Germany
Deutschland
Days 1-6, 18-21
Day 1: Saturday, May 23
On this day, we arrived in Frankfurt. We got in just after noon, so we still had 9 hours of
daylight (give or take) to see things. We used this opportunity to look around Frankfurt,
the regular things like Römerburg
(or take a close look at Gina's wedding photos, since
they got married there in the town square place). They were having some kind of a celebration,
either a 150 or 250 year anniversary of something. People were in period garb giving speeches and there were t.v. cameras there.
We got some huge cheese-covered pretzels and walked around while chowing down. St. Bartholomew's church and ruins of a Roman bath were nearby, and we checked those out. From there, we walked over the Main
(pron. "mine") river and checked stuff out on the other side,
like Sachson-Hausen where they have old buildings.
Day 2: Sunday, May 24
We went to Rothenburg. Gina has school on the weekdays, so they thought it'd
be a good idea to use Sunday to go somewhere she hasn't been. Rothenburg fit
that description, so that was cool for everyone. This is a city that has had a wall
around it since the old days. It got a bit messed up in WWII, but they've refurbished
it pretty well. It's nice (and a little touristy... check out the funny stuff Rick Steves has to say about it in his guidebooks) with preserved buildings and
towers and stuff like that.
On the way back, we took a portion of the Romantic Road, which is full of pretty scenery and small
towns with small churches and various other niceties that you
just can't see in Southern California.
Day 3: Monday, May 25
With Gina at school, Jörg took us to the usual tourist places around Frankfurt. One of
these is Hessenpark which has a lot of relocated and reconstructed buildings from times
past, like this church.
It's interesting seeing how they used to make buildings with lots of twigs
and stuff like that.
After Hessenpark, we stopped at the old Roman fort ruins. The ruins aren't too spectacular (they've been ruined, you might say)
but the museum that goes with it has all kinds of cool artifacts from the Roman times. It's
just simple stuff like shoes and tools, but it shows how advanced they were. On the way
home, we stopped in Bad Homburg to see a castle there.
Around 6, after Gina got home, we went to Klaus' (Jörg's dad) workplace, the mechanical
headquarters (something like that) of the light rail system of Frankfurt. He took us through
all the parts of the plant, like the repair station, painting station, etc. From there, we went
to Offenbach where Jörg's band practices. There's a really good döner kebab place
near there that we had to get acquainted with. Sorry, still no pictures yet.
Day 4: Tuesday, May 26
We went to Jörg's favorite mine, the Fortuna iron ore mine around Wetzlar. You go 150 m down an elevator, and then another 450 m into the mine on a mine cart. A nice trip, though we didn't
understand anything the guide was saying.
We also went to Weilburg where there's a spiffy palace (Brunfels Schloss). I even have a picture
of that. Jörg and I were doing a Mervyn's pose...
And can you imagine, they don't even have Mervyn's in Germany, so how could he know?
That night, we had a lovely dinner with the Breuers at an Indian / German restaurant.
Day 5: Wednesday, May 27
We couldn't stay in Frankfurt for the whole time, of course, so at this point we left. We
took an InterCity train out to Mainz and then transferred to a local train. We changed
trains at Bingen, and then caught a boat out of Bacharach. We saw lots of cool castles
along the way. I think this one is Burg Katz. There are
also old Roman ruins and other broken down castles (as well as not broken down). I'm not
sure what or where this tower is, but you can also see the grapes up
on the hill, a common sight in this part of Germany (they make wine here, you know).
We got off the boat in St. Goar (with St. Goarhausen across the river) to see Burg
Rheinfels. Up a steep hill is the castle, and there are some really good views from the
tower there. They have a hotel attached to the castle
that looks kinda funky. Rheinfels is more of a ruin area than a complete building, but
it's cool to see all the vines creeping up the walls. There's
more to St. Goar than just the castle -- there's also the largest free-hanging hand-carved
cuckoo clock in the world! We also
sampled a couple of their fine bakeries.
From St. Goar, we took the train to Koblenz and then continued down the Mosel River,
arriving in Cochem, where there's also a castle (we didn't go
check it out, though). We just relaxed and hung out there, enjoying the view of the
river while having a picnic. We walked around a while before going to our room for
the night. It was really pleasant, man.
Day 6: Thursday, May 28
From Cochem, we took the local train a few km down the river to Moselkern. We walked for about
an hour, uphill, through a schön forest to dark and mysterious
Burg Eltz.
This castle's cool because it
has a lot of authentic furnishings and paintings, and it's in really good shape (unlike all those
other ones that have been destroyed by one war or another).
After some hustle and bustle, we stopped in Bonn. We missed getting to the Beethoven museum,
so we just hopped on the train and went to Köln (Cologne). In Köln, we saw the
famous cathedral there. It's really impressive. It took 632
years to build (finished in the late 1800's) and is chock full of stained glass and other kinds
of nice things to look at. From Köln, we took a night train into Denmark.
Day 18: Tuesday, June 9
We started the day off in Denmark, including a "nice" wait in the Fredericia train station from
3:00 to 6:30 am. We made our way to the border, and not only did they not check our passports,
they didn't check our train tickets either. Crazy. Anyway, this whole day was pretty much spent
in transit. We got off at Hamburg and were ready to take one of those really fast ICE trains,
but because of an accident just days before, they weren't running all the ICE trains. We were
only about 45 minutes late, though, so I guess it didn't really matter that much.
Day 19: Wednesday, June 10
We had a day left on our German rail pass, so instead of just sitting around doing nothing, we
decided to ride some trains for free. Because we had missed the Beethoven museum, we
figured the best thing to do would be to make the 2 hour trip to Bonn and check it out. It
rained on and off, but it was mostly a pretty good day. We walked through the
streets of Bonn at a leisurely pace. There was
some kind of a rally in the main plaza. Luckily,
we made it to the Beethoven Birthhouse Museum with plenty of time to spare.
On the train ride home, Linda tried to make up for all the pictures we missed not having film
in the panoramic camera. Some came out pretty well, others didn't (trees were in the way, things
were moving too fast, etc.). One came out kinda spiffily, and Linda sent it to the L.A. Times as
her "my favorite shot" (it's a thing they do on the back page of the Travel
section... I'll let you know if they use it, of course).
Day 20: Thursday, June 11
It was a holiday, so Gina got to stay home. We didn't do a whole lot in the early part of the day. But
Jörg's band (Eileen Q) had a concert, so we knew we'd have something to do later.
Around 2 or 3, we ate at the döner kebab place in Offenbach, and then followed
the rest of the band over to Mainz. The weather was pretty nice for the time we were in Mainz.
It was some kind of Catholic convention or whatever, so there were lots of people there.
The band played to dancing crowds while Gina sold t-shirts and CD's. She even
dressed for the occasion. Sort of.
Day 21: Friday, June 12
Gina had a test at school, but came home around 11 (it was easy, of course). We didn't
do too much, since our flight was to leave at 4. We stopped at McDonald's on the way
there where I had the McVegemite burger (or whatever it's called). Despite the "bomb scare,"
we made it out of the airport okay (though two hours late).
And so, at the end of it all, we made it home safe and with all our stuff.
I hope you enjoyed it, if you made it this far. :)
For a more complete textual analysis of our trip, check it out at Eric's web page:
http://dinkum.compecon.com/eurosum.html
For a different viewpoint, check out my 7-Eleven page, with a Europe synopsis (and much more):
Europe Trip. Much more.
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