Germany and its many lessons

Lessons learnt from Hamburg campsite

1. Riverside location with beach sand does not generate romance, just really sore calf muscles and an additional 5 minutes to walk anywhere.
2. Unless you’ve seen evidence the campsite food is good, find a local restaurant (not even the camp dog would touch the lurid, yellow sausage I attempted to eat for dinner after a long day driving… I still gag at the thought).
3. Always make sure your mattress pump is fully charged unless you enjoy the sensation of sleeping downhill or on the ground.
4. Always check what time the campsite turns off their hot water unless arctic water skimming over your goose-bump ridden body while it rains outside is your thing.
5. Never drink a cup of tea in the last hour before bed when your tent is 500m from the toilet with only beach sand and other tents between it, it’s raining very heavily and you wear a white t-shirt to bed.

 It wasn’t a great night for our first night in Germany. Pretty much what could go wrong, did. Fortunately, we both managed to laugh at the situation although I do admit some self-pitying tears slipped out while dipping a toe gingerly under the freezing cold water pumping merrily out of the shower.

Fortunately, the next day in Hamburg turned out to be a great one. Still raining heavily, we headed into town and spent the day sampling German pastries with hot chocolate, roaming the local shops (Sean finally found the perfect pair of shoes! I’d given up suggesting as there was always something not right about the ones I found… so a “hallelujah” was thrown out there when we made this purchase), wandering along the Alster when the weather cleared and marveling at the classy architecture.

Sean on the streets of Hamburg in THOSE shoes... cool eh?

 But while it was lovely, I don’t really want to spend too much time discussing it because Berlin was where it was all at. Although one more tip for y’all that Berlin campsite taught us – try not to stay at a campsite right next to the airport. Loud and constant. However, we loved this place big time. We booked ourselves onto the Berlin walking tour and prayed for sunshine… which we largely got – hurrah! We managed to score the most passionate tour guide ever in Kiwi Mike. He was awesome and knew a ridiculous amount about the city he has spent the last seven years in. I was particularly fond of him because he moved there for love, awww. I learnt so much about Berlin’s early days and the destruction it suffered throughout the war, the divide between communism and democracy so explicit in the Berlin Wall, more about the suffering of the Jewish people and the incredibly interesting yet demonic Adolf Hitler.

We were enthralled the whole four and a half hours. Here are the pics…

The Berlin Cathedral which had a missile sail through the top dome which blew the internal up in World War 2.

A memorial was built here for it was the place the burning of the books was, where all Jewish books from the Berlin library were burned.

Our passionate tour guide NZ Mike at Checkpoint Charlie.

Me at the Jewish memorial... haunting.

Next stop was the Black Forest, which of course, is the birthplace of Black Forest cake. Delicious if whipped cream, chocolate cake and black cherries smushed together is your thing, unfortunately it ain’t mine (one of the few desserts I decline) but Sean forged ahead for both of us and downed a hefty piece.

The rain still hadn’t let up, so we splurged and stayed in a really nice little hotel for two nights. Interesting side note – the area of Black Forest we stayed in was called Bad Wildbad yet was filled with retirees… talk about not living up to your name, right? 

Anyhoo, can’t find any pics for there… must be still on the camera oops! But we must forge on, chaps! We have to be in Vienna asap and i’m still tapping away on the laptop in Salzburg. The Prawn is just itching to get in the car so he can crank up the iPod and work on his duets. His performance has been lacking lately, so pray for us.

Next blog – Switzerland!!

Miss you all, hope you’re all having loads of fun.

Lisa and Sean xoxo

Advertisement