On the road
Hi everyone, Luke and I are one the road! Right now we're in the middle of two weeks touring through Germany, and afterwards, we're heading out to do just about the rest of Europe.
Today we're in rainy, tourist infected Heidelburg... funny story, remember that sunny, 35 degree weather I was bragging about? Well the minute our train arrived in Hamburg, our first point of call, the rain started... and it hasn't really stopped since.
That didn't stop Hamburg being a whole lot of fun. We stayed with Luke's flatmate, Micha, who comes from Hamburg, and who was a handy tourguide around all the cool sights of Hamburg, including the infamous Reeperbahn, where we also met up with my friend, Christine, who studied for a semester at UTS.
Next stop was Lübeck, about an hour north of Hamburg, a really pretty, quaint and arty town, where the Mann brothers (Thomas and the other one) grew up. It was also really close to the Ostsee, one of the few beaches in Germany, and we spent an afternoon in Travemünde. I think Travemünde is pretty overrated though; sort of artificial, and every local we came in contact with was rude. Lübeck, however was very much worth it!
From there, we went to Köln (Cologne), where the highlights were seeing the Pirates of the Carribean II and the Lego shop (a shop dedicated to Lego, Luke was in heaven). Read: Köln pretty much sucks. Sure there's the gothic cathedral, but there's not really much else that separates Köln from any other western industrial town. Plus the hostel sucked.
After Köln, we went to Bonn, where we spent a couple of hours looking for accommodation; the only hostel was a 20 min bus ride out of the city. We ended up at the hostel, but later realised that what with the bus tickets and all, it would have been cheaper to stay in a Hotel in the city centre. The main reason to be in Bonn though, is to see the Beethoven museum, in the house where he grew up. It was cool to be able to see his own handwritten manuscripts and his own pianos.
Yesterday and the day before, we were in Karlsruhe to visit Graham. After finding out that the only hostel in Karlsruhe was completely booked out, we legged it to Walmart, bought a fold up mattress, and camped on Graham's bedroom floor (thanks!!). After sorting out accommodation, Luke, Graham, the mattress and I went up to the highest point around Karlsruhe, Turnburg in Durlach, to see an excellent view of Karlsruhe and its surrounds.
Yesterday, we went on a day trip with Graham and some of his church friends, to Straßburg in France, to eat Flammkuchen (a sort of pizza, with a really thin crust, almost like a crepe, and a sour cream, rather than tomato, base). It was very tasty! After getting lost in the French countryside, with a manic driver, we finally made it back to Karlsruhe, in time for the Kamuna (Karlsruhe museum night), where you can see as many museums as you can between 5pm and 1am. We only got through 2; the one in the schloß (palace), detailing Karlsruhe and surrounds from the middle ages throuhg to today, and the ZKM (Zentrum für Kunst und Media), which can only be seen to be believed; modern interactive art, my highlight being an 'artwork' where there were several computer terminals, where someone sits down and types a conversation with a central mainframe. The aim is to make it scared, so that its electronic arm comes along to the plastic window in front of you, and picks up a glass of milk sitting behind the glass and sprays it all over the window. Very strange, but cool.
There was also an entire level where we could play all different types of computer games (Luke and Graham were in heaven).
And now Heidelburg... the castle is amazing, shame about the tourists swarming around, but what can you do when you're one of them? Tomorrow we plan to climb the mountain on the other side of the river, as long as the weather holds out...
Photos another time...
Hope this finds you all well,
Ciao.
Today we're in rainy, tourist infected Heidelburg... funny story, remember that sunny, 35 degree weather I was bragging about? Well the minute our train arrived in Hamburg, our first point of call, the rain started... and it hasn't really stopped since.
That didn't stop Hamburg being a whole lot of fun. We stayed with Luke's flatmate, Micha, who comes from Hamburg, and who was a handy tourguide around all the cool sights of Hamburg, including the infamous Reeperbahn, where we also met up with my friend, Christine, who studied for a semester at UTS.
Next stop was Lübeck, about an hour north of Hamburg, a really pretty, quaint and arty town, where the Mann brothers (Thomas and the other one) grew up. It was also really close to the Ostsee, one of the few beaches in Germany, and we spent an afternoon in Travemünde. I think Travemünde is pretty overrated though; sort of artificial, and every local we came in contact with was rude. Lübeck, however was very much worth it!
From there, we went to Köln (Cologne), where the highlights were seeing the Pirates of the Carribean II and the Lego shop (a shop dedicated to Lego, Luke was in heaven). Read: Köln pretty much sucks. Sure there's the gothic cathedral, but there's not really much else that separates Köln from any other western industrial town. Plus the hostel sucked.
After Köln, we went to Bonn, where we spent a couple of hours looking for accommodation; the only hostel was a 20 min bus ride out of the city. We ended up at the hostel, but later realised that what with the bus tickets and all, it would have been cheaper to stay in a Hotel in the city centre. The main reason to be in Bonn though, is to see the Beethoven museum, in the house where he grew up. It was cool to be able to see his own handwritten manuscripts and his own pianos.
Yesterday and the day before, we were in Karlsruhe to visit Graham. After finding out that the only hostel in Karlsruhe was completely booked out, we legged it to Walmart, bought a fold up mattress, and camped on Graham's bedroom floor (thanks!!). After sorting out accommodation, Luke, Graham, the mattress and I went up to the highest point around Karlsruhe, Turnburg in Durlach, to see an excellent view of Karlsruhe and its surrounds.
Yesterday, we went on a day trip with Graham and some of his church friends, to Straßburg in France, to eat Flammkuchen (a sort of pizza, with a really thin crust, almost like a crepe, and a sour cream, rather than tomato, base). It was very tasty! After getting lost in the French countryside, with a manic driver, we finally made it back to Karlsruhe, in time for the Kamuna (Karlsruhe museum night), where you can see as many museums as you can between 5pm and 1am. We only got through 2; the one in the schloß (palace), detailing Karlsruhe and surrounds from the middle ages throuhg to today, and the ZKM (Zentrum für Kunst und Media), which can only be seen to be believed; modern interactive art, my highlight being an 'artwork' where there were several computer terminals, where someone sits down and types a conversation with a central mainframe. The aim is to make it scared, so that its electronic arm comes along to the plastic window in front of you, and picks up a glass of milk sitting behind the glass and sprays it all over the window. Very strange, but cool.
There was also an entire level where we could play all different types of computer games (Luke and Graham were in heaven).
And now Heidelburg... the castle is amazing, shame about the tourists swarming around, but what can you do when you're one of them? Tomorrow we plan to climb the mountain on the other side of the river, as long as the weather holds out...
Photos another time...
Hope this finds you all well,
Ciao.
posted by lemanie at
10:59 AM
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