Hi All,
Rathaus (Rat House)- German for Town hall. Makes sense to me :-)
Too many towns and not enough enthusiasm to write much so we will just give the order and a few comments to catch up with the blog.
Hamburg
We arrived from Berlin on the train and found the tourist information. Luck was on our side and there was a free city tour starting in about 30 minutes which was great as we hadn't premeditated whether we would stay or not. The tour was good but the town was pretty boring. A rich city with the second largest port in Europe behind Rotterdam and the largest coffee importer. The tour took about 3 hrs and it wasn't long and we were back on the train heading to our next destination. We were using one of our days on the rail pass days which meant we could travel as much as we liked for 24hrs. Which leads to the temptation to just travel for the sake of travelling...
Dresden
We arrived on ICE train from Hamburg. Nice. Got up to 230km/h at times. I wonder whether I feel a little travel sick when on these trains when at warp speed. Not a very interesting trip but it was worth the effort when we arrived at Dresden with the old town lit up and it looked brilliant. It was good to get off the train after travelling for so many hours. We had directions to a cheap hotel about 1km away and from the directions that we had downloaded we would not have reached the hotel at all but we realised this at the first turn and found it without any more problems.
Dresden once was the florence of Germany. That is until the allies flattened it during world war II. Now it is being carefully rebuilt and is quite impressive.
Was quite overcast and threatening for most of our stay but cleared up on the day we left which was unfortunate as it was a very photogenic town.
Leipzig
Another reasonable sized city and supposedly a competitor with Dresden. We wanted to just store our packs but found that the lockers were too skinny so had to go walking with them. Not our preferred option so we decided to go to a hostel about 1.5km away. Arrived at the sleepy lion and found that they were full so had to go another 2km towards the train station then past and found another quite nice hostel next to a bong shop. It was a relief and I went off to the Stassi museum while Vanessa rested and chatted to an artist who was staying in the 4 bed dorm.
Next day. We packed up and were heading to Quedlinburg. We were going to leave our bags at the train station when we arrived then move to another town to stay for the night. We knew that we needed to change trains next town along to get to our destination but weren't quite sure which line. So when we arrived the train we thought we would need was about to leave so we hopped on. We travelled for a few hours before realising that Quelinburg wasn't showing up on the line. So instead of stopping and backtracking we continued along for another 4hrs before getting off at Eisenach which is the home of Wartburg castle. Luckily it is on the tourist trail so the train information person could speak English and got us the correct train information but it would be 430pm before we could get to our destination and 3 train changes. We weren't even close so 11 hrs after starting we reached our destination. Not good considering it should have taken 1.5hrs from Leipzig. When we arrived there were no lockers so we walked the 1km into the old town from the train station and had a bit of a look around before heading to the hostel. The host didn't speak English and the hostel was expensive so we declined and headed back to the train station after looking around a bit more. The town was cute. Looked just like the old Germany town we expected and it took a while to find the castle. We didn't have a map and it had got dark quickily so it took a while to find the way back to the train station after being slightly disorientated but not lost :-) We decided to backtrack to Leipzig and try and get a couple of beds in the hostel we left in the morning.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quedlinburg
We got lucky and they had beds in a 12 bed dorm with a german doctor who we spoke with for hours. Big dorms do not work for sleeping as a stupid person came in and turned the lights on well after midnight then at about 3am a couple of girls arrived noisily with thier packs. So we had broken sleep but at least we had beds.
Next day. Decided to take a day off travelling after previous day. Just walked around the city and parks for a few hours before heading back to the hostel to change dorms and grab good beds. Changed to a 4 bed room with a canadian social worker who had been traumatised the night before by a couple of boys having casual sex on the bed above her. I told her that I would have kicked the bed from the underside. We took the other bunk bed in the room and left the one on top of her alone. She was a little odd anyway and after 30 years of social work I don't think the trauma was too bad.
Mesissen
Left Leipzig early and arrived at the train station. No storage so had to put our packs behind the DB bahn counter for 2 Euro so not too bad. The old town is dominated by the castle and gothic church. read wiki if interested http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meissen
Did like the cow bells that accompanied the church bells on one of the church bell towers and they weren't just for show.
Bamberg
We hopped on the fast train and arrived at another nice place. This is a picturesque postcard town and is best seen rather than described. Detecting a little apathy here?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamberg
It was a a little overcast when we arrived and the day got progressively worse so by the time we reached the monastery the view was a bit hazy. I wasn't impressed as I always want good weather when travelling but we still continued looking around and even found the best Weiner Schnitzel restuarant in Germany. Closed unfortunately.
Munich
Last stop for the day. We had booked a room in a 12 bed dorm near the train station so it was good to get off the train at the central station and find the dorm empty. Well that didn't last too long before a couple of italian boys arrived and made more noise than they would normally by trying to be quiet but all was quiet after they settled.
next day.
Fussen
Neuschwanstein Castle-When the creators of California's Disneyland needed an inspiration for their fairy-tale castle, this is the castle that they picked. Neuschwanstein is the most lavishly romantic and impractical castle in the German-speaking world. It is also the Baron Bomburst's castle from Chitty chitty bang bang The man who ordered its construction was "Mad" King Ludwig II of Bavaria........
Hohenschwangau Castle: It was completed in 1836 and built on the ruins of a 12th-century fortress....
We were undecided whether to go on an earlier train to Munich after our visit to the castles but decided to stay after a quick bathroom break on the train. Yes Train on platform not leaving for a couple of minutes so jump on the train, very quick bathroom break, off the train and save 0.50 Euro :-) It turned out to be a good choice as the old town of Fussen was a beautiful walled city with superb views of the snow capped mountains in the background. It also was another German nic nak town. We decided on some traditional apple and cinnamon wine which is supposed to be served hot which presented a problem. Served hot. Hmmm. Body temperature is almost hot. Right? Well it certainly isn't very nice at that temperature but we managed to drink it anyway. Long trip.
Went out with Marcus, one of Vanessa's former work colleages from Newcastle who returned to Germany. We had made arrangements to meet Marcus at the train station at 7pm and our train was due to arrive at Munich at 650pm after our longer stay at Fussen. When we arrived we realised that the train platform was not one of the main platforms so we were relieved when Marcus turned up. We went for Dinner at a well know traditional German restuarant and Marcus ordered the drinks. The waiter returned with three 1lt steins of bavarian beer. Would have prefered the stereotypical bar wench but it was a classy establishment. We looked around and we were the only people in the large restuarant who didn't have normal size beers. Might have well put a neon sign with tourists at this table. Vanessa doesn't drink beer so Marcus had the task of drinking almost 2ltr of Bavarian beer. We ate hearty traditional Bavarian food followed by several glasses of schnapps. Poor Marcus. We probably should have finished the drinking at that point but returned to the hostel where Vanessa and I had a sangria each and Marcus a gin and tonic. That is BIG GIN and tonic - backpacker ratios. Well he had to work the next day and we didn't...I went to the station to see him to the train at about 1am and hope he managed to get up for work.
next day
Munich
Bitterly cold today. Strong wind with leaves blowing. Not pleasant.
A bit of a thick head today and lucky for me the Glockenspiel was performing well. All 10 minutes of ringing bells and jousting knights. The owl hooting at the end was magnificent but it seemed that we were the only ones left watching. I guess the others just didn't have the staying power.
Visited the usual bits and pieces in town. Liked the Dom.
Dachau
Only about 30min from Munich or 27km. Dachhau concentration camp was the first and the model used for all camps used by the 3rd Reich to imprison Jews, political prisoners, homosexuals and others deemed 'undesirables'.
The dreary weather combined with the camp was powerful. One can only feel bewildered at how so many men could be so cruel. 'Never again' was etched into stone. It was emotionally overwhelming.
Next day
Salzburg
Today like spies we snuck across the border from Germany to Austria and back without our passports. Unfortunately the German border guards didn't seem to like us having no passports so now we write this message from a camp for illegal immigrants but we are sure the Australian government will help us out. Ok. There wasn't any border guards but our passports are in Australia getting visas and they are with the Russians.
We didn't get much sleep last night thanks to our fellow dorm dwellers who either (a) arrived very early in the morning or (b) snored or (c) turned on the lights and unpacked their bags which sounded full of empty chip packets, slamped their locker doors but at least were considerate enough to whisper. So we can blame them for us purchasing a ticket which wasn't valid until 9am which we realised on a 630am train. We tried to pull the ignorant tourist card but the conductor was having none of it so had to use our German rail pass and the ticket we purchased was useless. Goodbye 28Euro. No problem. No eating for a couple of days for us. Oh. that was a typo. meant minutes instead of days.
Not a good start but it was worth it. We saw the sun rise over snow capped bavarian alps and a blue sky day. The occasional deer (bambi) on the edge of the autumn forest and a little too frequently bambi's dads head was mounted on the side of houses.
Went walked to the old city via a morning market with lots of traditionally dressed Austrians. Yes they really wear the gear.http://hausofbavaria.com/huete/
I could just imagine them turning up for a street fight (rumble) and slapping their knees then slapping each other and nothing more.
Then walked up to look at the dominating fortress/castle which looms over Salzburg old city and were a little underwhelmed initially but when up close it certainly is an impressive structure.
Was quite warm as well. The weather forecast was for -2 deg C and snow and the reality was about +7 deg C and sun. Least forecasts are consistent around the world.
A walk through the old city eyeing off Mozart chocolates which no doubt he also did when looking for musical inspiration, a walk beside the river being closely followed by a giant dog, Schloss gardens to sing a little song from the sound of music then to the train station with 5 minutes to spare for our next train. We are good at trains now after all our practice.
Berchtesgaden
Nice train trip deep into the Bavarian alps and back into Germany while those border guards slept on. No checks as it is unlikely in an EU schengen region.
Steep valleys and craggy peaks with snow caps. Nice sleepy old town with not much going on. Must be waiting for the bobsledding world championships which start in January.
Wake up time for us to sign off.
David and Vanessa
