Patrick and Sharon's German Oddity

HOW TO NAVIGATE THIS SITE

2006-08-09T08:57:00.000+02:00

Since re-formatting this old travel blog, it's now a bit easier to use. All posts are now links on the left hand side there, listed in the chronological order of our travels, and with "day numbers" in each title for reference.

After reading a post, clicking on "home" at the bottom will take you back to this welcome page. Or you can just jump to the next posting using the links on the side. You'll work it out.

Schloss Pillnitz, March '06, 5 months after our visit. The floodwaters now cover where we stood

Most of the writing in each posting was made at the time it all happened, but naturally some were modified and tidied-up after we got home. I tried to retain many of the comments I wrote at the time because it captures the mood and the magic of travelling. Therefore the tense can seem a little confusing.

Off you go!

PHOTOS FROM THE WHOLE THING

2005-10-26T04:14:00.000+02:00

They say a picture speaks a thousand words. Well, one would hope so, since I've written more than a thousand words. Hence, I've posted more than one picture. These will take you on a magi-tastical wonder-gorical journey from the thrills of the Nürburgring, to the Alps of Bavaria and the Smarts of Dresden. Enjoy

* some photos can be enlarged by clicking on them. But not all. See if you can guess which ones

More from the greatest racetrack in the world

The town of Nürburg. At top of photo is the new circuit. The old circuit sweeps between the new circuit and town and disappears into the Eifel Mountains for 21 beautiful kilometres

Yep, I was the one in the Renault Scenic. Sorry about that. Thanks for painting your car bright orange so I could see you coming

Sharon gets used to the new camera at Pflantzgarten 1. A popular corner for spectators, even on tourist days there's a busy bratwurst stand.

first it gets a little crowded and then...

The ADAC truck comes out as if to say "don't let this happen to YOU"

"Didja see the guy in the Renault Scenic?? I mean, I've seen some pretty stupid stuff out here..."

The wonderful, friendly, and very fast Sabine Schmitz. She likes cooking, gardening, and heaps of oversteer...

Sabine's taxi. BMW M5, V8 with 400hp. Track closures are annoying but are the only chance to see the Ring Taxis stationary. Behind her out of photo is German Touring car legend Jörg Muller in the other one

There is this 10th century castle in Nurburg...

...but who cares..? When there's stuff like this

Two weeks later...

Bavarian Cows think they are better than other German cows

Neuschwanstein Schloss, King Ludwig's (and Richard Wagner's) fairy castle. Sorry, Freudian slip. I meant fairy-tale castle.

Marko was taking a picture of me taking pictures, so Sharon took a picture of Marko

Is this the closest I will ever get to snow??

Now there's something you don't see every day

Hello. My name is Mufasa and I'm an alcoholic

The hills are alive with the sound of Munich

This is somewhat slower than my other Bimmer

Frauenkirche, official reopening scheduled for a week after we left (D'oh!)

Arts Academy and three loiterers, Dresden

if you buy in bulk you get this free stackable carry case

Claudi and Jogy Bear at Schloss Pillnitz

Dresden from atop the Frauenkirche. Vertigo not pictured

Zwinger, Dresden

Still bombed...awaiting restoration

The Fuerstenzug, procession of Saxon Kings. All mosaics. Very artistic. In there somewhere is...

August the Strong. Or possibly Lord Farquaad from Shrek. Whoever he is, it must take a lot of Brasso to keep him clean.

Albrechtsburg Schloss, with Gothic Cathedral, Meissen (near Dresden). The painting in the foreground, by the way, was excellent. In the castle, so careful were they about the parquetry floors , that you were made to wear...

...these. They are bigger than the photo suggests!

And we got there in this. Did I mention we.... never mind.

DAYS 28, 29. SO...THAT'S IT THEN

2005-10-22T11:08:00.000+02:00

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14TH- SATURDAY OCTOBER 15TH

Friday morning we spent most of our time on Unter De Linden, Berlin's famous shopping avenue, watched over by the mighty Brandenburg gate. Under the gate is an open expanse where buskers perform, which killed more time.

Try getting your kids to stay this still for more than 5 minutes

We then bussed to Berlin Tegel to catch a Hapag Lloyd flight to Stuttgart. Hapag Lloyd is a budget carrier with planes painted like taxis. It was a nice flight, but I was starting to feel the mood. It was almost all over.

River Spree from Oberbaum Bridge

We had planned to crash at Marko's place- he was back in Stuttgart to finish his thesis with Daimler Chrysler. Actually, he stays in Esslingen, a 45 min drive from Stuttgart. But we hadn't yet decided how to get to Frankfurt the next morning. Marko met us at Stuttgart airport which was big of him considering he had no car. This made the decision easier- we rented a car from Stuttgart airport to drop at Frankfurt next day. It was about the same price as a train, which would have meant an impossibly early morning trip from Esslingen to Stuttgart, blah blah ...no chance. Car was the best idea. It also meant we could hang with Marko Friday evening and cruise around.

Europcar rented us a 1-series Bimmer. I jokingly asked for SatNav, and was surprised that it was included. So, no map-reading for Sharon, and I got to be reunited with BMW SatNav Lady for one last time. Perhaps more importantly, it meant my last morning in Germany would not be spent sitting miserably on a train, waiting passively for the end. I would be driving, flat out, moving...going somewhere. One of the best things to enjoy in this country.

The last castle, Esslingen

A quiet night in Esslingen with Marko followed. Esslingen is not even on the map, let alone in any tourist brochures, but we finished Germany as we started, in a gorgeous little 1000-year old town with a castle, and cute half-timbered houses. We squeezed into Marko's student dormitory, (he gave up his bed for us) one last night of selfless German generosity.

As inconvenient as it was, the thoughtful gift of a massive DTM (German TouringCar Championship) calendar was rolled and strapped up for the journey home. Bye-bye Marko, thanks for everything.

I wanted to milk every last minute of our journey. Even in the foggy conditions 160km/h was quite safe, at one point 200. The autobahn was almost empty. I think that's the first time I've ever gone that fast. But it felt, I don't know...right. We passed the Sinsheim museum, and the Hockenheimring, just to remind me what we were leaving.

Amazingly, SatNav Lady not only got us to Frankfurt Airport, she got us to the right terminal and we found Europcar! Thanks, SatNav Lady. We will miss you and your calm, soft demeanour.

I don't have much to say, lest I blubber on like a sooky idiot. I couldn't believe it was all over. The in- flight movies included War of the Worlds, Batman Begins and an excellent little film called Crash. They were all suitably dark and depressing. Unfortunately, Wallace and Gromit wasn't showing. That would have cheered me up. The flight wasn't so bad. I was too numbed to care if it was.

At least, if nothing more, a little (very little) piece of Germany is coming to us. Claudi and Jögy arrive downunder December 31st, for what will be a brief but fun time. We have 11 weeks to plan how we can make her trip as special as she made ours. But apart from that, I hope I get to see it all (and more) again someday.

Besides, I really think I need at least one more crack at the Nurburgring.

DAYS 26-28 ICH BIN EINE JAM DONUT, Um..BERLINER

2005-10-19T05:28:00.000+02:00

WEDNESDAY OCT 12TH
Well, I wish I was a Jam Donut. Wow.

That's all I can say. The political melting pot, the hotspot of major world events, the architecturally splendid cityscape, the place where it all happened, and is still arguably the most happening place in Europe....And we've seen it. For two and a half desperately short days. BERLIN.

Pergamon Museum

Jana arranged another private ride to Berlin from Dresden. If you're ever in Germany, and you speak German (or better still, are good friends with some Germans) you can make use of an excellent travelling web tool http://www.mitfahrzentrale.de/ where you find people who are driving between towns and you formally hitch a ride, usually for a paltry 20 Euros to cover fuel. There's usually no shortage of rides available as many drivers use it to help lessen the pain of high European fuel prices.

Berliner Dom

Poor Jana. She has been twice to Australia and we've gotten to know her quite well in that time, as a typical German with a soft center. She works very hard on a career and isolates herself as a result. We know she wanted to spend more time with us but gets driven very hard by the job.

After our sad goodbyes we headed off to Berlin with our appointed driver (another Sebastian) and one other "web-hitchhiker". We sure got our 20 Euro's worth- Sebastian was an excellent tour guide and commentator who made the trip interesting in his Volvo.

He showed us all the weird, failed economic projects of Eastern Germany on the autobahn from Dresden to Berlin. Including; what was planned as a massive Zeppelin manufacturing plant, now a health resort, and my favourite, the Euro Speedway Lausitzring, right on the A86. It has had few major motorsport events since Alex Zanardi misplaced both legs in a nasty crash. Although, there was a round of the fledgeling A1 GP Nations Series there on the same day I was killing my feet in Saxony Switzerland with Jana the bushwalking freak. No, I cannot believe I didn't go either. It must have escaped my notice.

Neue Synagoge, OranienburgerStrasse. Like all Jewish property, guarded by police. We were told, sadly, they are still neccessary after all these years. Any police protection is funded by the state of Brandenburg

And, as we motored along the Autobahns of Brandenburg, probably the flattest land in Germany, naturally I was keen to solicit from Sebastian his own tales from behind the Iron Curtain. Some of them were hilarious, including stories of highly conspicuous spies, complete with big black trenchcoats and wide-brimmed hats, sticking out like sore thumbs at theater meetings known for their lampooning of the communist regime.

He was even impressed that I knew of Karl Eduard Von Schnitzer, a notorious GDR TV personality. Von Schnitzer was the front man for the "black channel", specialising in debunking and insulting whatever was on Western TV, since the regime knew they could not stop anyone from watching it. He was famously known as "Karl Eduard Von Schni..." since that's how much of his name anyone would hear before they hurriedly changed the channel.

Museum Island

You cannot help get swept away by the Berlin fascination. This place has seen more action and notoriety, and been involved in more painful world events than anywhere. Sadly, I suppose, it owes most of it's tourism attraction to this fact. Sure there are some nice buildings (some of them REALLY old) but most come to see where IT all happened. Holocaust, Third Reich, Cold War... that's what Berlin is famous for, whether Berliners like it or not.

As Sebastian's Volvo meandered in from the south we saw the East Side Gallery, the longest remaining section of The Wall with original 1990 artwork, the famous Television Tower and Alexanderplatz, the proud centre square of communist Berlin.

Nice old building....and Lola ran across here!!

But if you can manage to see through all that for a moment you see a cool, happening place. There are SO many pubs and clubs, yet they are ALL full, all of the time. Some of the boutique art galleries were fascinating and classy, the pace is frenetic compared to the rest of Germany...this is real Big City Germany. Artists seem to thrive here, visual arts, performance, music. There is evidence of poverty but not to the point of being unsafe. There is something addictive and infectious about this city, beyond the morbid history.

Remaining section of Berlin Wall, NiederkirchenerStrasse. Not far from here, the wall was cunningly located a metre or two inside the actual "East Berlin border", enabling East German guards to arrest West Germans for walking too close to the wall!

Sebastian dropped us at the S-Bahn just north of the famous Alexanderplatz, and one efficient and fast train ride took us right to the hostel- Circus, it was called, at Rosa-Luxemburg Strasse. Our apartment was magnificent, with views of big city Berlin from the balcony, although to find the apartment involved negotiating the bowels of the hostel complex Maxwell Smart- style.

My art teacher in Geelong had given me the name of a Berlin contact who was expecting us, apparently. Liane Richter runs the Monsters Bar in central Berlin, and her troupe build giant metal monsters. They are known as the Dead Chickens. This form of grotesque art is rather fascinating. You can check it out on www.deadchickens.de. It's quite a good site with some cool effects and some english.

The GDR were good at building crap cars and big, evil walls but hopeless at restoring nice buildings

We didn't have an address for the bar, only directions. It was located in the rear of the darkest, dingiest grafitti-covered alley in the area. But that was it's appeal. This was real, underground nightclub Berlin. The bar itself was dark and the monster sculptures made it surreal, yet the punters were a conservative cross section. Old, young, professionals...they all looked at home.

Having said that, on this particular Wednesday evening, Liane had enlisted a punk band. So, Sharon and I tactfully decided that we had a big day of sightseeing tommorrow so needed to hit the sack.

THURSDAY OCTOBER 13TH

In the morning we had a bit of a look around ourselves, using the handy S-bahn. From underground we emerged at the famous Potsdamer Platz. Once a desolate wasteland of the Death Strip, now a massive development of high-rise and shopping complexes. We wanted to look at different stuff so Sharon and I went our separate ways. I went straight to the Brandenburg Gate and just stared at it for ages. On the way, I found a film crew filming a German soapie. One of the cameramen told me it was funded by Grundy, the Aussie production group responsible for Neighbours. Naturally they politely told me to put my video camera away.

The amazing Potsdamer Platz- barely 15 years ago it was the largest expanse of death strip

But there was only so much we could learn on our own. So we grabbed a great walking tour from the hostel for the afternoon. Check out the website, http://www.brewersberlintours.com/, it's very funky. Our guide was Silvia the Canadian (not American. I gotta stop asking Canadians "Are you American??" and try "Where are you from??" instead). Her knowledge of Berlin was extensive and she was an excellent guide. Although, me being me, I always think I could do things better and quietly dreamed of how I would be a tour guide in Berlin. Then I realised, I could not do it better, I was just thinking I could because I was downright green jealous that she has a better job than me.

She didn't just take us to churches and castles. We took in the Synagogues, the memorials, the places where things happened, the Museum Island, iconic GDR locations...she even pandered to my movie trivia obsession and managed to point out the spots where Lola Ran. Everywhere in Berlin is a story.

A tasteful row of brick paving winds its way through Berlin to remind all of exactly where the city was torn throught the middle. Occasionally the paving is replaced by the real thing, remaining sections of the wall, still being chipped and pilfered by souveneir hunters.

Looking West

The original Hermann Goerring Air Force building, a dark and characteristically Nazi-looking monster which the Allies managed to completely miss with their bombs, is now the tax department, so the building is still hated by the locals. And it is here you find such an original section of the wall. Many know the story of August 1961, where Berliners woke up to see this oppressive wall being built, literally overnight. Following 1989 and the initial haste to rid themselves of this terrible scar, eventually Berlin realised there was tourism to consider, and left some of it intact.

This particular section has a big hole. During the Berlin Love Parade a few years ago some drunk revellers drove their car into it. Following this incident Berliners woke up to see... a fence built around the wall. Oh, the irony...

Checkpoint C ("Charlie") where in 1963, WWIII was almost started because some American wanted to take his wife to the opera.

Then Sylvia brought us to a nondescript carpark in between some ugly GDR apartment buildings. Everybody knows what this place is, and where it is. But no plaques, no memorials, no signs. Nothing to mark it's location. Just the occasional grim-faced tour group, coming and standing there. It is hard to imagine this was once a desolate, charred wasteland pounded by bombs, where a worldwide nightmare finally came to an end, after the waste of 50 million souls.

It was the site of a WWII bunker. The one where Hitler spoke of "Fighting and dying with his kingdom", sent 14 year old boys to fight while he cowered under 5 metres of concrete, giving the naive Eva Braun 5 minutes of marriage, then killing himself.

I wonder how many residents of the surrounding apartments look out the window and see various tour groups standing sombrely here, no smiles, just ashen faces. And to remind you further why, on the nearest street corner is one of many little plaques you find around Berlin. It has a name, date of "deportation" and a deceased date. Sometimes these plaques were placed simply where the person was last seen.

It's funny, as we walked to this spot, not knowing what was coming, I got a phone call from Claudia. She rang us for no other reason than- she was tired, depressed and missing us, especially her "nurse" Sharon who spent more time with her at various medical treatments. The feeling was, naturally, quite mutual. If there is such a thing as good timing for such a call, it was then. It set the mood. After the bunker site, the next stop was the massive, recently completed, Holocaust Memorial- a sea of black monoliths on a mildly undulating block of land. You can walk through them, feeling hemmed in and oppressed.

Holocaust memorial site

Ironically, only a month later when we were back in Oz, Claudia was sent to Weimar, a place near Berlin, for what we would call convalescence- rehabilition and recovery time with other cancer sufferers/survivors. On her afternoon off, she went to Buchenwald, the main concentration camp for the Berlin area. She said it was "something I had to do" and the experience was, somehow, helpful. In hindsight, it was a very well-timed phone call, but very hard to explain why.

"Deported 1942"...all she wrote

Anyways, back to our tour and the spritely Canadian Sylvia. Last but not least, as they say, she took us to the magnificent Reichstag and BrandeburgerTor. You have to see them for real. They are amazing. The mighty Brandenburg gate stands, illuminated at night, finally freed from the wasteland of the East-West deathstrip. Again, so many stories- ranging from the poignant and ironic WWII and Cold War tales, to the ridiculous, such as Michael Jackson dangling his baby from the nearby Hotel Adlon balcony.

BrandenburgerTor. Utterly magnificent. And I betcha Sharon's photos are infinitely better than all the other tourists'

(...And the chocolate version)

Reichstag at dusk

Against the Berlin dusk and the illuminated Brandenburg Gate, the tour officially ended, but Sylvia and a couple of other Aussies kindly joined us to eat what we believed was the best Doner Kebab we have ever tasted. And we've tasted a few. We discovered it the night before near the Monsters Bar. A shared Doner Kebab is probably the best value meal in Europe. It was one of those nights that shouldn't have to end.

Berlin, even more so than Dresden, uses the novelty of the former communist regime to prop up the tourism. Everywhere a humourously painted Trabant, Ampfelmann icon (the cheery looking pedestrian crossing symbol) and bits of the Wall, still for sale. I wonder if those who were cut off from their loved ones in 1961, or families of those whose disappearance is still a mystery, can be quite so nostalgic.

Happy little communist girl says DON'T WALK...or we'll lock you up in a small steel cell and deprive you of sleep for 10 days...

And why should they be. There is more to Berlin than this. That evening, I sat in the packed Monsters Bar, near a sea of loud, crazy, packed bars and pubs, listening to a Berliner tell me how he will launch a new religion called Pastafarianism, which involves cooking and eating pasta as a form of worship. It was one of those intense, yet totally sarcastic and hilarious conversations. The humour was more Pythonesque than German. So much for our typical German stereotypes. This was Berlin. Crazy, fun, ugly, beautiful Berlin.

DAYS 24-25 NEVER ENOUGH OF DRESDEN

2005-10-18T03:04:00.000+02:00

MONDAY OCTOBER 10TH

With Jana off at work we were able to bum around Dresden for a day without a plan. So, a short walk from her apartment up to the Grosser Garten (Big Garden). It is rather huge, taking up several city blocks. Dresden is not a huge, busy megopolis but it's nice to have a big park in which to walk the dog and feed some ducks. Still, even in a big public garden in these parts, you cannot go far without seeing some massive Baroque piece of architecture. Smack bang in the middle of the Garten is yet another one of August the Strong's residences. According to Sharon, with some very nice windows.

August the Strong's, um, garden residence

I marvel at how these historical characters were so presumptuous, giving themselves names like August "The Strong" or Freidrich "The Great". Still, I suppose you don't conquer and rule countries with names like "Herbert the Sufficient" or "Johann the slightly annoying but reasonably good with kids".

We then familiarised ourselves with Dresden's excellent public transport system. I have to say that because Jana's Dad is the director of Dresden's public transport system. On our last overseas trip we maxed out on taxis. On this one, not a single taxi was required.

We headed up to the Blaueswunder, (or "Blue Wonder") Dresden's much liked bluey-green coloured bridge (There is no word in German for "bluey-green", but if there was I'm sure it would be ten miles long). By the way, the word "Blaue" is German slang for ridiculously drunk. There's no real significance in that, I just thought I'd mention it.

Bluey-Green wonder

From there you can catch a sort of cable car up to a lookout and take pictures of nice views of Dresden. So we did. From there you get a horrific impression of how bad it must have been in 2002 when the floods hit eastern Europe.

This was pretty much how we spent Monday and Tuesday. Monday night after work Jana whisked us off to a little village in the Ore Mountains. We dined at a restaurant with lots of Christmassy things, including a highwire cycling Santa and a shop full of classic Saxon crafts, such as those funny little smoking men. It was kinda cute, but I what I remember most about the evening is that Jana drives like a maniac. Maybe she was showing off..!? If she was, it worked..I am impressed.

Dining out in the Ore Mountains

Hofkirche, Dresden

TUESDAY OCTOBER 11TH
Another day in Dresden...I never tire of the Aldstadt. The ongoing construction work is a little intrusive but it tells you that Dresden is growing and rebuilding. All the magnificent baroque sights, street buskers, and amazing history... I could spend weeks there.

Theaterplatz

Zwinger's moat

That night we met up again with Jana's Dad and Chrystal, a bubbly woman who is so excited to see us every time, for a meal at the Saxon-themed SophienKellar. This restaurant is built upon the site of the Sophienkirche, the only old 1945-bombed church which was not rebuilt (perhaps because the Communists really didn't like rebuilding churches). The restaurant is underground, within the remaining catacombs of the Residenzschloss, the castle of August the Reasonably Muscular. We had the fortune of sitting at the merry-go-round table, with chairs suspended by chains around a revolving table. You had to swing forwards to grab your beer.

Funny but annoying novelty swinging chairs

A veteran of novelty swinging chairs

It was our last night in Dresden. Jana had arranged a "Melbourne 2003 footynight" reunion after-dinner, or at least, as much as was possible with Marko being in Stuttgart and Claudi having another round of chemo and not feeling well.

But, with her rather likeable boyfriend and protector Jörgy (smarter than the average bear) Claudi still managed to pop into the SophienKellar to say goodbye, knowing we were off to Berlin the next day. At least it wasn't Auf Wiedersehen, it was Bis Später...her January 2006 Australia trip was a go-er, she had paid for her flights that day.

Great news, but still, it was hard to let go of her. What a wonderful friend.

Off to the pub district of Neustadt where we met up with Katja and the last missing footynight link, Sophie. It was a tough night for me, surrounded by four gorgeous women. I went to the loo and some guy thought he'd get lucky, joining these four apparently-single women and giving them a long, German pickup line. Sophie showed the most initiative . She just looked at him blankly and said "...in English please" which scared him off.

Hanging out in the Neustadt

We even had the talented Katja speaking almost-perfect 'Strine "I would like to speak proper English" pronounced "Oi wood loike to spook...etc" Not a bad effort for a European. Sophie and Sharon and Jana just laughed a lot. But it was all a closing chapter.

And that was just about all the socialising I had come to Germany for. Quite a fitting end to our relaxing time in Dresden, and it may well have seemed more appropriate to fly home after that. But there was still this interesting city called Berlin...

DAYS 22-23 BACHELORS FROM PRAGUE

2005-10-17T07:10:00.000+02:00

SATURDAY OCTOBER 8TH

As much as we were looking forward to seeing Jana and enjoying some of her surprises, it was a sad good bye to Claudia and co. The Löbe family are a genuine, lovely bunch, and their hospitality was complete without being overwhelming. Their little town of Seifersdorf was a perfect place to stay and enjoy some real German day-to-day life. I really, really hope we get to see them again sometime.

And, of course, seeing Claudi again was priceless. If she was tired, lethargic and a little down at times, it didn't show. If I didn't know better I'd say she was as happy to see us as we were to see her. She spoiled us rotten.

The beautiful Schloss Moritzburg, good friends, and a ripper German pastry. What more could you want...

But, travels don't plan themselves so it was off to Jana's in downtown Dresden. First up Jana, her Dad and his partner Chrystal whisked us off to the Czech republic to see Prague. It's a whole different thing, going from Germany to a real "Eastern Bloc" country. Prague shows plenty of signs of opulence, thanks to hordes of tourists. The drive in through the rest of the country says otherwise. Unlike even East Germany (with it's high unemployment) the CZ Republic shows real poverty and hardship.

our loyal tour guides

The only hardship I experienced was a 2 hour drive on slow, windy roads, squeezed in between two women in a little Renault Laguna. Although, Jana's Dad is a jolly man and he makes every little trip as jolly as possible. He had much to tell us but his daughter found the translating a chore.

But not to be outdone by anyone, Jana played tour guide, describing Prague as "A nice city. It has lots of really old buildings".

Wow, we just don't pay her enough! It doesn't just have a LOT of old buildings, they are REALLY old. She spent the rest of the trip saying something about being "just a translator machine".

Prague is , most definitely, a tourist highlight. It does not quite have the baroque splendour of Dresden, but the classic architecture is spread as far as the eye can see. Around every corner is a cobbled market square, surrounded by an ancient church, town hall, theater or palace. And all this goes for miles. A slight bohemian feel in some less-restored areas simply adds to the character.

All this, I suppose, is just another way of saying...it has lots of really old buildings....

I saw my first Pagini Zonda in Prague!

I've lost count of the number of well known movies shot in Prague. It really is worth seeing, but I secretly wondered what it would be like to venture deeper into old Eastern Europe and get off the tourist trail. Bucharest, Budapest, Zagreb...maybe next time...

Me and my translator machine, Czech Republican Presidential Palace grounds

Prague's most famous brigde- "The Charles", built in 1357.

Another highlight of Prague was the hordes of Dutch soccer fans in town for the NL v CZ World Cup qualifier. We lunched in the main Market square to the sound of thousands of loud, funny raucus orangey-dressed people and the sight of soccer balls bouncing off cars, people, and really old buildings. About the time we were driving back to Dresden, Prague was probably being painted orange as I believe the score was NL-1, CZ-0.

the game wasn't until the evening. Some of these people would not have made it that far

St John of Nepomuk, one of 30 statues placed along Charles' Bridge. With literally thousands of Saturday tourists on the bridge, many of them touching the base of the statue for good luck, as per an old superstition, it took Sharon forever to get this photo

The crucifix and calvary statue. The first crucifix was 14th century, but this current one was actually made in Dresden in 1630. The Hebrew text around the crucifix reads Holy Holy Holy...Lord of Hosts and was put there in the late 1600's to punish a local Jew for defacing the statue!

The drive home was as uneventful as the one over. Uneventful except for the bit where Jana's Jolly Dad did an illegal u-turn across and bridge and got sprung by the good folks from Prague's reputable constabulary. Now, I know the iron curtain is long gone but I couldn't help but sweat a little waiting for the raised voices, loud pleas of innocence, finger pointing at the westerners in the back seat, the frisking, the being carried off to some dark cell to be interrogated about what magazines I'd brought over.

It's not quite like that anymore, however, Dieter had to barter them down from the proposed fine of 2000 Czech kroner (about 80 Euro) to around 350 kroner. It seems the weekly wage of the boys and girls in Blue sometimes just isn't enough.

So, we waved goodbye to the friendly Prague Police as they headed off, doing an illegal u-turn in the process...

Back to Dresden, we were lucky to have Marko and Betty back in town just for the weekend so I went out with the boys. Marko took me to the Neustadt of Dresden (meaning "new city" but is just as old as the "Altstadt") which is the traditional pub jaunt for students.

SUNDAY OCTOBER 9TH
After a good sleep and foot-resting, it was up at 8am with Jana to catch the train to the local hiking and mountain-climbing paradise, Saxony Switzerland. It's not actually in Switzerland, it's just called that for reasons I did not research so too bad if you want to know. Jana, ever the nature loving bush type, drove her little Renault unimaginably fast from Ackermanstrasse to the train station, as she didn't want to miss the early train. Her driving scared me more than being on a turbulent plane infested with tarantulas.

We missed the early train anyway and, being a beautiful Sunny Sunday it was packed with other nature-loving bush types. Being 9am I remembered the Bathurst 1000 would be just about be run and won so I texted Aussie land to find out that Mark Skaife won. Pity I couldn't share the news with anyone!

It was arduous walking, especially with my newly-discovered feet deformities, but stunning scenery. It's a little like the Grampians, but more dramatic, and in Europe. It is a hit with rock climbers. When you reach the lookouts, you can see the rock-climbers dotting the mountain faces like lots of colourful, slightly nervous-looking starfish.

Total and absolute nutters, every last one of them

The forest was fairy-tale like. It was so cute, I'm sure I saw a little hut and heard some bears complaining about their breakfast. There is an open air theatre here- classic stuff.

are we there yet

Open air theater. Off season, unfortunately. So I didn't see why I got told off for trying to get onto the stage

Sunday night, Jana solved the problem of how to show us the magnificent Dresden Opera House, the Semperoper. It was hard to get the timing right for guided tours during the day. So, that night we all went to the Opera! It was in the nosebleeds, but, who cares. This is one of the most prestigious opera venues in Europe.

Inside the magnificent Semperoper

Macbeth was playing. It was a modern interpretation. Since it was my first time to the Opera since Mum forced me, at age 13, to see Dame Joan Sutherland, I must say I was surprised at the nudity, sexual themes and violence. I suspect if more blokes knew about this in Australia there would be more people at the opera. But this was Dresden so the place was full of businesspeople, teenagers and middle-class. There was only one hitch in the production- after a scene with lots of gore and dismemberment, a stage hand forgot to remove a severed arm so it stayed there for the rest of the show. But overall it was quite an experience- the sheer opulence.

The Semperoper

The chicks who took me to the Semperoper. We were all a little underdressed

DAY 21 PM- TRABANT FÄHREN

2005-10-07T19:37:00.000+02:00

The trouble with blogs is sometimes you need people to read the previous one first. Do that if you haven´t already, then return to this one.

So my fascination with all things GDR and post- wall nostalgia (and I haven´t even been to Berlin yet) is warmly received here in the beautiful East of Germany. Nostalgia for the former east (Ostalgie) is alive and well, especially in rural Germany. From ugly mass housing, run-down bohemian neighbourhoods, to a unique, hat-wearing, happy looking green walking men on the pedestrian traffic lights, these things are all quirky, retro-trendy icons of GDR life.

But the most well-known representative of GDR-chic is the Trabant. For those who don´t know, the Trabant was East German communism´s answer to the Volkswagen (which actually meant "people´s car", this being like a red rag to a bull for the communists). The socialists were desperate to demonstrate their commitment to the convenience and well-being of their "loyal" citizens. They had to give them something to make them feel as though they, well, had something.

So the socialist gift to the people was...the Trabant. The body was plastic, the engine was a small two-stroke pollution-generating horror putting out 26 horsepower. And the looks...even in 1952 they looked awful. Even the good little socialists had to wait anything from 10 to 18 years from ordering to delivery.

I had been told by our city-dwelling friend Jana, some time ago, that Trabants were not to be found much more in daily use. My main chance of seeing one was in captivity. But since arriving in Dresden I have been lucky enough to see the ugly little socialist duckling in it's natural habitat a few times. At the train station in Dresden on Wednesday, I even saw a hotted-up one.

somebody found a good use for a Trabant

Our beloved Claudi has thrown all kinds of surprises at us, from BMW´s to traditional German foods and an assortment if things that she knows we will like. She and her friends and family have gone above and beyond the "let´s just take them to some castles" approach, which is what we do in Australia- take the tourists to pat some kangaroos, and so on. Here, they have spoiled us with German life, whilst still being themselves.

All I have been able to offer Claudia in return is a B & W sketch of her (pre-chemotherapy, a look she prefers) and boyfriend Jörg, which I finished prior to our travels. At least it was well received, and I may be taking orders from various Germans...

Janet and Jogy

Last night (Thursday 6th Oct) she threw a big party with Hungarian Goulasch, real German wursts and good friends. The conversation degenerated into a laughing match over "proper" German and the much- taunted Saxon accent (which, I happen to think, is quite nice to listen to. So much softer than the "Hoch Deutsch") Claudi's best friend Janet gave the uncle (goulasch chef) a spirited ribbing over his "country" accent, likening it to some redneck hillbilly dialect. He reminded her that her more polished accent still sounds just as weird to Müncheners...

...And so it went. We were in love with this bunch.

Of course, I was a little late for the party. It was my last evening with the BMW, and I'd spotted a nice looking windy road between Seifersdorf and Dippoldiswalde during some earlier sightseeing around the string of little villages. And I had a few minutes to kill. And some kilometres to burn. Sheer driving pleasure indeed!

The Goulasch was making me coy...

Today, after the State Library visit, we went riding on Claudia´s showjumping horse, Sanny Day. She's named after a 70's Dutch Folk Singer... a piece of trivia which not even Claudia knew. Ha!!

The stables are down the road from her house, and the riding paddock out of town in the other direction. Rather than worry about trailers Claudi trotted off down the main street of Seifersdorf on Sanny leaving us to drive her car in pursuit.

Two girls reunited

Problem was, Claudia left the car keys hiding in a tack room somewhere. By the time she texted to tell us, she was long gone. It was all good fun driving around Seifersdorf looking for a lone woman on a horse.

The session made me appreciate how difficult a skill is horseriding, let alone jumping. But the less said about our riding the better- we really wanted to see Claudia ride. She has done one competition since her operation, but since has been rendered weaker through chemo. Notwithstanding, she rode and jumped Sanny, and it made us happy to see her happy. It seems to give her a boost of energy.

And, she´s not half bad at this showjumping thing either. Very impressive. Apparently Sanny Day, herself suffering from tumours, seemed to behave a lot better after Claudi's operation. It's almost as if she knew...

In any case, watching the big Sanny with little Claudi unleash a powerful racehorse gallop for a few minutes was magnificent. Those two clearly had a lot of catching up to do.

Me warming up the horse for Claudia.

Shortly afterwards Claudi, feeling a little drained, entrusted me with driving duties (!) for a visit to her Grandparents in Reinholdshain, another cute little village in the hills south of Dresden. It was much like a visit to anyone's grandparents- namely, being overfed with yummy cookies, cakes and coffee. They didn't speak any English which made the afternoon more fun. Her Grandpa builds little wooden pyramid ornaments, a well-known Christmas decoration. They're very elaborate. We received one a few months later when Claudi arrived in Australia- a thoughtful gift from the Grandparents.

The neighbours like model trains

Shortly after that it was off to visit her riding buddy Henry, at his family's multi-million-Euro equestrian complex. It made me wish we had brought Naomi. Again, Claudi's number one love is Horses and she bounded through the complex like a gleeful little tour guide.

But this busy day was running out of hours, and clearly our dear Claudi had one more thing to squeeze in. Another little surprise for me, she said.

Sure enough, a few doors down from her house, a friend of her mum´s gave me a special audience with his Trabant. A mint-condition 1986 model, which of course is exactly the same in every possible respect to the 1952 model, right down to the plastic body, hardly-visible 2 stroke engine and frontal fuel tank, The owner was a genuine Trabant enthusiast. And, he was one of the lucky ones. It only took him 8 years for his Trabi to arrive after ordering.

No longer did I need to ask anyone about communism. Everything I needed to know was right there

Although Claudi did wish he would shut up for a bit...

It was dusk, but he actually let me drive it. After years of fascination from afar, I got to experience one of the most iconic symbols of recent European cold-war history first hand. A dream come true, thanks to wonderful friends. We bunnyhopped around narrow dirt lanes in the hills above Seifersdorf. Mr. Trabant, Claudia, Sharon and I squeezed into this little piece of nostalgia, squealing and giggling like children as I grappled the ridiculous column shift 3 speed.

I drove a Trabant. It was awful. I loved it.

DAYS 19-21 THE INNER SANCTUM (and bye-bye Bimmer)

2005-10-07T13:08:00.000+02:00

Dresden's newly-opened Saxon State Library, designed to convey the appearance of books in bookshelves. The largest studying area is below ground, under the skylight at the bottom of this picture

Friday October 7

What a blast. If it wasn´t for the fact we had a limit of 300km on the Bimmer, I would have spent the entire time listening to SatNav lady and driving aimlessly around Germany without getting lost. But we are still tourists, and there are things to do. Wednesday, we trained it to Leipzig, but thanks to my poor planning missed the things we really went to see.

So, all we had time for, was a look through the "GDR museum", a collection of sometime bizarre, sometime moving and sad, but most always interesting exhibits from communist East Germany and the Berlin wall.

Now, being in "former" East Germany means conversations invariably end up involving the GDR (German Democratic Republic, the "western front" of communism). After all, there will always be a western fascination with oppresive regimes, political prisoners and secret police, and I am no exception. When the Berlin Wall fell down, I didn´t even know it was up in the first place, let alone be at all interested. I was too busy chasing girls and cars. But now, the world looks different, and the significance of these events becomes clearer.

To try and be brief, we have met and conversed with lovely German people who were (and are still) angered with German sycophancy, the turn-a-blind-eye approach of good little socialists who ignored the oppression, who will not hesitate to tell you with horror the atrocities they endured, especially with survelliance and manipulation.

We're happy little socialists... Original GDR mural in Berlin

We have also met some lovely German people who are puzzled by western belief in unimaginable East German living conditions, spies for neighbours, and no opportunity. They laud the existence of "no unemployment", cheap child care, and very little crime.

And there are those, like the Loebe family with whom we have been blessed to stay, who talk about the GDR retrospectively with almost objective, but dismissive humour. They will point to an ugly apartment building and say "GDR architecture!", or laughingly point to a Trabant.

But, it certainly seems, most are happy that it´s gone.

"Why does Patrick keep asking about Communism?"

On the way back from Leipzig, we had another "blonde moment" much like the one on the train to Augsburg (see here). We met a very chatty student, whose name I am ashamed I cannot remember. She approached us in the impressive Leipzig Station, obviously clued up on the day ticket system and asking if she could "travel with us" so as not to have to buy a ticket. Very resourceful, these German students. Or maybe it's just that neccessity is the mother of invention. Naturally we remembered what happened here and were glad to oblige. The ticket inspector looked suspicious but we put on a good act of looking like we'd all known eachother for years.

Ironically, we conversed as though we had known each other for years. This bright young lady was the daughter of a pastor, we presumed in a Lutheran or kirche evangelische. Under the GDR, they were investigated, spied upon, and denied some provisions and job opportunities. They could not trust their neighbours. This girl, despite being barely 9 or 10 when the wall came down, experienced the dark side of socialism. And she was not backward in displaying her anger towards the "good little socialist" attitudes of her peers. Here she was, baring her scars to two Australian tourists, scars of dismay at how nobody knew what was going on.

"Ach Liebe!! He's talking about communism again"

We have, yet again, enjoyed the privalege of knowing some lovely (and well connected) people. At Moritzburg yesterday (yes, another postcard castle on a lake), we were reunited with another missing link from the famous MCG football night, the lovely Katja Frühauf. Her father is the Commisioner for the Preservation of Antiquitarian Documents for the Saxon State Library. That´s not his official title, just an abbreviation.

Schloss Moritzburg

"Let me guess...he keeps asking you about communism too?"
Katja Fruehauf and Claudi

So, this morning, we bid farewell to the Bimmer. I must mention at this point, that Germans are exceptionally good at getting to know you. If you mention even only in passing that you are interested in something, or you saw something that amused you, they will not forget. They will stick it in their memory banks until it´s time to buy you a gift, or organise a surprise for you. Claudia´s friend Uwe, the top honcho who arranged the car for us, couldn´t help remembering that I salivated over the sight and sound of a rare M6 Coupe blasting past us at the Nürburgring. Claudi had, no doubt, told him. So Uwe cheerfully lead us through the inner garages of BMW´s Eastern HO, out into the massive car park, a sea of Bimmers, and showed us thier M6.

OK, I couldn´t drive it, but to look at it and touch it is enough. Uwe let me sit and rev the guts out of the sweeeeet big V10. Even after working in his job for 25 years, he still gets a smile out of showing tyre-kickers like me.

Yeah, V10, great, sequential gearbox, great. It needs more CUP HOLDERS... (now, tell me more about communism...)

Anyhoo, Katja picked us up and drove us to meet her "Daddy", as she charmingly calls him, at the new (opened 2002) Saxon State Library, and gave us a grand tour. The esteemed Wolfgang Frühauf spoke quite eloquently, despite limited English with Katja occasionally playing interpreter, which was fun. The highlight? The inner sanctum, or treasure room as they called it. Closed to all but a select few dignitaries, this rooms contains original antiquities such as;
- a 4000 year old Mesopotamian inscribed object
- papyrus from the Greek Empire around 100 BC, being some kind of ancient delivery order
- A massive Jewish prayer book from around 12 century Europe, from a Jewish Ghetto
- One of Martin Luther´s notebooks
- A First-Copy of the medical journal of the physician of Caeser Marc Aurel (199 AD I think)
- countless original Christian Codexes from 9th century, and
- original musical manuscripts handwritten by JS Bach, Vivaldi, and Richard Wagner.

Martin Luther's notes. On the second page about three lines down it says "These Catholics think they know everything..."

Rarely is anyone allowed to take photos. But we were!

Indiana Jones wuz 'ere

Of course, Katja´s Daddy mentioned that he was with the State Library under GDR days. Yes, there were less books there. Yes, the GDR allowed only 5000 new publications per year compared to the West´s 50,000. But, nowadays, not all books are good or reputable. Some books are rubbish (I quite agree). There are no such books in the Saxon State library. And the darkly-secretive Stasi? Well, secret or covert police organisations are everywhere! Every country has them- even Australia, Wolfgang mentioned, and I suppose he is right (although there is a difference between protecting your citizens from terror or protecting the regime from opposition).

12th Century Jewish book, I suspect part of the Mishna, from a European Jewish Ghetto

And unemployment? There was no unemployment in the GDR. Katja and her brother had a safe upbringing, and were always exposed to literature and learning. And they had the assurance of provision.

All of this made reasonable sense, and you couldn´t deny it. Quite a contrast from our girl on the train.

But, the final comment by Wolfgang- as we said goodbye to him and his magnificent library, was the most telling; "In the GDR we lived a good life. Now, we lead a luxurious life. We don´t want the GDR back".

There must be many Wolfgang Frühaufs out there who are finally receiving the income they deserve. Now there is unemployment, now there is crime. The price of freedom.

On Tuesday when we followed Claudia home after picking up the BMW (did I mention we hade a 5-series Bimmer for a few days?!) going up a hill, she was pointing wildly and gleefully to something on the road up ahead.

It was a Trabant, struggling to get up the hill, holding up a snake of begrudgingly patient traffic, and spewing clouds of smoke. When we got home, Jörg and Claudi said excitedly "There... you have seen your first Trabi!" And then "I think, that is why East Germans are glad the GDR days are over..."

And I´m glad they are over. If they weren´t, I would never have met these people.

Beautiful, beautiful Dresden

DAY 18 SMART WINDOWS and CLAUDI'S SURPRISE

2005-10-05T10:16:00.000+02:00

Wednesday, October 5th

Now, in the interests of not overloading the all-important blog, I have declined from posting some of the more eccentric or quirky photos that we have been indulging in during our travel adventure. And in the interests of time I have not crapped on too much with my anecdotes (post-trip note: well, not yet anyway)

But now that I have a free morning on Claudi´s pooter while she and Sharon are off at the Hospital in Dippoldiswalde for her regular checkup, I thought I´d jot down some ditties.

As we have discovered, being overseas is cool and all that, but you still bring all your oddities with you.

For example, from the moment we ventured into Frankfurt's old section in the morning of day 1, despite the awe of being in Germany for the first time, Sharon discovered a strange new obsession. The rather expensive Canon digital that we purchased can clearly make out the washing instructions on the clothes label of a person 100 metres away. Yet Sharon has mainly used this high tech marvel to take pictures of.....windows.

Nup. I can't remember where this one was either. Nice flower box though.

Now, since we have officially hit the 1000 photograph mark, I cannot begin to estimate the proportion of this massive number which consist of photos of cute little windows with their half timbered surrounds, a quaint German word, the meaning of which we have no idea, and flower boxes.

Just look at those louvres

Oh, and I can forget my grand scheme to profit from this by publishing a coffee-table book of German Windows (don´t laugh- let´s face it, there are coffee table books about some pretty weird stuff out there). We have made no effort to document any accompanying facts for each one of these plethora of panes, such as the street and the town. Even quaint, trivial coffee table books need to have captions more interesting and with more variety than "Another German window...possibly in Munich, we´re not sure".

Okay, I admit they are rather special. And a worthy photograph subject

Sharon justifies this eccentric interest by saying "but we don´t have windows like this in Australia". I tried to convince her that we do but I didn't believe it myself. It was true. These were magnificent windows. So, I needed to find a similar personal quirk or obsession all of my own.

Aaaaahhhhhhhhh! Run away!!

And I have. At the Melbourne Motor Show in 2003 I think, I first laid eyes on the then-latest motoring fad, the Smart. This little urban and inner-city assault vehicle is not so much a car as a single roller skate with an engine and a roof. It has barely enough room for a driver let alone a passenger and a small amount of shopping.

Yet these little auto vermin have infested European cities starved of decent fuel prices and parking spaces.

Note midget driver. Sorry, "vertically callenged"

Upon seeing this contraption I vowed I would never be near one again. However, here in Germany there are so many you have to be careful not to tread on them and get them stuck in your shoe.

Those of you unfortunate enough to be subjected to my 7 hours (and counting) of video footage when I return, will note the ongoing theme of Smart cars appearing in almost every scene. I guess since I fancy myself as a movie maker, I may as well have an Alfred Hitchcock- style signature.

This nasty little Noddy Car even managed to push this other, slightly larger car out of it's parking space. Perhaps they suffer from "Little Car syndrome"

Now, speaking of cars, we went to Dresden for some more sightseeing yesterday (Tuesday 4th). Claudi stayed at home for some rest but picked us up at 5pm and said gleefully "I have a little surprise for you on the way home".

It was not so much a "little" surprise, as a large-ish, jet black surprise with four wheels, a badge with the intitials "BMW" and "523" and hardly anything on the clock. Her sister´s boyfriend is a top cahuna with BMW Neiderlassung (that means Head Office) of Dresden. She swung it for us to have this brand spanking new piece of sheer driving pleasure for three days and 300km.

And yes, it has SatNav. This means an English-speaking computer lady tells me where to go, slightly more politely than Sharon does when she is trying to read a map while I am yelling at her.

Did I happen to mention we had a 5-series Bimmer?

This Five-series wagon may be "bottom of the range" technically but it still has a 2.3 litre 6 with around 150 kw, a tight little tiptronic transmission and handling to die for (okay, that was a poorly-chosen analogy but you get what I mean).

See the badge? B-M-Wubble woo! Speedo reads about 60 here, but it did read 180 at one stage. Really it did, I promise...

Claudia still has a very un-Germanic deviate sense of humour, and she did consider finding me a Smart to drive around for a few days, but, God bless her, she is too good a friend for that. She has got me sussed right out and knew that for me to enjoy a piece of German engineering in Germany would be the ultimate.

Back in Hochschulstrasse, our first meeting point! (But this time, in a BMW...)

She even took us home from sightseeing via the autobahn so I could let my hair down on the way back from Moritzburg. Even in peak hour I managed 180km/h. I was very proud of this and boasted it to Marko later that week. He responded with "180? What, was there a speed limit on the autobahn today?". And I thought Germans didn't do sarcasm.

I gotta go now. Sharon wants to take pictures of some windows in Leipzig.

Days 13-17. BATES MOTEL, BEER and finally DRESDEN

2005-10-03T20:29:00.000+02:00

"WIESN" (OKTOBERFEST) IN MUNICH

Well, with the Munich weekend looking more and more like a disaster, Germany yet again is full of surprises.

After a flurry of changed plans to try and get closer to the Oktoberfest-packed Munich despite total lack of accommodation, Marko came to the rescue. Friday 30th Sept we trained it from Fuessen (goodbye to the Bavarian Alps, now topped with snow) to Augsberg, about 80km west of Munich.

Augsburg, home of the wealthy Fuggers

Probably the highlight, and later the most frustrating thing about the train ride from Fuessen to Augsburg was that on the final leg, a delightfully smiley girl sat next to Sharon and started chatting. I could not pick her accent, and couldn't believe it when she said she was German. After the usual exchange of info regarding nationalities and locations she mentioned "Oh, Australia...that's where I learned to speak English! In Adelaide, actually". When we got off the train she showed us where to stash our bags and gave some directions etc. She was unbelievably smiley, happy and helpful, when we said "Danke", she even curtsied with the longest, sweetest and slightly tounge- in- cheek "Bitte schön..!".

Augsburg Rathaus (town hall). That's a pine cone on top, some kind of ancient fertility symbol. Whatever.

Frustrating? We didn't even get her name or pop into her workplace (a local travel agent) later to say "see ya". We walked past the office once and saw that she was busily taking calls, still wearing a huge smile. I remember Marko and Katja once expressing their concern that we would be put off by seeing how "cold" some Germans can be.

Is it just our good fortune, that the majority of Germans we encountered, have only been kind-hearted and friendly people?

The Fuggers

We wandered around the big and beautiful Altstadt of Augsburg while the tourism office tried to find accommodation. The usual squares and massive churches were consumed, as were some statues of people called the Fuggers who were local Catholic Philathropists. They are affectionately known as the Wealthy Fuggers. Apparently these wealthy fuggers were everywhere.

Meanwhile, the tourist office managed to find us some acccomodation- another 30km west (in the opposite direction from Munich). We got a room in an empty hotel in a town with absolutely nothing (correction, it had a brewery, but there were no people) I think it was called Ustersbach. The hotel/ Pension was lovely, but we were the only guests and I feared the landlord was some kind of German Norman Bates. I wished again that we had visited our mystery friend.

Still, it was the only way to see Marko and Betty again in Munich at Oktoberfest, albeit just to sample the atmosphere rather than get into the impossibly packed beer tents. We trained it into Munich on Saturday the 1st, where Marko promised us that "we would find them" at the massive, crowded Hauptbahnhof. It occured to me, as we lugged our backpacks through the Oktoberfest crush, if we could survive this, we could survive anything.

Sure enough, there was Marko and Betty with friends Sylvio and Katja, with a big "Welcome Patrick and Sharon" sign, complete with picture of Kangaroo drinking beer. Nice touch and lovingly done!

Quite a good caricature of me

Oktoberfest was, um, interesting. We managed to score a table (they don´t serve beer unless you have a seat. You are not officially taking part in Oktoberfest until you are sitting down, and of course later, falling over).

But Oktoberfest began pretty much the moment we caught the train from Augbsurg. All men were in Leiderheusen, and girls were in the tradition Bavarian dirndl complete with cute pigtails, but this wasn't the only thing that made Sharon and I stand out like sore thumbs- we weren't clutching bottles of beer either. I wondered if this was the only public event where Germans come out to drink en masse? What about football games and Grands Prix? In Australia, we use any public event as an excuse to get drunk.

Marko gets into the Oktoberfest spirit...

Despite the fact...

...that he's a teetotaller

I, however, am not...

As if Marko and Betty's assistance wasn't enough, our Saturday night accommodation problem was solvered, with friends Sylvio and Katja offering us the spare room at their apartment, evicting Marko and Betty to the couch. After Oktoberfest we headed for central Munich. The weather was foul so it was a short afternoon. But I reckon the best part was the evening.

lucky they have these leaning poles placed around Oktoberfest

Beginner's guide to Oktoberfest:1) drink beer 2) drink more beer 3) fill up on beer 4) go on stupid fairground ride 5) throw up 6) drink more beer 7) repeat process from 1)

Art Gallery (and Audi A8 Quattro), central Munich

After supermarket shopping for supplies, back at the apartment the guys prepared us a traditional Bavarian meal of Bratwurst and Sauerkraut. Guten appetit! Marko then found a web site with voice software. It audibly spoke whatever words you would type into the screen. So, the rest of the evening was spent with us giggling like schoolchildren as we typed in all sorts of (sometimes bawdy) things and listened to it repeated by a robotic voice.

Cold, hard Germans indeed.

These Germans drink some weird stuff...I thought it was an ice cream cone

With more foul weather (only the first we had experienced in the whole trip) we cruised around Munich, taking in all the sights from Silvio and Katja's minivan. It included the BMW museum, Allianz stadium (site of World Cup 2006) and the 1972 Olympic Village, scene of the first ever Palestinian attack on Israeli citizens where 11 Israeli athletes died. Sylvio mentioned the yet-to-be-released movie by Speilberg on the subject was getting big press in this town. I was disappointed to later discover the movie was a poor representation of the actual events.

When fed up with Churches, Art Galleries and Beer Drinking in Munich, there's always this- the REAL pride of Bavaria!

BAHNSTORMING TO DRESDEN AND CLAUDIA

With poor Claudi and Jörg unable to come to Munich and drive us back to Dresden, the next problem was the expensive prospect of the train ride from Munich to Dresden. Again, Marko was the hero. He rang some Dresdner friends who were driving back on Sunday after Oktoberfesting. I cannot question enough....what would these travels be like without such people?

Although the time with Marko and Betty was precious and too short, I was anxious to start phase 2 of the trip; Dresden, a city I have learned to love before seeing, and to be reunited with Claudia after almost two years. From her texts I gathered she was as excited to see us as vice versa. We have all been waiting for what has seemed like forever since our travel plans were made in March and she then found out she was sick only days later. Of course, in our most negative moments we feared we would never see her again. A great friendship had been struck up over those two years. So neither of us cared what time of the evening we would arrive, as long as we arrived.

In healthier times

It is a long way from Munich to Dresden (around 450km I think). We grabbed a bite at Pizza Hut, across from the Olympic Village, to escape the Munich rain and wait for the ride Marko had arranged. Sebastian and Kathleen rocked up at 5.30pm. Sebastian had been enjoying Oktoberfest, so, Kathleen would be driving, natürlich.

I thought it would be forever before we would arrive in Dresden, to see this long-awaited treasure of a city and greet our beloved little cancer survivor. But I forgot, this was Germany. All you need is a piece of autobahn, a German driver, and a deadline. In Australia this drive would take a tedious (and dangerous) five hours. We arrived in Dresden just after 9pm.

Sebastian mobiled Claudia to arrange a meeting point- Hochschulstrasse, just south of the Dresden Hauptbahnhof, out the front of the Technical School of the Dresden University. This was where the original "MCG footynight" gang Claudia, Marko, Jana, Sophie, Katja et al all first met and studied. This was where we waited for Claudia. Apart from paying them a miniscule fee for petrol, we gave Kathleen and Sebastian a couple of spare koalas we had in our stash, which they appreciated. Plus I made a point of telling Kathleen that she was a female Michael Schumacher and I was extremely impressed. Because I was!

So began phase 2 of our trip as Claudi and her tall bespectacled boyfriend Joerg arrived with Claudi half out the door before the Subaru wagon had even stopped. It was the same excitement we felt from being in Germany for the first time, all over again. Maybe even more so. Seeing the waify little survivor and giving her a big, long hug was more special and memorable than 3 laps of the ´Ring. Yes, you can quote me on that (I have no choice- it´s in writing!)

Our happy little band then drove off in the night, to Claudi´s little town of Seifersdorf, a gorgeous little hamlet in the rolling hills which in wintertime must look like one of those snowglobe towns. Dresden sightseeing would have to wait until morning. Her parents don't speak english, but that was half the fun, as we chatted about Australia, the footynight, Kangaroos, GDR and Trabants, then off to bed.

DRESDEN

Having spent all time thus far in "West" Germany, this was our first look at the former east. The urban differences between the two (theoretically) reunited Germanys are very clear. Diluting the classic German architecture is Communist developed mass density unit housing. There were parks overgrown and unkempt, graffiti and abandoned buildings. Only 16 years ago this was a totally different country. And it shows. But I absolutely love it. This is the Germany I came to see, and nobody denies that the differences are still there, visually and economically.

Typical Eastern Europe- traces of socialismus

Tourist waiting for that elusive tourist-less photo, Zwinger

Inside the Zwinger

Thanks to Cam lending me a book of the same name, representing the most authoritative, sympathetic yet realistic and poetically written account of the 1945 allied attacks on Dresden, it was hard not to look at the sights of the old historic section, without feeling a lump in your throat. Despite the military justifications of the attack (which there were, contrary to popular, and Soviet propagated, belief) you hear a little voice saying "what did we do?"

The massive Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady), still under privately-funded econstruction was the most poignant symbol. On February 14th, 1945, after twin firebomb midnight attacks (which were described as "the operation which went horribly right"), terrorized and shocked Dresdners surveyed their destroyed and burning city.

They were able to take some solace that their battered skyline at least retained the proud, 300 foot- high shape of the Frauenkirche. The ancient, solid structure withstood the potent explosives, bombs had literally bounced off the surface. But the surrounding high temperatures weakened the iron and timber sub-structure, and at 10.45am on the Thursday after the Tuesday-night attacks, the last remaining piece of Dresden skyline collapsed into rubble.

Florence on the Elbe

The Soviets left it that way for 40 years. After the Iron Curtain fell, a plethora of private and corporate donations lead to a triumphant rebuilding, and we were privaleged to see the culmination of that. It is mostly a "reproduction". It stands out with bright, fresh stonework, but dotted with distinctive dark block sections, being some of the original stones. With the aid of computer software, what original stonework could be salvaged was relocated in the exact place from whence it came.

The stories of world generosity in the rebuilding effort are far and many. The golden cross atop the Frauenkirche was personally crafted by the son of a WWII bomber pilot who took part in the raids. But bookstores and postcards everywhere here remind us of the bombing of Dresden.

the beautiful big lady

Claudi's grandmother recounts sitting in her house in Seifersdorf (across the courtyard from Claudi's where we are staying) during the raids. She said she was able to read the newspaper. I think this is an unremarkable statement, until I realise what she meant. It was midnight, there was total blackout, she could read the newspaper from the orange glow 15 miles away.

strolling through the beautful Theaterplatz

I hope that here the feeling of reconcilliation and progress encompasses any feelings of bitterness. Of course I feel sorry for the Dresdeners who endured this, the lives lost, and of course it's terrible that so many beautiful things were destroyed. But of course nobody should apologise. It was war. It's over now. The reconstruction of Dresden, and particularly the Frauenkirche, is a great symbol of "moving on". Unfortunately, the memory is occasionally used by neo-nazis and anti-west groups for propaganda. Nothing new there- the Soviets' approved of the bombing to help end the war and give them a slice of the takings. Then when they ruled the area, they told East Germans look at what the West did to your beautiful city. Aren't they evil?

Well, if there's one thing we learn from history, it's that we learn nothing from history.

Destroyed under Nazism, unkempt and neglected by Communism, properly rebuilt under capitalism.

Kreuzkirche, near the Altmarkt, an open square where over 4,000 bodies were cremated in 1945

All of the magnificent, stately and massive baroque buildings, surviving or rebuilt, are a characteristic combination of black stone, emerald green spires and dazzling golden ornaments. It´s not until you look closely that you realise that the blackness of the stonework is not old, quaint discolouration from age, but the permanent scars of a 1000-degree firestorm.

Neustadt

After the Altstadt we ventured out along the Elbe to Schloss Pillnitz, a colourful Dresden riverside landmark. Here Claudi and Joergy treated us to a local delicacy- Pulsnitzer Chokoladenspitzen (I think), soft gingerbread, chocolate coated, with jam filling. We may be attempting to import some to Australia very shortly- it was wickedly yummy.

Schloss Pillnitz

Call me an old softie (preferably leave out the "old") or sentamentalist: to walk through the city of Dresden is a poignant and moving experience.

But our experience today was brightened by the happy face of Claudia, wearing a perpetual smile from ear to ear. It´s a pleasure to see her again. She only looks frail, but doesn´t act it. As demanding, sightseeing tourists, we will try not to wear her out over the next few days.

PHOTOS

2005-10-01T22:47:00.000+02:00

Before I impress you with more stories, FINALLY I have some photos for you to enjoy (or otherwise)

Day 1. Römerberg in Frankfurt. There was an apple cider fest on

Day 2. ME at THE RING...that little Renault and I, we went through a lot together.

Day 3. St. Goar on the Rhine, almost as cute as Bacharach, where we stayed. When you´ve seen one 1000-year old German river village, you´ve seen ém all

Day 4. Wonderful Heidelberg

Day 5. Sinsheim museum in Baden-Wurttemburg. LOTS of big boy toys, including this one, which I first saw almost 20 years ago to the day

BUT the car I REALLY came to see...a TRABANT. It has taken me almost as long to SEE one of these as it took East Germans to acquire them. Now we know why Erich Hönacker eventually gave up on communism. He wanted a new car

Day 6.Sharon and Susanne Lagler went off looking at palaces, while I spent the day looking at...

Sharon just didn´t know what she was missing...

Day 7: Stuttgart. And one week of perfect weather.

Day 8: Freiburg in Schwarzwald. This is the Münster, a monstrous cathedral, with one-way spiral staircase up to the spire. No kidding, if someone is coming down, you have to reverse. I estimate it is approximately 20 stories. Most fascinating feature, builder´s chisseled graffiti from as early as 16th century.

Freiburg. Waiting for bratwurst

Day 9. Schwarzwald. Rowing Lake Titisee

Days 9 and 10; Meersburg on Lake Constance. Yes there is a castle in there . Two, actually.

Beautiful frescos inside a church on Mainau Island, Lake Constance

DAYS 8-12. THE CUCKOO'S NEST, GNOMES AND FAIRY TALE CASTLES

2005-09-29T19:34:00.000+02:00

Cute little mosaics on Freiburg's pavements

Second day in Freiburg and we attempted to "explore" the Blackforest, but that entailed jumping on a short cable car ride up to a steep summit and going to a lookout. As if that wasnt enough exercise for one day we decided to use the region´s excellent (and well-valued) public transport system to go further afield and explore.

Is it just me or is every single train ride in Germany utterly beautiful? Heading slightly southeast from Freiburg takes you through the Höllental ("Hell's Valley", and ironically the first tiny town on the way is HimmelTor, or "Heaven's Gate"). This is a dramatic steep valley where at times the light struggles to reach the bottom. Legends abound of deer leaping from one peak to the other to escape hunters. Stopping at the beautiful Lake Titisee (no jokes please), we went for a romantic rowboat ride out into the lake. Chivalry is NOT dead.

Lake Titisee, Blackforest

I like ducks anywhere in the world

A famous icon of the Schwarzwald area is the humble cuckoo clock. At lake Tititsee is a souveneir shop with an entire wall covered in cuckoo clocks, all busily ticking, tocking, clanging and cuckoo-ing in hilarious unison. I could have stayed there all day laughing like a maniac waiting for the next cuckoo. It was strangely addictive and amusing.

So that's it then. When I am old, demented and senile, I will live in a house full of cuckoo clocks cackling like a fool. There's your Christmas gift idea for me. A cuckoo clock (or a straightjacket)

Hee hee hee hee heee!

Then back on the D-Bahn to a town called Breisach, where we saw another magnificent old church (rebuilt from being pummelled in WWII) and waved to France across the Rhine. We know they were French because of their outrageous accents. From there, France didn't look that special.

France. Wow

As I said, the public transport system for tourists is exceptional. You can get a "day pass" for travel anywhere on the local network (excluding the superfast ICE) cheaper than a one-way ticket. And, it covers up to five people. On the way back from Breisach we sat across from a group of uni students. One of them was obviously being fined for not having a ticket. Sharon lamented that we could have offered her a place on ours. It seemed such a waste having a ticket covering five people but it's not like you can tell who needs it until it's too late, so we made a mental note that if anyone asked, we could help them (and meet someone new!).

Another steep hill to a big church, Breisach

Rathaus, Breisach. Just look at those windows!

Back in Freiburg and anxious to eat out in the beautiful cobblestoned market squares, we teamed up with Jess from the USA again. I was reminded that the Brazilian GP was on (at a better hour than 3am). The only pub that had a TV had meals way too expensive but I ducked in there occasionally to see Alonso clinch his first F1 crown. Again, in Australia, a cafe won't mind a freeloader having a quick look at the TV without buying anything. In Germany, I got stared at like " he obviously doesn't know the rules".

Day 9 and 10, goodbye Blackforest and back on the D-Bahn (3 changes of trains, accomplished without a hitch) to the wonderful Lake Constance region, bordering Austria and Switzerland.

Who doesn't like trains?! Leaving Blackforest, heading to Lake Constance

Hard to read with those views, but the book DRESDEN by Frederick Taylor was compelling

Landlocked southern Germany flocks down here to enjoy the only large body of water they can shake a stick at. We escaped some of the tourist hordes and stayed in the (cute little) village of Meersburg (pronounced "Mairz-borg" as we discovered from grumpy bus drivers).

Lake Constance and Switzerland

Gorgeous Meersburg...

...and more steep hills

Altes Schloss, Meersburg, supposedly 7th century Merovingian

On the first day here we enjoyed a boat ride to Mainau Island. Mainau Island has a castle (naturally), acres of amazing gardens (where Sharon took photos of every single flower) a 30 foot tall lying-down garden gnome made from flowers, and a butterfly house. Next to the butterfly house was a car that looked like it had been attacked by Triffids. It was basically a big, amusing novelty garden bed. I videoed myself standing in front of it quipping something about forgetting where I had parked, but later discovered I had taped over it. Pity that, it was probably the funniest thing I had done on my whole holiday movie collection.

Teutonic Knights Palace, Mainau. With big Gnome.

That Big Daddy Gnome must have had a Mummy Gnome around somewhere

In fact it was quite the predominant garden-gnome theme on Mainau Island. There were gnomes everywhere, and none of the brochures explained why the excessive gnomeology. I asked one of the locals, but he didn't even answer me. He just sat and stared straight ahead, with his white beard and funny pyjama hat.

You're not from around here are you?

just a snippet of Mainau's extensive gardens

On the ferry back to Meersburg, I found a German newspaper and attempted to read about Alonso's F1 championship but gave up after the headline.

Spooky busker at the Altes Schloss, Meersburg

We stayed in a private room with a lovely old lady who made us killer breakfasts. Luckily we asked her where was the best point from which to catch a train to Fuessen, Bavaria. Had we not asked I expect we would have ended up in Switzerland. She advised that we catch a bus to Friederichschafen and get on a train from there. With an hour to spare in Friederichschafen we we able to catch the Zeppelin museum. There, is a replica of what the interior of the Hindenburgh looked like before it discovered the perils of static electricity and dropped out of the sky like a big burning piece of paper.

So it was DAY 11, on the train again (3 changes, including one in the total middle of nowhere). But this time, we left the state of Baden-Wurttemburg, which had been our home for 9 days, and crossed into beautiful Bavaria. Destination Fuessen, a little village (extemely cute, naturally) squeezed in between massive Alpine peaks, and the best spot to see the most famous castle in the world; Neuschwanstein, the never-finished toy project of the young, neglected King Ludwig II, and the icon used by Disney. It was always intended to look like a "fairy-tale" castle, and that it does.

They say the journey is half the fun. Whoever said that must have taken a train ride through the Bavarian Alps on an Autumn day. It was the most gloriously beautiful train ride I have ever been on. Bavaria is like one, big, mountainous golf course.

Arriving in Fuessen late we chilled around for a bit. Needless to say, Fuessen in a beautiful little village, probably a little more colourful than most and wedged in a small plain next to massively steep Alpine slopes. Our (rather expensive) hotel was directly below the town's castle, lit up at night. Fortunately they showed some consideration and turned the lights off at around 1am so we could sleep.

View from our hotel window, Fuessen, Bavaria

Twighlight

On the morning of Thursday Sept 29 (DAY 12) we woke to the unusual sight of rain. Fortunately, whilst wandering around some old ruins we found someone's colourful umbrella. Now, Germany does have some tight social protocols and heavy-handed regulations so I had some concerns about the possible jail term for umbrella theft. But the owner was clearly long gone so we quietly thanked the owner and God that we were able to stay dry for a while.

15th Century Hohe Schloss (high castle). Note the three-dimensional painted window treatments. They aren't some tacky modern addition, they were painted like that in the 17th century

Our first contact with one of the "Melbourne footynight 2003" Germans was today at lunchtime: Marko and girlfriend Betti made the trip down from Munich. Marko is a fit, intelligent and good-humoured young man who had kept in good contact with me for the last two years. It was great to see him again and meet the lovely Betty.

Betty spoke English so well she was correcting MY grammar

So we all made out like Tourists and did the castle tours. Words will fail me (gasp) to describe these castles. Neuschwanstein looks like it was built yesterday. Okay, it kinda was built yesterday and is heavily touristed, but by golly it is PRETTY SPECTACULAR.

Neuschwanstein Schloss peering out of the gloom

A glimpse of Austria, from atop Hohenschwangau, King Ludwig's Mum and Dad's house

It's nice when the kids don't move far from home

Marko and Betti spoiled us by taking us across to Austria- five kilometres away, to get petrol 20c cheaper. We sat in a service station queue for 15 mins, and just about every car in the queue had German plates. So, we've been to Austria. It seemed nice. Just like our last overseas trip nine years ago- we only went to one country, but got to step into a couple more incidentally.

Bye bye to Marko and Betti, we will see them again in Munich on Sunday. Well, that is presuming no other disasters occur to thwart our troubled Munich weekend. At the time I was looking through Ludwig´s Richard Wagner-inspired concert hall, Claudi texted me to tell me she couldn´t come to Munich. Not surprisingly, the chemotherapy is knocking her around. Now I have to cancel a night in Munich (which will increase the cost of the remaining night) and book a train to Dresden a day earlier. At this point I was getting a little stressed.

Beautiful Bavaria

See ya all soon! Yeah, as usual, photos are a lost cause, but I will try again on Claudi´s pooter in Dresden.

DAY 7. INTENSE NEGOTIATIONS

2005-09-23T23:26:00.000+02:00

FRIDAY 23RD SEPT

Goodbye Karl and Susan. It wasn't just a "work visit", it was a case of being well looked-after. Even the leg to Stuttgart was taken care of. Since Karl sends regular parcels there we hitched a free ride with the taxi. It's like catching a taxi from Bendigo to Melbourne so I dreaded to think what the fare would have been. We were driven by an interesting lady who didn't speak english and kept offering to stop so we could take pictures of cute little villages and churches. The car was a late-90's Mercedes 190, which is the standard German Taxi in the same way HQ Holdens used to be in Oz.

Neues Schloss Stuttgart

With the exception of our brief look at Frankfurt this was our first stay in "big-city" Germany. It felt like we were on our own now, no help from nice locals. Here the adventure begins, as do the strained relationships and occasional mishaps.

For some reason I think this is a "Nazi-looking train station"

It wasn't too difficult to get a crappy hotel room near the train station, so as to be able to spring off the next morning (Saturday 24th Sept) to Freiburg, in the BlackForest.

We tried to get a simcard for Sharon's mobile so as to enjoy local call costs. The Vodafone shop sold us one for 20Euros, but it didn't work on account of the phone being purchased in Australia. I went back and began my first intense negotiations with Germans. I figured that "we're from Australia" was enough of a clue that they should have known to tell us that these things don't work. So, I made an Aussie-style fuss about seeing the manager, who was naturally too busy for us. So I waited, impatiently.

The good news was we got our 20 Euros back. The bad news, it took 40mins of intense negotiations and sightseeing time, and no chance of having a local mobile.

The big columns of Koenigsbau

Stuttgart's centre is spectacular. I had a special reason for wanting to see the huge park adjacent to the big (nazi-looking) train station. In 1945 my Uncle Frank, an unwilling Hungarian recruit in the German army services, saw the war end from a basement in Abensburg (Bavaria). To this day we thank God he was received by the Americans and not the Russians in the East. As a refugee he then spent the next few months wandering from Munich to Stuttgart, hitching rides on trains, travelling on tracks that he helped repair, scrounging food and trying to find work.

Punks at the King Wilhelm Jubilee column, Neue Schloss

In Stuttgart some time in winter 1945-46, he thought he'd hit the jackpot. A school had been converted to a hostel. It was warm, with soft beds and blankets. After one hour's sleep, American soldiers came in inspecting papers, and kicked all the Hungarians and Italians out. After all, they were the "enemy". So he found the Mittlerer Sclossgarten, adjacent to the train station and slept on a park bench, etching his initials into it.

Since emigrating to Australia in 1950, his first time back to Europe was with Aunt Judy in 1979, to see his family in Budapest again. They made their way through the Iron Curtain after first visiting Germany. They stopped at Stuttgart, found his park, and found his bench. His initials were still there.

Sadly, I did not. There wasn't much around that looked like it had been there since 1945. It was naive to think there would be, but I softly cried to myself anyway as I tried to imagine what this city would have looked and felt like in 1945 for a young Ference Baki.

So we wandered around the centre for a while, until I decided on another near-fruitless search for a little-known section of park on the outskirts of the CBD. It's called the Lapidium. It's barely half an acre of little stone structures. They are sections of walls and doorways left after WWII bombing. So, that's probably what this city looked like in 1945.

Lollies, Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof. I can't remember why we took this picture??

So onto Freiburg. The old city was even more cute than Heidelberg, and the 13th Century Munster (Cathedral) was absolutely massive and impressive in a scary gothic kind of way.

Menacing Muenster!

Probably the most amazing thing about it when climbing the (approximately 20-storey high) spire was the grafitti etched into it, presumably by the builder's workers, from as far back as the 1500's.

It's nice to know the folks who built it were literate

We got bumped from our Hostel's double room for Saturday night, which meant sharing with other travellers. But was this a problem or opportunity? That's when the fun begins! Finally, some "forced liason" with other travellers. So Saturday night was spent in a Freiburg Uni pub with Rob from Brisbane, Stacey and Andrea from Canada and Jess from the U.S. of A. swapping tales and talking about fomer East German politics.

Can we go back down now??

Sharon retired early but I kicked on for a while, trying to remember what it was like to go out with people in their 20's. Perhaps it wasn't such a good idea. We were simply begging, borrowing and stealing a four-week adventure after farming out three children to babysitters. These guys were travelling by the seat of their pants for months, no commitments and no plans. Sometimes I hate being sensible.

Still no luck with piccys. Even when I can insert a CD, like in the computers here at the Hostel, it is sooo painfully slow and times out. And that's time I could be off looking at Munsters and drinking Lowenbrau. Sorry folks. But you're all sophisticated enough to read things and not just look at the pictures.

DAYS 1-6. THE 'RING, THE RHINE, and THE 'BERG

2005-09-22T10:32:00.000+02:00

Well, my love-hate relationship with flying continues. The flight to KUL was "sue-poib", two hours in transit in a spectacular (and cheap) airport, then the midnight leg to FRA. The first four hours was a shocker. Nobody believes me because I´m a wuss, but even the stewards looked worried when the turbulence hit.

Starting to look, feel (and smell) like travellers. KLIA.

But you take the good with the bad. When things calmed down, we had a cloudless sky, and we saw a full moon reflecting off the Caspian Sea and what I am sure were Bedouin fires in Azerbijan. Just breathtaking. There is a magic about travelling. I'm glad I don't do it all the time, otherwise you lose the magic.

We landed in FRA at 6 am and the beginning of aiport peak hour- queues of planes landing for miles. Killing some time in the airport (the hire car was not vailable until noon) we met Sam, a US soldier on leave from Iraq, on his way to Ireland for two weeks. He told us horror stories and sounded like a guy who needed to get stuff off his chest. We swapped emails, I hope we speak again sometime.

First sights...Frankfurt am Main

So we stashed our backpacks and jumped on the S bahn into Frankfurt to kill more time. As we emerged from the tunnel into daylight...wow, we´re in Germany. At last. Frankfurt on a Saturday morning was surprisingly quiet. It was just waking up. Into the historic part of Römerberg, just gorgeous. Even some Roman ruins to boot. Heaps of video and pictures.

Roman ruins, Romerberg, central Frankfurt

Back into the airport, we were greeted by the sight of military police everywhere, stopping access to the terminals to anyone without a boarding pass. Fortunately one soldier spoke english and told us they were dealing with a mass demonstation outside and were trying to stop demonstrators getting in. We explained that we needed to get our bags and our hire car and all was good.

Big city Germany- as big as it gets. Note the interesting building billboard on the left

Now, on the hire car booking I was told it was a Volkswagen Golf, with option to a free upgrade. Since I mistakenly assumed "upgrade" meant "better", I took the option of upgrading to a Renault Megane. From memory, the Megane was an allright kinda car, compact, short wheelbase, buzzy little multivalve engine, perfect for non-threatening but fun laps of the Nurburgring.

After trudging up to the hire carpark in the city that is Frankfurt International airport, I saw, to my abject horror, a Renault Megane "Scenic"- so named because it was so tall you had a scenic view of everything. Since we were too exhausted to hike back to the desk and I was too embarrassed to ask for a "downgrade", we were stuck with the little Reanult Scenic. I grizzled about it for a while but soon got over it.

I won´t go into detail but escaping the airport and finding the A3 to Koblenz was, well, fraught, and invoked many dirty looks from airport staff and other motorists. We even caught a glimpse of the abovementioned demonstration. It looked so well-behaved and orderly.

I hit the autobahn with much zeal. At the risk of sounding cocky, it was a breeze. All the warnings from previous travellers and German friends were a little over-cautious. Any self-respecting revhead should relish the chance to share a high speed road with drivers who actually know what they are doing. I loved it. At one stage, 160kmh from our little Renault and we were still being passed by Audis, Bimmers and Mercs fast enough to suck our eyeballs out.

1 hour later we found the town of Nurburg. Fellow rev-heads, I cannot go into much detail here but the whole complex, with the new circuit and old circuit spliced together, the surrounding countryside...was stunning. This is the most spectacular purpose-built racetrack in the world. The track doesn't interfere with any public roads. It is it's own, self-contained piece of real estate. Yet it goes for miles and miles and miles, and four villages are contained within it. The sound of punters revelling in their beloved cars echoes perpetually.

Our hotel at Nurburg...from atop the castle. Note the traffic heading down the road to the main attraction

We were there on one of the busiest "Tourestfahren" (public driving days) the locals had ever seen. The cars......wowwwwwwwwww. Exotics I have never seen, and more Porsche GT-3´s than you could poke a stick at. Saturday afternoon we explored the track surrounds. Without a map, it's a little hard, but you simply drive around the region in eager anticipation until you spy off to the right or left, or on a bridge overhead, a strip of bitumen seemingly hiding in the bushes, a glimpse of red and white kerbing, then a loud, fast blur of some exotic car being driven as it was designed to be driven. We stopped to rubberneck at a section known as "Flugplatz" (literally, "flight path"), where the cars dropped into a frightening, downhill fast right hander, brushing the armco barely a few feet in front of us. It was 6.30pm, and they were going until the sun disappeared.

Best spot for photos (and bratwurst)...Pflantzgarten II. Nice little clubby

A good nights sleep and Sunday dawned- perfect weather. My early start was foiled by some track testing going on, so I couldn't enjoy any track solitude- by the time I could go out it was 10am and the carpark was chockers. 3 laps throughout the day...the little Renault was surprisingly adept on handling and brakes, but NOTHING prepares you for this amazing circuit. The undulations are astonishing, steep up and down. I thought I knew some of this track, but in the flesh it looks so different, my brain was scrambled and I forgot everything I knew. Which wasn´t much in the first place.

At the risk of offending insular, Aussie V8 Supercar devotees- it makes Bathurst look like a go-kart track.

Now kiddies, don´t try this at home. I am a trained lunatic. But I wasn´t stupid. My first lap I used Sharon as a talking rear-vision mirror, so I could look ahead, size up the corners, go as fast as possible (for a Renault Scenic...actually, with 40 pounds in the tyres it wasn´t so bad) so as not to baulk people too much, and Sharon could warn me what was coming behind..."Porsche coming...headlights on...coming up FAST...MOVE OVER....NOW!!!" and so on. The trick is to practice the protocol of turning on the right indicator to show that you´ve seen them, keep right and hold your breath. Also, to remember to NOT have your indicator on if you intend helping yourself to the racing line on the next corner, in case they think you´ve seen them. The bikers were particularly difficult, their approach and exit speed was incredible.

Attitude!

The other trick, being a left hand drive (or, as Sharon calls it "driving a back-to-front car on back-to-front roads") is to make sure you turn on the INDICATORS and not the WINDSCREEN WIPERS.

But, all in all, the other track users all acted like they´d done it before. I did two more laps (solo, no talking rear view mirror) and managed okay. Saw two accidents, nothing serious, and nothing to do with me, I think.

The speeds of the cars and bikes passing us were full racing speeds, no question. Some Porsches carved me up, diving for the apexes in front of me on the frightening downhill left-right-left- rollercoaster past the Fuchsröhe. I was trying so hard to keep right I was climbing all over the kerb, and they missed my front left corner by inches. But it was all part of the rush. The sound of a black BMW M6 accelerating past us out of the little chicane at Adenauer Forst, I will never forget. He outbraked me into the deceptively tight left hander, then opened up that glorious V10 and disapperared. There were too many experiences to list here.

Oh, and later- the ´Ring Weekend was made complete; I met Sabine, the Ring addicts' auntie. Sabine Schmitz drives one of the famous "Ring Taxis". A 400hp BMW M5, costing 120 Euros per lap, booking required several months in advance. She set the lap record around the 'Ring at the age of 19, in a Ford Sierra Cosworth, and races in the two big yearly 'Ring races, the VLN 4-hour and the ADAC 24 Hr. For some footage of her driving a very potent Porsche 997 in the 2005 4-hour, run the week after we returned home (in the wet,), go to

www.renn.tv

You have to be lucky to meet the drivers of the RingTaxis. They circulate all day, come in, drop off, pick up, and go. Fortunately there was a track closure so I went up to her and blubbered like an idiot until she talked to me. Auntie Sabine!

Of course I did get to see her a couple of other times... blasting past me on track like I was going backwards. I've been overtaken by Sabine Schmitz. Don't touch me.

Even at this rev head utopia, we still had a castle to visit. Poor Castle Nurburg...it only costs a couple of Euros to get in, but nobody comes to this region to visit the castle...

Bits of Nurburg castle

Our hotellier, Stefan, told me that if the liability issues ever get too much and they cease the Touristfahren days, he may as well shut down his hotel and bar. Stefan is building a car or two for the 24 hour (yes, they race on the OLD circuit AND the new one). He is even considering building some "Ring tools"- cars that can be hired by guests for the ´Ring. I presume, he is talking about something more potent that a Renault Scenic, and perhaps a little lower to the ground. I believe one of them may be a Clubman.

So, I suggest to like-minded motorsport nuts, perhaps you should think about getting over here soon and just DOING IT. It may not be around forever. Providing you are sensible you will leave with a big smile. But if you are hiring from (****) don't, repeat DON'T take the UPGRADE, free or not!!

On the morning of Monday 19th, I performed the ritual of removing the evidence from the hire car. Nothing says "Hey (****) I destroyed your tyres and brakes" quite like a ´Ring circuit access sticker.

DAY 3- Rhine

I am writing this at Lagler and have to run for a factory tour. This is the first blog-capable computer so I´ll try and post some more later. Sadly, it looks like getting photos on line is going to be difficult but I´ll see how we go.

Believe it or not, the ´Ring is now a distant memory for me- since then, we have seen the Beautiful Rhine, and amazing Heidelberg. It has all been just... "perfect".

Leaving the amazing Nordschleife and legendary surrounds, we drove through some of the most idyllic little villages. Since the trip to Nurburg from FRA was mainly autobahn, this was our first glimpse of country Germany and we spent the whole drive ooh-ing and aaah-ing like kids. Sharon made the mistake of declaring within the first few kilometres "We could live here!!"

In hindsight (this comment added after the trip) it was a miracle we got to our destination without SatNav and with our marriage intact. It was remarkably easy. On the way, we stopped in what seemed to be a quiet, remote area to take a picture of a "deer crossing" sign, the way tourists in Australia take the obligatory "kangaroo crossing" picture. The moment we did, traffic appeared out of nowhere and drove past, staring strangely at us. Yeah, we'll do the same to you one day.

Beautiful Bacharach am Rhine

We drove to the little town of Bacharach (do not try the correct German pronounciation unless you have lots of phlegm to expel) on the beautiful Rhine. It was utterly and totally gorgeous. I wanted to stay all day and wander around. But Sharon for some reason wanted to go for a River Cruise on the Rhine, and see some of the other villages dotting the banks. Oh, and see a castle, naturally.

We cruised up to St Goar and walked up the side of a sheer cliff to visit the old castle. Just spectacular. The conflicting holiday dramas began as I wanted to relax, on account of the fact that I am lazy, and Sharon wanted to see everything, on account of the fact that she is not.

In the Liebfrauenkirche, Oberwesel am Rhine

But we managed without major conflict. Next stop, Oberwesel (big old church and another castle but I was all castled out) then back to Bacharach for a nice pizza. Those cobblestone streets are nice and pretty but very hard on the bunions. I soon realised that my deformed feet were going to be in for some torture over the next four weeks.

So far my internet-sourced accomodation has been great, at least the location. The little guesthouse (gastehaus) or "pension" was smack bang in the middle of the cutest part of the town. The room was small. There was a door that I thought was a wardrobe, but it turned out to be a bathroom and toilet that was as small as a wardrobe.

Downtown Oberwesel

DAY 4 & 5- HEIDELBERG

Okay, things were going way too well. First, we had to get to Heidelberg to meet a) the deadline for dropping off the hire car, and b) the deadline to reach the guesthouse before the guy has the afternoon off so we´re stuck lugging our backpacks around Heidelberg until he returns at 5pm. We gave ourselves 3 hours to do a maximum 2 hour trip. We got to Heidelberg in record time. But we chewed up all that spare time getting lost in the outer ´burbs of Heidelberg trying to find Avis. Okay, we got the hire car back with 5 mins to deadline- very little time for the sad goodbyes (that little car and I...sniff...we´ve been through lot together...sob..). But we missed the guesthouse deadline. So, grumpy as all heck and stuck with heavy backpacks, we then found a tram stop to work out tram numbers, ticketing, etc...

Now, in our family, there is a tradition that when overseas you invariably bump into somebody from Australia who knows someone who knows you. I´ll keep it short; at the tram stop, we met David and Jenny Johnstone from Brisbane. David is a retired Anglican minister who was doing "exchange" locum work in a church in Heidelberg. After chatting for a while we discovered they knew Jonathon Ewer (Matthew´s Godfather, now in the UK).

Wasting time, lazing on the banks of the Neckar. What a life.

Now looking in the other direction!

Freaky. Anyways, they caught the tram with us, took us to the old city and found our hotel.

Sure, we had a wasted afternoon going nowhere with heavy backpacks. But I don´t call it wasted when you laze on the banks of the River Neckar, with the stunning city of Heidelberg , the Alte Brucke (old bridge) and the massive castle in full view. Once the guesthouse was open, we dumped and ran. More stairs (325 according to Sharon´s count) up to the huuuuge castle, some of it a ruin, and breathtaking views over gorgeous Heidelberg Altstadt. Forgive me if I repeat the words "stunning" and "breathtaking". I may run out of vocab (gasp)

In the Markstrasse (bustling centre of the Altstadt) I had my first bratwurst and Bitburger (beer). Very nice. No heartburn (yet). Although, here we also discovered how we could save money on eating out...buy nothing but German pastries. Yummeee!

I was starting to wonder if I could ever tire of these colourful, classic and at times spectacular old towns, with their standard "Altmarkt" squares and obligatory huge cathedrals, cobbled paving and al-fresco dining. I would later learn that it actually gets better.

Well maybe just a little tired

Next day, up early and up to the castle again to see the bits we missed the previous day. Most of the nicest bits were built by King Freidrich V for his 19 yo wife. The things we do for love. As with all German castles, it is atop a high hillside. Great for conquest and ruling peasants, crap for tourists with deformed feet.

From high above the town, in this magnificent castle looking out over the river, red roofs and steeples, Sharon mused "what would it have been like to live in those times!". I assured her that, had we been living in those times, we would not have been up here. More likely we would have been down there, toothless and yelling "bring outcha dead..."

That's quite a keg

No, I couldn't possibly tire of this

1400 hours was time to be collected by our German contact, Karl Lagler. In very typical Germanic style he appeared on the dot of 2pm at our rendezvouz point in his brand spanking new Audi A8, where we became acquainted with SatNav lady for the first time. We then hit the Autobahn (at 200kmh) to head towards his little collection of villages in the Swabian valley near Stuttgart.

On the way we stopped at a museum at Sinsheim, that Karl thought I might like. He thought correctly. Let´s just say they have cars galore, F1 cars including Ayrton Senna´s 1985 JPS Lotus, a collection of massive antique pipe organs, some Hitlermobiles, and a Concorde and Tupolev on the roof. Real ones. Yes, you read correctly. Just Google "Sinsheim" and "Museum" and "Concorde" and you will see what I mean.

Just a tiny piece of Sinsheim Museum, grown from "a small private collection"

So Mum, now WE have been on Concorde too!

A brief stop at a castle built in 930 AD, climbing stairs that looked like they were'nt built much later, then off to our little village and to the cutest, elegant little hotel organised by our friends at Lagler.

Hotel in Gueglingen, Swabian Valley, courtesy of Lagler

DAY 6- LAGLER

Don´t worry, no need for big long stories here. Today I looked at Floorsanding machine manufacture, I´ll save that for work discussions but even as a tourist it is still fascinating to see the investment in German industry. Karl could have sent the whole operation off to the Czech republic for $2 labour, but instead built a brand new multi million dollar factory and kept the same loyal staff. As I write, Sharon and Suzanne Lagler are cruising around the Swabian valley in her Bimmer, looking at old castles. I think, perhaps, I can cope with missing a castle or three...

In fact, they went to Ludwigsburg, just north of Stuttgart. The highlight was the magnificent baroque Residenzschloss, built 1704, with its 450 rooms inspired by Versailles. Definitely prettier than floor sanding machines.

Residenzschloss, Ludwigsburg

Bluehendes Barock (Baroque in Bloom), Ludwigsburg

Fingers crossed we can upload some photos soon. Sorry if that doesn´t work out. And please excuse the occasional "Y" where there should be a "Z". The computer keyboards are back-to front here, like the cars. (note post-trip: obviously sorted!)

On this evening we dined again with the Laglers in this undiscovered German treasure of an area (these towns are 1200 years old). Joining us was Jeff Fairbanks from the US office, along with one of his salesman and a customer.

"You'll notice Karl that at this stage of our journey we like to take lots of photos.."

It´s nice being off the tourist trail. But tommorrow we go back onto it- next stop is undecided. We planned on a little uni town called Tuebingen, south of Stuttgart, but it´s off the public transport route so we may cancel it and go to Stuttgart, as it will be easier to springboard from there to the Blackforest and our next main destination Freiburg. After all, from tommorrow we will be without our elegant bahnstorming Audi taxi and local guide (Karl) and on our own with backpacks, travelling wild and free and pretentiously acting young.

Besides, I am determined to go to a little park in Stuttgart and find a park bench my Uncle Frank told me about, a little place he slept after WW II..

One week to go!!

2005-09-11T13:19:00.000+02:00

Sure, I expect that when we're actually over in Germany having a wow of a time I will devote no effort whatsoever to this cleverly planned blog diary thingo. But, hope springs eternal and buggered if I'm going to send you all postcards.

Please note, notwithstanding this last comment, we do love each and every one of you very much indeed.

Besides, as many of you have noticed I love a chat, and the temptation to tell our travel tales (with a few arms and legs added on, naturally) is just too great so I will beg, borrow and / or steal an internet cafe or two along the way. There may not be photos though, depends what they'll let us do in internet cafes.

Mum, you did quite rightly make the morbid suggestion of a last will and testament (although, really, sheeshh, we're going to Germany, not Iraq. In Iraq, they get killed by terrorists. In Germany, they just train them).

So, for the record, if anything happens to us, Naomi can make the decision who looks after her and her younger siblings (I am confident she will make the right decision), Mark gets to keep my draftsman's desk, Matthew gets all my old U2 books and Phil gets the go kart. There. That was easier than I thought.

Now I expect all of you to bookmark this page and ready yourselves for an entertaining few weeks of engaging anecdotes. Here's a quiz to get you all going, answer now or wait for the answer in the first post sometime week ending 22nd Sept. Who is "Sabine" and why am I so keen to meet her?

2005-06-27T06:19:00.000+02:00

What we will probably be flying to Germany in, relaxing at the airport with friends, yesterday

Coming soon!

2005-06-27T06:00:00.000+02:00

From the idiot who brought you athertonblab, comes a blow by blow account of Paddy and Sharon's German adventures, September 2005!