Germany

Germany

This post will attempt to cover the six days we spent in four cities in Germany. Its a fair bit of material, but  we were so busy that I postponed blogging until we were back on a long train ride. I am going to attempt to weave the pictures into the text more, so please bear with me.

When we got on the train in Copenhagen, we knew it was taking us to Hamburg. However, the maps showed the train driving straight over the Fehmarn Belt with no mention of a bridge. We were surprised and confused when we approached a ferry, and were not asked to leave the train. The train drove directly onto the ferry.

It is hard to tell, but the train is actually fully in the ferry

The sister of the ferry we were on. Andy described the opening of the bow to let the train out as "like and alligator opening its mouth!"

We saw this beauty from the ferry

We were pleasantly surprised when we reached Hamburg Central  Station and Kyle, Nick, and Dale (All Webb 2012) were waiting for us on the platform, holding a hand made sign that said "Webbies". It was a very happy reunion all around. 

Kyle, Nick, and Dale are all contracted to work with Blomm and Voss on the restoration of an FPSO. They and many of their colleagues live in a hotel very close to the shipyard, so we got to meet a few other naval architects. We had a nice dinner out at a traditional German place, and then slept. They had to go to work in the morning, so we set out to explore the city. 

We learned that Hamburg has a really nice bike rental program, and so we took advantage of it. By riding the bikes from one rental station to another, we could use them from only 5 euro per year. 

So we leapfrogged from station to station, making our way north along the lake towards a park we heard was good. Along the way, we lost Chris. He took a different turn, and we stopped and waited for him to come back, but he never did. We continued to make our way to the park on foot, hoping Chris would meet us there. 

We must have walked slowly because when we reached the park two hours later Chris was waiting faithfully. He had already toured the park, and took us right to the part of the park we wanted to see, the playground. 

The Zipline

We road the bikes all the way back, and then had a nice doner dinner not far from the hotel. 

We started out early the next morning, 7:00 am breakfast with the naval architects, and then we trained to Berlin. We weren't staying the night in Berlin, so we had six hours to explore the city before making the train that would get us back to Hamburg in time for a nice dinner out. We planned a walking and biking tour, and headed to see the most touristy sites.

Reichstag

Brandenburg Gate

Checkpoint Charlie

From checkpoint charlie we road bikes along the streets, following the double row of laid stones that show where the wall used to stand. After a few extra turns, we found the section of the Berlin Wall that is now a giant piece of artwork. It was really quite amazing.

Our last quest in Berlin was to find a Berliner (jelly donut). We searched and searched, but found only things labeled 'donut'. Eventually we tried them, and found that they probably were 'berliners' just  not called that. They were really delicious. Soft, fluffy dough, a light sprinkling of white sugar on the outside, and filled completely with a rich but mildly sweet apple butter. Worth all the searching!

We also saw some cool and really old museums and churches and such. 

The highlight of our time with Kyle, Dale, and Nick was our last dinner at Groeninger's. Dean Neilson highly recommended it, and we are grateful. I'm not sure I have ever eaten as much food in my life. We ordered the meat platter, and out came pounds and pounds of smoked pork, sausages and bacon. A traditional mustard and brown bread were also available, along with garlic and bacon mashed potatoes. We ate and ate and ate.

It was sad to leave Hamburg, but great to have gotten to see Kyle, Nick and Dale. They seem to be having a great time, and making plenty of friends. We are ever grateful for sharing their rooms and breakfasts with us, not to mention the fun times.

We left on the morning train, headed for Cologne and Dusseldorf. Andy got off the train in Dusseldorf to set up our hotel, while we continued on to Cologne. We found some pretty great things in our exploration of the city, 

A huge cathedral

Noah's Ark-On a barge

A bridge of locks

Chris the aid to navigation

The most dangerous children's playground ever

A tram with a great aerial view of the city

We hopped the 20 min train back to Dusseldorf, and ended up waiting while they did something to the train that extended our ride for an extra hour. But we made it to the hotel eventually, and all was good. 

We set about exploring Dusseldorf the next day, and using there public transit system to its full advantage. We made it into the city, and saw a bunch of awesome statues and buildings. We grabbed a really cheap breakfast of great baked goods, and walked down to the Rhine.

After eating a meal of hamburgers and nachos, we decided we wanted to see a movie. We found the main theater, but they had only movies in German. So on a whim we headed all the way across the city looking for a theater that apparently shows movies in English. We found it, but by the time we got there the only movie left in English was either a little kids movie, or a horror movie. (we couldn't understand enough German to tell which). We ended up watching the new Bourne movie, and understanding none of it. But it was worth it!

So now it is our second day in the Netherlands, we had a wonderful meal with the Webbies here, but more on that next post.

Miss you all

Satchel