspire you and get you ready for your trip to Europe we hope that we
Will see you on one of our 40 itineraries sometime in 2024 we take about 35,000 people to Europe and we would love to have you along these are a couple of the tours that still have remaining seats in the Germany Austria Switzerland region for the 2024 tour
Year if you’re interested in anything we have to say tonight um we’re going to cover most of the places that these tours go we can’t cover absolutely everything because it’s a lot to cover in just one short hour but be sure to check out our website you can get more
Ideas see exactly what we do on a day-to-day basis as Gabe was mentioning you still have a chance to win a free Rick Steve 7day City Tour so be sure that you go to Rick sees.com giveaway for uh the con the contest entry and one last thing if you do
Decide to book a seat on one of our tours for 2024 you can save $100 if you register using the promo code Fest 24 sign up at rick.com for those of you who may just be wanting to be inspired to do your own tour if you uh one of our tours
Are already sold out for 2024 remember that we have all of these amazing guid books which hogar and I have both helped work on um to give you the most upto-date travel information Rick says it’s the best investment a $20 investment that will make the most out
Of your trip be sure to check out these books on our website along with more information and travel tips and we are going to jump into our presentation right away but before we do I would like to introduce you to a very special friend of mine from Berlin he is a
Tremendous guide he has helped with a lot of the television shows and with the books and he’s also a journalist a dear friend of mine hogard simmer welcome tonight hi there Gooden Morgan to you all yeah I should mention that hoger is joining us from Berlin so he has gone to
Bed early and woken up again to uh join us today and hogar tell me one thing that you love to do when you’re traveling in this part of Europe oh you know it’s 3:00 am in the morning but I can already think of something really nice to share which is cake like
Whenever we go to a nice place there will be good different bakeries with amazing pieces of bread like really dark heavy bread that we Germans love but also great varieties of cake and I think that’s something I’d like to point out and maybe taste as well myself I think
That I’ve have tried all of the cakes in all of these places probably with you at some point so I’m excited to dive in um and do you want to tell us a little a little bit about your experience with Rick Steves as a tour guide and working
On the tours and books and helping Rick with his TV shows yeah I mean I basically just discovered again like uh that I’ve joined about like 10 years ago and uh I did my first tour for Rick um like yeah this this year uh 10 years ago
Exactly to the point and it’s really been good fun going to all you know Germany Austria Switzerland all these central eastern European parts and I’ve been really happy you know with the amazing colleagues that you have in the head office but also all the people that
I know now on the ground all across Europe it’s an amazing network of wonderful people and I’m just very happy to you know put in my five cents as expertise or as like experience while traveling um because that’s what I love doing since growing up and uh I still
I’m very happy to be on the road whenever like you know I’m I’m kind of like what’s the word I’m just like get ready to travel again this coming year so come spring I’m off again yes like no time has passed at all and I know hogar was absolutely instrumental in helping me
Put together the best of Germany tour when we were designing that and I love one of the things that you told me is we were trying to decide how many days we should dedicate to just the best of Germany tour or just to anyone’s trip to
Germany in general we settled on 13 for a lot of different reasons but the best line that hoger said is that he at that time he’d been doing the best of Germany for 40 years and it still wasn’t enough time and I think that’s really just
Going to be um it’s G to give you an idea of what we’re going to talk about on this uh on this trip tonight as we get or as we go through the the Germany austrial Switzerland in an hour it’s not going to be enough time but hopefully it’ll give you a good
Overview and we are starting with um one of Hog’s favorite cities in Germany we’re starting in the North in Hamburg and what’s interesting about Hamburg and what we like to point out to Travelers whether you’re on a tour or you’re going there for yourself first of all it’s a
Great City to start start in start your trip off in it’s easy to get to by airplane or by train and it’s not so overwhelming as a large city but the thing that we really love about it is when you think of Germany you tend to think of the Bavarian oaan later hosen
Uh and this is not at all that part of Germany is it hogar yeah it’s a bit more kind of laidback I would say and also very straightforward I mean great wonderful humor that people have up there and it’s a city it’s kind of half the size of Berlin basically and it has
A much more small I mean it’s a big city let’s face it you know it’s one of the top three in Germany but it’s still it has a much smaller feel to it it can do a lot of things by walking and it has this amazing um you know balance of like
Culture and old architecture like we see here that’s theer the old Warehouse district and and modern uh architecture like the one we’re going to see next which is like the the big modern uh Landmark on the right hand side you can see it the AL filon a fonic hall on top
Of an old warehouse now right at the harbor front District so a city Reinventing itself in a city full of life and culture and one of the other things we were talking about Hamburg in particular is that it’s on the water and you get this very Northern Baltic
Seafood as ECT of Germany we’re talking about food and cakes and whatnot and when you’re in Hamburg you definitely want to make sure that you do two things you take a trip on the Harbor ferry tour where you can see the city from the harbor you can jump off and you can even
Jump off at the fish market and have some fresh fish which is what you really want to eat when you’re here that’s what we do um we do this uh like really going through the hall canals and and see the operation of the harbor which is I think
Europe’s third love largest and it’s it’s quite a big thing that made Hamburg Rich you know trade the port city as part of the this city and also really then we end up at a place where you can get a wonderful fish Brin as we say or
Any other fancy sort of fish dish so it’s a good way to start the tour and an excellent way to start off our evening we are gonna move along to something that may be a little bit more visually uh familiar to people which is the Ry
Valley and here we have the the famous Ryan River with all of the castles which again is very evocative of what we think of when we think of Germany I know I remember as a child seeing posters of these castles and just thinking wow what a what an amazing magical place and
Historically you know you talk about the feudalism and what happened in this Valley and really you can get up close and personal right along the river yeah it’s still picturesque and still magical I have to say I mean this is an amazing region the Ryan region where the various
Castles even the one the white one is sitting right in middle of the river and well what they were designed for not for our postcards but for the rubber Barons to sit in and take taxes from uh you know basically extorting the money from the ships going by with their goods and
Just to make sure they get their cut so it’s part of the IRS system back in the day but it still looks beautiful definitely beautiful and we like to stay in a little village on the side of the river called bakarak and this is really
Our chance to get to just slow down put our feet up and just watch the River float on by but it really is a unique place you talk about going from a big city to a small village this is going to give you like the two extremes right
Hogar yeah absolutely and this is good for like really small town life you can walk along the little you know cobblestone streets uh see the half timbered houses uh like this for example that’s right in the heart of B Orel is kind of on the left hand side looking
Over to the altas house which is a great restaurant where you can you know sample all the Delicacies uh but also like the wine which is something uh up there is white wine country as you can see here the reasing is the one that you want
From there and you can sample it and really have a taste of the whole area here and the fun thing about those reasing wines is that I think a lot of North American people think of reasing as very very very sweet but actually you
Can get it as troen which is dry or Hal Tren which is half dry or you can go for the Seuss which is sweet and speaking of cakes hogar I know what pairs really well with reasing and I think you do too which is not a like a sweet cake
It’s more a Savory cake with onions and that’s really nice like flat flat and that really just comes in little flat pieces and you just cut them in little slices and you go with it and then you have the whole the whole Flavor gy Flavor of the rhin land and really this
Is what the r is all about is just taking taking it slowly relaxing I would say that steel cukin is almost like a German fukasha kind of to oversimplify how things are but it’s absolutely beautiful with the reasing so keep an eye out for that on the menu if you do
Happen to visit any of the cities along the rine another thing you can do that is really fun after way to spend the afternoon is get on one of the uh cruise ships that cruise down the rine and they stop at almost every city you could hop
Off on any City but really we use it to go from bakarak to St Gore and we visit that town and have a just a beautiful afternoon of just enjoying this lovely landscape now parallel to the Rind or something similar to the Rind that’s on the mosul river is Rick’s favorite
Castle and this is berd Els and I know this is also really special to you hogar you have some childhood memories here absolutely that’s where my parents took me when I was like eight or nine years old I still have the picture of me showing like where I am at down at the
Bridge that you can see and it’s a castle that’s kind of not at the river but it’s hidden it’s kind of like in the woods you have to do like a walk like a hike an hour hike maybe to get to it but once you finally see it it’s amazing so
It’s on a hill but it’s also in the valley and the same time so it’s a very special peculiar operation and that is the real deal it’s a proper Castle still inhabited by the family in like 40 odd generations and we can really have a tour of the castle there and see how
Life was like in the Middle Ages and that’s a really important thing to note because many of these castles are ruined castles and you can go visit the ruins of the castle but this is one where you can actually see how it’s been lived in
And how it’s still being kept up by the original family so that’s a really special thing that you can check out and it’s really easy to get to from Trier which is the the city that’s near the cologne that we um we where we start our Germany Austria Switzerland tour now in
Cologne and then moving on a little bit further south we’re starting to work our way more into some familiar territory here this is the ever famous black forest and there’s a lot of fun traditional things you can do here there’s a fantastic open a museum called gut where you can tour around through
The buildings and see uh all the traditional ways of life and you can have a fantastic visit here even if you’re in the rain you can see that you can still find a place to take cover the Black Forest is also one of the places that’s the best known for the cuckoo
Clocks and you can go into the shops and see how these intricate clocks are made and you can just kind of oole all over them and this is a really traditional typical thing to do in the Black Forest we take a little driving tour and you
Can do this as well if you rent a car through the best of the Black Forest stopping at G talk but but really you you want to make it to botom botom this is the place this is the city to go to in the Black Forest which is kind of an
Oasis really I think I that’s how I would call it sort of opulent and um this is the picture of the casino where you can go in and try to earn your fortune right hogar and then um you use that to kind of enjoy the rest of the
City and I don’t know what’s your favorite thing to do in botom botom when you’re here well of course it is like seeing the opulence of this you know casino built in the French style but really the Queen of the Black Forest as Bon B is called what you want to do is
You want to relax and because it goes back to the Roman times that’s the kakala Tera that’s the new modern bath but they also have an old style kind of um like bath where they scrub you down and it’s like you go from room to room and the temperature gets more Hot and
Hot and Hot and it’s just a wonderful way to just spend a beautiful evening relaxing or you can walk at the Rose Garden there’s a little creek that goes in the park um you know Arrangement there so it is a good area to just like a day for completely going into the old
Theaba like the uh the spa style for um before then heading on further down south and there’s a whole routine to it right you have to follow a pattern and then this is how you the Germans are very specific on the way that they relax you must relax and specific order but
Once you do you are ready to hit our next town which is the infamous rotenberg Ober talber and this is the iconic medieval wal City that it Rick has just nuts about in fact I I have a photo here just you can’t it’s just off my screen but it was actually a gift
From my grandfather he has this exact photo taken in 1983 so I think that rotenberg has really been on the tourist map for for that long and here in rotenberg you see the sites you see again those half timbered buildings one of the highlights here though I have to
Say is going on the night Watchman tour yeah that’s uh this man is a legend in renor and Beyond and he has been doing tours like kind of like dusk come dusk he will come along with his light you know and his helard and his hor that
He blows and he’s full of witty wonderful stories and it really in this atmosphere in this kind of like Decor of the old buildings you really get into the spirit of like the Middle Ages like the plague and the sees and what goes around and how the people saved the city
When the the sweds were out the doors you know and that kind of idea really gets um comes to life when you go through it with a group of people and a kind of a dark area and the street lights are on so it’s quite a magical
Place to spending a night or two there to uh really feel how life would have been in the Middle Ages right there in Germany that’s a great Point having a character-led tour like this that is done at night you really learn a lot about the city not just the act the
History from the past to the present but this one moment in time he really puts you into that place of what it would be like to be living in rotenberg yeah that’s a great point and then as we continue further south into Germany we get to the heart of Bavaria
And Munich is definitely a fan favorite for for just a number of reasons it’s hard not to like this city there’s so much to do holar I know one of your favorite things to do when you get into any new city is to jump on a bicycle and
Go see the sites and I think the munic is probably a very good town to do this in go biking absolutely it’s great and there’s like numerous bike stores where you can you know get a bike or like you know official stands where you can just
Kind of download the app and stuff and go and mun is more or less all flat you know very few Hills only so you can really go biking along the rivers along uh the pathways and it’s easy to get around it’s not such a big city and it
Really has this I would say the most Italian feel for any kind of German city so we came from the north and Hamburg now we’re in Munich already almost you know really Southern it’s warm and it’s relaxed and people are mostly Outdoors there’s the Beer Garden Culture where
People just kind of sit and of course there’s art because it was situated just where the Art From Italy actually crossed the Alps coming into the Northern parts of Europe and the uh family here uh the vitt spa who were ruling like for centuries they were basically loaded and they had now it’s
The residence the kind of City Palace of of them an amazing art gallery because they collected the art that came from Italy and you can really enjoy the wonderful pieces of art along with this like let’s say robust culture of big beers and rubbing shoulders with the
Locals in the beer garden there you go that’s it’s a great City to be in now someone once told me a trick about these uh public beer gardens correct me if I’m wrong because I want to make sure I’m right but as I understand it if the
Table has a tablecloth on it that means that the table is connected to a restaurant and you need to order your food or your beer from that restaurant but if a table doesn’t have a tablecloth on it it means you are allowed to bring in your own food make a little picnic
There yeah and that’s part of the tradition really that in some of these places you can really bring your own food so just order a beer if you want or any drink and and you know because this is the one here at valian Mark that’s in
The heart of Munich they have a local market going um almost every day and you can just get a bretzel or get something like yeah there you go now we’re talking good good German bread here makes my mouth water here so you can get stuff from the local market and then sit down
At the beer garden and talk to people and uh and if you want yes they might serve you something but the most thing is just self-service you could just grab something sit down and uh have an amazing experience really getting down with the locals that’s a good spirit
Here in Munich and I remember being on tour with you and in Munich we got everyone the vice first to try yeah you have to do that before midday that’s for sure uh as you were mentioning a great place to be outdoors in the Engish Garden everyone in Germany loves their
Nature so on a nice day you’re sure to see a lot of people Gathering Outdoors something special that you can do in Munich is you can actually go surfing yeah people do that I mean that it looks kind of quirky because it’s right in the
Middle of the the city L next to an amazing art museum it’s called the ice Bach the ice creek and people are just as you can see on the left hand side they’re lined up and then when when one of those go down and they you know can’t
Can’t keep up there then they just float down the river and the next one jumps in and they go surfing the waves of this really cold and icy Creek and it’s not just for the surface but also for us I spend like hours watching them how they
Do their skills it’s quite amazing and that’s the city occupation not a country occupation isn’t that great and as you mentioned of course uh the the beer halls and if you’re not in Munich during October Fest which some people might like to be there during October Fest other people might think it’s
Overwhelming but it doesn’t matter you can still get your fix especially at the local beer Halls the hofra house of course being the most famous one where you can go in and enjoy and like you mentioned meet with the locals this is a perfect opportunity to just sit down and
Start speaking with some local people and really getting more into the culture of Munich I think that is definitely something to put on your list if you’re going to be visiting for sure and I think though you know you don’t have to despair for my experience October Fest
Is every day in Munich you find the same atmosphere the same Vibes without the tens of thousands of other tourists so it’s actually I prefer Munich and the good beer hall without the October Fest still getting the great vibe there you still get the whole spirit in the whole
How it all should feel well the other thing that we need to mention that’s near Munich and we were talking about this is the number one site in all of Germany and it’s the no fonstein castle and that’s at king ludwick’s castle and uh you know as opposed to
Book L’s we saw earlier on this is a complete dream come true or we could say it’s fake it’s basically a castle designed to look like a medieval castle but it’s built much much later and you know the poor guy um King Ludwick II he only lived there like a couple of weeks
Basically before he died but it was one of his latest project of like having his childhood dream come true to build this Castle well well State money basically you know but uh it’s an amazing place to be but make sure to know it is nothing is real in the castle except the
Telephone that was one of the first in Bavaria that’s inside the castle and I remember at hanga the other castle that’s there they have like a 500y old loaf of bread on display I think that’s the other real thing about these castles but if you’re interested yeah if you’re interested
It’s easy day trip away from Munich you can ZIP down there on a Day Tour and go get your fill of this kind of magical Bavarian castle and you see also on that slide that we just had um Robin if you want to just yeah there you go you can
See why the coat of arms of Bavaria is blue and white it’s because of the sky you know the blue and white of the sky that you can see everywhere on Bavaria that’s quite telling so it’s a great area for great weather as well wonderful
Well we are moving on uh and now we’re kind of leaving behind Bavaria we’re going into uh Dresden which is a really fascinating City I know that you have something to show us about this but this is a city that was really completely bombed and burned and destroyed and
Rebuilt From the Ashes and this is another great place to have an overnight or visit there are a couple key things that you definitely want to see including the singer Museum which is just full of I I’ll never for get the porcelain displayed here the the M yes
The m porc m porcel m just closed to Ron so we’re in Saxony now still in the kind of Southern eastern part of Bavaria and the former Eastern Germany and Dron is an amazing Baroque City uh really it has come and uh you know been been bombed to
Pieces in 45 but it has been reborn and it really is a Place full of um learning and wisdom because the rulers here the local rulers the vtin family they basically have they couldn’t compete with like their their Rivals you know Munich or Vienna so what they did was
Okay if we can’t put up with a whole War business we just focus on science technology and culture and so that’s why they invested in amazing museums works of art the great art gallery there a great um display of medieval artifacts and uh yeah it is a place that you can
Has a good good quality of life they also right by the river Elba and uh I think in one of the next slides we’re going to see one of the landmarks here we go that is now the fren K the Church of our Lady and let me show you
Something how it looked like a bit earlier on can you see that now yeah we can see that on the left is the destroyed and on the right is the rebuilt so what was left really in 45 after the big Firestorm uh uh in February 45 was just like two walls
Basically and it late dormant when I came first to Dron in the N late 1980s early ’90s uh it was all like a rubble it was a piece of rubble and nothing but and people had it as like a memorial to the destruction of war and that should
Not be happening again but people get together it was like an a Citizens effort to say let’s rebuild this church and they did like about 20 years it took and then 25 no 2005 it opened and now it’s open and it really serves as a potent reminder of what power there is of
Destruction but also of Resurrection so dra is a good example for that it is and like we are mentioning before this kind of very Baroque historic town where they’re just they’re very proud of their history they’re very proud of what they have been able to do and so tell us
About this particular mural here oh yeah that’s like I think the world’s largest like porcelain outdoor piece of art it’s about 100 MERS long and it shows us like the it’s called the fuk the parade of the princes basically all the rulers from Saxony from let say the 1200s on up
Until the 1800s about 35 of them depicted on the Horus with lots of amazing details lots of animals and flowers like strange rulers like people were called the Pius or the proud and one even was called Frederick the bitten because his mother was biting his hair
Uh his cheek when he was a kid so amazing strange characteristics and you see like all they characterized in their all the glory so yes they take their rulers very seriously in Saxony well we’re moving on to I think what we can say is both of our favorite
Cities in in Berlin or in Germany rather and that is Berlin the capital and I I mean we could do an entire show an entire week of shows just on Berlin hogar so it’s going to be hard for for us to get through this but starting with
The Reich dog which is a really iconic symbol of of Berlin for many reasons and it’s somewhere that you can visit as a tourist and go up to the rooftop and look down as Rick likes to say look down and and watch what the government of Berlin is now doing absolutely that’s
Changed a lot because the r stock was when I came to Berlin in the 1980s as a school kid was just like more or less not it was not bombed out anymore but it was like gray and more or less derel nothing happened in there and then uh when the unification happened basically
After the Berlin Wall came down in 1989 so the East and West split was was gone and then we wanted to have the government back in Berlin and we completely remodeled this and this new structure here that you can see uh so Norman Foster’s Cupa the Dome on top of
That is a completely new thing that now we can go and go in this spiral walkway up there have amazing views onto the city but also down into the Chamber of legislature and that is quite an amazing building again destruction War you know division uh Germany divided and now back
In its full Glory so another story of like how a nation reinvents itself absolutely and a pro tip here you can actually H get a free reservation to go up onto the roof and have those great views uh there’s also a really nice restaurant up there so if they’re all
Booked out for times to go visit you could actually make a reservation at the restaurant and that will allow you to go up to the rooftop not necessarily inside the dome but Pro tip that’s in Rick’s book in case you want to go have this experience as well um Berlin is a city
With so much history some of it is you know really a lot of thought has gone into this and it’s it’s taken uh people of Germany a lot of time to reconcile with their history this is the mon ument to the murder Jews of Europe I believe
That’s the name of this Monument yes vgar yes absolutely right and it it took a long time to to see like how can Germany address the atrocity that we did um and it’s a monument designed by an artic architect from New York City um and he basically put these these
Concrete blocks there and it it’s kind of strange you can’t really see it now so much but it is such an poent Memorial when we’re there with groups you walk through these these uh you know kind of uh concrete blocks and it’s a huge field of these blocks right and um once you’re
In there there’s a lot of feeling a lot of emotion coming up and this is one of my really favorite parts of the tours we go there uh with the private tours I bring some people there or as a whole group of like 30 people it really helps
Us understand what went on even though there are no names and no number numbers and nothing really it but it is in its form a very potent reminder of what happened and and how how we you know can how we have to not forget what was going
On back in the day yeah and I think that it it touches it touches everyone a little bit differently so everyone will have a unique experience here it’s not like going to a museum and seeing the name of a painting and understanding who that artist was it’s more about how you
React to this and you know Berlin has a lot of these sites we have uh lots of great places where you can go see the wall um and all over the city some of them are more formal some of them you will see on a guided walking tour just
Describing the history of what Berlin and what Germany have gone through uh so we have some great walking tours in the book I know that you can follow um but also hiring a guide like yourself that will bring it to life because I know from lots of experiences when you walk
Past some and you see it yes you’re going to have one reaction but when you’re there with a live guide or with a guide book in your hand or with Rick’s audio tour in your ear you’re getting that in-depth detailed information that’s telling you a lot more and it’s
Reminding you where to look right it’s not always looking up sometimes it’s looking down and all over Berlin you’ll see the trace the outline of the actual wall it’s not just at the Brandenburg gate it’s not just a Checkpoint Charlie it’s all throughout the city absolutely all around Berlin about a 100 miles
Stretching basically uh you know encircling West Berlin because that was like kind of the island there and I think we call in deep depth to the whole history of like why it happened and how it was was uh going down but you will see basically the only thing that’s left
Of the wall itself in Berlin are like two lines of cobblestones that’s most of because we were so happy to see this ugly building go but there’s a reminder again of how Germany has changed over the years yeah and we talked about Checkpoint Charlie of course this is a
Famous place that you can go experience and there’s a great uh War uh Museum next next door to Checkpoint Charlie that talks about um what life was like in the in the DDR and and how people would make these daring escapes to try to cross the border and I know in your
Neighborhood in near Prince lerberg there’s even even I think personally the best um museum museum it’s an outdoor uh you see the Park the the actually where the wall was and you get to walk along it and it’s very moving and very touching all of these things are
Described really well in our book we also uh take our tour members there and like I said you can always hire a great local Berlin guide to give you even more detail on that Berlin is also a brand new city I mean the the West especially
Is built up but you’ll see places like pot stemmer plots where you would look at this and not even necessarily think that you were in a war torn post you know Cold War City yeah basically this was a no man’s land what you see here all these buildings did not exist before
1990 so it is a complete new uh quarter of a city just sprang up after finally we shook off this division the wall was gone and then suddenly we thought okay what do we do with all this spaces now it’s a modern part of the
City and um one of the one of the fun places to tell people that you me them is actually right here this is a famous meeting point in Berlin that’s that’s just iconic for when you’re going to go out for dinner or where you’re gonna meet friends you’re gonna meet right
Here the vside U yes the world time clock as it’s it’s a part of the gdr uh art and architecture and it is next door the left is a 1920s building and then you have another old hotel from gdr time so all the history the architecture comes together in this one square at
Alexander plat right in the Heart of the City well and I know that there’s some other really amazing things you can do in Berlin this is m beu park and this is just another fantast I recognize that guy I recognize both those guys another fantastic place where again on a nice
Day you’re gonna go outside and you’re going to enjoy the fresh air and the Sunshine and the river and the people walking by uh Berlin another great place yeah another great place for dining outdoors I believe that this is Clarens which is our f favorite Ballroom you can
Actually go take some dancing lessons and have a nice dinner outside um so the culture of being out and being with people and being with friends and each neighborhood has their own little Gathering Place just like Claritin here uh and then the Mau Park as we mentioned
As I was mentioning this is um you would say inber yeah is the right neighborhood for that yeah that’s up Prince laberg is the neighborhood in East Germany we cover it in the book and actually we some of our tourists like to stay and there’s this enormous Park called the
Mau or the wall the Mau Park where you’ll have um impromptu or scheduled performances H I know a cooworker was just in Berlin on the tour and she ended up going in her free time to like a audience participation karaoke kind of sketch comedy show that she just was the
Highlight of her trip and and think about when you see all these people now in this open air kind of stage there if you see the little ttin in the background basically this is where the wall had been so you could not just go there uh for like 28 years you would be
Shot you know and now it’s open for everyone and that’s another part of the changing phase of Berlin well one last kind of area to highlight in Berlin is certainly Museum Island and Berlin is just a worldclass city you can do just about anything you
Want to do and one of the things that you really should do is dedicate some time to museum Island which is where you’re going to get the topnotch art and Cathedral and just culture of of the city absolutely I mean there’s five top-notch museums right on that island
Uh close to the river right in the center of things whatever floats your boat my favorite would be the alter naal Gallery the Old National Gallery with the Romantic paintings then you have the Greek and Roman collection you have um the statues uh the museum with nefertity
So it is all there and it’s a wonderful place to really spend at least a whole day if you’re an art and history buff right on and of course the Brandenburg gate um there’s some Hop On Hop off bus tours and even I think Rick’s famous was a bus number 100 I
Can’t remember off the top of my head the name of the route that shows you all of these famous places where you can read along in the book and see all of the sites that are passing you by well hogar that brings us just to the end of
The first segment of this talk which is Germany and you know I think um my favorite thing about this is just showcasing that Germany as a whole country is more than just Bavaria and has worldclass destinations lots of great food wonderful beautiful things to see great places to relax and enjoy and
You know that’s it’s so diverse just in itself it can definitely make your own trip just to Germany I think that’s really the main focus here is the diversity like going from the north and Hamburg to the South and Bavarian all the regions in between with the Ry with
The laland airort and everything so it’s quite quite good to explore and and just breathe in the different um you know atmospheres that we have to offer you mentioned airort just now and I know that that’s one of your favorite cities it’s a great City in the former Eastern
Germany and we didn’t have time to cover cover that today we do cover it on our best of Germany tour and I believe uh last year’s Festival of Europe where you had a little more time to talk about Germany and Austria might have more information on that too so if you’re
Interested in airort or any of these things you want a little more information definitely check out last year’s Festival of Europe and other resources on our website and look and see where our tour goes and what we do in each of these places for more ideas with that I think we’re ready to
Move on to Austria our second country here and we’re going to start off with the musical city of Saltsburg which you know has so many connections to uh Sound of Music and Mozart um the lovely gasa this street the main shopping street with the old uh signs on on hanging from all of
The businesses and uh hogar what do you like to do when you get into Saltsburg oh the thing is like you know the slide that you had on earlier it’s not just looking magically it is magical it is a city that is closed by a really fast
Flowing river the Zak and then there’s also like mountains so what I like to do in salsburg is not just like go like you know we see this here like a shopping streets and all where all the people are but just to go and maybe hike or take an
Elevator up inside the mountain up on top and then walk above the mountain range and with amazing views down on salburg and there’s also even a great little beer garden on top of the mountain there so for food for a little hike it’s not like strenuous it’s not
Like hard but it’s great to get out of the city right in the city so I think that’s my favorite thing to do and in fact I think in German you would call that like a little Vander a little wander we don’t even it’s not even
Strenuous enough to be called a hike you just call it a wander well speaking of music though we also have uh Mozart and you can have a beautiful concert here and I know that we like to suggest that our tour members go do this or even if you’re there
Traveling on your own a great way to spend an evening would be attending a Mozart concert here for sure absolutely and the good thing is with salsburg not just amazing food in all over Austria basically very fresh and very you know affordable uh but also you know
Everywhere you go in salsburg is full of music so you can in universities in the squares in the in the churches so you know if you’re around I’ll that’s my favorite thing to do always check out the local scene what’s going on in terms of classical or other music also go good
For jazz so um you know find me out and we’ll go for a concert for sure and this is I think one of the photos from the dinner concert so if you if you’re interested in just the concert you can do that but there’s also some great options to have dinner while you’re
Listening to the concert and that is a fantastic way to spend an evening we’re motoring on and of course another iconic City in Austria that’s been all over social media for the last five 10 years as long as you’ve been working at the company and that’s
Hall yeah I would call it like a very picturesque small village because it sits right you you see the lake here but yeah there you go what you don’t see is is the the mountains it’s right at the mountain ranges so you can even go uh
For an Excursion like a day trip onto like an ice cave or you see the little um walkway there which is high up above halad you can look down so it is nature it is good food and it is just amazing weather and if the weather is good and
We always like to do that you can just go right for a nice swim and then cold and freezing wonderful Lake oh yeah that’s the that’s the main um Town Center of halad just across from our hotel and sometimes and I experience that there’s a little blast capella a
Local Village band coming playing wonderful music Outdoors for free so great atmosphere in h and something about this I think that this picture probably includes most of the village citizens and something important to not is that hot is one of the most popular places for a day trip so to see the real
Magic and hallot you definitely want to dedicate an overnight because you want to be there after the crowds leave and before they get there and that’s when you really get the local magic of hallot all to yourself yes um from hallot on our tours on on
Some of our tours we go along the danu valley Another River and we know by now that when you have a river you have beautiful sites along that River and one of them is the milk Abbey which is a Abbey that you can go tour and I know
That our tour groups really do enjoy having this tour through milk Abbey having a cruise down the danu river getting out in nature and you know then we kind of ju suppose that with our groups visiting the matous um concentration camp Memorial which is another very moving experience for a lot
Of people and again um a chance for people to kind of process and learn from the history and kind of have that in mind um without it being just the sole Focus but you kind of have to acknowledge it you have to let it sit
With you you have to um give it give a chance to understand what has happened and I think we present that in a really nice day where we give people enough time to kind of do that on their own um and have like a very pastoral drive then into
Vienna and this is something that you can do um on your own as well if you’re traveling on your own there are many opportunities to visit you know you can visit dhow there it’s hard it’s kind of not nice to say that there are so many
Options to do this in Germany or Austria but Rick really feels that it’s important not just to have the glossy shiny beautiful things but also to acknowledge this and in order to have let you understand you know and not let this kind not let us forget that this
Happened basically um but then it’s it’s Europe after all and you have to look beneath and it’s what we I think I’m very happy that actually we do this and Rick really focuses on on more or less every tour in the central uh European region that we really are understanding
How things are you know kind of connected together you know especially in this day and age that we’re facing now yeah I mean I think that’s part of traveling is to understand our world and our place in this world based on the history and where we’re going so I think
That I agree completely um on our tours we then do continue into Vienna um and again we see this very beautiful picturesque City Vienna I think to me of all of the places that we visit in Austria is definitely the most elegant I always feel like I have to be on my best
Behavior when I’m in Vienna I have to dress a little bit nicer and speak a little bit better and um especially when you’re in the downtown area and you’re maybe going to some of the fancier cafes and operas that we’ll see later um but there are so many things again to do and
See in Vienna starting with Stefan Stone yeah I mean that’s like that’s the center of town and of sometimes we stay right next to it which is amazing so you’re right in the Heart of the City and everything kind of came from that and you know expanded from that part of
The city that’s the grabin that’s the former moat uh from the city wall basically uh it’s an amazing area for shopping but really full of restaurants and cafes and I think to me Vienna is is you know um the typical thing for the coffee house culture where you go and
Sit down in a cafe there you go and it’s one of those wonderful like nicely dressed waiters and they bring you amazing cakes I can I can stand like I can spend days there and you can sit with a coffee read all the local papers
So you can see also there and this is something that VES people do and also we as tourists can be locals for a time and just enjoy and the main idea is slow down that’s the whole point of coffee house culture in Vienna don’t get like I
Want a coffee to go that wouldn’t work you’re just going to be sent out again you want to take your time sit down and enjoy the heery and the conversation I definitely all of our Austrian guide friends I know how seriously they take their Cathy and cin time and it really
Is a time to just sit and relax and enjoy and they take it very seriously there another thing that they take very seriously in Vienna is the Opera and something unique is that you can see these outdoor performances I believe throughout the summer absolutely and they basically
Broadcast for free uh the operas so it’s it’s actually also possible to go inside this amazing Vienna State opera house maybe getting a stall like a standing room in the very back there uh for like 12 or 14 bucks or so which is possible or you can just dress up nicely and we
Do tours also in the daytime so it is an amazing place for art and culture so Vienna you can’t miss again museums Galore uh artifacts collections this is the H book The Imperial Palace so it is really as you said Robin an imperial very Royal looking City here’s the
Treasury that’s part of the itinery quite often as well so it is just something where you can just delve in and just be immersed in this culture and this is my favorite museum in all of Europe I have to say I’m from Berlin and there’s many good ones here but K
Historia Museum the Vienna Fine Arts Museum is the topnotch place if you want to have artists if you want to have like like Rubin like the big old the huge paintings but also the artifacts from the Middle Ages and moving from um art on the
Canvas to Art on the table again we have another experience to get out in nature and this is one of the hinger which is out just a little bit outside but you can reach reach it by public transportation quite easily and you go out almost into The Vineyards and you
Can have an amazing Buffet meal out here while enjoying the surroundings and really doing something very typical I think almost as typical as the cafe and ccin is the locals who go out here absolutely hoan is just the thing where all the vienes people also go it’s like
A day outing or like an evening and if you go there again it’s this culture of being together with the locals having the most fresh and amazing food and drink a drop of the local wine well again we’ve made it now through our second country Austria and
You know it’s clear to me the difference between Germany and Austria but it might not be so clear to people who have never traveled there before and what do you think is the main difference between Germany and Austria I think the mentality is something you know when
When let’s say Germans are known to be and that’s it’s also true like very kind of strict and straight and everything has to follow the rules I think in Austria it’s a bit more sideways you know you can always find ways around it and you know if you’re not on time hey
Who cares I mean we do care for the tour you know or if you want to be in the Opera House you got to be on time but in general it’s a bit more relaxed laidback and more let’s say easygoing that’s a great way of describing it and and also just more
Beautiful chances to involve yourself with the locals and just experience something that’s very different from what we might have in North America um or even what you have in Germany well you know we are on to our third country and I’m a little biased you know how much I love Switzerland um
Again we could spend probably weeks talking just about Switzerland we’re gonna kind of Blaze through it now starting with lot CERN which is actually where our Switzerland tour begins and from the moment that I arrive in in Switzerland even if it’s into the Zurich Airport I just kind of take a deep
Breath in and I just think of cows and chocolate and cheese and already I’m in a good mood and I think this is the best place to start here in lern um which does have some history to it as well you it’s not just pretty lakes and chocolate
But you get some you get to dive right into the history especially with the um oh uh the Swiss militia and military history we actually go out to a um a fortress furan that’s on lake lern and get to have like a tour through this um decomission Fortress and that is just an
Amazing experience of course like I say chocolate my number one tip in Switzerland about the chocolate is that you have to try everything and sometimes that means going to a nice Boutique possibly Le that’s a favorite of mine um the Max Million Max chocolate here shop
In lern is another favorite I just love going into a co-op or a grocery store and trying all of the different brands and seeing which one I like best and I think definitely um Kay is my favorite Swiss chocolate I don’t know about you hogar well the thing is you need to
Bring an extra suitcase just for the chocolate you want to bring home that’s my advice for people who travel to Switzerland I mean you can eat it on the tour but it’s good to bring it back it’s a great souvenir um Switzerland I think
Is is one of the best places to go just the the attractions in the sites of Switzerland are not necessarily housed in museums but it’s just being in Switzerland and one of the really cool things about Switzerland similar to Germany is that the different regions really represent different cultures and
Different activities um in lucerna of course you’re in the heart of the mountains the Germanic speaking Switzerland then you move to Lugano and the people in Lugano the region of toino they like to say that they’re on the sunny side of the Alps and you get a very Italian Mediterranean feel here in
In Lugano um a lovely prominade walk again you’re on the lake so you can rent a boat you can go on a cruise you can go over to the gratos and have a lovely meal or you can take a mountain Excursion up to this is Monte BR it’s
Very easy you can actually go by foot but in Switzerland one of the best things they have is no matter what method you want to get to the top of the mountain you’re always going to be able to get there so if you don’t want to
Walk up there’s a nicula or a gondola or a bus or something that will take you up here spectacular views over the lake and it’s a fantastic way just to pass the afternoon that’s the Italian part of of Switzerland moving a further west you get into the French speaking part of
Switzerland near Lake Geneva and this is the the town of lozanne and what’s really fun and unique about loanne is that it’s it’s like a city on a hill so up above you have the old medieval part of the town and down on the lake you actually have the more modern part of
The town so depending on what you are interested in you can definitely stay up in the old historic part of the town and get to know the kind of French part of Switzerland which is going to have the shinoa and the fondue and all of the
Markets and you look at this photo and you think you might actually be in France this is the market that happens up in the old toown and it’s a fantastic thing to just assemble a picnic and again test your French test your interaction with the locals there and
Then what we have what we suggest that you do is you get that picnic and then you actually head down to the the neighborhood that’s by the lake which is called Wii and down there you have the Olympic Museum and for uh someone like me I could spend an entire day in the
Olympic Museum it’s a very interactive Museum um some people it’s just enough to see the outside and to enjoy the prominade along the lake down down there uh but the number one thing that we like to do is actually get out of the city of loanne Again by boat to have the
Fantastic views and after an hour you’re pulling up next to chatau Shion and this is a really spectacular way to arrive to the castle it’s it’s just breathtaking to be there and hogar I think that you’ve been on this tour before where you’ve pulled up and you’ve gotten to
Tour the chatau Shan yeah and that’s what we do like we mostly take like a boat as we saw earlier on out there to go there then we have a tour inside this Castle which is like a kind of really a proper medieval castle again you know
That’s another real deal here right by the by the lake and used as a prison once in a while so it’s it’s really you get to delve into the history and I think what we’re going to do later on if the weather is good and um we actually
Go and tour one of The Vineyards which is closed because this region is also known for wines there you go yes yes and the Switzerland actually does produce a lot of wine but they don’t export it so we don’t really know the Swiss wine but
This is the uh area of luch tre of laau and so there are a number of wineries that you can visit and you can actually Walk Through The Vineyards there’s there’s even a train that stops along the way um and you can actually walk all the way back into loan if you really
Wanted to along the lake it’s a spectacular view but definitely a place that you you want to again try the white wine here that just to die for and goes so well with the the kind of French cuisine that is brought into this region of Switzerland I think that it’s hard to
Talk louder bur and valley though I think we all have seen this a million times this is our number one destination for any tour or any individual who wants to go to Switzerland the first place that I tell them to go is louer brunin Valley and I think hul you probably
Agree with me on this absolutely absolutely because it’s right in the Burna Overland and you have like a see the you know the rift the ridge on the right hand side and you know we stay in various places on different tours there but if we stay in Miran that’s up on the
Wall like really up on top of this wall there great City no cars and what is amazing like regardless where you stay down in the valley up there on the left on the right there’s so many hikes you can do and I think that’s the main thing
Where we like to spend at least a couple of nights in this area to really get the most of it and see sometimes the weather is a little bad sometimes it clears up and that’s the mountains so it’s so cool if we move in and it’s all foggy the
Next day it’s going to be a view like this for now so you can always have an opportunity to go for a relaxed hike maybe an hour you know from one Village to the next or do like a more sporty sort of stuff and go for two or three
Hours really beautiful walking in this fresh Mountain Air and I think that’s the beauty of being Switzerland as you said Robin it’s the nature the sites and the whole like Mountain views that we have definitely and again to reiterate that the hiking the wandering uh it
Really is for any any ability any level can do at least one hike in each of these places because they’re all graded for uh different kind of levels of being strenuous of course this is gim ofal this is Rick’s favorite place in all of the louder BR and Valley where you can
Still go stay in that hostel um the sleep in the straw and you just really get to feel like being up in the mountains have your hidey moment this is the town of Muran where we do sleep with a couple of our groups and again car for
The most part carfree there are a couple delivery trucks or garbage trucks that go through but carfree and you just get to have all of The Meadows all to yourself you might have to share them with the cows of course but actually that’s even fun and they’re generally
Nice they tend to stay out of the way we like to joke that the brown cows make the chocolate milk uh but what they really do make is the tra the traditional amazing Alpine cheese which you can get from Little shops along your walk you can get them in the stores in
Town of course you definitely want to try the fondue here at least for one meal that is a lot of fun to do and we we have a little demo on some of our tours that talk about how to make it and the rules of how you want to eat it um
And and then of course Every Mountain in Switzerland they have an amazing marketing department it is some kind of superlative Every Mountain has something specific to it the mountain that we tend to like the best is called the shil Horn Mountain and that one is associated with
James Bond on her majesty Secret Service was partially filmed there so that’s why they tie it in with James Bond but really what we love about this mountain is once you get up top there’s some thrill walks that you can do along the way but here you get a view of the I
Here the mon the Yung FRA the three mountains that are in the background there whereas if you were to go up the Yung fra Yak on the other side you’re kind of just on a train in a tunnel and you don’t actually get to see this Majestic View so we specifically choose
The sh TN so that you can go up and you can have that really special View and on on some of our tours or if you’re just traveling on your own number one tip that I have is go up for the breakfast so you take one of the first Gonda is up
At 7:30 8:00 in the morning you get this amazing Buffet it’s called like the bond buffet breakfast but you’re in this rotating restaurant you have your Buffet you enjoy your time and then from there you can wander around the mountain and come back down on your own time and it’s
Just I think that’s everyone’s wow moment when they take the tour absolutely I mean the mountains are great but now if you pulled up this light of burn which is in a great City with an also fast flowing and Cold River when my favorite thing to do would be
And that’s what locals even do you kind of take a bus a little out just get a little uh you know kind of plastic back to wrap your clothes and have your swimming clothes on and then take the clothes in the bag you hold on to this
Bag and then you float down underneath those bridges along you know back into the town of burns so it’s a great way to if you have the afternoon free just do that uh and if you’re like a good swimmer that’s a great way to spend like
A very special local way to go floating in burn this is a very typical thing that that locals do for sure and even if you’re not brave enough to try it on your own if you see someone floating along the river don’t worry Don’t Panic they know what they’re doing don’t make
It but yeah um burn is a spectacular town and this is where our our Switzerland tour ends and burn is a great Hub it’s very easy to get to the airport get to Zurich everything in Switzerland is like an hour or less away not everything but most of the things
You want to do and see in Switzerland is about an hour away and baron is is is known for these lovely arcaded pedestrian streets you do have to watch out for the trolleys and and the series of fountains that you see there are fountains everywhere that are telling
Stories the astrological clock um and really Baron is just a very Charming town to wander along and a couple really great museums and a couple of sites that you can do but easily passing a day or two there on the way in or out of your
Trip um and Rick is a big fan of doing this it’s a great place also if you’re uh if the weather isn’t great because it’s all arcaded so you can stay dry while you’re touring the city you you get a different view of of another kind of Germanic area of Switzerland and then
You know before you know it your trip is over and you’re headed back to the airport and it just Zips you right back to the airport and you know that’s like any good trip it has to end right hoger yeah but yeah maybe some people decide when they stay in burn that they
Want to stay on in Switzerland I would not uh I would absolutely agree I would too I think we can again spend a year in Switzerland and not have enough time but that does bring us to the end of our presentation I just want to remind you
Of a couple of things um these are some examples of the tour itineraries that we’ve been covering and again you can go to ricksteves.com and get more details about what we do in each of these places if you want to design your own tour if you have any questions about it we’ve
Got Lisa and Emily in the chat that can answer your questions about the tour for 20124 um we do hope to see you on a tour or over in Europe with one of the guide books this year that would be amazing to see um as a reminder also you can watch
This presentation we’ll be posting within two business days go back and watch last year’s Festival of Europe Germany Austria show or Switzerland that I did with Rick last year Monday night travel is another excellent place to get more information one last chance to remind you to get to uh to enter into
The free Rick Steve 7-Day City Tour giveaway by going to ricksteves.com giveaway and if you’re going to sign up for a tour make sure you use the promo code Fest 24 tomorrow we’re going to be with Cameron huitt who’s going to give us a tour through Central Europe with some of
Our guide friends and then as Gabe was mentioning Monday is going to be the grand finale so with that I’m going to go ahead and hand it back over to Gabe who uh probably has some more announcements for us and maybe some questions we have a wonderful slate of
Questions thank you so much Robin and hogar um The Travelers in the Q&A were saying how much they enjoyed your presentation people who watch Monday Night travel and watched our holiday kickoff show will remember that actually my favorite travel memory of 2023 was floating down the r River in Burn um so
That brought back some great memories for me um so thank you for that and again I repeat you would only only do that if you’re a strong swimmer it’s a it’s a pretty strong current um so let’s uh get going on some questions so our first question question comes from Lee
And for many people Germany has kind of become for many Travelers Germany has become synonymous with Christmas markets and I’m wondering it seems like every town and city has a Christmas Market these days do you think that they live up to the hype and if you were to
Recommend one or two Christmas markets that are especially traditional or unique which ones would you recommend oh that’s a good question thanks Lee so yes I mean it’s it’s it’s what it is these days you know some uh markets are full of um let’s say cheap
Stuff from all all where Asia you know but there you can find some and it’s still a tradition that’s going on and it’s not only like just like um like touristy stuff it is really something that also we Germans like to go to we
Like to go for the glue Vine we like to go maybe there’s some music going you know we like to go for the camaraderie for the just rubbing shoulders with your friends you go and meet at the Christmas Market at 6 o’ maybe for a little chat
So it is something that is a live tradition um I can’t really tell you like the specific place I know in Berlin for example it has maybe like 12 15 20 Christmas markets and there’s one around Jarman Mark which is more traditional one you know you always have to check uh
If you’re locally I mean the main um like the the Forerunner is is nberg that’s where the Christmas Market kind of tradition started that’s still a big one the kis Kindles market right there so if you go there you can’t go wrong but it’s always like uh you just check
Out with the locals but wherever you are you be can be sure to find a nice one with like good atmosphere amazing food and uh yeah and and really traditionally handcrafted stuff as well and Robin I know that we don’t do like a specific tour that we brand as like a Christmas
Markets tour but I do know that we have some tours where people could have the opportunity to see a Christmas Market which absolutely would be best for that it’s the Munich Saltsburg Vienna tour and we do highlight on the website if your departure is going to have the
Ability to see the Christmas markets they start on different days um so some I think Vienna might start the earliest actually so we try to time a couple of the winter departures where you’re going to hit at least one in one of those three cities yeah I know we had three of our
Colleagues Robin that were all on one of our Munich salsburg Vienna tours this December I remember yeah um moving from cold weather to warm weather uh Susan is wondering some of the various rivers in the Germanic world like the Ry and the danu have been in headlines for their inconsistent water
Levels um and in both the rivers and the mountains of the Germanic World um I guess how are the rivers doing and what signs are you seeing of climate change in this region I think the number one place you can see signs of climate change is in the L Glacier which is in
The barer Overland you can actually see it from the Yung fra yach and then you can also see it from the backside of the Yung fra um but you go there and you can see the levels where it used to be it’s very noticeable to see how far below
They are now um so not just the the glacier itself receding but like the actual levels dropping as well I was there a couple years ago and saw from the backside of the young fra and just was amazed at how much it had had changed I I would say though like on
Average if you’re not going to that location you’re not necessarily going to notice you’re there’s still snow on top of the SCH horn or the teethless 365 days of the year on the te list so um you’re you you you might not not notice it unless some point points it out to
You yeah I I would say um it’s kind of more it has become more irregular I think you know in terms of the seasons in terms of I mean I I remember walking to B Els and I remembered like the the the wood the forest was really pretty
Dry and I think that’s also something that you notice once in a while but in terms of water levels I think we cannot generalize because sometimes there’s flooding sometimes there’s drought so I there’s no prediction to that really so in terms of going to places most of the
Times that I’ve been traveling you know in these Shores uh our River Cruises have worked fine you know so it’s not something that you should be worrying about but of course you never know I mean Life Is Life and weather is the weather um moving on to a question that
Is a bit more Austria specific um a couple Travelers were asking about what would you say is one of the best opera EXP experiences in Austria or I guess anywhere in the countries that we’ve covered oh so I mean coming from Berlin I have to tell you we got three Opera
Houses so if you come to Berlin you can’t miss it there’s always something going on but of course the vienes opera house is the most maybe more opulent you know even though un de Lindon the state Opera here is also pretty nicely renovated and amazing Decor so you can
Choose more modern or more traditional a prag for example I had many wonderful Opera performances in Prague and amazing um you know theat there yes so I mean it’s it’s give and take I think I would just go for like like choose what kind of you know operas you like and
Then go for Berlin or Vienna maybe that’s the the the main proper uh theater places in and so Vienna would be kind of the more traditional and Berlin would be a little bit more modern not necessarily in terms of style I mean Berlin has more modern I think than
Prague for example more traditional let’s say staging or the design would be more traditional like in Prague much more so than in Vienna or or in Berlin so you get both you get the upand coming you get the edgy uh Hamburg I had amazing uh Opera in Hamburg or or you
Know Munich let’s not forget that so we love like in Germanic speaking world you love to bring Opera to the present world so don’t expect too many period costumes you know that it’s it can be it can be um demanding you know a modern Opera but I would say topnotch orchestras and
Top-notch performances in all of these cities and pro tip that I learned last year going to the Seattle Opera is if you’re going to see Vagner don’t have a glass of red wine during the intermission because it’s very long and you will get very sleepy um Robin I have a question for
You because I know that you are quite the Mountaineer um Charles was saying that his wife actually broke her leg hiking down the Shi Horn uh because she didn’t have good shoes and we also have Janet asking about altitude sickness for people that saw the Swiss Alps and are
Excited about getting out there and Hiking what recommendations would you have for those people that specifically want to do hiking to make sure they are prepared and staying safe yeah I mean that’s that’s what you have to do so um the shorn is about 10,000 feet high
Muran is 5,000 feet high so you’re about a mile above sea level when you’re in Muran and about two miles above sea level um when you’re on top of the sh torn so Denver the city of Denver is is a mile high so that’s about being at
Muran I’m coming from the sea level from Seattle you know I I can tell you that when we go up to the SCH torn you know you do feel it when you get off the gondola because you’ve gone up so quickly that your body isn’t acclimatizing as as properly so just
Like deep breaths have lots of water stay hydrated um if you’re going to do serious hiking like hiking down from the sh torn you definitely want to have um good shoes layers because you never know what’s going to happen you definitely want to have water with you hiking
Sticks hiking poles can help um but that said like I I don’t use any of those things um because I know what to expect and I know what kind hiking I do here so I just know my comfort level on a 10,000 foot Mountain what am I comfortable with
Um and if it starts to seem like it’s too strenuous just turn around and go back down and find another hike because there’s something like over 500 kilometers of hike hiking trails um so you know if the one that you’re faced with seems a little bit hard or you’re
Getting out of breath just don’t push yourself turn around go back down and you’ll find something else that you can do and enjoy while doing it I agree I mean there’s lots of fun ways to have helicopter rides but a search and rescue helicopter ride is not
The one you want to go on no yeah I think my recommendation would be like be prepared you know and not just as you said Robin but also you know if you like hiking don’t just wait till you go to Switzerland to start hiking you know but
Be fit be active and and train for it and then you’re good and as Robin said there’s something for every one we can have really smooth like that don’t go up and down and our Str is but really nice hikes that are hikes but they are almost
As flat and as gracious as walking on a on a pathway I I really think the key there hoger is it’s it’s literally the German word it’s wandering I mean that is the whole classification is and wandering typically is very flat or just maybe a gentle Hill at the beginning or at the
End and for anybody interest Ed I’m going to plug Monday night travel because we have had a European hiking and walking expert Cassandra over who has done shows with us both on the communo Santiago um and on hiking in the Alps and she gives a lot of great tips
About how to pack and how to train for those so you can find uh those recordings at ricksteves.com MNT I have one final question for you Robin and hogar um Robin you were talking about Swiss chocolate and I was feeling guilty because I ate some Hershey’s which I know is kind of an
Insult to Chocolate um no com sorry anybody from Hershey Pennsylvania and hogar you said that you love eating cake wherever you go so um as a connoisseur of baked goods myself I’m wondering if each of you could share maybe your favorite chocolate or baked good experience in the Germanic World in
Germany Austria or Switzerland Robin what’s yours um okay well it’s not quite a cake and it’s not quite chocolate but it’s something that I do every time I’m in Switzerland and I have dubbed it cherry cheese butterbread and that’s exactly all the ingredients that go into
It so at breakfast you get that big slab of Hardy whole wheat bread and slather it with but butter and then the sour Hira jelly and then the Alp cheese on top it’s like salty sweet hearty it gives you all the energy you need for hiking I do that
Every time I’m in Switzerland and the name of it one more time what’s I just call it cherry cheese butter bread cherry cheese butter bread yeah you need to write a cookbook Robin Robin that’s good that’s just my kind of sandwich you know my daughter always you know frowns at me
If I put layers and layers on my sandwich I have like really proper something you know so great I would say a similar thing but completely sweet is the wonderful schwat K the Black Forest gateau it’s like like it’s it’s a sin made of cream and uh and schnaps and
Cherries as well so but it’s quite great and we get it mostly in the Black Forest it’s it’s that’s where it comes from and it’s um if you have one that’ll last you for the day it’s a quite um um yeah filling sort of dessert but it’s worth
Um the guilt and uh then you just go hiking hoger you just go hiking go that’s it that’s what you do well hogar I hope that you treat yourself to some black forest gateau tomorrow um to reward yourself for staying up late to join us um we greatly appreciate hearing
From both of you um I loved revisiting some places I’ve already been in Germany and Austria and Switzerland and thinking up places I would like to go next so hogar thank you very much for joining us and happy touring this season thanks a lot good gab and I’ll go go to sleep now
And I wish you all a wonderful day and evening over in the states and thanks for having me um broadcasting over to the wonderful people that are watching thank you hogar and Robin thank you very much for Lending us your expertise once again great to be back thanks for having me
Gabe and to all of you as a reminder we do have two more nights of the Festival of Europe tomorrow we go to Central Europe with Cameron hwit and a couple of our Central Europe guides and on Monday we finish with a party at Rick’s house
And we hope that you will join us virtually so we hope to see you then and we wish you a wonderful Evening
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