Day 12

We have officially done every type of travel activity! We’ve been to museums, gone on a bike tour, stayed in hostels, taken in a double-decker bus tour, walked our asses off, been in the city, been in the country, taken the train, been to the beach and as of today we’ve hiked through a National Park. The vertical distance we hiked was 190 meters and took about half an hour. The view was amazing! Sandstone rock formations that were once under the ocean protruded out of the mountainside. For a 1.50 (euro) entrance fee, we toured our way through the ruins of a medieval fortress. There wasn’t much left of the fortress, but signs explained what was once there. The people who built this were nuts! Catwalks connected the different levels of each sandstone pillar. In its day the catwalks were built out of wood beams which rested in grooves chiseled out of the rock. You can still see grooves. Stairs were also still visible which were cut into the shear faces. Over one particularly large span, an arched bridge was constructed. My guess is it was constructed later on. A four star hotel and restaurant lie at the top of the mountain. On our way down the mountain we took an alternative route which took us to a small waterfall; it was more of a trickle, but still beautiful. We sat down and had an Apfelsaftschorle and Hanuta (Apple juice and cookies). I wanted to get another picture of the trickle, so I squatted down and rested my camera on the railing. Just as I was about to take the second picture, the trickle became a tsunami! It didn’t reach the railing, but it scared the crap out of me. I jumped up, grabbed my bag and looked around to see all the locals laughing. We found out later that for 0.30 cents the lady at the bar could open a small flood gate at the top of the water trickle. I can laugh about it now, but at the time I imagined us being washed down the canyon by a flash flood.

We headed for the car and drove back to Dresden. I had my ritual half hour nap in the car. Back in Dresden, we got out our handy dandy “Map of Dresden for Young Travelers” out. Curry and Co. ended up being our lunch of choice where we tried the National Award-Winning Currywurst. For 5 euro each we got a drink, medium seasoned fries and a cut-up hotdog (wurst) with a homemade peanut sauce sprinkled with curry. The peanut sauce was awesome! Who’d have thought that hotdogs and peanut sauce taste good together!!! It was an extra bonus that the cashier/cook/waiter was peanut sauce for the eyes.

After our 4:00pm lunch we walked around Neustadt quarters of Dresden. It’s a very artsy area where almost every building has been muralled, graffitied, or plastered with posters. Our map led us to a collection of inner squares which were decorated by local artists. A couple blocks down the street lye a large grassy area with a large Protestant church on the opposite edge. I really wanted to go in and after trying a dozen or so doors, the last door said “Closed on Mondays.” Ha! We walked around the Dresdener forest for a little while and then headed back to the hostel.

Tomorrow we will be in Stuttgart briefly to meet up with Christian (our former foreign exchange student) and Joe, a friend of Debbie’s for coffee.

-Heather :-)

Day 11

So, we have WLAN in Dresden as well!

We left Berlin this morning around 10am and headed for Dresden. We both agreed that we'd spent enough time in Berlin and were ready to be out of the big city. The road trip only took 2 hours and we arrived at our hostel too early to check. No worries! Ready for lunch, we quickly shuffled ourselves into a corner cafe-bistro and spent an hour or so people watching from the cafe's large glass windows. Our hostel's located in the Dresden "New City", a center for young people with lots of bars and artsy-fartsy kinds of places to explore.



After lunch we decided to trek into the "Old City" (about a 30 minute walk). On February 13, 1945 the "Old City" was heavliy bombed and hardly anything was left standing. After the iron curtain fell in 1989, the city of Dresden started a massive restoration project. Much of the city center has been rebuilt in the original baroque style and is absolutely beautiful. We walked along the Elbe River enjoying the view, then made our way back to the hostel to check in.

Around 4pm we walked, once again, from the hostel to the city center. This time we had our cameras with us. Our plans were to further explore the "Old City", grab a bite to eat and then catch an outdoor concert. For dinner we scarfed-down 2 sausages each, accompanied by regional beer and for dessert Nutella crepes. Oink! As the concert drew nearer the sky seemed to darken. Fortunately, we were sitting under a canapy/tent. Just minutes before the concert was to begin, buckets of water came hurling from the sky. People quickly swarmed under the tent and within seconds we were surrounded by fellow beer-drinkers and concert-goers. The water didn't want to let up and after a quarter of an hour someone announced that the orchester would not be playing, but a small gospel choir would perform under another small tent on stage. We listened for about an hour, or until the rain let up, and then headed back to our hostel.

Heather's sleeping...we were going to go out tonight, but I think those plans are scratched. I don't think she's used to all the walking. My first impressions of Dresden have been great. There's something fasinating about this city with it's small town feeling and jam-packed culture. It's too bad we're only here for 2 nights.

Day 10

We slept in…until 11!! We didn’t really have any plans for the day and when the housekeeping knocked around 10am, Heather yelled out, “SLEEPING!” Our roommates all rolled over, silently agreeing. Our 3 roommates sleep even longer than Heather does!

After a breakfast/lunch at the hostel we headed for Alexanderturm to get a 360 degree look at the city from above. The weather was already pretty crappy and later in the day while we were drinking coffee and eating “cookies” (otherwise known as cake) it took a turn for the worse. Torrential downpour forced us to retreat from under the umbrellas to the depths of the café-bar-restaurant and gave us an excuse to have another beer.

Back in the hostel we caught a bite to eat in the lounge and had another beer. The German-Soccer-Cup Finals, Bremen against Munich, entertained us and a bunch of crazed football fans for the next 90 minutes. Bremen won and everybody was happy. Tomorrow we’re headed for Dresden…we don’t know if we’ll have internet access, so it may be a couple days before the next post. Enjoy the pixs!

Day 9

Today we took a bike tour of Berlin! The hot-ass tour guide from Canada did a great job maneuvering us through the traffic. We managed to steer clear of the millions of buses, pedi-cabs, pedestrians and cars. In our short picture-taking breaks, Mike the bike guy, rapidly narrated the history of Germany and Berlin. Some of the bike tour highlights were: Bebelplatz site of the Nazi book burning, Nazi headquarters which managed to avoid being bombed (a pity because it’s one of the ugliest buildings in Berlin) and the site of Hitler’s bunker and place of death. We also revisited the Holocaust Memorial and learned that the same company who supplied the anti-graffiti material for the concrete was the same company which provided the Nazi’s with poisonous gas. The company donated the anti-graffiti material The memorial still cost 27 million Euros.

After a quick break back at the Hostel, we took the train to Kreuzberg with the intension of going to the Carnival of Cultures. Once there, we found out it didn’t start until 6pm. We had 3 hours to kill so we went over to the Jewish History Museum by Architect Daniel Liebskind. Neither one of us are big on museums, but we ended spending 3 ½ hours experiencing the history of the Jewish culture and religion. It wasn’t half as depressing as the Memorial. Debbie wasn’t a big fan of the architecture, but in my professional opinionJ, the sensual qualities (lighting, angularity), really enhanced the viewers experience.

The Carnival of Cultures was packed full of people, food, music, and drinking. We worked our way from stand to stand in search of exotic and interesting types of foods (and something cheap). We collected coucous salad, baked bananas and Arabian baklava.

Once again, we arrived “late” to the Hostel, around 9ish and all our roommates were already asleep! This ended day 9.

Day 8

Today we did a gigantic self-walking tour. We walked from 11am to 6pm and didn’t even see half of the sights. The first part of our walk-a-thon we spent at the Reichstag, Germany’s parliament building. After an hour-long wait and a short security check, the elevator took us up to the roof terrace and glass dome. At this point the weather was still being nice…some clouds, some son, lots of wind and not so much rain.

After the Reichstag and Brandenbergische Tor we saw: Potsdamerplatz, the Berlin Philharmonic building, a museum by Mies van der Rohe, the 2nd largest remaining segment of the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie and Frierichsstrasse. Berlin is not a small city, but at least it’s completely flat!
Once back at the hostel we got ready for our evening activities. We had tickets to see a variety show, “Soap-The Show” in the Chamaeleon Theater in the Jewish Quarter. Neither of us knew what to expect. The show was strange, but awesome. Eight performers with various skills (trapeze, acting, singing, contortion, juggling, etc) carried out sketches involving bathtubs. Our favorite skit was the naked-towel-holding-men’s ballet. They were so synchronized moving their towels back and forth, that we didn’t even get a quick peek ;-) We both had a great time and highly recommend checking it out…but book your tickets early.

On the way back to the hostel we happened upon an American “Sixties” Diner. Debbie just couldn’t pass this up. If you ignored the lemon-favored iced-tea, the German-speaking waitresses, and the not-so-dill dilled-pickles it was almost like eating at home.

Day 7

Got up early and headed for Berlin. It seems to be harder and harder to get Heather out of bed. The trip to Berlin took about 2 hours and we checked in at the Baxpax Hostel around 1 pm. Our first order of business was to get our things upstairs and the laptop secured in a locker. Baxpax is a very large complex with a huge array of people and ages; a very hip and trendy atmosphere.
One of our roommates had just flown in from Canada and was sleeping in the middle of the afternoon. We needed something to eat and decided it would be better to do a bit of exploring. Our hostel is very close to the Jewish Quarter of Berlin and we can see the New Synagogue from our window. Ironically most of the restaurants in the area our Indian cuisine. We chose a restaurant with a cheap lunch menu. I had made plans for the evening (which I kept secret from Heather for a couple of weeks) and tried to eat as light as possible.

I’ve to Berlin a couple of times, once for a gig, once for an audition, etc, and was able to navigate us over to Pariserplatz after lunch. Pariserplatz is the home of the French and US Consulates in Berlin and directly in front of the Brandenbergische Tor. We took our pictures and marched on to the Memorial of the Murdered Jews. This is where Heather’s thousands of dollars of architectural education came in handy. The outdoor memorial monument was designed by Peter Eisenman and remains to this day open to interpretation. Some people think it looks like a graveyard, others see the trains deporting Jews to concentration camps. There are 2,711 rectangular concrete blocks of all different heights, ranging from ground level to over 4 meters (that would be about 6 liters, Dad). We took our time in the sea of extruding blocks and then headed for the memorial info center located beneath the actual monument. The info center focuses on the life’s of the victims and their families rather than the statistics (which were around 5-6 million individuals from Europe and some parts of Africa). We both left feeling quite depressed and awestruck.

We headed back to the hostel, the surprise growing nearer. Heather made a couple of guesses throughout the day, but none of them were even in the ballpark. “Will we be eating off of people? Are we cooking our own food? Will there be physical contact?” I wasn’t quite sure how to answer the last question. We were 30 minutes early to the restaurant, Nocti Vagus, and she still hadn’t figured it out J Even with the four menu options, one being a “surprise” menu, she had no clue! Eventually I couldn’t keep it in any longer.

“We’re eating in the dark.”

“What!?”

“You won’t be able to see your food, or the waiter, or anybody else. It’s pitch black!”

“Oh….(long pause)….cool.”

One of the waitresses took our orders (I had the vegetarian menu and Heather ordered the “surprise”) and briefed us. Our waiters name was Benjamin and we were sitting at Table 12, were the two most important pieces of information for the evening. If we needed anything we were to call out Benjamin’s name and our table number. We were shown into a room with a dimmed light and as soon as the second door opened all the lights went out! Our waiter escorted Heather by the hand through the restaurant and I held on to her shoulders as directed. The theme of the evening was “Wellness Special” and a masseuse was available for neck and head massages.

-Debbie

It was interesting experience eating in the dark. All of our other senses were enhanced. When the guitarist began to play, I would see hues of purple and Debbie felt there was an enhancement of visual memory. Both of were visualizing what and where everything was on the table. A brick wall was on Debbie’s right. A group of about 5 or 6 people was to my left as well as 4 to 5 tables behind us. At first it felt claustrophobic in the room, but then, as the other senses kicked in, the space began to feel larger.

A picture of Heather and I at the dark restaurant!

The food was amazing! I imagined the soup to be the most difficult to eat, but actually the main course proved to be most challenging. I eventually picked up my veal because it was too difficult to cut with a fork and knife. It didn’t really matter how I looked eating because no one could see me. Debbie continually lost her food and was finding new flavors she didn’t know she had. Mid-way through the meal, the masseuse became available and we both got massages. It’s nice to get pampered once in awhile. We later found out that the masseuse was blind as well as most of the waiters and waitresses. If you think about it, this would be a great place for a blind person to work! The waiters would make different clicking noises so they wouldn’t bump into each other.
The entire evening was quite the adventure. I would have never guessed we would be eating in the dark. When we emerged from the dark, our depth perception was off (everything felt closer than it really was) and dim light in the room in which we enter seemed like a 120W light bulb!

-Heather

Day 6

We slept in today....until 8:30!

Instead of hiking, we took the S-Bahn to Rostock's Botanical Gardens. The weather was warm and extremely humid. The botanical gardens had a greenhouse hosting a rainforest climate and desert climate (not in the same room :-) ) An old man offered to take our picture in the rainforest, but the mist was so thick that we could hardly see the camera and in the picture you can hardly see us.

Towards the back of the gardens was the mountainous vegetation and marshlands. While walking through the "mountains" we could hear "ducks" in the distance. As we approached the marshlands we realized that our "ducks" were actually really horny frogs.

Four train stations later we arrived in Warnemuende, a village where the Warnow River meets the Baltic Sea. For lunch we had no idea what we ordered; Debbie ended up with raw fish and cranberries, pototes and a small salad; my plate was filled with a variety of seafood and fish in a tomato sauce/soup. See picture! Both meals were really tasty, but we're still burping up fish :-)


After lunch we walked along the white-sanded beach. After following a naked man for a half a mile, we came upon the naked part of the beach. Debbie, while photographing the beach sofas, unknowingly ended up with a streaker. It wasn't until we zoomed in on the picture that we noticed him. Look closely!

On our back to the lighthouses the weather took a turn and people were fleeing the beach. The sky behind us was black and we could hear thunder in the distance. I insisted we go look at the lighthouses, at the mouth of the river. At the furthest point out, all hell broke loose....rain, wind, lightning, thunder, the works. The lightning was so close that our hair was standing straight up. See picture below! We ran back to the boardwalk area and took shelter in a coffee shop. We were drenched. Debbie was happy about the coffee.

When it stopped raining we made our way through a bit of the village and then took the train back to Rostock center. As a last stop of the day, we checked the music conservatory, built in an old convent. An interesting combination of old and new architecture. Tonight we're headed out to the bars to drink and meet the locals. Tomorrow off to Berlin!


Narrated by Heather, typed by Debbie ;-)

Day 5

Had a really busy morning between getting checked-out of the hostel, buying a new navigation system, finding a bank, making calls for the car (insurance, repairs, police, etc.). We survived and the car is back in one piece.

Headed for Rostock once the car was finished. The roads were completely free and driving was easy. Two hours later we were checking-in to Braeckfoest Hostel. The hostel is very quaint, located near the old city in a historical house. It's a big change to the 400-bed hostel we were staying in. There's a kitchen in the basement and free internet access.

We were both exhausted today probably due to the car issues and after a quick bite to eat in the city, decided to chill out at the hostel. Heather's upstairs in our room (probably sleeping) and I've been do-da-ing around in the general room. Five days of traveling is hard on a person.

Tomorrow we're thinking of doing a bit a hiking just to get out the city for a while. Rostock is much smaller than Hamburg and a lot quieter.

More adventures to come!
Debbie

Day 4

Boy was today eventful! We decided to get out of the city (Hamburg) and travel to Bremen. Debbie wanted to visit a small town south of Bremen which has the homestead of our ancestors. The moment we stepped out of the car, there was a large traditional-looking windmill which sat on the bank of the Weser river. At its base was a café surrounded by fields of flowers. It was gorgeous. After coffee and cake at the café, we ventured our way into the city center. The city is known for the childrens story “The town musicians of Bremen;” a fable about four animals, a donkey, a dog, a cat, and a rooster, which traveled to Bremen to be musicians. Every Sunday at noon, the fable is acted out for the public. It was fun to watch, but had no clue what they were saying. Debbie filled me in afterward.

We decided to do a self-guided tour of the city from a guide book, which turned out to be rather relaxing. Some of the highlights of what we saw were an array of pitched bells which formed a “V” between two steeply pitched roofs, which played very delicate music for about 10 minutes on every hour, three times a day. We just happened to be their at the right time. There was also a waterless wishing well in the city center that when a coin was inserted, it either “hee-hawed,” “ woofed,” “meowed,” or “cock-a-doodle-dooded.” I found it quite amusing. By far the best part of the day was the Himmelssaal in the Atlantis House. This was mentioned in the guide book and looked interesting. It is one of the best representations of 1930’s architecture in Germany and remarkably survived the second world war. The Himmelssaal was located on the 5th floor of the Hilton Hotel. We had to go to the front desk and ask for the key to the room. The spiral stairs up to the Himmelssaal were beautiful. Each step was embedded with circular glass block and the walls were made up of glass and block and veneered with blue tile. The main room was like nothing expected. The ceiling was vaulted with blue and white glass block. The room is used as a banquet hall. I would have called it early Streamline Architecture. The Architect was Bildhauer Bernhard Hoetger.

For lunch, I had carrot coconut soup and Debbie had something traditional to this area that looked like dog food, but tasted good. Dad would have liked it. By far, this has been the best meal we’ve had and was the cheapest!

As we walked back to the car, we were talking about what a great day we had when we noticed glass on the sidewalk near the car. The window had been broken out and Debbie’s Boston-speaking TomTom and cable had been stolen. We forgot to take it off the windshield partially because Bremen is such a quaint city. Actually it didn’t even cross our minds to put it in the glove compartment. This was not how we wanted to end our day. Debbie called the police to file a report. Two female police officers came and to our surprise were very nice and helpful. One officer picked up glass while the other filed the report. They gave us a number to call for a glass company which will temporarly fix windows on weekends. A temporary piece of plexiglass was fitted to the window until the window can get fixed on Monday. Instead of letting this hold us back, we decided to go to Engeln.

-Heather

Around 1850 our great-great-great grandfather, John D. Mehlhop immigrated from Germany to the USA with one of his brothers. His second brother had left a couple years earlier with his family. According to family stories and the research I’ve been doing since I was 15, I tracked down the Mehlhops to a region just south of Bremen including the cities: Engeln, Asendorf, Hohenmoor, etc. Not knowing what we would find in Engeln, we headed for a small restaurant, Gasthaus Mehlhop. Upon arrival an older gentleman and obvious local greeted us, curious about our business in “these parts.” I explained to him our relationship to the Mehlhop family and he seemed excited to chat. I ordered a coffee, Heather a beer! After an hour or so of asking questions and chatting about the Mehlhops I learned that this region is full of Mehlhops and that family members from the States and Germany had been visiting Gasthaus Mehlhop and Engeln for the last 30 years trying the answer the same questions I was trying to get answered. A second man, the neighbor from across the street, suggested that I try a couple of churches in the area or spend some time talking to the Mehlhop families close by. This will have to wait for my next trip! This other piece of information I’d like to follow is a small parcel of land with the name of Mehlhop not far from the restaurant.

Tomorrow we’re off to Rostock.

-Debbie

Day 3

Today was our Hamburg exploration day. We started in the Speicherstadt, a historic warehouse district used for imports and exports, mainly coffee, tea, spices, and oriental carpets. Most of the buildings are about eight stories tall and made use of a pulley system to load and unload the goods. Heather was taken back by the amount of brick used and just couldn’t get enough pictures. We visited Spicy’s Spice Museum which was cool, but killed our noses, and then headed for HafenCity. HafenCity is a new urban development which by 2025 will have all the amenities of a functioning city. It even has its own concert house, to be finished next year. This part of the city was so new and clean that it looked like an architectural rendering (like AutoCAD….I think….Deb).

After HafenCity we jumped on a double-decker bus to hit up all the sights we wouldn’t have time to further explore. Debbie started getting stressed because she had made plans to meet Mr. H (otherwise known as Herr Höltzel….Debbie’s horn teacher) for a quick house concert and coffee and wasn’t sure if we’d make it on time. We were only 15 minutes late, but nobody seemed to care. After a quick coffee with Höltzel and his wife, Petra, we had the pleasure listening to Petra’s prodigy son perform his competition program for horn and piano. The concert was followed by strawberries and ice-cream on the front patio, further followed by Höltzel’s famous rhubarb compote. It was delicious!

While the boys planted themselves in front of the TV to watch füssball (soccer) we made our way to the deer park with Petra’s youngest daughter, Alicia. Her lack of enthusiasm eventually pointed us in the direction of the “pretty houses” along the Elbe River. After the short, self-guided walk we headed back to their house for a round of waters and our goodbyes.
On our way back to the hostel we stopped at the St. Michaelis Church to take panoramas of the city from the steeple and to find a bite to eat. After being rejected by multiple restaurants due to the fact that we had no reservations, Heather commented, “economical crisis my ass.” Eventually we ended up in a small Italian place, shared noodles, salad, pizza and tiramisu.

We’re back in the hostel. We have a new roommate from California who seems nice. We’re beat and our feet really hurt. Tomorrow we’re headed towards Bremen for the day!

Debbie & Heather

Day 2

We got an early start and were out by 9….9:30….maybe 10 am. Seven hours, 2 potty stops and 1 coffee break later, we arrived in Hamburg! The highlight of our road trip was attempting to photograph road signs to Hamburg. This turned out to be a challenge while driving on crappy German roads, driving around 90-100 miles an hour.

We checked-in to the A&O Hostel, got our stuff out of the car and then took off towards the city center. Hamburg has very eclectic architecture, all arranged around a network of canals. We got our bearings and made plans for the next day. We’ve had a long two days. Guten Nacht!

Day 1

It’s amazing how much work it is to have company…even if after knowing each other for the last 23 years. After spending the whole morning picking up and cleaning my apartment, my Bostonian-speaking TomTom navigated me to the Zürich airport. “Park the car, you’re here!” was the final command as I missed the parking structure, reentered the freeway and took the airport exit from the other direction. Once parked, I headed for the arrival area. The Zürich airport is constructed around hundreds of signs directing travelers through a mess of shops, check-in areas, restaurants and parking structures, all under one roof! I eventually found my way the arrival area and was pleasantly surprised to learn that Heather’s flight had already landed, 45 minutes earlier than planned.

We made our way back through the labyrinth of signs and TomTom got us back to Rottweil. As we crossed the border back into Germany, the customs officer, who had checked most of the cars in front of us, winked and waved us through. I guess it helps to be female ;-)

I left San Diego around 11:30am and headed for Los Angeles. To my surprise, it only took a little over 2 hours to get to LAX. I checked my car into a long-term parking lot and was off to the airport. This was my first at the Los Angeles Airport. When they say to be at the airport 3 hours early for international flights, they mean it. All I can say is I’ve been spoiled when flying out of San Diego and Sacramento. LAX is one of the most inefficient airports I’ve ever experienced. For being one of the largest in the country, you would think they’d be more organized. After checking in and getting my boarding pass, I was directed to a roped off area where checked baggage was being processed. It took about 20 minutes of waiting at the front of the line for the baggage herders to shuffle bags around to make room for more. I felt uneasy about leaving my luggage in this makeshift corral. The next line was for security which had one person checking passports for about 30 gates.

Once on the plane, I wasn’t lucky enough to sit next to the hot Italian, but ended up sitting next to friendly, older woman who was traveling with her cats. One was in a carrier under the seat in front of her, the other with her husband. Gaby the cat, heavily tranquilized before the flight, started coming to on descent into Zürich. The meowing confused our neighbors and we got quite a few quizzical glances. Across the aisle from the cat lady, a very musically-moved, socially-awkward young man danced in his seat.

I think I must have brought San Diego weather with me because Zürich was warmer than I anticipated.

Back in Rottweil all hell had broken loose and our invitation to a BBQ became an invitation to an indoor dinner party. Regardless of the lightning and thunder, the home-cookin’ was great! Everybody at the party did their best to speak English, but after sparkling wine, French Merlot and a couple shots of schnapps Heather fell asleep with her eyes open and everybody else resumed in German. Around 11 I took Heather home, made up the bed and within minutes she was out.