Tuesday, August 18, 2009

GERMANY

A tourist "train" goes past our house in Bernkastel, built in 1630

Berg Eltz - an amazing castle

Up close with the Roman Ruins in Trier

Candles in Constantine's Basillica


Trying out the new Diablo in Trier

The Cologne Lego Store

Best .. Museum .. Ever
(Cologne Chocolate Museum)


Borgmann Family in Bottrop
Yes, they have speed signs for tanks in Germany

BERNKASTEL-KUES


We have really enjoyed Germany, just like we did when we were here last year. We spent 5 days in a small old town called Bernkastel-Kues (Bernkastel where we were staying was on one side of the Mosel River, and Kues was on the other). There are many old wooden buildings in the town, and the house we were saying in was built in 1630! We became a tourist attraction, as people walked down the street taking photo’s of the house we were staying in. We loved the house with all it’s nooks and cranny’s. The only down side was the stairs to the bedroom, so Steve got a good workout carrying Nikki up the stairs each night.

Whilst we were staying in Bernkastel we did the mountains of washing from camp and Norway, but we had some fun too. We had a really great day exploring the roman ruins in Trier, including Constantine’s throne room (now a Basilica), where we lit a candle for Nikki’s Grandmother who is in hospital back in Australia. We were also really lucky to find an amazing toy store in Trier, with all sorts of games (which we were tempted to buy) and juggling equipment, including really cheap top quality Diablo’s – so we bought one for Steve as his souvenier, and enjoyed watching him use it in the local park during our picnic lunch.

In Bernkastel, we also had the chance to go to a wine education session where a Wine maker explained all about how wine is made, the different types of wine, and how you drink wine for tastings. We learnt a lot (we only really knew that there was red and white before the session). Nikki & Hannah didn’t drink, but Steve & Jacqui got to try a little bit of 8 different wines from different vines and different vintages. Before we get lots of emails, it is legal for Jacqui to drink in Germany, and she was only taking a little sip.

Between Bernkastel-Kues and Cologne we visited the most amazing castle - Berg Eltz. It is almost a thousand years old, and has a lot of the original furniture, tapestries and weapons from the middle ages. The castle has been inhabited by the same family for 33 generations, and there are still members of the family living in the castle. Steve, Jacqui and Hannah went on an amazing tour of the castle, whilst Nikki sat and sketched (there were too many stairs).

COLOGNE

We spent a few nights in Cologne, where we went to the Chocolate Museum!! We learnt a lot, got to sample some chocolate, and really enjoyed ourselves. Whilst we were in Cologne we got to see lots of bucks nights and hens parties walking around in the pedestrian area under our hotel room (which did make it very loud at 4am). They really take their buck’s nights very seriously over here – everyone wears a special T-shirt with the name of the buck’s party, and the groom (or bride) wears a special outfit (usually a dress for the guys, and often a nurses uniform or a hawian outfit for the girls). They often push a trolley along with all their drinks, and get the buck/hen to do all sorts of strange tasks. Our favourite place in Cologne (apart from the Chocolate Museum) was the Lego store, which was the biggest collection of Lego that we have seen since we were at Legoland in California in 2000. It was a lot of fun.

BOTTROP

We went to Bottrop and had some time with Elisabeth Borgmann, who was a unicyclist we met in Denmark last year, and came to stay with us for a week last November, when she was in Australia as an exchange student. We were a bit nervous meeting her family, especially since we were staying the night in their house and we had no idea what they were like. We really enjoyed spending time with Elisabeth, and also with her family, they were a lot of fun. Unfortunately her brother came home sick with some sort of flu, and they quarantined him to his room (which made us feel really guilty). The highlight for Steve and Nikki was late in the night after Hannah and Jacqui had gone to bed, Jan (Elisabeth’s father) told us the stories about his family during World War 2 – his Grandmother went to Berlin in 1936 and protested against the Nazi’s outside the parliament, an incredibly brave thing to do at that time. She was spared from retribution because she and the other women she was with had been awarded a Nazi medal, for being the mother of more than 6 children, which gave them a lot of respect. Jan also told us about his mother helping to hide a member of the group who attempted to assassinate Hitler in 1944, as he tried to flee Germany. Jan’s grandfather had kept a diary during the war (which he kept buried in a field to keep it safe from the Nazi’s) and he read out excerpts from the diary about how he felt about the Nazi’s, and wondering where all the Jew’s had disappeared to. It was a spine chilling thing to hear these words being read out.

MAINZ

We now have two nights in Mainz, in our favourite hotel in Europe (the very disabled friendly Hotel Inndependence), eating gelato, going to the local swimming pool, and packing up to go to London (yes, yet more packing).

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Flamboree

The inflatable Kangaroo (Kev) was very popular at Flamboree.

Hannah & Jacqui had a great time at Flamboree. There were 1300 people from 36 countries. We were joined in a patrol with 4 kiwi's and 3 belgain guides, so our patrol was a lot bigger than we were used to, but it worked out fine.

Everything was different - the tents, the way they cooked, the gadgets (we had to use coppers logs, when we usually use tomato stakes), the games, the language. Most noticeable was the "fraternisation" between the participants - there was even a condom tree where you could go and get your condoms (which was bare only a few hours after it was erected). In Australia "fraternisation" of all sorts is discouraged at mixed camps, but in Belgium they even have it in the Flamboree newsletter (lots of photo's of couples pashing).

The highlights of the camp were the mass games (which was set up in a giant amputheatre, with 1300 people battling it out in 4 teams), the village (where we shared Anzac biscuits and vegemite with everyone, and got to try out other countries games and food)(everyone loved the Anzac biscuits and surprisingly a lot of people liked the vegemite too).

We really enjoyed getting to know the girls from NZ, Great Britain and Lethotho.

All in all the camp was a lot of fun, but we have mountains of washing.

We can't put up any photo's because the camera died the day we arrived in our homestay, but we will put up one of the official photo's of us with Kev the Kangaroo.

Norway

We had a weekend in Oslo staying with some distant relatives of Steve’s Mum (Torrun and Leif). They were so lovely, and we enjoyed our time with them immensely. Their English was perfect and they made us feel very welcome. We had lunch one day overlooking Oslo harbour, and the next day Nikki rested whilst Steve went to the Viking Ship Museum and the Flam museum (on polar exploration).

On the Monday we caught a beautiful train trip from Oslo to Myrdal, where we changed trains to go down a really steep train track to Flam. From there we caught a ferry and enjoyed being on the Fjord whilst we traveled to our hotel in Balestrand (which overlooked the Fjord – it was spectacular). In Balestrand we rested a bit (the trip from Oslo took a bit out of Nikki), but spent one day driving around the Fjords and catching a slow boat up the Narrow Fjord which is World Heritage Listed (the guide book said that the deck of the boat would be slippery from the drool of all the tourists – and we agree, it was stunning).

Overall we LOVED Norway, but were really shocked at how expensive everything is (roughly three times the price of things in Australia).

We finally caught a boat to Bergen stayed the night before flying back to Germany via Oslo. We had one night in Leige before we picked up the girls. We stayed in a hotel which we thought would be nice, but turned out to be backpackers party central – right outside the door of our room until quite late at night, and early the next morning (we must be getting old).

p.s. thanks to Nikki's brother Steve for the internet cafe suggestions.