Hamburg, Germany 3rd - 6th Jan 10 (no make that 7th!)

Train to Hamburg on the 3rd. Love trains in Germany. Their website is so easy to use to get times/bookings etc and they do awesome ticket deals. We used the weekender ticket (up to 5 people for 37euros) it's a bargain even with 2! Our hostel in Hamburg was very fancy, more hotel style with ensuite and an awesome shower!! So happy to have some 'luxury' accommodation after all the hostels/shared bathrooms.

We got a 3 day Hamburg card which covered all our transport and discounts on some attractions, well worth it. On the 4th we took the S-bahn into the city center and got out next to the Alster Lake. Hamburg is a fascinating city, it's a port city and it's main center lies between a river inlet and a lake so everything is based around the water. I imagine it's a great place to go in summer, there was less to do when it was covered in snow but still a cool place.

The lake was covered in massive chunks of ice and the boat tours were still running so we decided to come back for the next one (they only ran 2 a day at this time of year). While waiting we went and had a look at the Rathaus (old town hall) then jumped back on the S-bahn down to the wharf (Lundungsbrucken - i love German place names!).

The views were awesome over the River Elbe to the port and fishing docks. With lots of tour boats coming and going there was a lot of activity. It's quite funny, the port is a huge tourist attraction in Hamburg, the tour boats take them around the port talking about the history and how all the things work. Coming from Tauranga of course it just reminded us of home :)

Back to the lake we grabbed some Currywurst (yum!) before jumping on the boat for our tour. The main reason we wanted to do one was so we could crash through all the ice - so much fun - I think it would have been quite boring otherwise :) The ice was fun though, the boat would crash through it and big chunks would come off skidding over the other blocks of ice.

We saw birds on the ice trying to peck it to I assume get little bugs stuck in it. And the ducks plodding along the ice was so cute. The trip was only an hour so it was over pretty quick but it was definitely the highlight of the day.

In the afternoon we walked around the shopping mall - gorgeous lights still all strung up from Christmas (Germans know how to do Christmas!), like 5 stories and funny mens shop called 'Wormland' - foreign names are a laugh sometimes. We also walked along their fancy shopping street, mainly to check out their christmas lights.

That night we went to an Italian place near the hostel that they recommended. Being a Monday night in winter we were the only ones there which was quite cool because we had the entire attention of the chief and waitress. The food was good and they practically gave us the wine for free (score!). The menu was only in Italian and German so it was fun trying to decipher it. Somehow Nick got a pizza with egg and peas on it though so we didn't do too well! hahaha

Every day in Hamburg got colder, it went from -5 to -8 to -10 deg cel. It was bitterly cold and it stung our faces whenever we ventured outside. On the 5th we explored HafenCity, the little harbour suburb amongst the Elbe river. I don't know if the land is man made, it does look a little like it with lots of canals and channels of the river running through it but it was a cool place.

We found some restored boats moored there. Really interesting ones from the 1800s and there was even an old fireboat. It was fascinating reading all about them and when they had been used.

We went and explored the Elbe tunnel, a passenger and single lane car tunnel that joins Landunsbrucken to the harbour/shipyards on the other side of the river. It's pretty cool because there are elevators that take the cars down and then its a slow crawl across to the other side. It was built in 1911 and is 24 m below the surface. It was fun to ride one of the huge elevators (which of course were originally built for carriages) and we walked to the other side (not much there) and back again.

At the end of the day we stopped off on the way home in Reeperbahn, Hamburg's famous red light district. Actually there seemed to be more bars than strip clubs so it just seemed like a party area of the city. The lights were all going so it was fun to explore that part of Hamburg.

We were supposed to go home on the 6th but we found out that London had been hit with snow again and the airports were closed and all flights cancelled (uh-oh!). We still didn't have confirmation on what was happening with our flight so we decided to go and do our morning site-seeing and worry about it later.

We went to St Michaels church, a beautiful baroque style church which was amazing on the inside. A mix of white and gold leaf it was so over the top it was amazing. I really loved it, not like any other church I've ever seen. We also climbed up the tower for the views. It was a really hard climb up in all our winter gear but we made it and the views were awesome. Hamburg is really pretty all covered in snow. But man was it freezing up there. No protection from the wind at all and -10deg. The wind was like needles on the face.

We decided to go back to the hostel after that to keep an eye on our flight and at about 2pm we got the confirmation it was cancelled. We were stuck in Hamburg another night. So lucky we found out at the hostel. So we re-organised for another nights stay at the hostel (had to switch rooms but luckily they had a room). We managed to get booked into a flight the next day but the airline only had 1 flight a day so we had to wait another 24 hours for the next one.

On the last day we spent our time at the hostel, me keeping an eye on work emails and watching movies and just keeping out of the freezing cold. We did eventually get home that night but the funny thing was when we landed in London there was less snow than in Hamburg! haha The English can't deal with snow.

Berlin, Germany, New Years Day and after...

Naturally we didn't surface on new years day until the afternoon. We went back into the town center so I could see Brandenburg Tor in daylight. It was still surrounded in tents and stages so hard to get a good view of it but it was cool to try and match it with what it would have looked like with the wall.

Also in the square where the Tor is is Hotel Adlon. It's a pretty famous Hotel with scores of celebrities staying there and it survived the bombings of world war II. Most recently it's famous for where Michael Jackson hung his baby out of a window.

We walked over to the Reichstag, a very famous building where an arson fire here led to Hitlers fight against communists and a lot of important events occurred here. You can go up into the dome but the queue was insane so we didn't attempt it.

We explored the area a bit more then walked the Unter den linden, one of the two major streets in Berlin (the other was Freidrichstrasse which we also walked). We found a 'car forum' which had all these cars including a Bugatti Beyron (the fastest street car apparently according to Nick - he was quite excited) and a couple of restored 60s VW beetle vans which I really liked. I could definitely see myself in one of those. So styly.

We also found a bit of the real Berlin Wall (see pic) with the original graffiti from when it was pulled down.

There were a lot of beautiful buildings in Berlin, I don't know what they all are but the city is a great one to just wondering around in looking at all the architecture. It had snowed a lot too so it was fun to play in the snow :)

We came across the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (or the Holocaust Memorial) which is a series of over 2000 uneven granite blocks. Apparently there has been a lot of controversy around it but I thought it was a stunningly beautiful tribute. It was a very calming experience walking through the monument covered in snow. I personally found it one of the most beautiful spots in Berlin.

We had to move accommodation on the 2nd because I'd booked new years a bit late so everything was a bit disjointed. We stayed in a hostel in a suburb called Freidrichstein on the eastern side of the river. It was a really cool area full of bars and restaurants and chilled out people. A really neat area of Berlin to stay in.

On the 2nd we headed into Alexanderplatz to see the TV tower. We had been waiting for 3 days for the sky to clear so we could go up but with no luck. The constant grey mist never budged. So we gave the tower a miss and walked across the park and over to Museum Island.

The buildings were beautiful, the best being the Dom (church). All the museums cost and their themes were a bit boring for us so we just admired the architecture. We found a little market with lots of artwork which I had real trouble not buying and we tried the Reichstag again but this time it was shut due to the weather so we missed out on that again.

We found a really nice restaurant back in Freidrichstain for dinner, it was an arabian place. The food was awesome, mixed meat grill, chicken charwarma, hummus, eggplant, tzatki. yum yum yum!

Berlin, Germany, 30th & New Years Eve Dec 09

We took a train from Prague to Berlin on the 30th. All pretty easy really but not so much once we got to the other side. Berlin has one of the most confusing public transport systems. They have an S-Bahn and a U-Bahn and region trains and more lines than London so it took awhile to get our bearings. It didn't help that the main train station had the worst information when it came to the underground, it took us forever to find the platform we needed.

The Pension (B&B - but without the breakfast this time) we were staying at was cosy and close to a U-Bahn stop which was handy. We found a Vietnamese place up the road making traditional Vietnamese dishes. So delicious!!! I really love their springrolls.

On News Years Eve we visited the East Side Gallery, a small remaining part of the Berlin Wall where artists have painted murals. There actually isn't much of the wall left but they have placed a line of cobblestones and plaques along the entire length of where the wall used to be. The murals were cool, lots of interesting and political depictions.

Berlin was covered in snow so it was fun trying to negotiate our way around all that. It even snowed quite a bit that day. I love playing in the snow but when you're trying to get around it can be a bit of a hassle, especially when it's the mushy kind that soaks into all your clothes and shoes and you're constantly cold.

After the wall we went to Checkpoint Charlie, one of three checkpoints that allowed allies to move between West & East Germany. I was expecting some touristy overdone crap but it actually turned out quite good as they had an open air style museum with rows of photos and information along the road which was fascinating. I spent a long time reading up about the history of the wall and the checkpoint. It was freezing though so after standing out in the cold for an hour reading all the info we found ourselves a coffee shop to thaw out in.

We had a big night ahead of us so we chilled back at the Pension but of course stopped off on the way to grab some whisky for the night (hopefully to keep us warm) and also grabbed some Curry Wurst, an essential Berlin takeaway. Curry Wurst is spicy sausage covered in curry powder and sauce. Often served with a side of fries & mayo. Tasty as!! Om nom nom nom!

So yes we spent a few hours back at the Pension drinking whiskey to help us battle the snow and cold because man we were going to need it! The weather was terrible, it was constantly snowing and it was the sleety, slushing, freezing kind of snow. But we were still determined to make it to Brandenburg gate for NY.

It took awhile to get to the long street that led up to Brandenburg Tor (gate) where the party was. Traipsing through the snow covered park was fun though. There was a lot going on in the street, beer tents, gluwein, food, market stalls, a ferris wheel, massive balloons, all sorts of things.

We walked along until we got stuck in the crowds and couldn't get much closer to the stage (which was actually quite far away, there were millions of people! I think they estimate about 5 million attend!). The whiskey did help against the cold but it wore off pretty quick and standing still was tough. The music was a laugh, a mix between David Hasselhof style old crooners to a group of 80s style fluorescent dressed punk rappers (actually I found their songs really addictive and quite fun - check out a video here of the NY concert) But I couldn't understand a word of anything they were singing.

The countdown was fun trying to count backwards in German. Then the fireworks started. There were a lot of them all set to music, so pretty. A few people were even setting off fireworks in the crowd which considering how closely packed we all were was pretty damn dangerous actually and a little scary when it came near us.

We didn't stay much longer after the fireworks finished, I was so cold and my feet were soaked. In fact no-one really stayed around, there was a mass exodus to the underground.

Unfortunately that turned the underground stations into a mosh pit! we got caught in one such crush because they were periodically closing the station for safety reasons which was quite effective but meant a huge crush leading in and we had to walk down stairs where I was so jammed I could barely walk of my own accord, I had to go when everyone else did and the stairs were icy and I was petrified I was going to fall over. But I made it and survived. Unfortunately the ride home wasn't so pleasant as the carriage stunk of urine and some drunk chick threw up next to me and got some on my shoe! Not happy! Definitely a new years to remember though!

Köln, Germany, New Years 09

The rest of our visit in Köln was rather quiet. New Years day was spent recovering from New Years Eve and we flew out the day after. All in all Germany was a fantastic holiday and not a bad way to spend Christmas :)

Köln, Germany, New Years Eve 08

Arriving in Köln we were greeted by the magnificent Dom Cathedral, a large beautiful structure right next to the train station. However after arriving at our hotel we found ourselves so happy to have top notch accommodation we spent the rest of the afternoon there! After a few bottles of wine scored from the next door gas station we headed out to watch the fireworks.

I certainly wasn't expecting what I saw. I was expecting a formal fireworks display over the river, what we got was thousands of people lining the river and bridges letting off individual fireworks. The effect was incredible. And the fireworks weren't just those crappy ones you get in NZ but the big sky rockets and double happy fireworks.

It was carnage, fireworks going off all around and people everywhere. I'd never seen or heard anything like it before in my life. It was so much fun.

Some of the big crackers were thrown into the railway tracks on the bridge and they made a hefty bang that made me jump every time. Nick and I had so much fun that night. Sorry we didn't get any photos of the fireworks, I have some videos though but bit tricky to upload to the blog.

The mess left behind was crazy, fireworks shells everywhere!

Rothenburg Ob Der Tauber, Germany, Tues 30 Dec 08

The Pension at Rothenburg was so warm and cosy I really struggled to get out of bed. Germans are sort of weird in that they sleep with separate duvet covers on double beds, but they all have nice big soft feather pillows and duvets so it's not all bad! With a hearty breaky it was one of the best places we'd stayed on our trip. I really wanted to stay another night but we had to be in Köln for new years eve and it was simply impossible for us to get from Rothenburg to Köln in one day so we had to keep moving north.

We did get to spend the day exploring the town but it was far more packed with tourists during the day. All the shops had signs in German, English and Japanese and there were American and Japanese tourists everywhere! It seems the Neuschwanstein Castle and Rothenburg are THE things to do in Germany. But it's still a beautiful town and that medieval feel is still there.

We climbed the tower in the Rathaus for a cool view of the city (but I think the climb up the rickety steps was the most fun) and did a little shopping in the Christmas stores. Nick found an awesome sword and knife shop which he spent most of his time in.

We walked most of the city including down to the outer wall garden that looks out over the valley, it's surprising to see the town is actually perched on a flat hill. We also saw the Church that has an archway so the road can go through it (it was built like that!) and the famous medieval houses that frequent all the paintings and pictures of Rothenburg, one of the most common ones was just down from our Pension Gasthaus.

I said a sad goodbye to Rothenburg in the afternoon, I would have loved to have stayed but we needed to be closer to Köln so we boarded a train to Würzburg at the very top of the Romantic Road.

Würzburg is actually a very cool city with a gorgeous (and huge) palace with beautiful gardens that contained frozen fountains! The town also had lots of beautiful churches and many other cool architecture buildings. I really enjoyed wondering through the city so I was pretty happy we had stopped there.

Romantic Road, Germany, Mon 29 Dec 08

Today was always going to be an interesting day. We were attempting to navigate half of the romantic road in one day on public transportation in the winter! Not a small feat. I had been forwarned that public transportation was tricky along the romantic road and we knew we were being a bit adventurous in our plans. We wanted to get from Augsburg to Rothenburg ob der Tauber with at least a stop in Dinkelsbühl (which someone had recommended to us on the trip).

We left Augsburg early and took the train to Nördlingen (we changed at Danausworth but only saw the station there). We had an hour walk around Nördlingen which was a nice little walled town before boarding the bus for Dinkelsbühl. There were only 2 buses that day so it was important we caught it. The local buses are very slow and stop in every single little town on the way but it's actually quite a good way to see the real Germany.

Dinkelsbühl was awesome, a tiny little town surrounded by an ancient wall (and a frozen river!) with the cutest German houses and churches and townhall (Rathaus). It was like walking straight into a medieval city. I'm really pleased we made the effort to see it, there are far fewer tourists than the more popular Rothenburg and everyone was so nice, I even had a guy stop and ask if I needed help because he knew the information centre was closed. So friendly! At Dinkelsbühl we also visited the 3D museum which is a collection of crazy 3D illusions and holigrams and even a hommage to the good old viewmaster! A very wacky place and definitely something a bit different.

In the afternoon we left Dinkelsbühl to attempt our most complicated route of the day; multiple buses to get to Rothenburg for the night. We started out ok, waiting at the Dinkelsbühl bus station talking to some old German guy who didn't speak any English but who was determined to have a conversation with me. I managed to convey where we were from, where we were going and agreed with him that it was indeed cold. Beyond that I'm not sure of anything he said.

On the first bus the driver spoke some English and we told him the stop we wanted and another women on the bus was going there too and was going to let us know and then the old guy piped up and started to chatting to the driver in German about us and I'm pretty sure it went something like "these crazy kiwis are trying to get to Rothenburg and I don't think they know what they're doing".. or something along those lines because once we got to our stop (in Mooseweise, Feuchtwangen - yes really that is what is was called and you pronounce it moose-vise fuct-wang-in, well kinda with a german accent), anyway so once we got there the driver jumps out and says he is sure there is no direct bus to Rothenburg from there and he goes and talks to this van driver. Anyway long story short he tells us (remember this is all in very broken english) that the van will take us to another town where we can get a bus to Rothenburg. We were a little apprehensive especially since the driver looked like that stoner boss off That 70s Show, but there was another girl in what essentially looked like a taxi van and everyone in Germany had been so nice so far we figured it'd be alright.

We jumped in and ended up in some dinky little place in the middle of nowhere. He points us to a bus stop and leaves us there! I was just about to start freaking out about being in a tiny town in the middle of rural Germany with no idea where we were and no-one around to help when a bus pulls up with Rothenburg on the front. Yay! hehe It really turned out to be an adventurous day.

We arrived at Rothenburg ob der Tauber (full name I'll just call it Rothenburg) early evening and we walked into the old town to find our accommodation, a cosy four storey Pension with comfy beds and an old granny who didn't seem happy about us ringing the bell so late.

Rothenburg is gorgeous, especially at night. Christmas lights galore, gorgeous buildings, old stone walls, cobblestone higgeldy streets and lit up shop windows with the most incredible array of Christmas things. It really was a Christmas paradise. We found a small restaurant serving traditional Bavarian food, I had noodles stuffed with meatloaf and served with egg and potato salad. It was delicious. We spent the rest of the night wondering through the town. There weren't too many others out because it was freezing which really enhanced our night walk.

We got to see the Rathaus clock show which depicts a drinking contest between a Catholic Colonel and the Protestant Mayor over the fate of the town. The Mayor drinking 1 1/2 litres of beer in one go is said to have saved the town from destruction. A cool story though the clock show was a little boring.. the window opens, the mayor drinks, the colonel watches and the window closes... all to the chime of a clock.

Castles, Füssen, Germany, Sun 28 Dec 08

After a good breaky of salami, cheese and bread at our Pension (that seems to be a typical Bavarian breaky) we jumped on the bus to visit the famous Ludwig castles; Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau. They were just out of Füssen in a smaller village. Even early in the morning and mid winter it was busy!

We left the lazies at the bottom of the hill waiting for the horse and cart or bus and started the 45min walk up the hill. It really wasn't that bad and with the snow covered forest it was beautiful surroundings. The castle was quite impressive but not as "pretty" as I had hoped. And I had an idea in my head that it would be white for some reason, but it was grey like a lot of castles. Maybe I'd seen too many disney land castle pictures.

We climbed up the back hill to get a better view of the castles, the valley and the Hohenschwangau village. The views were spectacular, it really is a magical place, made all the better with snow. It's just destroyed by all the people! We walked up to Mariesbücke (Mary's bridge) which had great views over Neuschwanstein (sadly with scaffolding) but there were so many people there it really took away from the experience. We trekked further up the hill and found a cool quiet view but we soon lost that too so we slowly made our way back down the hill using snow covered back trails.

By the time we got to the bottom the area was packed! Down in the town there were people everywhere and massive queues for the horses and bus (use your legs people!). We knew it was time to get outta there. And it was only midday! I am so happy we went there so early.

Back in Füssen we were starving but there was nothing open. Not even a tiny bakery, it seems they take their Sundays seriously here. We resorted to chocolate bars from the gas station. hehe

Prior to arriving in Germany we hadn't really worked out what we were doing between Füssen and getting to Cologne for New Years. We had quite a few days so we figured it'd be fine... unfortunately I sort of misjudged how far away Cologne actually was so we soon realised we were running out of time to get ourselves back up the country. So we decided to skip the south half of the Romantic Road and head straight to Augsburg from Füssen, stay a night there and then head off first thing in the morning to make sure we would manage to spend some time in the small villages in the north half of the Romantic Road.

Boarding our train to Augsburg in Füssen I realised Nick was missing his backpack... with my passport and wallet in it! Crap! He had left it on the floor of the train station! Double crap! He bolted back to the station, I don't know if I've ever seen anyone run so quickly. I was freaking because a train load of people had just gotten off that very train and walked through the very small station and would have easily spotted the bag. Luckily for us the Germans are a very honest people (or at least the ones at that train station on that day were) and the bag was still there! Meanwhile I was standing in the train door in the hope that if they couldn't close the door the train wouldn't be able to leave and I wouldn't be stranded on a train with no tickets, no money, no passport, no phone and no Nick! It was either that or try to lug two extremely heavy bags off the train on my own, not something I think I was physically capable of doing at that point.

Oh well another very close call and Nick was back on the train with all our belongings accounted for. I think someone is definitely looking out for us on this trip! In Augsburg we found our hostel on the otherside of town and also found ourselves debating with the owner on the price we'd booked it for.. not an easy task in another language. By this stage I was getting better at deciphering German and could even pick up odd things but I'm sure this guy was making it more difficult for us by pretending his English was worse than it was. We managed to settle on a price and we practically passed out we were so tired. We really didn't see anything of Augsburg but it really didn't look very interesting, sleep was much more important at that stage!