Bremen

Tuesday 02 August

It took us much longer then planned to arrive at our next camp site in Bremen Germany (5 hours instead of 3) due to several sections of road works on the autobahn. But the weather is still fine and warm so can't grumble too much. We drove through many kilometers of wheat plantations, some sad looking sunflowers and cattle farms. Maybe because the weather is warmer in this region the cattle are in the fields, because throughout our trip, where ever we've been so far we have hardly seen any and assume they've been held in the large barns on the properties.

Now we're back in Germany we're back to the supermarkets we are most familiar with and which sell cheap alcohol, so we're very pleased indeed. Along the autobahns we will also encounter McCafe's which the Nordic countries didn't have. For the horrified coffee lovers out there, believe us when you're hanging out for a soy latte a McCafe is one of the few places you can go. However the flip side is the return to having to pay cash just about everywhere as for some reason Germany hasn't got into the cashless society yet.

Our camp site, Camping am Stadtwaldsee is a beauty with new facilities, very polite and friendly German guests and situated right on the lake Stadtwaldsee which we walked around after setting up. Amusing things happen when you're on holidays in a foreign country. Like coming upon the “naturalist” area of this lake. These people take the phrase “getting their kit off when the sun is out” very literally. We did a quick back peddle before we were asked to do the same.

The latest German news reports announce an increase in mozzies and other bugs due to the high rainfalls experienced while we were in Sweden/Norway. So far the mozzies haven't materialised here but the camp site is home to several large hares.

Wednesday 03 August

Happy birthday to Bill's eldest brother, Michael from Cairns.

Several times on our trip we've taken the recommendation of fellow travellers and visited places not in our plan. Our friends from the Gold Coast, Gloria and Tony, inspired us to visit Geiranger in Norway following their trip weeks earlier via a cruise ship. And now we've come to Bremen on the recommendation of the two Aussies we met at our Berlin camp site.

Took the bus and tram into the city, going past the university precinct which is enormous. We thought Bremen was a small place, but it is actually the home of EADS (European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co), there is a Mercedes Benz factory, parts of the Airbus A380 are assembled here and Becks beer is brewed here.

The first thing we encountered was one of many statues of the city's famous Town Musicians. The legend is totally unbelievable but they feature everywhere and are very cute. Another famous statue is that of Roland, war hero and protector of the city. This one was erected in 1404 after the original wooden one was burnt down in 1366. It is said a spare statue is always kept in the basement of the Rathaus, because “as long as Roland stands, the city will be safe”.

You can do a self guided walking tour by following different coloured coins embedded into the pavers and we also decided to do a guided tour of the Rathaus of 1410 which looks very impressive on the outside. Inside we only saw three rooms – the old original Senate hall, the Golden Room complete with leather wallpaper, and the new banquet hall with the most amazing “chandelier”. There is also public wine cellar in the basement containing the oldest barrel of wine crafted in Germany in 1653 but we didn't get to see that.

We visited 3 churches, all very beautiful with vaulted ceilings and non religious stained glass windows, but each not as heavily decorated as the cathedrals in larger German cities. St Peter's Cathedral was the most impressive with gorgeous paint work and a very impressive wooden carved pulpit.

For lunch we decided on a pub tucked away in the Schnoor Quarter, the town's oldest district and got a pleasant surprise with the performance of the glockenspiel when the hour struck. The bells chime and a multi panel display of those who conquered the Oceans rotates.

We really hadn't expected to find such a wonderful little town but thoroughly enjoyed Bremen and it is highly recommend.

More photos here.

Berlin - rebuilding, reunified, refreshing

Sunday 03 July

Awoke to a cold and wet day – the rain is set in and the clouds are low so visibility is bad. We decide to up stumps and head over the hills into Germany and onto Berlin. You really notice that you have crossed back into Germany (ok there is a border post) as the quality of roads, buildings, and the general upkeep of facilities is greatly improved, compared to Czech, which itself is a step up on Slovakia.

No tolls in Germany, so back onto good roads, but the rain persisted all day, so it's a fairly tiring 4 hour run into Berlin, to our camp site – City Camp, set on a small island in a canal, near the Tegel airport. This is another good site – the only downside so far is aircraft noise but hopefully it will stop at a decent hour. Tegel Airport - which played a major role in the Berlin Airlift - closes next year.  City Camp will be a great camp then (and no doubt more expensive).  

We met another couple from Oz, who checked in just after us, and spent a couple of hours with them for drinks and nibbles - a welcome catch up with fellow Aussies. They gave us a few good tips for travel in the UK.

Monday 04 July

Heard the first plane take off at 6:15am, so no need for an alarm clock while we're staying here. Delayed going into the city until a storm with heavy rain had passed but it continued drizzling on and off all day which kept the temperature quite cool.

It's a bus and the U-bahn to get into the city, but they come so frequently (every 4 minutes like clockwork) it isn't a problem. Followed Friedriche Strabe (Frederick Street), one of the main streets to Checkpoint Charlie. It was interesting to see the actual American Checkpoint, but very cheesy with “American soldiers” charging 2 euro for a photo with them. This was the boundary to the American sector of Berlin so we thought it fitting to have a coffee at the McCafe.

To our amazement, there was no line up to get into the Checkpoint Charlie Museum, but then we found out we were at the exit!!! The Museum was in fact packed with tourists so we headed for the Judisches Museum (Jewish Museum) a couple of blocks away.


The guidebook recommends you put aside 3 hours to visit this Museum, and they are not wrong. It is the complete history of Germany's Jews from the Middle Ages through to today and is totally fascinating. These people have been persecuted for centuries due to their religion. There are some very moving personal letters and articles belonging to people killed during the Holocaust but also many examples of Jewish customs which we had no idea about. One example is that meat and milk are not permitted to come into contact so often two sets of kitchen utensils are kept, some even colour coded.  On a lighter note, we learnt of the origin of Levi in Levi Jeans!

After a very late lunch we decided we couldn't do any more trudging in museums so headed home.

Tuesday 05 July

Awoke to a fine day so got up quick smart with the plan to head to the Reichstag (Parliament Building) by 8am to beat the crowds. You can apparently walk up into a glass dome shaped building for a view of Berlin and the parliamentary chamber.

First however we caught the U-bahn to Tiergarten (Animal Garden), 630 acres of lush trees, lawns, gardens, monuments and of course the Zoo. We got a free look at some of the animals walking the perimeter of the Zoo and were glad to see they are in much better surroundings then their compatriots in Frankfurt. Not really knowing which of the many paths to take, we suddenly found ourselves at the Victory Column, a 227 foot granite, sandstone and bronze column built in1873 to commemorate Prussia's military successes. 

Then a bit further down within the Park we came upon a memorial to Beethoven, Mozart and Haydn, still bearing the bullet holes from World War II. 

The Soviet Memorial built immediately after World War II has the usual giant statue of a soldier standing atop a marble plinth and flanked by what is said to be the first two tanks to have fought their way into the city.  It was funny to see a sparrow having a rest in the tank barrel.

And suddenly we were standing at the Brandenburg Gate, the sole remaining gate of 14 built in 1788-91 as triumphal arches for King Frederick Wilhelm II. When Napoleon vanquished the Prussians in 1806, he took the Quadriga (chariot drawn by four horses driven by Victory) back to Paris. Eight years later the Prussians would have it back in place in Berlin. When the Wall was built in 1961, this beautiful Gate was left in a desolate no-man's-land. These days it is the backdrop for many of Berlin's celebrations.

The Reichstag was both a revelation and a disappointment. The Bundestag (German Federal Parliament) has met here since 1999 but prior to that not since 1933. Completed in 1894 it was burned to the ground in 1933 by “political opponents to the Nazis”. It was rebuilt but again badly damaged in 1945. 

It was again restored and really is quite a beautiful building. The crowds weren't too bad so we thought we'd easily get in to walk up the dome. The brochure says no prior bookings are required, however said brochure is “out of date” since last November when it became compulsory for individuals and groups to email their request to visit 2-3 days in advance. Grrrr.

After lunch we caught the bus to Bernauer Strabe to the Berlin Wall Memorial Site. This turned out to be 100 times better then the Checkpoint Charlie Museum would have been, and there were hardly any tourists and it was free. They are still constructing most of the open air Memorial but one section was opened and there is a section of the original Wall still standing.  We climbed up the viewing platform to peer over the Wall into the “dead man's zone” and cemetery beyond and had free access to government and media records of anything and everything relating to this time in history. 

Overnight, people living in this very street were either lucky enough to flee to the West or had their windows boarded up as part of the original Wall structure. We watched horrifying footage of an old lady jumping out her two story window into a fireman's net below on the West while Eastern soldiers have her by the hands trying to pull her back in. The stories of those who weren't so lucky kept unfolding. Over 200 were killed trying to escape. Catching the U-bahn at the local station afterwards, we also discovered the train system was prevented from stopping at stations in the East throughout the almost 30 years of Soviet rule. All above ground signs of the stations were destroyed, entrances boarded up and the platforms and tracks became run down, causing trains to derail on several occasions.

With the sun out today it certainly lifted our mood after 4 rainy and cold days, but the history we are learning about is both fascinating and heartbreaking.

Wednesday 06 July

The planes are taking off in the other direction this morning so we didn't get our wake-up call until 7:45am. Another glorious day with promised temps of 27 degrees.

We started today in the Mitte (Middle District) where Berlin first began as two fishing villages separated by the Spree River. At Bebelplatz we walked over the place where Joseph Goebbels (Nazi minister for propaganda and “public enlightenment”) ordered 20 000 books by Jews, pacifists and Communists burned.  The memorial on the site is a window down to an empty library.

The St Hedwigi's Cathedral 1747 was modeled after the Pantheon in Rome, and that's exactly what it looks like inside and out. Decorations are very minimal. One thing we've never seen before in the crypt of a church is the body in repose of a recently deceased bishop, watched over by two young priests in prayer.  It was Cardinal Georg Sterzinky - the former Archbishop of Berlin - who passed away on 30 June, 2011.

A most spectacular site from afar and close up is the enormous Berlin Cathedral. It is the largest Protestant church in Germany, and not technically a Cathedral as it has never been the seat for a Bishop. The massive dome was only restored in 1982 and the interior completed in 1993. The interior is one of the most beautiful we have seen, as we have seen a lot.  Then we climbed the dome's outer balcony for a birdseye view of the city below just as the bells rang 12pm. It was a brilliant vantage point to the city.  In the crypt far below there are more then 80 sarcophagi of Prussian royals (none of them recent!!).

One of the design legacies from the East is the Ampelmann (streetlight man) who appears on most crosswalk traffic lights throughout Berlin. He is a stocky fellow, wearing a wide-brim hat and walks with an animated gait. There is merchandise and shops dedicated to him and even a beer garden. Bill had to buy a replacement hat for the one he'd been dragging around since our trip to Alaska last year, so this was the perfect choice.

Outside the Berliner Rathaus (Town Hall) 1869 a huge excavation site reveals building fragments but because we were about to be run over by a truck we didn't find out if they are historical or new. The exterior of the building has a gorgeous neo-Renaissance clock tower and Berlin's history displayed in 36 very detailed terra-cotta plaques, each 20 feet long. Inside is also beautifully decorated and a grand stairwell leads you to a hall with stained glass windows depicting the coat-of-arms for each Berlin town.

Not for the first time in Germany, we saw these guys selling bratwurst with these portable bbq's strapped on - brilliant invention - but what a job!

For something different this afternoon we caught 3 U-bahns to arrive at the Schloss Charlottenburg (Palace) but not to visit it, to catch a long boat leaving from this point. 


The day being glorious and warm we sat up top with all of the German tourists and listen to the German commentary (before realising we could buy an English guide for 2 euro). 


Something we've noticed happening everywhere in Germany as soon as the sun comes out, Germans take their kit off and sun themselves anywhere they can find an open space. One great find on this boat trip was all the beer gardens lining the river. Most had recliner chairs and imported sand to give the “at the beach” feel. Really nice to see. 

We went under at least 25 bridges, all of them different and spectacular in their own way. The architect of the Oberbaum Bridge 1895 succeeded in making it resemble a city wall with city gate (see pic at start of this blog).  


But there was also amazing modern buildings along the way.

At the end of the trip we could see a long section of the Wall still standing. Shortly after the Wall came down in 1990, 118 artists from 21 countries came to “decorate” this 1.3km section. Unfortunately we only saw the reverse side covered in graffiti.

The sun started to bake so we left the boat in the city and took the train home. A final drink and bratwurst dinner in the camp site beer garden was a great way to say goodbye to Berlin and Germany for awhile.

More photos from Berlin here.


Thursday 07 July

The planes are on track again this morning with our 6:15am wake up call. The sun is out following a freak wind and rain event last night. We are off to Rostock today, where we will depart Germany early tomorrow morning on a Ferry bound for Sweden – just 5 short hours away across the Baltic Sea.

Some interesting things we have learnt in Germany:

• Even though Germans love outdoor activities and healthy lifestyle, they also love to smoke.
• Smoking is generally banned inside buildings but outdoor terraces are a free for all.
• You can buy alcohol in supermarkets, and it's super cheap.
• Soy milk isn't readily available in cafes. Frankfurt did have lactose free milk though.
• Germans love eating ice-cream (after 6 months of deprivation each year, they go for it in summer).
• They take their pets with them everywhere.
• It's no problem getting your kit off in public when the sun is out.
• Crocs are big in Germany (especially in the camping scene).
• Drinking beer while walking down the street....no problem at all.
• Everyone rides bicycles and there are plenty of paths to accommodate. Drivers also respect bikes.
• Public transport is frequent, cheap and easy to use.
• The most is made of the late sunsets.
• Very polite and helpful people.
• Beautiful bread, lots of varieties, dark and with seeds a favourite.

Really there wasn't much we didn't like about Germany, and look forward to returning after visiting Sweden, Norway and Denmark over the next few weeks.

Munich

Sunday 12 June

Awoke to a fine day – always the way – as we pack up and leave for Munich. On the way we decided to visit another of King Ludwig II castles in the town of Linderhof which meant a short detour under a mountain and via Austria (that was the easy part). The rest of the journey was following the Lake Plansee (gorgeous crystal clear glacial water) on a narrow road filled with Sunday sightseers, cyclists and us in our huge motor home before crossing back into Germany.

The Linderhof Castle was the smallest and the only one to have been completed. It was inspired by the Petit Trianon at Versailles and has many references to King Louis XIV (the sun King), but is a fraction of the size. Our guided tour took us into several magnificently yet overly decorated rooms including his enormous bedroom, the hall of mirrors and his dining room complete with state of the art 19^th century engineering – a table that decends through the floor to the kitchens below to be set and served by the servants and then returned so as not to bother the King. 

After the tour we thought we'd seen it all, only to be dazzled by the Grotto set uphill. This was a man made cave and underground lake containing a shell boat in which Ludwig would sit whilst servants rowed him into the wave pool where he could appreciate works of his favourite composure, Richard Wagner. The full lighting affect he required was a thing of the future, taking BASF much research to accomplish. This was also the first installation of electricity in Bavaria -undertaken by Siemens. The castle is set on the former hunting grounds of his father Ludwig I so there were many beautiful paths to explore, gorgeous fountains (including Neptune's), flower beds and a small chapel built for one.

After a quick hotdog lunch (yes, Sylvi is eating meat on this trip) it was a one hour trip along the autobahn to what many reviews depict as a dodgy camping site in Munich. Maybe it is so during Octoberfest, but we have found it to be good, in fact cleaner then the one near Wurzburg. One downer though is you have to pay 1 euro for a hot shower and 50 cents euro for hot water to wash up, but considering the overnight rate is relatively cheap we can live with it. 

Monday 13 June (public holiday)

Took the U-bahn (underground) into the city and spent a huge day exploring all the important parts – the magnificent facade of the Rathaus highlighted by red geraniums (just missed the 11am performance of the glockenspiel but caught the last musical part), St Mary's Cathedral (one of the less impressive), St Michael's where King Ludwig II tomb is located but although we went back twice more we still missed seeing it.

Another gorgeous church we visited was the Theatine Church, with distinct yellow exterior and baroque white stucco work inside, the detail was breathtaking.

After a quick lunch in the Hofgarten (Royal Garden) we tackled the Residenz (Royal Palace) which took us the better part of 3 hours. Apart from the usual spendor there was a very unusual display of religious artifacts supposedly containing bones, skulls or mummified remains of religious figures (the skull of John the Baptist, the mummified bodies of some of the first born ordered murdered by King Herrod). Possibly hard to believe true but a fascinating and very different display to come upon.

Too overwhelmed by the grandeur of the Palace, we couldn't bring ourselves to also view the Treasury room containing jewels etc, and decided to return to St Michael's to see Ludwig II tomb and also catch a local orchestra performing. Little did we know it was a full on production complete with bishop and incense and standing room only by the time we arrived. After a big day's sightseeing, we only lasted 3 numbers and left (much to the delight of the height challenged, senior German ladies standing behind us, tisking that tourists with “rucksacks” were blocking their view).

You would think we'd sleep through anything following such a big day, but angry ducks returning to their nests as 1am make quite a bit of noise. Luckily the bus load of young Contiki adventurers sleeping out in tents did behave themselves.

Tuesday 14 June

A slow start to the day but we met a lovely Aussie couple from Mudgee and were glad to chat in our own language for awhile.

Caught the U-bahn back into the city to visit the English Garden, designed for Bavarian prince Karl Theodor in the 18^th century. It is 5km long and 1.5 km wide and contains a boating lake, 4 beer gardens, a Chinese pagoda, several monuments and an enormous gaggle of geese all deciding it was time to leave the lake and venture onto the lawns for a feed as we walked past.

As we were leaving the gardens we came upon some surfers who were taking turns hanging ten in the rapids of a tributary of the River Isar. It goes to show you can be a surfer in the middle of a major city without the need to find a beach.

Tried St Michael's one more time to see Ludwig II tomb but once again we arrived in time for a service and the crypt was closed. It just wasn't meant to be.

Had dinner at a beautiful beer garden near our camping ground and met some young Aussies (Brisbane and Gold Coast) also travelling in a motor home also experiencing the fun and challenges this type of holiday presents.

Wednesday 15 June

Up and off early today (glorious weather for a change). As we went to pay for our 3 night stay we discovered that the “cheap” 14 euro a night fee didn't include another 10 euro per night for other charges such as rubbish, so this council run place turned out to be a bit dodgy after all. 

On the way to Salzburg we stopped at Prien to catch the ferry to one of Chiemsee's islands to see Ludwig II 3^rd (incomplete) castle – Herrenchiemsee. 

This is by far the most opulent and once again modelled on Versailles and basically a museum in honour of France's King Louis XIV. The Hall of Mirrors is incredible and the “continuous room effect” in the bedrooms by placing mirrors on the walls either side of the chandelier hanging from the ceiling never ceases to amaze. This time we got to see the mechanism underneath for yet another “drop table” in the dining room as well as a magnificent, golden carriage Ludwig enjoyed horse drawn outings in during winter. Though the castle was never finished Ludwig did stay here 10 days during its construction. For the first time we were able to see the unfinished rooms as they were when construction was halted.

As this year marks the 125^th anniversary of his suspicious death, a special exhibition detailing his life was available. It was a very insightful look at this young man and the dreams he wanted to fulfil but also his total disinterest in state affairs.

After the short ride back across the lake it was only 20 minutes or so to the Panoramic Campingplatz overlooking the city of Salzburg. This is a fairly small place, is a bit more expensive (hot water is included in the price), but the facilities are new and you can't beat the view. And they sell Mozart Balls in their shop!!

Hanging our Aussie flag out once we'd set up paid off yet again as we met a couple from Cairns travelling for 4 months in Europe and the UK. It's always good to hear stories from others and get useful tips about places they've already visited.

More Munich photos are here. 

Next: Austria!