Germany Tour Day 4 - 19th Sept

Berlin

After World War II, Germany was split into 4 parts that were each occupied and ruled by each foreign government that defeated Germany – the Soviet Union, USA, England and France.

East Germany belonged to the communist Soviet Union whilst the Western part of Germany belonged to the Allied forces and was democratic. Berlin is situated in the East part of Germany but as it was the capital, it was split as well. 

Following the Cold War and until 1989 there stood a wall between East and West Germany. West Berlin was controlled by Allied forces but was isolated from the rest of the Allied West Germany and so there was a time when the Soviet Union tried to blockade supplies entering West Berlin with an aim of seizing the West as well as the East. The blockade did not work as the Allied forces flew supplies into Berlin for about a year. Whilst the Soviets could control land access to West Berlin, they could not control air access. To do so would risk a war in the already tense Cold War.

Bricks in the road show where the wall used to be.

The wall eventually fell on the 9^th November, 1989 and Berlin and Germany were reunified. Today we went to a memorial site of the wall. The line where the wall was still runs through the streets of Berlin with a brick line marking where it was. In some places the wall is still intact and serves as a reminder of a dark time in the history of Germany.

At the memorial site, there is a centre where we watched a short video on what things were like before the wall went up and then had an account of the wall’s construction and then eventual destruction.

View from the East with guard tower

For the people on the East side, the wall represented entrapment and the tyranny of communism. There were actually two walls. From the East side there is one wall that can be seen by those in the east... but escaping East Germany was more than meets the eye. Beyond the first wall there was a patch of area that was booby trapped. Guard stations were erected at frequent intervals. There was trip wire that signaled the tower of a possible escapee. Close to the second wall that is on the Western side, there were some land mines. There was definitely no escaping East Germany as you would either be caught or shot. There is a memorial for the fallen in a park on what was the east side of the 

wall.

A memorial to those who died trying to cross from East to West

The wall from the West side. It is around 3 meters tall.

A short drive away, there is also another 1.3km intact wall. This is the Eastern Gallery and artists have used the wall as a canvas to depict certain parts of the history of the wall.

This is apparently quite famous. Will let the link explain.

Berlin is the capital city of Germany following reunification. There are many museums in Berlin that look worthwhile. Unfortunately, I had come down with a cold the day before. After going to the Berlin Wall memorial, I felt like I couldn’t put one foot infront of another because the cold was knocking me around a bit. Went back to the hotel to sleep for the afternoon… So exploring the rest of Berlin will have to wait for another time…

The Old Berlin museum - Art Museum

Berlin Cathedral

Germany Tour Day 3 - 18th Sept

Wittenberg, Potsdam and Berlin

Well Wittenberg is famous for being the place where Martin Luther nailed his 95 thesis on the door of the church protesting the sale of indulgences by the Catholic church. 

On the way, our guide gave us a bit of information about the economic situation of Germany. Wittenberg is located in the old East Germany. The remains of communism can be seen in the poverty of the towns all around but Wittenberg attracts many tourists due to its connection to Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon who were two influential reformers of the church. 

Looking back at the Castle Church from the town

The town is very small. As you drive in there is the Castle Church in front. There is a big dome with "Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott" (A mighty fortress is our God" written on it.

The door on which Martin Luther nailed his theses on 31^st October 1517 has been replaced by a door bearing the inscription of the 95 theses. It is gated off so you can only take photos but not touch. The outside of the church is undergoing repair at the moment and this restoration is expected to finish for the 500^th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017. Inside the church are statues of Luther and Melanchthon and they are also buried inside the church. 

Walking a little further down the road into the town, there is a square and the town hall. There are again statues of Luther and Melanchthon outside the town hall. The outdoor cafés and restaurants and little shops all along the street are very busy with tourist traffic.

Walking a little further, there is another church – St. Mary’s church where Luther preached a lot of his reformation sermons. 

About 15mins walk down the main road, there is a university and just past that are the grounds of Lutherhaus - Martin Luther’s house. In his early days, Luther lived here as it was the Augustine monastry and then later he became the owner and lived there with his wife Katherine. There is a museum there now depicting the life of Luther. 

After Wittenberg we drove towards Berlin, stopping at Potsdam first. We went to have a look at the San-Souci Palace which was built as a summer palace by Frederick the Great (a Prussian King) in the 18^th century. 

It’s interesting to go from Wittenberg – a historical Christian site to San-Souci. Basically Frederick was a gay pedophile who was married for appearances but built this palace as a place to get away. No women were allowed in the palace and our guide joked about “Sans-Souci” meaning “no worries” in French because it was a place of peace for men away from women. Anyway, it’s a very small palace because Frederick’s wife and the rest of the family were housed in a palace elsewhere. 

One interesting fact is that Frederick the Great is credited with the introduction of the potato to Europe. Potsdam is actually the home of some 300,000 army men who were loyal to Frederick’s father. Driving around, the buildings still resemble barracks. So Frederick had to come up with an economical way to feed that many men and so he brought the potato over to Europe. Frederick is buried in the gardens at San-Souci and people come and put potatoes on his grave in tribute. 

 

Late in the afternoon, we arrived in Berlin and were able to walk around a bit near the Brandenberg gate. In the 17^th century, Berlin was a walled city with many entry gates. After a war, King Frederick William II of Prussia commissioned the building of this gate as a sign of peace. It’s probably one of the most well-known tourist attractions in Berlin. 

Germany Tour Day 2 - 17th Sept

Weimar – Dresden

We left Weimar early in the morning to make it to Dresden by lunchtime. 

Dresden was a beautiful city before the second world war. One of the most prominent rulers of this area was Augustine the Great. Dresden was bombed in 1945 by Allied troups and according to our guide this was the largest loss of civilian life in the area. It is one thing to bomb military installations but Dresden was not involved in the war. There was massive destruction and the city is only just being rebuilt in the last 20 or so years. 

The Opera House

It is a beautiful city that is often called ‘Florence of the Elbe’. Walking around, you would think that it’s quite old. The restoration process is trying to recreate the Dresden of old before the war. A lot of the buildings look quite black and this is mostly because the sandstone they are made of absorbs pollution.

In our walking tour, we looked at the buildings that were being restored. The first one was the opera house. Across the square from that was the old theatre that was actually turned into a Catholic church. Apparently Augustine(1553-1586) had ambitions of ruling Poland so arranged to marry the princess of Poland to eventually inherit the throne. However, being Protestant (as Germany was Lutheran) was a problem. So he turned the theatre into a Catholic church and “converted” to Catholicism. The church adjoins the main palace because the theatre once did. 

The church/theatre on the left adjoins the Palace (the one with the tower).

 

Also adjoining the palace on the other side is another yellow palace building which Augustine built for his mistress. It adjoins the palace for his convenience and I suppose it was then just common knowledge. On the other side of town is another palace he built for another mistress…

After looking at the palace, we walked into a magnificent square. It was meant to be a garden but due to the weather, the greenest part is the nicely manicured grass. In summer there are some orange and lemon trees as well. The square is surrounded by buildings with lots of glass panes. These house the citrus trees in the colder months.

Another of the big sights to see in Dresden is the main church (Frauenkirche – Church of Our Lady). It was reconstructed from parts of the rubble of the old church and you can see some black stones interspersed with the newer sandstone slabs as they tried to place the original stones in their original position. Outside the church is a statue of Martin Luther. These days though, the church is an ecumenical church as many different religious groups (Catholic, Lutheran, Muslim) contributed money to the rebuilding.  

We had a few hours of free time to explore so Cat and I went nuts and rushed around. The first sight we went to see was the remains of a fortress in Dresden. It was built near the water and over time it sank into the ground. 

Then we went to the Grand Palace to see the Historisches Grunes Gewolbe. This ‘green room’ contains an exhibition of jewelry and goldsmith art. The elaborate rooms are filled with precious objects, statues and jewelry made of amber, ivory and other precious stones. 

the Frauenkirche church in the background

Lastly, we visited the dome of the Frauenkirche church. The church is 91m (300ft) high. You can actually climb almost to the top to have a great view over the city. We definitely had our exercise climbing the ramps and stairs to the top but it was a nice view. It was a pity that the lookout closed just a little before sunset as I was looking forward to taking some sunset pictures.

After a quick dinner, we were knackered and so returned to the hotel to try to recuperate for the next day…    

View from the top of the dome over the river.

The Fraukenkirche church in the background. This was a very pretty square.

Germany Tour Day 1 - 16th Sept

Frankfurt – Eisenach – Weimar

The hotel’s buffet breakfast was interesting with lots of different cuisine. The thing to note is lots and lots of cheeses… lots of different cheeses. The other interesting breakfast foods were fried herring, pork pate and what looked like some kind of pickled sardine on a stick…

I was just not brave enough to try… Well our guided bus tour is underway. The first stop was Eisenach which was the birthplace of Johann Sebastian Bach in 1685 and he lived there until he was 10 yrs old. They have set up a museum and you can see the Bach house. Also down the road is the house where Martin Luther resided for a time after being released from his exile at Wartburg Castle. The street is actually named Lutherstrauβe.

After a brief stop in Eisenach we drove up to Wartburg Castle. I was really keen to see the castle where Martin Luther lived in 1521-2 following his confrontation with the Holy Roman Emperor at the Diet of Worms and subsequent excommunication from the Catholic church.

The castle was built in 1067 by Count Ludwig der Springer (Ludwig the Leaper). The road up to the castle is very steep as it sits on top of a mountain. The castle has had many inhabitants in its time and was also the home of Catholic saint Elizabeth.

There is a tour of the castle that goes through the various rooms that each look quite different depending on when they were altered or furnished.

There is a very grand concert hall where Wagner's music was first performed.

The last room you come to on the tour is Luther’s room where he lived in 1521-22. It is very modestly furnished. This was where he translated a German version of the Bible. An interesting thing to note whilst looking around the room was that next to his desk was a big whale vertebra – just seemed very random to me.

In the afternoon we reached the city of Weimar where we did a walking tour of the city. Our tour guide is a musician so likes to tell us about music history. In Weimar we were able to see Lizst’s house. Weimar is famous for being the home of two of Germany’s prolific writers – Schiller and Geothe. There is a monument of the two of them outside the town hall. On our walking tour we also learned a little about Bauhaus architecture.

Walking a little more, there was a yellow wall on which a couple of plaques tell you that it’s the remains of the place where Johann Sebastian Bach used to live and also Hans Christian Anderson. Nearby there is a bust memorial for Johann Sebastian Bach. Just around the corner of this is the music conservatorium which our guide tells us is considered one of the top conservatoriums in Germany. Outside the conservatorium there is a statue of a man on a horse. He was Carl August who was the ruler of the region in the early 1800’s.

Our hotel is just out of town. The tour guide reckons it's about a 20 min walk... but we had some free time and I started to walk towards the town before turning back as I would be late for dinner. The area is very green with a beautiful park with a lake across the road from the hotel. Would love to have seen more of Weimar but we only get a taste on this tour.

Sydney to Frankfurt 14-15th September

Well what an ordeal… it took around 28 hours to finally arrive in Frankfurt airport. The first leg of the flight was the toughest and the longest. From Sydney we flew for 10hrs to Bangkok where there was only an hour of stop over. It was enough for us to stretch our legs out.

The second leg was around 5 hours to Dubai where there was meant to be a 2hr stopover and turned into a 5hr one when the plane had “technical difficulties”. Dubai airport is one very busy airport with lots and lots of shopping outlets. The problem with being stuck in transit was that we still had to stay in the lounge and couldn’t really move around the airport… so it was very very boring!

We were finally on our way for the last 7 hours and finally arrived in Frankfurt. The jetlag and tiredness kicked in. Went for a walk around Frankfurt near the station and down to the Main river. There is a really beautiful riverside walk. Walking the city, you notice that there is definitely a mixture of new and old buildings or new and old architecture. It’s almost as if they city cant make up its mind.

There are a few boats cruising down the river but there was an interesting sight on the river. It looked like a big ski tube/biscuit with a bbq in the middle. There were a couple of them floating down the river with young people enjoying their bbq and beers. Decided to find a very German place to have dinner. Ended up at a great restaurant a few streets away from the central station and close to where we were staying. I had been looking forward to a German schnitzel so that’s exactly what I ordered… with beer of course!

After the great walk and dinner, Cat and I were just so tired. We would have benefited from staying up just a little longer but both of us were so tired that we absolutely crashed the minute we got back to the hotel at around 9pm.