The first two weeks of travelling in our motorhome through Germany.
And we are off and away!! Yay, we were very exciting to start our trip around Europe.
Rothenburg ob der Tauber: a cute little medieval town surrounded by a 15m high brick wall. Walked along the top of the narrow wall for quite a way around the little town and through its beautiful gardens. Climbed up narrow little wooden steps to the top of their tower for a great view of the typical German buildings and cobbled roads.
Heidelberg: looked at a half bombed down Castle on top of the hill overlooking the city. When half the wall is missing you can really see how thick it is. To sooth their thirst the royals kept two huge barrols for beer. One can hold 130,000 litres.
So by this stage we realised that in Germany you have to pay to use public toilets, and that you can buy nice wine from supermarkets for $3 a bottle :-)
Rhine Valley: a stretch along the river with many little towns, heaps of old castles and steep sloaping vineyards either side of the river. Absolutely beautiful! Even if it was a bit overcast one day, and drizzly the next. Climbed up to the top of Bacharach to Burg Stahleck (castle) for amazing views over the valley. Walked through vineyards, old cobbled towns, museums and some more castles. Saw lots of huge transport ships constantly going up and down the river.
Bonn: only really looked at the Beethoven Haus here and the city centre. Couldn't find another carpark, as our van is too tall to fit in a parking house. Narrow streets and many apartment blocks and just not enough places to park.
Köln: camped right on the river bank, and took some time out just to read, and do our washing and stuff. Huge city, caught the train into the centre to look at Germany's largest cathedral. The cathedral is a massive building with lots to see inside. Also had a look at the rest of the city. Have to say that we've been doing plenty of walking around, and climbing up to the top of hills on our trip so far.
Duesseldorf: very impressed with this city, really clean and inviting. It was a really hot day as we walked around. Probably 10km all together, by the time we walked to the city and along the river bank. Strolled down Koenigsalle (equivalent of Rodeo Drive). Can tell there are many rich and trendy people in the city. Every brand name imaginable has a shop here, we saw Rollex watches for $40,000. So we spent all of $3 on two fantastic tasting icecreams :-). There was another street that had a bar or pub as every second shop. The Rhine also runs through the city and there are many parks on either side.
Stayed on a highway rest stop half way to Bremen. It's been a week since we started our journey. Feels longer because we have seen so much already. Gotten used to our van by now and quite liking it.
Bremen: Connie walked into town while Elman rested. I only walked into the city centre to look at the town hall and the Town Musicians Monument. The town musicians is about a fairytale with a donkey, dog, cat and rooster, all on top of each other to scare the robbers outside the house. There was some nice typical german music being sung by some old sailor's choir along the river bank. Again this alley was filled with outside drinking areas and restaurants. Done around 1,000km in our van now.
Hamburg: got up at 4am so we could make it into town for the famous Sunday fish markets. Still dark when we got into the city, so we easily found a free car park. After a coffee we headed to the harbour. Absolutely huge harbour with big cargo ships and at least 20 huge cranes to empty the cargo from the ships. Looked iery in the early hours of the morning, was a bit cloudy and grey. The fish markets were easy to find as there was more and more people as we got closer. The excitement was starting to build, as if we were all heading to a sporting match or something. The markets contained many stalls, with all the sales people yelling out trying to sell their goods. You could buy a large basket of fruit for $16, including the basket. Lots of lollies and chocolates, memorabilia, clothes, shoes, handbags, and of course fish. Lots of fish and eels and yukky looking stuff. By 7am the sun was half way up the sky but because of all the clouds it was still relatively dark. The only downside at the markets was that there were a few drunk people who walked there from the clubbing area. In the middle of the markets was also a large hall with a band playing, where these people continued to drink. Around 8am we got back to our van and had a sleep for two hours. When we woke again we went on a city tour on a double decker bus. Interesting city, from the Reeperbahn (red light district) to the posh subburbs, and the old city buildings. Hamburg contains the second largest number of millionaires, 6,000, after Moscow. We also walked around the old part of the city and through the Reeperbahn, and along the harbour. Again walking heaps and heaps.
Wrohe: where? what? randomly picked a camping ground at this tiny town, as it was on a lake, about 70km north of Hamburg. Spent the day doing absolutely nothing. Not warm enough to go swimming, but the sun was out. It's very windy up the northern part of Germany, as it's very flat. We stayed here until about 4pm on the 27th August and then headed to Denmark. (see Denmark for the remarks on the cold cold country)
Spent about 9 days in Germany, coming back through it again on the way back from Sweden to see the eastern side. In a way it still feels like home because I can speak the language and understand all the road signs. Will be another story once we get to other countries. Was interesting to hear how people speak in the northern part of Germany. People said they could tell straight away that I was from the south because of how I greeted them. Didn't really listen to that much news or the radio, and of course no tv. Very much just me and Elman and our lovley van.
