Europe travel

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It was interesting to go to a movie in English, in a German town, we saw Mission Impossible as it was the only movie showing ‘in original tone’ (in english) and to see so many of the places I have been to in the world and of course the movie finishes in Seattle! The next few days were family oriented - shopping, preparing food, playing cards (universal language), eating, more shopping, more eating. I took to riding the bike and walking a lot as it was a necessity to burn off some energy!

Pierre and I went out tree hunting - a little different to those we have in Australia, of course it is colder, so it makes you decide a lot quicker. You also have to trudge around in muddy fields as it is so wet (and very little snow, in fact it warmed up so much that there has been little to no snow since our return from Lapland). We found the perfect one, only to be told by the farmer it would reach about 3.5metres, and to settle for the one that would just brush the roof!

They do not trim the tree until a couple of days before Christmas Eve, and the lights are not allowed on until Chrismas Eve (to guide Santa). If there are children, they are taken to church or out to the pictures in the afternoon of Christmas Eve (after a big lunch) so that Santa can arrive. Here present giving is on Christmas Eve. (St Nicholas has been early in December - he leaves fruit and chocolate in your shoes by the door!).

Talking about shoes, Pierre, Marie, Nadine and Phillip all wanted to get new shoes, so we drove to the outlet for a shoe maker called Lloyds. Pierre had his GPS on, and Maria was taking issue with it, so we ended up travelling in the middle of rutted paddocks (Pierre had just washed the car!!!!), mud up to our middle, but we finally found the way and ended up spending hours finding shoes, ties, socks etc (well with the exception of Maria and Me) I am definitely not buying any more shoes!!!!!!! Well maybe not right now 😊 It was amazing how simple it was on the return run when you take the main roads!

Maria shares the same passion for Christmas decorations and candles as I do, so it was with some trepidation that we sat back on our hands and let Phillip and Nadine decorate the tree. Nadine put on the lights in the Aussie tradition and Pierre growled and turned them off and it was then I found out about their traditions.

Early on Christmas Eve, we went into Delmenhorst, as this is the time when all the people who have left the area return and meet in the town market. It is the day when the Christmas Markets have finished and it is the day to buy all your fruit and vegetables (and meat etc) for the rest of the next two days. It is also a time for last minute Christmas shopping - I was in a bookshop and found a great book of Grandmother (Grosse Mutter) dessert recipes (Nadine’s favorite cooking) and a German/English teaching guide for every day for Phillip. I had knitted a scarf for Nadine (and little did I know that I would land in a house of professional knitters and stitchers), so felt I needed to add a little something else. Nadine had confessed a passion for Lemon Meringue pie, so we cooked Lemon Curd, then Lemon Meringue Pie and added a deviation from Chocolate Ripple cake, using Ginger biscuits and Nigella Lawson’s Tequila cream. These were all consumed on Chistmas Eve afternoon tea! Surprisingly the Ginger ripple was great!

On Christmas Eve, we all ate a Pierre speciality dish, then into the lounge, eating and then had present giving. It was quieter with just adults. It was unfortunate that Nadine’s sister had to have back surgery ten days before Christmas (she lives on the border of Germany and Poland which is a 5 hour drive) and therefore she, her partner and their two children could not make it to Delmenhorst for Christmas. It was a good night, and I think everyone enjoyed their presents.

The next day, after a good sleep, I left to head off to Berlin for a few days. After a 4 hour train trip (very fast trains!) I arrived at the hotel and walked around to get my bearings (in the rain) and early to bed after lots of Christmas food (although not as bad as at home!)

The next day was a typical wet winter Melbourne Day, rain, wind and not a good sightseeing day, so it was more a time to do a bit of walking. I walked to the zoo gardens, then the biggest shopping street in Berlin where all the designer labels are - Nadine and her mother would have loved the shoe shops! I was interested in the people going around. It doesn’t seem to be a recession here in Berlin. The main railway stations are massive here - the one most like Flinders Street was ZooGarten station where all the homeless hang out and food is cheap! It is also central to everything, so if you want to go to the Brandenburg Gate, you get a bus from there, or anywhere as it is bus central, trains and underground as well.

The next day was off to see the sights. First was Checkpoint Charlie, which was the most famous crossing from East to West Berlin after the Berlin wall had been erected. And of course the Berlin Wall.

The wall was built in 1961, when the National People’s Army cut off streets and rail lines into West Berlin. The GDR allowed a wall to be built along the sector borders. In the time of the wall being 1961-1989 there were between 136 and 200+ people killed trying to get over the border, which is 167.8 kilometre long. The wall fell on November 9th 1989, and the once divided city was reunited.

This is a huge tourist attraction, so I walked for about 2 - 3k along the Wall (or remains of the wall) and finding bits and pieces of wall, evidence there was a wall at some stage, then over to the East Side Gallery is a 1.3 km-long painted stretch of the former Berlin Wall along the Mühlenstrasse in former East Berlin. It is the largest open-air gallery in the world with over one hundred original mural paintings. Galvanised by the extraordinary events which were changing the world, artists from all around the globe rushed to Berlin after the fall of the Wall, leaving a visual testimony of the joy and spirit of liberation which erupted at the time.

After a quick lunch it was off to the Gendarme Market - this is the square in front of the concert house, between the French and German cathederals which holds Berlins most famous Christmas Market. Even though all these buildings were largely destroyed during WW2, they have been beautifully restored. The Christmas market was still underway so I had a lovely browse.

Then it was off to the fully rebuilt Potsdam plaza, which has the biggest buildings such as the Sony Building and film and Television museum. In fact everything about Berlin can be seen by following this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin. It will show you all the places I went over the next few days. I photographed the Lego christmas sleigh here.That night I took myself to an Italian Restaurant for dinner, my ever faithful Kindle as my companion!

The next two days were fully working with the public transport system, going to the fersehturm or Television tower which has a revolving restaurant(4 hour queue to go up!) then off to the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag (or Parliment house) and the Victory column which is a monsumen of 66mtrs tall with a bronze gold statue of the goddess victoria and constructed in 1871 to celebrate the German victory over France in the Franco prussian War. Continuing touring, it was to the Brandenburg Gate, - the museums (particulary the DDR which is an interactive museum), and then off to the Charlottensburg Castle or Schloss as they call it. I went to a concert in the evening. I had been at the Brandenburg Gate, where preparations were underway for the big new year concert and was priviledged to hear the artists (youg german singers I have never heard of!) singing and playing, then off to an evening of Baroque and Strauss - different sides of the coin! I am not sure if we in Australia do what Germans do - when there is a rousing piece of music, they clap along to the tune (Nadine was embarrassed by this!)

Left on 31st, back to Bremen, in time for the big pary! All 7 of us, Nadine, Phillip and her 4 closest friends. Lots of food - a german BBQ - cheese, bread and cocktails (Manhattans) and playing games called looping louie!! A kids game, but fun - dancing, drinking, dancing, singing - then two and a half (minimum) hours of fireworks. Every house, in fact at least 4 lots of people in every block had a minimum of 40 - 50 types of fireworks. There was a smoky haze covering the town, plus it sounded like a war zone, but prettier. I said the only way to imagine it is to think of simultaneous fireworks going off for a couple of hours all around Melbourne, including all suburbs down to Portsea! I had ear plugs and my ears are still ringing! Sorry for upside down photos, only have a few minutes to get this up!

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