World Travel Guide Online

Beer, Toys and Lebkuchen
Germany

August 8
I went to Bremen, which is smaller and more traditional than Hamburg. Bremen has a big city hall and a couple of churches; most of the action is around the town market. The most photographed attraction is the Four Musicians of the Grimm Fairy Tales fame. The statue is of a goat, dog, cat and rooster. Bottcherstrasse is supposed to be like an old medieval alley, and had a glockenspiel. It rang at noon and then played for about ten to fifteen minutes. I saw some of the 16, 17 and 18^th century houses and ate dinner at the Rathaus.

There is always great scenery in the Alps

After that I went to Hannover, which was about an hour train ride. I followed the red thread. The red thread is a painted red line through town, which is good because it goes past all the interesting parts of the city. It’s hard to get lost, just follow the red line and get a book which describes all points of interest. Off the path is Grosser Garten, which is a major site. It is a spectacular park with a royal garden and then I doubled back and met up with the red thread again.

August 9
Today I went to the Hamburg Dungeon, which is interesting but the tour/play was in German. The tour described Hamburg before it burned down in the 15^th century and was rebuilt. The wooden buildings were rebuilt into brick but they had another big fire and a lot of people died. It also described witchcraft and some forms of torture including flogging and cutting off fingers. If you spoke against the Pope, you were put in a wheel of razor blades and twirled around until you were cut to pieces.

Back in “the dirtiest mile in the world”, St. Pauli, is Harry’s Hamburger Hafen Basar. A man who collects artifacts from sailors who travel around the world owns it. Most of the artifacts are African, spears and masks. Then I made it down to the Inner and Outer Alstadt, which are the inner and outer lakes, a really nice place to be with the sun setting. I returned to my pension to pick up my backpack and it was stolen! I just have a small backpack with my camcorder and papers.

August 10
Today I was recovering from losing my luggage. I was going to go to Heidelberg originally but I slept through the stop and ended up in Stuttgart. Obviously I went clothes shopping and I got clothes fairly cheap along Konigstrasse, which is in front of the train station and is the main shopping place. The city has a lot of parks which are close to Konigstrasse, so that worked out pretty well. At least now I’m back to functional. I was able to buy underwear, socks, a couple pair of shorts and shirts, a pair of pants, sandals and a backpack.

After I got done shopping I went back to Konigstrasse; they had bands and things like that for a summerfest. The park looked pretty neat as candles were lit up all around the sidewalks of the park.

August 11

The Grosser Garten is a spectacular park located in Hannover

Two of my roommates at the hostel I’m staying at were talking until 4 a.m. I’m going to kill them. I woke up early and I made sure when my alarm went off that I let it go for a while to keep them up.

I went to Heidelberg today which has Ludwig’s Castle, the main tourist attraction. In the castle area there is the world largest vat for holding beer. I guess it’s not surprising that the world largest beer vat would be in Germany. The castle was big and it was intact. I went back down to the city of Heidelberg, which is in a little valley. I bought a city map and did a self-guided tour that lasted a couple of hours. I toured the old city were most of the tourist attractions are as opposed to the new city. Heidelberg is how I imagined a German city, the old buildings with flowers hanging out the window, the village in between the mountains and the traditional food.

August 12
I had a weird feeling going on the train to Nuremberg because of its recent history; I got the chills. It was a cool and dreary day which added to the aura. However, it is one of my favorite German cities and a good place for lebkuchen, beer and toys. After visiting the Germanisches National Museum and Kaiserburg Castle, I made my way down Burgstrasse and got some lebkuchen or gingerbread. The store had chocolate and frosted lebkuchen, but it’s a bit early for the pre-Christmas business. I went to the Alstadt Brewery next. It was closed, but I looked at the vats from the outside. Then to the toy museum, I never thought about how toys model society. There were wooden toys in the 1600’s, then the industrial revolution when things were made of tin, then the 1930’s and the Nazi’s and military toys. The prosperity of the 1950’s brought toys such as kitchens and appliances, then the 1960’s and Barbie dolls, and now even adults are collectors.

August 13
On to Innsbruck after a little layover in Munich. The city is really nice because it is right in the middle of two mountain ranges, and wherever I look I saw mountains.

The Hofgarten is a small garden that I visited as well as the Hofburg, the Imperial Palace. Then I went to the Golden Roof, which is over 1200 golden shingles from the Maximilian era. I climbed up the city tower and saw a beautiful view of the area. Finally, I ate at this Chinese restaurant and I ended up staying there, in a spare room with one of the dishwashers. It was only $10 and actually the owner gave me a little rebate because I helped do dishes when he was overran by Japanese tourists.

August 14

The most popular attraction in Bremen is the Four Musicians of the Grimm Fairy Tales fame

There are other things to do in Innsbruck but I was most impressed with the Alps. I went into the mountains on the cable car. It’s a three-step process by bus and cable car, which takes about 3 to 4 hours to get to. I hiked in an easterly direction and it was impressive looking down to the right and seeing Innsbruck and then to the left and there are no houses. This rock, the gray and pure rock, is the hardest climb because when it gets wet it gets really slippery. There are many goats and a lot of older people that use ski poles to help them hike.

I was worrying about riding on the cable car but it’s really not that much of a problem. The only part that was bothersome was when the car reaches a pole and it leans forward before jerking back. I wanted to see the sunset in the Alps, but I probably got a better view down in Innsbruck, looking up rather than down. I called my relatives in Dornbirn and they are ready for my arrival tomorrow.