So the first part of break found me travelling through Germany- with my brother :) I'm pretty sure that the nine days we travelled together was the most time we've spent in each others' presence in about 2 or 3 years. Weird. Anyway, Junior planned a Tour de Force in the Land of Beer and Pretzels, so we spent our 9 days visiting 7 cities in total (Berlin, Dresden, Augsburg, Munich, Frankfurt, Bonn, and Cologne), many if which he has studied/lived in, or has friends that are currently studying/living in- so we weren't complete tourists that knew absolutely nothing about the country.
First up was Berlin, where we spent 3 days exploring the city. It's amazing how much history is attached to it- from before the wars, during the Nazi regime, the years during the Wall, and the city's fairly recent modernization. We saw all of the major sites- Checkpoint Charlie, the Wall, Brandenburg Tor, Dunkin' Donuts- as well as some other fun stuff, like the East Side Gallery, train stations that are decorated with real grass and giant Easter eggs, and the DDR Museum (an interactive museum that shows what life was life in Germany while the wall was in place).
Checkpoint Charlie
An original portion of the Wall
Brandenburg Tor
You have no idea how excited I was for DD...
Jewish Memorial
The Germans take their Easter celebrations very seriously.
The East Side Gallery is a portion of the Wall that has been painted by over 100 artists with scenes that promote freedom. It's a really neat site to walk along.
The Reichstag after it was demolished.
Junior also indulged me and took me out to see the Brucke Museum (which was probably the furthest museum possible to try and get to from the center of Berlin), which houses works by German Expressionist artists from the Die Brucke side of the movement (if you want more info on that, just ask!). Anyway, the museum doesn't have a permanent collection on display, but instead rotates exhibitions, usually focusing on one artist. When we were there, it was showcasing Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. I loved it :)
Even more, Tom's friends Pete and Emela met us in Berlin for the weekend. They were super, super sweet and the boys were able to rekindle their bromance. It was adorable.
After Berlin, we headed to Dresden for a day- Tom had spent a summer there studying, so he knew the area pretty well. The city was pretty much decimated during WWII by air raids performed by the Allies, so much of the city has been rebuilt, although a few original structures were spared. It was really neat to see the old juxtaposed with the new.
Grosser Garten- which literally means "big garden." Creative, huh? Yeah, Junior took me on an hour long (walking) tour of the town when we arrived before we checked into our hostel, including walking through this ginormous. Funny story, I still had my freakin' backpack with me. That thing, which was packed with everything I needed for 9 days, gets a bit heavy after a while.
You can literally tell the difference between what was salvaged and what was rebuilt.
Old vs. New
At night :)
From Dresden, we moved on to Augsburg, where's Tom's friend Amanda is currently working her her master's. The train ride out to Bavaria was wonderful.
What I really want to know is who the hell came up with the idea to freaking surf in a man-made canal type thing in the south of Germany. I'm really quite puzzled about that.
Englischer Garten- the Chinese Tower biergarten in back there somwhere.
My first soft pretzel in over 2 months- that has to be a new record.
From Augsburg/Munich, we met up in Frankfurt with with Tom's friend Cassie (sensing a pattern here?), who let us crash at her place for the night. She introduced us to apple wine (deliciousness) and showed us that there was more to Frankfurt than just its central business district, which is honestly all I thought it was since that's all you ever hear about.
Aw, Frankfurt has its own version of Pont des Arts...
After Frankfurt, we travelled 2 hours north for the last leg of our trip in Cologne/Bonn- the two cities are onyl about 20 minutes apart if you catch the express regional train. After dropping off our stuff at the hostel, Tom gave me a mini-tour of Cologne and pointed out some things I could do the next day (since his flight was early in the day and my train was later, I would be spending the next day in Cologne doing some solo exploration). Then we hopped on a train down to Bonn, where Tom had spent about 6 months supposedly studying, but from the stories I heard during this trip, I'm not sure how much studying was actually accomplished.
Beethoven rules in this town.
After a mini-tour (the town really isn't all the big) and pre-dinner pint (why not?), I was introduced to the Man-in-the-Hat and his infamous doners (pronounced DOUGH-ner; I'll explain what they are in a minute). Seriously, Tom talked about these damn things for the entire trip and was trying to mentally prep me for this experience, so naturally I had high expectations. Ok, so 1. He was completely correct- best doner I had in Germany, complete with curry sauce that stained my hands yellow. 2. Funny story: as soon as we walked up to the doner stand, the owner- the infamous Man-in-the-Hat recognized Tom right away, even after more than two years. That right there should tell you how often he ate there.
And for those of you who don't know what a doner is, SHAME ON YOU. Just kidding, I had no idea what it was myself until I got to Berlin myself. It's kinda like a schwarma or a gyro, but much, much better. Especially with the Man-in-the-Hat's curry sauce. The meat is carved off a spit-type thing, then it's stuffed in a Turkish pita bread/roll and filled with lettuce, cabbage, cucumbers, etc. and some type of sauce.
Check out Wikipedia for more info if you want. There's a very large Turkish population in Germany, hence the doner's popularity.
The next day, I had to say goodbye to my darling brother :( I was sad to see him go and a few tears may have been shed...but it was really good to spend the week with him, since I rarely get to see him back in the US. Like I said before, I think this vacation was the most time we spent together in the past 2 or 3 years. After he hopped on his train back to the airport, I explored Cologne a little before I had to catch my train back to Paris. I visited the Dom, which is the main cathedral that dominates the skyline in Cologne, and I climbed all the way up. Over 500 stairs later, I finally reached the top and had a mini freak-out (it's high!).
Only halfway up...
All the way at the top :)
After that, I decided to act like a complete 5 year old- so I took the little play train to the zoo and ate pretzels and Capri-Suns and ice cream.
He wasn't too social...
Unfortunately, I had to head back to the train station at that point to catch my train back to Paris. I hated to leave Germany, and even got a little homesick for it once I returned, which sounds completely ridiculous figuring I was only there for a week and barely stayed in one place long enough to catch a breath. I wouldn't trade my time there for anything, it was absolutely wonderful :)
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