Weimar-Coburg

Weimar, another town with so much history! Only a small place but recognised by UNESCO as world heritage. At times, home to Goethe, Schiller, Bach and Liszt.

The Market Square today and yes, they did have a few market stalls selling lovely summer fruits and the traditional Thuringian sausage and of course, we had one, the best in Germany, so far!

This trip around Germany is not only about the history and beautiful scenery but also about the traditional beer, wine and food!

                       

                       

After Weimar, was Coburg with the amazing medieval Coburg Castle, originally built in 1225. We had several hours to wander around this castle and I took so many photos here, as I was fascinated by the medieval weapons, armour and wagons that were on display.

                        

                        

This wagon from around 1560.

                        

One of the amazing rooms.

                       

Part of the outside.

                       

Honestly, so many photos!

Dresden-Leipzig

Every town that we visit in Germany seems to get more picturesque than the last. I knew that Dresden was going to be a highlight and it didn't disappoint. At one time it was called the "Florence on the Elbe". The Zwinger Carillon Pavilion was just beautiful. Dresden, founded in the 12th Century has such a fabulous history and although bombed during WW2, it's looking pretty wonderful today. They do get flooded (just like Brisbane) and the last big flood was in 2013.

                      

                      

The Crown Gate was one of my favourites.

                       

The other favourite was the 'Procession of Princes' mural. At 102m long, it is made up of 23,000 Meissen porcelain tiles making it the largest porcelain artwork in the world and thankfully, it survived the WW2 bombing.

                       

Special bridges were built in these magnificent buildings so that the the nobility didn't have to walk on the ground that the 'common people' walked on. It is hard to imagine how life must have been like in those days!

                        

We stayed overnight at Leipzig where the great composers Johan Sebastian Bach and Felix Mendelssohn lived the last years of their lives. 

So much history in this town too but I am running out of time to blog about some of these places as we see so much during the day and at night, at some hotels, the internet is not that great!

 

Berlin

We arrived in Berlin, the capital of Germany, yesterday afternoon. What a great city! 

Interesting to see all the places that we have heard about in the past, Checkpoint Charlie, the Berlin Wall and the Brandenburg Gate.

This morning, we had a quick 2 hour coach tour with a local guide and then on our own, walked and walked for hours around the city, experiencing everything that the city has to offer. I was amazed at all the different architectural styles with the blend of the old, the new and the quirky.

                       

                       

                       

The Holocaust Memorial, a memorial for the Jewish victims of the Holocaust was quite impressive.

                      

                      

It was a warm day, so a necessary stop was needed for a cold beer. This is becoming quite a habit but we are in Germany, home to so many beers and we are trying them all!

On the way back to our hotel, we walked through the beautiful Tiergarten (similar to New York's Central Park) and in the middle is Berlin's Victory Column. Wow! 

We had also been told that during the warm weather, the Berlin people like to sunbathe in the park and we saw several people doing just that. But a bit different from home as here they don't wear bathing costumes to sunbathe, they just get naked and no one bats an eyelid.

                                    

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Hameln-Hamburg-Lubeck

After leaving Cologne, we visited Hameln, (commonly known as Hamelin) the town with its famous legend of the Pied Piper. The town has some beautiful old buildings many built between 1500-1600. We arrived at the right time to experience the world famous Pied Piper open air performance which is on every Sunday between mid May and mid September. The story of the procession of the Hameln children was performed by 80 actors.

                                             

                         

                         

Then we travelled on to Hamburg and luckily for us, there was a wine and food market on in the centre of the city for 2 weeks and we wandered there from our hotel for some dinner. Had some delicious German food and wine and listened to traditional German music. Across from our hotel was this enormous bunker that was built for WW2, it has been converted into some sort of college but also has a nightclub in the basement (no noise complaints from the residents because of the thick walls).

                        

                        

                        

On our way to Berlin, we visited Lubeck where the old part of town is on an island. Another very pretty little town where we just loved wandering around discovering places.

                        

                        

                        

The Beginning of Germany

I had read that the German train system was great and after experiencing the efficiency of Swiss trains a few years ago, I was expecting much the same but it didn't happen!

We left beautiful Brugge on Thursday morning to head for Frankfurt Germany by train. We had to change trains twice on the journey, the first train in Belgium was fine but the two others in Germany were late. We arrived at our destination 4 hours late and we have since heard that it may have been the heat that had caused problems with the rails. Who knows! Apparently, we do get some compensation though, so it may not be all that bad.

I did feel sorry though, for the people on the train that missed their flight connections out of Frankfurt but we didn't have any deadlines, fortunately.

After a few nights in Frankfurt, today we started a coach tour of Germany with the tour company Cosmos, the first time we have travelled with them. There are quite a few nationalities on board, Australians, Americans, Canadians, New Zealanders, South Africans and a few from the UK. 

Coach tours are not always our first choice of travel but we figured that this was the best way to see as many of the 'must see sights' of Germany as we can.

I must say that the first day today was great, we spent several hours cruising down the Rhine River in the beautiful sunshine, enjoying the scenery of castles and little villages.

                               

                               

                               

By the time we finish with Germany, we will probably never want to see another castle again but today, it was lovely. At the end of the cruise we stopped in a town called Boppard and had time to wander around on our own. What a cute little town, this is the Market Square.

                              

                              

We continued onto Cologne, where once again, we had plenty of free time to wander around. The Cathedral is enormous (sorry, the photos I took did not do it justice).

We took a stroll over the Hohenzollernbrucke bridge and what did we find?

                          

                              

LOCKS!

Yes,  just like the Paris bridges that lovers put the locks on and throw away the keys, this bridge (almost a kilometre in length) is covered in them. Absolutely amazing, obviously the local authorities are not worried about them, as some of them have been there for quite a while.

Tomorrow we continue on through Germany...........

    

                          

                          

Flanders Fields

Yesterday we went on a day tour to the WW1 battlefields and memorials of the Ypres Salient. A very memorable day in many ways. Not only did we see Polygon Wood, the battlefield of Hill 60, Tyne Cot cemetary, monuments to the British, Canadian, New Zealand and Australian Forces but also visited the imposing Menin Gate at Ypres. Here, Rob left a poppy beside the name of his Uncle who was killed somewhere in this area and buried in an unmarked grave. A very symbolic gesture for the family.                                              

                              

The brooding soldier at Vancouver Corner, the memorial to 2000 Canadian soldiers who lost their lives during the first gas attacks in 1915. 

                                                  

                                               

The war graves at Tyne Cot cemetary, the largest of the Commonwealth cemetaries, 12,000 soldiers are buried here and another 35,000 are listed on the memorial wall, soldiers with no known grave.

                              

The Australian 5th Division memorial at Polygon Wood.

                              

  

Menin Gate, the memorial to about 55,000 men who died during the Great War in unmarked graves.

Every evening at 8pm they have the Last Post Ceremony and we were grateful to be able to attend this very moving ceremony.

                               

The poem In Flanders Fields was written here by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, Brigade Surgeon, 1st Canadian Field Artillery.