The end of the world

Well I think Sarah can do a more thorough post on our stay with her family in Rodalben but since i've got command of a computer i put one up for the time being (still not photos tho folks - i know, i know, blame the russians).

In all we spent about a week and a half in Rodalben with Sarah's family. This was definitely not enough. Although Rodalben is not a well known tourist destination (in fact it's not a known tourist destination at all, or even a tourist destination) being in Germany it was well endowed with castles, ruins and forests. Rodalben (for those of you who haven't visited before, ok all of you), is very close to the french border and i think we spent almost as much time in france as we did in germany. we also ducked across to luxembourg one day to check out the capital (ie. luxembourg - they obviously weren't very inventive with names).



Sarah's cousins only speak halting english and their parents not at all so our stay was punctuated with hand gestures, novice german and schnapps (spelling unknown). our stay got off to a flying start when i rocked up with a black eye. the 'beat a polish bar owner in a vodka drinking competition' story went down a treat when translated. the most memorable aspect to our stay was the food. sarah's cousin frank is a professional chef and happened to be on holiday during our stay so he spent a considerable amount of time in the kitchen. including on one occaision to prepare my 'ideal animal' - a meal composed of chicken breast, bacon, cheese and ham. being a chef he went all creative and threw in some egg, beef and bratwurst as well. the meal received fairly positive reviews.



despite waking up after breakfast most mornings we were basically force fed traditional german meals for dinner (accompanied by considerable amounts of alcohol) with the result of both of us putting on about 100kg. one of the other german activities we participated in was going to a soccer (fussball) match. we saw kaiserslautern flog some other team 2-0 which apparently is a very rare event indeed so we were very privilaged. it was a home game for K which obviously held special meaning for us aussies. i came home with a scarf and sarah came home with a cold chest (you figure it out).



anyway i have 28sec left on net so gotta go!!!

Poland

We spent Saturday / Sunday nights in Berlin and then we ducked over to Poznan in west Poland to catch up with Will on Monday night and then we headed back to Berlin Tuesday / Wednesday nights. So we didn't have all that long in Poland. The drive from Berlin to Poznan took about 3 and a half hours and was remarkable only for the rain and the extraordinary number of trucks and potholes on the polish roads.

We'd agreed to meet Will at the main square in Poznan so we headed in what we thought was that direction. Unsurprisingly neither Sarah nor I speak Polish and we didn't have a town map so our first two attempts were somewhat unsuccessful. Eventually we found a servo, admitted defeat and bought a map. After one more lap of Poznan (just to make sure we'd really seen the sights) we found the main square. Not much to it really, nor Poznan for that matter. Couple of nice looking churches and a lot of roadworks really.. the rain probably didn't help :)

After a short while we also found Will and his room-mate and set about finding the nearest watering hole. Will assured us he knew just the one and we headed that way. Apparently the barmaid was a friend and so we had a couple of beers. I might remind our readers at this point that 'a beer' in Europe refers to 500ml and not, as one might assume, a measly 275ml. So we were getting along alright and decided to grab some food (which wasn't bad) and hit up the local Aussie bar.

I'm not sure what about this bar distinguished it as the Aussie bar because as far as I could make out the owner and all the customers were (very) polish. In fact I think when Will and Martin first visited the establishment they were the first australians to do so. Anyway after a couple more drinks someone suggested shots. My recollection gets slightly hazy at this point but i remember tequila and vodka, lots of vodka, and something blue (which may have also been vodka). For some reason (which was obviously important but which now escapes me) i challenged the bar owner to an arm wrestle. This was probably my first mistake. Apparently 'arm wrestle' translates to Polish as 'vodka drinking competition'.

At this point I'll make a quick diversion to Sarah's memory. On returning from the toilet she found a disturbingly long line of empty shot glasses on the bar and the polish bar owner collapsed on the floor.

Back to my memory: I woke up at midday with a sore head. Apparently I had remained strong right up until the point where I had to walk somewhere. Also apparent (from my forehead) was the fact that I'd fallen over at some stage.



So.. Will's residence was located in a nice old (and large) building, now being used for a school about 30min out of town and we had lunch the next day in town at an interesting little place which served savory pancakes from around the world. The drive back to Berlin was surprisingly a lot better than the drive into Poland, probably because i slept for a large percentage of it.



Result: I don't actually remember a whole lot of Poznan and the only photos we've got are of a pretty decent sunset on the road back to Berlin.

Berlin (Part 3)

Just thought I'd add a couple a things to the main Berlin post..

Travelling on the autobahns with a new peugot at some stage we were going to have to test out how fast it would go. Usually in the unlimited areas we'd been sitting on about 150 and the car was doing this pretty easy at about 4000rpm. I think it was on a quite bit of road on the way to Berlin from Prague we got it up to about 196 before we hit a 120km/h speed zone so thought we'd better ease back a bit :) wouldn't have got much quicker tho - the speedo only goes up to 210.. there's video evidence too.

The drive from Berlin to Sarah's family in Rodalben (south west of frankfurt right near the french border) took us about 7 hours for those playing at home. In other news I forgot to read the ODO when we dropped the car back but it would've been about 4600km. Anyway, I'd better leave this post here before i confuse you with more time jumps..

PS. I'm in mockva and sarah's probably just touching down in aus!

Berlin (Part 1 & 2)

It's currently 12.29am Sunday morning - Sarah is flying home and i'm flying to Moscow later today!!

Back to the point... our time in Berlin was split between two short visits - we ducked over to Poland inbetween, but more about that later. We arrived Saturday evening and, due having obtained a map before entering the city limits, we arrived at our accommodation in record time. We were staying at another Wombats - the one in Munich was good and had a sister hostel - and so knew the drill. To obtain your room key you have to hand over some form of photo ID as insurance, our ID of choice was my MET concession card. To the uninitiated this may not seem out of the ordinary but if you've seen it before you'll understand when I say it scored us 8 free drinks in the house bar.



Since it was Saturday night and we'd heard Berliners liked to partay we decided to head out. Scouring the 'suggested night spots' we settled on a funky little bar with a swimming pool. No joke. To our great disappointment the pool was nowhere to be seen and is apparently closed during winter but the club was going off anyway and we got home about 5am. Sunday we arose slightly after breakfast closed and decided to head out and check out the sights. There were several markets setup and plenty of people about, a surprising percentage of whom were wearing inline skates. The reason for which turned out to be some sort of organised endurance event (complete with crowds, collapsing skaters and inappropriately worn bike shorts).



Our tour of Berlin's sights by foot led us to the Reichstag, which you can enter for free and climb the large dome on the roof - which apparently gives good views of the city. Being a sunday arvo the queue was phenomenal and being early spring in Germany it was raining and being still slightly drunk upon departing our residence that morning we had come out in light (un-waterproof) clothing. After a not so lengthy second glance at the queue we caught the train back to our hostel.



Sunday also happened to by our 1 year anniversary so we (read: Sarah) decided we'd better do something (or else..). Something turned out to be straightening Sarah's hair for what seemed like about 3 hours while Richard had a nap. By the time both parties were awake and ready to party it was approaching dinner time. However, we had 8 free drinks at the bar to make use of and being students it would have been rude of us not to do so. 3 romantic games of pool followed (in which Sarah was very unromantically flogged) before we realised it had approached dinner time quite some time before and was fast approaching not dinner time.



We were both pretty hungry and so settled upon the first open place we happened across. This turned out to be some sort of brauhaus, which also may have been in some sort of shopping centre. Some may claim this is not the most romantic setting by I'll take this opportunity to point out that we were having dinner in a traditional German restaurant in Berlin, which ought to be worth more than a couple of flowers.



So the next morning we headed to Poland to meet up with Will (Richard's cousin) and we returned to Berlin on Tuesday. We spent a day checking out the sights we'd missed on the weekend (including the Reichstag dome and Checkpoint Charlie). The most memorable aspect to the dome was the inordinately time consuming security check on the way in. The checkpoint Charlie museum was quite good but surprisingly huge and packed full of exhibits and information. It was a mix of personal stories, genuine and mock artifacts, artwork and a detailed history of the whole affair. The museum opened in 1962 and bits and pieces had been added ever since so it was a bit confusing at some times but worth a look.



We spent one more night in Berlin before heading across Germany to Sarah's relatives.

Postcript to Prague

Hi,

Sorry I just have to add two small things that were quite amusing that Richard realised he had forgot to put in.

On our drive out of Czech Republic we were pulled over by the police. This made us both a little nervous as we were thinking about the visa that we did not have. We had to show our passports which were conveniently in the boot of the car, locked in our packs and somewhat buried. Then we had to show our drivers license which were in the glove box! Then we were asked for our car papers!! What??? We had no idea what he was talking about. Lucky for us we are Australian as this did seem to please the officer who called out to his mate "skippy" and pointed at us. He was looking at my passport and it seemed he recognised that I have a German surname, so he asked me in German do I speak German. I thought about what response I should give as I know a number of random sentences and decided that I would go with "we are having fun"!! I thought it would ease the nervousness I was feeling and everyone always laughs when I say it! Well it worked a treat! He laughed handed us back our stuff and did not worry about the car papers and we were on our way again

Not ten mins down the road from this there was a house on the side of the road with big windows. Richard was driving so I noticed it and he did not. I thought it was strange because before we got right in front of it I thought I could see what looked like a leg wearing stockings and a high heel in the window. I found this strange and was wondering if it was a real leg. Well it was!!! And it was attached to a prostitute who was displaying her wares in the window!!! I was so suprised and shocked that I let out some sort of cry which startled Richard! I almost wanted him to turn back so he could see because it was one of the funniest things I have ever seen (as well as a little shocking).

So we must go again. We will write more later.

Love us

Prague

On the way to Prague we stopped by a German town by the name of Regensburg because we'd been reliably informed that it was a medieval town worth checking out. First impressions were to the contrary but after having a bit of a look around we found the old town centre which was nice and included a spectactular cathedral - why is it that all the massive churches are dedicated to St. Peter??



After Regensburg we continued towards the Czech Rep. and we had a quick read through the reading material we had whilst on the way. Unfortunately the only reading material material we possessed contained little information on Prague and the only information it provided for the C.R. was that Australian visitors required a visa. Well we didn't have one so we presumed (somewhat optimistically) that the C.R. had joined the EU since publication of this particular volume. We presumed correctly and cruised through yet another border gate without troubling our passports.



We had decided to make Berlin by the weekend so we only had 1 and 1/2 days in Prague. The first evening we ate and drank at our hostel - which, by the way we have decided was queer. It was called something inauspicious but their motto was 'for people like us' and the guys behing the front desk were wearing pink polo shirts. To cap it off, some of the TV's in the dining room were continuously playing 'GayTV'. BUT, the rooms were cheap, they had an indoor swimming pool, and there was an attached bar/restaurant with good pizza and cheap beer. Hence we ate and drank at our hostel the 2nd night as well.



We did, however, venture out into the city to check out the sights which included the impressive St. Vitus's Cathedral complex and the old bridge / town. On the Friday night we hit the town after dinner. It was pretty busy but we found a couple of nice places. One of which was advertising the opportunity to fire genuine AK47's, uzi's, pump action shotguns and high power rifles. Unfortunately we had to leave early the next morning.



So I found Prague a nice, old, cheap European city - worth spending longer in than we did. Sarah however found the locals decidedly unfriendly and dodgey (which is hard to argue with) and was unswayed by the beauty of the skyline.

Saturday morning we made extensive use of the free internet at our hostel then headed for Berlin!!

Munich

After dropping Mick off at the station in Salzburg we made tracks for Munich. It was a ripping day and a pity to be wasting it in the car but it made the drive more relaxing than previous experiences..

We arrived in Munich in mid-afternoon. By arrived I mean the first time we exited the motorway. By the fourth time we exited the motorway it was more like late afternoon. Eventually we temporarily abandoned the car and continued on foot in search of some sort of map or tourist information. We had actually been told of a good place to stay in central Munich and had booked accom. (a relatively new experience for us which we starting to get used to). This however was a two sided coin because it meant we had to find a specific hostel in Munich rather than any of the countless hostels and hotels we were passing. Eventually we happened upon a detailed road map for $4.50 (can't find the cursed euro symbol) and discovered that our hostel was indeed in prime position over the road from the central station. We proceeded there (almost) directly.



The Wombats Hostel (some tenuous Australian connection tho none of the staff are aussies) was actually pretty flash and good value for money. One of the best things was the town map and suggestions for things to do / see / eat / drink / etc which you got given after checking in. That evening we headed to one of the suggested dining locations and dined heartily on the closest thing to a parma we've come across in Europe. After tea we decided to head for Ned Kelly's aussie bar. On the way we walked down the main drag - Munich is a very pretty town (it doesn't seem like a city at all). The centre of town is dotted with churches and cathedrals and the Rathaus is a large intricately decorated gothic building. The aussie bar was almost as tacky as expected and they weren't even playing afl on the big screen so we had the requisite couple of Fosters and headed home.



The next day we repeated our tour of the main drag and checked inside a couple of the churches and the townhall (Rathaus) before heading to the Hofbrauhaus for lunch and Mass beers (1L). That arvo we checked out the Deutches Museum which is meant to be one of the best (and biggest) technology museums in the world. It was Sarah's idea, obviously. Well all I can say is that when they offer multi-day passes at the entrance, they mean it. The place was huge. It was packed full of genuine pieces of technology ranging from windmills, to mining equipment, to laser cutters, production lines, cars, aeroplanes, space ships, rockets, submarines, diving equipment, boats, bridges, etc, etc. Sarah had a ball. We decided we'd better leave at closing time after nearly being locked in the toilets.



That night we met up with our local contact (Alister - a friend of Richard's) and got a bit of a guided tour around part of the city we hadn't seen and a great meal. We mustn't have disgraced ourselves to much because we scored the use of Alister and his girlfriend's bikes for the next day. We arose early at the indecent hour of 10am and proceeded to pick up the bikes from the agreed location. Munich is very flat so it's difficult to get an idea for the size of the city from street level so we cycled over to Munich's olympic park where there's a man made hill (from post WW2 rubble). The view was pretty decent but Sarah discovered on the way down that her bike was devoid of any form of braking equipment. We therefore proceeded at a fair clip to the English gardens - which are the biggest city gardens in Europe I think. The gardens surround a central lake, biergartens and nude bathing area. We checked out 2 of the 3 (to the great disappoinment of one of our party).



The most memorable bit about the gardens was the surfing area, no joking. Where one of the rivers flows into the gardens under a bridge a permanent wave has been created. The water was bloody freezing but there was about half a dozen well insulated surfers giving it a crack. It was pretty hilarious and unexpected.



The next day we decided to check out some of the castles surrounding Munich. Turns out the weather didn't agree and it was raining pretty solidly. We'd both seen Neuschwanstein before so Sarah decided to take me to her favourite castle from her previous trip. Linderhof is a pretty small castle compared to others but it the only one of Ludwig's castles to be completed and it was amazing inside. Packed with gold, silver, mirrors, chandeliers, and even a dinner table which rose up through the floor. In the surrounding gardens there was even a man made cave with a lake in which the king held concerts!



We'd decided to head to Berlin via Prague so we left Munich there and made tracks for the Czech Republic.