GERMANY: TORGAU

 May 17, 2025

Torgau is a smallish town in eastern Germany on the Elbe River that today has a population of about 20,000 people. Probably its biggest claim to fame is that it is the place where the US and Soviet armies first met at the end of World War II on April 25, 1945. Eventually, Torgau became part of the region controlled by the Soviet Union and known in the United States as East Germany.

But that was not our interest in the city. We had planned a few days in this area of Germany--Saxony--to become better acquainted with the religious reformer Martin Luther, who established Torgau as a key center for the Protestant Reformation. Luther traveled here more than 60 times from his home in nearby Wittenburg to consult with princes and theologians, and Torgau was where he consecrated the first church intentionally built as a Protestant church.

Our first stop was at the Hartenfels Castle, which was built in the 15th century, making it the largest completely preserved early Renaissance castle in all of Germany. 

One of the most interesting things about the castle is that is has a moat surrounding it that is full of greenery and logs rather than water.

That is because the moat is home to two brown bears. This tradition dates back to the castle's origins. After a pause beginning in the 19th century, the bears were reinstanted in the 1950s with a gift from the Leipzig Zoo. Benno and Bea, who are brother and sister, are the latest residents, having lived here since 2013. We only saw one of them, but I can't tell you which one.

GERMANY: A LUFTHANSA AND SIXT NIGHTMARE

 May 15-17, 2025

How we ended up going to Germany this year is a long story that I will tell in a future post, but it has to do with the murder of my grandfather by the Nazis in 1940 and a diligent researcher and writer who cleared up several mysteries, fleshed out my grandfather's past and made him real for the first time for my siblings and me, and arranged to have him honored with a stolperstein. It is a great story.

But all that will come later. For now, suffice it say that my four siblings and I, four of our spouses, one of my nephews, and one of our cousins all converged in the small village of Giengen, our mother's birthplace, on May 20 for a five-day emotional journey into our family's past. Before I get to that, I want to cover several days that we spent traveling in eastern Germany with my sister Chris and her husband Stan.

So back to the very beginning of this trip, which didn't start out well. Prepare yourself for lots of complaining and very few photos. I want to make sure I have a record of what happened, and this blog is where I keep those kinds of records.

We were booked on a Lufthansa flight from Los Angeles to Frankfurt (where we planned to meet up with my sister Chris and brother-in-law Stan) followed by a connecting flight from Frankfurt to Dresden, where we had a rental car reserved. Our initial flight was delayed almost 2.5 hours, which caused us to miss our connecting flight. Delayed flights happen all the time, but what compounded the frrustration was that when we realized we would likely  miss the connecting flight, we first tried to work with customer service via phone to book a new connection fliight. After the FULL HOUR it took us to get to the right person, we were told there were no later connecting flights, even though we could see one online that said it had four seats available. They told us we would have to take a flight the next morning, which was unacceptable because of a tour we had booked and paid for in Dresden that was happening prior to the flight they were telling us to book would arrive. 

The agent finally told us to talk to the people at the desk. When we did that, we were told there were seven or eight connecting flights, all with available seating, that could get us to Dresden on the same day as our original flight, but they would not book one for us because they felt there was a chance we would make the original flight. Believing we had many options once we arrived in Frankfurt, we felt better about the situation and stopped trying to book a new connecting flight.

Our flight arrived in Frankfurt about 15 minutes before the connecting flight to Dresden was due to leave. No one was available to direct us to the connecting flight--we were totally on our own. Of course, it was in a different terminal and we had to go through passport control and security since we had just entered the EU. Chris and Stan had arrived earlier and were sitting on the plane to Dresden, updating us on its status. It was running a bit late, and we ran through the airport, but the plane had pulled away from the gate by the time we got there.

We next went to the Lufthansa Customer Service desk, which of course was in another part of the aiport. There were only two agents working, and we waited for almost an hour before our turn came up. The agent said there were no flights that could get us to Dresden until one that left at 9:00 the following morning. We could only surmise that the agent at LAX had lied to us to get us off his back. Based on a tour we had scheduled in Dresden (and paid 600 euro for) and a pre-paid hotel room that was too late to cancel, and because my sister and brother-in-law were already in Dresden and relying on us for transportation and connection to the tour, that was unacceptable. The agent agreed that our best option if we had to get to Dresden by morning was to drive there. 

We went to the Sixt desk in the car rental area. They said they were able to cancel our Sixt car reservation in Dresden and rented us a car  in Frankfurt and even gave us a nice upgrade for close to what we would have paid in Dresden. So nice!  We picked up a car from them and drove for about six hours to get to Dresden that night, already jet-lagged from the long flight, arriving at our hotel at 1:30 AM. The tank of gas it took us to get there cost an additonal 90 euro, but we thought it was worth it. However, when we got home to California after the trip, we discovered that the other car reservation had in fact NOT been cancelled after all ,and we were charged for both rentals. Of course, Sixt blamed Travelocity and Travelocity blamed Sixt and Bob could never get through to anyone who could help him resolve the issue. 

We got on the road at about 7:00 PM. Luckily there was still some light, and we were able to enjoy the beautiful scenery of rural Germany for an hour or two.

About halfway through the drive when we were desperate for a bathroom stop, the Golden Arches never looked so good.

Another stop at a gas station yielded more treats. I passed up the Schnitzel Box Texas Style in favor of a Magnum Classic. Wise choice, I think.

That gas station, by the say, had the most innovative toilet seat cleaning system I've ever seen.  See a short video here.

Sometime during the manic drive through the night to Dresden, we got an email and a text from Lufthansa informing us that we had been rebooked on the 9:00 AM flight from Frankfurt to Dresden the next day, but as we had worked out our driving plan with the Lufthansa customer service agent, we didn't worry about that. Imagine our surprise when the next day we were notified that our return flight from Frankfurt to Los Angeles in 9 days had been cancelled since we didn't make the flight from Frankfurt to Dresden. That customer service agent who helped us in Frankfurt and suggested that we DRIVE to Dresden did not tell us that our return flight to Los Angeles might get cancelled if we skipped out on the connecting flight. It took another 1.5 hours on the phone to resolve that issue. First we called Lufthansa, who told us to talk to Travelocity, who told us to talk to Lufthanbsa. A Lufthansa agent was finally able to reinstate our flight home, but only after we spent far too much of our precious time on the phone.

We are frequent international travelers, and this experience ranks as one of the worst we have had with an international flight. We understand the flights are sometimes unavoidably delayed, but overall, we were left without clear guidance, faced long waiting times, and encountered unhelpful and untruthful staff. I wrote a detailed letter of complaint to Lufthansa, expecting at least some frequent flier miles and perhaps even a flight voucher, but they brushed off my complaints without acknowledging any culpability on their end. I wrote a second letter, which garnered a curt reply. It's the most dismissive response I have ever had to a letter of complaint.

We really expected better from Lufthansa. 

That's the bad news. The good news is that the rest of the trip was AMAZING, but this experience did leave us with less than loving feelings for both Lufthansa, Sixt, and Travelocity. We will be doing our best to avoid all three in the future.

INDIA, JAIPUR: JANTAR MANTAR, THE CITY PALACE OF JAIPUR, AND GOING HOME

 December 30, 2025

Driving through the urban areas of India is always interesting. I find myself wishing I could see these buildings when they were new, and I wonder who has lived in them and what stories they can tell.

The same goes for the people. Their lives are so different than ours, and yet we find common ground when we talk with them. It is hard for me to envision living in their shoes.

In Jaipur, there was beauty of some kind on every corner.

There was also plenty that made us smile, like this anti-drinking-and-driving signage.

We had a new guide, and our first destination of the morning was the Jantar Mantar, an observatory completed in 1734. 

INDIA, JAIPUR: CITY TOUR

  December 29, 2025

We don't usually believe in quitting while the sun is still shining, so we ended the day with a city tour of Jaipur, led by a new guide booked through Audley Travel. His day job is teaching high school, and he was great!

Jaipur, by the way, is the capital and largest city in the northwestern state of Rajasthan. With a population of over three million, it is also the 10th largest city in the entire country. It is known as the "Pink City" due to the dominant pink color of the buildings in the old city. Along with Delhi and Agra, it is part of what is known as the "Golden Triangle" tourist circuit.

Jaipur appears in popular western culture. Paul McCartney wrote a song entitled "Riding into Jaipur" that is mostly Indian-themed sitar music with just a few words: "Riding into Jaipur, Riding through the night, Riding with my baby, Oh what a delight."  The city is also the setting for the 2011 movie The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and its 2015 sequel, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

We began at the Hawa Mahal, or "Palace of Winds," built in 1799 from red and pink sandstone by the grandson of the founder of the city. The palace has 953 windows. The iconic view that we saw is actually the BACK of the palace!

It's always good to start off with a snack (or two), and our guide waited in line for this fried something  (I can't remember what), served to us on a used page from a child's workbook, and then another treat served on a leaf. 

INDIA, JAIPUR: THE SAMODE HAVELI HERITAGE HOTEL AND THE AMBER FORT

 December 29, 2024

It is about 150 miles from Agra to Jaipur via Fatehpur Sikri, and altogether the drive took us almost five hours. Again, we were so glad we had a large van with AC and a very experienced driver. By the time we arrived at our hotel, we were worn out and the day was pretty much over.

Bob had booked rooms in a five-star hotel, the Samode Haveli, which was initially built in the 16th century as a fort but was converted into a palace in the early 19th century by Samode Haveli, the Prime Minister of Jaipur. In 1987 it was converted again, but this time into what is called a "Heritage Hotel," which is a building that has historical or architectural significance and has been made into a hotel. Heritage hotels are usually tied in some way to royalty, nobility, or prominent families.

It is gorgeous inside, but the hallways are a maze and we got lost a couple of times on our first day there. It was a little like wandering the back alleys of Delhi, but on a very grand scale!

INDIA, AGRA: FATEHPUR SIKRI

 December 28, 2025

On our way to our final destination, the city of Jaipur, we passed through some beautiful rural areas. This looks like a field of mustard, one of India's argricultural products.

We had time for a stop at Fatehpur Sikri, the capital of the Mughal Empire from 1571 to 1585 under Emperor Akbar. Fatehpur Sikri means "City of Victory."  However, the city was completely abandoned in the early 17th century. 

The East India Company took it over in the early 19th century and began some restoration projects. It was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986, which means it had additional funding for more restoration.

We were used to seeing cows roaming the streets in the big cities, and we had seen monkeys on the approach to the Taj Mahal, but this was our first experience with feral pigs foraging through the trash.

INDIA, AGRA: THE TAJ MAHAL AND A STONE FACTORY

 December 28, 2024

Before our trip, when we told anyone we were going to India, their first question was, "Are you going to see the Taj Mahal?" Yes, of course! This UNESCO World Heritage Site is the #1 tourist attraction in India (although it is being overtaken by a city I haven't heard of--Ayodhya--308 miles to the east). UNESCO declared it "the jewel of Islamic art in India and one of the universally recognized masterpieces of the world's heritage." It was also named one of the "New 7 Wonders of the World" in 2001. Taj Mahal is Hindi for "Crown Palace." It is interesting to note that out of the 7 to 8 million visitors it hosted in 2024, less than 1 million were international tourists and the rest were domestic.

To get to "the Taj," as it is fondly called, you first have to pass through the Monkey Guard, a long walk from the parking area to the Taj itself that is guarded by aggressive macaque monkeys.

There are a lot of them, both underfoot . . . 

. . . and overhead.

Tourists are given plenty of warning to use caution around the monkeys. The sign at right has five bullet points of advice. I should have paid more attention to the one that says "Don't make direct eye contact with monkeys." More on that at the end of this post.

INDIA, AGRA: THE ITIMAD-UD-DAULAH OR "BABY TAJ"

 December 27, 2024

Between the Agra Fort and our next destination, we passed a few interesting things on the street, including this man on horse back (left) who I think is Shivaji I, a 17th century Indidan ruler. The guy in the right peering in our van window is a bit scary, don't you think?

I think that is a mechanic's shop on the left with it's very own domed verandah. It's hard to believe that the "Hotel Alleviate" (right) could offer anything better.

This little roadside stand selling water and cigarettes had a sign that said "Try unmatched quality." It also had monkeys on the roof.

We saw more monkeys on a roof and in a tree when we got to our destination the Itimad-ud-Daulah, locally known as the "Baby Taj."

INDIA: BACK TO DELHI AND ON TO AGRA'S RED FORT

 December 26-27, 2024

Our next destination was Agra, home to the world-renowned Taj Majal, but to get there from Varanasi we had to fly to Delhi, spend the night, then sit four hours in a minivan to drive 150 miles, which gives you an idea of what the roads are like in India.

Fortunately, we had another luxury stay in Delhi in the Marriott Hotel. It wins the prize for the most beautiful lobby.

I was intrigued by this Christmas display with a griffin in the center, but I have since learned that the griffin is the Marriott Hotel's custom logo found in their hotels throughout the world.

Like almost all of our upper-end hotels, this one had a doorman in traditional dress. I don't know if this is a British colonial thing or a truly Indian culture thing. I suspect it is the former.

About half-way through the long drive we made a bathroom and snack stop.  I like how this bathrooms are labeled "Public Conveniences." 

KFC, Pizza Hut, and Subway are regular fast food places in India. No thanks. I grabbed something (I can't remember what) from the Indian fast food restaurant Vaango!

We arrived at the Agra Fort (aka Red Fort) in the early afternoon. I think it was the most spectacular thing we had seen up until this point in our trip. The initial stages of the fort were built in the early 1500s, and it was the main residence of the Mughal emperors from the time of its construction until 1638, which is when the capital was shifted from Agra to Delhi. It is where the most famous Mughal emperors, Humayun and Akbar, were crowned in 1565 and 1573, respectively. (It was Akbar's grandson who built the Taj Mahal just 1.6 miles from this site in 1648.) The Agra Fort was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983.