Blogs from Germany, Europe - page 676

Just like the photos, the place is really nice. Under attack from tourists and American students during the day, but worth it. Did a self guided walking tour off the tourist office map, took a million pics, and had NO RAIN!!! A nice change. Stayed in a B&B that was pretty nice too and not very expensive either.... read more

We're heading on to Lübeck today, on a sleeper night train, and planning to take a walk today. I am waiting for Owen to get back from the bakery with the beautiful sugar cookies they make here. I had real Schwartzwald Kirschekuchen (Black Forest cherry cake) yesterday and we got chatting to a random man who was a biker himself and had been several times to the rallies on the Isle of Man. Apparently one of the reasons Freiburg is so nice is because it is a liberal university town, much more tolerant of odd people and specifically in his case homosexuals than in a lot of Germany. I have to say, I really like it here. As we'd guessed though, being foodies, all our splurges money wise have been on food. And Lübeck is of ... read more

Freiburg & Black Forest Pictures from the Black Forest and Freiburg! Fotos de la Selva Negra y Freiburg! ... read more

Hallo for the next little story about Germany. We visited Germany 2 times on the trip, Munich was the first stop and we returned to the Northern Wine Valley called St Goar a few days later. 18/5/08 - Hopfgarten to Munich (München) After our much needed early night in Hopfgarten, we awoke to a slightly rainy day for our departure to Munich. Our first stop was back in towards Innsbruck where we visited the Swarovski Crystalland museum and the amazing showroom that followed. This was probably one of the most weirdest exhibitions I've ever seen, full of surreal artwork that had pretty much nothing to do with crystals and the production of their jewelery. However, it was a really great experience, looking at how strangely the Austrian Brain must have to work to come up with ... read more

6/9/08 Today we went to the Stasi museum. I really did not know much about the Stasis, the Secret Police in East Germany, so I found it very interesting. The part that really took me a back was the exhibition on the wiring of the homes and how very obvious some of the cameras were, and how discreet others were. For example, the camera in the bird house was very obvious since the lens was visible, where as the camera in the watering can was not as obvious. I guess people just had to be cautious of anything with a hole in it. The reason the guide had for making some of the cameras obvious was because the Stasi wanted people to really be on a constant state of alert, and be always fearful of the ... read more

Caught the train up from Regensburg, checked into the hostel and went out to the old Nazi party parade grounds. The museum there was pretty good, detailed how important the whole yearly rally was to the party and turning Hitler into a kind of demi-god. The grounds were a different story. There had been a rock festival there over the weekend (Metallica, Rage Against the Machine, amongst many others) so there was rubbish everywhere... tents, food, bottles, cans, bongs, BBQs, marquees, mattresses, condoms, pots and pans.... and homeless looking people all searching through it like Christmas had come early. Spent the rest of the arvo wandering around the old part of the city. You can see it has been rebuilt and feels a little like an amusement park but still is nice. Did a tour through ... read more