Hamburg

What a lovely city.  I really enjoyed our 2 nights there.  Fantastic port and so many canals! 

The Old Elbe Tunnel (actually 2 tunnels) built under the Elbe river (Port) in 2011 to allow workers to get to the port easily.  It has 4 car lifts at each end and 1 person/baggage lift to allow 2 way traffic.  As you can see from the photo the car tracks are only just inside the concrete edging.

Our boat tour of the port was also fascinating with such huge container boats and cranes and the fabulous new area of the city.

Old Elbe tunnel built 2011

New opera house - yet to be finished

  

The Old Warehouse area

Town hall

 

Memorial to the former East-West border checkpoint

Border from west to east

   

The former border between east and west Germany passed very close to Braunschweig with the Marienborn border checkpoint about 40km from here.

First we visited Helmstedt, on the western side, and saw the effects of the wall from their perspective - particularly the effect on the economy with people on the east german side no longer able to shop there.  There was also an open cast coal mining pit which the fence went right through the middle of.

Then it was off to the former eastern side, to Hötensleben, where 350m of the fence has been kept as a memorial.  Because the border is right beside the town, there was first a 5km access limited zone, followed by a high concrete wall to prevent looking though, 10m sand strip, electric wire fence with alarms, 100m wide free shooting space with mines, vehicle block, final wall then a further 10m open strip before west germany could be reached.

Finally we went to Marienborn itself which was a major road checkpoint between east and west germany.  Our host, André, remembers crossing it as a child to visit family in the east and this is the first time he has been back.  He still remembers how terrifying it was going though the check point.
  

Bitterly cold today - a max of 4 degrees.  Lots of red noses and rosy cheeks!

The Mining Heritage of Goslar.

I returned to Goslar today to try to do one of the 4 hour underground mine tours but ended up on a much shorter tour of some of the tunnels and workings - unfortunately all in german.

This mining area, just north of Goslar, is also an UNESCO world heritage site.  Here water has been used extensively to develop the mines and crush the ore for the extraction of silver, lead, tin and copper; ever since the middle ages (11th century) until the 1980's. There are huge water wheels, drainage ditches and canals which are quite unique  in the history of mining.
   

Sunshine and Snow

Yesterday there were snow flurries interspersed with sun.  The weather has turned really cold.
At Goslar, in the Harz 'mountains', there was snow lying on the hills around the town.

Thank goodness for the younger generation.  We have no english TV here but at least have the internet so we have been live streaming a lot of the NZ news from Radio NZ and also from TV3. I tried to download some of the so called down loadable programmes but was unable to do that from Germany.  However, the next generation suggested Netflix and that works!!!

Starlight Express

Ever since we visited Bochum last year and I spotted that the rock muscial, "Starlight Express", by Andrew Lloyd Webber, was being performed there, I was keen to go back.

A special theatre, just for Starlight Express, was built in Bochum 28 years ago, to create a suitable venue for a musical on roller skates.  It has been running there ever since and is one of the longest running musicals ever with the greatest number of people through.

After a sumptious dinner which included white asparagus (just coming into season here and the Germans go nuts over it) prepared by Barry's friend in science, we all went off to the show.  Although we couldn't understand the words it was an amazing performance combining rock music, fantastic lighting effects and of course actors on roller blades representing trains, singing, and zooming round the theatre over about 3 levels and doing acrobatics. Did I mention the amazing costumes??!!!

  

Forest, farmland, canals and towns

With some beautiful weather just right for cycling (before the weather turns bad again) it was time to do an overnighter on the bike. It might have been sunny but the breeze was very cold so it was all clothes on and a merino buff under my helmet.  It was so nice out that 2 days turned into 3 and I ended up cycling from Gifhorn to Lüneburg - a total of 150km.

North of Gifhorn, on the Heide plateau, it was lovely cycling with lots of forest and farm land to cycle through.  I could have done with some front suspension, however, as the forest tracks were pretty rutted and cobble stones can be very hard to cycle over.

Uelzen loch system -
raises/lowers canal 23metres

I cycled over the Elbe-Seitenkanal, along it and even under it.  Its an amazing canal system where often the canal is substantially higher than the surrounding farmland and there are even canal bridges to cross rivers and valleys - quite weird to have a huge barge sailing above you.

Bokeler Heide (Heath)

Kloster Isenhagen @ Hankensbuttel

There were some lovely heath areas I cycled through, lots of farmland, I even saw some sheep and cattle!  There are always lots of towns and each creates its own little navigational nightmare.

Hundertwasser Railway Station @ Uelzen

I visited an amazing old Kloster/convent built in the 1300's, an otter park, the Hundertwasser railway station (same architect as the toilets close to Kerikeri!) and had a lovely evening in Lüneburg listening to a drummer drumming up a storm in the town square while I ate my meal in the sun.

Lüneberg

Lüneberg Rathaus (townhall)

  
Thats 240km of the 416km I set out to do!

The Haircut

If its one thing I hate doing when I am in a country that doesnt speak english, is getting a haircut.  You never know what you are going to come out with.

However the deed had to be done.  A young guy who spoke minimal english "cut" it, but really only trimmed and thinned it, but at least it feels a lot better.  All done dry!  Not sure that it will last for another 6 weeks!

Goslar to Wolfenbüttel

Having cycled from Wolfenbüttel to Braunschweig last wet and cold Friday, 15km from here, I didn't feel the need to cycle from Goslar to here (60km) and I was very pleased to be able to hop on the train at Wolfenbüttel and complete the last part of the journey in style.

The countryside south of here is definately more attractive than north of here, with hills and forestry - a bit reminiscent of around Marburg. On my 45km journey I passed through 16 towns and no coffee shops - the small towns were dead quiet and the larger ones the cycle trail tended to stay on the outskirts.

Two of the little town churches had memorials to the german soldiers who died in the 2 World Wars.  You don't see them very often and they are always very discreet.  Both had beautiful purple tulips flowering in front of the memorial.

Werlabergdorf church

Liebenburg Schloss

Gorgeous Goslar

   

Wow!!!!  What a fabulous town nestled into the lower slopes of the  Harz Mountains (hills).  It has to be one of the most beautiful towns I have been in - its definately right up there with Bruges, Dubrovnik and Bamburg.

We only went there as it was on my cycling route and then discovered it was a UNESCO world heritage site.  We were lucky - there were very few people there and just one fabulously beautiful half wooded building after another - all beautifully painted and decorated, often with gold writing on the beams. Winding narrow medieval streets, crooked beams and walls, high slated roofs with little gable windows, brightly coloured decorative walls and beautiful old churches.  Just hard to believe we were there in the middle of it having a glass of wine.

 

Quark Bereenschneck

Raining again today when I hoped to get out for a bike ride - weather forecasts here don't seem to be that great and their accuracy in predicting rain is not good. However it does seem to drizzle rather than actually rain.

To cheer me up I had a quark bereenschneck - they seem to use quark a lot here, rather than yogurt or sour cream.

I did manage to get out on the bike in the afternoon - caught the train to the next town - and then it poured down.  I seem to get my ups and downs, north and south, east and west all muddled up here.  I started off heading south, following the map, for about 5km until I realised I was following the wrong map.  I am so busy searching for the next sign post that I hardly have time to look around!!

Wolfenbüttel

Quark bereenschneck & a latté

  

Ötzi

Ötzi is the mummified ice man found in a glacier between Italy and Austria.  I spent the afternoon at the museum here where there is a big display on Ötzi, although his actual body is in Italy.  Part of the display involved having a go with a bow and arrow similar to the one found with Ötzi and putting on a hat and goatskin cape, the same as that found on him.

Ötzi lived 5000 years ago, before Stonehenge and the building of the pyramids in Egypt, in the copper age.  He is particularly famous because all his clothing and equipment were found with him, food in his stomach and whipworm infestation in his gut.  Interestingly, his gut showed that he ate a high grain diet.  I wonder how this ties in with the current fad of "paleo diet"???  The other very interesting fact was that he had 61 tattoos on his body which correspond to accupuncture points which originated 2000 years later in China.

Wearing Ötzi's clothes

The Biggest Hill in Braunschweig

Braunschweig is flat!!  This would be the biggest hill in Brunschweig!  This actually used to be part of the old city fortifications when there was a 5m wall surrounding the city.  In 1803 the fortifications were pulled down and these parks are the hills where the bastions used to be.

40km down - 376km to go

Gifhorn - Braunschweig

There is always a little bit of trepidation getting on a train and heading to a totally unknown place.  I managed to get off the train about 5km before I was meant to thinking I had arrived at Gifhorn, but it was Isenbuttel-Gifhorn.  Took me a wee bit to work out where I was and where I needed to go to get onto the Weser-Harz-Heide cycle way.  However, finally got there!

There were a few sections where I had trouble working out where exactly I was and where to go to - the signage wasn't always the greatest and with a dead flat landscape there was absolutely nothing (apart from the sun in the south) to indicate which way to go.

One thing about cycling in Germany - you are never far the next little town.  Spring has sprung here: the paddocks are ploughed up, wheat or rye grass is well through the ground, the white asparagus plants are all covered up, the daffodils are getting past it and now the magnolia's and blossoms are out in flower.

Lake Tankumsee

Mittelandkanal

The Churches

The size and number of churches here astounds me.

They are massive in size: 2 or 3 stories high of solid stone and 2 levels of stained glass windows.  Even out in the country where I am sure the population was never particularly high, how could they justify such a huge church.  And its not as if its just the occasional one dotted around - just looking out our window I can see 4 church spires.

Today, for my first bike ride, I checked out Kloster Riddaghausen.  It is not only a massive church but has a huge walled garden around it with vegetable plots and fruit trees.

No internet - no TV

So what do you do when the internet is down for the weekend and there are no english programmes on TV?  I dislike the BBC (they are so self ingratiating) but even that would be nice.  Too old to make babies!!!  Anyway the bed is such that there is about a 3" gap between the 2 mattresses.

We caught the tram out to Stockheim, in the country side, which is as far as the tram goes and walked back.  I misread the map and thought it would be about 5km back but it turned out to be 10km.  It was a lovely day for a walk and spring is well on the way with daffodils getting just past it, a lot more blossoms and magnolia's out and the leaves just beginning to show on the trees.
  

This weekend there is a big car display in the streets of Braunschweig so the streets and market places are packed with people.  It was good to find a spot overlooking the "Aldstat" market place which was a bit quieter for the sunday coffee and cake.

Have bike - can travel.

Yay!!!!  I have hired a bike for 6 weeks.  The first thing I did when we got back to Braunschweig.
Its pretty old and no suspension but looks like it has been well maintained.  So look out "Weser-Harz-Heide-Radwig" - here I come!  Just get this weekend out of the way as Barry doesnt have a bike.

I have also bought a "Bike Line" guide book which has detailed maps - the only problem it is all in German.

It is interesting that here in Braunschweig (which is bigger than Marburg) there is a lot more english spoken but it is much harder to find newspapers, magazines and books in english.

Toasted Cheese Sandwich at the Pantheon

We could definately learn a bit from the way the Parisians make their toasted sandwiches!  We had one after our visit to the Pantheon.

Today's cultural experience was the Paris Pantheon. Originally a church, it was converted to a mausoleum at about the time of the French Revolution and became completely secular. The idea behind it is that France's great and wonderful be interred there. Obviously not all of them are and there is a huge list of names of those that aren't.  The crypt underneath is pretty impressive with room for many more coffins than the 300 currently interred. Madam Curie is one of 3 women interred there.

We travelled back to Braunschweig using the fast French train, Thalys, from paris to Cologne (which goes via Brussels).   Security was just like flying with all passengers having to put their bags through a scanner plus each person walk through one with their jackets open.  ISIS have a lot to answer for.

Covered with Bechamel sauce & cheese

Pantheon toasted cheese sandwich

  

The Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower really is amazing to look at.

Barry's conference dinner was at the Acquarium in the Trocodero. An amazing place to have dinner in  itself with fish swimming all around us in the dim light. However the view of the Eiffel Tower was just gorgeous at 11pm, fully lit up in golden light, becoming even more stunning when lights started flashing and sparkling all over it right on 11pm.

We caught the metro back to our hotel at 11.15pm and couldn't believe the number of people packed into each carriage with their faces pressed up against the window!

La Cuisine Paris

A second fabulous cooking experience at "La Cuisine Paris".

Today we met at a market in the Latin Quarter, discussed what everyone would like for "lunch", then bought all the vegetables, fresh herbs, meat, bread and cheese that was required.  The cheese was from raw cow's milk as that apparently has more flavour.


Then it was back to "school" on the banks of the Seine and we all pitched in to prepare everything.
First we made the Creme Caramel for the desert.  Then it was preparing all the roast vegetables: potatoes, acorn squash, turnip and red onion. The potatoes were little oval ones, sliced nearly through and a spoonful of garlic and butter sauce put on each before going into the oven.  They were basted a third of the way through, then 2/3 of the way through more garlic butter was added which had more herbs added to it (rosemary/basil/parsley?) and half a piece of bay leaf was inserted into each.

The roast veges were chopped up and mixed with heaps of olive oil and the herbs before going into the oven.
      

Then we prepared the artichokes "Barigoule" for the entree.  These were small variety of artichokes. They were prepared with onions, carrots, mushrooms, garlic and white wine.  We learnt to remove the core of the garlic as that is what makes you burp.

Finally we fried the duck breast which had to "rest" for as long as it was cooked.


Then we all sat up at the table over looking the Seine and with a delicious glass of Savignon Blanc we had:

Artichauts Barigoule, followed by Magret de Canard (duck breast) and roast veges, followed by 2 types of cheese and bread, and polished off with Creme Caramel.

Artichoke Barignoule

Duck with roast veges

Creme Caramel