When Good Trees Go Bad!

Its 6:00am and the alarm on the watch is going off as we stagger out of bed to get ready for our day trip to Freiburg, "The gateway to the Black Forest." Once on the train again we pass out and rested for our hike around the city and the trails in the country side. In Freiburg we discover some more scenic areas like Titisee (hehehe...) and Feldberg - Barental, so we make a run for the train and board just in time to watch the station disappear.

Titisee is small and charming, yet still with that touristy feel, as we walk past the stales selling cuckoo clocks, witches, and kirsche wasser. We find the lake and Westweg trails that led into the Black Forest and cant help but feel somewhere in between Swan Lake and Hansel and Grettel. With mystical inspiration we set out to find some gnomes and fairies frolicking in the forest. The path is quiet and looming with towering pines as a few other hikers pass us by. It was all so serene until I was assaulted and sapped by a tree. Trying for that perfect shot as I used a tree for balance I emerged a much stickier person. My hands and arms were covered in syrupy sap. They say the Black Forest got its name because it was impenetrable to light, but I think it is just evil!

We followed the Westweg trail along the lake back to the city and enjoyed a piece of Blackforest Cake, though my Dad's is still better. We admired some of the shops and then caught the rail to Feldberg - Barental, one of the highest peaks in Deutschland. We headed for the highest hill and can say we were delightfully pleased with our selection. It was secluded with a few old style German homes. The view was amazing with Titisee in the distance and tall pines all around. Jason, attempting to be romantic, picked me a flower. It was very sweet until I noticed the monstrosity of a spider residing on the petals! With a fear of spiders I screamed like a little girl, and Jason couldn't stop laughing as my cries echoed into the mountain side! It's the thought that counts I guess!

After being attacked by giant black forest trees and close calls with a killer spider we decided to head back to Freiburg. We walked around the city, which looked a lot like Heidelberg, trying to find the hill which permitted a panoramic view of the city. Pooped and finding no such hill we high tailed it back to the train station just in time to board the train as it pulled into the station. Back at the hotel sweet dreams of gingerbread houses and Tchaikovsky played in our heads!

Heidelberg

Home to the oldest university in Germany and the world renowned Heidelberg Schloss (castle), Heidelberg attracts numerous students and tourist a like. The Ruprecht-Karls-Universität is home to nearly 28,000 students and is one of Germany's largest academic institutions. Previous professors include the likings of Gustav Kirchhof; all of us Electrical Engineers remember the infamous Kirchhof laws and black body radiation! The university remains a leader with academics ranging from Egyptian Studies to Computer Linguistics. Although this would be a great place to pursue a dissertation, we hadn't come to Heidelberg to study.

We strolled around town to find the Altstadt (old city) and the Schloss. All of the Germans we approached were extremely helpful in pointing us in the right direction and after touring the Südstadt we arrived at the Marketplatz, a street full of boutiques and street vendors. We would loved to have purchased a handcrafted stein; however, at 20 plus Euros our budget only allowed us to photograph them. We ate a falafel and pide (authentic German food I know) at a local shop before our 300 meter trek up a slick cobblestone road to the castle. It's interesting how many kabob places there are in Germany that sell falafels and pizzas. There are at least three around the corner from our room in Frankfurt, but before I digress to much, back to Heidelberg.


Originally built in the 13th century, the castle has seen numerous expansions and destruction over the years. The history of the castle runs deep in the Renaissance period, however, not being an expert in the Renaissance I leave you to Wikipedia. The castle was interesting; however, a bit of a let down as there wasn't much to see beside the panoramic vista of the city and a 228,000 liter barrel for wine! So, we headed down to the Old Bridge for a few shots of the city and castle before catching the train back to Frankfurt.


The next day will be spent exploring the Black Forest! (actually, we've visited them yesterday, but we have to keep you reading somehow :-P )

Köln and Koblenz

We took it easy in the morning before walking the gazillion miles to the Berlin main train station with our packs. Looking like sweaty tourists we boarded our train and arrived to Köln (Cologne)in the afternoon. Leaving the station we were confronted and awed by the colossal Köln Cathedral as it is the tallest Roman Catholic cathedral in the world, measuring a mere 515 ft. We scurried our way through the soviet looking town to our hotel and deposited our bags.

Back at the "Dom" we pondered how long it took to build something this gargantuan and detailed, especially in the medieval ages no less. The structure found its start in 1248 and took over 600 years to complete. Within the cathedral is a golden reliquary that supposedly shelters the remains of the Biblical Magi, a.k.a. the Three Wise Men.

In the morning we headed to Koblenz, meandering around the town looking for a Rhine River cruise. We happened upon the KD fleet just in time for the 9am ship. This excursion has been our favorite so far. The views are green and gorgeous with castles and vineyards speckled along the hills. We stoked up a conversation with a friendly British gentleman who was impressed we were still talking to each other thus far into the trip. He also told us about the sesselbahn, or chairlift, that takes you 1000 meters to a cafe with a panoramic view of the Rhine.

As ones to not pass up an opportunity we hoped off with our bags and hunted down the sesselbahn. The chairlift was amazing, until the ride down in the rain and howling wind (somehow I was always the one on the windward side), but the hot chocolate and apple strudel with vanilla sauce at the cafe was totally worth it. We walked back to the dock for the remaining 5 hour journey down the Rhine. Highlights included Loreley rock, Jason the Bee Killer, and the lovely UK couple we met.

It was Frau Chane in high school German class who told us the tale of Loreley. Legend has it that Loreley was a beautiful young maiden, distraught over her unfaithful lover plunged to her death from the rocks above. She remained a siren, singing to the sailors and luring them to their fate as they crashed into the hillside. However, we heard no singing and the boat didn't sink, so that's always good.

Jason was sitting in his chair minding his own business when this huge bee landed on his pants claiming its territory and refusing to leave. After he got up an didn't come back I turned around to find him dancing around. Watch this heroic slaying against the bee who would not concede (it took the final kick to defeat him).

Wilkommen nach Berlin

Well we’re actually not in Berlin anymore, rather we’ve made it to Frankfurt, but here’s our take on Berlin.

We arrived Tuesday on time and purchased the 48 hour Welcome Berlin card that would allow us unlimited travel on the U-Bahn (underground subway), S-Bahn (above ground subway), trams, and buses throughout the city and Potsdam. One word of advice, push the green button on the subway doors when you want to exit. We arrived at Mohrenstrasse expecting the door to open, but instead we stood there as the train pulled off to the next stop. Needless to say we felt pretty dumb as we had to take the next train back to our stop.

Later that day we did the free walking tour, Sandemans New Europe, and highly recommend it. We visited Brandenberg Gate, the Reichstag (German Parliament), parking lot above Hitler’s bunker, Holocaust Memorial, book burning memorial, Checkpoint Charlie, and the Berl in Wall. We learned a good deal about Berlin’s dramatic history in this 4 hour tour and all they ask for is a tip if you felt you go something out of it. We’ll post a journal entry on the website with a bunch of the interesting facts we learned from this tour as well as more interesting tid-bits on Germany.

The next day was spent exploring Potsdam after an hour or so of figuring out how to get there since the S-Bahn to Potsdam was kaput. Finally, we found the RegioExpress train that replaced the S-Bahn route to Potsdam and we were off. With no real agenda we walked around and stumbled into the city market were people sold fresh meat, cheese, and produce from stales and vans. We continued to visit the Schoss (Palace) Sanssouci, Orangerieschloss, Neues Palais, Ruinenberg, Schloss Charleottenhof, and Schloss Cecilienhof. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photos in the Neues Palais as there were beautiful rooms covered from floor to ceiling in marble and other gem stones, absolutely amazing!

After returning from Potsdam we went to the top of the Reichstag. Definitely go after 8:30pm as the queue is shorter and you can get sunset / night panorama shots of the city. The Reichstag houses the German Parliament with a dom on top that allows everyone to come and keep an eye on their government. This was designed to allow the parliament to remember who they are working for as well as to keep people involved in the government. Afterwa rds we dined on schnitzel and beer (perfect end to another day in Germany).

On our last day in Berlin we visited the State opera house and the German histo ry museum. Although not the biggest opera fans, it was interesting to take a 1hr tour completely in German. We probably only understood 10% of what was said, but it’s a start. After the educational experience we watched the back of our eyelids for a couple hours in our room. Afterwards we had a nice German dinner at Maximilian’s, including some weinerschnitzel and beer.

The next stop for us will be Cologne for a day then onto the Rhine River for a cruise to Mainz (where the Guttenberg printing press was invented).

Holy Scheiße!

That about describes the start to our RTW trip.

So, after a night of celebrating Jackie's 21st birthday and no sleep we arrived at the Charleston airport at 4:30am for our 6:10am flight to Atlanta. Upon check-in our tickets showed 6:00pm...Das ist nicht gut! Our flight had been canceled and without any notice we frantically tried to find someway to get from Charleston to JFK Airport so we could leave on a 5:45pm flight to Dusseldorf.


This is where the fun began...we found a 12:09pm flight from Atlanta landing in Newark at 2:24pm, which should give us plenty of time to transfer to JFK. We took the 5hr Benoit Express (aka Jenny's parents) at top speed to ATL airport allowing us to make our flight to Newark.


Once in Jersey we found the airport shuttle and got tickets for the 3:15 bus, but as the song from Jeopardy played in our heads and 3:40 rolled around with no bus we started freaking out. We grabbed a Jersey cabby that made the drive between the airports within record time; we even had enough time for a pre-boarding beverage to celebrate the start of our trip.