Apr 2007

Sorry to leave Switzerland, we drove on to Freiburg, in the south west corner of Germany, close to the French border and is where Alissa has been living and working as an Au Pair, for the last 7 months. She looks after a small boy and a preteen girl, and it was really interesting for me to see how different her life was like as an Au Pair, and how lucky I’ve been with my family.

We took a tram into the city centre and strolled around for a while, before finally settling on a small restaurant near the Rathaus. For the first time since arriving in Germany, I managed to make my first big mistake when ordering dinner. I don’t know a lot of German, but I’m good with names of food, and so was perhaps a little too cocky for my own good. The waiter approached the table, and asked if we wanted drinks, no problem. I then asked for two menus. No problem. Then the waiter brought out a noodle soup, alarm bells didn’t ring as I thought it was complimentary and perhaps a Schwarzwald (Black Forest) thing.

Oh so smug, before the plates come out

Then a plate of beetroot slices came out, which is when I kindly asked the waiter if we could still have the menu’s because we hadn’t ordered our mains yet. The man looked at me, like I’d lost the plot “ das ist das Menü”. So I made the internationally recognised hand gesture of opening a book, that’s when he said ‘Ahh die Speisekarte?’, that’s when the penny dropped and I realised I had ordered the days 3 course menu option complete with Ox knuckles and sauerkraut, or something equally revolting. As quick as anything, I apologised profusely “Es tut mir Leid” and luckily for both of us it was still early enough to change our orders. But never did it occur to me asking for two menus, would be a problem – lesson learned.

Freiburg is a pretty cool city; sadly a lot of it was heavily damaged during World War II when in 1940 German planes mistakenly dropped close to 60 bombs, near the centre. Still there is a lot of old style charm about the place, including an unusual system of gutters (called Bächle) that run throughout its centre. These Bächle, once used to provide water to fight fires and feed livestock, and are constantly flowing with water diverted from a nearby river. The Bächle were never used for sewage, even in the Middle Ages, and it is said that if you accidentally step in a Bächle, you will marry a Freiburger.

Alissa had a train pass which lets her take another passenger for free on Sundays, so we decided to go deep into the Black Forest, to Titisee. After Alissa finally escaped from a man trying to sell her a cuckoo clock, we found a small café hidden away from the large tourist crowds, but still right on the lake front, where I got to indulge again in my beloved spätzle, and I couldn’t leave without trying a slice of a Black Forest cake. Blessed with perfect weather again, we hired a little electric boat and took it out for a spin on the lake, and a spot of people-watching. That night Stephanie, Alissa’s host, cooked a roast dinner, which is just what I needed. The next day sorry to say good bye to Alissa, and a little bit ‘road tripped’ out I drove back home to Wiesbaden.

This road trip was about several things, exploring some new parts of Europe, crossing some things off the ‘dream’ list, and meeting new people - and boy did I do that. Although driving 2,500 kms in a few days is pretty exhausting, I had such a fantastic time and it reminded me of just how spoilt rotten I am sometimes. The people that I have met and have been surrounded by this last year, have been immeasurably kind to me, and will make it so much harder for me to leave in a few weeks time. To make it even more difficult for me, when I returned to Wiesbaden it was as if someone had let off a green bomb while I was gone, and the entire city had woken up and exploded in full bloom. Everything was lush, vibrant and glowing in all its spring glory. Since I’ve been home, the sun has been out in full force, a whole two months earlier than usually, and the city is loving it.

When looking for people to couchsurf with in Switzerland, I was offered a woman’s apartment in Bern for a few days, in exchange for looking after her cat - so I naturally jumped at the chance. After driving through the picturesque countryside, and stopping at various villages along the way, I arrived in Bern, a few hours early, as I didn’t bother going back into Zurich’s city centre as originally planned.

Sabine, and her home was so warm and welcoming and the sun was glorious so I sat outside in her garden that afternoon, chatting and read some of my book. That afternoon, I finally got to meet Alissa, an Au Pair also working in Germany, and who is from my home town in New Zealand. Although we have lived within 2 kilometres of each other for most of our lives, and know a lot of the same people, we had never met. Introduced through email by my step sister Erin, we had been in contact for a few months, and I decided to invite her along with me.

That evening, before Sabine left oh her own holidays in Vienna, she cooked for us what many Swiss people consider their national dish; Rösti, which is basically a fried potato pancake, which I have since tried to recreate and failed miserably. The next day after biding Sabine farewell, Alissa and I drove south to Interlaken, in the heart of the stunning Bernese Oberland. A small city wedged between two lakes, and the Alps as a backdrop, you couldn’t have picked a better location. We walked around the small town, taking lots of photos, and admiring the vistas.

Not really having a plan, and too poor to take the infamous alpine train to the Jungfraujoch, better known as the highest train station in Europe, we drove up to Lauterbrunnen. We were lucky that we were so early in the session, that it really didn’t have a big touristy feel. We could admire all of the water falls, and sights in peace. LOTR fans out there may be interested to know that Lauterbrunnen provided the pictorial model for J.R.R. Tolkien's sketches and watercolours of the fictitious valley of Rivendell.

We decided to venture on up through the valley for a bit longer, and found a cable car, going right up to the Shilthorn. We decided to go to the cable cars first stop of Gimmelwald, a small car less village right in the heart of the Alps. A truly beautiful little farming village, with small little cheese shops, traditional Swiss homes and several bed and breakfast’s. It had a nice lived in feel, and not just a show for the tourists.

We then drove on to Brienz, at the opposite end of the lake from Interlaken. The water was a perfect turquoise blue, which blew us both away. We then followed the road, hugging along the lake side, back to Bern.

That night was late night shopping in town, so after dinner, Alissa and I took a stroll around some of the markets, and old city streets. Bern, the capital of Switzerland is largely medieval with lots of orange tiles roofs, with its most famous sight being the Zytglogge, an elaborate medieval clock tower with moving puppets, and which apparently aided Einstein in his discovery of General relativity.

Another unusual aspect of the old town is its 6 kilometres of arcades, which boasts one of the longest covered shopping promenades in Europe. In somewhat of a quiet protest I didn’t go to the Bärengraben, a bear pit that has been in the city, since the 16th century. We found a café by the Casino, selling the best ice cream I have ever tasted in my life, a little expensive at 5 Swiss francs for a tiny portion, but boy was it good.

The next day, we drove to Luzern (or Lucerne in English) which both Alissa and I have picked as our favourite Swiss city. The city sits right on the shoreline of Lake Lucerne, and as we were blessed with a beautifully warm and sunny spring day, we wasted no time in joining the locals, to sit along the water front and enjoy the view of all the paddle boats on the lake, and Mount Pilatus and Rigi in the distance.

We eventually dragged ourselves away, and walked to the city's most famous landmark; the Kapellbrücke (Chapel Bridge), a wooden bridge originally built in 1333, although much of it had to be replaced after a 1993 fire, allegedly caused by a group of smokers – why am I not surprised? The city centre itself felt like it was already in summer mode, and we were happy to stroll along the streets, admiring the historic buildings covered in intricate murals. The only downside to my day was realising I'd put a huge finger smudge on my camera lense and ruined most of the days photos, and I also had to find a post office to pay a 40 SF (ouch) parking fine I’d got in Zurich.

After a bit of a sleep in, and tidy up of Sabine’s place, Alissa and I reluctant to leave Switzerland, drove back into Germany.

Liechtenstein is a country which has always fascinated me. A tiny country with a paltry 34,000 inhabitants, wedged between Austria and Switzerland is not on the top of everyone’s must-see travel lists, but as I was in the neighbourhood and I thought ‘why not at least check it out’. Famous mostly for their postal stamps, the first thing that struck me about the country is the speed cameras – they were everywhere. With four cameras on every intersection and what also felt like on every power pole, you really got the feeling ‘Big Brother’ was watching.

I tried looking around the capital, Vaduz, but there wasn’t a whole lot to see. I was a little cheesy and got a souvenir stamp in my passport, but that’s about all you could do in the place. The scenery was gorgeous however, and so I pulled over the car, and sat in a field, admiring all the spring flowers, and Alps. Oh and for those that are interested, I found Liechtenstein to have the cheapest petrol out of all four countries. Austria and Switzerland are not too far off, but Germany is by far the most expensive, because of all the taxes. But then again when driving in Austria and Switzerland you need to get a ‘vignette’ to drive on the motorways.

So after a short drive and little more than a flag on the side of the road, I entered into Switzerland. With a wide grin on my face, I meandered down through the hills into Maienfeld, better known as ‘Heidiland’. Cheesy I know, but I grew up listening to tapes, watching movies and reading all about Heidi.

I remember when I was around 14 I rang up the travel agents, to find out how expensive flights to Frankfurt were, because that’s where Heidi had moved to. Who knew that would be so close to my home for a year?

Anyway, Maienfeld itself is relatively small, and although the story is fictional (written in 1880 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri) you can go to Heidishaus, but because there was major roadworks, I couldn’t get to it. But I was happy regardless just sitting in a field, soaking in all the views.

I then carried on along the back country roads (thanks to my handy navigator, which let me avoid all the toll roads) along the impressive Wallensee, and finally along the skinny, and somewhat less impressive Zurichsee. I saw a random New Zealand flag flying from this guys workshop, that sells wood, and so I decided to stop. Turned out he just had some kiwi friends visiting, who decided to put it up. I figured you never know, who you might bump into.

That night I stayed with Dule, a Serbian Evolutionary Biologist, at his cool apartment, right in the Zurich city centre. We went out for Thai, and Dule showed me around the sights, then we met up with one of his American friends and checked out a few local night spots. Including one place, that if you had a giant record player, you could play music off the walls. Had a great time with Dule, and his friend and would have loved to have spent more time there.

Next addition is about meeting up with Gizzy locals, babysitting cats, exploring the rest of Switzerland and the Black forest.

After Füssen, I drove on to Lindau, a small island jutting out into the Bodensee, where the three borders of Austria, Germany and Switzerland meet. A beautiful little town, with cobbled streets, flowers in full colour and its own quiet charm. After strolling around the harbour I met up with Peter, a sound technician, born and bred on the island, who had kindly offered to host me, and was putting me up at a pension just around the corner from his house. As it was a beautifully sunny Easter Sunday, the little town was bursting at the seams with day-trippers, ice cream vendors and street performers which gave it a real summery feel.

Peter showed me all around the small town, and taught me a lot about the history of the place and the people. That night we went to one of the local Italian restaurants for dinner, and to a Dizzy Bee concert at one of the bars, which Peter had installed the sound gear for. The band was really good, had a lot of energy and (luckily for me) sang in English. After they’d finished their set, we moved on to another local spot before sleep finally got the better of me.

The room Peter had found me was fantastic, the house was on a quite cobbled street, I needed a huge silver old-style key to unlock the front door, and the room was something straight out of the 1900’s. I was ecstatic, and feeling pretty spoilt.

Waking up the next day, feeling much rested, I drove to Birnau, which is further up the eastern side of the lake, and has a famous Cathedral, and got as close to Easter Mass as I was ever going to get. As I sat out in the sun, amongst the dandelions and daisies, waiting for the mass to be over, so I could go in and look at the infamous ceiling inside, I got to see a ‘Zeppelin’. A rather large ‘blimp’ like aircraft, that were used to carry passengers from Germany to America in the early 1900’s, and are famous to the region. As it was still a public holiday, trying to find a park anywhere, to take a ferry across the lake, was mission impossible, so happy to hang around Lindau some more, I went back and soaked up some of the sun around the harbour.

Peter was extremely fascinating, and we talked a lot about his travels (as he’s a keen diver) and he has a soft spot for New Zealand, of which he has actually travelled all over, even to Gisborne, my hometown. Later that afternoon he convinced me to watch the Borat movie, which I’d been putting off, but actually found pretty funny (mostly shocking, but good for a laugh). We then went to another local restaurant, which specialises in Swabian cuisine. The restaurant was a rather random family run affair, and had more of a guest in someone’s home feel about it, but boy was it good. The menu was written entirely in swabian dialect, meaning I had no chance of understanding it, but quick as anything I was presented an English copy printed off the computer out the back, and asked if it was up to scratch. I had to chuckle at one of the descriptions: Krautspätzle: Sauerkraut and Spätzle mengled together in equal shares and fried; Comparable to a happy marriage. I absolutely love Spätzle, a type of noodle, and will miss it greatly when I leave Germany.

I found Lindau absolutely delightful, and would love to go back. It has a lot of character, and history at ever turn. I was a little disappointed that if there hadn’t been such a thick haze over the lake, I would’ve been able to see the Swiss Alps on the other side – just another reason why I’ll have to go back I guess. Peter was a fantastic host, with whom I am greatly indebted to. Stay tuned for Liechtenstein, Switzerland and the Black Forrest.

Sorry for the long delay, I’ve just gotten back from a fantastic two week roadtrip around the south of Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. I think I’ll have to split up the sections, as there is just too much to write (and read) all in one go. So here are the first few days covering Bavaria and Austria.

I decided to give the Mitfahrzentrale thing another go, after my Belgium experience, and managed to get three fellow travellers to help share costs. Julia, Mandy and Adrian were all quite chatty, which was good, and I hope I didn’t scare them too much. I met up with Ana (my sister) at the Wombats hostel, and then headed out to dinner with her and a woman she’d met earlier that day on a tour she was with. We walked around the city, for what felt like forever, before finally finding a small little restaurant with some scrummy Bavarian fare – oh how I do love German cooking.

Woke up to a very cold and miserable day in Munich, which was a blessing in disguise, because Ana was planning on making me do a three hour bike tour if it had been as nice as the day before. I made sure I was in time to be at the Marienplatz to see the famous Glockenspiel in action. Then I strolled down to the Victualmarkt, one of Germany’s biggest food markets with a huge variety of fresh food and delicacies, which aren’t exactly cheap. Decided to splash out on some exotic fruit, which I think the guy said was from Vietnam, but I found pretty tasteless.

Pigs trotters anyone?

That afternoon Ana and I went to Dachau, which is a memorial site on the grounds of a former concentration camp. Unlike Bergen-Belsen in the north, Dachau has a lot of the original buildings still standing. It was not a designated 'extermination camp' as Auschwitz was, but the camp served as a model for all later concentration camps and as a ‘school of violence’. Dachau was in operation from 1933 to 1945 and in that time thousands of inmates were worked or starved to death. One of the more intriguing aspects of the history of the place, is that they undertook 'experiments' on inmates. These ranged from tests to ascertain how long someone would survive if plunged into ice-cold water, to testing a German version of penicillin by injecting patients with various viruses and seeing if the drug had any effect. What scared me most about all of this was that the reasoning behind it was fairly sane, in that I could see the thought processes behind it. It wasn't straight-out sadism, it was planned and calculating. For example, the ice-cold water tests were undertaken to work out how long the air force should look for survivors from a plane crash. The difficult thing to digest is that the information they collected has been crucial even for today’s medicine and medical practises.

Work brings freedom

Even though the weather was against us, we still decided to check out the Schloss Nymphenburg, a large baroque 17th-century palace which was the summer residence of the Bavarian monarchs and then to the English Garden, which I found both mediocre. For dinner we went to the Rathaus Keller which I highly recommend, but would advise you to go right to the back of the building, as it seems the most atmospheric, which sadly we didn’t see until we were leaving.

Cheimsee

The next day, I was severely sleep deprived – while I was out to dinner some girl had stolen my bed, so while she was out I moved her stuff to the top (empty) bunk above mine. I don’t think she realised you had to make your own bed, and get the sheets from downstairs. When she came back, and I was already in bed, she stole someone else’s lower bunk, and from then on everyone else who came home, had to steal someone else’s bed. But of course each person came back at a different time, each turns on all the lights, starts cursing that someone’s in their bed, then spends half an hour russelling around in a plastic bag, before finally falling asleep with the light on. The drunk 18 year old who came back at 4 am, who couldn’t climb up the stairs, and wouldn’t stop farting was the last straw. And of course the construction crew outside has to start up at 7 am. Oh how I hate hostels.

I’d brought sleeping pills with me, but as I knew I had to drive the next day, I just put up with it. Ana decided to join me for part of my drive to Salzburg, after being stuck in a lot of holiday traffic, we finally got to the Cheimsee, a large lake known as the Bavarian sea, and is a favourite for day-trippers from Munich. We took a ferry to a small island in the middle of the lake called the Herrencheimsee, where you can do a tour of one of crazy King Ludwig the II’s palaces. Although never finished, it is the most expensive of all three of his castles, (of which I have now been to all three, including his birthplace, Schloss Nymphenburg). As it was still early in the tourist season, it wasn’t too crowded, but sadly for us none of the impressive fountains were on. I dropped Ana at the local train station, and carried on by myself, along the foot of the alps, till I got to Salzburg, Austria.

Schloss Herrencheimsee

As things never go quite right when I’m involved, I’d been waiting for something to go wrong with the car for a while, and of course they did. Nothing major thank goodness, but somehow I’d lost the oil cap, and I’d remembered I’d been told it was extremely dangerous to drive with out one. I’m positive I’d screwed it on tightly the last time I’d checked, but something had happened to it. I started to panic that this was going to be one of those stupid situations that it’ll take 5 days for the part to get there and will cost €50, but I needn’t have worried. Using my best German I found a VW dealership and 5 minutes and €6 later I had a new cap. Brilliant! I was also lucky enough to find a host, through couchsurfing called Emanuel, a 25 year old student. He had to work that first night at a bar in town, but like a godsend, he gave me his flatmates room, who was on holiday in India and told me to make myself comfortable. So I crawled into the bed, and watched movies on her computer, which is exactly what I needed.

Mirabelle Gardens

I didn’t really know all that much about Salzburg or what to expect, apart from it was the birthplace of Mozart and filming location of the “Sound of Music”. In the morning I strolled around Mirabelle gardens, which was in full spring bloom. I stopped myself from running around singing ‘Doh-rei-mi’ unlike a few of the other English speaking tourists around. Funnily enough the movie never hit the German speaking part of the world, and few have ever heard of it, let alone actually watched it.

Mirabelle garden with the Pegasus Statue, and covered walkway where Maria taught the kiddies to sing 'Doh-rei-mi', with Hohensalzburg Fortress in the distance

I walked all around the alt stadt, and demolished a delicious giant pretzel. I had to cringe at all the poor horses, carting around fat tourists through all the historic streets. Took a funicular up to the Hohensalzburg Fortress, which towers over the city, and as it was Good Friday, it was too crowded to take the tour inside, but I was happy just strolling around, soaking in the sights of the city and the alps in the distance. Since I’d been lucky enough to be given a brand new navigator, I decided not to do the ‘Sound of Music’ bus tour, but did my own mini version.

The gazebo where Liesl sings '16 going on 17'

So I saw all the main sights, and drove out to the Lake District, which was picture postcard perfect. Emanuel invited me to go to a grill party with him and his mates, at the Hintersee, a small lake far off the tourist trail. It was so nice sitting out in the sun, while the others played on the guitar or didgeridoo, and cooked dinner on the open fire.

That night I went with Emanuel to a friends birthday party, held at a beer hall called the Augustinerbräu. They specialize in brewing a heavily malted Oktoberfest-style beer that is served in huge 1 litre clay-porcelain mugs. Now I’ve never been much of a beer drinker, but this stuff was fantastic, I highly recommend going there. His friends were a great laugh, and it was a great way to end a perfect day.

Bavarian Alps

The next day back in Germany, I followed most of the Alpine Strasse, along the Bavarian alps which were just spectacular, past the “Wank” mountain, which I couldn’t resist taking a photo of, and on to Schloss Linderhof - King Ludwig II retreat in the middle of no where.

This King Ludwig II guy was becoming a bit of a reoccurring thing in this part of the world. So what I’ve gathered of him is that he was king of Bavaria in the mid 1800’s, he is best known for his extreme personal eccentricity (he was rumoured to be gay) and for the extravagant medieval fantasy castles he constructed. He died under mysterious circumstances which are still unclear today.

He was declared insane by his own government because his passion for expensive castles was draining Bavaria’s budget, and he was grounded to Schloss Berg. Oddly enough, he was quite a popular king, and there were rumours he was planning to escape and reclaim his power. Coincidentally he became suicidal and drowned himself in Lake Starnberg (where it is only waist deep). His shrink, who said he was not at all suicidal, drowned, too, coincidentally! Years later, the royal coroner suddenly remembered in his deathbed that there were two bullets in the King’s back, which always struck him odd. Especially since seven witnesses have coincidentally died or disappeared soon after the Kings death. However, others say this is only a wild conspiracy theory. Ironically, nowadays Ludwig’s castles are fairytale cash-cows for Bavaria’s government.

Schloss Linderhof

So after a pleasant stop in the middle of the alps, my navigator took me on a random, twisting drive through back country roads, where I stumbled across pristine turquoise lakes, forests and crossed back over into the Austrian border before finally arriving in Füssen, Bavarias highest town. I had to resort to spending another night in a hostel, but at least no one snored, and we were in a reasonably quiet end of the building. I met a guy there from Mainz, Wiesbaden’s rival city, and we swapped stories. Then at breakfast the next morning, I met Maria and her boyfriend Martias whom I’ve kept in touch with since.

Although the weather was against me, I went to Schloss Neuschwanstein, the infamous German castle which inspired the design of the Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland. As I was pretty early up there, I didn’t have to wait very long to get a bus to the top of the hill. There is a bridge about a 10 minute walk from the castle that gives you a fantastic view of the whole area, but it freaked me out. Largely made out of wood, the whole thing feels very unsteady with 100 tourists all trying to take photos at once.

Severlly sleep deprived yet again, early on Easter Sunday morning at Schloss Neuschwanstein

I must’ve been the only person there not planning on doing a tour of the inside, but I admit I’ve been a bit castled out, and after seeing inside Herrencheimsee, Ana said there was no real need for me to see this one, as its all pretty similar. Met a really nice Australian woman and a Canadian guy there and had a decent chat. That’s what I love about travelling by yourself; you’re much more likely to met interesting people. I stumbled upon a local flea market where I found a not too tacky Beer Stein and black glass bead necklace. I popped back into Füssen, and had a stroll around the town before heading on to Lindau, my next destination.

Füssen shop sign

So that’s all for this part of the trip. In the following days I travelled to the Bodensee, to Liechtenstein, Switzerland and back into Germany and around the Blackforest. So I’ll try and get the next update for you in the next day or two. Take care