A conversation with Michael Kater, Managing Director, Compass Tours

AFAR

Michael Kater, Managing Director, Compass Tours, in conversation with Annie Fitzsimmons from AFAR Media.  ——— CONNECT WITH AFAR Afar.com is a digital and print magazine that publishes travel tips, guides, news, and stories: https://www.afar.com  Get updates on the latest articles, travel news, and more from AFAR by signing up for the AFAR newsletter: https://afar.com/newsletters  Follow AFAR on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AfarMedia Follow AFAR on Twitter: https://twitter.com/afarmedia Follow AFAR on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afarmedia Follow AFAR on Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/afarmedia

Transcript

00:00 Okay, I am so excited to be here today.

00:06 Thank you so much, Michael, for being with us.

00:08 Michael, is it clear?

00:09 Thank you so much for the invitation.

00:10 Cotter?

00:11 Sorry.

00:12 Yeah, Cotter, Cotter.

00:13 It's good.

00:14 Cotter.

00:15 Okay, Michael Cotter, CEO and owner of Pompous Tours, who is based in Munich.

00:18 So again, thank you very much for taking the time.

00:20 And I would love it if you could just give kind of a brief overview of your background.

00:25 You of course know Germany really well, but better coming from you.

00:28 Yeah, thank you so much, Annie.

00:31 Again, thanks for the invitation here.

00:34 My name is Michael Cotter.

00:35 I'm the managing partner of Pompous Tours Incoming and Unique Germany.

00:40 Both are DMCs in Germany.

00:43 We're talking in December and of course Christmas markets are always going to be a reason that

00:47 people book trips to Germany.

00:50 But why do you think travelers love the German market so much?

00:54 Yeah, I mean, of course, you know, the Christmas markets are very much missed this year.

01:01 And also, I have to admit me personally missing that.

01:06 And I think it's it stands for, you know, for the German gemütlichkeit, for the coziness.

01:14 You have that muck of hot red mulled wine, the Glühwein, and you listen to the Christmas

01:21 songs.

01:22 And I mean, just talking about that, I can feel the cinnamon in the air.

01:30 And you have the stalls and the lights and all that, you know, and it gets dark and then

01:35 they switch on the lights, etc.

01:37 Do you think is there something that you buy at Christmas markets every year?

01:42 You mean something special I buy?

01:44 Oh, yes, of course.

01:46 I mean, first, of course, we have to talk about the Glühwein again.

01:49 You know, I mean, this is Glühwein is the key to the entire experience.

01:57 And traditionally, of course, people drink the red one.

02:01 I mean, you have red and white, right?

02:03 So people just drink, usually they just drink the red one.

02:06 And my suggestion is to really go for the white one.

02:11 The white one usually has much less sugar, less headache.

02:16 It's sweet, but it's not that, you know, it's not that drastical sweet.

02:28 So really go for that one.

02:30 Then there is also something what is called Feuerzangenbohle.

02:34 It's so hard to explain.

02:38 It's a red wine punch, similar to Glühwein.

02:44 Just try it once.

02:46 Don't drink more than one because it contains much, much more alcohol.

02:51 So, you know, just try it a little, just one and then go back to the Glühwein.

02:56 And on the food side, I would say the roasted almonds are a classical thing.

03:05 And I would always suggest look for those stalls who roast the almonds on site.

03:12 And you can, I mean, you usually you smell that and you can see that it's rotating thing

03:18 where and you can see it and smell it, etc.

03:21 And then, of course, finally, more for the hearty side, the bratwurst.

03:27 I mean, it's a cliche, but really, I mean, this for me is going to the Christmas market.

03:34 I usually I walk with my family once around or through the entire market.

03:41 And I have a look on the stalls.

03:43 And then on the second round, then I decide, OK, now we have a bratwurst there or we have

03:48 a Glühwein there.

03:49 You look at everything, you check it out.

03:55 I usually have two bratwurst per market.

03:58 That's a great tip.

04:01 Two bratwurst per market.

04:03 I like that.

04:04 No, I think I totally agree with everything you're saying.

04:06 And I didn't even actually know I've only had red Glühwein.

04:10 So I need to have the white one.

04:12 That's yeah, absolutely.

04:14 Are there any particular markets that are your favorites or do you?

04:20 Yeah, well, there are several ones in Heidelberg is one which is which is really great.

04:31 But I have to talk about Heidelberg later on.

04:38 In Erfurt, the Christmas market has a tradition of I think of more than 150 years.

04:45 So that's something what you definitely should not miss.

04:53 And then there is in Würzburg and Wiesbaden and the one in Rostock, especially in the

05:04 north.

05:05 So whenever you think about Rostock is also close to Lübeck.

05:09 And this is a great combination.

05:12 And this is something what definitely makes sense.

05:15 But there's one on my list I have not done yet in Osnabrück.

05:21 Osnabrück has the largest how they call it a Christmas music box.

05:29 The small ones are about that size and you put them on the table and you put a candle

05:34 and then it rotates a little bit through the hot air.

05:39 And they have the world's largest music box.

05:42 I don't know how many meters.

05:46 And that's on my to do list for I mean, I had it for this year, but unfortunately, this

05:50 is not not working out.

05:53 But I have it on my list for next year.

05:55 I want to go.

05:58 That's actually I didn't know about that.

05:59 Very cool.

06:00 Well, so I mean, of course, you love getting off the beaten path in Germany, where you

06:04 live in Munich and of course, from popular cities like Berlin.

06:07 So do you I mean, do you keep a running list of things you want to do or how do you keep

06:10 track of that?

06:13 Just talking about Augsburg, Augsburg is the home of the Fugger family.

06:20 And the Fugger family was the world richest family in the in the Middle Ages.

06:28 They built an incredible empire just on on on business, just on business.

06:36 And they tried to the amount of money they had or the gold they tried to convert what

06:41 it would mean.

06:44 I mean, you know, in this in in our years, but they failed because it would I mean, it

06:49 would be much more than Bill Gates has or whatever.

06:53 And the family is still there.

06:54 I mean, they still have I mean, they are not any longer the world richest family, but they

06:59 over these centuries, they have built great buildings.

07:04 And so this is really something what I would recommend.

07:11 And the film studios in Babelsberg, which is in Potsdam, is close to Berlin.

07:19 Definitely makes sense to combine that.

07:22 Potsdam itself is very nice.

07:24 And I've been there lots of times already.

07:27 Whenever I'm in Berlin, I try to combine that.

07:30 But I never made it into that film studio, which is Europe's oldest and still largest

07:38 film studio.

07:39 So they have incredible, how do you call it?

07:42 I mean, artificial streets and house walls and all that.

07:47 And finally, on my list in Bonn, the former capital of Germany, they have something like

07:58 they call it Haus der Geschichte, the house of German history.

08:03 And, you know, when I tell that to my to my kids, I mean, I can hear them already saying,

08:10 oh, this sounds quite boring.

08:12 But it's not.

08:13 It's far from boring.

08:15 It's about the history after 1945.

08:18 Until the I mean, more or less until today.

08:21 Yeah. And it's it's very lively.

08:24 It's very interactive.

08:25 It's about the 50s, 60s.

08:28 You see entire living rooms, how they how they looked in the past, about how was Germany

08:35 in the 70s, you know, when all the student riots came up, et cetera.

08:38 How was it in the 80s, et cetera?

08:40 And I never I for whatever reason, I miss that museum so far.

08:45 And this is something what I have on my list as well.

08:48 Well, the good thing is, I mean, I feel like the more places that you add to your list,

08:52 the bigger the world gets.

08:53 You don't check things off, you find other things.

08:57 Right. So I think that's true.

09:00 Because this will be over one day and we will be back at Christmas markets.

09:05 Thank you so much for joining us.

09:08 I really appreciate it.

09:09 And thank you so much for your time.

09:11 Yes. Inside look at Germany, which I'm ready to go again.

09:16 Thank you so much. Thank you.

09:17 Bye bye. Bye bye.

09:18 Bye bye.

09:19 Bye bye.

09:20 Bye bye.

09:21 Bye bye.

09:22 Bye bye.

09:23 Bye bye.

09:24 Bye bye.

09:25 Bye bye.

09:26 Bye bye.

09:27 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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