Germany – pierreo.com – Join me on my journey

It has been a tradition for the last three years that Bee and I celebrate her birthday somewhere other than Brussels! This time, I did not tell her where, just that there was the castle of a princess, the nest of an eagle, a place where there is lots of beer and a place that should never be forgotten.

We flew to Munich and immediately drove south with the intention to visit Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein, two castles who belonged to Ludwig II (the mad) of Bavaria. Hohenschwangau is not very famous and therefore not familiar to people. However, that is where the visit starts and I had nothing to do while waiting in a long line of cars – so I took a picture of the castle behind the trees.

We were only 300-400 m away from the parking lot, but the road was completely blocked and we moved a few meters every several minutes. Bee went ahead to see what was going on; when she came back 15 minutes later, I had moved two car lengths and she explained that the parking lot being full, one car could get in every time another one got out! She also mentioned that the line to buy tickets has several 100 people in it.

So we decided that visiting Neuschwanstein was not that important. We stopped and took a few pictures, because that one is recognised all over the world!

It was the inspiration for Disney’s original Castle at Disney World and was the Sleeping Beauty’s castle in the movie. It was also featured in “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”, another Disney movie, but not animated this time.

The castle was actually never finished and Ludwig II never lived there. Only 1 or 2 rooms were decorated, including one with a fake grotto as an homage to Richard Wagner, who was a close friend (very close friend?) of Ludwig.

The location for the castle is great – At the edge of the mountains and on the side of a large plain.

So, we decided to move on ahead and go to Garmisch Partenkirche, where we would be spending the first night. This is one of the first winter resorts in Germany and it hosted the Winter Olympic Games in 1936, the same year the summer games were in Berlin. In summer, like right now when we were there, it is a sleepy little town, with typical Bavarian architecture such as this Bier Garten with very nice frescoes.

The local church has the onion dome that is also typical of this region.

We were early for dinner so we kept walking around town and heard music in the distance. We were intrigued and saw that there was a trio of young musicians setting up. Two violins and a clarinet. They were very good and played classical music adapted for their instruments. The movie below is taken with my still camera and reduced so that it can fit into my blog, but the music quality is not bad. Continue reading “Garmisch and Munich” →

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I took advantage of a holiday to spend four days in Berlin. The weather was not the greatest, but I missed worst weather in Belgium, so I should be thankful; in general, the little rain I did have did not affect what I wanted to do.

My hotel was right on Gendarmemarkt, a square in what used to be East Berlin, but much developed since 1990. There are two identical churches on the square and this is the French Huguenot’s Church during a rare bit of sunshine.

My first stop was Brandenburg Gate, from the East Side. I had seen it in picture so much that I could not wait to see the real thing. There is a very similar gate in Brussels, built in 1880 for the 50th anniversary of Belgian Independence. The Brandenburg Gate is older, but a lot smaller – I was almost disappointed when I realised that the space between the columns is not really big enough for a car – except for the center span. The Gate in Brussels is probably 30-40% larger than this one, but it certainly does not hold the same symbolic importance…

The view from the West Side has a little better light, but fewer people. And you only see the back of Athena. To get where I took this picture, I had to cross the ‘trace’ of the wall, for the first, bit certainly not the last time. With it gone, it is almost impossible to imagine what the city was like when it was separated by that ribbon of concrete forms.

Now, there is just a trace on the pavement that tells you where the wall was. I am straddling the line where the old wall to take this picture. The wall’s location is indicated by the two rows of cobble stones heading away. 20 years ago – only 20 years ago – this picture would have been impossible and 21 years ago, this would have been very very dangerous!

Not far from Brandenburg Gate is the Memorial to the Murdered European Jews, an ensemble of 2711 upward boxes aligned in a square. From the outside, it looks plain and mundane. I had the impression that there were not many visitors at all.

Continue reading “Berlin – East and West” →

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