Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Hello, hello, hello everyone. Welcome back to Mallory's Weird World Adventures, the podcast. I'm your host, Mallory, and I'm here to show you just how weird this world of ours really is. While we're on our kick of talking about Germany, I have another very special episode for you here talking about gtm, the German Travel Mart, which happens annually in Germany. But first, for those who don't know, my name is Mallory and I'm here to show you just how weird this world of ours really is. For those joining us for the first time, Weird World Adventures is a brand with a focus on travel. Overall, though, our specialty lies in featuring the strangest and most unusual places around the world. We highlight myths, legends, belief systems and weird people living weird lives in a very celebratory way. As a proud weirdo myself, I'm happy to see this brand come to life. Watch Weird World Adventures on Amazon prime, our TV show, or visit MallorySadventures.com for more. You can follow us on Instagram @MallorySadventures. M A L O R I E S on Facebook at Weird World adventures or on TikTok. Alorie Mackey M A L O R I E M A C K E Y Now as your guide and host, I'm a board member in the Washington D.C. chapter of the Explorers Club and I'm a journalist with a specialty in mythology, folklore and the occult.
[00:01:34] Now because of that, I travel around quite a lot and I attend GTM every year which like I said, GTM is a basically a convention, a show where media outlets and buyers and sellers and all these people come in together in Germany to meet up, hear the press releases about the statistics and travel for Germany. It's always a top sustainability central hub. It's a great place for eco friendly and sustainability. Have to say that it's really wonderful. And then us journalists get to kind of go on these press trip adventures to explore around Germany which is really exciting. And this year was an extra special year because for the first time it was held on a river cruise.
[00:02:22] Now I have never in my life been on a river cruise and it was absolutely wonderful. I actually went on my first cruise this past year. So this was cruise number two on and it was on a riverboat and it was this three story. It was one of the flat long riverboats that goes through the Rhine because we did go up and down the Rhine just very shortly from quickly from Frankfurt to, to Bonn and then back to Frankfurt. And it was really this unbelievable tuck was the, the liner kind of the owner of the liner and we were on the Ms. Inspire.
[00:03:03] And gosh, it was, it was like a five star hotel. It was gorgeous. This draped chandelier. I felt like I was on the Titanic, but obviously just much, much smaller and more modern.
[00:03:17] The dining hall was just lovely for lunch they had a nice little buffet and then you could order a, you know, a meal meal and everything was just so classy. You always felt underdressed even when you weren't. And I reconnected with my friend Arthur. Arthur is the Ethel to my Lucy. We were at GTM together two years ago and we just kept causing trouble and it was really like me accidentally causing trouble and Arthur was just kind of sucked into it. So he became my Ethel. He called me Lucy. And we, Lucy and Ethel reunited at GTM this year and it was truly wonderful.
[00:04:02] And we, they had a wine tasting that was non alcoholic wines and it was really interesting. You know, part of the movement with Gen Z and some of the younger people in Germany they were explaining is that people don't want to drink and they don't want to be called out for not drinking because it just kind of seems taboo. So a big thing in Germany now is to have these non alcoholic wines so you can look like you're part of the group and no one will question it and you know, but you're not actually drinking any alcohol. And it was interesting because in order to have it taste more like alcohol, it winds up being very sourish, which isn't a bad thing. And some of the sparkling wines, that sour taste was very good.
[00:04:44] And so we kind of did that the first day before setting sail on the river to the Rhine to get to our destination of Bonnie and yeah, the, the boat, I mean it just had these beautiful marble floors, this drape chandelier. I mean it really just a magically beautiful experience. And then I went to my room and I was just blown away. You know, some of the hotel rooms I stayed in on my trip through Germany were quite small actually. And this was one of the largest rooms I had. And it was on board a ship which you would never expect like a cabin of a ship to be that big. It was huge. It had a walk in closet, a huge long bathroom, this whole long room that had a part for me like a table and a couch for me to work on and then over into the bedside which looked out at the river while you were cruising.
[00:05:42] It was truly just an unbelievable. Every single person. Can you believe this room? It's huge. Everyone said that. Then we Went in for press conference. They welcomed everybody, and we just had this wonderful dinner on board the ship. It was delicious. The next morning, we woke up for a press conference where they talked about the different sustainability things in Germany. Obviously, one of the main reasons people want to go to Germany is it's very safe to visit. They feel safe there. It has completely low crime rate. For the 12th consecutive year, Germany ranks as Europe's number one cultural destination.
[00:06:24] That's pretty fantastic. We heard the head of Lufonsa talk, which was very cool.
[00:06:30] And then we got to go to Schlosser Bruhl, which is a palace out near Bonn. Once we got into Bonnie, and it was this beautiful yellow palace. And of course, every room in the palace is just gorgeously ornate. It's one of those baroque rococo. Everything is as elaborately beautiful as possible situations. And there was this one room in particular where the wall was built with these wall panels. You're like, well, those are very ornately designed, like gold walls. Wall panels that are kind of carved with these cute designs in them. And she's like, oh, yes. Each panel is made out of a baby calf. Each one is its own baby calf. And I'm like, the wall is dead cows. I mean, I guess it's leather, but gosh, every. Every panel was its own baby. I was like, oh, please don't need to tell us. Please don't tell us that.
[00:07:29] And the wallpaper in all of the rooms was just, wow. I mean, it was so beautiful. It had scenes on it. There was a room that was supposed to look very Asian. And just the wallpaper in that room was unlike anything I've ever seen before that. And the grand hallway. You go in the grand hallway, and it's just these unbelievably ornately carved decorations into the walls. That very rococo, rich style with the hanging chandelier, the angels painted on the ceiling. Everything is beautiful. Light colors, really just something from a storybook. So it was a very pretty, beautiful place to get to, just explore and see. We got to walk through with the guide and hear more about the history of the building. It was really just a cool experience overall, to get to walk through this beautiful piece of history that was so ornate and so articulate and so golden. It was. It was very, very cool. And after that, we went over deeper into Bon Bon, like the city center. Now, I've been to Bonn before, so I did a lot of things I had already done in bond, but that was fine because really, the. The big footprint we hit was Beethoven's birth house. And you know, I can tell people I've been, oh yeah, I've been to Beethoven's birth house twice.
[00:08:51] It was, it was very cool. It's, you know, this, this very quaint, pretty little house in the center of Bonn. And back in the time when he lived there, it was two houses and his family lived in the smaller back house and there's a different family living in the front house that faced the street. They were connected together.
[00:09:10] They have some of his musical instruments that he actually lived and worked with. Tons of collections of Beethoven's objects and things and his handwritten letters and music notes pulled out and, you know, just the whole shebang. They, they have obviously the largest collection there of Beethoven's objects. They have his life mask, like the, the mask they made of his face when he was alive, and then the death mask. And the difference is just astounding. I mean, the life mask is really quite, you know, he looks like a person and very. And the death mask, you know, he had liver failure. And you can just see where his face just completely sunk in and what the liver failure did to him, which is, you know, very sad. And he, you know, had a lot of health issues, which is why he lost his hearing, you know, later in life. And they had a lot of the horns and objects and things that he had had made for him to try to save his hearing, to be able to hear things when he was losing it.
[00:10:10] So it was a very grand experience to get to go through, you know, the, the streets of Bonn once again and to get to see the Beethoven house again. And then there's this wonderful hotel Petersburg, that's up on top of a hill that I also went to last time and toured. But, you know, it's like where all of the diplomats used to go. The, the hotel is owned by the government. It's one of the few. And it's owned by the government because they used to house the diplomats there. The Clintons used to have a room there. It was a very, very, you know, top of the line, high scale place where, you know, now anybody can stay there. But it used to be very high security, very high risk. And we had the dinner there for gtm. It was very nice. And I had the largest creme brulee I have ever seen in my life. I actually didn't eat any of it because I'm not having sugar right now. And it was so hard. But I mean, literally, it is. It was a creme brulee the size of.
[00:11:11] I want to Say, like the seat of a chair, like the. The part that you would sit on in a chair that was the size of that creme brulee tray, man.
[00:11:21] And of course, they had classical music.
[00:11:25] It was. It was a very. It was a very nice experience. And then we got to go back on the boat while it was night, which was really nice to see. The next day, we went to the presidential estate that is in Bonn, because it used to be the capital of Germany. It is not anymore, obviously, now Berlin is, but it used to be Bonn. And when Bonn was the capital of Germany, obviously all of the embassies were there, all of the government buildings were there. So they kind of took us around to show us the footprint of the old government in Bonnie. I mean, there's not. There wasn't really that much of interest to see because it's not the current administration or anything. It's not the place where you would go to actually see how the government works. But it was still interesting to kind of walk through. They called it the footprint of democracy in Germany.
[00:12:17] Then, of course, we went to the art museum that was there, which is very, very, very cool. It's famous for the modern art, specifically.
[00:12:29] I. You know, it's the Kunstmuseum Bonn. I'm not a big modern art person, I have to admit. I really have a soft spot for Degas, error, impressionalism, things like that. But there were definitely some pieces that were quite interesting that I. I could have the empathy for. They did have performance art, which was neat. They had a performing troupe come in and create this live experience, like, immersive art, which was. Which is interesting. I mean, they. They definitely were not afraid to play around with the contemporary, you know, idea of just abstract art. So there was. It was interesting to see, regardless. And then my favorite part of this whole GTM experience was getting to sit up on top of the boat and. And just, you know, cruise the water and look at the castles and the vineyards that afternoon. So, you know, they were just allowing us to have that time to really just, you know, get some snacks and have some tea and enjoy the castles. And that's what we did. Although I have to say, going by all these adorable little towns in Germany and all these beautiful castles, it just made me want to explore them. I'm really, like. I'm all about a good castle. I wanted to go, like, I want to go inside. I want to see this. This is so cool, rather than just kind of watching them FL. Float by. But that was a very, very fun time. That was Had. And then we had this gourmet dinner the last night. It was some of the best food I've ever had. I mean, really, really and truly. On board the Ms. Inspire me and Arthur came in to sit down for our dinner and the, I remember their, their appetizers were some kind of fish and it was very, very good. But there was a steak for dinner. It was a steak in this onion sauce and whatever they did to that onion sauce, it was the best steak I've ever had. And I'm, I feel comfortable saying that it was delicious. To the point where Arthur asked for a second one. He was, you know, do you. I would have another one if you had it. And she's like, I think we can do that. They brought us another steak and we split it because we're, we just love food so much.
[00:14:52] Yeah, it was the best steak I've ever had.
[00:14:56] And the sauce was so good that Arthur actually got the recipe from the chef at the end of the, the night there. So that was another really exciting thing. So I went home with that recipe and I'm gonna try it one day and I really hope I don't destroy it, but it was quite, it was quite good, really. And I have to say, never been on a river cruise, only had one ish, ish experience on board, you know, an ocean cruise. So the river cruise was the way to go for me. Just, just the European ambiance. Getting to get off at these beautiful cities in Europe.
[00:15:39] Having it be kind of small, but so gentle because you're on the river. Because I'm not a boat person, I actually didn't get sick. I was very proud of myself the whole time and just getting to pass castles and, you know, the vineyards. And it was really a five star liner. I mean, just the beautiful diamond chandeliers, the crystal chandeliers, the, the dining hall with just anything you could want. The breakfast was absolutely exceptional. And, you know, breakfast in Germany is one of my favorite, one of my favorite things to eat, to be quite honest. And, and it's a lot of. Through Central and Eastern Europe, I guess it's like this, but it's, you know, just the experience of having the cheese and the cold cuts and the tomatoes and just this fresh array of things you can put together is so much better than what you can find at American breakfast somewhere. It doesn't compare. You can get the hot breakfast with the eggs and the bacon and they have that. And usually they have the hard boiled eggs too, which is always exciting. I love hard boiled eggs. But the little buffet that goes with it, the cheeses and the meats and the cucumbers, I love cucumbers. And being able to have that for breakfast, it's just, there's just something so great about it. And a lot of the higher class places will have mimosa station. So it's, I mean, breakfast is taken with respect there and I, I really just, I like that when I'm, I'm not a breakfast person here, but when I'm traveling, it becomes so important for me to eat because if I don't, I'm gonna pass out. Like, you know, I have a lot of issues when I don't eat, especially when I'm going a lot. So I really push myself to have that breakfast so that I'm not hungry prior to lunchtime.
[00:17:32] And it's always just a great experience. And of course, if you want to order a latte in Germany. Milk cafe. Just so we're clear, that stuck with me. It's good to know I've been to Germany enough now and ordered enough milk cafes to know that's what it is.
[00:17:49] But yeah, I'm hoping to report back from GTM again next year. It's always exciting to get to see new regions of Germany I haven't been to before and to experience just the incredible sights and attractions that I get to share with you guys and write incredible articles about and feature on weird world adventures and I mean, just not, not that, you know, I don't want to bore everybody with just the hard facts, but they really are leaders in sustainability and that's also very important. And you know, the Dolce Ban is so reliable comparatively. I mean, I know trains are late a lot, but the Deutsche ban is pretty together. It's got it together. And you know, I've, I've, I'm afraid of trains. I don't love them, but I'm so comfortable with the Dolce Bond. And you know, it really is not a terrible experience. So, you know, you can go, you can take the train, you can find more sustainable methods of getting around.
[00:18:49] And this time because of that, they had me driving an electric car car, which I'm not going to talk about this time. We're going to talk about that next time with Michael because you should wait to hear my whole thing about the electric car. But anyway, that's all I have for you today. It was a quick and easy podcast about gtm. I'm excited to talk about Trendelberg Castle with you all next time and hopefully I'll have Michael with me to do that too and rub it in his face that he wasn't there. Hahahaha. And then I think we're gonna have more info for you on the Great Smoky Mountains after that.
[00:19:23] Alrighty. Thank you guys so much for tuning in again. Be sure to watch Weird World Adventures on Amazon Prime. Tune in for season two this fall. Follow us on MallorySadventures.com for updates. And until next time, everybody stay weird.
