Last year my parents happened to be visiting us in Zürich from New York during Thanksgiving.  ”How perfect,” we all said.  We would recreate the holiday meal chez nous and uphold our family traditions – play the same music we play every year while we cook (Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, and very loud), decorate the table together, put my mother in charge of her famous noodle pudding, and bake a turkey with all the trimmings.  Not taking any risks, my mom packed her suitcase in New York with Pennsylvania Dutch extra wide egg noodles (the only ones she has ever used in her highly-prized recipe), Thanksgiving themed napkins and table decorations, real American brown sugar, even her favorite canned pineapple to assure authenticity.  Sounds like the plans were laid to go on without a hitch…

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Wherever I am traveling, you can be sure there will be a visit to a local market.  I love to see the array of colorful products, how they are put on display, how the locals interact with the market vendors and more.  Back to Zurich from my recent travels, I went right to the market here to see what had changed.  And there it was, the newest addition, telling me that the holiday season is truly not far away.  Mistletoe is back, and Christmas decorations are soon to follow.  A perfect way to follow the seasons and the holidays, taste your way around the market (and the world), discovering products you may not find at home, wherever your home may be…

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You have just gotten a small dose of Berlin’s history and culture here, reading about the Berlin Wall and the little green Ampelmann, as well as the sheer magnitude of museums you can visit.  But you’ve got to eat too!  Aside from the obligatory currywurst you’ll grab at the city’s omnipresent stands, there are tons of restaurants serving up traditional German cuisine, regional specialties, or spots where chefs are bringing in a bit of creativity – and perhaps lightening things up a bit in the process too.

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I hope you have all been able to catch some of the coverage on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, either from the links from the previous post or on television.  Certainly no shortage of the latter.

For those of you planning a trip to Berlin, if you like museums, you’re in luck.  There are almost 200 in Berlin, satisfying your interests in art, culture, history and/or religion, among other curiosities.  Below you’ll see just a few highlights from my short visit to the city, plus one museum that is a must, if only for the fact that you won’t find it anywhere else in the world other than Berlin.  Any guesses? Read the rest of this story >>

If you turn on the television or glance at a newsstand in just about any city lately, it would be hard to miss the coverage on Berlin.  This month marks the 20th anniversary of the falling of the Berlin Wall.  It was on November 9, 1989 that the wall came down. A wall that was put up by the GDR (German Democratic Republic) to stop East Berliners from escaping.  They were fleeing by the thousands per day, trying to go from Soviet-controlled East Germany to the West, which was then occupied by the Americans, British and French.  I was lucky to visit Berlin and learn about the history up close – stand in front of the last remnants of the wall, watch select artists make their statements and especially follow the parallel lines of cobblestones that trace where the wall was.  To me that was a powerful sight. Read the rest of this story >>