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.

Romantic Germany and Naturism

Today we took a bus into Dresden. Our first impression was that it’s a very modern city, quite different to any other European cities we’ve seen. It turned out that there is also a large old centre as well. Unfortunately it was targeted and very badly bombed towards the end of WWII.

There are some obvious repairs to some buildings; like a modern dome on an old stone church, as well as gaps along the waterfront which have been replaced by modern architecture.

It’s been really well done so that Dresden now has a really nice feel to it, the modern and the old living congenially alongside each other. The modern parts have also probably grown since the fall of communism; as Dresden was part of East Germany. It’s also not as busy as most cities we’ve been to, so much easier to get around.

There are lots of beautiful old fountains and new ones too. Among the many statues, my favourite was this one of a woman with a cherub trying to hide in her skirts, must have been modelled on a real child I think.

Today we’ve fetched up at a lake near Plauen, called Talsperre Pohl. Actually I suspect from the number of Talsperres on the map, it must be German for lake - no that is 'See', oh well something similar. We found a good ‘park’ – we’ve found a few of these on our travels – you pay 10 Euro and get power and a place to park. No facilities, but it’s still a good deal for us, much cheaper than camping grounds; which are 20-30 Euros. The lake’s got a wall at one end, presumably has been a hydro dam but not sure if it’s still used. The dam wall is also a bridge and is decidedly slumped on one side – a bit of a worry, hope the whole thing isn’t about to go! We also found it surprising that the swimming is so popular, there are hundreds of people on the grassy slopes and in the water but there’s no beach as such – looks like a bit of a grassy/muddy bank, probably wouldn’t be so popular in NZ. We’re obviously a bit spoilt.

We decided to go for a bike ride around the lake, it’s not huge and we figured the ride would be 2-3 hours. The weather’s being very kind to us so we thought we’d go for a swim afterwards. We got to the far end of the lake without incident and, looking back at the camp, figured we were about half way. That’s when it got interesting, we passed a man at a table taking money from cars, who just waved us through, and found ourselves in the middle of a nudist beach. At first they were just bodies on the beach and we could cope with that, but then as the track went on there were people wandering all around us, lining up for ice creams from a van, just going for walks, thankfully not playing volleyball although we did see a net! It was all a bit much for a couple of shy kiwis like ourselves, and we’re not talking lithe young bodies here but real people, mostly a good 10-20 years older than us, women with wide hips and men with large guts – although I do have to confess that most had a very even tan – none of those unsightly strap marks to worry about. A couple of times when men were walking towards me along the track, I took an inordinate interest in the workings of my front wheel!(There's no photos for this part, for obvious reasons...) After we eventually passed that beach – (it took a good 10 minutes of very determined pedalling), it was a long beach and a lot of people – we got onto a very dodgy track through the forest. It was obviously not designed for bikes, even Gus couldn’t ride anymore and we had to get off and push the bikes, it was quite steep in places too. We realised the cycle track had probably turned before the beach. Anyway we eventually came across it again, we weren’t going back! The second ‘half’ was also a lot further than the first due to the many arms of the lake we had to go around. We ended up crawling back into camp about four hours after we set out – by which time I was completely stuffed – maybe we can go swimming tomorrow – tonight it’s just cooking, reading and sleeping on the agenda.

We are now officially on the ‘Romantic Road’. It runs from Würzburg to Füssen, the River Main to the Alps, and is Germany’s most popular tourist route. Lots of medieval towns, great scenery and a fairy-tale castle or two are promised so watch this space. We will end up back down at the Austrian border but this trip was never about going in a straight line... We started today by exploring Würzburg; this is a really nice small city with, once more, great architecture and loads of character. We were able to get around easily on our bikes and walking, lots of cycle tracks and pedestrian-only streets. This is another city where the trams dominate, and you have to watch out for them because they’re so quiet – much nicer than rowdy trains or buses though.

The highlight was the former Prince Bishop’s Residence – a palace that was built from 1720-1744. A Prince Bishop is apparently a Bishop that pleased the king so much he was crowned as a prince – the bishops then had political as well as religious power and ruled this area for hundreds of years. http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/t/tiepolo/gianbatt/5wurzbur/index.html The palace suffered severe damage in World War 2 – seems such a terrible waste that so many beautiful and historically important buildings all over Europe were destroyed or damaged so wantonly and so quickly after having survived so much for hundreds of years. What remains is still spectacular though, and you wouldn’t know from the outside now that any damage was done. One room that remains in original condition is decorated by a sculptor and a painter working together. Apparently they didn’t get on (can’t remember names) but they worked so brilliantly together that a lot of paintings around the ceiling seem to come out from the surface – a foot or an arm was sculpted to blend so perfectly with the painting that you can’t see where one ends and the other begins. Unfortunately this was another palace that photos weren’t permitted inside. The gardens were also lovely, and had loads of statues. I was quite intrigued by this one of a child (or nymph?) fighting with a child/goat character – not sure what’s going on there.

We also visited Tauberbischofsheim (try saying that after a beer or before one for that matter) today. It’s a unique little village that made us feel a little like we’d stepped into a Hansel & Gretel story.

We stayed the night at Rottingen, this village’s main claim to fame (apart from the usual medieval village thing) is its sundials. We were quite amazed at the variety of them. We saw about 10 but I think there are about 25 all together. Unfortunately it also had a very loud village clock – took me a while to work out the system as it rang so much but eventually I did – I got plenty of time before I could get to sleep! It rang once on the ¼ hour, twice on the ½ hour, thrice on the ¾ hour then four times on the full hour; then in a different tone rang out the hour. So at midnight it rang 16 times!

Quite an effective alarm clock, especially with the help of the heat which has come back (not as bad as Italy but close), and the large tractors going past until about midnight, then starting again at 5am. Lucky this park only cost 5 Euros. It’s full-on harvest time here; Gus has been quite fascinated to see that they cart all the grain with tractors and trailers on the roads (including autobahns) to local grain-dryers. In NZ we use trucks and trailers, much faster and more efficient we would have thought. There is an amazing amount of cropping in this area, very few animals - I did see some cows in a barn today. They also have a lot of big areas of solar panels, acres and acres of them, and a lot on houses as well; lots of wind turbines too.

During the day we visited Rothenburg ob der Tauber. This was a lovely town; we were fortunate enough to get to the square just as the clock struck the hour – not quite Prague’s performance but cute nonetheless. Two windows open, a figure appears at each one and raises a beer as the clock strikes. Gus pointed out that at least we could tell the time on this one too.

The town also had a fabulous Christmas shop; we felt like kids in there and it’s not even Christmas, makes Kirkcaldie & Stains display in Wellington seem a little lacking.

It also had beautiful medieval houses and a lovely original wall; the flagstones were so worn it’s easy to imagine the number of watchmen who must have walked those walls, and what they must have felt when they spotted enemies approaching!

We stayed that night at Nördlingen; a village that was built in the crater of a huge meteor. It’s therefore very round! The wall is still complete right around so we walked most of it. Not in as original condition as Rothenburg’s wall, obviously been re-stored in a lot of parts. Apparently it was the town that you saw from the glass elevator in the 1970’s version of ‘Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory’; so fans may recognise it... They also had a loud clock which was joined from 10pm-12midnight, every half hour, by a bloke who goes round yelling “So, G’sell, so!” (All’s well, fellows, all’s well). It shows how tired we were that I only heard him once; and Gus not at all. We were also close to a busy road so the white noise helped drown him out... The park here was free so things going in the right direction in that way. We stopped today at Rottenbuch; not the most exciting of villages, but quite cute and had the most ornate church interior we’ve seen yet, and that is really saying something. We are staying tonight at Schwangau, near the end of the Romantic Road and right next to a lovely lake and mountains. There are also not one but two castles in the town so I’ll drag Gus along to those tomorrow. Unfortunately, just as we have reached this lovely lake, the weather has cooled, even a bit of rain, so we’re not swimming – some hardy souls are – but will certainly make for easier sleeping. We’re in a 5 star camping ground so back up to 25 Euros but nice and quiet – no traffic, or loud clocks, or town criers for that matter.