Advertisement
Published: September 27th 2009
Germany
Jana, looking the same except a little older, and her dad took us from Hannover airport to Bad FallingBostel via the country roads as the Autobahn was already clagged with some problem and had been for quite some time - apparently a common occurrence. As we were travelling down a small country road, a large British tank passed us - there is a large group from the British Army nearby - a remnant of the war I think. Good for the local economy. Everything here is green neat and clean, unlike what we have seen in the previous several countries.
Jana’s family is larger than remembered - a sister Mirja and two brothers Torsten, and Lars, who is currently on exchange in the US.
We had a German barbecue the first night - pork fillet, pork sausages, potato salad - delicious. The sausages were markedly different from Aussie ones - and I must say, they were tastier!
The weather, sometimes overcast but generally cleared in the latter part of the day, was good. We toured Bremen, checking out the very long history of the place as a market town in medieval times to the present day as a port city-state.
The buildings are very fine, in good condition, and a very good tram system runs through the main street. I took lots of pictures especially enjoyed the Musicians of Bremen.
We toured the Hamburg port on a large 3 deck boat with the tour guide giving us lots of facts and figures in German (Elke and Jana translating) - a great insight into the workings of the second largest port in the world.
We checked out the local forest and heaths several times with Jana’s dog Harry. He enjoyed the romp as did we.
And so ended our short stay with the Shulzes, a terrific stay and it was great to see Jana again after 6 years, Thanks!
The next part of our journey was hilarious - in hindsight!! We boarded our train for our journey to Berlin. First change at Buchholz - 10 minutes late…mmmmm. Next connection to Hamburg was supposed to be 5 minutes - NO we didn’t make it. The next train went only to Hamburg Harbour - it didn’t arrive! Finally another train to Hamburg came 5 minutes late. Meanwhile the station is erupting with hundreds of passengers (including a class of 9 year old kids)
who missed 2 trains. We literally squeezed onto the train - most of us toting luggage of one sort or another. We squeezed and we squeezed and when we thought no more could fit - we squished some more… we didn’t have the driver pushing us on as Bev’s experience in China, but we were held up by our luggage!! Of course, when we did arrive at Hamburg Harbour, half the train emptied at once, over us!! At Hamburg, we had to front the Information office person because we had missed the Berlin ICE (fast train) connection. We managed the next one - only one hour late in total!! Not too bad.. Of course, that one was also late!! THEN… Berlin Hauptbahnhof is a MAJOR station - and we knew half the S ( surface rail) and the U(underground) was down due to mechanical problems. So we used the info people again, several times!! It’s all very well being told where the train runs from but it’s another thing to find it!!
Anyway, eventually we found ourselves on a “Ersatz” bus (free) dropping us closer to our apartment than the S-bahn. It was free because of all the problem connections
Bremen old town
Roman from behindon the S an U.
The first floor apartment is lovely - very close to the Tiergarten, close to Alt Moabit road which is the major road connecting us to the Berlin Hauptbahnhof, close to shops and cafes. Outlook is onto a large park, so it’s very quiet. We would recommend it - and the price is great. We had a small kitchen, bathroom and large bedroom/ lounge/dining area, plus a small balcony to sit out in the fresh air. Weather was fine and sunny though cold in the morning. Superb!
We bought day passes on the trains/buses/trams for E6 and we just got on and off buses etc as we wanted. Saturday was election eve, and we got held up by demonstrations elsewhere in the city for a while, and the Reichstag was full of cops and security, but generally OK. We visited everything on the bus, from the Zoo to the Berlin wall, Checkpoint Charlie, Brandenburg Gate, Museum Island.
Berlin is a lovely city.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.043s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 10; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0221s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Weggs
Judy and Rags
Berlin
Hi Lucy, I hardly recognised you with so much hair! I remember the trains being right on time in Germany so bad luck that they were different for you. We took the same trail (fairy tale road) and your pics brought back memories. We loved Berlin too. Keep on enjoying. Judy and Rags