Copyright (C) 2003 Adam Boggs
My last report ended in Prague, a beautiful town with good food and incredibly cheap. From Prague I went to Berlin, where I met up with some friends I met while in Madrid. They live in an area called Kreuzberg, which is where a lot of nightlife and crazy people hang out. In addition to just hanging out and having a good time with them, I spent several days exploring Berlin with a free place to stay! The first day I saw the Reichstag building, the main government building today and also the building in which a suspicious fire started in the 1930's that ultimately allowed Hitler to declare a state of emergency and gain dictatorial power over the parliament. When the government moved back into the building in the 1990's, a glass dome was put on during the reconstruction, providing a really nice view of the city. A brief walk through the Tiergarten park took me to Brandenburger Tor, which is a big gate built back in the 15th century by the Prussians as a symbol of victory, but was walled off during the days of the Berlin Wall, and became somewhat of a symbol for freedom after the wall fell in 1989.
There are still a few fragments of the wall remaining; the east-side gallery is a famous stretch with many cool paintings on it. Another part was preserved closer to downtown (near the brand new Potsdammerplatz, built in an area previously bombed during the war then left barren as a no-man's zone during the years of the wall, and now a high tech skyscraper complex). The downtown bit of the wall was left up near a museum detailing the persecution of the Jews, which is a sobering tale and a difficult one to hear, but nevertheless part of history. It's also near "Checkpoint Charlie", which was the only portal between east and west Berlin, which still has the guardhouse and the sign where you can take your picture. I get the feeling that even now much of Germany is still trying to come to face with what happened during the Nazi regime. Still, many of the signs of WW2 that remain as symbols are destruction caused by the allies in the 1950's, 10 years after the real problems had already started in their country and millions were already dead by their own government. Another memorial in Berlin really hit home for me though, dedicated directly to all of the people murdered during the holocaust. It was impossible to not let a tear drop reading the sign at the memorial.
Otherwise, I spent a lot of time walking through the Tiergarten and hanging out with my friends. Steffen is a trumpet player and one night we went to this cool club where they play a lot of "new music" (for lack of a better word) to listen to him play. It was very cool. Afterward, there was another group that played music on different bicycles rigged with various music making gadgets. Also very entertaining. In the end, I spent 4 days in Berlin and could have spent a lot longer. It turns out that Viola and Steffen were going to the same place I was next, which is near their hometown of Wurzburg. So I hitched a ride down with them in their rental car instead of taking the train... much more fun!
They actually dropped me off in Nurnburg, which is famous for the Nuremburg Trials after WW2, but is also generally a very cool medieval town. I stayed in the youth hostel there which is in the castle at the top of the hill. They were having a huge outdoor market in the Marktplatz that was like a big flea market. I was explaining to Viola and Steffen the concept of a yard sale, which is a little bit foreign in much of europe because nobody has yards. It occurred to me that sales like this must be a way for people to get rid of their old stuff.
From Nurnburg I went to Wurzburg, which is the start of the Romantic Road, which I had planned to spend several days biking down. Wurzburg had a big festival the day I got there though. It was really fun, but the bike rental place was closed. It turns out that it's also closed (despite what the sign says) on sundays, and mondays too. So no bike rental, which sort of spoiled my plans for the next several days. (The festival was a lot of fun though with lots of live music on every street corner, beer booths and prezel stands everwhere... very cool.) So I headed to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, another medieval city and the next big site on the romantic road, by train.
Rothenburg is a very well preserved medieval city that was only 30% bombed by the americans towards the end of WWII. The two generals met prior to the US giving the order to bomb the rest of it, and despite Hitler's orders to not negotiate with the enemy, the US decided not to annihlate the great walled city if they would surrender. So as a result, much of the town still exists today as it did 1000 years ago. I stayed in a nice B&B in a little cottage in the backyard of a house with a beirgarten right next door. At 8pm, which is dark here now, the nightwatchmen gives his tour around the city. He dressed up in the robe, carried the halberd and lamp, and told the history of the city and what it was like to be a nightwatchman in the middle ages. Then I retired to a restaurant called "hell" for a couple of beers with some friends I had met. In Rothenburg, if you're walking around late at night and someone yells "go to hell!", it might just be a good recommendation.
I finally managed to rent a bicycle, and spent the next 4 days biking the Romantische Strasse. It was a great ride, covering about 120 KM in 3 days of riding. The landscape here is speckled with little towns with the prominant church cathedral/clock in the middle. I must have ridden through 20 towns a day. It was great fun, a lot of exercise, and nice to stay in some small towns again after the energy in Berlin. The Bavarian Gasthaus (guest house) is quite popular and each town has at least a couple. It's usually a nice room, a good restaurant downstairs for breakfast, dinner, or just a beer, and good company. I've been able to pretty much always find a decent room for 20 euros including breakfast, though I have stayed in some pretty "interesting" places.
On the last day of the bike trip I returned to Rothenburg by train to return the bike, but had some time to spare. So I rode out to the airport which was near town. Just as I arrived, a guy pulled up in a little microlight plane. I asked him if he spoke english, and of course he did. They were here to pick up parts from another plane that was wrecked, but it was missing one. One of the guys was going to fly up to Frankfurt and back to pick up the missing part, which was an hour or so each way. I asked if I could tag along, and he said sure why not. So I climbed into this little two-seater microlight plane (It's a real plane, not an ultralight) with a total stranger, and flew over the German countryside to Frankfurt and back. What a blast! The guy is a flight instructor here with 1300 hours, and an airplane mechanic, so I trusted him enough. But to see Germany from the air was an experience. Plus just getting to talk to a foreigner (oh wait, that's me) about airplanes for a while was cool.
That evening I headed to Munich to meet up with my brother's long-time friend Adam (yes, another Adam), and my Lara's (whom I stayed with in Lausanne, Switzerland) husband, Wolfram. Again, it was really nice to have locals to hang with. Adam is from Boulder and moved to Munich a couple of years ago, so it was also a nice connection to home. The first day he showed me around town. There was the Andechs pub for a dunkles, then saw some important buildings and a cool boroque church, then went to the english gardens where exhibitionist men hang out naked showing off their stuff. Then to the Hofbrauhaus for another beer (or two?) before heading back to Adam's place for another beer.
Did I mention that beer is big here in Munich? Especially now, which is Oktoberfest. One of the most famous festivals in the world! Opening day was saturday when the breweries parade through town with the kegs and then at noon they tap the first one and the beer starts to flow. By 3pm people were drunk and puking in the streets, and it pretty much proceeds thusways for a full 2 weeks. Excessive? Definately. Our day started with beer at 9am and Weisswurst (white sausage), pretzles, and of course laderhosen, the traditional leather pants. The traditional female outfit is a "dirndl", which even though is "traditional" is somehow also really hot. Maybe it's the cleavage factor designed into it. The next day we rallied for beers as the Andechs Monestary, where the monks there brew beer that might almost make celebacy tolerable, and serve such delights as the extremely tender and tasty "pork knuckles". It's a 30 minute hike into the hills just to get to it, and the view of the countryside and far off alps was very nice. Now I have to go home and brew some lagers...the Andechs, Augustinerbrau, and Franziskaner beer is all fantastic (and brewed extra strong for Oktoberfest) but only available here in Bavaria.
Well, that was Germany. A 2 week tour from Berlin; through the Romantic Road on bike with medievil villages, castles and tiny towns; meeting a random fellow pilot and flying through the countryside; and spending a few days in Munich with old buddies, good beer, and of course the infamous Oktoberfest. Now I'm heading to Amsterdam to take a break from drinking. My next report will probably be my last one from Europe with Amsterdam, Paris, and London as my last few stops. It seems like a lot to cover in under 2 weeks! I'm looking forward to heading back towards home though.
Take care,
-Adam
