Day 4, Wednesday April 17th! Here’s my short recap from Instagram:

On Day 4 (April 17) we drove from Dresden to Leipzig to meet up with my good friend Katja and her kids. It was our first time meeting in person (as it was with Anita in the Netherlands!) and everything just clicked and we got on like old friends (which also happened with Anita) – because we are! Just internet friends.

We had a lovely day exploring Leipzig, touring the Bach Museum, eating lots of yummy food, and chatting. We made so many special memories 🥹 Katja and her children are wonderful and it was so hard to say goodbye, but I’m also so grateful we got all that time together ❤️

I will keep saying this – it’s really hard to share the feeling of joy and contentment I felt meeting my friends in person and getting to spend so much time with them. My heart is still so full!

FINDING BREAKFAST

On Wednesday we were almost halfway through our trip so that meant… laundry time! We dropped off laundry with the hotel in the morning before we left for the day.

Steven found a coffee place to try, so we walked there and got him a coffee, then walked to Starbucks, were I got some vegan pastries, then we ended up getting him a croissant from a different coffee shop right in front of the hotel, then it was in to the rental car (our hotel had a garage we used), and off to Leipzig – about an hour and a half drive.

Let’s talk about Starbucks in Europe. MOST OF THEM HAD ONE OR MORE VEGAN TREATS. Like, legit stuff! I got the Apfelkuchen (apple cake) and Zitronen-Schnitte (lemon bar?). Both delish. Later, in Brussels, I got the vegan cookie. Here in the US, we have a bagel that happens to be vegan. Sigh. Anyway.

DRIVING ON THE AUTOBAHN

Once we got out of Dresden, a lot of the driving was on the portion of the Autobahn that doesn’t have a set speed limit. Our max speed was about 170 kph (around 105 mph), but Steven was mostly driving under that. From the passenger perspective, it was nice – we got over in the left to pass people, then back in the right. Traffic flowed right along. I enjoyed looking at the beautiful countryside while Steven drove.

Ha, there was a moment when we were passing on the left and two BMWs came up out of nowhere, but they didn’t flash their lights or anything. (The BMW stereotypes are true! We noticed it as soon as we got into Germany the day before.)

And there was a time we accidentally passed when we weren’t supposed to, because I couldn’t look up the road sign fast enough. But we didn’t make that mistake again.

There was a lot of traffic in downtown Leipzig, but we were able to park in a parking garage right by our first destination of the day – the Bach Museum. (As a heads up, if you find yourself driving in Germany, some cities, like Leipzig, have low-emission zones that require a sticker to enter. Our rental car had one, otherwise, we could have parked outside of the city and taken the tram in.)

BACH STUFF

A close friend of Steven’s raved about all the Bach (as in the composer) stuff in Leipzig, and Steven’s mom played the organ and was into classical music, so Steven is peripherally interested in it. Therefore, our first stop was at the Bach Museum, where we were meeting Katja and her daughter.

Katja is rock painting friend I connected with on Instagram and have been corresponding with for years. I admire her so much – she gives her all in everything she does – the love for her family and friends, her work, her art, her amazing garden, her community involvement… I could go on and on. She’s very thoughtful and such a special person in my life.

I know she is a bit shy and wondered if my extroverted-ness would be too much for her, but it wasn’t (as far as I can tell, ha!) and we immediately clicked. It felt like connecting with a long lost sister.

Her daughter really wanted to meet me too, and Katja got special permission to take her out of school. As her daughter pointed out, it was a very educational day – practicing English, learning about music, learning about history, and getting lots of steps in. Can’t argue with that! Gosh, her daughter is so outgoing and brings so much energy (she reminds me of me when I was a kid). It was lovely to spend the day with her as well.

Also, randomly, Katja’s son was on a field trip to this town, so we got to meet and spend time with him too. That worked out so well! He was great too!

Gosh, let’s get this show on the road, Kim.

Thomaskirche, where Bach is buried

So we walk up to the museum and Katja’s daughter comes running at me “Hi Kim! I love you! I am so happy you’re here!” and gives me a big hug. It made my day and made me feel like a celebrity. She was so loving and sweet. (Random story: the day before this, Steven and I were talking to each other about whether or not someone could learn another language by watching shows in that language, and that is how Katja’s daughter learned English, initially – from a YouTube show in English! Impressive! Katja said she asked her why she was watching in a language she didn’t know, and she told her she understood, so Katja asked her to translate what they were saying to German, and she could!)

The museum was nice! A lot of information, that I mostly skimmed, some interactive displays that were fun, etc. etc.

We went into the church and saw where Bach was buried. Unfortunately we didn’t get to hear the organ. It started to rain when we came out of the church and it rained on and off for most of the day. It wasn’t a downpour, so I never got our umbrella out, just felt a bit damp most of the time.

VAPIANO

We picked up Katja’s son and headed to Vapiano where we all got pizza for lunch and enjoyed sitting down, drying off, and chatting.

Steven and I split this pizza and a salad

Katja had a bunch of presents for me, including Lindt vegan chocolate, which I did not know was a thing and was delicious! Do we have this in the states and I am just not seeing it? WHAT THE HECK. SO SO GOOD.

I didn’t even know I liked hazelnut (and that it would not give me headaches). Maybe I just like European hazelnut. 

I had a few gifts for her, including this rock

WANDERING LEIPZIG

After lunch, we wandered around, which is what we love to do!

We found MORE vegan Lindt chocolate, so of course, I purchased a few more flavors to try!

Goethe Statue

We randomly found a vegan restaurant called Swing Kitchen, and split the fries and nuggets (Katja’s son is vegetarian).

We saw a group of choir kids singing (Tainted Love, if I recall correctly) and saw a bagpiper too. Katja’s daughter was so cute – she went up to the guy playing a bongo (?) with the bagpiper and asked him if he was going to the choir kids’ concert that night. Ha. Leipzig was fun and lively!

We generally just enjoyed wandering around, stopping in places, and chatting! At one point we stopped for caffeine (we were getting really yawny – Steven had coffee and I had a chai) and before we knew it, it was almost 5:00 and time to say goodbye! They were catching the 5:30 train back home and we were going to the 5:00 concert service at Nikolaikirche in hopes to hear the organ (Spoiler, they only played the piano, blah. The organs are massive and impressive, which is why we wanted to hear them! We didn’t get a photo of them, but you can see them here.).

Saying goodbye was really hard. I felt pretty emotional. We did all our hugs and said goodbye then walked away then Katja and I turned and looked at each other at the same time with sad faces. Sigh. It’s hard when your people live so far away. But amazing we can still chat every day on WhatsApp. And that we got to meet at all! (But really, you realize how much more awesome they are in person after you meet and that forever changes your interactions because you know it would be so much better in person! Anyway.)

MORE WANDERING

After the church service, we wandered a bit more. I stopped to get ice cream Goldhelm Schokolade, which Katja recommended (Steven got some chocolate there for his office and said it’s some of the best chocolate he’s ever had).

PARKING GARAGE TROUBLE

Then, it was time to retrieve the car and drive back. I was really proud of us for being able to even find the car, since we parked underground and exited into a random mall (I took a photo of the store I saw across from the exit we walked out of).

We got into our car and went to exit and the machine would not take any of the credit cards we gave it after putting our ticket in. We tried inserting our cards, tapping them, pressing the call button for help, and nothing worked.

Eventually, I went to the car behind me and asked them in German if they spoke English (they did) then told them what was going on. Their first question was if we validated our ticket. Um, nope, oops. We didn’t even think to check for that and walked right by the machine to do it!

The person behind us was SO nice and reversed so we could, then I went to the machine and paid. But… it was all in German, so I thought I paid? I didn’t have my phone with me to use Google Translate (derp) so I asked the person behind me if it seemed like I did it right? They said they thought so…

I was just worried we’d get to the gate again and have to reverse and try again! But we finally got out. Gah. A dumb mistake we can laugh about now (right, Steven?).

When we tell our European friends this story, they’re like, yeah, that is how all parking garages are here. And they are often that way in the states too! You just notice the big signs that say “pay before you leave” in English… we missed them in German! We won’t make that mistake again.

After that the drive was fine! We did see the aftermath of a nutso accident on the highway going the opposite direction that had the lanes backed up for miles. Sad.

VEGAN DÖNER

We got back to Dresden after 8:00 and drove right to dinner, which was in the same neighborhood as the night before.

The one thing Steven wanted to eat in Germany was vegan döner kebab. Döner is meat roasted on a vertical spit, then shaved off and served in on bread with lettuce, various fresh vegetables, and one of several different sauces. It’s Turkish and has become very popular in Germany. It’s similar to a gyro but with different bread (I think the bread is what is unique about the Turkish style sandwich)

I wasn’t familiar with it, and therefore wasn’t super pumped (I was also hitting the slap happy portion of the night), so I was just going along with it.

THEN IT ENDED UP BEING ONE THE BEST THINGS I’VE EVER EATEN. For real.

We went to Der Dicke Schmidt, and he got the seitan kebab style open face sandwich with tzatziki, and I got the gyro soy style one with herb sauce, and… I don’t even know how to describe it. At first I was just picking at the top of it, because it was so big! Everything went together perfectly, and the fake meat was amazing.

Then I got to the bread. OMG. That bread. It was so thick and delicious, and eating the toppings on the bread took it to ANOTHER LEVEL. I honestly wish we would have gone back the next night. It was freaking AMAZING. Hands down one of the best things I’ve EVER eaten. SO SO SO SO GOOD. CRY.

We passed a grocery store as we were walking back so I went in to look for Saure Katzen – a candy Katja sometimes sends me. I didn’t find any, but found some vegan Katjes (a brand there – confusing how close it is to Katja’s name!) to buy.

FINALLY BACK TO THE HOTEL

We got back well after 10:00. We were night owls in Europe! Okay, that is late for ME. Maybe not for other people. But anyway, it allowed us to do so much!

We wound down and I was asleep by midnight. Before we went to bed I told Steven Thursday was our ONE day we didn’t have plans or anything to do and that we should sleep in. I told him I was going to run whenever I woke up, and if he woke up before me, to let me keep sleeping. I got 8.5 hours of sleep! The most I got on the trip! More than I usually get at home. It was amazing.