Through the Teutonic lands...

After our speedy crossing of France, it was time to head into Germany. Our first rendezvous was to attend a little reunion of sorts in Sankt-Goar. The plan was to meet up with a few old friends I used to study with in Edinburgh, at the reputed Heriot-Watt University (although it has to be said that I spent more time in the pub than reading books for my degree during that mad year), with Ramon and Andi who live in Frankfurt, and Camino and Jan who live in Luxemburg (Sankt Goar is located conveniently half-way between the two places).

Sankt-Goar is a pleasant town located on the Rhine village, dominated by an impressive ruined castle (apparently once “the mightiest fortress on the Rhine”). We sat down for lunch in a panoramic restaurant, which afforded us great views over the town and the river. It was really great to catch up with everybody, it really had been a while… And little Lorenz sure has grown up since I last saw him! A hearty Teutonic meal, washed down by a pint of German pils later, we headed down into town for a walk. We even took the ferry across to Goarshousen, the town on the other side of the Rhine River, where we had a quick walk around the old town, enjoying the sun… After saying our good-byes to Camino and Jan, who had to head back to Luxemburg, we drove back to Ramon’s and Andi’s place near Frankfurt, where we were staying the night. After a very tasty dinner, accompanied by some German beer tasting, we went to bed with smiles on our faces.

The next day, the plan was to visit Frankfurt, and then drive down to our next destination – Berlin. Frankfurt is quite an interesting mixture of new and old. It is one of the oldest cities in Germany – having been founded during the 8th century, and was the most important city in Germany during its heyday. As is the case for many German cities, Frankfurt was largely destroyed during World War II. Since then, though, large parts of the old town have been restored, and Frankfurt has of course also become the banking capital of Germany (it hosts the biggest stock exchange in Germany, as well as the German and European central banks). So it’s a city of contrasts then – parts of the city being dominated by skyscrapers, and other parts by old (or reconstructed) historic buildings. During our couple of hours of walking, we managed to get a pretty good impression of the place – the town centre is actually very compact (on the whole, it feels like a surprisingly calm and unhurried place). Anyway, after a proper Frankfurt lunch (where I tried the local culinary speciality – Frankfurter green sauce, along with the local apple wine), it was time to bid farewell to Ramon, and push on towards Berlin.

Thanks to the wunderbar German autobahns, we managed to cross Germany rather quickly and arrive in Berlin by early-ish evening. We did observe that half of the motorways seem to be under repair – meaning that one is driving 180km/h half of the time (a lot of the motorways still don’t have speed limits), and 60km/h the rest of the time (unlike in Italy, for example, the speed limits during road works are actually respected). Anyway, we did arrive eventually, at our destination, which was Adrian’s and Yda’s flat. It was a bit late for us old geezers to experience the legendary Berlin night life, so we contented ourselves with a meal at the local Greek restaurant.

The next day was major sight-seeing by foot time. And boy did we walk... Berlin is a big place, and most of it we covered by foot. And it is an extremely interesting place to walk around, actually. It definitely isn’t one of the prettiest capitals in Europe; in fact it’s probably one of the ugliest. But it’s definitely one of the most interesting ones, literally oozing with history and atmosphere. And there are certainly loads to see and do – whether it be museums, restaurants, bars, churches, parks, and theatres, whatever. It seems to be a very culturally active place. Obviously what really makes Berlin an interesting place is the recent history – and I suppose a lot of the dynamism of the city also comes indirectly as a result of the fall of the Berlin wall.

Anyway, to summarize, during the day, we saw most of the main sights (including many bits of the Berlin wall, Checkpoint Charlie, Unter der Linden, Brandenburger Tor, Tiergarten, Potsdammer Platz and the holocaust memorial, and of course the Reichstag). All this is of course very interesting, but what is kind of more fascinating is the atmosphere of the place, and some of the very creative things they’ve done with the old let’s say not so pretty architecture in former Easter Berlin. After a nice Japanese meal (were we ever going to get to try some local cuisine??), Adrian took us to a very interesting place called Zapata. It’s a multi-storey museum/cinema/bar/nightclub complex, located in an old and run-down squat! I’ve never seen anything like it – but the place was just great. Somehow very descriptive of what modern Berlin is all about. After a few drinks, it was time to head back – Adrian made some excuses about having to work the next day or something ;-)

Our 2nd day in Berlin followed pretty much the same formula as the 1st day – meaning more walking and walking, as we checked out the few places Adrian hadn’t taken us to. This time our wanderings took in some of the modern buildings constructed near the Reichstag, as well the more classic sights in what used to be western Berlin (the fancy shopping street of Friedrichenstrasse, the pretty Gendarmernmarkt square, the Humboldt University, and Berliner Dom). We also visited the famous Alexandersplatz, which was once upon a time, apparently, “the beating heart of a cosmopolitan city”. Alas, it was badly bombed during World War II, and unfortunately aesthetics were not very high on the priority list when the square was rebuilt in the 1960’s – I suppose the end result could be called a lesson in “post WW II communist architecture”. We also had time to visit a couple of interesting museums – the holocaust museum and Checkpoint Charlie museum (which was particularly interesting – examining the Berlin during the time period it was split in half by the Berlin wall).

After a curry near Adrian’s place, and another set of tear-filled farewells, it was time for us to hit the road again. The destination was Rostock, from where we were taking the ferry to Helsinki. Anyway, for us, Berlin was a real revelation. I can warmly recommend a visit there to anybody (it’s the kind of place that has something to offer to everybody)… And there’s still so much we didn’t see!