Another day another burg - Freiburg

Next destination was the Black Forest, or Schwarzwald region of Germany, and particularly its capital Freiburg. My only words of German before I got here were "einmal Schwarzwälderkirschtorte bitte" so I was excited at trying the phrase out!

Thanks to Gudrun, originally from Freiburg, for her detailed email guide to the area, we managed to see a lot of the best of the Black Forest, driving through some spectacular scenery and lovely towns such as Triberg. We spent the evenings in Freiburg and it´s a lively place due to its large student population - but disappointingly we forgot to order any Black Forest gateau! darn - maybe next time!

Regensburg - town of the sausage

After working out how far it was from Leipzig to Heidelberg, we had a change of plan, and decided to stop off at Regensburg to break up the journey - and it turned out to be a good move. Neither of us knew much about the place, but it turned out to be a really nice, well-preserved medieval town, and it shot to the top of my favourite list when we discovered the historic sausage kitchen, on the banks of the Danube. This called for some impromptu al fresco sausage scoffing in the beautiful sunshine - washed down with top-notch local German beer of course. Heaven.

Ich bin ein Berliner

Laura navigated expertly right into the very centre of Berlin, where thankfully Easter Monday meant that the traffic was light. We met Scott and Amanda who had flown in to spend a few days in the German capital - and we all had a great time.

What is immediately apparent about Berlin is just how close modern world history seems - from the massive rebuilding going on in East Berlin and the remaining portions of the Berlin Wall, to the bullet riddled surviving buildings from the last world war, it is obvious straight away that this is a place where the history of conflict in the twentieth century has left a devastating mark. There are quite a few museums (at Checkpoint Charlie and the multimedia Story of Berlin) but really you can effectively see the history just by wandering about. It really makes you step back and think about how the further integration of Europe into one whole is a very good idea!


On a lighter note, Laura met her new idol Goleo - the world cup mascot. We also drank large quantites of very tasty Berlin Beer, including some rather strange red and green concoctions. It was interesting to note that, contrary to all of our expectations, the East Berlin central area was, along with being a bit prettier (although dilapidated in places), a much better going out area than anywhere in the Western side!

Copenhagen Capers

Copenhagen was eerily quiet when we arrived on Thursday, which was a holiday in Denmark - the start of the Easter weekend. We were able to drive straight through the centre of town to our hotel, with the roads to ourselves.

Chong and Ellen joined us for 2 days in Copenhagen, and it was great to see them. Our one full day was action packed. From the obligatory visit of the Little Mermaid, through a climb up a church with an outside staircase on the spire (scary), and ending at the famous Tivoli Gardens amusement park in the heart of the city. After starting off gently on the not very big wheel, Chong was able to persuade us, despite vociferous protests from us wimps, to go on the rollercoaster (the Demon), and even the super high Golden Tower - one of the highest points in Copenhagen - from which you are dropped with death defying speed. Laura is still shaking two days later!!

Tivoli Gardens was open until after midnight on a Friday night, so it was a good place to spend the evening. They are staging a series of Friday Rock concerts - so we watched the Danish punky rockers Magtens Korridorer, who kept us entertained for a while. They certainly seemed very popular with the Danes.

The very high Golden Tower, with more poor people about to plummet:

Off Again...

Monday morning saw us depart once again, to start stage two of our adventure. This time it felt quite different though as it started with a drive to Newcastle to catch a ferry to Gothenburg.

Once on the ferry we had the slightly surreal experience of sitting back and relaxing on the sun loungers as the boat left Newcastle in a haze of spring sunshine (honestly!). However, the relaxation didn´t last too long as the boat started to pitch and sway as soon as we got out into the North Sea. The evening ´entertainment´ kept us amused though, with a rubbish troubadour in one bar being followed by a full band belting out Stevie Wonder and Billy Ocean hits in the ´nightclub´. They were rocking as much as the boat - even doing a Runrig number! After the dancing girls had been on, our sides could take no more and we called it a night.

A boring day followed in the calmer Scandinavian waters, and 26 hours after boarding, we disembarked in Gothenburg....

A Fairytale Day, #2

Sunday April 2nd 2006, Hampden Park, Glasgow.
Scottish Cup Semi Final.

Hibernian 0 Heart of Midlothian 4.

It doesn't get much better!