Blogs from Lower Saxony, Germany, Europe - page 4

Due East today to get to the countryside on the edge of the Hartz mountains in Lower Saxony and away from the enormous industrial sprawl of North Rhine-Westphalia. Spent a few hours awake in the middle of the night following the election while we had good wifi as I suspected (correctly) that wifi might not be an option at next campsite. Felt rather despondent when we got up as did everyone I suspect as nobody won this one, all losers in one way or another. But quite enough of that, we are on a trip and politics stays at home and by the time we get home the dust will have settled. We started the day’s drive on the autobahn as too far and long a drive on normal roads. Drove past some enormous industrial conglomerations, ... read more

Als Einstiegspunkt für diese Busreise habe ich mir Hannover auserkoren. Alternativ wäre bestimmt auch Hamburg möglich gewesen. In Hannover fährt der Bus morgen um 05:00 ab, in Hamburg um 06:30. Abfahrt ist am Flughafen Langenhagen, den ich aus meiner Zeit in Hannover 1999 und 2000 noch ganz gut kenne, denn damals bin ich oft nach Brüssel und auch zu anderen Zielen geflogen. Dazu bin ich also heute relativ früh in München aufgestanden. Ich bin auch gestern Abend früh ins Bett, nachdem ich erst ein paar Stunden vorher aus Heidelberg angekommen bin und die üblichen Dinge wie Baden, Essen, WoW, Packen und ein letztes Waschen von Wäsche erledigt habe. Dadurch bin ich doch noch relativ gut heute morgen aus dem Bett gekommen. Ich hatte auch noch Zeit für 3 Espressi und etwas Orangensaft. Danach bin ich zum ... read more

Preparation is half the work they say, and as my wife comes from Germany we are in the "ticking the boxes" week before our trip starts.... We came from a pretty relaxing week in Italy, where as you might know we got married.We understood perfectly where Fellini ( for those of you trapped in the generation gap a link has been attached ) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federico_Fellini got all his inspiration for those wonderful Italian films, the people, in this case the Italian people, beautiful country side, small charming villages full of Italians. In Glasgow they say "people make Glasgow", well, in Italy it is no different, definitely the Italians' divine comedy is present every day, even in church ( I finally got my precious German lady to be on time and guess who came too late, yep, the ... read more

(A draft in progress) Luggage: - If you’re going to be moving around daily or traveling by bike, then definitely backpack it in as few bags as possible. This option allows more mobility for sure. - If you are going to be traveling by train or plane, walking to your hotel/hostel, staying in one place for more than one night, I would suggest a rolling luggage bag. Especially if you have multiple outfit changes and shoes to go with (like me!). Especially, especially if you are tiny (like me!) and your pack weighs about as much as you do. - Do not leave it unattended for any reason what-so-ever. Even if your friend is meeting you at the station as you pass by, and you’re just going to hop off and hop right back on, always ... read more

Sunday 5 July 2015 After the party it is time to move on. Today our destination is Hannover. It is probably worth a visit but for us on this trip it is halfway to our next top destination, the Mosel (Moselle) Valley. After our four nights in Berlin we packed the car, started the engine, and asked Polly to take us West. The 10 o'clock temperature was 30. Thank heavens for air conditioning in the car. Leaving Berlin seemed to be straight forward, much easier than we imagined. That is until we were directed to turn right. Yes you guessed it. The road was closed. We had to trick our friend and find an alternative because she doesn't give up easily. Interesting that roads are closed and no alternatives are given. At least in France there ... read more