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Published: January 3rd 2009
Spiderman
I found some play equipment!Ein gutes neues Jahr! It's hard to believe that 2009 is here already, but it is and it's already three days old. Today's entry comes to you from the town of Freiburg im Breisgau, situated in the far south-western corner of Germany and on the western edge of the famous Schwartzwald. More on that later.
Our stay in Köln was for the most part uneventful, except for one spectacular event, New Years Eve.
The morning after we last spoke Sharon and I enjoyed a fantastic buffet breakfast, bettered only by the magnificent breakfasts that we indulged in while on the Classical Tour back in Greece. After our stomachs were filled to bursting point we wandered down the street to a shop where we had seen cheap jeans in the window the previous night. We went inside and lo-and-behold I was able to pick up a great pair of jeans for 5€. We also wandered down to the market at the local train station (Mülheim-Weiner Platz) and picked up 1kg of delicious mandarins for 1€. We are such bargain shoppers!
After a couple of calls back to Oz to wish various family members a Happy New Year we made the 5km,
T-Mobile
The most masculine phones around. amazingly beautiful walk along the Rhine into the centre of town. We had a leisurely dinner, grabbed a bunch of snacks to munch on and then set about trying to find out where people were likely to congregate to watch the fireworks. We spent about two hours wandering the streets of Köln trying to find big groups of people and where they were heading to. On more than one occasion we saw a big group of people walking purposefully (complete with bags bulging with fireworks) and decided to follow them, only to see a bigger group walking the opposite way, and figuring that they must know what they were doing, we decided to follow that group and ended up retracing our steps.
Eventually we decided to ask a shopowner where the best spot for fireworks-watching would be, and she recommended the bridge across the Rhine. So, at about 8pm or so, we headed out to one of the main bridges in town and waited. And waited. And waited. We eventually ended up on the opposite bank of the Rhine, sitting and waiting, and watching the steadily-building crowd setting off the fireworks which they had bought. Unlike in Melbourne, fireworks are
Dom and bridge
Aaaaah, sehr schöne. legal to purchase over the counter in Köln, and if they aren't then they are certainly a lot more readily available. Every Tom, Dick and Hans had a triangular-shaped bag of goodies to set off throughout the night. By this point we thought it was pretty cool that people were able to get their hands on fireworks so easily, but by the following morning we had changed our tune - more on that soon.
As midnight approached the fireworks slowly started to build up, some provided by the city of Köln but the seemingly overwhelming majority by the people who were by now starting to line the banks of and bridges over the Rhine. After heading back to the warmth of Köln Hauptbahnhof (Central Station) to thaw ourselves out, we took up our positions on the bridge and waited for the countdown to start. We could have been waiting all night were it not for a group of about five or so who were standing nearby and who decided to count - it would seem that in Köln there is no countdown and no single unified fireworks display - instead the explosions came from everywhere.
Our view of the fireworks
was quite spectacular - we had a 180° view which encompassed the river, the bridge a little further downstream, and the two banks. Fireworks seemed to be coming from everywhere and in every colour and variety, and it made for quite a show.
As (what we assumed to be) midnight passed, more and more fireworks went off and after a while we decided to get out of the cold and head back to the hotel. The only problem was that everyone else on the bridge had the same idea. We slowly pushed and shoved our way through the massive crowd/mosh pit, and out toward the Dom. Now I know we were lucky enough to miss the riots in Athens but the last couple of minutes before we got on the train were as close to a riot as I would ever like to be. People were running around, smashing bottles, setting fireworks off even if people were right next to them, yelling and screaming and just generally acting crazily. At one point Sharon got the fright of her life as a firecracker exploded right next to her foot, kicked there by some idiot behind her. Luckily she was fine but
it was more than a little scary. As we headed down the stairs toward the train station we saw a young gentleman who thought it would be a good idea to set off a firecracker inside a by-then empty wine bottle. Predicably, the bottle exploded and glass flew everywhere but luckily I had seen what he was trying to do and we had managed to get far enough way that we weren't showered with glass. It's hard to know exactly what he was thinking given that the bottle was in an enclosed space where hundreds of people were walking past every minute.
The next morning we woke up late, had breakfast downstairs beore the restaurant closed and then headed back to our room to laze around and watch TV until about midday, tired from staying out late. Eventually we got our arses out of bed and decided to walk back into town to see the aftermath of the previous night's silliness. It seemed that the city itself was suffering from a crippling hangover as many of it's citizens doubtless were - used fireworks, broken and unbroken bottles, wooden sticks, pizza boxes and all other varieties of rubbish lined the
pathway that passed through the parkland adjacent to the Rhine. Far from being 'just a bit of rubbish', you couldn't put one foot in front the other without kicking a champagne bottle, a box of discharged fireworks or stepping on some broken glass. The worst part though was the crap that lined the shore of the Rhine. The wooden sticks that previously had fireworks attached to them now lay littered among the rocks and broken glass at the edge of the river, and bits of wrapping from the fireworks floated slowly downstream. It was quite sickening to see such a beautiful area soiled so carelessly and so thoroughly by people who were basically just too lazy to put their rubbish in the bin.
The rest of the day was spent taking photos of the Kölner Dom, both inside and out, and then heading back toward our hotel. Being New Years Day the local internet cafes weren't open which meant that we weren't able to book any accomodation for the following night, which we had decided would be spent in Freiburg. We headed back to the hotel and decided to see how much another night at the hotel would be
and after the gentleman explained that it would cost 75€, we asked if that was the best he could do. He offered 65€ which made us wonder - do all hotels just charge what they think people will pay, and if need be, they will drop the price in order to ensure that they get the business?
All that aside, we decided to just wing it in Freiburg the following day and just hope that some accomodation would be available.
After some more relaxing and TV-watching back at the hotel, we decided to find something to eat for dinner. Having seen that the local internet cafes were closed, we probably should have realised that the various eateries in the area would also be closed. Of course we didn't think of that, and so when it came time to eat our choices consisted of McDonalds, Burger King and some local pizza joint called Joeys. We made an easy decision and decided to head to Joey's but after seeing that the sign that normally sits on the pavement was now inside, we were left with a dilemma - McDonalds or Burger King? It was a terrible decision to have to make, knowing
The Aftermath I
So who do they reckon will clean this up? that either way we would leave still feeling hungry and more than a little unwell, but we eventually went to McDonalds. To our dismay, we discovered as we walked up the street a little later, that Joey's was in fact still open. We had eaten McDonalds when we didn't have to.
Yesterday morning was fairly quiet - we headed to the now-open internet cafe to book some accomodation in Freiburg but they didn't feel like responding to our enquiries, and so we were back to 'let's hope that they have a room free'. We walked down to the U-bahn station at Weiner Platz, caught the train to the Dom and then after some wrestling with the ticket machine, managed to reserve ourselves some seats on the next train to Freiburg im Breisgau.
From the first days of planning for this trip I knew that I wanted to see the Black Forest and so Freiburg, being on the western tip of the aforementioned clump of trees, seemed to be the perfect place to head to. The train trip was once again pleasant, and after around three hours we got off the train and started the '15 minute walk' to the
The Aftermath II
So much crap everywhere. Black Forest Hostel. As expected, the 15 minutes promised by the hostel's website turned into 25, but we didn't mind, enjoying the excitement of rocking up to a city with no accomodation booked, for the first time on our trip.
When we arrived at the hostel, the guy behind the counter shook his head at the suggestion of potentially getting a 'double room', saying that they were all booked out. We weren't too concerned as we assessed which dorm to pay for beds in - the eight bed or the 21 bed room? Surprisingly, and probably more than a little not-by-the-book-ly the gentleman said that he would give us an entire 11 bed dorm to ourselves for the price of a double room. It's good to have the privacy of a room to ourselves, except for the fact that the door doesn't lock.
After getting ourselves sorted out we headed downstairs to the common area where I had spied a piano while we were checking in. Now, I don't know if any of you have been in this situation, but going from having several musical instruments at your fingertips everyday to not being able to play any music for a
Kölner Dom facade
Amazingly intricate and detailed. month is a bit of a drag. On more than one occasion I'm sure Sharon has been ready to scream as she watches me turn every available surface into a portable drumkit. 'Tippity-tap-tap-tap'. It's even starting to annoy me. Anyway, besides a quick visit to a piano shop in Brussels this piano was the first chance to play any music for the whole trip. It was such a relief and such fun to just be able to make music again. I ended up spending an hour or so trying to learn this duet with a Japanese guy who is studying in Freiburg, and while it was pretty fun, my lack of sight-reading ability let the team down.
After playing a couple of games of table-tennis against some French guy we headed upstairs for night, trying to decide which of the 11 beds we would sleep in.
After braving the communal showers the next morning, us spoilt-by-double-rooms-with-ensuites folk headed into town to grab some breakfast. We loaded up on croissants and Berliner and then headed to the tourist office to work out how best to get ourselves into the Schwartzwald. In our travel book we had seen some information about
White Christmas?
Well we didn't get snow in Rotterdam, but we did get the tiniest amount on New Years Day. a cable car that runs up the side of a nearby mountain, so we decided to work out the best way of getting there. A tram and bus ride later we arrived at the base of Mt. Freiburg from which we boarded the cable car which would take us to the top. Now bear in mind that at the start of the day we had thought that from the top of the mountain we would be able to get on a bunch of walking tracks and walk around the forest, but as people started to get on the bus with their skis, toboggans and the such, we started to realise that there might be a little more snow up there than we had first thought. By the end of the 15 minute trip on the cable car it was clear that we would get our wish of seeing some snow during our trip, albeit accidentally.
We spent a fantastic day at Bergwelt Schainsland walking around the snowy trails, taking photos, throwing snowballs and all that sort of stuff. Like in Amsterdam the sun was shining, the sky was clear and a beautiful rich blue colour, and yet it was still
Our 'double room'
Well, not quite, but kinda cool nonetheless. around -3. To add to the ridiculousness, we discovered when we got back to the hostel that we had both been sunburnt while atop the mountain. Quite crazy.
After wandering around a bit, and falling on our arses more than a couple of times, we headed past the ski slopes to the tobogan run where we spent the best part of two hours running up, then sliding our way down the hill. It was the most amazing fun and such a perfect day. Having said that, I now know why my parents always insisted on dressing us in plastic pants when we headed to the snow. Having expected to go hiking, I was wearing jeans, which, when flying down a toboggan ramp at a million miles an hour, don't seem to have the same water- and ski-proofing ability that plastic does. Consequently, the cable car ride down the hill, the bus ride, the tram ride and the walk back to the hostel were fairly uncomfortable as I was soaked from head to toe. It was worth every second.
Tomorrow we are planning on heading to Munich after a day exploring Freiburg's old town. From what we can see we
Getting my fix
A month without playing music of any kind is too long. Luckily this hostel has a piano... will need to take a train back north to Mannheim before changing trains and heading south-east to Munich, but all the stuffing around is worth it for the amazing day that we had today.
Until next time folks, thanks for reading and supporting the blog, and if you just can't wait to get your next dose, I believe there is a 'subscribe' button somewhere on this page which will send you an email everytime we update the blog. That's service for you!
Tschüss!
Matt & Shaz
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