Dachau, a trip through misery

While we were staying in Munich, one of our side trips was a day trip to the site of the former concentration camp, Dachau. It really is a day trip, and worth taking your time to explore and listen. It's not as brutal as some articles have suggested Auschwitz is, but still sobering. It's about the only day we've not had a camera with us, and I strongly recommend this. Concentration camps don't seem like the sort of place to take a camera. Especially not to take happy snaps of the gas chamber, like one idiot with a big grin was doing.

Berlin Bubbles

While wandering Berlin's streets and parks, we noticed the following fellow creating gigantic big bubble balloons. Enjoy.

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Dresden - Town of Fountains

in Deutschland ist alles am Sonntag geschlossen. (In English - everything is closed in Germany on Sundays.) Well, not everything, but most things. And so we found ourselves in Dresden, with pretty much everything closed. Our hotel looked over Prager Straser, which seems to be a shopping strip. Our floor to ceiling windows gave us a wonderful view. Not content, we went for a walk.

Berlin Zoo

I’ve never been to a really big zoo before, at least to my recollection. I’ve been to Mogo several times, but I’m fairly sure that’s all. Since the guide in our room told us it was 11EUR per person for both the zoo and aquarium, and that Berlin’s zoo has the largest number of species in the world, we figured this could be a good day. It turned out to be 18EUR each, but we didn’t let that stop us.

Day 1 in Berlin

Berlin is probably the place I’ve been most interested in going so far. Took us almost 5 hours to get here by train (30 minutes+ in delays!) and when we did get here, the weather, and the general feel of the place, remains me a great deal of Melbourne. As we walked from the station to our hotel, and crossed the Spree, we found a plaque, telling us of a number of attempted border crossings at this particular bridge. It dawned on us that we would be staying in what was East Berlin, and at the same time, that this was a city that used to be divided, and it’s only really been what it is for the past 20 years or so. That hasn’t stopped it from becoming a vast, modern city.

One of the most striking things about Berlin is there’s no altstadt the way the other German cities have had so far. That is naturally because it was destroyed, both during the final days of the war, and then further during the separation era. The next thing we noticed is that it’s big. To compare to everywhere else we’ve been so far, it’s like Rome in terms of size. All the other cities haven’t seemed so big. This is probably to fit in all the buildings that are also big, impressive and powerful, the way the Roman buildings were big.

The other major thing you notice is the cobble-stoned line through out the city, that shows where the wall used to be. There’s not so much signs of socialist lifestyle any more – the big concrete block buildings and so on, but there’s definitely parts of the wall remaining, with information plaques telling you the stories and so on. It was while we were at Checkpoint Charlie that I remembered mum has been to Berlin, and that it would have looked nothing like it does now. That she couldn’t just walk around freely the way we have done. It’s one of those things that makes you realise we are pretty lucky to be living when we live, and where we live.

We had dinner at a little restaurant across the road from our hotel (after an abortive attempt at a cheaper one) a traditional german sort of dish of meatballs in a creamy mushroom sauce with fried potatoes for me, and a veal and mushroom creamy pasta for Rhiannon. Tomorrow, we’re going to the Zoo.

Heidelberg

Heidelberg is Der Romantisch Stadt – The romantic town. We think this is because it seems rather Italian and Roman. Either way, it’s only about an hour from Frankfurt, so we thought it would be a good little day trip, rainy and cloudy weather aside.

Weiner Schnitzel, Hefeweizen, Apfelwein, and Chocolate Popcorn.

Yes, you heard correctly. Chocolate Popcorn marked our first afternoon in Frankfurt. Closely followed by good, hearty German food, and of course, beer.

Cologne and Bonn

As I sit on the train departing from Cologne for Frankfurt, I have an opportunity to review the past day or so. We got to Cologne fairly late in the evening, and tired as always, to find yet another hotel room without a kettle, so we went for a stroll, then ate our bacon/egg sandwiches we purchased back in Amsterdam.