The Netherlands & Belguim

The barbecue with the relations was a great success – we caught two trains to get to their house, carrying our sausages and salads with us – an unusual experience for us kiwis. They have a very nice house – semi-detached with a large backyard. We didn’t have a lot of language in common but they couldn’t have been more welcoming and we got by with little bits of their English and some help from Darcy and Tanja. Tanja’s father had even brought a NZ flag with him and replaced the German flag they had flying on their flagpole in our honour. Tanja’s little sister (10 years old) had cut out little kiwis with a stencil to decorate the table. So we really enjoyed our last evening in Germany and after a cooked brunch Gus and I set off for The Netherlands – just the two of us again.

The countryside is really interesting in The Netherlands (by the way Holland is a province of The Netherlands just in case you didn’t know – we didn’t). There’s lots of cattle, sheep (Texel Gus thinks), and horses. It’s nice to see stock in the paddocks again; they seem to keep them all in sheds in Germany; also windmills (of course!) and numerous canals. The water level of the canals is often several metres above the land. It’s quite bizarre to look across a paddock of cows and see a barge moving along behind them. It is however extremely flat; the only hills are the manmade ones such as bridge abutments.

We camped near Groningen then headed down via Leeuwarden so that we could cross the Afsluitdijk – it’s a 30km long dike, with a four lane highway, that was built to prevent the Wadden Sea flooding the land. Gus just reeled off too that it’s 70m wide and 7m above mean sea level. It was finished in 1932, so was no mean feat of engineering. The inland water is now called Ijsselmeer, and is all fresh water, and has completely different fish in it. This can’t have been the case when it was built, but would have happened over time as the rivers drain into it. Apparently water is released twice a day through the control gates when the sea is at low tide.

We are now camped south of Amsterdam near Aalsmeer. As we drove in we were intrigued to see houses on the edge of canals with boats parked out front instead of cars – reminds me a little of Venice...

It took us two buses to get to Amsterdam and we weaved our way around lots of suburbs – nice gardens though. We then decided to take a hop on/hop off boat cruise of the canals. The city is full of bicycles – I had heard this, but was still surprised at the numbers parked in every available space. There is a 3 storey bicycle park near the main railway station, with 2,500 spaces but it still isn’t enough. On any given day at least 9,000 are left around that area; they are looking at finding more space under the station - we’ve never even seen a one storey one anywhere else!

There are canals and cycle lanes everywhere – you can see why not many people use cars; there’s not a lot of room for them. The boat drivers of our canal boats were very skilled at manoeuvring the extremely long vessels through narrow arches in the bridges and around tight corners. It was a good way to see the city and we saw a lot of the sights that way.

Some of the boaties obviously not quite so skilled, have left their boats out in the rain a little long perhaps?

One bicycle we were particularly intrigued by was this one with timber mudguards; cowhide seat; cork handgrips and a beer crate basket – a handywoman’s bike perhaps?

There was also a funny shaped pier that got our attention – on closer inspection it turned out to be a “homomonument”. It is put there by the Society for Tolerance of Homosexuality - or something similar, can’t quite remember the wording. I remember that in Berlin they are in the process of putting up a memorial to the homosexuals that were killed during the holocaust; as well as one for the gypsies – it seems Hitler didn’t approve of much!!

There were a lot of houseboats lining the sides of the wider canals too; apparently some of them have electricity, running water and a mailing address.

To be honest we didn’t find it a very exciting city. We saw Anne Frank’s house, but the queue was horrendously long (right around the block) and we weren’t even sure we wanted to see inside it. The museums were very expensive so we kind of gave those a miss.

We didn’t really find the main part of the red light district but we had a laugh at this selection of condoms in the window. Marijuana may be legal here but it appears to be sold in the very dingy dark little cafes in the worst part of town – needless to say we didn’t venture in... So all in all we were a little disappointed with Amsterdam but don’t judge the city on our limited experience because I’ve spoken to other people who love it!

As we left Amsterdam we saw this 747 crossing the highway! Bit of a relief to see that the road went down under the runway, it did look odd though.

We could tell when we crossed the border into Belgium because of the street lights on the motorway right out in the country – looked very odd, not sure why this is the only country that feels the need to light all their motorways.

We are “In Bruges” – now if you don’t know why that is in speech marks you really must see the movie of that name, it’s one of the funniest films I’ve ever seen (as long as you don’t mind a little bad language). I can well see why they decided to set the movie in Bruges, it really is very beautiful, one of the most scenic towns we’ve seen – and that is really saying something, because Europe does scenic towns well.

Some of the houses along the canals are really gorgeous.

We went for a canal cruise; a lot cheaper than Amsterdam and we found it more fun. Mind you the boats were a lot smaller, and we were crammed in. Perhaps also fortunate that we didn't get a thunderstorm in the middle of the cruise as we did in Amsterdam!

We didn’t feel the need to climb the 365 steps to the top of the tower. I’m sure the view is amazing but I saw in the movie how horrible, narrow and steep those steps are.

Even inside the shops are lovely, check out the artistry with the bread, I don’t suppose it’s for sale though.

I had to include this shot just because I was proud of my photographic artistry – the houses are reflected in the cake lid – we had a beautiful coffee and cake here. Just randomly we sat next to a young couple and when the young man spotted Gus’ hat he said “Kia Ora”; yes more kiwis. And Happy Birthday Liam – yes our oldest son turned 21 today – we did ring him, not completely neglectful parents – just swanning around on the other side of the world...

Berlin and Beyond

Our family group is back in Hanover after a 4 day road trip. We started in Berlin; unfortunately our arrival wasn’t too brilliant – we spent about 3 hours driving around looking for a camp to stay in – finally we were directed to one about 20kms out of the city and it was a great camp – right on a canal and nice and quiet. The Enterprise was really bulging with the six of us but luckily Tanja & Darcy had brought along a tent and we didn’t get any rain so we were able to spill outside. There was a funny incident soon after we started out though, when we came across an accident and were sure that the police at the scene were going to pounce on us for only having four seatbelts for six people – needless to say they barely glanced our way.

Fiona, Gus and I in particular found Berlin fascinating; I think our generation grew up with so much news about the Berlin Wall and the ‘Iron Curtain’ that it was extraordinary to be where it all happened. Now there is something I will explain - a lot of you will understand this already, but something that the three of us had got wrong in our minds. Berlin is in East Germany, not on the border of East and West. The Berlin Wall surrounded West Berlin and people had to travel through part of East Germany to get to Berlin. All of us had thought that the Berlin Wall was at the border of East and West Germany and I could never understand how the Wall could be long enough to stop people just going around the end of it! Apparently there was a fence separating East Germany from West. The Brandenburg Gate is now a beautiful symbol of freedom. It was one of the few gates in the wall.

We also visited Checkpoint Charlie, which is still there just to show where it was, and they have lots of information on panels about the history of the wall going up; people attempting to get through (both successfully and unsuccessfully); and the wall coming down. The path of the wall is still marked by a line of bricks; in places it goes along what are now busy roads. It feels strange that you can now cross it as easily as crossing the road.

There is a memorial to the Jews murdered in the holocaust. It takes up an entire city block near the centre of the city. It’s quite abstract but definitely intriguing. When you sit in one corner, on the lower blocks, it looks like there are just a few tall ones in the corner. Once you walk amongst them, however, it grows like a forest and you realise how huge the whole thing is.

Berlin’s history, of course, is also far older than the Berlin Wall and it has beautiful cathedrals, museums and fountains as well.

It’s now a vibrant city with great shops, Gus and Darcy really enjoyed the car showrooms, and a thriving urban culture.

One little quirk I found interesting too was these exposed water pipes. Apparently they used to run all over the city but now most of them have been put underground.

After Berlin we drove on up to Rugen Island, Germany’s largest island, in the Baltic Sea. Tanja had left nothing to chance this time and had booked us into a great camp at Altefahr. We were just a short walk from good restaurants and the ferry to Stralsund. We caught a ferry across to Stralsund, a very pretty port town.

Darcy and Tanja made friends with one or two of the locals! I must mention too that eating out, travelling by bus and train, even camping – just travel generally is so much easier when you have a German speaking guide with you! The rest of us just tagged along behind Tanja and got on and off trains, buses and ferries when she did, so easy, Thank You Tanja!

We also drove up to a holiday town called Sassnitz – they had beautiful houses along the waterfront. It crossed my mind to be surprised that they have such nice houses in East Germany, but reminded myself that it was only ‘East Germany’ for a very short time in the scheme of things. These houses would definitely be pre-war.

On the way back to Hanover we stopped at Lubeck, another really nice city. Once again so much history it’s inconceivable. The icon is this city gate; it had a distinct sag in the middle but is very beautiful for all that – I had thought it was a castle when I saw a postcard of it – some gate! So back to Hanover and tonight we’re all going to a barbecue to meet Darcy’s in-laws.

The Rhine, Hanover and Hamelin

Today we went to a Technik Museum at Speyer. They had a great collection of German and American cars, which Gus enjoyed. The one pictured is a 1934 BMW.

Also lots of big stuff like aeroplanes; draglines, a Russian space shuttle; U-Boats and even an antique Merry-Go-Round. It was pretty amazing what they had there and we wondered how they’d transported everything to the site.

One of the planes happened to be a 747 raised high off the ground, with a high staircase leading up so that you could look around inside and even out onto the wing (with handrails) – then you had the option of a slide back down – we chose the stairs.

The Merry-Go-Round had two floors – very cute.

The U-Boat was amazing, we walked right through it. I’d hate to go under the sea in it, or even sleep in it, not a lot of room to move around.

They had a few quirky things, like this bike with springs instead of rubber tyres, used in the war because of the shortage of rubber apparently.

This poor little mini was used to cart tourists around a zoo – would be a tad top heavy! We spent most of the day there then proceeded to get stuck in traffic, agh! This time it was kinda my fault – advised Gus to take a wrong turn and ended up on the wrong motorway... Found our way to Bingen, right on the Rhine, eventually.

Today we had the most picturesque drive, up the Rhine from Bingen to Mehlem, just before Bonn. We can see two castles from where we’re camped – one is a ruin but it still counts. The road follows the river all the way and there was a castle around every corner, often two. They are lovely castles too, remind me very much of sandcastles with the jagged tops on the turrets. There are also vineyards all the way, they are grown on steep hillsides with high block retaining walls.

On the way we stopped at Bacharach; this has been a town since 1356, but the castle and a few of the other buildings date back to 1100. The house in the photo must have been an early one, it has a year on it - 1368 I think it was. It certainly looks as though it’s been around a while! They’ve been making wine in this area since the Romans planted the first vines...

The river itself is very busy, lots of container ships and coal barges as well as tourist river cruisers. It must be a swift river, the ships going downstream are a lot faster than the ones struggling up. We went for a short bike ride when we got to the camp, lots of beautiful houses line the river here. Gus reckoned it reminded him of doing the ‘Lions Walk’ at Taupo.

Next drive was up to Hamelin – the one with the pied piper who drowned all the rats. The town has lots of buildings that appear to be leaning on one another for support. It also has a statue of the pied piper on a fountain with rats running all round it – we rode our bikes over the river that they were supposed to have drowned in. They don’t really know where the story comes from, but apparently the Brothers Grimm travelled all around this area and collected local stories which they wrote up into their Fairy Stories.

Now we are in Hanover with Darcy (nephew) and his wife Tanja. My sister Fiona and niece Jess are holidaying here at the same time so we’ve met up here to go on a little holiday in the Enterprise. Will be a bit of a squeeze in our little house but Darcy and Tanja have a tent and I’m sure we’ll have a lot of fun!

The first visit was to the town hall which is well worth a look around, it is beautiful inside and out. We also went up to the top of the tower – it had a lift with a glass window in the top and bottom and glass sides, it also turned slightly as it went up (because the tower isn’t straight) and we got tilted from one side to the other as we went up – quite weird.

Inside there are four models of the city: one in medieval times with a wall around a small town; one pre-war; one after the city was bombed in WWII – this one is amazing, there is barely a building with its roof on, the town hall survived intact though; and the last one is as the city is today.

A couple of fun things we noticed around the city: The Nanas (rhymes with Bananas) are three statues, made in the 70’s – abstract women’s figures – quite neat. Apparently they were frowned upon when first put up but now are a proud icon of the city.

The other thing we really noticed was the amount of stag and hens dos. Lots of groups of girls dressed up in a theme – the bride selling things to random strangers to raise money for their drinks. The stags just make idiots of the groom – the one at a bar we were at was wrapped up in gladwrap, then came round to ask for money for the entertainment value – all harmless fun - we thought they were the best behaved stag do we'd ever seen!

Our other major destination while in Hanover was... you guessed it another castle! Schloss Marienberg is a classic castle, the stuff of fairy tales. Fiona, Tanja and I went on a tour of the castle (the others satisfied themselves with a beer in the carpark – heathens!) It isn’t all that old as castles go, built in the 19th century as a gift of a king to his wife for her 40th birthday – I can’t remember what I got for mine. :-) The really interesting part for Fiona and I was the connection of the Hanoverian royalty to British royalty. For about 6 kings in a row, they were king of England and Hanover at the same time – I’m not quite clear on how this came about but I believe it was because there wasn’t a suitable Protestant heir for the English throne so the closest relation was already heir to the Hanoverian throne; so he got to be king of both – then this carried on for about the next 6 kings but the tradition was broken when a women (Queen Victoria?) came to the throne of England, it was against the law of Hanover for a women to rule so some bloke became their king instead... well that’s my version, not quite as worded by the guide...

Castles, cuckoo clocks and cake

The two castles at the end of the Romantic Road have to be the most romantic sights yet. They are truly ‘Castles in the Air’. The first one, Schloss Hohenschwangau, was rebuilt (by Maximilian II) in the early 1800’s from 12th century ruins. It’s quite small as castles go, but quite lovely and has amazing furniture, tapestries, wall paintings, and large table ornaments. Table ornaments doesn’t really cover it, they were made of gold, solid silver and gemstones and were mostly wedding presents of enormous value. These were all original, the castle was turned into a museum 100 years ago, soon after it wasn’t lived in anymore, and this area wasn’t bombed. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take photos inside either castle so you’ll have to take our word! The castles are also in gorgeous settings with mountains and lakes as backdrops.

After Maximilian II died, his son, Ludwig II, decided he needed an even more romantic castle so built Schloss Neuschwanstein just a few kilometres away. In fact he built three castles during his reign - I’m not sure where the other two are. He was the last King of Bavaria, during his reign the German Reich was created, and he was given a generous allowance. So Ludwig took himself off to build castles and listen to operas. He was a bit short of funds towards the end though (I wonder why). He particularly loved Wagner, and was a great patron of his. The castle is absolutely gorgeous, apparently he had a stage designer rather than an architect design it. It has completely over the top chandeliers, including one in the throne room which is about 5-6 metres tall, and in the shape of a crown. It also has a Minstrel’s Hall in the centre for musical performances.

He was declared insane after some family and government ministers arranged a hasty psychiatric test – they were a bit worried about his spending apparently. Shortly after that he was found dead, at age 41, in shallow water in ‘mysterious circumstances’. No-one is sure if he was murdered or committed suicide, his doctor was also dead beside him. The uncompleted castle was turned into a museum within weeks of his death to help pay his debts. The order was cancelled on his throne so the throne-room lacks a throne; the Minstrel’s Hall was completed two weeks after his death, so he never got to hear a performance there; and he only spent about 6 weeks in the castle in total. Quite a sad little tale really...

Onto the Black Forest; we did intend stopping on the way at Lake Constance (which borders Switzerland and Austria as well as Germany) but so did everyone else in Germany! The summer school holidays have just started, and obviously this is a popular holiday destination. We stopped at three camps, which were all full, before we gave up and drove on to a camp further up country. We saw a zeppelin fly over while we were there, which neither of us has seen one flying before so that was something.

Today’s stop was at Triberg – apparently this is where cuckoo clocks originated. I always thought they were a Swiss thing, but Alfred told us in Switzerland that they’re more of a German thing so I guess they have it right. Anyway the town really has a thing for their cuckoo clocks. Some of them are really beautiful works of art, my favourite was this hand-carved one with a three dimensional Schloss Neuschwanstein – this should ring a bell to you, if you’ve been concentrating...

There were other wood carvings that were lovely too; this man carved from the piece of branch really took my eye, I like the grumpy man in the background too.

There is also quite a bit of kitch as you can see from the one we’re standing in front of – it was quite fun when it chimed at 1pm – everything started up: couples dancing, a man chopping, another one ringing the bell, characters walking across the balcony and even animals moving.

We also took a walk to Germany’s highest waterfall, which wasn’t terribly impressive, and bought a small bag of peanuts to feed the red squirrels – which are supposed to be numerous and friendly. We did have fun with the ‘Nut Cracker’ birds – they are very keen on the nuts.

We had almost given up on the squirrels but did get to see one right at the end – he was pretty shy though and took off with the nut I threw and didn’t come back, so I couldn’t get a decent photo - he's on the ground if you're having trouble spotting him in this one. Nice to finally see a red squirrel though, have seen quite a few greys. I still have plenty of nuts left – can have them with my salad tomorrow!

This really cheeky one wasn’t so hard to photograph though and even posed with Gus’ NZ hat.

Our very favourite thing about Triberg though, had to be that it is also the home of the Black Forest Cake. So being martyrs to the cause, we thought we’d better try a piece each, purely in the spirit of always sampling the local cuisine of course. Needless to say, it was delicious – it tasted like the cherry filling is soaked in sherry and plenty of chocolate and cream – yum!

We then drove up through the Black Forest - which looks much the same colour as any other forest, more green than black. We decided not to stop in Baden Baden but to go on a little further to find a campsite – big mistake – we got stuck in a traffic jam for a whole hour; that has to be a record for the whole trip.