A Lady in London

When my flight landed at Dusseldorf airport the border agent asked me why I was visiting Germany. “The Christmas markets in Cologne,” I told him. “Ugh. Why do all you foreigners like them so much?” he asked. I was nervous. The seven Christmas markets in Cologne were famous all over the world, and yet the first person I met when I arrived suggested they were overrated. Was it true? Had I flown all the way to Germany to be disappointed?

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Everyone loves Hamburg. Most of my friends have been there on business, and they all come back raving about the beautiful parts of the city they explore between meetings. After hearing about my friends’ travels for the millionth time, I finally decided to go on my own Hamburg travels to see for myself.

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The New York Times is stalking me. It must be. At least the travel section, anyway. Why else would it always publish an article or a “top places to visit this year” list featuring a place to which I just booked a trip? First it happened with Namibia. Then Sri Lanka. Then Santiago. And finally Dresden.

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Last November I went to the World Travel Market, a big London travel trade show. In the three days I was there, I gallivanted around the globe, visiting countries from Africa to Asia and beyond.

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My first ever beer wasn’t the normal American first-beer experience. It wasn’t a light beer in a 12 ounce can that tasted more like water than malt and hops. It wasn’t at a high school prom party or a college frat party. No, it wasn’t any of those things. In fact, it was quite the opposite. It was a full-flavored Bavarian beer. It was served by a hearty German waitress in a dirndl at the Hofbräuhaus in Munich. And it came in a glass mug that measured a liter in volume. It was a serious beer.

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My boyfriend’s 77-year-old grandmother is quite the jet setter. With half her year spent in South Carolina and the other half spent near Dusseldorf, she thinks nothing of road tripping across America or traveling in Europe when she’s in Germany. Impressive.

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Last year a small polar bear named Knut was born at the Berlin Zoo. Cute and cuddly, the bear stole the hearts of people all over the world when its mother rejected it and the zoo raised it by hand. Fast forward a year and Knut is no longer the adorable ball of fur that the world knew him to be. He grew up to be a regular polar bear, still cute, but not that cute.

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