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Volvo, Mark Knopfler, and East German adventures… part nine

Saturday was our last full day in Leipzig.  To be honest, I was feeling kind of ready to go home.  I always look forward to vacations, especially long ones that involve different cities and countries other than the ones that immediately border Germany.  But usually, after about a week, I start to feel tired of being away from home.  I miss my dogs.  I miss having access to my desktop computer, which is a lot easier to write on.  I miss making music.  I also miss having plenty of clean underwear, even though I usually pack enough to take care of me even if I were to hypothetically shit in them every day.

I have a bad habit of packing too much stuff I won’t wear.  For instance, this last trip, I packed two dresses in case we decided to go somewhere nice for dinner.  I packed jewelry, which I never bothered to wear.  I packed an extra bathing suit, which I might have used if I had gone to the pool at our Copenhagen hotel.  But I almost never go to the pool unless it means visiting an awesome spa, like at the Upper House.  Meanwhile, I should have packed more pants and a couple more long sleeved shirts.  I should have brought a sweater or a jacket, although I did bring a wrap.

Making matters worse was the fact that the gin and tonics I had the night before were reminding me I’m a long way from being 21.  And… somehow during the night, I got bitten by something.  I had three red, swollen blotches on my right leg.  They didn’t itch, but they were kind of painful.  Nevertheless, Bill and I took a walk and visited St. Peter’s Church, whose steeple I had seen in the distance.  It looked like a beautiful church.  We walked in the direction of the old building, which took us through a decidedly poorer neighborhood that was heavily littered with trash and large piles of feces that, I hope, came from dogs and not people.

The church was beautiful, but looked like it could use some work.  The interior looked a bit careworn, like maybe not enough tourists had come out to donate money.  It was a bit of a walk from the center of town.  But the windows were pretty, and I could see the skeleton of the building was very graceful and strong.  It looked like it had a good foundation.  When we arrived, it appeared that they were setting up for a concert.

Linoleum floor.  Had seen better days.

Interesting clouds.  Looks almost like a Monet painting.

Indeed, there was a concert going on.  Benjamin Britten is graduate level music.

I was impressed by this BARF market for dogs.  BARF is basically raw food that some dog owners swear by.  If my dogs didn’t have mast cell tumor issues, I might try it myself.

My leg was starting to hurt, as was my lower back.  We sat down on a bench near the St. Thomas Church, where Bach used to play his organ.  I took a picture of my bites and shared it with friends.  My German friend, Susanne, recommended that I go to an Apotheke (druggist) to see if they could give me something for the swelling and itching.  That was a very good recommendation.

Ow…

This place was near the main drag and it was obviously open.  When we went in, it was empty.  The young guy behind the counter took one look at my leg and said, “What happened to you?” in perfect English.  I explained that something bit me.  He fixed me up in a jiffy.


I left with antihistamine drops and cortizone cream.  I didn’t know the drops were antihistamines until after I took them… and then started drinking wine with lunch.  Still, I was impressed, because he got me some water and measured the dose for me in the pharmacy, like I was a kid.  And while we were in there, the place filled up.

We decided to have lunch at Cafe Madrid, since someone in the Facebook wine group recommended it.  Spanish food sounded good to us.  I thought maybe we’d have tapas, but I was a bit overwhelmed by all the choices.  I ended up having a pork filet and Bill had a shrimp salad.

So colorful.  My only complaint was that the vegetables included mushrooms.  I wish I had known…  The potatoes were very good.  They were heavily salted and served Canarian style, which seemed to mean they came with a very flavorful, garlicky green sauce.  The pork was Iberico and not bad.  It came with a port wine sauce.

 

Bill enjoyed his huge shrimp and avocado salad… and he was happy to eat the mushrooms that came with my dish. 

Lots of choices.  If we ever go back to Leipzig and eat here, we’ll be sure to get the tapas.

 

I got a kick out of the “peeing bull” in the restaurant.

As we were finishing lunch, I told Bill that I needed to lie down.  Wine and antihistamines equals nap time.  Sure enough, that’s what I did for three hours.  When I woke up, my leg looked like this.

Much better.  It’s not quite totally healed yet.  There’s still a little pain, but there’s no itching and the redness and swelling are gone.  I just hope that wasn’t caused by bedbugs and I especially hope we didn’t bring them into our house.

 

But the next morning, Bill found this under his pillow.  It was crushed and dead, but clearly some kind of insect.  He never got bitten and those were my only bites.  Still, it kind of gives one the willies.  I was very impressed by the help I got at the Apotheke, though.  That guy took great care of me.

We went to Morrison’s Traditional Irish Pub, where we were served by hardworking Germans who were busy, but willing to take care of us.  The food was good, and the service was better.  They brought out the wrong order, but were quick to correct the mistake with a smile and a good attitude.

Bill had fish & chips…  The chips were especially good.  I stole several of them.

I had a duck salad.  I don’t usually go for salad, and this was probably a better choice than what I was hoping to have at another restaurant.  It was very good, and reasonably priced.  We were happy to reward the much better staff with a good tip.

Gay pride!  Leipzig is full of it.  We saw lots of gay pride flags during our visit.

 

We were about to go back into the hotel when I heard what sounded like a man on trumpet playing David Soul’s “Don’t Give Up On Us, Baby.”  It turned out he was playing a flugelhorn and the song was “Can You Feel The Love Tonight” by Elton John.  The guy playing piano was excellent.  I could tell he was influenced by Elton John.  After that number, he did a solo rendition of ABBA’s “The Winner Takes It All”.

Cool looking show.  Toilet paper always gets my attention.

 

After we listened to a couple of songs, we went back to the hotel and had a nightcap, then went to bed.  The next morning, after breakfast, we decided to check out and head home.  Bill discreetly spoke to the reception about the critter we found under his pillow that might have been the culprit for my welts.  We didn’t ask for anything, just wanted to alert them to a potential problem and give them a chance to check the room before someone else gets bitten and raises hell.  I’m still praying that wasn’t a bedbug and none of its friends stowed away in the luggage.

The guy who handled our bags was very funny.  He spoke fluent English and said he’d lived in Chicago fifteen years ago.  He wondered why we’d choose to live in Germany.  Is he kidding?  As we were dishing about Mark Knopfler, he confidentially mentioned that his hotel was where the rock stars like to stay.  I’ll keep that in mind.

The drive home was uneventful and pleasant.  It took maybe four hours or so, not counting breaks.  Bill dropped me off and went to the commissary to buy food while I did laundry and started this blog series.  Then he went to get Zane and Arran, who were definitely glad to be home.  I’m always so glad and relieved to see my dogs, but they always need a good brushing.  They don’t get petted as much when they get boarded and need to shed.

Next month, we’ll take another big trip… another whisky cruise in Scotland.  This time, we’re starting in Invergordon and sailing over the top of Scotland to Oban.  I am praying I don’t get norovirus.  Stay tuned.

All in all, this was a very fun trip.  It lived up to our expectations and, in some ways, really exceeded them.  I’m so glad we were able to combine our trip to get our new car with our trip to see Mark Knopfler.  A lot of really cool things happened during our week of travel… it was almost surreal how much cool stuff happened.  And yeah, I got bitten and we ran into an asshole at a bar, but we saw a rock star and traveled in style.  And nobody died…  I’d say it was a big success overall.  Thanks for joining me on my odyssey.

Leipzig is a really lovely city with an unusual vibe.

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Volvo, Mark Knopfler, and East German adventures… part eight

Friday morning, we got up and had breakfast.  The Steigenberger has a pretty good buffet offered, though I somehow missed half of it on the first morning.  My only complaint, besides the coffee being kind of bad, is that some of the chairs were a bit narrow.  I don’t have a skinny butt by any means, but I can’t help but think of those larger than me trying to sit down.  Even Bill, who isn’t a large man, commented on the “snug” feel of the mauve colored chairs in the breakfast room.  However, on the last day, we sat in the black ones, and they were a lot more comfortable.

After breakfast, we walked around Leipzig, enjoying the energy of the place.  I wish I had done a bit more research before we arrived in town, since there are some interesting churches and museums there that we missed.

A big day in Leipzig’s history.  Once behind the East German borders, Leipzig is now a freewheeling, vibrant city.  Although the first demonstrations happened the previous month, it started to become that way on October 9, 1989, when there was a huge peaceful demonstration among the people of Leipzig.  It was just after the 40th anniversary of the GDR’s existence.  For two years, there were Monday demonstrations in Leipzig, demanding change for the people.

 

This was just outside St. Nicholas Church, which is a Lutheran church where protesters gathered.  We didn’t get a chance to look inside the church, since they were doing renovations.

Like Rostock, Leipzig also has a university.  It’s one of the world’s oldest universities and the second oldest in Germany, having been founded on December 2, 1409.  Leipzig University was one of the first in Germany to allow women as “guest students”.  During the Nazi era, many Jews had their degrees “cancelled”.  Some were reinstated during the East German era.

 

Leipzig’s “Hochhaus”, a 36 story skyscraper…  probably the only real one in Leipzig.  The building, which was erected between 1968 and 1972, was designed by architect Herman Henselmann to look like an open book.  It was originally part of Leipzig University, but was later sold to the city, which then sold it to the U.S. investment bank, Merrill Lynch.  The offices are rented to tenants and the top floor has an observation platform, as well as a restaurant called Panorama.

 

After strolling through some of Leipzig’s beautifully constructed passages, we had a nice Greek lunch at Alfa Restaurant.

 

Bean soup… I guess it came with the meal.

 

Obligatory shot of Bill.

 

Salads…

 

Bill had gyros with fries and t’zatziki.

 

I had “surf and turf”, which was gyros with fried calamari and tomato rice.  This was a lot of food, but it was well prepared and the waiter was very nice.

 

The sun briefly came out, so we decided to go back to the wine fest, where we tried more wines… In retrospect, we probably should have gone to museums instead.  But what can I say?  We like our wine.

But soon the clouds were out again…

Most of the wines were German, but some weren’t.  The ones above were from the lone Hungarian vintner who attended.

 

Although I got us a parking spot for the Mark Knopfler concert, Bill decided he’d rather hire a cab to take us to the show.  We also wanted to get there early, remembering what happened when we saw Elton John in Stuttgart back in May.  I had ordered “special tickets”, which got us assigned seats, a wurst and a beer at the snack bar, and a parking spot.  I didn’t actually know where we’d be sitting, since the seats were assigned by the ticket outlet.  Well… it turned out we were on the third row on the ground floor.  They were AWESOME seats, especially since there weren’t any big screens.  Here are a few pictures from Knopfler’s show in Leipzig.  I see I can also order a recording of the Leipzig show in a few weeks.  Genius!

The arena.

The view before the show started.

There he is…

 

He had a wonderful band… although Knopfler himself looked a bit tired at first.  He perked up as the show went on and put on a great performance.  

 

I could not keep my eyes off of these two guys, who were playing multiple instruments so well.  They looked and sounded like they were plucked from some lovely meadow in Ireland or Scotland and recruited to follow Knopfler.  

 

I did not record any part of Knopfler’s show, but I want to mention that he has no objections to people audio recording or taking pictures, so long as they are for personal use.  I think that is a very generous and ultimately smart policy, because people are going to do it anyway and it’s pretty much impossible to police.  Hell, even at The Eagles’ concert, where they specifically asked for no cameras, people were openly recording.  Knopfler does state that iPads and video recording isn’t allowed.  People ignored that rule.

The sax player was badass, too.  He was so good… especially on “Your Latest Trick”, which is one of my favorite Dire Straits songs.

 

I loved that Mark Knopfler was showing off the band and obviously really appreciating what they can do.  I also liked that he shared a couple of personal stories about the songs he played… just a sampling of his amazing catalog of Dire Straits and solo efforts.  I’d been wanting to see him for years and this show was worth the wait. 

 

Security was mostly very good at this show.  I noticed a lot of them sitting on the floor, making sure no one misbehaved or sneaked into areas they shouldn’t be.  This was how it went until the very end of the concert, when a huge swath of people suddenly surged to the stage.  Everyone was forced to stand up.  I can deal with that and expect it… but not this.

This barefoot tall twit got up on her chair…

and started dancing while filming… and I couldn’t help but hope she fell into an open manhole on her way home…  Seriously, I was really pissed.  She could have fallen and hurt someone (namely me), plus who can see when people do this shit?  It’s just very inconsiderate and potentially dangerous behavior.  I was half tempted to yank her chair out from under her.  But while I may fume a lot, I have pretty good control of my physical impulses.

 After the show, Bill was unsuccessful in getting a cab.  We ended up walking all the way back to the hotel.  I was really pissed about that, too, since I wasn’t wearing the best shoes for walking.  My feet were burning and I was still really incensed about the idiot in front of us at the concert.  As a consolation, Bill suggested we go to the bar for a nightcap.  So we did…  We sat down at the bar.  I was still in a crappy mood.  The bartender suggested gin and tonics.  I looked up and…

“Don’t look now, but that’s Mark Knopfler’s band…”

Apparently, they decided to stay at the Steigenberger, too.  I was tempted to tell them how much we enjoyed the show, but decided not to approach them.  They worked hard and deserved a break without someone bothering them.  So we sat there and sipped our gin and tonics…  then…

Mark Knopfler himself showed up.  He sat in the back of the bar and did not call attention to himself. He passed right by me on his way to the elevator after spending about forty five minutes in there, hanging out with his band.  They appeared to be a tight, friendly group.

 

I said goodnight to one of the vocalists, who said he was on his way out to party.  It was very surreal. Apparently, that hotel gets its share of star guests.  As we were leaving, another well known rock star– Sting– was in the sauna taking a day off from his European tour, even though the star in the sauna hadn’t played there.  I guess he decided to stop in Leipzig precisely for that reason.  This sauna loving rock star is one I saw in Stuttgart a few years ago and has himself appeared on one of Dire Straits’ biggest hits.

Once again… special thanks to my dear husband, Bill, for making this dream come true.  One of the very first albums I ever owned was Brothers in Arms by Dire Straits.  I had it on cassette and used to listen to it on my Walkman as I rode my bike to and from the barn where I boarded my horse back when I was a teenager.  It’s an excellent album regardless, but I have some great memories of it thanks to the association I have of listening to it during my horsey days.  I miss them so much now.

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Volvo, Mark Knopfler, and East German adventures… part seven

A sight for sore eyes.

We left Rostock bright and early on Thursday, July 4th.  The drive to Leipzig took about four hours through the former East Germany.  We were marveling at how unspoiled it is, even thirty years after the Berlin Wall fell.  There are many open fields and the Autobahns, for the most part, are nice and clear.  We did encounter a couple of Staus, which were caused by road construction.

Nice rural East German countryside.

I couldn’t help but chuckle when I saw that the builders had used signs with “emojis” on them to express how long the construction would last.  The first emoji would be a red frowny face.  Midway through, one might see a yellow flat face– with a straight line for its lips.  Then, at the end, there would be a green happy face and the word, “Geschafft!”, which translates to “finished” or “done”, I guess.  I see by Google Translate, it literally means “made”.  I tried to get pictures, but wasn’t so successful.  You can see an example of what I’m writing about here.  I don’t know how I’ve missed these for the past few years.  I haven’t seen them used in the areas where we’ve lived.

The only picture I managed to capture in time.

We finally reached the city of Leipzig at just after one o’clock.  Once again, Bill got turned around and missed the street where the Steigenberg Grand Hotel was.  We had to drive around a bit to finally get to the right place.  Upon arrival, our bags were whisked away and the car was driven off by a valet.  I got an upgraded room, thanks to Expedia.com, which also awarded me gold status again (I had lost it in December 2017, when I used my points in Berlin).  Instead of the standard room I booked, I got a deluxe room.

Here are some photos of the room.

Bathtub… we didn’t use.

Nice rainfall shower.

His and hers sinks.

 

The shower and toilet next to each other.

This bed was mostly more comfortable than our bed at the Radisson Blu in Rostock… except for one issue, which I’ll get into in a future post.

 

The room had air conditioning and a mini bar, as well as free Internet and a nice big TV.  There was also a couch by the window, which appeared to be what made this a “deluxe” room.  The standard rooms had chairs instead.  I think the deluxe rooms were also slightly larger.

This hotel has a nice bar area, a restaurant, and a spa.  We used the bar, of course, but only visited the restaurant for breakfast, which I booked with the room.  I probably should have gone to the spa, but didn’t bother.

Since it was lunchtime, we decided to try Dhillon’s Irish Bar & Grill for lunch, since it was very close to the hotel and I was in the mood for fried food.  Lunch at Dhillon’s Irish Bar & Grill was fine.  I had fish & chips and Bill had Cottage Pie.  We also had beer.  Service was fast and friendly, and we weren’t left with a terrible impression.  Unfortunately, we made the mistake of going back on Saturday night and were completely ignored.  I wrote a very foul rant about this on my main blog.  I would not recommend reading it unless you want to read a lot of cussing.  I was extremely pissed off.  But here are a few photos from our successful Thursday lunch visit.  I will admit, lunch there was fine.

Obligatory shot of Bill.

Cottage pie.  Bill said it was good.

I liked my fish & chips.

This was a welcoming sign… however, on Saturday night, they didn’t roll out the welcome mat for us.

After we ate, we walked around Leipzig and found our way to St. Thomas Church, where Johann Sebastian Bach was music director for 27 years.  This Lutheran church is also affiliated with several other well known composers, including Richard Wagner and Felix Mendelsohnn.  Besides a lovely interior, the church has a small museum and a large statue of Bach out front.  A couple of classical musicians were outside playing beautifully.  They brought tears to my eyes with their heavenly music.  Leipzig is definitely a very musical city and a place to visit if music is your passion as much as it is mine.

This was painted on the wall near the church.

St. Thomas Lutheran Church.

One thing I didn’t know when I booked our travel was that this past weekend was also the time for the Leipziger Wein Fest.  We managed to try several wines over a few days and listened to some nice live music in the square.  It was a real bonus to get to taste wines and see Mark Knopfler!

At one point, I saw an adorable young family dancing to the music.  Mom was very pregnant and looked about ready to add to the family.  Dad was dancing with his toddler son, who was enchanted by the music by Benni & Ich.  It made me tear up watching them.

This guy seemed really into the music.

Later that day, we found out that Bill’s daughter, Catherine, gave birth to a healthy baby girl named Clara.  Catherine is Bill’s younger daughter.  Thanks to an acrimonious divorce, Bill hasn’t seen her or her older sister, who was also born on July 4th, since 2004.  For many years, they were completely estranged.  However, in recent years, Bill and Catherine have started Skyping and emailing.  Bill now has a grandson and a granddaughter and, with any luck, he’ll be able to get to know them despite his ex wife’s extreme efforts at ruining his relationship with his daughters.

I’d say our July 4th, despite being devoid of fireworks, was a success.

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Volvo, Mark Knopfler, and East German adventures… part one

For the past week, Bill and I have been engaged in an epic road trip.  What started out as just plans for a long weekend in Leipzig over the Independence Day holiday, eventually turned into a car buying odyssey in Sweden, with stops in Copenhagen, Denmark and Rostock, Germany.  Our road trip will end on Sunday, but since this is going to be a long story with lots of pictures, I’ve decided to start writing about it today.

If you’ve been following my blogs, you may know that over the past couple of years, Bill and I have been attending a lot of concerts.  Although I really love music, it’s not that often that I go to concerts.  I don’t like crowds, spending lots of money for uncomfortable seats, or having people’s armpits in my face.  However, even though I don’t enjoy being in huge crowds, I also realize that a lot of my favorite musicians are getting old.  A few have already died before I ever got the chance to see them live.

I didn’t have a lot of money or generous boyfriends when I was younger and more tolerant of crowds, so I missed a lot of my best concert going years.  Likewise, for Bill, it’s only been recently that we’ve been able to afford to get tickets for good seats.  I don’t like paying a premium for seats in the nosebleed section.  I can just as easily listen to a live album at home.

In any case, 2018 and 2019 have been unusually active concert going years for us.  Since a year ago, we’ve seen The Rolling Stones, Paul Simon, Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, Roger Hodgson (of Supertramp), Scottish Music Parade, The Irish Folk Music Festival, Elton John, The Eagles, and tonight, Mark Knopfler (of Dire Straits).  In 2017, we saw Sting, and in 2016, we saw Van Morrison…  or, at least I think it was 2016.  I can’t keep the dates straight anymore.  In 2015, we saw Diana Krall, and in 2009, we saw Lyle Lovett.

I like going to concerts in Europe.  People tend to be more considerate here, for the most part.  Also, they don’t seem to have as many rules.  At American concerts, it costs an arm and a leg to buy a beer.  People lose their shit and have less regard for people around them.  Although I may be proven wrong tonight, I’ve found that people aren’t like that so much on this side of the pond.

I bought the tickets for Mark Knopfler last fall, as we were preparing to leave the Stuttgart area.  I decided to get them for the Leipzig show, even though Knopfler is playing in Mannheim tomorrow, and Mannheim is much closer to where we live now.  I chose Leipzig because I’d been wanting to visit there.  Also, the date for Knopfler’s show in Leipzig seemed to make better use of the long weekend.  Originally, I had just planned for a three night break.  I was excited about this show, especially, because I’ve been wanting to see Mark Knopfler for years.  I missed him when he came to Germany in 2015.  His music means a lot to me for a lot of reasons.

Bill booked our dogs at the Tierpension Birkenhof in Darmstadt, and I got us a nice room at the Grand Hotel Steigenberger, which is one of Leipzig’s nicest hotels.  Had we not been able to book the dogs, we planned to find a self catering place where they could hang out while we went to the show.  Fortunately, the dog sitting situation is less severe in Wiesbaden than it is in Stuttgart.  We had no issues getting them a place at their new boarding facility.

For months, we waited for our trip to Leipzig, planning for just the three nights.  Then, in the spring, Bill decided he was ready to get a new car.  Our thirteen year old Toyota RAV 4, which was an excellent vehicle that served us very well in many countries, was beginning to need costly repairs.  It was time for a new car.  Bill wanted a luxury SUV.

In late April, we visited Capitol Motors Volvo in Kaiserslautern, as well as the BMW dealership, to see what kind of wheels we were going to buy.  Volvo won, so we ordered a beautiful 2020 XC 60 SUV in denim blue.  It’s a T6 Inscription, which is the top of the line trim.  Our dealer told us the car would be ready to pick up on July 1st.  Realizing that it had been way too long since our last proper vacation, I proposed to Bill the idea of flying to Gothenburg, Sweden, picking up the car at the factory, then driving it back to Germany.

Some readers may be aware that U.S. based Volvo dealers offer a great program for people who want to fly to Sweden, pick up their new cars, enjoy a European vacation, then fly home and have the car shipped to them.  Well…  over here in Europe, Volvo buyers, even through military sales, don’t get the same love.  If you are reading this from the United States and are thinking of having a Volvo sponsored European vacation, I recommend that you read this guy’s blog about it.  It’s not that I don’t want you to read my account, too.  It’s just that because we purchased our car in Germany, our experience was somewhat different.  However, we did get a very nice military discount.  I think Bill said we got our new Volvo for about $8,000 less than we would have paid if we hadn’t bought from military sales.

Since the car was going to be ready so close to when our Leipzig concert was planned, I proposed turning our car delivery into an epic trip.  Since Volvo was not going to be paying for our flight to Sweden and would only put us up for one night in a Gothenburg hotel, we decided to just come up to Sweden on our own, spend two nights in Gothenburg’s best five star spa hotel, pick up the car, and make our way to Leipzig.  I did some research and determined our itinerary.

We’d spend two nights in Sweden, since our only other visit there was at the end of a four night Baltic cruise on Royal Caribbean’s Vision of the Seas.  We ended in Stockholm, and Bill had to fly right back to Germany to go to a meeting in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.  Consequently, we really didn’t see more than the port and the airport in Sweden.  I wanted to do better than that in Gothenburg, which is on the west coast of the country.

Next, we’d spent a night in Copenhagen.  We were able to see Copenhagen on that same Baltic cruise.  I would have liked to have done more than one night there, but we had to make our travel plans fit so that we’d be in Leipzig by July 4th.  After Copenhagen, we’d take the ferry across the Baltic Sea to Rostock.  I had wanted to visit a former East German prison museum there.  Since it looked like a cool town near the beach, we’d stay two nights in Rostock.  Then, we’d make our way to Leipzig for the three nights I planned there months prior to our decision to buy the car.

It’s all worked out seamlessly, so far.

As usual, I’m going to write a blow by blow account of this adventure and will include lots of pictures and TMI commentary.  I hope you’ll follow along, if I manage to capture your interest.  Otherwise, this will just serve as a diary of one of our more interesting trips as a married couple.

Somewhere over Gothenburg, just as we’re about to land…

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Honey made my latest hotel booking a little sweeter…

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A big shoutout goes to my friend, Stephanie, who turned me on to “Honey“, an app that automatically finds coupons for you.  Although lately, I’m not a frugal as I used to be, I’m always up for saving money, especially when it’s easy.  Honey, a browser extension, is always looking for deals on your behalf.  I found this out yesterday, as I was searching for a hotel room in Leipzig.

On July 4th, we will be traveling to the east German city to catch Mark Knopfler in concert on the 5th.  I’ve been wanting to see Mark Knopfler for years.  Even though he’s also playing in Mannheim, which is a lot closer to where we currently live, and Stuttgart, which is near where we used to live, I chose to get tickets in Leipzig, because we’ve never been there.  Ever since we visited Dresden back in 2008, I’ve been wanting to explore more of what used to be East Germany.

July 7th, the day we’re coming home, is Bill’s birthday.  I figured, since we usually do fun stuff for my birthday, this year, we’d do something nice for Bill’s.  Although I was closely eyeing the Leipzig Adina Hotel, which is part of a great chain of apartment hotels and is a lot cheaper than the ritzy Hotel Steigenberger, the truth is, I like overpriced luxury digs.  I’ve stayed in a lot of inexpensive lodgings in my lifetime, so when I can splurge, I do.  We stayed in an Adina hotel in Berlin and liked it, particularly because Bill’s mom was with us.  The super clean apartment allowed her to have her own bathroom and bedroom.  But this time, it’s just Bill and me, and we don’t need a kitchenette, laundry facilities, or other apartment stuff.

I booked us at the Hotel Steigenberger, cringing a little at the price.  But then, just as I was about to pay, Honey went into action.  It found me a coupon that ended up shaving about $71 off the price of the room!  And better yet, I didn’t have to do a thing to get that discount.  In fact, I had completely forgotten about Honey and would have missed out on that coupon if it hadn’t worked automatically.  Also, looking at Honey’s official site, I see that they have “Honey Travel“, which is a site available only to Honey members.  One can use Honey Travel to browse deals and collect “keys”, which can be used to save money on future travel.

I didn’t use Honey Travel yesterday, because I didn’t know about it.  I can see how it will be useful, though, when I plan future trips.  I can use the dedicated site to compare hotels and find deals.  The site appears to compare prices at the major travel Web sites like Travelocity, Expedia, and Booking.com.  I already collect points on Expedia and am a Booking.com “Genius”, so I’m not sure how often I’ll also use Honey Travel.  It depends on if it allows “double dipping”.

Still, even though I didn’t use Honey Travel, Honey saved me money– about 10% off Expedia.com’s rate.  And every time I save money with Honey, I get Honey Gold, which I can eventually trade in for gift cards at stores like Amazon, Macy’s, and Target.  I already use other sites, like MyPoints.com, for collecting points that can be turned into gift cards.  When I was in the States, I also used MySurvey.com, which was good for a little pocket cash and the occasional freebie.  Honey appears to be somewhat similar to MyPoints, only you don’t have to remember to click through any links.

Anyway… I just wanted to share the news and the wealth.  I’ll be sure to keep using Honey for all of my online shopping, which is pretty much the majority of it these days.  God knows, I can use a little more cash for my travels!

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