Germany & Poland: A Journey Through History, Culture, and Perspective

This trip through Germany and Poland was different from almost any trip I have taken. Over two weeks, I visited places I had wanted to see for years, experienced places I felt I needed to see, and tested a style of independent travel that pushed me outside my comfort zone. By the end, I can confidently call the trip a 100% success.

One of the things that made this experience so unique was traveling with a longtime friend who grew up in East Germany. He planned the itinerary, drove throughout Germany and Poland, spoke the language, and eventually guided us through the trains, trams, buses, and subways of Berlin. But his greatest contribution wasn’t logistical. It was perspective.

Driving through the former East Germany while listening to someone describe what life was actually like there transformed history into something much more personal.

He was there when the Berlin Wall fell and later gained access to his Stasi file—a thick collection of information documenting his movements, relationships, and activities. We passed former checkpoints that today are barely recognizable. Places that once represented borders, surveillance, and restricted freedom are now simply part of everyday life.

Our journey took us through historic cities and towns including Arnstadt, Erfurt, Dresden, Meissen, Berlin, and Munich, along with our travels into Poland. We stayed at a hotel connected to a centuries-old castle, visited the church where Johann Sebastian Bach once worked, walked across Erfurt’s historic Krämerbrücke, stood outside its medieval Old Synagogue, explored castles and cathedrals, and ate in everything from roadside restaurants to a medieval-themed restaurant.

Then there were the places that were much more difficult.

During this trip, I visited three concentration camp sites, including Buchenwald and Auschwitz-Birkenau. These were experiences I will never forget. Walking through gates where prisoners once entered, standing inside cells, seeing barbed wire and guard towers, entering crematorium buildings, and walking through the barracks at Auschwitz-Birkenau made the history almost impossible to comprehend.

You can read about the Holocaust. You can study photographs, watch documentaries, and learn the numbers. But standing where these events actually occurred is different. These were not simply historical sites for me. They were places where millions of individual human stories intersect with one of history’s darkest periods. There were moments when I simply had to stop, look around, and absorb where I was standing.

Poland itself was fascinating and offered far more than we could possibly experience in one visit. Eventually we returned to Germany and began what I considered the real experiment of the trip: fully independent travel.

We returned the rental car in Berlin and became completely dependent on public transportation. Trains, trams, buses, and subways became our transportation system. This is something I would probably never have attempted alone. We got confused. We occasionally went the wrong direction. Even my German-speaking travel companion sometimes had to figure out exactly where we needed to go.

But we always figured it out.

Berlin became one of the biggest surprises of the trip. We explored both the former East and West, walked through the Brandenburg Gate, visited remnants of the Berlin Wall, saw Checkpoint Charlie, ate breakfast at the Reichstag, traveled along the Spree River, and ended one evening high above the city at the Berlin TV Tower. The city is vibrant, historic, entertaining, and remarkably easy to explore once you understand its transportation system.

Our final stop was Munich, where history competed with bakeries for my attention. Old Town felt alive rather than staged for tourists. Markets were filled with fresh bread, pastries, meats, cheeses, and produce. Historic gates, churches, beer halls, and centuries-old buildings surrounded everyday city life.

This trip reinforced something important for me about travel. Seeing a historic place is valuable, but understanding it through someone else’s perspective can completely change the experience.

Germany and Poland gave me history, culture, incredible food, difficult moments, laughter, new confidence, and a different perspective on independent travel.

And, of course, Lego Man came along for the entire adventure. Sometimes he even helped an introverted traveler make a few new friends along the way.