PHOTOS

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

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

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.