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Germany |
Eat and sleep
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Other opinions
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I don't know much of Germany.
Two short staying in Dortmund, and quick passes in the Rhine valley, Munich, Heidelberg, Cologne and Berlin. Not much, but enough to see that it is not only hard work. It's interesting to visit, but the barrier of language... |
Berlin
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I don't know Berlin.I had a chance to visit it right after the fall of the wall, and didn't waste it. In a very brief visit, I concentrated all the attention in the differences between both sides. It was a great experience.Now, Berlin is there, and became one of my preferential interests. Even to see the changes.
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The falling wall
The Berlin that I knew was the splitted city, a few months after the falling of the wall and before the unification. My kids enthusiastically joined the crowds hitting the remaining panels of the wall, without any idea about the meaning of that gesture. Now they do know. It was important to be there then, to see the differences separating both worlds, and to witness history happening.Now I need to visit Berlin - there's a whole city to visit, and to compare with those small but still vivid memories. The remains of the wall are a new monument. 
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Brandenburg door
Checkpoint Charlie
Russian memorial
The Reichtag
Dortmund
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I spent several days in Dortmund, and had a good time. However, Dortmund is not a touristy destination, despite one or another interesting point that I describe in its own page |
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This is one more beautiful place that I didn't explore as well as I would like, because time was short, and two small kids took care of most of it. To complete the frustration, the flash betrayed me in the pictures, and I had serious trouble to find the way out of the city - all highways were mentioned except... the one that I needed. Bad memories, to eliminate in a new visit! |
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I didn't visit Koblenz - I went there to start a cruise in the Rhine, that... failed. Travelling with two small kids, with none of us saying a word in German, made me take no risks and move quickly, but what I saw was enough to decide to go there again with time. No car in the boat! That was hard to discover and justifies a detailed mention. |
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Rhine Valley
It was planned to be done in a boat, but things went wrong we had to follow it by car, between Koblenz and Bingen. The views were gorgeous, but the trip was so problematic that I only saw it in a rush along the margins. I enjoyed it, and promise to return with time. |
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It was hard to find this location in VT when I firstly wrote about this place, almost as hard as to reach it, under a (for me) dramatic weather of many negative degrees. That's the reason why, for the moment, Zwisel, for me, is only glass and freezing cold. |
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Glass
I went to Zwiesel in deep winter to visit a glass school. I came back with the (wrong, for sure) idea that Zwiesel is ice and glass (school and factory). The school is modern, well organized, and glass is always a beautiful performance. Go and see, for yourself in Zwiesel or in... Marinha Grande. |
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Train to Prague
No, I will not be able to fully describe the sensation, but I'll try to:Dark morning, freezing weather, heavy buildings, few people, walking on the snow to pick a "prehistoric" train... where does this fit in a "Mediterranean" mind? I felt like entering the old movies about the war, or the communist times, totally out of my reality.Well, the train did work, slowly until Klatovy Vary, normally from there to Prague, and the trip became a good experience (and memory). |