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Published: November 4th 2006
The Mai Baum...or May Tree
Big in the south of Germany...all the towns construct a pole from a tree with many decorations, in the month of May. This one is from Füssen, but the best one was in Erkheim(Where the Bartenschlagers live)!Hello Everyone!
Back in Germany for some more traveling times! Our time in Europe was running shorter and shorter with each passing day and there were so many things left for us to do, especially in Germany. We had a busy two weeks ahead of us, starting with the Love Parade in Berlin, then to the south of Germany to visit with my host family from when I was an exchange student, and on to tour around the area a bit before heading north to Lübeck.
Techno music may be an extinct beast in the US, but in Berlin it is still very much alive! I first experienced the Love Parade, the world’s largest techno festival (usually about 500,000 to one million attendees), ten years ago and had a great time. It started out in 1989 as a “political demonstration” which meant that the city would pay the cost for security and clean up, estimated around 300-400K Euros! Well, in 2002 the government decided it wasn’t a demonstration, but just a huge techno party and cut funds and the Love Parade ceased to exist, well there were some local attempts to keep it going, but it officially returned this
year in 2006! The government didn’t chip in though, it was all provided by corporate sponsorship, thanks McFit!
So you might wonder, how do you get music to that many people? Well, there are semi-trucks pulling these floats that are jammed packed with speakers and they each have their own DJ so you get to hear all sorts of styles of techno as they parade down the avenue. If you are lucky enough you get to ride on the floats, but we didn’t make the cut this year. The floats start driving around in the afternoon, but as soon as night comes there is a main stage placed around the Victory column where Berlin’s two top DJs, Westbam and Paul Van Dyk, drop some beats. We aren’t the party animals we once were, so we played it pretty tame, but it was great to get our dance on a little bit and also check out the costumes a few people were wearing. Around 11pm the music stopped and if you wanted to there were about 100 parties around town, but we had our fill for the day and headed back for some sleep.
The next day we bummed
Memmingen's famous Fischer Tag fountain, or Fish Day fountain.
Every year fish are placed in the small river that runs through the town and around the end of July all the local guys jump in on Fischer Tag to catch the fish with nets. Who ever catches the biggest fish is crowned Fischer King! Only locals can participate though! around Berlin a bit, attempting to recharge our internal batteries, and then Monday we were off to Memmingen in the state of Bavaria to visit my host partner from my exchange days. I had tried forever to get in touch with my host family, but was never able to find them. Then I learned that Germany’s telecommunications are all done through one company Deutsche Telecomm, and looked them up online and was able to find the phone number—I was very excited to visit them again after so long!
Martin (a.k.a. Hoschy), my host partner, had come along way since I last saw him. As I last knew him he had long hair, took me to many parties, and knew how to have fun. So I was a little surprised to learn that he now was a police officer for the town of Memmingen! We arrived via train and he was still working so we walked around the small downtown area and I showed Heather all the sights of Memmingen. We met up later with Hoschy, but with a change of plans we went to his parent’s house in Erkheim outside of Memmingen (where I stayed nine years ago). When
Ben couldn't get up after breakfast so everyone had to pose around him : )
That is Herr and Frau Bartenschlager to Ben's left and Hoschy and his girlfriend Jessica to his right. we arrived at the house we were greeted with open arms and I don’t think I can express in words how wonderful it was to be reunited with them after all these years.
The parents, Herr and Frau Bartenschlager looked as though they hadn’t aged a single day, but the same couldn’t be said for my little host sister Simone. She was 8 years old when I was last there and now she was 17. It was hard to believe that so much time had past since I was here last, but better now then never! We sat around the dinner table attempting to catch up on the last nine years and enjoyed some Bavarian eats. After many hours of conversation we called it a night because the next day we were going to make a long day of sight-seeing from Ulm to Füssen.
We awoke early to a breakfast feast worthy of a king and queen. They went to the bakery in the morning and bought fresh pretzels and made us coffee and tea and eggs and everything else you can imagine. Let’s just say we had a hard time getting up from the table because we
The Münster
I have no idea how Heather got the whole steeple in one picture! were so full! We headed to the train station to get a start on our day. Ulm was our first stop, a really quick stop, because there was only one thing we wanted to view, the Ulmer Münster, or the Ulm Cathedral. The Münster, Ulm’s big tourist attraction, is so popular because it has the tallest steeple in the world! It has 768 spiraling steps to the top and we were going to go for it.
I made the climb nine years ago and when I reached the top then I fell over in exhaustion; someone took my picture and it ended up in our high school yearbook. This time, being a bit more fit, Heather and I had no troubles making it up and once we were there we enjoyed the views for a few minutes before the dizzying decent. We had no time to view any other sights of Ulm (if there were any) as we had to run back to the train station to get our next train to Füssen, and from there grab a bus to view the famous Schloss (Castle) Neuschwanstein.
Story Time: There once was a king named Ludwig II who went
absolutely mad and started building these gigantic and elaborate castles. Neuschwanstein was one of these castles, which the Disney blue and white castle is modeled after, but Ludwig died before its completion and to this day the rooms inside are not complete. We arrived in the afternoon, climbed the long and tiring hill to the castle (we did just climb 768 steps) and continued further up to view the castle from a bridge up the valley. We got some photos in before being crowded out by the bazillion other tourists then went down to the castle for a closer look. We passed on paying to enter the castle—it wasn’t finished anyways : ) —and headed back to the bus station. Once back to town we headed back to the Bartenschlager’s for a little dinner and called it an early night after all the touring around we did.
The next morning the parents were kind enough to drive us to the neighboring town of Ottobeuren so I could show Heather the amazing Benedictine abbey, which is now a priory...whatever that means! One thing for sure is that this abbey/priory is 100% baroque! From the outside it looks like a little
Inside the Ottobeuren Abbey
Not sure if the picture actually shows how "gaudy" this place is. The marble was unbelievable! We never knew it came in orange, purple, and fuschia! They also have dead priests' skeletons dressed in ornate clothing and striking a pose in glass cases...very interesting! modest church, but once inside there were enough frescos, marble, and gold to kill a donkey! We walked around a bit and I think Heather described it best as saying it is a bit “gaudy” (no pun intended!). After the church we went to downtown Memmingen and met up with my host sister Simone for a personal guided tour of the town before meeting up with Hoschy.
We had plans to meet up with Hoschy and his girlfriend Jessica (also a police officer) for the evening. We didn’t know what was planned but we learned we would be joining them for a barbeque at a small lake with some other fellow officers. A couple of the local po-po attempted fishing, but no catches, so instead of fish we had sausages. After some chit-chat we headed back to the parents house for some great conversation with the father over a bottle of nice wine even though the name translated to English meant “Naked Ass”. The next morning we woke up to another “breakfast of champions” and sat there for about 3 hours talking and eating. Then we loaded up our bags, headed to the train station and were off back
Look at Ben spiking that ball!
Unfortunately it didn't make it over the net. to Berlin for one night before heading north to Lübeck!
Daniel’s girlfriend Elsa (mentioned in previous blogs) grew up in the town of Lübeck and we were going to be spending the week at her parent’s house on the river that runs through the town. The house was splendid and her parent’s were very, very generous and Elsa’s younger sister Anna came over and greeted us. The first day there we relaxed by the river and had a nice dinner before heading over for some wine and cheese at the house of Elsa’s long time friend Christian. There we were greeted by another friend, Jan, and we all headed into town for a couple other drinks before calling it a night because the next day was going to be some fun in the sun.
Lübeck is very close to the Baltic Sea so we made plans to spend the day on the beach. The weather was fantastic, actually a little too hot because there was a heat wave moving through Europe, but we enjoyed every minute of it. There was a friendly game of beach volleyball going and even though I hadn’t played since high school, I still
gave it a go. I was horrible at first and pretty much horrible still at the end, but I had fun and I think Heather had fun laughing at me. After soaking up more rays we headed back to town for another wonderful dinner and relaxing evening because the next day was going to be the unofficial Elsa’s Bike Tour of Lübeck.
Our last experience on a bike was in France and the only memory we had was how sore we were afterwards, but fortunately we were only going around the town. Lübeck is an absolutely beautiful city and I would recommend anyone heading towards Hamburg to stop here for a couple of days. They have the famous seven points of the city skyline (from all the churches), but they are most famous for their delicious marzipan and they are proud of it too! Our last stop on the city tour was at the Marzipan museum (yes, we thought it was funny they had a museum) but we learned the history and also had our very own demonstration of marzipan artwork. After purchasing some of the local goods we headed back home to get our sail on!
Elsa’s
father is a big sailor, actually I think all the Lübeckians are including Jan and Christian, so the father organized a little sailing trip for us on his 12’ dingy, a popular item here. Eventually Christian showed up with his 12’ dingy followed by Jan and his dingy. I was put in the boat with the father, Heather and Daniel went with Jan, while Elsa, Christian and his friend went in the other. It was a great time, could have done with a little more wind, but it was great to enjoy the views from the river while I was fortunate enough to learn many things from Elsa’s father about the area. After getting back to the house we all sat around talking, I played on a guitar a bit trying to remember all the words to my old school hit “Phat Kidd with a Guitar” and had an enjoyable time.
Our last day there we headed to another beach for some more relaxing, but we were shoving off in the morning for our next adventure. We had the best possible time I think a person could have in Lübeck and would recommend any travelers in Germany to swing
The reminants of a shattered bell from WWII in St. Mary
Lübeck was attacked during WWII, but not to stop any troops. The British used the town to test out their bombs before going for the big fish. by if you are up that way (the marzipan alone makes it worth the visit). It was an amazing experience reuniting with my host family, absolutely amazing, and if any of you out there did an exchange and have lost touch with your host family, take some time and get in reach with them, you won’t regret it! Our next destination is Scandinavia so look forward to next blog where we tell you about our swim in the frosty fjords, the ferry ride from hell, and rocking out in Helsinki.
Love Ben and Heather
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Erika
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Germany....Fabulous.
I love the pics of Germany. It was by far my favorite country I visited--no, wait, Austria was--no, Germany, no Austria! Ok, it was a tie with Austria. Your pics are beautiful. I am glad you guys are having such a great time!