Hello!
I've just finished uploading my journal for our latest holiday - South Germany and the Black Forest. We rented a car and flew into Munich, travelling to the south and following the border before going up through teh Black forest and zig-zagging our way up to Frankfurt where we flew home. It was great fun and the weather was kind to us for most of the time :)
Photo link: https://picasaweb.google.com/brocklehurst79/Germany2013
Okay, so I've uploaded everything as I usually do.....please excuse any mistakes, I wrote this on my iPad and it has a habit of correcting a few words here and there. So hopefully 99% of it will make sense.....
Enjoy!
Siobhan xx
Sunday, 23 June 2013
Saturday June 1st
Ugh. The earliest start I think we have ever had......we didn't think this through properly, did we? Morning flight to arrive in the after own sounded fine until we realised that we hadn't really accounted for the time it would take to get to Heathrow.....!
So we had a little breakfast but at 3:30 my stomach at least wasn't sure about having any food in it, but Mathew felt fine. Our taxi arrived slightly earlier than we had anticipated, but it got us to the bus station in no time.
The bus was fairly empty, the traffic light and the weather sunny. We arrived at Heathrow Terminal 1 on time at 7:30 and headed straight in to drop off our bags. The queue was long but it moved fast, looking back a few times we realised we got there just in time! We stopped off to buy a bottle of water and some mini cheddars (which I had to scan my boarding pass for!??) before sitting down for a moment whilst waiting to find out what gate we had to go to. Fortunately gate 17 wasn't too far away and we were there and on the plane in no time.
On the plane we had a Croquet Monsiuer which filled our stomachs nicely, I tried to read a little but a headache had started so I closed my eyes. Suddenly we were descending into Munich Airport and we were off the plane, the flight having been fairly uneventful with the exception of the steward taking a shine to Mathew. He kept telling him to smile, although I didn't think he looked particularly grumpy..!
Off the plane and into the Airport. We breezed through Passport control (Go EU!), had nothing to declare and went straight on to collect our hire car. Even though the Airport and the car hire "hub" were in seperate buildings, the outside area in between was covered with a giant canopy which was pretty impressive, and fortunate for us as it was tipping it down outside. We were in the queue for the car for a little while, but when we did get seen to it seemed ours was much more straightforward than everyone else before us. So our economy car turned out to be a SKODA Yeti. Economical, yes. Absolutely massive!! #weaskedforasmallcar
Our first experience on German roads was....interesting...! First of all Mathew had to get used to a diesel car; he was less concerned about driving on the other side of the road as he had done it before in Canada. Although these roads seemed rather narrow......it felt a bit hairy in places but it was just a case of getting used to the width of the car. We managed to get ourselves from the Airport to the ring road around Munich, but we ended up turning off too soon resulting in a driving close to the city centre. But we got through it and out onto the other side, after having sussed out German road signs somewhat #somanysigns. Into the countryside where the roads were nowhere near as congested, we found Obendorf pretty easily and the hotel even easier. Obendorf seemed like a fairly small place with plenty of traditional style Bavarian buildings, especially the hotel which had a really cosy atmosphere inside! I rang the bell at reception and this is when we discovered that we had inadvertently landed ourselves in the heart of traditional Baravia where little English is known, or so it seemed. Not that we minded, even though our German isn't particularly good, we managed to understand each other, especially as I recognise a good handful of words. I thought she spoke quickly but not as fast as I've heard French, Italian and Spanish - I was actually able to isolate the words I am familiar with, which I somehow can't with other languages. I knew I should have worked harder at learning German before we got here! #lazybones Our room was on the top floor with a shared balcony looking out over the car park and some fields beyond it. We went back down to get our luggage and stopped off to have a look at the menu for the restaurant. There was no English translation (as we expected) so we thought we may have an interesting dinner.....! We thought it a good idea to take my German phrase book with us. It's a pretty old one (Deutschmarks still in use!) but I doubt the language has changed! Back in the room, we had a doze until about 18:00 when we went downstairs to investigate and translate dinner.
In the restaurant we were greeted by a waitress wearing traditional Bavarian costume - in fact, the entire hotel was Baravian style inside and out. We were seated and menus given, and we safely managed to order a large coke and a small sprite. We read the menu with the phrase book, not understanding everything but enough to be able to choose something which we knew most of! I chose a fish called perch which came with parsley potatoes and a salad. Mathew ordered Schnitzel (escalope) which actually turned out to be veal which he didn't realise until later. Even though I was really hungry, I couldn't finish the meal entirely, possibly because lack of sleep seems to disturb my appetite/digestion somewhat, but Mathew finished his and we were both stuffed. During the meal we both managed to nod appreciation when guessing if we were being asked if we were enjoying it. We came to the conclusion that they do the same thing everywhere - it must be a thing waiting staff are trained to do: wait until the customer puts a forkful of food in their mouth and THEN ask if they're enjoying it! #tacticalquestioning
I managed to ask for the bill and I paid in cash, rounding it up which added 2 euros after I couldn't find the German words for "Service Included" on the receipt which I was given (I had just looked it up in the phrase book). The waitress seemed rather pleased with this, and then wished us a pleasant evening (I think).
Back in the room we chilled out some more, and had a look through the TV channels to see if we could find a weather report. We found three different reports but none went into great detail, all gave us generic World weather. However, we did discover that there was some serious flooding going on in Dresden, and there was yet more rain forecast for south Germany. The map looked like rain covered the entire country, but Mathews weather app which had downloaded the most recent info last night stated that the rain would blow itself out of Germany by the beginning of next week, getting brighter and sunnier. We hoped this would be the case! A good night's sleep was needed, and we had no trouble getting it.
So we had a little breakfast but at 3:30 my stomach at least wasn't sure about having any food in it, but Mathew felt fine. Our taxi arrived slightly earlier than we had anticipated, but it got us to the bus station in no time.
The bus was fairly empty, the traffic light and the weather sunny. We arrived at Heathrow Terminal 1 on time at 7:30 and headed straight in to drop off our bags. The queue was long but it moved fast, looking back a few times we realised we got there just in time! We stopped off to buy a bottle of water and some mini cheddars (which I had to scan my boarding pass for!??) before sitting down for a moment whilst waiting to find out what gate we had to go to. Fortunately gate 17 wasn't too far away and we were there and on the plane in no time.
On the plane we had a Croquet Monsiuer which filled our stomachs nicely, I tried to read a little but a headache had started so I closed my eyes. Suddenly we were descending into Munich Airport and we were off the plane, the flight having been fairly uneventful with the exception of the steward taking a shine to Mathew. He kept telling him to smile, although I didn't think he looked particularly grumpy..!
Off the plane and into the Airport. We breezed through Passport control (Go EU!), had nothing to declare and went straight on to collect our hire car. Even though the Airport and the car hire "hub" were in seperate buildings, the outside area in between was covered with a giant canopy which was pretty impressive, and fortunate for us as it was tipping it down outside. We were in the queue for the car for a little while, but when we did get seen to it seemed ours was much more straightforward than everyone else before us. So our economy car turned out to be a SKODA Yeti. Economical, yes. Absolutely massive!! #weaskedforasmallcar
In the restaurant we were greeted by a waitress wearing traditional Bavarian costume - in fact, the entire hotel was Baravian style inside and out. We were seated and menus given, and we safely managed to order a large coke and a small sprite. We read the menu with the phrase book, not understanding everything but enough to be able to choose something which we knew most of! I chose a fish called perch which came with parsley potatoes and a salad. Mathew ordered Schnitzel (escalope) which actually turned out to be veal which he didn't realise until later. Even though I was really hungry, I couldn't finish the meal entirely, possibly because lack of sleep seems to disturb my appetite/digestion somewhat, but Mathew finished his and we were both stuffed. During the meal we both managed to nod appreciation when guessing if we were being asked if we were enjoying it. We came to the conclusion that they do the same thing everywhere - it must be a thing waiting staff are trained to do: wait until the customer puts a forkful of food in their mouth and THEN ask if they're enjoying it! #tacticalquestioningI managed to ask for the bill and I paid in cash, rounding it up which added 2 euros after I couldn't find the German words for "Service Included" on the receipt which I was given (I had just looked it up in the phrase book). The waitress seemed rather pleased with this, and then wished us a pleasant evening (I think).
Back in the room we chilled out some more, and had a look through the TV channels to see if we could find a weather report. We found three different reports but none went into great detail, all gave us generic World weather. However, we did discover that there was some serious flooding going on in Dresden, and there was yet more rain forecast for south Germany. The map looked like rain covered the entire country, but Mathews weather app which had downloaded the most recent info last night stated that the rain would blow itself out of Germany by the beginning of next week, getting brighter and sunnier. We hoped this would be the case! A good night's sleep was needed, and we had no trouble getting it.
Sunday June 2nd
Why was Mathew surprised that I know the German word for Breakfast? #Itsallaboutthefood. It was served between 7 - 10am and we thought it a good idea to have an early start as we had a couple of things on our itinerary today - a day in Munich visiting the Deutsches Museum and Schloss Nymphenburg.
Before we made any decisions, we put the TV on to find a more detailed weather report for Germany. Still no luck. When we looked out of the window it looked even wetter than it did yesterday! Yuck. Downstairs we headed to the breakfast room which turned out to be in a different place to the restaurant. We bumped into one of the waitresses at the bottom of the stairs and she showed us through. It was a large room, but there were only two people in it when we arrived. We sat down and asked for a cup of tea for Mathew at which point she showed us where the hot water, tea bags and pots were. After that we were sorted - the buffet had everything you could have asked for, juices, cereals, different types of bread, honey, jam, chocolate spread (yes, Nutella!), crackers, cheese, ham, salad, fruit salad.....
I think my stomach was still settling so I just went for cereal, although I had some bread with Nutella after which I thought I may have chosen the wrong bread perhaps...? #interesting Outside we could see a number of people arriving by car, parking outside the hotel and the church opposite - and the church was their destination. Some were dressed in traditional Bavarian costume, others dressed smartly for the Sunday service. We realised that the more rural communities, especially of south Germany, are more religious than they are in the north, or at least more catholic, almost certainly in Bavaria. Outside the church there was an incredibly tall flag pole covered in blue and white stripes and shield shaped paintings. As the waitress had been speaking to us in English, I thought I would ask her what she could tell me about the flag pole. She said that each painting represents an important part of the village and its community, such as churches, schools and local trades such as carpentry, blacksmithing, hunting, baking. She told us that every 5 years they get a new flag pole, and also every village in Bavaria has one of these.
At breakfast I took advantage of the fact that we were the only two people in the room, and I swiped some crackers and Nutellas. Also took a giant pretzel which was as big as my hand, and popped it in my bag for later. #nibbles Back in our room, we prepared our bags as well as we could, as we knew the rain wasn't going to be letting up any time soon. We decided on the Museum first, followed by the Schloss.
In the car, we travelled to a place called Vaterstetten where we got the train. Even though we arrived in Vaterstetten in about half an hour, it took us another 20 minutes to find where the station was - and the car park which was next to it! Not the best sign posted thing I have to say, Mathew said that if he hadn't looked this up online before we came here, he wouldn't have actually known it was there at all. We got to the station pretty quickly, at which point it was coming up to 10am. We then decided that it might be a good idea to head straight to the Schloss. It was the furthest from us, and it was the one thing out of the two on our list which we really wanted to visit, so that's where we headed.
It was a 15 minute walk away from the station after we arrived, and we walked around to Schloss Nymphenburg and had a good look at the multiple options of tickets which we could buy, deciding on the Palace and the garden. I asked for the tickets in German, which the guy at the till was happy to continue speaking with me even though he knew I wasn't a native German speaker (his smile was saying "you can do it!"). Mathew put his rucksack in a locker (the guy explained all of this to us in German and we surprised ourselves by understanding him straight away) and we continued on to the palace rooms. The palace itself is huge of course, but obviously they only open up part of it to the public.
The palace was the summer residence and seat of Bavaria's electors and kings - and also the birthplace of King Ludwig II. We soon realised that we were going to be seeing King Ludwig II quite a bit on our holiday - purely coincidental! The first room, The Great Hall........well.....very impressive indeed! That alone was worth going there to see. That alone was more impressive than the entire palace of Versailles. I thought it slightly odd though, that the great hall was incredibly sumptuous and way over the top with all the paintings and gold leaf and chandeliers, whilst the side rooms were pretty basic and quite plain in comparison. Admittedly there was very little in the way of furniture, but the walls which displayed a number of paintings were either covered in a simple silk "wall paper" like covering, or nothing at all. A stark contract to The Great Hall which had practically everything ornate you could think of. The Gallery of Beauties illustrated King Ludwig I's ideal of beauty rather than the social rank of the women in the portraits. These paintings were in unbelievably good condition, as if they had been painted just yesterday. I have no idea if they have been restored or not, but the colours were so bright, vivid and the detail was incredibly clear.
Outside, the park had a number of palaces or rather, pavilions. There were four in total, but before we began our tour of these, we went outside and foud the cafe which was en route. We were quickly seated and we chose to have some soup - Mathew had cream of asparagus, while I went with the beef broth. As it turns out, mine at least was incredibly salty! I started worrying about the amount of salt I might be consuming on this holiday.....! And I'm sure we were supposed to have bread with the soup. I wasn't convinced about my semolina dumplings though.....
Our waitress wished us a "nice day" before bursting out with laughter as we joined in, as it was still raining heavily outside. I had only just started to feel it seeping into my shoes as we had arrived at the cafe. We went outside and walked around, under the cover of the trees but the ground was sodden and full of puddles which we tried our best to avoid but really it would have been advisable to wear Wellies at this point. We managed to visit the Magdalenenklause which encompassed a chapel and part of a grotto with the majority of the walls and ceilings in the Hall and the chapel decorated with shells.
We then made our way around to the Pagodenburg which was octagonal in plan, and had a Hall on the ground floor which was almost entirely covered in blue and white - not just paintings but porcelain tiles as well. The upper floor had a couple of small rooms, which were very ornately painted in Chinese style, including a lot of lacquer work. On the way down the stairs I noticed that the stair case was also completed covered (with the exception of the floor) in blue and white Chinese style decoration, including porcelain tiles on the majority of the walls, and painting on the ceiling.
After this, I discovered my feet were completely wet - not something I like to experience for a long period of time, I guess it like one of the most annoying things EVER for me. Instead of continuing to the other two pavilions straight away, we made our way back to the Schloss and I changed into my crocs, taking my drenched socks off. I was then I realised that my feet were aching quite a lot too, and although we had intended to look at the other two more ornate pavilions in the park (a similar style to that of The Great Hall in the Scloss going on the pictures) we thought it best to give up now and head to the Museum. However, when we arrived at the train station, we thought it best to return to the hotel, especially at it was 15:00 by the time we left the Schloss and the Museum closed at 17:00. Not a great deal of time for a museum of the size. So we headed off back to the car and travelled back to the hotel following a diversion due to (we assumed) some local flooding, fortunately not in Obendorf though. We returned to the hotel in one piece and cranked the radiator up to the highest level to dry our socks and shoes, and I used the hair dryer on them too.
Dinner was pretty straight forward as we had managed to translate the menu somewhat the night before. This time I had pasta with parmesan, pesto and white asparagus, whilst. Mathew had roast pork. Finally I had managed to choose something which was NOT salty!
After paying, we chilled out in the room, and thought about our journey onwards tomorrow.
Before we made any decisions, we put the TV on to find a more detailed weather report for Germany. Still no luck. When we looked out of the window it looked even wetter than it did yesterday! Yuck. Downstairs we headed to the breakfast room which turned out to be in a different place to the restaurant. We bumped into one of the waitresses at the bottom of the stairs and she showed us through. It was a large room, but there were only two people in it when we arrived. We sat down and asked for a cup of tea for Mathew at which point she showed us where the hot water, tea bags and pots were. After that we were sorted - the buffet had everything you could have asked for, juices, cereals, different types of bread, honey, jam, chocolate spread (yes, Nutella!), crackers, cheese, ham, salad, fruit salad.....
At breakfast I took advantage of the fact that we were the only two people in the room, and I swiped some crackers and Nutellas. Also took a giant pretzel which was as big as my hand, and popped it in my bag for later. #nibbles Back in our room, we prepared our bags as well as we could, as we knew the rain wasn't going to be letting up any time soon. We decided on the Museum first, followed by the Schloss.
In the car, we travelled to a place called Vaterstetten where we got the train. Even though we arrived in Vaterstetten in about half an hour, it took us another 20 minutes to find where the station was - and the car park which was next to it! Not the best sign posted thing I have to say, Mathew said that if he hadn't looked this up online before we came here, he wouldn't have actually known it was there at all. We got to the station pretty quickly, at which point it was coming up to 10am. We then decided that it might be a good idea to head straight to the Schloss. It was the furthest from us, and it was the one thing out of the two on our list which we really wanted to visit, so that's where we headed.
It was a 15 minute walk away from the station after we arrived, and we walked around to Schloss Nymphenburg and had a good look at the multiple options of tickets which we could buy, deciding on the Palace and the garden. I asked for the tickets in German, which the guy at the till was happy to continue speaking with me even though he knew I wasn't a native German speaker (his smile was saying "you can do it!"). Mathew put his rucksack in a locker (the guy explained all of this to us in German and we surprised ourselves by understanding him straight away) and we continued on to the palace rooms. The palace itself is huge of course, but obviously they only open up part of it to the public.
The palace was the summer residence and seat of Bavaria's electors and kings - and also the birthplace of King Ludwig II. We soon realised that we were going to be seeing King Ludwig II quite a bit on our holiday - purely coincidental! The first room, The Great Hall........well.....very impressive indeed! That alone was worth going there to see. That alone was more impressive than the entire palace of Versailles. I thought it slightly odd though, that the great hall was incredibly sumptuous and way over the top with all the paintings and gold leaf and chandeliers, whilst the side rooms were pretty basic and quite plain in comparison. Admittedly there was very little in the way of furniture, but the walls which displayed a number of paintings were either covered in a simple silk "wall paper" like covering, or nothing at all. A stark contract to The Great Hall which had practically everything ornate you could think of. The Gallery of Beauties illustrated King Ludwig I's ideal of beauty rather than the social rank of the women in the portraits. These paintings were in unbelievably good condition, as if they had been painted just yesterday. I have no idea if they have been restored or not, but the colours were so bright, vivid and the detail was incredibly clear.
Outside, the park had a number of palaces or rather, pavilions. There were four in total, but before we began our tour of these, we went outside and foud the cafe which was en route. We were quickly seated and we chose to have some soup - Mathew had cream of asparagus, while I went with the beef broth. As it turns out, mine at least was incredibly salty! I started worrying about the amount of salt I might be consuming on this holiday.....! And I'm sure we were supposed to have bread with the soup. I wasn't convinced about my semolina dumplings though.....
Our waitress wished us a "nice day" before bursting out with laughter as we joined in, as it was still raining heavily outside. I had only just started to feel it seeping into my shoes as we had arrived at the cafe. We went outside and walked around, under the cover of the trees but the ground was sodden and full of puddles which we tried our best to avoid but really it would have been advisable to wear Wellies at this point. We managed to visit the Magdalenenklause which encompassed a chapel and part of a grotto with the majority of the walls and ceilings in the Hall and the chapel decorated with shells.We then made our way around to the Pagodenburg which was octagonal in plan, and had a Hall on the ground floor which was almost entirely covered in blue and white - not just paintings but porcelain tiles as well. The upper floor had a couple of small rooms, which were very ornately painted in Chinese style, including a lot of lacquer work. On the way down the stairs I noticed that the stair case was also completed covered (with the exception of the floor) in blue and white Chinese style decoration, including porcelain tiles on the majority of the walls, and painting on the ceiling.
After this, I discovered my feet were completely wet - not something I like to experience for a long period of time, I guess it like one of the most annoying things EVER for me. Instead of continuing to the other two pavilions straight away, we made our way back to the Schloss and I changed into my crocs, taking my drenched socks off. I was then I realised that my feet were aching quite a lot too, and although we had intended to look at the other two more ornate pavilions in the park (a similar style to that of The Great Hall in the Scloss going on the pictures) we thought it best to give up now and head to the Museum. However, when we arrived at the train station, we thought it best to return to the hotel, especially at it was 15:00 by the time we left the Schloss and the Museum closed at 17:00. Not a great deal of time for a museum of the size. So we headed off back to the car and travelled back to the hotel following a diversion due to (we assumed) some local flooding, fortunately not in Obendorf though. We returned to the hotel in one piece and cranked the radiator up to the highest level to dry our socks and shoes, and I used the hair dryer on them too.Dinner was pretty straight forward as we had managed to translate the menu somewhat the night before. This time I had pasta with parmesan, pesto and white asparagus, whilst. Mathew had roast pork. Finally I had managed to choose something which was NOT salty!
After paying, we chilled out in the room, and thought about our journey onwards tomorrow.
Monday June 3rd
This morning we woke up to....well, it looked pretty much the same outside, except this time it WASN'T raining finally! Yes it was drizzling but it was nowhere near as bad as it was yesterday. So we had breakfast as usual, although it was in a different room which was slightly confusing. Again, I managed to swipe a giant pretzel and pop it into my bag for later, after scrubbing the salt off it.
Packed and ready to go, we filled the car and checked out. The woman at reception spoke English and gave us a local map, showing us the way to Stock where we were going to get the ferry Herrenchiemsee. She said that the village on the south side of the river was almost totally flooded - it had even made the news. She said she wasn't sure the boats were going or if Herrenchiemsee was flooded, but we hoped not. We left and made our way to Prien and then Stock, and we were at the harbour at 10:15.
I know it was more or less a sign from the beginning that everywhere here was closed. But as we passed the ticket office, there was a sign stating that we could get the tickets ON the boat. So we wandered up and saw a number of boats in, and even one arriving. Not only this, but a number of people were wandering around looking just as puzzled and lost as we were. We looked at the pathways to the boats and sme were flooded, although we noticed a couple we could have easy got through without getting too wet. But then a woman came along with some tape and some signs, taking photos of the flooding on her phone, presumably she worked there. One of the other people who was wandering around and had previously asked us if we knew if the boats were running, decided to ask the woman with the tape. She shook her head and said "No, no boats today or tomorrow.". So our day trip to Herrenchiemsee was cancelled.
We left feeling very unhappy and disappointed, as Herrenchiemsee was one of the grand palaces which we had really wanted to see. But then again we didn't know that we were about to enter the part of Europe which was experiencing mass flooding on the first few days of our trip. Looking at the map, we went to Rosenheim and stopped for a walk about and some lunch. We found the tourist information office and walked through a sculpture park before wandering through the town enjoying the colourful and clean buildings and plazas. After having lunch, we heded to an exhibition gallery but baulked at the price for an exhibition on Alexander the Great which we had no idea whether or not would have English translations included (audio guide 5 euros extra each), so we left disheartened and made our way back to the car, stopping off for a pastry on the way to eat later. We were enticed by the sign for "Butterkuchen" but we actually bought a large parcel of pastry covered in icing sugar....
Back in the car, we passed some police who were directing traffic, and more traffic diversions, although we were able to continue with our journey. We stopped off in an area which was on the map as a marshy area but was actually a nature reserve with a number of walks. We probably would have gone to investigate it it hadn't been so cloudy and wet. We had been driving past some mountains, or so we thought....we had the feeling of being near something large looming overhead but we didn't actually see any mountains at all, just dense forest everywhere. We ate the pastry which we had bought earlier, it was nice but we couldn't quite decide whether or not it actually had something in it or not. Mathew was convinced he could taste something fruity, whilst I could tell there was something soft on the base but no flavour as such. Perhaps next time we'll go for the Butterkuchen.....!
Continuing onward, we shortly arrived at an area of the road which was indeed, flooded. To be honest if it had flooded any more than it already was, that road may well have been cut off. Who knows, maybe it was cut off after we had passed though it. The water was very deep, or so it seemed, as the traffic took it in turns to drive on the less flooded side of the road to get through. The road basically went through the marsh land which had a number of channels flowing through that had burst their banks. It must have been at least a good 30cm deep at least, but this was nothing compared to what they were experiencing in Passau. That was all over the news - south Germany, Czech Republic and Austria were all experiencing major flooding although our route had actually taken us around and away from it, the only casualty being that we were unable to visit Herenchiemsee.
Continuing on, it was still raining but it was more of a steady drizzle rather than a downpour which was what it was like yesterday. We finally arrived in Ettal and got out to have a walk around a little, especially as I had spotted THREE wood carving shops on our way in. They seemed far away but didn't actually take that long to get to on foot. Going into the furthest one first, I found a bear shaped magnet and a cute tree, and Mathew bought a different tree. Everything was wooden, not a single thing for sale in the shop was made of anything else. The second shop seemed more expensive and I'm not entirely sure it was open or not, but it had a number of religious figures inside it alongside other things. Outside there was a large wooden sculpted bear which I had to have my photo taken next to, of course! Further along, the third shop was selling anything you could think of with a particularly distinctive face on it. Again, I'm not sure if it was open when we walked by, but we weren't sure we wanted to buy a random object with a random moustachioed rosy cheeked face on it.
On our way back to the car, we stopped off for a look at the Monastery which is still in use and looks really rather epic from the outside. Back in the car, we climbed the hill to the hotel which we could see from the car park. It had a very similar facade to that of the previous Hotel-Gasthof which we had stayed in. We checked in and found our room easily - we were sharing a balcony again, but this one was much wetter than the previous one which was more sheltered. Our room looked out over the front of the hotel and up into the.....um.....mountains.....which I am sure were there but we still had not seen them. Cloud covered us and the place was wet through. We were now higher up, right on the edge of the Alps. In fact Austria was only over the other side of the mountain which we were (apparently) facing.
Dinner was straightforward - we had spent lots of time trying to translate it from the photos which I had taken from outside, and then we discovered they had an English translation! The layout of the rooms was a little odd though - we walked through the Breakfast room and into a corridor which took us into the actual kitchen, not the restaurant. it turned out that the restaurant was actually on the side. Initially we had walked into it but the waitress had just disappeared so we weren't sure if we were supposed to just sit ourselves down or wait to be seated. I'm sure we must have amused the local customers by walking in and out different doors each time, but still....even though it was a nice little restaurant room the layout was not the best...!
That evening we turned on the TV and saw the extent of the flooding everywhere. Even though we had been through a few areas which were a little flooded, and had to follow diversions her and there, we quickly realised just how very lucky we had been to miss the worst areas.
Packed and ready to go, we filled the car and checked out. The woman at reception spoke English and gave us a local map, showing us the way to Stock where we were going to get the ferry Herrenchiemsee. She said that the village on the south side of the river was almost totally flooded - it had even made the news. She said she wasn't sure the boats were going or if Herrenchiemsee was flooded, but we hoped not. We left and made our way to Prien and then Stock, and we were at the harbour at 10:15.
I know it was more or less a sign from the beginning that everywhere here was closed. But as we passed the ticket office, there was a sign stating that we could get the tickets ON the boat. So we wandered up and saw a number of boats in, and even one arriving. Not only this, but a number of people were wandering around looking just as puzzled and lost as we were. We looked at the pathways to the boats and sme were flooded, although we noticed a couple we could have easy got through without getting too wet. But then a woman came along with some tape and some signs, taking photos of the flooding on her phone, presumably she worked there. One of the other people who was wandering around and had previously asked us if we knew if the boats were running, decided to ask the woman with the tape. She shook her head and said "No, no boats today or tomorrow.". So our day trip to Herrenchiemsee was cancelled.
We left feeling very unhappy and disappointed, as Herrenchiemsee was one of the grand palaces which we had really wanted to see. But then again we didn't know that we were about to enter the part of Europe which was experiencing mass flooding on the first few days of our trip. Looking at the map, we went to Rosenheim and stopped for a walk about and some lunch. We found the tourist information office and walked through a sculpture park before wandering through the town enjoying the colourful and clean buildings and plazas. After having lunch, we heded to an exhibition gallery but baulked at the price for an exhibition on Alexander the Great which we had no idea whether or not would have English translations included (audio guide 5 euros extra each), so we left disheartened and made our way back to the car, stopping off for a pastry on the way to eat later. We were enticed by the sign for "Butterkuchen" but we actually bought a large parcel of pastry covered in icing sugar....Back in the car, we passed some police who were directing traffic, and more traffic diversions, although we were able to continue with our journey. We stopped off in an area which was on the map as a marshy area but was actually a nature reserve with a number of walks. We probably would have gone to investigate it it hadn't been so cloudy and wet. We had been driving past some mountains, or so we thought....we had the feeling of being near something large looming overhead but we didn't actually see any mountains at all, just dense forest everywhere. We ate the pastry which we had bought earlier, it was nice but we couldn't quite decide whether or not it actually had something in it or not. Mathew was convinced he could taste something fruity, whilst I could tell there was something soft on the base but no flavour as such. Perhaps next time we'll go for the Butterkuchen.....!
Continuing onward, we shortly arrived at an area of the road which was indeed, flooded. To be honest if it had flooded any more than it already was, that road may well have been cut off. Who knows, maybe it was cut off after we had passed though it. The water was very deep, or so it seemed, as the traffic took it in turns to drive on the less flooded side of the road to get through. The road basically went through the marsh land which had a number of channels flowing through that had burst their banks. It must have been at least a good 30cm deep at least, but this was nothing compared to what they were experiencing in Passau. That was all over the news - south Germany, Czech Republic and Austria were all experiencing major flooding although our route had actually taken us around and away from it, the only casualty being that we were unable to visit Herenchiemsee.Continuing on, it was still raining but it was more of a steady drizzle rather than a downpour which was what it was like yesterday. We finally arrived in Ettal and got out to have a walk around a little, especially as I had spotted THREE wood carving shops on our way in. They seemed far away but didn't actually take that long to get to on foot. Going into the furthest one first, I found a bear shaped magnet and a cute tree, and Mathew bought a different tree. Everything was wooden, not a single thing for sale in the shop was made of anything else. The second shop seemed more expensive and I'm not entirely sure it was open or not, but it had a number of religious figures inside it alongside other things. Outside there was a large wooden sculpted bear which I had to have my photo taken next to, of course! Further along, the third shop was selling anything you could think of with a particularly distinctive face on it. Again, I'm not sure if it was open when we walked by, but we weren't sure we wanted to buy a random object with a random moustachioed rosy cheeked face on it.
Dinner was straightforward - we had spent lots of time trying to translate it from the photos which I had taken from outside, and then we discovered they had an English translation! The layout of the rooms was a little odd though - we walked through the Breakfast room and into a corridor which took us into the actual kitchen, not the restaurant. it turned out that the restaurant was actually on the side. Initially we had walked into it but the waitress had just disappeared so we weren't sure if we were supposed to just sit ourselves down or wait to be seated. I'm sure we must have amused the local customers by walking in and out different doors each time, but still....even though it was a nice little restaurant room the layout was not the best...!
That evening we turned on the TV and saw the extent of the flooding everywhere. Even though we had been through a few areas which were a little flooded, and had to follow diversions her and there, we quickly realised just how very lucky we had been to miss the worst areas.
Tuesday June 4th
We arrived at Linderhoff pretty much as it opened at 9am, and made our way in. We bought tickets and made our way to the Schloss, awaiting the guided tour around it. The grounds were large but the house itself was quite small. Kind Ludwig II had modelled it on Versailles in France, and I have to say it was more Versailles than Versailles!! Even though it was small, it looked incredibly sumptuous, lots of woodcarving covered in gold leaf. Apparently there are only 5 kilos of gold leaf in the house because everything is so thin and brushed on. Still, it was full of floral fussy decoration, lots of rococo style artistry, ceilings and walls completely covered with things, there was no bare wall to be seen. It was pretty much....well....ridiculous I guess you could say, it was so over the top with everything. Large mirrors were used to make the rooms look much much bigger than they actually were, and there were lots of vases which he liked to collect, there were plenty of little plinths for them to be displayed on. I think our guide said there were about 250 in the house overall.
After our tour of the house, we went along the park path to the Grotto which was pretty epic to say the least. It was very impressive, although we had to remind ourselves that King Ludwig II used it alone. He wasn't a socialiser and preferred to be alone....losing grip of reality resulting in him being declared clinically insane. Although whether he was or not we don't know, it may have been an excuse to remove him from the throne.
We continued round the garden and had a look at the pavilions in the grounds; a Moorish Kiosk and a Moroccan House, all completely decorated inside and very colourful indeed. After this, we wandered to the shop and bought some post cards. We're still intrigued by the gift shops being so limited with the merchandise...who buys napkins as a gift? Who needs yet another porcelain mug? I may be on the lookout for more quirky gift shops...!
So before we left Linderhoff, I was feeling rather hungry so I went into the shop which sold "snacks". I came away with a Nusschecken or something like that - basically a cinnamon swirl but with a sweet nut paste instead. Yum!
Onward we went to Nauschwanstein. Yes, we could well have cut through Austria to get there, but Mathew wasn't sure about it with regards to the nsurance on the car, so we went the long way around. It gave us a chance to take in the mountains and approach the castle from a rather dramatic viewpoint! The ground we were travelling on was so incredibly flat compared to the looming mountains! Mathew said it was pretty much the same in the Canadian Rockies, but I guess I didn't really notice it as much there because it was much more built up. Here, it was flat fields of grass with the odd shed here and there, it was much more of a contrast I think.
Schloss Neuschwanstein was also over the top with the decor, but in a very different way. Pretty much all the walls and ceilings were painted, although the majority of it was pretty flat - not a great deal in the way of wood carving with the exception of the bedroom. The wall and ceiling paintings depicted mythological and legendary stories, and in between bright vivid colours in patterns and swirls, no surface being left blank at all. Impressive and really quite spacious. At the end of the tour, we descended a spiral staircase and saw the kitchens which had been completed, and the shop was in part of the castle which was unfinished - and it really was - brick walls, wooden floors, timber beams and no paint.
Outside, we walked around the castle to a view point on a bridge which again was very steep but definitely worth it! On our way back towards the castle I spotted a local artist selling his work so I stopped and bought something from him. We continued on and down the slope which we had walked up to get to the castle, and stopped off for a rather late lunch. Mathew got us each a "Pizza Snack" (just a mini pizza) which we had there before continuing down to the car and making our way to the hotel.
The hotel was Gasthauf Rossle, in a small quaint village and this time it appeared that the lady who checked us in did not speak a word of English. But we seemed to check in just fine and we understood most of what she said. Yet again, we thought that dinner might be somewhat interesting as we didn't think that the menu would have an English translation.
The restaurant was easy to find, and I had previously taken a photograph of the menus outside and had taken time to translate the majority of the words. Fortunatly our in depth investigation of the previous nights menu was fairly fresh in my mind with some new words so it didn't take me long to figure out a few things. However, there were quite a few words which I was not familiar with and could not identify with my German phrase book (the dictionary at the back was only English - German, not the other way around!). Played it safe with a rump steak in pepper and garlic sauce, whilst Mathew went with the beef goulash. We both enjoyed our meals and were yet again full without space for dessert, so we paid as left, having spoken everything in German! Hooray!
The evening was spent chilling out, especially as we had a long drive the following day, heading towards the Black Forest. Now I will have to find a space in my stomach for some gateaux whilst we're there!!
Wednesday June 5th
This morning after Breakfast we had a little walk around the tiny village Reiden am Forgensee before our long drive to the Black Forest. We waved Goodbye to the mountains, although we followed them, a little further because we were pretty much right on the border with Austria. Actually there was one moment when we DID go into Austria, although we turned around and went back into Germany as soon as we could. We just weren't sure if the car was insured for going into another country or not...! Anyway, we found our way, eventually to a place called Lindau on the edge of Bodensee, a large inland lake. It was then that we realised just how many roads had been closed - for reasons we were totally unaware of except one where it indicated there had been a car accident - as we kept having to find alternate routes on the map! not that we were any good at it though, as the road map we had didn't show the best detail (i.e. not all the villages were on this one..!).
However, we arrived at Lindau and made our way to the edge so we could walk onto the Insel or Island. I have to say that coming into Lindau wasn't very exciting at all, and we weren't convinced. But as we left the car park we were given a map of the island for free (!) and when we walked across the bridge, suddenly we were in the old town, the original part of the town with colourful buildings with balconies, carved wood and paintings all over the walls. A typical tourist destination yes, but it was a really nice little place to be. We agreed that the guide book didn't give it enough credit. We stopped off for a moment and thought about lunch, although we weren't particularly hungry. But today it was really very warm indeed, and you know that that means? ICE CREAM! I wasn't particularly hungry either, but I rather fancied an ice cream. So I had three scoops (yes, three), one each of hazelnut, vanilla and one which turned out to be chocolate chip. I know, not too adventurous, but not all of the names were obvious! Anyway, the hazelnut ice cream......delicious!! I'll have to have some of that again sometime.
Moving on, we managed to get ourselves through many closed roads with diversions which were partially signposted, and eventually found our way to Alpirsbach. We had left Bavaria in the south east and were now in Baden-Wurtenburg; south west Germany. We were welcomed in person by someone at Hotel Rossle who had emailed me to let me know the restaurant was closed tonight. I knew this, but at the same time I had not checked my emails before we set out in the morning. She showed us up to our room, have us a map of the town and the other places where we could eat, and told us when breakfast would be ready in the morning.
Our room was spacious enough, with a balcony outside just like all the other hotels we had been in so far, although this was the first private one and the first one we actually used as it was nice outside in the evenings. We went out to get some food and ordered something called Alpirsbachen Leckeler. We knew what was in it but we still have no idea what the "Lekeler" part referred to! We had pork covered in molten cheese with a "kind of gnocci" which was REALLY nice. After wards, we strolled around the town and admired the old buildings, finding the chocolate shop (appropriate!) and the monastery, which had a garden. Apparently there was going to be a free music concert on Friday evening so we thought we might stroll around to investigate. Mathew said that "If it's yodelling the we can go back to the hotel!".
Back at the hotel, we chilled out on the balcony before going to bed, closing the shutters down over the outside of the windows. Our curtains were just flimsy net curtains, we have no idea why there were no actual curtains in the room..! Well it was a good job I brought my new eye mask with me then!
However, we arrived at Lindau and made our way to the edge so we could walk onto the Insel or Island. I have to say that coming into Lindau wasn't very exciting at all, and we weren't convinced. But as we left the car park we were given a map of the island for free (!) and when we walked across the bridge, suddenly we were in the old town, the original part of the town with colourful buildings with balconies, carved wood and paintings all over the walls. A typical tourist destination yes, but it was a really nice little place to be. We agreed that the guide book didn't give it enough credit. We stopped off for a moment and thought about lunch, although we weren't particularly hungry. But today it was really very warm indeed, and you know that that means? ICE CREAM! I wasn't particularly hungry either, but I rather fancied an ice cream. So I had three scoops (yes, three), one each of hazelnut, vanilla and one which turned out to be chocolate chip. I know, not too adventurous, but not all of the names were obvious! Anyway, the hazelnut ice cream......delicious!! I'll have to have some of that again sometime.
Moving on, we managed to get ourselves through many closed roads with diversions which were partially signposted, and eventually found our way to Alpirsbach. We had left Bavaria in the south east and were now in Baden-Wurtenburg; south west Germany. We were welcomed in person by someone at Hotel Rossle who had emailed me to let me know the restaurant was closed tonight. I knew this, but at the same time I had not checked my emails before we set out in the morning. She showed us up to our room, have us a map of the town and the other places where we could eat, and told us when breakfast would be ready in the morning.
Our room was spacious enough, with a balcony outside just like all the other hotels we had been in so far, although this was the first private one and the first one we actually used as it was nice outside in the evenings. We went out to get some food and ordered something called Alpirsbachen Leckeler. We knew what was in it but we still have no idea what the "Lekeler" part referred to! We had pork covered in molten cheese with a "kind of gnocci" which was REALLY nice. After wards, we strolled around the town and admired the old buildings, finding the chocolate shop (appropriate!) and the monastery, which had a garden. Apparently there was going to be a free music concert on Friday evening so we thought we might stroll around to investigate. Mathew said that "If it's yodelling the we can go back to the hotel!".Back at the hotel, we chilled out on the balcony before going to bed, closing the shutters down over the outside of the windows. Our curtains were just flimsy net curtains, we have no idea why there were no actual curtains in the room..! Well it was a good job I brought my new eye mask with me then!
Thursday June 6th
After a good nights sleep, we awoke to another sunny day. Downstairs we had the usual breakfast selection and I filled out the usual form which I had been doing since we have been staying at hotels in Germany. This one however, gave us a ticket in return - discount or free travel throughout the Black Forest area and some discounts on some attractions where we see the symbols.
When the breakfast room was quiet, I swiped a couple of bread rolls and Nutella for later! Afterwards, we went back to our room and prepared for the day ahead. We went on our way to the Black Forest Open Air Museum, which was quite fun, if a little on the hot side! There were a number of old buildings here, and everything was made with wood. So much so in fact, you could smell the wood in the air. It must be affected by the sun warming it up which must release the natural resins. The buildings were really quite cool, which we were thankful for on a day like today! It was incredibly warm, we thought in the mid - high 20s (Centigrade).
This Museum was based on a traditional farmstead, and is comprised of a number of buildings which are a combination of original, restored and moved from other areas into one place - much like the livings Museums we have in the UK like Beamish and the Black Country Museum. The Black Forest Museum was steeped in tradition, where we leant that the unmarked ladies wore hats with giant red pompoms on them, whilst the married women wore hats with black ones. We also discovered that none of these buildings had a hole in the roof as a chimney of sorts - the kitchens would have filled with soot, and it would have billowed out of the building. But they did hang up their meat and sausages which were smoked in the process. Some of these building was absolutely huge, with the cellar being built first to keep it damp and cool, and the house basically being built on the top entirely (most of the time) in wood. e loft space in these things was monumental, and the gable ends almost touching the ground. And plenty of balconies...!
After doing half the buildings, we sat down for lunch. I was a little peckish so I thought I would order a salad.......but it turned out to be quite monstrous and almost completely covered in vinegar! I like vinegar but this was ridiculous. I might as well have been eating straight out of 2 pickle jars. Pickled cucumber, pickled cabbage, pickled turnip, pickled carrot, pickled French beans. The only thing which wasn't pickled were the potatoes, tomato and ham. The lettuce was also smothered in dressing.....so much for the light bite and healthy food! Mathew ordered a bread covered bratwurst but didn't realise it until it came, by which time he had already tucked in to what he thought he had ordered, which was a diced sausage chutney with bread which came with compliments from the Chef, as we later discovered!
Needless to say I didn't finish my gigantic salad! We continued on with the rest of the Museum, but we were both flagging because it was so hot in the sun, but nice and breezy in the shade. Eventually we had finished, and we went into the shop before leaving, still baffled by the lack of actual souvenirs anyone would really want to buy. I was surprised that there wasn't much in the way of chocolate and biscuits actually...or perhaps that's just because I'm used to seeing those at National Trust and English Heritage places in the UK.
After we left the Museum, we decided to go for it - we had some Black Forest Gateaux! There was a little area just outside the Museum, of eateries and tacky souvenirs. We sat down in one of the eateries which was playing dodgy music, bad versions of songs released in the 80s is what it sounded like! The cake came and went, it didn't last long! It was very, light and the sponge cake was more cinnamon flavoured rather than chocolate. I imagine there are probably a number of recipes for this cake.
After this, we went for a scenic drive to a few "viewpoints" where we took photos and returned back to the hotel. As I was online again, we took a look at the websites for the places to eat in Alpirsbach, and found two in English which saved us a lot of trouble translating! The others we weren't so lucky with. We went to the same place as we had done the night before to lay it safe, and investigate the others tomorrow. I decided to buy app which is supposed to translate anything you put before the iPad, but when we tried it on the menu which we already had a translation for, we ended up with numerous homemade spatulas, cathedral baskets and refractive powder. Hmmmm....not very appetising...!
This evening also, thanks to the translation, I found a very useful fact - the restaurants said they can do smaller portions for a 2 euro discount. So now I know this is possible, I shall be asking for small portions everywhere we go! Tonight I had Zander (Perch) again, and it was very nice indeed, even though it was swimming in the herb butter. Mathew had a pork steak with very nice potatoes. I have to say that this evenings meals have been rather tasty, manly because we've been able to taste the actual food rather than finding it smothered in something which overpowers everything. It was like I had rediscovered cucumbers, red peppers and cherry tomatoes!
Back at the hotel we chilled out again, and thought that after breakfast tomorrow morning, we could take a stroll around the town ad take a photo of the two restaurants which we don't have English translations for. One reason was because one of them had the menu on a box just above one of the tables. We could look at these tomorrow and translate them ourselves with the phrase book.
When the breakfast room was quiet, I swiped a couple of bread rolls and Nutella for later! Afterwards, we went back to our room and prepared for the day ahead. We went on our way to the Black Forest Open Air Museum, which was quite fun, if a little on the hot side! There were a number of old buildings here, and everything was made with wood. So much so in fact, you could smell the wood in the air. It must be affected by the sun warming it up which must release the natural resins. The buildings were really quite cool, which we were thankful for on a day like today! It was incredibly warm, we thought in the mid - high 20s (Centigrade).
This Museum was based on a traditional farmstead, and is comprised of a number of buildings which are a combination of original, restored and moved from other areas into one place - much like the livings Museums we have in the UK like Beamish and the Black Country Museum. The Black Forest Museum was steeped in tradition, where we leant that the unmarked ladies wore hats with giant red pompoms on them, whilst the married women wore hats with black ones. We also discovered that none of these buildings had a hole in the roof as a chimney of sorts - the kitchens would have filled with soot, and it would have billowed out of the building. But they did hang up their meat and sausages which were smoked in the process. Some of these building was absolutely huge, with the cellar being built first to keep it damp and cool, and the house basically being built on the top entirely (most of the time) in wood. e loft space in these things was monumental, and the gable ends almost touching the ground. And plenty of balconies...!After doing half the buildings, we sat down for lunch. I was a little peckish so I thought I would order a salad.......but it turned out to be quite monstrous and almost completely covered in vinegar! I like vinegar but this was ridiculous. I might as well have been eating straight out of 2 pickle jars. Pickled cucumber, pickled cabbage, pickled turnip, pickled carrot, pickled French beans. The only thing which wasn't pickled were the potatoes, tomato and ham. The lettuce was also smothered in dressing.....so much for the light bite and healthy food! Mathew ordered a bread covered bratwurst but didn't realise it until it came, by which time he had already tucked in to what he thought he had ordered, which was a diced sausage chutney with bread which came with compliments from the Chef, as we later discovered!
Needless to say I didn't finish my gigantic salad! We continued on with the rest of the Museum, but we were both flagging because it was so hot in the sun, but nice and breezy in the shade. Eventually we had finished, and we went into the shop before leaving, still baffled by the lack of actual souvenirs anyone would really want to buy. I was surprised that there wasn't much in the way of chocolate and biscuits actually...or perhaps that's just because I'm used to seeing those at National Trust and English Heritage places in the UK.
After we left the Museum, we decided to go for it - we had some Black Forest Gateaux! There was a little area just outside the Museum, of eateries and tacky souvenirs. We sat down in one of the eateries which was playing dodgy music, bad versions of songs released in the 80s is what it sounded like! The cake came and went, it didn't last long! It was very, light and the sponge cake was more cinnamon flavoured rather than chocolate. I imagine there are probably a number of recipes for this cake.After this, we went for a scenic drive to a few "viewpoints" where we took photos and returned back to the hotel. As I was online again, we took a look at the websites for the places to eat in Alpirsbach, and found two in English which saved us a lot of trouble translating! The others we weren't so lucky with. We went to the same place as we had done the night before to lay it safe, and investigate the others tomorrow. I decided to buy app which is supposed to translate anything you put before the iPad, but when we tried it on the menu which we already had a translation for, we ended up with numerous homemade spatulas, cathedral baskets and refractive powder. Hmmmm....not very appetising...!
This evening also, thanks to the translation, I found a very useful fact - the restaurants said they can do smaller portions for a 2 euro discount. So now I know this is possible, I shall be asking for small portions everywhere we go! Tonight I had Zander (Perch) again, and it was very nice indeed, even though it was swimming in the herb butter. Mathew had a pork steak with very nice potatoes. I have to say that this evenings meals have been rather tasty, manly because we've been able to taste the actual food rather than finding it smothered in something which overpowers everything. It was like I had rediscovered cucumbers, red peppers and cherry tomatoes!
Back at the hotel we chilled out again, and thought that after breakfast tomorrow morning, we could take a stroll around the town ad take a photo of the two restaurants which we don't have English translations for. One reason was because one of them had the menu on a box just above one of the tables. We could look at these tomorrow and translate them ourselves with the phrase book.
Friday June 7th
This morning at breakfast I managed to swipe a couple of rolls and some Nutella yet again! Today we went to Schloss Liechtenstein first, a very small cute castle. We could only get into the castle on a guided tour, and although we were given an English tour guide book, we were only in a group of 3 people so the guide didn't mind speaking to us in English for parts of the tour! The rooms, like the castle were small and cute, and the decoration paintd on the walls yet again - we have noticed here, at least in this region of Germany that paintings seem to be preferred to sculpture or plaster work.After Schloss Liechtenstein, we went on to Burg Hohenzollern which we had passed on the way. it looks very impressive from a distance, on the top of a large hill, very much the fairy tale style castle with conical roofs on corner towers. Of course, it was a bit of a slog to get up there, but nowhere near as much as Schloss Neuschwanstein! This one didn't take anywhere near as long to get to. Up into the courtyard, we were looking for something to eat, and we decided ona drink with a slice of cake. So I asked what cake there was, and I was told Black Forest Gateaux, Creamy Cheesecake, Chocolate Cake and Apple Strudel. Mathew ordered the Apple Strudel straight away despite telling me he wasn't going to have anything to eat! I decided on the Cheesecake, but what I received was very different to what I was expecting - basically it was a large sponge cake cut in half with some cream about the same depth as the cake inbetween. It was surprisingly light for such a large cake!
Onward to the castle, and yet again we could only go inside if we were on a guided tour. This seems to be the trend in German castles, or at least it is here - no getting inside unless you're in a guided tour, and while you're in there, no photos allowed (which is why I have none). Again these rooms inside Burg Hohenzollern had painted walls and ceilings, not having much in the way of plasterwork. The main thing we noticed about this one was the temperature - it was a very cold castle! I dread to think what it's like there in winter!
Afterwards, we went into the shop which was selling more in the way of souvenirs than in previous shops attached to the castles which we have visited so far, but still nothing stood out as such! Afterward, we went on our way back to the hotel where we showered and I washed some of our clothes for the following week, leaving them out on the balcony to dry. My hair dried super fast, so I hoped my socks would too!
Saturday June 8th
Today we went to Baden Baden, and we had a very scenic drive through the Black Forest. When we parked and wandered around the town however, it didn't really grip us. It would have been a great place to stop off and have some lunch but apart from that, I think it was more a town for going on a serious shopping trip for designer clothes. Which we don't do. I was wondering why the waiter assumed we would be "spending some money" when we told him where we were heading today!
We didn't spend that long in the town before returning to the car, but fortunately Mathew had consulted the map before hand and had spotted a couple of castles which we visited, after having bought some lunch from a bakery in the town.
Just outside Baden-Baden, was "Altes Schloss Hohenbaden" which was the first castle RUIN we had visited so far. We were free to explore the place ourselves which was a refreshing change from the others which we had been to so far. I have to say that this castle was pretty impressive with the number of levels there were to explore. Just when we thought we had reached the top of a set of stairs, there were more in the corner leading elsewhere. Needless to say, we got some pretty cool photos from up there!
Next, we went on to another one called Burg Alt-Eberstein, originally the residence of the Counts of Eberstein (in 1100), but became abandoned and the building material re-used elsewhere. Again, this was a ruin, although we could only climb the tower, which we did. It was kind of undersandable though, as when we approached and left the place we could see the walls at the side were practically being held up by themselves. Not a good idea to have too many people roaming around in potentially structurally unstable areas..! In the distance we saw a number of people hang-gliding and I tried to take a few photos - there must have been about 7 or 8 of them. It was a good day to be out doing that I thought, as it was absolutely sweltering on the ground, and probably nice and breezy up there. When we moved to the other side of the tower, the landscape was very flat but we figured out we could just about see the border of France.
After this, we drive back the scenic way and stopped of at what looked like a very touristy place called Mummelsee. It was VERY touristy. There was a random lake which was quite small and took us about 15 - 20 minutes to walk around, although it was quite fun as the path was rather higgledy-piggledy. Se had a look in the shop as well which was HUGE but sold pretty much every since typical tack German souvenir you could think of. One thing's for sure, they really like those mini bottles of alcohol, and there's plenty of jars of oil to choose from too!
After this, we made our way back to the hotel. A fairly uneventful day really, but it was incredibly hot so it was probably a good thing that we didn't do too much today!
We didn't spend that long in the town before returning to the car, but fortunately Mathew had consulted the map before hand and had spotted a couple of castles which we visited, after having bought some lunch from a bakery in the town.Just outside Baden-Baden, was "Altes Schloss Hohenbaden" which was the first castle RUIN we had visited so far. We were free to explore the place ourselves which was a refreshing change from the others which we had been to so far. I have to say that this castle was pretty impressive with the number of levels there were to explore. Just when we thought we had reached the top of a set of stairs, there were more in the corner leading elsewhere. Needless to say, we got some pretty cool photos from up there!
After this, we drive back the scenic way and stopped of at what looked like a very touristy place called Mummelsee. It was VERY touristy. There was a random lake which was quite small and took us about 15 - 20 minutes to walk around, although it was quite fun as the path was rather higgledy-piggledy. Se had a look in the shop as well which was HUGE but sold pretty much every since typical tack German souvenir you could think of. One thing's for sure, they really like those mini bottles of alcohol, and there's plenty of jars of oil to choose from too!After this, we made our way back to the hotel. A fairly uneventful day really, but it was incredibly hot so it was probably a good thing that we didn't do too much today!
Sunday June 9th
I had written down a particular car park which the website had advised, and it took us half an hour to find it and park. It seemed that the town of Ludwigsburg is an urban sprawl, and although designed in grid formation, it wasn't very easy to figure put which way to turn around to get back to where you wanted to be. Still, we managed to find the car park eventually, and in we went.
We have learnt something about some German tourist attractions - there is no end of ticket choices. Visit the main residence for 7 Euros, visit the museums for 5 Euros, visit the gardens for 8 Euros, Visit everything except the gardens for 13 Euros, visit everything including the gardens for 16 Euros....take your pick! We managed to buy some tickets, although I had said "Including the garden," Mathew had pointed to the one which was without. We realised after we had visited the Baroque Gallery and went back to change our tickets, but because the Baroque Gallery seemed to be the ONLY place in the complex which clipped the tickets, we weren't allowed to change. Which meant that we had paid 26 for everything except the garden, and had to pay 16 for the garden. Yes there was a communication issue going on here but still, a lesson to learn from I think!! It was very annoying. If we had visited anything else and gone back to the ticket office, we would have been able to get an upgrade.Anyway, back to the residence complex....it was all a little odd to be honest. Yes, it was nice like all the palaces we have been to so far, and perhaps it was because it was a Sunday, I have no idea...but there weren't many officials or attendants although that wasn't an issue, but the whole place seemed rather disjointed to me. Why were there so many ticket options? Why weren't we given a map of the complex, given the fact that it was absolutely huge? Why was there a lack of maps within the complex? Where were the lockers? Why weren't there any signs telling us that certain things were on the SECOND floor? I was all very unhelpful and it was pretty much a case of buying your tickets and the rest was up to you to discover what was where. The whole atmosphere of the place I found rather sterile, with the exception of the cafe and the gardens.
We visited a couple of the museums which seemed to house rather random collections of things such as Baroque paintings, ceramics (historical and modern) and some stone sculptures combined with children's period fashion designs(!). We then went into the cafe for something to eat, Mathew was still feeling a little nauseous so he just had a cold drink, whilst I managed to get myself a decaf Cappucino (the smallest I have ever had) and a pear cheesecake which was more like a frangipani tart but without the almond flavour. I don't think they do cheesecake here quite like they do in the UK....but it was still very nice though! Something I've noticed about desserts, although I haven't had many here, is that they are sweet, but they look much sweeter than they taste. Or so it seems. Perhaps I've just managed to choose the ones that aren't sickly sweet...! We had some time to kill before our tour at 1:30 so we popped into the shop thinking that would do it. We were out in less than 5 minutes. Another thing we have noticed here is the German gift shops at tourist attractions such as palaces and castles - not only are they so sparsely filled they look like art exhibits, but they seem to sell a lot of items which have absolutely no relevance to the attraction in question. There's definitely an obsession with porcelain (understandably), candles and the oddest one - paper napkins. They come in three different sizes and with a number of different designs. Even the German equivalent of Paperchase sells them....LOTS of them. I don't think I have ever seen so many paper napkins in my life!!Next, we had a guided tour around the residence which took 90 minutes - this gives you a sense of the scale of the place, walking from one room to the next from one end of the place to the other. The tour was very good and very detailed, although I had no idea our tour guide would be our tour guide as he wasn t wearing a uniform or a badge, it was just as if some randon guy and popped in to do it. I also have no idea what his name was as he said it so quickly it sounded like "My name is asdfghjkl," but other than that he was very informative. It did feel like he was rushing through a few things and it all ended rather abruptly however, he left us in an odd place at the top of the stairs and it was a case of "Ok thanks bye," as he made off into a dark corridor to somewhere we will never know.
After a long stroll around the garden (and free toilets, I should think so too with an entry fee of 8 Euros a piece), we made our way back to the car and attempted to find a parking space closer to the hotel which we had passed earlier. About 20 minutes later we found a spot and checked in to our rather modern and colourful (lime green accented) hotel room. Very spacious and comfortable, if a little warm. This hotel was one of the most expensive, after having a limited choice in the area, none of which had breakfast included in the price advertised on the website, so this one will be extra.
We had dinner at yet another Italian restaurant and ate outside for the first time we have been in Germany. After filling our bellies with Ravioli and Spaghetti, we headed back to the hotel room as the weather became quite close and we were expecting a little rain at some point. Tonight we had a DVD player so we could watch the discs we brought with us to watch (Mathew brought the wrong power cable with him so we haven't been able to watch anything since we arrived here!). Our choice? Castle :)
Monday June 10th
Anyway, After looking at the Celtic Museum we discovered it was closed on Mondays. So we went out to Maulbronn Monastary and it was still quite grey. On our way into the complex, we saw a shop which looked quite interesting, but guess what? It was closed. I think we were lucky that the Monastary was open, even thought it had scaffolding all over part of it.....#storyofourlives but we're used to that! Still, as a UNESCO World Heritage site, I would have thought the gift shop would have been open as the site was, especially as it looked much better than any of the other gift shops associated with tourist attractions we have been in so far.
We decided on an audio guide which wasn't extortionate as they usually are, and it guided us around the Monastery rather nicely. The buildings inside were also very nice, some being used as caves and restaurants which were, as it happened, OPEN. When we had finished our tour around the Monastary, we noticed it was raining steadily outside, half rain half drizzle. We took our audio guides back to the reception and popped upstairs into the museum, but it was a shame there was no English translation for any of it because it looked rather interesting. Afterwards, we went back outside where it was tipping it down outside at this point, and we went into one of the restaurants called Kloister Kats. I had tomato soup which was very nice and hit the spot, whilst Mathew had a huge salad which came smothered in some sort of dressing. After paying, it was still tipping it down outside, so we went back to the car and had a look at the numerous leaflets which we had picked up at the beginning of our audio guide tour.
That evening we scouted out the restaurants properly and ended up going for Italian, yet again! Well the majority of open restaurants that evening were Italian anyway. I had a very nice roast beef salad and Mathew had some pasta with cheese and ham. It filled our bellies nicely and we returned to the hotel satisfied, and continued to make use of the only DVD player we have had on this holiday so far in our hotel room!
Tuesday June 11th
The first thing we did was the Celtic Museum, which wasn't actually that far away from where we had been staying. We visited it because Mathew said there were English translations, and also because it had been closed yesterday.
It was a small, but very well done museum, still looking more or less pretty new actually. There were lots of panels with German and English writing on, but there were still a few which didn't, and the video at the end didn't have English available either so we didn't go up and do that. The Museum is set on part of the Iron Age village in the immediate vicinity of the royal burial mound which was discovered there. there is an arching construction outside the museum which shows where the various levels of the mound were, and inside the museum there is an underground life size reconstruction of the burial chamber, which was really very clever!
The woman at the till didn't speak much English but we managed ok - I bought a silver pendant from the display cabinet which turned out to be one of a kind (I think, as she took it right out of the cabinet), and there seemed to be a lot of paperwork involved with selling it as she leaved through a folder, found the photo of it and wrote down the date and price at which it was sold...! After this, we went outside to look at the reconstructions in the grounds which were really quite large and spacious dwellings, and the walked over to the reconstructed mound which we could see, from the summit, was a very good place to see the entire surrounding landscape from.
Onwards we went to Rothenburg ob der Tauber - we were going back into Bavaria! I didn't really know what to expect, and Mathew had a bit of an idea.....but we were both very pleasantly surprised with it! We thought it had similarities with York, it was very touristy but had the real surviving buildings in the old town, and the whole place was surrounded by an wall! We could have spent all day there, and we probably would have if it weren't for visiting the Museum. In fact, we did have a couple of museums on our list to do in Rothenburg, but we were enjoying it outside so much, we didn't bother. And we also decided within the first 15 minutes of being there, that we would ditch the Schloss in Würzburg on our last day in Germany, and spend the day in Rothenburg ob der Tauber instead. We just loved the place. We found a bakery which sold sandwiches (a rarity in Germany, so it seems!) and then we tried the town's own delicacy - the Schneeball. Basically it's a big ball of knotted pastry covered in icing or chocolate, sprinkles etc, all different flavours. We went for an amaretti marzipan one and it was delicious. Yet again I felt that it wasn't sickly sweet, so I'm still surprised with German sweetbreads! These Schneeballs come in different sizes, so I thought about buying some for everyone at work - the little ones. I could buy 2 boxes of 8 and I'd be sorted :) Also, plenty of souvenir shops too, but I thought I'd give Nuremburg a chance first, especially if we were going back to Rothenburg on our last day.We went on to our next hotel which was in a place called Schwarzenbruck, just outside Nurenberg, and had dinner there that evening as it was a "Hotel-Restaurant". Fortunatly the menu came in English too, so Mathew chose the fish curry while I had tenderloin with (very) roast onions, green beans and potatoes. Very nice but.....yes, rather salty!!
Wednesday June 12th
This morning breakfast was the usual buffet type, and afterwards we set out for Nürnberg. Actually, we walked to the train station and got there for 4 Euros! Excellent! We spent the day wandering around the town, visiting the Kaiserburg which unfortunately was closed inside due to major work being done on it. However, we were able to walk around it and in some of the gardens, after which we came down the hill and I had ice cream. It was an Italian place yet again (of course), and this time I chose Hazelnut (of course!), Amaretto and Cappucino. It turned out to be a rather delightful selection of flavours. Delicious! We went on to the Natural History Museum, which seemed to be situated on the edge of Nürnberg, not on the outskirts, but certainly in the new part of the town on one of th main roads. I was a little skeptical about it I have to admit, but it turned out to actually be a nice little Museum! The only downside was the fact that there were no English translations of anything, but we only came across a couple of things which we didn't know what they obviously were. There is a surprisingly and impressively large amount of Ethnographic collections in here, from Indonesia in particular, and from and area north of Japan on the Russian coastline which I have never even thought about that. Add Costa Rica into the mix as well as a number of Pacific Islands and there is plenty to see here, many masks and many small and life size reconstructions of things from coastal fishing scenes to living quarters. There really is an impressive collection of artefacts from places I have never really thought about before.
Upstairs there was the naturally history section, displays of minerals, geology and nature. There is also what I would call a brief history of time which many archaeological items on display, a little like a whistle stop tour of the timeline in Germany. They even have TWO bears in this museum. Yes, TWO!
Afterwards, we had a look in the shop which was 40% postcards of exhibits, 40% books and 20% gifts. Oh well! We continued on back outside and made our way th rough the town towards the train station and stumbled upon a small market selling handmade items. I felt rather optimistic at this point, but then as I looked around I realised that, although there were lots of nice things, nothing was really jumping out at me as a souvenir for anyone. Oh and instead of the Schneeballs for my work colleagues, we decided on a couple of bags of Lebkuchen instead. And one bag for us! We will certainly be buying Schneeball balls again when we go back to Rothenburg......but they will mostly be for us! ;)Back at the hotel, my feet felt like they were about to drop off. We rested for a while before heading down to dinner whee I had fish and Mathew enjoyed the beef dish which I had the previous night, although he told me that it wasn't as salty or smokey as the one I'd had!
Thursday June 13th
We visited the Cathedral, along with the old Palace (residence of the Bishops during the 16th & 17th Century) and the Museum which were in the same area. Bamberg was quite nice, although it seemed more similar to Nurnberg to us. We left feeling that Rothenburg ob der Tauber was much more deserving of the title of a UNESCO World Heritage Site...
Onward to the hotel, it was in a small village and we had free wi fi so wet were hoping to check in online but the reception was absolutely terrible! The next hotel had free Internet everywhere - modem only. Which means we weren't going to be able to log in there either. Looked like we were going to be checking in on the day!
Friday June 14th
We first decided to go to the Museum because we had skipped it last time in favour of exploring the rest of the place before moving on. However......you know what I'm going to say don't you? Yes, it was closed. No, it wasn't Monday, it was Friday - but there was a sign on the door saying it was closed on Friday and Saturday. Hey ho. We're kind of used to this happening now....!
We continued exploring the streets of the town, including walking along the historic walls which was quite fun. Very narrow and higgledy-piggledy! After this, we discovered that I seemed to be going through a very clumsy phase. First off in one shop I went to pick up a painted metal Christmas decoration and cause the entire display to topple over. Fortunately it wasn't that big and nobody saw me do it, but when Mathew went in a second time later on he noticed that the display was back up again. Then I picked one up and accidently flung it underneath a small table, but could we find it? No. Mathew tried to prevent me from touching any more items in the shop but I was genuinely trying to choose one - which I did, without incident! Later on, we had lunch which we bought from the same bakery as last time. We had a mini pizza which was surprisingly filling, plus a mini-schneeball each. I had bought us a bottle of sprite each, and I had knocked mine over (unopened) but I thought I had let it rest for long enough before I opened it. But no. It fizzed and overflowed all over me, but fortunately I didn't lose much from the bottle, it was mostly bubbles / foam. And also fortunately for both of us, this seemed to be the last of my clumsy moments today......!!
Back in the main shopping area, Mathew had been eyeing up a print in an art shop and decided to go in a second time, as we had popped in briefly about 2 or 3 hours before, having left to think about it. She shop owner remembered us and thanked us for returning. Whilst she was talking to herself and moving a few things around in the shop, Mathew decided on which he was going to buy and brought it to the counter. The (very knowledgeable) shop owner told us more about the print before wrapping it to protect it for when we fly back home. In the meantime, she offered us some Sherry while we waited! Well, that was unexpected....! We politely declined though, as I don't really drink and Mathew was driving.
As we were having great difficulty finding souvinirs for people, we decided on the obvious thing: The Christmas Shop. As a result, we bought a Christmas decoration for everyone. At least they're going to be used once a year :)
Onward to the Schneeballs and we bought a box of 8 for us, and 4 for my brother. Souvenirs sorted, we returned to the car and left for our last night in Germany.
Saturday June 15th
A day at the airport. We had to leave as soon as we could, despite our flight being at 15:05, we had not been able to check in online for the past 48 hours as we usually would have done because we had no internet connection, so we had to do it in person. It only meant that we had a higher chance of not getting 2 seats together. Fortunately there was plenty of room on the flight and we checked in with no problem.
We easily found a place which sold Paninis (Thank you!) and had lunch in the waiting area before boarding the plane. The journey was yet again pretty uneventful, but there was quite a bit of turbulence especially as we came into London because it was grey and drizzling. We landed safely, got off the pane and collected our luggage before buying some nibbles for the journey home on the coach and finally, back home :)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
There were a number of observations which we made whilst in Germany, so I thought I would summarise them at the end. Not having had this experience before, there were a few things which were new to us / surprised us. So here they are!
TRAFFIC
Roundabouts - all the ones we encountered looked pretty new and they were all fairly small, comprising of one lane only on the roundabout and also one lane leading up to the roundabout. In and near city centres cross junctions were favoured - with multiple lanes. This may have been for the parts of the country we visited of course, but we didn't encounter any roundabouts with more than one lane except ONE next to Frankfurt airport.
Filtering when road works squeeze traffic from 2 lanes into 1 for a short duration of the journey: the whole filtering thing didn't really work. Everyone seemed to want to get to the front of where the lane gets cut off before trying to get into single file, resulting in a jam. UK drivers usually begin filtering gradually as soon as they see the signs about it resulting in slow, but flowing traffic.
Road signs seemed to be fairly subtle, although this may just be because we are used to something different. For all we know, a German holidaying in the UK might think the same of ours. Roads with A numbers like A5 for example, were actually signposted as [5], and roads which we would call B roads in the UK didn't have the letter on them either. And as for the complicated ones with 4 numbers, we just forgot about it - it was easier to navigate from vilage to village, and use the numbers on main roads only.
FOOD
Salt and Vinegar is basically the Nation's favourite flavour, and it goes on pretty much everything. Seriously. There is a LOT of salt in a lot of dishes. If you suffer from high blood pressure / trying to cut down your salt intake and you're holidaying in Germany, it would be advisable to learn a phrase to ask for no salt in whatever you order. And if you order a salad, you can guarantee that 90% of it will be pickled. So much vinegar. Everything practically swims in it basically, so if you don't like vinegar, stay away from German salad in particular!
The humble sandwich seemed to be very difficult to find in Germany. I guess it's not gripped Germany quite so much. The best bet location wise - especially in a small town - was to find a Bakery. Not all Bakeries had sandwiches though, but when we did find one which had some, fillings were fairly restricted. Ham and cheese was be the basis, some with salami in place of the ham, and sometimes maybe with egg, tomato, cucumber or a combination of the three (with the ham and cheese) and mayonnaise was often be the favoured butter substitute. We also saw the odd giant pretzel and croissant which have the same fillings too. There are a few other places which are more specialised though, such as "Nordsee" which is a bit like Subway, only the main filling of any sandwich here is some sort of fish or shellfish.
Soda, lemonade or cola was tricky to find on the go because we didn't know where to look. These drinks weren't as elusive as the sandwich, but the places which do have them, had them in their window or on the counter, so we had to keep our eyes peeled. Often, the Bakery which had a sandwich did not necessarily have the drinks we wanted.
GENERAL STUFF
A large part of Germany is more religious than I thought it was, especially the area of Bavaria which we visited. Every village has a church yes, but the bell frequently chimes - this does not happen in many places in the UK so it was a bit of a novelty for us which we thought quaint and rather pleasant.
The double bed arrangement in Germany was an interesting one. I don't know if this is a country-wide thing in German houses, but it certainly is in hotels - you get the frame for a double bed, but you get two single matresses and two single duvets. Out of the 8 Hotels / Guesthouses we stayed in, only 2 had one single king size matress and even then we had two single duvets. I have to admit, this is genius thinking especially for light sleepers like myself. First off you have a decent amount of space in which to move your limbs like any single bed, unlike any standard sized double matress. Secondly, your partner can toss and turn all he / she likes and you remain undisturbed whilst getting your beauty sleep. What's more, there's no fighting about who's got more of the duvet - although Mathew and I rarely have this problem anyway as I'm always cold, he's always too warm, so it just results in him getting rid of his half of the duvet by piling it on top of me. It's a win-win situation!
Pillows in German Hotels / Guesthouses are where the sleeping experience in Germany was a let down. Pillow cases are often huge - about twice the size of ours in the UK and square. The pillow inside looks all very nice and floofy when you walk into the room of course, but when you lay your head on it, you'll basically be ending up with your head on the matress. There is practically no substance in these pillows, so it's best to do what I did - roll the pillow up into cylindrical form. It'll end up as half the size of UK or US pillow but at least you'll feel like you have one under your head when you lie down.
Germany is OBSESSED with paper napkins, and we have not yet determined why. There are racks and racks of them almost in every single shop you see - displayed like greetings cards or postcards on rotating displays. I had never seen so many napkins with so many designs on them. You will see them everywhere and sometimes in two different sizes, sometimes on two displays next to each other. Even the German equivalent of Paperchase sells them.
CHRISTMAS - there's a lot of Christmas stuff going on in Germany. It's a thing and, well, this is Germany so it's everywhere and you just have to deal with seeing the Nutcracker every now and then, and the odd shop which sells absolutely nothing but Christmas decorations. And paper napkins.
Gift shops at tourist attractions are very different to those in the UK. Children's sections are very small and poorly stocked, whilst adults are limited to a LOT of porcelain (understandably so but I don't know many people who really THAT many mugs), tapestry cushions and silk / floaty scarves. Magnets, bookmarks, postcards etc of course, but don't expect to find something original for a souvenir. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of themed chocolate or biscuits either, if anything - visiting a bakery is more worthwhile for this. Come to think of it, you won't really find a great deal which is actually themed on the attraction you just finished looking at. And paper napkins.
Buying tickets to a tourist attraction can be a complicated decision making process in some places here, especially if you're not familiar with the language and there isn't always a translation. It's advisable to pop online and visit the website of the attraction via google and translate the page if the website doesn't have a flag at the top to allow the selection of English. It's easier to figure out what you need and to remember the German for it here. If you buy a ticket and think you have been given the wrong one, there is a chance that the ticket desk will change it for you but make sure you haven't used it somewhere in the grounds where they punch a hole or tear it, otherwise you'll be paying extra for the garden that you thought was originally included in the price (as this happened to us!).
And don't forget the paper napkins!!
We easily found a place which sold Paninis (Thank you!) and had lunch in the waiting area before boarding the plane. The journey was yet again pretty uneventful, but there was quite a bit of turbulence especially as we came into London because it was grey and drizzling. We landed safely, got off the pane and collected our luggage before buying some nibbles for the journey home on the coach and finally, back home :)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
There were a number of observations which we made whilst in Germany, so I thought I would summarise them at the end. Not having had this experience before, there were a few things which were new to us / surprised us. So here they are!
TRAFFIC
Roundabouts - all the ones we encountered looked pretty new and they were all fairly small, comprising of one lane only on the roundabout and also one lane leading up to the roundabout. In and near city centres cross junctions were favoured - with multiple lanes. This may have been for the parts of the country we visited of course, but we didn't encounter any roundabouts with more than one lane except ONE next to Frankfurt airport.
Filtering when road works squeeze traffic from 2 lanes into 1 for a short duration of the journey: the whole filtering thing didn't really work. Everyone seemed to want to get to the front of where the lane gets cut off before trying to get into single file, resulting in a jam. UK drivers usually begin filtering gradually as soon as they see the signs about it resulting in slow, but flowing traffic.
Road signs seemed to be fairly subtle, although this may just be because we are used to something different. For all we know, a German holidaying in the UK might think the same of ours. Roads with A numbers like A5 for example, were actually signposted as [5], and roads which we would call B roads in the UK didn't have the letter on them either. And as for the complicated ones with 4 numbers, we just forgot about it - it was easier to navigate from vilage to village, and use the numbers on main roads only.
FOOD
Salt and Vinegar is basically the Nation's favourite flavour, and it goes on pretty much everything. Seriously. There is a LOT of salt in a lot of dishes. If you suffer from high blood pressure / trying to cut down your salt intake and you're holidaying in Germany, it would be advisable to learn a phrase to ask for no salt in whatever you order. And if you order a salad, you can guarantee that 90% of it will be pickled. So much vinegar. Everything practically swims in it basically, so if you don't like vinegar, stay away from German salad in particular!
The humble sandwich seemed to be very difficult to find in Germany. I guess it's not gripped Germany quite so much. The best bet location wise - especially in a small town - was to find a Bakery. Not all Bakeries had sandwiches though, but when we did find one which had some, fillings were fairly restricted. Ham and cheese was be the basis, some with salami in place of the ham, and sometimes maybe with egg, tomato, cucumber or a combination of the three (with the ham and cheese) and mayonnaise was often be the favoured butter substitute. We also saw the odd giant pretzel and croissant which have the same fillings too. There are a few other places which are more specialised though, such as "Nordsee" which is a bit like Subway, only the main filling of any sandwich here is some sort of fish or shellfish.
Soda, lemonade or cola was tricky to find on the go because we didn't know where to look. These drinks weren't as elusive as the sandwich, but the places which do have them, had them in their window or on the counter, so we had to keep our eyes peeled. Often, the Bakery which had a sandwich did not necessarily have the drinks we wanted.
GENERAL STUFF
A large part of Germany is more religious than I thought it was, especially the area of Bavaria which we visited. Every village has a church yes, but the bell frequently chimes - this does not happen in many places in the UK so it was a bit of a novelty for us which we thought quaint and rather pleasant.
The double bed arrangement in Germany was an interesting one. I don't know if this is a country-wide thing in German houses, but it certainly is in hotels - you get the frame for a double bed, but you get two single matresses and two single duvets. Out of the 8 Hotels / Guesthouses we stayed in, only 2 had one single king size matress and even then we had two single duvets. I have to admit, this is genius thinking especially for light sleepers like myself. First off you have a decent amount of space in which to move your limbs like any single bed, unlike any standard sized double matress. Secondly, your partner can toss and turn all he / she likes and you remain undisturbed whilst getting your beauty sleep. What's more, there's no fighting about who's got more of the duvet - although Mathew and I rarely have this problem anyway as I'm always cold, he's always too warm, so it just results in him getting rid of his half of the duvet by piling it on top of me. It's a win-win situation!
Pillows in German Hotels / Guesthouses are where the sleeping experience in Germany was a let down. Pillow cases are often huge - about twice the size of ours in the UK and square. The pillow inside looks all very nice and floofy when you walk into the room of course, but when you lay your head on it, you'll basically be ending up with your head on the matress. There is practically no substance in these pillows, so it's best to do what I did - roll the pillow up into cylindrical form. It'll end up as half the size of UK or US pillow but at least you'll feel like you have one under your head when you lie down.
Germany is OBSESSED with paper napkins, and we have not yet determined why. There are racks and racks of them almost in every single shop you see - displayed like greetings cards or postcards on rotating displays. I had never seen so many napkins with so many designs on them. You will see them everywhere and sometimes in two different sizes, sometimes on two displays next to each other. Even the German equivalent of Paperchase sells them.
CHRISTMAS - there's a lot of Christmas stuff going on in Germany. It's a thing and, well, this is Germany so it's everywhere and you just have to deal with seeing the Nutcracker every now and then, and the odd shop which sells absolutely nothing but Christmas decorations. And paper napkins.
Gift shops at tourist attractions are very different to those in the UK. Children's sections are very small and poorly stocked, whilst adults are limited to a LOT of porcelain (understandably so but I don't know many people who really THAT many mugs), tapestry cushions and silk / floaty scarves. Magnets, bookmarks, postcards etc of course, but don't expect to find something original for a souvenir. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of themed chocolate or biscuits either, if anything - visiting a bakery is more worthwhile for this. Come to think of it, you won't really find a great deal which is actually themed on the attraction you just finished looking at. And paper napkins.
Buying tickets to a tourist attraction can be a complicated decision making process in some places here, especially if you're not familiar with the language and there isn't always a translation. It's advisable to pop online and visit the website of the attraction via google and translate the page if the website doesn't have a flag at the top to allow the selection of English. It's easier to figure out what you need and to remember the German for it here. If you buy a ticket and think you have been given the wrong one, there is a chance that the ticket desk will change it for you but make sure you haven't used it somewhere in the grounds where they punch a hole or tear it, otherwise you'll be paying extra for the garden that you thought was originally included in the price (as this happened to us!).
And don't forget the paper napkins!!
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