Oct 2006

WARNING: This one is a whopper, perhaps best taken in small doses. I know reading about other peoples holidays is never really that exciting since you weren’t there yourself, so I won’t be offended if you can’t be bothered reading the whole thing. I’m not exactly going to quiz you on it later :o) Although I’ve tried to make it as interesting and easy to read as possible for you – feel free to just have a browse through the photos if you’re just not in the mood right now. Otherwise, enjoy!

The family spent there autumn vacation in Gran Canaria in Spain, so I took the chance to jump in the car for a week and head north in search of the real, quintessential German experience. Now most “normal” people who travel around Germany head to Bavaria, and usually follow the “Romantic Road” full of wurst, castles, lederhosen and cuckoo clocks. I have nothing against the state, but as I am somewhat of an anti-tourist I chose the less well known 600 km long “Fairytale Road” as a rough guide to my route north.

Doing things properly I started off in Hanau which is the birthplace of the brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm who you may or may not know gathered and recorded most of the fairytales we grew up with. There was nothing to see or do there, except look at the statue of the two brothers which as you can imagine, doesn’t really take all that long. I then headed off to Marburg, a pretty cool, relaxed University town where I spent the afternoon with Julian; a guy I’d met the weekend before at a brunch for ‘Couchsurfers’ in Frankfurt. He showed me around the old part of the town, and gave me a glimpse into life as a student in Germany. They don’t have to pay fees, and all pretty much live in apartments. The guys still have to do military service for a year, but a lot seem to get out of it by doing some sort of community service instead. So the result is they finish their degrees a lot later than we do, considering they also finish high school later than us to boot. Of course as luck would have it, on the very first day of my little road trip I encountered car troubles, thankfully not of the serious kind. As I pulled into Julian’s place, he noticed the front passenger-side tyre was making a funny noise. Somehow, a guard above the tyre had slipped down, had ripped partly off and was grating against it. He managed to get the whole thing off with out problem, but who knows what would have happened if it had come off completely while I was driving.

Julian

I ended my first day, by arriving reasonably late into Kassel and having my very first couchsurfing experience. I signed up to Couchsurfing early last year, but my flatmates back home were never really that keen about the idea of letting strangers come stay. I couldn’t really complain as I had an outside room and they’d be the ones stuck inside with them. I stayed with a speech therapist called Salesia who was a newbie to the whole Couchsurfing phenomena as well. Even though we were both exhausted, we stayed up chatting over all the misconceptions we had about Germany and New Zealand etc. She was very warm and welcoming and I hope I left a good impression as well.

Salesia

I was a little disappointed by the city of Kassel, perhaps it was the crappy weather but I just didn’t feel anything for the city – surprising considering it was supposed to be the capital of the Fairytale road. The main attraction of the town is a huge Hercules statue on a hill over looking the city, but of course when I was there his head had been taken off to get restored and all I could really see was scaffolding.

Rheinhardswald

I carried on the next day and stopped in a small village called Hofgeismar, which doesn’t really have any claim to fame but was a good stop for lunch. As I sat in the market place, a woman came to sit by me and we started to chat. Jana had moved from the Czech Republic seven years ago and now lived in the village with her German husband and two small children. After a while she invited me back to her house for Coffee, as she had to put her son down for a nap. I had no plans so I decided it couldn’t hurt to pop in for a while. We ended up talking for a few hours, and although I hadn’t implied it or even thought of it she invited me to stay at her place for the night. I couldn’t think of a reason not to, so I stayed. I left for a few hours and went to Sababurg, the castle of Sleeping Beauty and was stunned by the gorgeous countryside surrounding the Rheinhardswald, a primeval forest reserve.

Jana and her little one

Autumn turned out to be a fantastic time to see this part of the country as all the trees had turned deep reds, burnt oranges and striking yellows. Because of the rain the grass was lush and green, and the sun was low and golden. When I got back, Jana and I sat drinking Czech beer, and ate fresh Italian food, her husband was on a business trip and would probably have been more than a little surprised by both of our spontaneity. She invited me to go with her back to the Czech Republic, as she was going to visit her family, but she wasn’t going to be back before I had to be in Wiesbaden to look after the boys and I had already made plans to meet up with Hauke in Hanover. However when she goes back again I would be more than keen to join her.

Trendelburg

Sad to leave my new friend, I ventured on regardless to Trendelburg, home of the tower of Rapunzel. I just missed a large tour bus leaving and so fortunately had the whole place to myself to snoop around. Then on to Bad Karlshafen, which was disappointing considering my Lonely Planet guide had made it out to be a little slice of heaven. Hoxter came next, of Hansel and Gretel fame. I decided spontaneously to get a haircut and get a bit of colour put in, which is not as easy as it sounds when you don’t speak the same language as the person with the scissors. Blink and you miss it, ‘Polle’ is supposed to be the home of Cinderella, but when doing a bit of further research it’s never mentioned – hmmm sounds a bit fishy. Again I was the only one at the castle ruins, so I’m not complaining. I got to try out the self-timer function on my digi, and looked like an idiot running around and jumping on to ledges to be in time for it.

Me in Polle, Cinderella’s castle

Got to Hameln reasonably late in the afternoon, after stopping at a country pub (extremely similar to the one at Matawai actually) for a lunch of Schnitzel, and having to push my way past all the old boys watching the soccer. I got a few raised eyebrows, as they quietly pondered ‘who the hell is that’ and ‘how the hell did she end up here’? The town of the ‘Pied piper’ is crawling with rats, as the towns gone more than a little crazy with its namesake. I tried in vain to find the Rattenfängerhaus (the rat catcher’s house) one of the oldest buildings in the town, which is now a restaurant, and so settled for a kebab. Of course on the way back to the car, just mere metres away but what should I find? I think you can guess.

Bergen-Belsen, memorial and mass grave to the right

After staying the night in the quiet Hameln hostel I left the fairytale route and came upon a pretty town full of half-timbered houses called Celle. As it was a Sunday nothing was open, and so I had no way of finding out if there was anything to see or do there, but it was a nice stop anyway. After reading about it in my guidebook, I did a detour to Bergen-Belsen, which was a Nazi ‘Prisoner of War’ and ‘Concentration’ camp in WWII. Although unlike Auschwitz in Poland, absolutely none of the camp remains and all that is left are mass graves of the 70,000 people that died there, including Anne Frank. The large plant covered mounds of the mass graves, almost blend in naturally to the landscape, it’s not until you read the signs that the realization of just how many people died there hits you. ‘Here lies 5000 dead’ etc. The museum there was full of appalling pictures and although the descriptions were all in German, it didn’t really matter - the impact of the images was enough. I watched a video in English and the inhumanness of it all was so overwhelming. There were awful, uncensored scenes of the several thousand unburied bodies and emaciated survivors that greeted the British forces who liberated the camp in April 1945. So feeling a little deflated and sad I moved on to Lüneburg. I had hoped to find a barn to sleep in for the night, as the area is well known for its ‘getting back to the country’ lifestyle, but sadly the girls at the Information centre were more than a little unhelpful. Although I was getting sick of driving I carried on to Hamburg.

Hamburg Rathaus

I hadn’t heard a bad word said about Hamburg since arriving in Germany, so I had high expectations. Basically as soon as I arrived I met a friendly Norwegian called Margrethe who was staying in the same dorm as I was. We ventured off to the famous ‘Repperbahn’ aka the red-light district of Hamburg for dinner. I practically talked the poor girl’s ear off as I hadn’t spoken to anyone in nearly two days. She asked me if all New Zealanders were like me? - not sure if it was a compliment :o) But she told me the next day to keep in touch, so I couldn’t have been too awful. I gave in to the evil tourist pull, and did a tour of the city in one of those awful double-decker buses with headphones, simply to get my head around the huge city and also because I didn’t know a thing about the place. I got off and had a look around the centre and did a tour of the Rathaus, which was pretty impressive. As the weather was crap and I was feeling hideous after taking sleeping pills the night before (the curse of being a light sleeper in a hostel) I really didn’t give Hamburg as much energy as it probably deserved. I wasn’t up to roaming around looking at everything, so I convinced myself the tour in the bus and walk around the centre was sufficient. Back in the car and on to Bremen.

Bremen

Even though Bremen was also the end of the fairytale road, I have always known I would get to Bremen eventually. When I was fourteen, Hauke came to live for a year with a family friend who lived in the Waioeke Gorge just south of Opotiki. I had naturally seen photos of his home town from him, but I had also grown up with a book of the ‘Bremen town musicians’. I really liked Bremen, although its old buildings were a little dark and grimy it had a nice feel about it. I wasn’t even put off by the foul stench of Hops coming from the Becks brewery across the river. I met a couple of eccentric Organ players from Sweden at the hostel that night, whom had mistakenly been put in a girls-only dorm. When someone complained (no idea who) they were moved and replaced with a very chatty and friendly Russian girl. As the boys had to go to a recital I dragged myself off to a restaurant for dinner, and contemplated having a few drinks, but the thought of drinking by myself was a little depressing to say the least. I’m sorry if this gets the feminists out there a little angry, but I really don’t think its normal for a girl to sit at a bar and drink by herself – sends the wrong messages if you know what I mean.

Bremen Town Musicians

I had an interesting start to the day, by going down into a lead cellar below the large Dom St Petri Cathedral, where eight mummified corpses lay in open coffins. The figures included a Swedish countess, a soldier with his mouth opened in a silent scream and a student who died in a dual in the early 1700s - really not somewhere I would recommend for the squeamish. Luckily I had arrived in Bremen when a Carnival had come to town, so after leaving the sombre cellar I was instantly surrounded by Ferris wheels, flower stalls, crafts, wurst and apfelweine stands. To be able to end my fairytale road experience in the proper fashion, I roamed the streets and hunted around for the statue of the ‘Bremen town musicians’ and was just about to give up, when I realised the small insignificant statue stashed in a corner, which I had dismissed earlier was actually the towns iconic quartet. With my search over (a little disappointed) I travelled south to Hanover, and finally got to catch up with Hauke – the German exchange student I met in 1999.

Hauke and Ines

Hauke, has spent the last five years learning to be a Doctor, and actually plans on moving back to New Zealand briefly (most likely to Tauranga) to do his practical training with a friend. He hasn’t changed all that much, just back from a holiday in Tunisia learning to kite surf, he’s still into his triathlons, and lives with his girlfriend of five years, Ines. It was nice to go over some old stories and talk to someone about New Zealand who actually knew people and places I knew. He showed me around parts of Hanover, and as we got caught in a rain shower we sat down below some trees in front of a lake that was made by Hitler (not personally of course). As he had to go to work first thing in the morning, I decided not to stick around Hanover, and instead followed a recommendation to head east to the Harz Mountains region.

As time was beginning to run out I could only make a quick stop for lunch and tour around the cute town of Goslar, and then headed right through the middle of the scenic region which brought me to an area called ‘Bovenden’, naturally I couldn’t resist taking a picture of me in front of a sign. So now back on the Fairytale road, perhaps not in the order it was designed, but who’s checking? After literally finding no room at the ‘Inn’ in Gottingen, I randomly headed south to Hann Munden. Absolutely exhausted I made myself walk around the middle of the town, looking for somewhere to eat, and had to pathetically resort to McDonalds in the end – as nothing was open. The following day, I needed to head home but as I was in the area, I checked out a few little villages on my way back including Oberweser, the home of ‘Snow White’ and ‘Puss in Boots’ and also Schwalmstadt the centre of the ‘Little Red riding hood’ region. Let’s just say I was more than a little surprised at the lax attitude these villages had about their so called ‘claim to fame’. Trying to find information, let alone a blimmen shop that was open was a joke. Admittedly these places are just small dots on the map, I am sure with a little ingenuity they could really make a little business for themselves – but perhaps they like things just the way they are. And as I mentioned earlier (if you can remember back that far) I was after the quintessential German experience, so did I find it?

Bovenden

I had a fantastic time away; I met some rather entertaining and warm people and learnt a thing or two. It was good to do things a little untouristy, even if sometimes all you wanted was a little tourist information, like why the hell are you here? But you can’t want one thing and curse the absence of the exact opposite can you? Autumn was a fantastic time to tour around the north of Germany. There were stunning sights around every turn, and crowds were scarce, of course this also meant that things were closed for the season. I travelled nearly 1500kms in the end, virtually all off the autobahn – so I could see things up close, and which also meant places took longer to get to. So I was glad to be able to finally stop the car and be at home. Straight back into things when I got home, Friday night I went to a Coffee house concert at the English Church here in Wiesbaden with friends and then onto a few drinks at some bars in town with my drinking buddy, James. Saturday night I went to a Halloween party with some people I met at the Black and White party I went to a fortnight ago - got see a rather entertaining version of the ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’ and a bit of Meatloaf in German.

This coming weekend, we’re having a huge Halloween party in the house, and the decorations have already been professionally put up around the house, it looks like something straight out of a movie. The following weekend I am back on the road, this time with an American woman I’ve met here and we’re heading to Northern Bavaria for a bit of Girls Weekend getaway. I’ll keep you posted, naturally.

This weekend I jumped at the chance to go on a mini road trip with Stefan to his hometown, Berlin. On the way, we stopped off at a medieval castle perched on a high hill above the town of Eisenach. Wartburg Castle is somewhat strangely, the only castle in all of Germany to be named a ‘world heritage sight’. I will not bore you with too many details, of which I only know little myself as I had to take the German tour as the English tour was booked out, and was the only way of seeing the interior. Its biggest claim to fame is that it is where Martin Luther translated the bible. The castle had quite a nice feel about it, it had a very impressive gold room covered in glass mosaics but unfortunately for me the courtyard was being restored much like the rest of the country and dare I say – the rest of Europe (the price of having so many old buildings I guess). Having to do the tour in German, provided me with an unusual insight into just how different we English speakers behave. On the several tours I have been on, the atmosphere is very relaxed, and very informal. Although people listen to what the guide is saying, people casually talk amongst themselves pointing out things and above all – they ask questions, lots of them, and usually very annoyingly so. But the Germans were absolutely quiet the entire time. Not one question was asked, and no pleasantries exchanged, it was all very sterile really. Still it was a nice break in the journey and was worth the visit.

Inside Wartburg Castle

We stopped off in Leipzig in East Germany to visit Stefan’s sister and her new husband. She is 21, works in the German Navy, and apparently is an excellent shooter (trust me; you would never have guessed it.) They had recently brought all the set up for Singstar so I got to see the boys battle it out, and got to see some very tragic German 80’s hits. They had most of the songs we have, but a few random localised hits as well. After being on the autobahn all day, and not being able to go too fast (only a crawling 160 km/h) because of the long weekend traffic, I was exhausted by the time we finally arrived in Berlin, which supposedly has roughly the same population as all of New Zealand, go figure.

We literally spent all of the next day on the go. As Stefan is a born and bred East Berliner (who still clearly remembers what it was like to live behind the Berlin Wall) I got see most of the main sights and sounds without any problems, apart from getting disorientated from getting on and off the S bahn, the U bahn and bus. Mitte, formerly East Berlin, is the city’s historic core and packs in most of the landmark sights, with a few exceptions of course. Here is a rough guide of what I got to see, mostly for my future reference:

Berliner Dom

Brandenburger Tor - Berlin’s famous gate, still standing after virtually everything else around it was destroyed in the war.
Reichstag – imposing Government building with long queues out the door, down the steps and around the side of the building
Unter den Linden – tree lined boulevard full of embassies and historic buildings, including the Humboldt University and the infamous Bebelplatz, which was the sight of the first official Nazi book-burning.
Gendarmemarkt – large square, flanked by two large domes and a concert hall
Berliner Dom – huge cathedral, with some very impressive, yet slightly eerie crypts of former royals, which a large number where actually children’s
Museum Insel – literally ‘Museum Island’, need I say more
Neue Synagoge – the original bombed by Nazis towards the end of the war and is still guarded by police
Kufürstendamm/Wittenburg platz - shopping district, with KaDeWe the seven story designer apartment store, for the rich. A fashion photo shoot was going on in the foyer while we popped in
Potsdamn Platz – the ‘new’ Berlin, epitomised in the Sony Centre, an architects dream (or nightmare I’m not quite sure) the surrounding buildings I was told, literally hang from a large tent like glass roof, with an artificial pond in the middle – very impressive. The base for the Soccer world cup media reports a few months back, and also the World premiere for LOTRIII.

Marge Simpson is dead - well her German voiceover is anyway. Apparently she was in her 60’s and died shortly after her husband had passed away after a long illness, sad story really. Just thought I might throw that in there, to wake you up after all my boring holiday details. Ok, now where was I?

Oranienburger Straße

Although I got to see a lot, we didn’t have time to see each thing in very much detail, and there is still so much I didn’t see at all, like ‘Checkpoint Charlie’ and the ‘Holocaust memorial’ - which means another visit, is more than a likelihood. As I was lucky enough to stay with someone who actually grew up in Berlin, I got to see just how different the two sides of Berlin still are. Although virtually none of the Berlin wall remains, most of it taken in small pieces for mementos, and larger chunks in museums throughout the world, the rest simply recycled and used for roads - there is an invisible line you cross where the change is instantly visible. Where the west is packed with ugly cell like apartment blocks, literally blocking out the sun, the east felt more like a country village with haphazard cobbled streets and a random mix of decent residential and desolate housing.

The next day, feeling a little worse for wear, we started to make our way back home, but not before stopping off to get me some Turkish Apple tea from one of the Turkish supermarkets (mmm heaven) and just out of Berlin we stopped off for a few hours at Potsdam at the Sanssouci Park. The sprawling beast of a park was basically the playground of the royals and all the main buildings (much to my joy) are very spread out. The Neues Palais, the most impressive of the palaces was a nice leisurely stroll 2 kilometres away from the infamous Schloss Sanssouci, although you could pay to go in, I was suffering a bit of information overload as it was.

Neues Palais

Out of all the places in the world I expected to see some good old NZ toetoe; in front of a very large Old Dutch Windmill, in a small garden in a large German park was not it. But better yet when we had sat down to lunch at the parks restaurant - for Schnitzel of course, who should I see out the window than Nancy, one of Marisa’s (my old flatmate) friend who had lived in NZ a while ago for a year, in Waihi and whom had actually come back to NZ just last year for a visit and had stayed at our flat for a few weeks in Hamilton. To add to the coincidence she was at the park to show her host parents from NZ around. I had completely forgotten she was from Berlin, but the chance of seeing her then and there in the huge park was just uncanny.

So now 9 of the 16 states of Germany down, and of course I only got to see a very small slice of Berlin, so I can not fairly give an informed opinion yet. I would like to go back to Berlin simply because I do not think I have heard a bad word about it, from anyone actually, so I definitely want to explore a bit more. In two weeks time, I am back off to Bavaria for a quick visit, and then I am off on a road trip to explore the north of Germany for a week and will probably follow the ‘Fairytale Road’. Oh and just something a little random to end on, petrol stations all over Germany sell alcohol, and usually on big stands by the counter. I’m told it’s more to do with the service stations opening hours (compared with supermarkets) than promoting drink driving, but still!