Rest of Germany
3:16 PM
Ok,
There's a fair bit to say about my journey post Majorca so bear with me cause this is going to be long. I'll try and cut out a lot of unnecessary detail but there is a bit to cover. Upon returning to Austria, I set up camp at Siegfried's place for a day or two to help him celebrate his birthday. He and I then ventured into Northern Austria for some hiking in the mountains. This also involved a visit to an ice cave, which I must say is rather interesting. Instead of the formations being made of rocks, they are all made of ice. Very pretty but it's rather cold in them.
After a couple of days on the road hiking around the Alps, I returned to Vienna where I said my final auf wiedersehen to Siegfriend and his friends and headed to Berlin, via Stuttgart airport. I flew an airline called "FlyDBA" and without a word of a lie, the inflight magazine is Playboy. Yep, people just took these as they entered the plane without batting an eyelid. I indulged also purely to see if it's the same "quality" magazine as it is in Australia. Indeed is it.
My next two days were in Berlin where I took in all the sights I could, including a walk along 1.3kms of the original Berlin Wall, a stop at the infamous Checkpoint Charlie, a walk through the Topographie of Terrors, sighting Brandenburg Gate and visits to both Berliner Dom and the Reichstag. From Berlin, I headed to Hamburg by high speed train where I met up with a colleague Karen and his significant other. Karen showed me all around Hamburg, including its Reeperbahn/St Pauli which is the notorious "sex industry" area. I've never seen anything like it and words I type here really can't convey how open they are about prostitution. I had two days in Hamburg and toured around the city and its port, churches and markets. If you're looking for a cheap, very new, funky hotel, stay at the YoHo. Specifically for younger people, it's very affordable.
After Hamburg, I trained back to Berlin then continued on for a flight to Stuttgart. Back to Le Meridien for one final time. I had two nights remaining. I hired a car the next day, much to my disappointment, instead of a BMW 1 series, they gave me a renault convertible. I was looking forward to spending my last two days in Germany blasting around their autobahns in a German car but never mind. I headed south towards Austria and Schloss Neuschwanstein, the pinnicle of fantasy castles and the inspiration behind Walt Disney's castle. Weather was pretty ordinary but I got there relatively early after speeding down the autobahn at speeds my family would rather not know about. King Ludwig II, the mad hatter behind this castle was truly a flamboyant character and his castles are amazing. I completed my tour and headed for Konstance.
To get to Konstance from Neuschwanstein, I had to leave Germany, drive into Austria, leave Austria, drive into Switzerland before returning to Germany again. Konstance is a little lakeside town set upon lake Konstance and is really a very beautiful part of Germany. I had dinner here down by the lake, taking in a fine seafood meal. I then set upon the autobahn for my return to Stuttgart where I proceeded to exceed the theoretical top speed of a renault meagane officially noted as 200km/h by hitting 222km/h flat out in 6th gear. All perfectly legal but that was the last time I'd try that again. Overnight in the Meridien would be my last and I packed up and said my final goodbyes to the staff that had looked after me so well over the last 6 months.
For my final day in Germany, it was pouring with rain. I had earlier had my heart set on getting up to the Nurburgring but bad weather and an impending flight that night kept me closer to Stuttgart. Instead I headed for Heidelberg where I walked around the old town, both the new and old university's, visited the old bridge and went up to see what was left of the Schloss (or castle) which was accessed by funicular. Given my progress to Heidelberg had been slow due to bad weather, I grabbed a meal and then headed back to Stuttgart for the last time mid afternoon. I returned the car to the airport and checked in for my flght home.
And so ended my 6 months in Germany and Europe. Stay tuned for more travel adventures to come.
There's a fair bit to say about my journey post Majorca so bear with me cause this is going to be long. I'll try and cut out a lot of unnecessary detail but there is a bit to cover. Upon returning to Austria, I set up camp at Siegfried's place for a day or two to help him celebrate his birthday. He and I then ventured into Northern Austria for some hiking in the mountains. This also involved a visit to an ice cave, which I must say is rather interesting. Instead of the formations being made of rocks, they are all made of ice. Very pretty but it's rather cold in them.
After a couple of days on the road hiking around the Alps, I returned to Vienna where I said my final auf wiedersehen to Siegfriend and his friends and headed to Berlin, via Stuttgart airport. I flew an airline called "FlyDBA" and without a word of a lie, the inflight magazine is Playboy. Yep, people just took these as they entered the plane without batting an eyelid. I indulged also purely to see if it's the same "quality" magazine as it is in Australia. Indeed is it.
My next two days were in Berlin where I took in all the sights I could, including a walk along 1.3kms of the original Berlin Wall, a stop at the infamous Checkpoint Charlie, a walk through the Topographie of Terrors, sighting Brandenburg Gate and visits to both Berliner Dom and the Reichstag. From Berlin, I headed to Hamburg by high speed train where I met up with a colleague Karen and his significant other. Karen showed me all around Hamburg, including its Reeperbahn/St Pauli which is the notorious "sex industry" area. I've never seen anything like it and words I type here really can't convey how open they are about prostitution. I had two days in Hamburg and toured around the city and its port, churches and markets. If you're looking for a cheap, very new, funky hotel, stay at the YoHo. Specifically for younger people, it's very affordable.
After Hamburg, I trained back to Berlin then continued on for a flight to Stuttgart. Back to Le Meridien for one final time. I had two nights remaining. I hired a car the next day, much to my disappointment, instead of a BMW 1 series, they gave me a renault convertible. I was looking forward to spending my last two days in Germany blasting around their autobahns in a German car but never mind. I headed south towards Austria and Schloss Neuschwanstein, the pinnicle of fantasy castles and the inspiration behind Walt Disney's castle. Weather was pretty ordinary but I got there relatively early after speeding down the autobahn at speeds my family would rather not know about. King Ludwig II, the mad hatter behind this castle was truly a flamboyant character and his castles are amazing. I completed my tour and headed for Konstance.
To get to Konstance from Neuschwanstein, I had to leave Germany, drive into Austria, leave Austria, drive into Switzerland before returning to Germany again. Konstance is a little lakeside town set upon lake Konstance and is really a very beautiful part of Germany. I had dinner here down by the lake, taking in a fine seafood meal. I then set upon the autobahn for my return to Stuttgart where I proceeded to exceed the theoretical top speed of a renault meagane officially noted as 200km/h by hitting 222km/h flat out in 6th gear. All perfectly legal but that was the last time I'd try that again. Overnight in the Meridien would be my last and I packed up and said my final goodbyes to the staff that had looked after me so well over the last 6 months.
For my final day in Germany, it was pouring with rain. I had earlier had my heart set on getting up to the Nurburgring but bad weather and an impending flight that night kept me closer to Stuttgart. Instead I headed for Heidelberg where I walked around the old town, both the new and old university's, visited the old bridge and went up to see what was left of the Schloss (or castle) which was accessed by funicular. Given my progress to Heidelberg had been slow due to bad weather, I grabbed a meal and then headed back to Stuttgart for the last time mid afternoon. I returned the car to the airport and checked in for my flght home.
And so ended my 6 months in Germany and Europe. Stay tuned for more travel adventures to come.
