Cologne

A wet very cold day here in Cologne - all my winter woollies on including my new pink and turquoise spotted raincoat (which means Barry can't loose me). The cathedral still blows me away with its sheer size, it's ornamentation dripping like icing off the spires and the huge number of brilliantly coloured stained Windows. And it's free!
  

Displacement/Cleaning

Having sussed out where I can hire/buy a bike when we return from Paris I thought I would suss out the cycle route and signage for the "Weser Harz Heide Radfernweg".  However, even walking, I managed to get myself off route as their signage is not the greatest, and the road I thought they indicated to go down looked like a dead end (but it turned out to be correct).  11km later I was back home and rather stuffed.  I do love their community gardens!

Today was cleaning day for our apartment.  In Marburg our bed linen was washed once a fortnight - here our apartment is cleaned once a fortnight :-).  Their mop is quite different from ours though and even for our little apartment the "mop" part was removed and replaced with another one a couple of times.  I notice all the fountains in the squares and parks are also being cleaned too.

Community gardens

Vapiano

Vapiano is a  pizza and pasta bar where you line up at the relevent counter (eg pasta), order your meal and watch it cooked in front of you.  You then swipe the card you were handed on entry and anything else you buy (eg a wine) is also loaded onto the card and you pay on exit.  They seem to be a chain because we also saw them in Berlin.

Swimming Pool

Gendarmenmarkt

Today was definately a wind down day - there is only so much "being a tourist" you can do, so today was a quiet walk past the Reichstag and offices of the Chancellor (all within 15min of our hotel), then a walk down to Gendarmenmarkt, supposedly the most beautiful square in Berlin.  There we sat and comtemplated the amazing 3 buildings around us (the french & german cathedrals, and the concert hall) while we drank our Milchcaffee (milk coffee).

Concert Hall

French Church

Then back to Braunschweig.  Barry tried to upgrade our train tickets to first class but because he had bought the cheaper inflexible ticket he was unable to do so.  However, at least we got a seat this time!    

Cycling Around the Berlin Wall

We got the language wrong but were able to change to a later cycle tour following the route of the Berlin Wall. George, originally from Kenya, gave us a fascinating and passionate insight into the history of the Wall. We even got to put a tag on the Wall but each tag is covered by another within about 45min.

Wall sentry box

  

A Day in Berlin

High lights were: the ultra modern courtyard of the Sony Building, the view of the Radio tower from Alexanderplatz, the Berlin cathedral interior and the view from its roof when you walk around the dome, and the Philharmonie Berlin building, an amazing building with at least 10 different levels/pockets overlooking the stage. We went to a piano duo there. A bit of a false start when we went to the wrong venue and had to catch a taxi back with a number of other people. My favourite piece was a percussion and duo piano piece by Bartok.

View from Berlin cathedral

Dome of the Berlin cathedral  

I have to say it is a bit disconcerting to walk past a plaza with 17 police vehicles parked in 2 rows alongside the plaza!

Berlin

Not an auspicious start to Easter in Berlin.

Running short of time to catch the bus, then had trouble sorting out the correct bus to catch, finished off by mistakenly  booking second class (instead of first) and having to sit in the train corridor for the hour and a half trip to Berlin.

However got better after that with an 8th floor hotel room overlooking the city, a fascinating few hours in the 'Neue Museum' and an amazing meal in an Italian restaurant just round the corner from the hotel.

We saw the bust of Nefertiti (3300 years old) in the museum which was pretty special but the building  itself was amazing.  Pretty much destroyed in WWII, it was abandoned until 1980 and reopened in 2009. The architect redesigned it such that all the destruction could still be seen and the original architecture.
  

Wasserwelt

I found the swimming pool!

And a beautiful new one it was too.  Here, the changing rooms are quite different.  You wear a magnetic wrist band which enables you to lock and unlock a locker (you can also add the food and drink you buy to it and pay when you leave), everyone goes into the same changing area with individual (or family) changing cubicles - you walk in one door and out the other into the swimming area.

By the time I had walked down there (3km), had a decent swim and caught the tram back home I was very hungry so couldnt resist one of these:

iced pretzel

There are some magnificent buildings here and with a bit of sunshine today it was a good day to try and get some photographs.

Town hall/rathaus

Happy RIZZI house

 

Braunschweig Dom

I had 3 missions today: to go for a swim, to enquire about bike hire and to visit the Dom Cathedral.

I only succeeded with the Dom, the huge Lutheran cathedral in the centre of the city.  I did walk about 10km trying to achieve all 3 missions and came across some fabulous old buildings/churches scattered amongst more modern buildings.

The Dom goes right back to the 12th century and was built by Henry the Lion but he ended up being buried there along with his wife before it was ever finished.  Their coffins, along with 21 more recent ones (17th century) are in a crypt under the church.

The Lutherans took the cathedral/Dom over in the 16th century
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Bye bye Bamberg

Hello Braunschweig.

A successful few days in Bamberg for Barry attending the Humboldt symposium.  A bit nerve wracking for him having to give one of the 4 talks to top researcher awardees from around the world in research areas ranging from linguistics, to religion to physics.  He did well and got good feedback.

In our final few hours we donned our cold weather gear and wandered up to Castle Altenburg on one of the 7 hills surrounding Bamberg - now a hotel with amazing 360 degree views.

Altenburg Castle

Bamberg

 

Franconian Dinner

A lovely Franconian dinner warned us up last night after putting on all our warm gear to walk there. Roast beef, potato dumpling, red cabbage and lots of gravy for me. Sausages, fried potato and sauerkraut for barry. I. A very  cosy restaurant where we shared a table with 2 other groups. Might have to buy some local Franconian wine - a silvaner which was absolutely delicious.

Franconia is the north western area of Bavaria

Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque.

Visit the Dom square and you have all 4 architectural styles around you. The Dom cathedral finished in the 13th century has both Romanesque and Gothic towers, the Old Court House and palace next door is Renaissance, and on the final side of the square the Neu Residenz with its 4 wings and rose garden, is Baroque.  The fact that 95% of Bamberg was not bombed during the war (like Marburg it was not strategically important) makes it a pleasure to wander around, criss crossing over the river Regnitz which has 2 arms like Braunschweig surrounding the old city, and links by canal to the Danube. Former fishermens cottages line the river bank just above the level of the fast flowing Regnitz and the old Town Hall (both Renaissance and rococo in style) is built on an island in the middle of the river connecting the town with the ecclastiac. Bamberg is a Unesco site because it is such a well preserved medieval city.

St Michaels

Palace

 

Easter Eggs

     

I love all the hand decorated eggs which are everywhere at the moment: hanging off bushes and plants, decorating your table, in baskets, in window boxes and being sold in shops. One of the prettier ones was a number of decorated eggs hanging off a branch of forsythia in full flower.

And to Bamberg

The south of Germany is much prettier with rolling hills and forests and pretty villages as compared to the flat landscape around Braunschweig and the larger number of bleak apartment buildings.

Old fishing houses

Town Hall

 

Bamberg is a UNESCO world heritage city, never bombed during the war, and we are so lucky to be having the Humbolt symposium here. Makes up for having to be away from NZ in March/April. The  Humbolt Foundation have put us up at a beautiful hotel in the middle of the Old City so we had a tantalising walk in the sun along the river bank lined with old houses at crooked angles right on the waters edge when we arrived.

Following the Oker

The Oker River splits and flows right around the old centre of Braunschweig and presumably the old city wall must have been just inside it (it was dismantled in the 1800's and turned into buildings and parks).  It was nearly a 9km walk for us today to follow the river around the old city. The Oker runs out to the North sea and is navigable right up to Braunschweig.
 

Apartment in Braunschweig

The positives: clean and new, located down town. The shower is good. It is warm and the bed is comfortable.

Apart from that the 4th floor apartment is incredibly spartan. Marburg was comfortable compared to this. It is approximately 40sq metres with a tiny kitchenette, tiny table with 2 kitchen chairs, and 2 more comfortable chairs, stark white walls, and light grey cabinetry brightened by 2 lime green cushions.  Not a place you would want to spend too much time. No view, although gets the afternoon sun, and empty echoing corridors.

Its back to church bells ringing on the hour, windows that either open from the top or from the side depending on the position of the handle, a double bed make of 2 single mattress and duvets and an imitation wooden floor that is easily swept.

It took me 3 attempts to get to the laundry.  Wandering down white painted concrete corridors with white doors leading heaven knows where (actually the fire escape first time round, then I was locked out), down 3 flights of stairs and through more doors. What a concrete jungle!! Then it was figuring out the german on the washing machine and drier.  Got that wrong the first time and put it on  a delicate load so the washing came out really wet. Guessed which drier setting to put the drier on so hope I dont shrink the clothes.

Don't think I'll be doing much cooking!!

Frankfurt

Arrived in Frankfurt at 5am in the morning (2 degrees) after an 11 hour stopover in Hong Kong (the elevator up the hill behind the train station was a magnificent way to get glimpse of that part of the city - winding its way for at least half an hour above streets and between buildings).

Thankfully we got straight into our favourite hotel (Westin Grand) and didnt have to wait around till 2pm to book in.

Frankfurt was pretty bleak with a maximum of 10 degrees but the daffodils and a few brave blossoms were out in flower, the forsythia was nearly in full bloom and you could see the buds swelling and colour showing in the magnolias
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