Category: Travel

I have been a bit remiss in finishing the update on our trip to Germany. As it is when you get back from a holiday there is lots to catch up on and it has been a busy time at work more than anything.

Day 6 was a down day where Steve and I went to the Roland Centre to have a look around. We did intend to go back into Bremen town centre but I think we were rather tired so aimlessly wandering the shops was quite a nice day. One thing we always do when we visit another country is to go to a supermarket. You will be amazed at what you can learn about a place from what is in the normal, everyday supermarket. We used today to buy a few bits and pieces to take home for our work colleagues.

Day 7 was a visit to the Focke Museum in Bremen. So many different areas of German and Bremen history are covered here. They even have some rebuilt farm buildings with thatch roofing and great displays inside. I really enjoyed seeing the traditional bee hives and farm sheds. Other displays of interest at the Focke Museum is the silverware that is a speciality of the area, glass work, stunning paintings and marine history of the area. Later that night we went out for ice cream at Friedhelm’s favourite ice cream shop. I understand why. I have never been to a place before that has a whole menu for ice cream only and the styles, flavours and presentation is magnificent.

Day 8 was the final full day in Germany so today Friedhelm and Ulla took us on a drive to Luneburg. We went through the Luneburger Heide which is a magnificent area of natural beauty. There is a whole areas of fields full of purple heather. As it had been quite wet the heather was not out as fully as it normally was but you still got the idea as to how beautiful it is. We took a ride on a horse drawn coach through roads surrounding the fields which was great fun. We picked up some honey produced from bees in the area of the heather fields. From here we then went to Luneburg which is a fabulous town with a river running through it. We had a great lunch there and walked the streets taking photos and soaking up the sun.

Even though we had a big day that night Friedhelm, Steve and myself drove into Bremen city centre as they had some light displays on to celebrate the opening of their music festival. Huge lights we set up in the main square where they illuminated the buildings. It looked great so I hope the photos give you an idea as to what it was like. We enjoyed a final german sausage and ice cream on our last night. Thanks Friedhelm for suggesting seeing the light show.

In all, our trip to Germany was great fun. I think we have both come away from Germany having enjoyed the people, the ease of transport and cleanliness of the country. Both of us agree that for some reason Germany feels familiar and homely. More than anything that probably comes down to the hospitality of Friedhelm and Ulla. Thanks so much.

One last imagine from Germany was the fields of flowers near Stuhr. The idea being that you pick the flowers yourself and leave the money in an honesty box. The fields looked great. Especially the sun flowers. Amazingly no one seems to steal them.

It was another early start to the day in order to get on the road heading to Bremerhaven. We were fortunate this week that the annual boat festival was on so there would be plenty of boats to see, music and general festive activity.

First stop however was to the docks for some fish. I have never seen such wonderful displays, types and such amazing prices for fish. There was one container that held 6 smoked fish for only 9 Euro. We generally don’t eat a lot of fish at home due to expense, lack of knowledge regarding cooking and general lack of inspiration when it comes to knowing what to do with it. However, we do love smoked fish and they do this wonderfully in Bremerhaven. One shop had huge smoking ovens which I just couldn’t resist taking a photo of. The smell of the fresh chopped wood, smokey ovens and smoking fish was marvellous. Needless to say Ulla purchased some fish to take home for dinner that night.

We had to stop for some “pre-lunch” lunch of course so we each chose our fish with bread. I was going to have smoked salmon but thought I would try something completely foreign to me so went for a “raw” fish. I can’t remember what type but it was fabulous. Steve had a crumbed, cooked fish. He has never been a fan of raw fish. Wise man.

Then we were back in the car, off to the Bremerhaven ship festival. What a sight to see as we got nearer. Construction is heavily underway here. A new hotel has been built that is quite reminiscent of the Burj Al Arab Hotel in Dubai. Some of the architecture out this way is fantastic. I especially enjoyed a new centre that was being built which was a long, curved, glass encased structure.

The real surprise of the day were the number of ships in the harbour for the festival. All the tall ships with an incredible amount of rigging was just an amazing sight. It almost felt like we were being invaded by a fleet of ships. I think the ominous weather also helped to provide this feeling.

After adding a german sausage to our earlier meal of fish , listening to some of the Police Band orchestra and generally taking it all in, we then visited a submarine museum. Having never been on a sub before I was up for a look. I can’t believe the cramped conditions they lived in onboard this sub let alone having to deal with all the valves, pipes, wires and everything else that is right in your face. I didn’t feel claustrophobic at all but I would imagine cabin fever would kick in pretty quickly after a very short time on board.

After taking a drive around the docks to view the huge car parking buildings stacked with brand new vehicles just off the ships, acres of tractors, boats, tyres, trucks etc, we headed back to Bremen very weary after a long and exciting day. Hope the photos manage to do it some justice.

It was an early start to the day with a car trip to the Roland Center then a tram ride to Bremen Hauptbanhof before getting our train to Hamburg. Thankfully Ulla and Friedhelm had done all the homework before hand and had it perfectly worked out!

The train trip is only around 1.5 hours and quite pleasant. What makes it even more enjoyable is that all the connections throughout the whole day were on time and clean. Train travel can be incredibly enjoyable and I really do prefer to travel this way however it needs to be efficient and cost effective. In Germany it does appear to be.

We arrived into Hamburg and spent the rest of the day walking everywhere. This is the best way to see a place. First off it was to the Rathaus which is located in a very large square and is a very impressive building. On the way we stopped into a church on the way but I have forgotten the name of it. I do remember that it is on Bergstrasse (Mountain Street) named with tongue firmly in cheek. North Germany is incredibly flat however with a bit of looking Bergstrasse does has the slightest rise to it. See the germans do have a sense of humour :).  Friedhelm spoke to one of the attendents inside and he was happy to provide us with a brief personal guide regarding the stained glass windows. There was also a tale to tell about one of the brass door knockers on the front church doors. It was the original one from the initial building of the church back in the 18th century and was in the image of a very menacing leopard. The other knocker was in the image of a lion and you could tell people preferred that one as you could see where people had been rubbing its nose.

The Rathaus was rather magnificient and has a lovely inner court garden with fountain. On a sunny day I could imagine that this would be a very popular place to eat during your lunch break.

From the Rathaus we went down to the water and walked around the little lake (Binnenalster) to sit down and had some lunch. Although it was a bit chilly the rain held off and it was a pleasant afternoon stop. Next we headed towards the Botanical Gardens called Planten un Blomen however we had to stop for an ice cream along the way. Yum!

The botanical gardens are well worth a visit for the hothouse which has a magnificent display of cacti and succulents. The park has some great water toys for the kids (small and large kids alike) and is towered over by a huge telecom mast that looks really quite majestic and arty in amongst the trees.

With such a big tower looming we headed towards this, however it is no longer open for viewing trips to the top. Oh well, we headed to St Michaels church instead. With a huge statue of Martin Luther outside and a very impressive tower this church just draws you to it. For a fee you can go up the tower (either by foot or lift). After seeing the 123 metre tower the lift was the best option. This church has had a hard life. In 1750 it was struck by lightning and a large portion of it burnt, 1906 a fire started it in during some construction on it and again was badly damaged during World War 2. What was left of the tower has been rebuilt to what we see today. After about a 10 minute wait we were on our way up. Even though it was overcast and rainy weather the views were great. Hamburg is the 4th largest port in Europe and is the gate to Germany. From the tower you can see the spectacular harbour, hundreds of cranes, the ports in action, the boats on the water and generally great views across the city. Well worth the ride up.

At one point on our walking tour around town Friedhelm brought our attention to a brass sign in the pavement. It was a simple brass sign with a name, date and small inscription. We began to notice them more often now since having been pointed out to us. They were memorial plaques for past Jewish residents. The plaque stated the persons name, date they were forceibly taken from their home and what later happened to them during the war. It was quite surreal to then look around the streets today and imagine it in a past time. Quite spooky.

It was now time to hit the water and take a boat ride down the harbour for dinner. We headed for Finkenwerder. We got off the boat here for a grand dinner of what Hamburg is well known for fish and of course a beer. I tried a local beer while Ulla and Friedhelm went for the local speciality which is called Alsterwasser. Back in NZ we call it a shandy (1/2 beer, 1/2 lemonade). I had sole as my choice of fish and the bratkatofflen (sauteed potatoes). It was delicious.

After the meal we had to catch the boat back into Hamburg in time to catch our train home to Bremen. Again all the connections were well timed and we made a sleepy journey back to Bremen with tired feet but heads full of all we had seen. I really enjoyed Hamburg. The architecture in areas was really exciting, the waterways buzzing with life and great company to share the day with.

Today we caught the 8.35am bus into the Roland Center and then caught the tram into Bremen city. This was good experience for my german however it turned out the bus driver answered me in english anyway. When we arrived into Bremen centre we wandered through the shopping area and found some good clothing deals which we couldn’t pass by. So a couple of shirts each later, we were done with shopping and time to find a coffee. We asked for cappucinos and somehow ended up with black coffees so had to get some milk to go in it. I don’t think it was my german that was incorrect. As it would turn out we never managed to end up ordering any coffees correctly during our time in Germany.

It is best to go to the information centre early in the morning to book in for a number of the different tours that are available. We wanted to do the town hall tour at 11am but this was already sold out, so we bought some tickets for 12pm. The town hall tour is mainly about the finale which obviously comes at the very end. It is the hall with the tall ships attached to the ceiling, incredible candeliers, the ornately carved staircase and the golden room which holds the golden book where dignatories sign when they come to visit Bremen. There are also magnificent paintings on the walls and ceiling. All in all, it is the main part of the tour that is worth paying for. The tickets were only 5 euro each. Of course, if you have heard of the Bremen town musicians then you have to visit their statute on the side of the town hall on the way out. If you are really keen, next to the New Town Hall (Rathaus) is a man hole cover with a penny slot in it. When you drop a penny in the sound of one of the musicians (donkey, dog, cat or rooster) can be heard. Quite clever and fun for the kids.

Next stop was St Peters Dom and a very long 200 odd steps up to the top of the church tower for a grand view of Bremen. It was only 1 euro to go up the tower and not that difficult unless you get dizzy easily due to the continuous spiral staircase. The views from the top are quite nice. It is free to go inside the church itself and I would highly recommend having a look at the staircase in here and the crypt which holds some beautiful bibles.

Another key area to visit is the Schnoor. This is a quaint part of town with traditional buildings all located in a small section of town with very narrow streets. Although now many of the buildings sell tourist items it is very interesting to look through and brilliant for photographs.

By this time we had managed to wander in and out of the streets of Bremen and were getting very tired so we had some Bratwurst mit Brotchen for lunch followed by some coffee and cake later on in the day. We got the sausages at a rather posh looking place attached to the old town hall. The sausage is much larger than the bread which is kind of useful as you use it to hold the sausage while you dip it in the mustard. If you head for the fountain by Subway there is a much better sausage shop there. They do the best pork and crackling roll. You have to tell them what size slice of pork you want (which they then weigh to determine the cost) and you need to ask for the crackling as it does not come standard with it. Delicious!

Some further key places we visited included the Hazchez (chocolatier) shop, flower market in the marketplatz, Roland statue and the Weser River.

Friedhelm and Ulla have provided much insight to this city with their stories and telling us about certain tales and legends. A very interesting one was in regards to the coat of arms for Bremen which is a key. Hamburg’s coat of arms is a door and they say they have the door to the world. Bremen says they have the key to that door. Quite a suitable pairing for the two cities that are key to the shipping industry in this country.

Also famous in Bremen is Becks beer that comes from here. There factory is down on the River Weser. You will notice the key (symbol of Bremen) on their bottles!

Today we started the morning off with a hearty breakfast then we prepared to go to church at Matthaus in Stuhr. As we approached the church in the car you could hear the bells ringing, calling everyone to church. The building dates from the 1960’s (I believe) and is currently being added to due to the size of the growing church. Even as a 60’s building it is still quite stylish and very functional. There was no need to worry about not understanding the service as headphones were available with translators on hand for english, turkish and I am not sure what other languages. This was incredibly useful however it was obvious at times that the minister was getting really excited and speaking so fast that sometimes the translator couldn’t keep up. They do a wonderful job and you get the general feel for what is being said so that is fine. It must be a very difficult job to do. The sermon was on Pauls advice on a good life based around Thess 5 14-24.

After church we had a cup of coffee and meet some members of the congregation including someone who knew Steve’s dad at school. One couple we meet lived in Taunton near to us in Bristol and have provided the name of church we might like to look at. They were all very friendly and helpful people here.

We then headed home and while Ulla prepared lunch Friedhelm took us for a bicycle tour of the area to one of his swimming spots. North Germany is very flat and cycle paths dot the roadsides in abundance. It was a great way to exercise without having to worry about cars, pollution, dogs or bored children welding baseball bats such as we have here in Bristol. We were quite hungry by the time we got back so we had a delicious lunch before a driving tour of Bremen. The plan was on Monday for Steve and I to take the tram into Bremen by ourselves so Friedhelm and Ulla showed us where the tram stops where etc. They drove us into Bremen and we had a look at some key areas as an overview. We were quite glad of this as the next day we would not have managed to get to everything we wanted to see.

A very interesting spot we visited was a street with many art houses and handicraft shops (Bottcherstrasse). We took in the statute of the Bremen Musicians, Roland Statue, Rathaus (Town Hall), St Peters Dome, the market place, places where Friedhelm and Ulla lived in the city, where Friedhelm had worked and finally another walk along the bank of the Weser. Thankfully the weather held off from raining while we wandered the streets.

Bottcherstrasse is a magnificent street to look at. We learnt a lot from Ulla and Friedhelm about its history and in particular Ludwig Roselius who had his company Kaffee HAG there (founder of decaf coffee). The street also has a glockenspiel that plays a stunning melody on its thirty Meissen porcelain bells. You can hear the magnificent tune at this link. http://www.boettcherstrasse.de/EN/Architecture-Houses/House-of-the-Glockenspiel.html

Also on this street look out for the house and fountain of the 7 lazy brothers based on a fable. If you are after art deco design, elaborate designer handicrafts, paintings, antiques etc this area is for you.

So much we have seen and it is only day 2!

Friday we left Bristol and headed for London Stansted. At the time of booking it had seemed easier and cheaper to fly out from Stansted via RyanAir. When I realised that the flight departed at 6.25am on the Saturday morning I had to take stock of my idea again. An overnight stay plus 9 days car parking later it probably didn’t turn out to be any cheaper doing it from London. However, we did have the benefit of staying in the Raddisson SAS hotel which is not only a deluxe looking hotel with car parking included in the package, it is also connected to the airport so it was only a 2 minute walk across to the terminal in the morning.

The Raddisson has a unique wine tower as its center piece and “Wine Angels” that are suspended by wire inside the tower. The put on an acrobatic display as well as have the dual use of collecting your (in my opinion) overpriced wine bottles.

Saturday morning we were up early and hitting the tarmac via RyanAir direct to Bremen. Thankfully it was only just over 1 hour flying time as the seats are very cramped and we managed to get two very obnoxious 20+ year old Australians sitting behind us. All they could talk about was how much beer they were going to drink in Germany and when they could buy beer on the flight. Having then purchased their 2 cans each they proceeded to burp their way to Germany. They only needed to start scratching and farting and they would have been snapped up by a museum looking for neanderthal examples.

When we arrived in Bremen we quickly exited the plane before the (now intoxicated) Australians managed to get off. Strangely we never saw them again queuing to collect baggage so we only hope that the stern looking german passport controller took them away somewhere to sober up.

Friedhelm and Ulla were waiting to collect us and since having arrived at their home we have been treated to fabulous cooking, comfortable surroundings with a huge bedroom and bathroom to ourselves and a friendly home to stay in. How are we ever going to go home to shared house accommodation and England after this? Fabulous.

After having a hearty breakfast we went on a driving tour of the area with Friedhelm in search of a book binder or restorer. Steve has a lovely old book that he would like to investigate getting restored. The first lady was a bookbinder and incredibly helpful yet honest in saying that she could make the book useable again but it would not be as pleasing as restoration. Friedhelm did some more research and found a book restorator about an hour from Stuhr. We visited her in a little gallery hidden off the side of the road. She was wonderful in her knowledge, expertise and helpful in the choices available to us. However, as she is a very well known and talented restorer we can only get Steve’s book in for restoration by January next year. The “master” she studied under that taught her the art of restoration was Henrik Petersen and she is displaying his private collection of books that he produced over many years that document the changing styles of book binding through the ages. The collection and all his tools were passed to her when he passed away in the late nineties. We were fortunate to get to see some of the 16th century books she is currently restoring for a bibliotek. On our driving tour to get there we noticed many windmills (that we found out that they are all over the countryside and off the coast). They look fantastic!

Finally for the day, we also had the priviledge of attending a german wedding at Friedhelm and Ulla’s church. For us, traditionally the bride is always late (well all the weddings I have been to including my own) however at 1.30pm the wedding had already started, on time, when we arrived. The bride and groom in their spare time are both in different choirs so we were treated to a number of songs by each choir and a joint song as the finale. After the ceremony everyone queued to congratulate the bridge and groom then we all sat down for some cake and coffee. There was a huge number of cakes and they all looked magnificent. I thought they had all been bought at a bakery or store but this was not correct. The majority were made by all the ladies and friends of the church. I have never seen such incredible home made cakes before. Magnificent. It was a pity that we forgot to take a photo. We even met a lady in the church who went to school with Steve’s dad.

So, a very full and exciting day at the start of our holiday in Germany filled with sights and experiences new to us.

So far this year summer has been a real wash out. I can count on 2 hands the number of sunny summer days we have had. It makes it quite disasterous for event organisers. The Bristol Balloon Festival was rained out and numbers were significantly down on last year. A major air show was cancelled due to bad weather and even today we decided to have a look at a well known boot sale out at Trench Lane but this was closed as well.

With bad weather about it makes you look for other options. Last weekend we gave indoor skiing a go at the Snowdome located at Tamworth. Situated just under 2 hours from Bristol it is an easy drive on the motorway all the way there. For only 21 quid this gives you 2 hours skiing including boots, poles and skis. Should you get bored of skiing then you can always go swimming, ice skating, spend some time in the gym or go for a facial or massage. Covering 170 metres there is enough of a run to get some speed on and they have ensured that the run isn’t clogged up with horizontal bodies by not letting anyone up the slope unless they are of a passable ski standard. If not, then you join a ski school at the bottom. This way it keeps everyone safe and the slopes moving more efficiently. As your skills improve then you can move up the slope. By the end of the 2 hours I was getting my ski groove back on again, able to ski without poles and really starting to enjoy it (although I still lack in confidence the coaching by Steve was very valuable in getting me to the “no poles” point).

The Bristol Harbour Festival was on a couple of weekends ago. This too was also getting rained on but we had to go and have a look at the french markets. Hooray for fine french food. I must say though the bread truly was a let down this year. Mind you we had only been in Paris 3 days prior to the festival and had stuffed ourselves silly with bread from there. The memory of it was still lingering so there was no bread that was going to meet the high standard we recalled. I did however pick up some more cheese, Steve found his Croque Monsieur and I indulged in a sausage and vege sandwich. Yum.

This weekend Steve heard about the Hard Rock Festival in Devon so we drove down for the day.  Rock climbing, slacklining and the South West Film Festival were some of the key drawcards here. There was great doco called Dying for Everest regarding the media furor surrounding a double leg amputee climber called Mark Ingles. He and a number of other climbers attempting to summit Everest came across a climber (David Sharp) that at first appeared dead, but upon closer inspection proved to be alive at the time. The choice was made to leave David there and continue on. Sir Edmund Hillary even came out to condemn Mark Ingles. I am not sure why the media chose to focus on Mark specifically considering 30+ climbers also took the same decision. It was a really interesting doco and posed a number of different questions for consideration. Although I have never been in extreme conditions such as Everest I do understand and have experienced what happens to your body, your thinking, decision making skills, basic tasks such as eating or speaking when affected by the cold. Also we recently experienced the debilitating affects of altitude sickness when we were in Chamonix (Aigulle du Midi – 13847 feet). If anything it taught me to appreciate the fragility of our bodies and what it means to be out of control of it. A very scary experience I don’t wish to revisit.

When we arrived at the Hard Rock Festival I found a frog. My first frog! Ever!!!! Not counting frogs at a pet shop or zoo, this was the first real, live, wild frog I have ever seen. It was gorgeous. I probably shouldn’t have picked it up as I have no idea what type of frog (or maybe its a toad, I don’t know).  Tiny, tiny frog, coloured green with black/brown markings. Just wonderful to see.

Finally, as it was still raining the next day we decided to take another ride in the car for a Sunday arvo drive. We found yet another gem of a town. Malmesbury in the county of Wiltshire. The abbey here is a real gem, very accessible and has the most amazing collection of bibles and antiquities in the Parvise (steps leading up to a tower above the porch. This one can be found to the right of the doors as you enter). Just outside the abbey are the abbey gardens, home of the naked gardeners. Yes, that’s right – naked gardeners. We were rather surprised to, especially to read that it was a “clothes optional day”. At 6.90 each for entry it proved a bit pricey for us. Maybe on a sunnier day and possibly when it is a “clothes preferable” day 😉

I have been rather remiss in getting our final blog up regarding London. We had a fab time with A.L and Shehan. Here are a few of those pics. Cheers guys for a fab 2ish days! How’s CH doing?

Our last week in France just flew. Monday we were heading for Chartres for the day but really didn’t make it in time so we canned that idea and decided to wander around Montparnasse area. After finding that there wasn’t a lot there we headed from my favourite park, Jardin du Luxembourg. The flowers were spectacular and it was nice and peaceful sitting in my favourite part of the garden at the Medici Fountain. It would have been nice to sit on the grass but you are not allowed to do that here. We saw a nice green grassy area that had a number of people sitting on it but no sooner than the thought had crossed our mind a security officer (gendarme or whatever he was) turned up with his whistle blowing merrily away and shooing people off the grass. They love their whistles!

After the gardens Steve and I wandered into the Latin Quartier to the area we stayed on the very first trip to Paris. Rue Mouffetard is a superb area for shopping and dining and at a cost that is far more reasonable than where we were currently staying. Steve found a lovely bakery and we managed to polish off a huge piece of Souffle Normand. We felt very ill afterwards but is was fabulous and surprisingly only 2,55. We also purchased some macaroons for everyone for dessert that night. We brought Paul and Sharon back here in the evening for dinner in this area. For 15 euro we got a 3 course meal each of which Sharon and Steve decided to do the escargot. The meal was spectacular.

Tuesday we realised that the Louvre was closed so that sunk any places for that day. However it turned out rather good as we spent it shopping instead. Time to get gifts for mates in Bristol (note this was the first time we had even thought about Bristol at this stage!).

Wandering through the back streets parallel to Rue Rivoli you avoid the throngs of tourists and more often than not find the most interesting shops. We found a fabulous shop selling all manner of teas that you could dream up. It is within the shops located at Place Des Voges (another spectacular spot for shopping and people watching). Seriously this tea shop was an “experience”.  I wanted green tea for a gift so you pick one, then he gets you to smell it, then he selects some more that get gradually stronger. You smell each of them until you get to the pungency that doesn’t suit your nose, this becomes your stopping point then you know the range in which to choose from. Who knew there were so many to choose from. Finally he packages it up neatly topped off with a fab bag. Presentation is everything in France. Next we found a confectionary store with all manner of amazing items from chocolate tennis balls to a nicoise salad made entirely from marzipan.

The final destination was Galleries Lafayette. I had heard that this was a spectacular building inside. It truly was. I would probably take this building and the shopping experience over Harrods any time. Basically it is one huge department store with individual brand names selling within the building. The crowds of people were overwhelming. Tour buses were lined up outside, tourists were running around loaded down with bags and bags of shopping. Thankfully we were there to take in the ambience and building itself rather than shop. It was mad!

In general we have found over the last 2 weeks that prices have definately increased in France since we were last here. Also, that prices are generally the same as in England so really no deals to be had except on some electronics. The range/style of clothing and shoes are far more beautiful but again the prices are the same and I would probably stand out (in a bad way) in Bristol if I was to buy some of the things on offer here. For example I loved this stunning bright red coat with incredible detailing on the collar. It fits perfectly into the Paris environment but really would have stood out far too much walking around Bristol. What a pity.

Finally, Wednesday was our last morning so we all went out for breakfast. Steve and I had found the place we went to with Kerryn and Tony when we were last in Paris. It is in La Marais district right across the road from BVH. They do a great brekkie for 10 euro. You sit there and watch the world go by as you sip on coffee and OJ while eating your bread, crossiant and omlette. The waiter was great and even took a photo for us.

I can’t remember if I told you that while in Paris we were staying on Rue Beautrellis right across from where Jim Morrison (The Doors) lived and tragically died in the 70’s. We found out that our apartment looked straight across to his.

Anyway, next blog will be our stay in London where we caught up with Anne-Line and Shehan.