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).