Category: Travel – Germany

I woke this morning feeling somewhat better (and relieved to be no worse) after a good nights sleep. I wrote up yesterdays blog while watching the fish swim by :-). We took our time this morning and eventually packed up and checked out (leaving our luggage to be stored) at 9am. First up was trying to find some breakfast. Which proved to be a challenge as though lots of places were set up and had breakfast menus, no where was open. It took some searching before we finally found a coffee shop and got some breakfast. Well, Kevin had an apple tart (which I’m not sure counts). I had a bagel with cheese & salad – which was very tasty.

Kevin was keen to do an open top bus tour (even though we’re doing a city tour tomorrow with the group).

Unfortunately when we got on the ONLY two seats together was downstairs at the back, in a cramped little spot where we had to lean forward so the headphones didn’t fall out. Then we got stuck in traffic. It was really quite the comedy of errors and we had a good laugh.

We weren’t planning to hop off as most of the important places, like the Brandenberg Gate, we’re seeing tomorrow.

Eventually some people got off and we were able to move upstairs, which made things a whole lot nicer.

One of the stops turned out to be the Jewish Museum which Kevin had wanted to visit.

Hmm.. let’s just say this wasn’t what we were expecting at all. And was definitely much to arty for our understanding.

I think it’s safe to say it was more art museum than a learning museum.

After a brief walk around (we were there about an hour) we left, feeling rather disappointed and glad we hadn’t made a trip here just to see it. We did luck out though and saw a Golden as we walked across the road to the bus.

It was a rather LONG bus trip around the city and much of the city is a building site (so not always the prettiest). But I did see one of the bears (like what we bought on the cruise last year)

And we got to watch the police booking some cyclists (I think for riding where they should have been walking their bikes).

It was getting on towards the time when the group would be arriving so we quickly found some lunch – Happy Noodles today. And they were indeed happy and rather yummy.

We then went back to the hotel to collect our luggage and catch a taxi to meet up with the group. So it was goodbye to this…

and hello to this…

And with perfect timing the group was waiting out the front when we pulled up. Amy seemed happy to see us, which was nice.
Okay, now are you ready for the tour of our room (after Kevin carried both the suitcases up 4 flights of stairs – because the wait for the lift was too long)?

What do you think? Not quite what we had last night. Oh, and I didn’t show you the view yet.
No fish here unfortunately.

Actually I don’t think it will be too bad, just a shock after what we’ve been enjoying. It will be noisy no doubt as this is a huge youth hostel, full of lots of groups. After dropping off our luggage it was straight back out to catch the train. This was somewhat of an adventure I tell you. Firstly the teachers had to buy tickets for 35 people and you could only get 4 at time. We ended up in two groups. We were with the second group and just before we got on the train a student appeared (one we thought had got on the first train – but no, he was sitting down by himself). He was one lucky kid I tell you. I did get to make a friend on this trip and got some puppy kisses.

Our group had also got on a train heading the wrong direction, but eventually we made it to the Legoland Discovery Center.

This place would be fantastic for primary school and belo,w but amazingly enough all the high school kids seemed to have a good time.

Kevin and I enjoyed some ice cream.

We also watched a 4D lego movie (in German) and Kevin made a new friend.

At 6pm it was time to leave and head back on the trains to our hostel.

Time for some dinner. Definitely feels like we’re at camp now :-).

The vegetarian meal was the same as everyone else – less the meat :-(. It was okay for one night but hope it’s not the norm. The food was actually rather nice and it was good to load up on some veggies.

Then it was back to our room to hopefully get some sleep. It’s really stuffy with the window closed but noisy with it open!!

Tomorrow : Exploring Berlin (again) and a visit to a Museum

Unfortunately I awoke this morning feeling pretty poorly and blocked up in the sinuses. Hoping it doesn’t come to an infection but I do struggle with sinus problems these days. We woke up at 5.30am got dressed and finished packing and went downstairs to check out. The taxi the hotel had booked for us was waiting and it was a quick 5min drive down to the train station. Which meant we were rather early and had to wait around for a bit. There was a man and dog sleeping nearby. Not a golden but he was very cute.

Finally we headed to the platform, not really sure where to stand. We were in carriage 14 so headed to what we thought was the correct end. When we spotted someone from the DB we asked and she said we had to go right to the other end. Of course, right then the train came in so we ended up walking rather fast and running up to our carriage. I arrived feeling rather out of breath and sick in my stomach – I’m sure due largely to this possible sinus inflection my body is fighting. Then, as you’d expect, the train stayed for another 5mins !!!

I had prebooked seats in a compartment and even though (the internet) told me I could only book 2 of the seats, we had the whole place to ourselves… for the whole 6.5 hour trip.

Feeling yucky as I did it was nice to just relax, watch little German town and bigger cities go past the window, and catch up with all my favourite blogs.

When we got hungry we ate some of the prepacked lunch the hotel had given us this morning. There was so much in there. 2 cheese sandwiches, 2 pieces of fruit, a yoghurt, a cereal bar, a choclate and a bottle of water… for each of us!

At some stage during the trip I was offered a tea (you had to pay but they went and got it and bought it back to your seat). Later on Kevin went to fetch one for me. They have a dining carriage but we just nibbled on our own food throughout the trip.

Shortly before we arrived in Berlin they bought around a chocolate for us. I’m guessing we won’t be getting this in 2nd class (next week with the school) :-).

Finally we arrived in Berlin.

Then we discovered we were not at the correct Berlin station and had in fact gotten off the train too early.

We were told where to catch another train…which as it turned out would take us through to our final destination (we were going to have to change trains anyway). And later I discovered our ICE train was running late and we would have missed our connecting train, so everything worked out in the end and it didn’t even cost us too much time.
I was starting to feel a lot better by the time we arrived at our final stop…

where we spotted a golden…

It was about a 5min walk to our hotel. We stopped along the way to enquire about a segway tour in English. They quoted us almost $500 for a private tour!!!! No surprise we decided not to do it.
Around the corner we found our hotel – the Radisson Blu Berlin.

We got checked in and were able to go straight to our room. It’s really lovely and our last treat accommodation before we move into youth hostels tomorrow night.

Do you want to see what made me choose this hotel (other than it’s location)? This is the view from our room…

Yep, that is a giant fishtank/aquarium in the center of the lobby. How cool is that?

We got our electronic gadgets charging and headed back out. Unfortunately we didn’t really have a plan and I wasn’t feeling great again.

We ended up in the “wrong” museum but bought a pass that lets us get into most of them.

Then we went to a cafe (in one of the museums) to get a late lunch – as it was now almost 3pm. We both had empanadas – Kevin’s with meat, mine with vegetables.

We had thought to do the Egyptian museum and maybe the Jewish museum (since it was open later). Amy would have loved the Egyptian museum. Our biggest problem was that much was in German. We did get the English audio guide but it was incredibly long winded. You would have to be there all day to listen to the commentary. So it was a bit of shame really. We’ve done other museums where you get a brief description then can choose different options for more detailed information.

The highlight of the museum was seeing the famous bust of Nefertari. Which, of course, you can’t photograph, but you can just make it out through the doors in the next photograh.

As you can see the building itself is amazing. It’s such a shame we weren’t able to fully enjoy this museum.

We had a little wander though some markets, then Kevin decided he wasn’t in the mood for another museum, so we headed back to the hotel, stopping to get some ice cream. Everyone is mad about ice cream here. I’d love to know if it’s a year round thing so just something that’s done when the weather starts to warm up.

Kevin and I both choose caramel which was delicious. We ate it back in our room, while watching the fish.

I was starting to feel worse so had a nice hot bath. Then we just relaxed the rest of the night, ordering some room service for dinner. A treat for us but we’ve found food prices to be very reasonable over here.

It came on a beautifully set trolley and we ate while watching the fish. Don’t think I’d ever get sick of watching the fish. Some of them are so funny.

I just had tomato soup (hoping it might help me feel better) and Kevin had tandoori chicken.

Kevin found some English speaking TV to watch and I watched a couple episodes of True Blood (while trying not to feel too sorry for myself). Hoping I feel better in the morning, if not I’ll be in search of a chemist.

Tomorrow: Another museum and meeting back up with the school group.

We had a somewhat leisurely morning and didn’t head to breakfast till 8.30am. Enjoyed bread and cheese as always. Then we collected the car and headed to Europe’s second most popular theme park (after Disneyland Paris) – Europa Park.

It was an absolutely freezing cold day and started at about 6 deg, with a top of 9 deg. We don’t get many days this cold in Australia. Kevin had been wanting a cold day and today he got it.
The park was a lot busier than expected. We thought the cold and drizzly weather would have kept locals aways. And maybe it was quiet for the park. We saw quite a few groups of hens and bucks parties. It must be the thing here to dress up as a group (usually as an animal).

We picked up an English map but it was rather hard to navigate with so we ended up just following the crowds. We knew the park was really big and wanting to concentrate on the big coasters so we missed a lot of the smaller attractions.
Kevin went on the Ghost Castle. I don’t like being scared so sat this one out. However, it turns out it was just a copy of the Haunted Mansion at Disney. Actually, quite a lot of the park is a copy of Disney, even down to the mouse mascot.

Our next ride ended up being a water coaster called Poseidon. I really didn’t want to do this as it was so cold and I didn’t want to get wet. But we went on and it was pretty fun. Part coaster, part flume ride. And yes, I did get wet – my arm was saturated.

The park is all set out in the themed lands. The above ride was in Greece.

Kevin wanted a snack and we saw someone eating gyros, we thought we could share as walked to the next ride. Unfortunately we ended up with this!!!! Not quite the snack we wanted at 10.30am. I just had some of the chips to try and warm me up.

Our next ride was a game ride where you had to shoot stuff (much like Buzz Lightyear). Kevin won!

Then came on of my favourite rides of the day – Euro-Mir (in Russia). I thought this was a really cool ride, but Kevin got a bit motion sick. We took quite a lot of video today so you’ll be able to see the ride better once we get home (and I get all the video footage edited).

Time for the some coffee and tea to warm up (though Kevin threw his coffee in the bin again).

In France he spotted the crepe place so we got another sugar crepe to share. It was “almost” as delicious as the one we ate in the real France.

We then headed into Holland to the Pirates of the Caribbean, oops I mean Pirates of Batavia.

Such a Disney copy, but as you can see definitely not the quality of DIsney.

And instead of the dog with the keys, they have a monkey.

We rode Blue Fire in Iceland – which was pretty awesome.

and Wodan (a huge timber coaster built last year) which I loved too. Kevin doesn’t enjoy coasters like he used to and said he’d be happy not to ride them again. I still love them.

It really was a shame it was so cold today. I’m sure we would have enjoyed the park (and rides) that much more if we hadn’t been freezing.

There was a great interactive area called Grimm’s Enchanted Forest – which I’m sure the girls would have enjoyed (plenty of adults were playing there). There was also a great looking Children’s World play area. Definitely something for all ages at this park. And we didn’t even do any of the shows (being that they were in German).

We took a photo of the horse for Christy.

Around 2pm we finally found ourselves back in France and found a lovely looking place to have lunch. Best of all, it was nice and warm in there.

Kevin ordered a kids schnitzel and chips but said it wasn’t that good.

I had a stuffed capsicum and veggies. It might not have looked the prettiest but boy did it taste good.

Time to get rugged up and head back out in the cold. Thought this sign was appropriate for someone who’s too old to ride coasters! Oh, fahrt in German means exit but I don’t know what this sign really means.

We’d had enough of being cold and had done all but two of the big coasters, so decided we had had enough. But not before doing a loop around the park on the monorail.

Kevin certainly did NOT look like a local.

So it was goodbye to Europa Park. We did have a good day but I’m sure it would have been much better with warmer weather. I don’t think we’d return on our own but probably would if we had the kids with us.

We stopped to fill up the petrol tank (and get a cup of tea), then it was back to Freiburg.

We returned the car at the train station and picked up some imitation Subway for dinner.

I got quite excited when I spotted an Accessorize shop in the station. Unfortunately it was pretty small and hard to move around it.

It was a pretty short walk back to the hotel, but I found a Fossil store along the way and stopped to buy a new travel wallet (this was a planned purchase as I was using one that Christy had been set to donate).

They even gave me a lovely tin box as a gift but I don’t really have room to take it with me.

We were back in our room by 5pm. I had a shower and it was nice to have time to enjoy a bit of pamper time with a face mask. I then made a start of on packing and had my dinner in bed (it was a bit too cold siting out) while watching True Blood.

Tomorrow : We take the high speed ICE train to Berlin.

I didn’t sleep too well last night but thankfully Kevin is feeling better. Around 8.30am we headed around the corner to have breakfast. It’s the hotel restaurant but accessed from a different side of the block. There was a lovely selection of food again, almost the same as what we’ve been offered everywhere. But today I was adventurous (for me) and tried a different tea :-).

I wonder if I’ll be sick of bread and cheese by the end of the trip? I highly doubt it. I also had a boiled egg and the little choc chip muffin was one of the best I’ve ever had.

We met Simone at 9am and headed off for a walking tour of Freiburg. The town was much quieter this morning. It was also quite a bit colder.

It’s a lovely town but not quite like Rothenburg or even Gengenbach, the Cathedral is incredible though.

Only the cathedral and one home survived WWII, though amazingly it was bombed by the Germans, not the Allies.

Just before we went inside to have a look I had a phone call from Christy, who was home from Sports camp. She’d had a wonderful time but was tired because her and her new friends stayed up talking all night. She was especially proud of having tried some new food at every meal and hitting the target at archery.

Some more photos of Freiburg…

Yep, we did buy some of this German chocolate. As you will see it turned out to be a day all about the food.

One of the things I really love about Germany is how many people ride bikes, even older people.

The markets were on this morning so we had a wander through them. I was sad I was still full from breakfast because I would love to have bought something here.

And look at all the flowers. So cheap too.

I had a bit of a problem with my camera this morning but it seems it was just the battery. Not sure if it’s faulty or just didn’t charge properly. But at least we didn’t have to buy a new camera!
We went back to the hotel and got the car, which the staff park in a small garage beside the hotel. Then it was off for a day trip to France. Still seems so wrong to say that as we can drive to NO countries from Australia and even to drive to a different State (beside Canberra) takes almost a day!

Guess how long it took us? It took just 30 minutes to drive to the Alsace region.

Our first stop of the day was Riquewihr.

We got to sample some cheeses. It amazed us that don’t have to be refrigerated.

And, of course, we had to buy some macaroons to have later.

It was a rather overcast day so I don’t think the photos really capture how lovely this town was. Like Rothenberg, it was hard to believe it was all real.

There were still lots of Easter decorations in all the shop windows, which was lovely to see.

We bought some kougelhopf for later and set off for the next town.

Kaysersberg is another gorgeous town on the Wine Road.

We had lunch in this amazing cafe.

We were seated a large table with two other people, which Simone explained is very common in France.

And I spotted this…

Yep, right in the cafe was our first Golden of the day. We couldn’t believe it. We also saw another one walk past while we were in there.

Lunch was a cheese & mushroom tart/thin pizza. I can’t recall the correct French name but it was wonderful.

Kevin had rosti – which wasn’t at all what I had expected – it was more like a really fancy potato bake. But it was really good too.

After lunch we headed to our last town of the day, which I believe was Turckheim. This was a VERY cute little town.

And check out this storks nest. How amazing is that?

Of course, we had to have some crepes while in France.

Kevin and I shared a plain one with sugar. And it was indeed delicious. This was the first type of takeaway food we’ve enjoyed here as mostly the French & Germans sit or stand still to enjoy their food or coffee.

We headed back to Germany and Simone, knowing how much I love flowers, insisted that we stop so I could cut my own tulips.

This was so fun. And nothing like we can do in Australia. You just pay for what you cut.

I just cut two to enjoy for the next 2 nights.

Then it was back to Freiburg where we dropped Simone off at the train station. She was kind enough to take about 20mins on the phone (and running up and down the street) to try and work out where we had to return the car on Sunday. We would never have worked it out without her and would no doubt have missed our train. We said our farewells, having thoroughly loved our time with Simone.

Then it was back to the hotel. This time we got told off by an old guy for driving through the pedestrian zone but he was okay once we explained we were going to our hotel.

We dropped off the car and went for a walk around town, stopping at great shop we’d seen that morning. Here I finally bought my cuckoo clock (and a smaller one for each of the girls). They are made nearby and will be shipped from the maker back to Australia.

Once again we struggled to find somewhere for a light dinner. We went into a department store and I happened to notice some shopping carts on the floor below – turned out to be a supermarket. Which was perfect. Kevin got some sushi and I got a salad, which we ate back in our room. After which we enjoyed the krugelhopfs, which were like a muffin but much lighter.

Do you want to see all the food we collected today? Luckily most of it will keep for some time. I’m going back to sugar free when I get home but am definitely indulging while I’m here :-).

Tomorrow : Theme park fun at Europa Park