A WEEK IN GERMANY

Frankfurt - St Goar

We landed in Frankfurt a little tired but bubbling with excitement.  We had our first lesson of sign language communicating with some locals as to which train we were to catch and where to find our motorhome depot.  It was our first grocery shop which brought a few laughs and lots of guessing (pictures were helpful).

Vid was thrown in head first on the left hand side of the vehicle, navigating with the ever patient Mrs Tom-Tom.  Although we were surrounded by very disciplined drivers, our first autobahn was a little hair-raising.  It was very daunting having vehicles fly past you in excess of 200 km an hour.

We drove through beautiful German picture book scenery of the Rhineland; undulating farmed hills with villages of white walls and terracotta rooves and at least one church spire breaking the skyline.  The villages dotted the countryside and it was interesting that we saw no farm houses – we guess the farmers live in the little villages.  Germans appear big on sustainable energy with numerous wind turbines standing with an eerie calmness on many hillsides.

We drove south from Koblenz down the 1300 km long Rhine River; Germany’s longest and busiest river.  It was a hive of activity with commercial barges navigating the fast flowing river and at times appearing to be perilously close to the steep sided banks.  The steep banks were covered in a patchwork blanket of Riesling vineyards, and majestic castles dominated the rocky outcrops, positioned there centuries ago to collect tolls as watercraft made their way up and down the river.  Our trip was constantly being interrupted with excited ‘wow’s from the back of the campervan!

Our first campsite was at St Goar; the site of the famous Loreley rocks and cliff.  One can see how this legend evolved (a mermaid who sang so beautifully she distracted sailors to a tragic end as they were lead off course and hit the rocks).  This was the narrowest part of the Rhine and the enormous barges seemed to navigate it with ease.  Our body clocks were a little out of sync as we were ready to start the next day at 3:30 AM!


St Goar - Trier

We had a scenic drive the next day to Trier along the banks of the Moselle River (tributary of the Rhine) through Moselle vineyards and quaint villages.  We stopped at a scrumptious bakeri (bakery) where they spoke no English but we still managed to acquire our fair share of sticky chocolate muffins and other delicacies.

Trier, established in 16 BC and Germany’s oldest city, was fascinating.  In particular, the Roman Konstantin Basilica and the Porta Rica (Roman wall gate) were amazing.  Already we were in awe of the architectural and engineering skills of the Romans.  The gate was an imposing landmark constructed of huge stones in 2 AD.

A walk through the old city had us happy snapping away at the buildings, the fountains, the towers, the statues   ...


Trier - Heidelberg

From Trier we drove east to Heidelberg and a visit to our first castle, Heidelberg Schloss, which stands majestically looking over the city.  The ‘red’ castle was part in ruins and as it had been added to over the centuries the different architecture made the castle a little ‘higgeldy piggeldy’.

An enormous wine barrel sits below the banquet room which could hold 228,000 litres!  The barrel was filled by the local farmers in lieu of taxes.


Heidelberg - Freudenstadt

We then spent a day in the Black Forest.  The forest is aptly named – it’s dark foliage and dense growth gives a black appearance to the countryside.

We went for a beautiful walk, a pedal paddle boat ride on Mummelsee (glacial lake), consumed schweinschnitzels, pommes frites and salat for lunch (pork schnitzels, chips and salad) and Schwarzwald Kirchetorte (Black Forest cherry cake) for afternoon tea!


Freudenstadt - Rothenburg ob der Tauber

We awoke to another fine morning though dark clouds soon dominated the sky.  We drove to Hohenzollern castle, built in the 11^th C though has been rebuilt three times over the years.  It was an impressive romantic castle perched on top of a mountain – its silhouette could be seen for miles.

Its turrets and towers and bastions created a fairytale appearance.  After our visit we felt we were beginning to get a brief outline of the history of Germany over the centuries since Roman times.  We had a magical afternoon at Rothenburg ob der Tauber - walked many kilometres on cobblestone streets through the old city past quaint shops and around the city walls.

We could have stayed days longer to explore the many alleyways.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber - Nuremberg

Nuremberg, the ‘most German of all German cities’ was our next destination.  We soon learnt that our campground made up part of the 11 sq km area that Hitler had set aside as part of his ‘Nuremberg Rally Grounds’.  We were less than ½ km from the famed Zeppelin Grounds where mass numbers rallied in front of Hitler in the 1930’s.

We visited the grounds and stood on the Fuhrur’s rostrum – an almost unsettling feeling.  We went to the ‘Fascination and Terror’ exhibition at the Congress Hall which provided an excellent insight into the mass propaganda campaign Hitler ran in the lead up to WWII.  A sickening recollection of the destruction caused by one man.

Nuremberg - Gunzburg

The next day mellowed the learning experience from the day before – LEGOLAND.  We donned our kids caps and had a wonderful day full of laughter – thoroughly recommend it.  Georgia was awe struck by the fantastic Lego displays of cities from all over the world.

Ellie loved driving a Lego car ‘all by herself’.  Tom loved absolutely everything.  Vid loved the pirate ships that could shoot people who you didn’t know with water until they were saturated and begging for mercy!  Sarah was pretty much like Tom and loved seeing the smiles on everyone’s faces – the least enjoyable was agreeing to go with Tom on the Hero Factory ride at level 5 (the fastest)!

Gunzburg - Augsburg - Munich

The next morning we spent sightseeing around Augsburg which was another old Roman city though it had a lot of Gothic and Renaissance architecture.  The Golden Room in the town hall was interesting, as were a number of the churches we stepped into.

On to Munich and another afternoon of feeling insignificant amongst the old city structures.  We walked through the Englische Garten (English Garden) – 373 ha and one of the largest urban parks in the world.  What a sanctuary for locals to stretch their legs.

It has two fast flowing narrow rivers meandering through its land – we saw amateurs tight-roping across it, others surfing on a man-made standing wave in the river and youths laughing and mucking around as they were carried at great pace by the river’s flow!

We spent the next morning at the BMW museum which was very interesting – it was presented immaculately and we had a great time admiring the latest in BMW technology.  After lunch we headed to Salzburg, Austria.

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