Deutschland für Alex (Round 1)

I've said that I'd post about the trip to Germany (Saxony, for the most part) that we took earlier this month so here I am, attempting a post. While we insisted that we had learned our lesson and were not going to try to do too much or spend all our time running from pillar to post, somehow we ended up spending a lot of time in transit and a lot of it felt like a blur, even at the time. My proper camera was temperamental for a bit before deciding to die outright so I ended up taking a lot of photos with my phone--and I'm here to tell you that an ancient Samsung is not a great instrument for bird photography. I've spent the last few hours pulling some photos off the phone, adjusting some in Photoshop and comparing others to the illustrated ebird list for Dresden. I'm here to tell you it's all a bit tedious which, I fear, this post will also be. 

A more-obliging-than-most-but-still-very-out-of-focus adult male common chaffinch

But since it's customary for me to take shots of the view out the window of wherever I'm staying--and I always do so with Alex in mind--I may start with those photos, unexciting as they might seem, starting with views out of two of the Dresden rental windows:

View out kitchen window (facing east, maybe)

View facing west (obvs) out main room window

The Dresden rental, as I call it, was absolutely fabulous. As you can see in the photo above, it was like being out in the country, but it was a short tram ride to bustling central Dresden (to be addressed in a later post, most likely, since any photos I have of that area are on the dead camera's memory card). I loved the rental so much that I interrupt this views-out-windows series for a view of the breakfast table, for what is the point of international travel if not obsessing on one's own mundane activities?

Last breakfast chez Frank

I could (and, in truth, may) do an entire post as an ode to my new most beloved baked good item, the humble Brötchen. The Seattle area offers two possible sources for a proper Brötchen (which is so inadequately defined as a bread roll or bun), but I'm also planning to try to bake some myself, probably using this recipe. But just look at that charming tea set! I never find such things in rentals and yet! Oh, I was in heaven. But back to the other rental view windows:

Night view from the Scandic Frankfurt Museumsufer

Because, it seems, I am incapable of traveling to Germany without assuming that one must start in Frankfurt, we started and ended our trip there. Which was fine, really. Scott found Frankfurt quite enchanting, and the hotel was reasonably priced and excellently located, aka within easy walking distance of both the Städel Museum (which houses a most excellent Vermeer) and the city's hauptbahnhof. It was just happenstance that it was so very convenient to the BioKaiser where my love affair with  Brötchen began:

The tea at BioKaiser was also oh-so-lovely

Our penultimate night in Germany--as well as our last full day--was spent in Berlin. We saw a few of the sights (perhaps the subject of yet another future post) and had some spectacularly bad cocktails (with very few exceptions, one should just stick to beer when in Germany), but for now, I offer just a view from that rental's window--or I would if Blogger weren't having a bit of an emotional crisis at the moment. While waiting to see if that resolves itself, I'll insert that I would not so much recommend this particular rental. It looked lovely, but it was pretty dysfunctional, with a shower with a very slow drain and a door that didn't shut sufficiently and a stovetop we couldn't convince to work. No tea kettle or tea sets, either. The location was decent, though the area might have seemed a wee bit sketchy.

It looks pretty urban but those trees were full of birdsong