germany

Below is a map of the journey we took around Germany, Austria and Czech Republic. Click on the stars to read about each location and view photographs that we took during our travels. Or alternatively view the photos without any commentary here.

After our comprehensive walking tour the day before we decided to head out to the western side of Berlin to checkout Daniel Libeskind's world famous Jewish Museum. The Jewish Museum is renowned for its bold and evocative architectural design that successfully blends the narrative of Jewish persecution by the Nazis and a functioning museum for general displays. Recently the architect has also won the competition for the World Trade Centre redevelopment thanks in large part to his work on the Jewish Museum.

Berlin was obviously going to the a highlight of any visit to Germany given its significant position in history during the last 100 years and the massive rebuilding since reunification in 1990. We stayed in the centrally located Circus Hostel which is apparently one of the best hostels in Europe. We were quite impressed by the hostel, it had a nice feel about it thanks in large part to its very bold interior design. However compared to Dresden the rooms were not as quiet or comfortable and breakfast was not part of the nightly charge. The hostel is located  on the eastern side of the Wall but to visit there today it is very hard to distinguish east from west. This was quite surprising as I think before we arrived we had an image of gleaming towers versus brown ghettos in our heads when thinking of West and East Berlin.

None of us quite knew what to expect of Dresden before our arrival. The only concrete fact we knew was that the city was practically wiped off the map during World War II by Allied bombing. However its location and relatively small size made it an ideal, one-night stop off point between the two big cities of Prague and Berlin. Our hostel was located in the northern, party district of town. On the tram ride from the railway station we were surprised to see lots of refurbished Baroque architecture plus active streets and markets (considering it was Good Friday and German unemployment is at a dizzy 20%).

I have now gone through all the photographs I took whilst on the tour of Germany, Austria and Czech Republic. They are available for viewing if you are interested. Click on a thumbnail to see a larger image if you want. The photos are arranged in the order that we did things.

Germany, Austria and Czech Republic Photographs...

After a peaceful but somewhat uncomfortable nights sleep we caught an early (8:50am) train down to Füssen. The regional train was not as nice as the high-speed ones we had become accustomed to but after two hours and numerous stops we were eventually in hilly, snow covered Füssen. The small town has the feel of an alpine tourist mecca with lots of hotels, shops and amusements designed to sapp you of as many Euros as possible.

We checked out of our hostel in Stuttgart early in order to catch the express train to Munich. The two hour 180kph ride was through snow covered plains and hills and was very comfortable. On the way we passed through Einstein's birthplace (which according to Emma was the birthplace of the hang-glider as well). During the trip I travelled through the train to get a coffee from the shop at the front. It was quite a feeling walking along at 180kph as houses and trees zipped by at a frenetic pace.

Munich's Busy Streets

The tourist information office hooked us up with a nice, quiet bed and breakfast that was affordable and reasonably close to the city centre. We spent the afternoon taking a walking tour of the city with Emma as our tour guide. Munich is a lot denser than Stuttgart and has a more active feel about it. It has a lot of museums, galleries and historic buildings scattered right throughout its densely packed streets. Fortunately for us the weather was perfect and the temperature for the first time on the trip passed single figures.

On the second day I was relieved to get my travel documents back from the bus driver at 12:00pm. This allowed us to catch the 12:40pm high-speed train from Frankfurt to Stuttgart. The train, traveling between 150-200kph took one and a half hours to get between the two cities and was very cool. Stuttgart is the home of Mercedes and as a consequence there is a lot of flash cars on the streets. The hostel was a fifteen minute up hill trek from the train station so in order to gain the energy we bought some very nice crepes. Once again the hostel itself was of a very high standard although it did feel very dead. Unlike New Zealand, German hostels are used a lot by local school groups for accommodation and as a result they feel very cold but extremely professional. The hostel itself was only partly complete as it was undergoing a massive extension programme (like most of Stuttgart) for the upcoming 2006 Soccer World Cup which it is hosting.

Stuttgart's Modern Art Gallery

 

After our long but uneventful night at Stansted Airport we boarded our Ryan Air flight to Frankfurt-Hahn. Unbeknown to Emma and I Frankfurt-Hahn is actually two hours away from Frankfurt by bus. Consequently we landed in sub-zero, snowy conditions on a small airstrip in the middle of nowhere. Although it was a little weird it was definitely the most unique landing I have made as snow was piled 1m high around the runway and taxi way. It was very picturesque and a nice way to arrive in Germany.