Tag 12 (Thüringen Tag 1)

Today we went to the town of Ilmenau in Thüringen. Our transfer station was in Neudietendorf...

The train platform at our transfer station, Neudietendorf

A view over the tracks at the Neudietendorf station

After transferring from there, we arrived in Ilmenau, a small town by the Thüringer Wald. 

It is famous for Johannes Wolfgang von Goethe having stayed there and wandered through the forest on the outside of town. We walked through town at first, looking for the address Ashley had written down. This was on a building that had turned into a store...

The sign says, "Here lived Goethe... In this house, Johannes Wolgang von Goethe celebrated his birthday on August 28, 1821"

The biggest building in Ilmenau was probably this Eishalle (ice-skating rink) by the train station

Ashley had written down the address, and we found the street she had written down, but the address number was 14. We started following the road but it turned into a highway around 9 or 10. We kept walking and passed a few places we thought would be the place we were supposed to stay but none were right. 

A bridge over a river on the way to our Gästehaus (guest-house)

We passed by a group of houses, past a sports field, past a little country club with a water slide, and then gave up thinking we wrote down the wrong address. 

A view of the Thüringer Wald behind the sports field we passed

We looked up the number in the Germany handbook Ashley had and called the number but no one picked up. We eventually got back into town and found the office for the housing but no one answered the door or the phone, so we went to get food at this Ali Baba place. We both got pizza and by the time we were done, the people picked up their phone. We eventually figured it all out after wasting a bunch of coins on the pay-phone. Apparently we did have the right address, we just didn't walk far enough (about 2.8km to be exact), so we took a taxi with a jubilant taxi-driver. He complimented Ashley on her German and asked where she was from. She said Kalifornien and he mentioned that we had an actor as our governer (Arnold Schwarzenegger, of course). 

 

The front of our Gästehaus

A rock and sign in front of the Gästehaus. The sign says, "Genuine Thuringian Weatherstation... If there is sunshine under the rock, there is sun. If the rock is wet, its raining. If the rock is swinging, its windy. If the rock is white, its snowing. If the rock is not there, its foggy or someone has stolen the rock."

The side of the Gästehaus

A swing at the Gästehaus

Unsere Raum (our room) #1

Unsere Raum #2

After finally getting to the room, we decided to walk on the Goethe Wanderweg (Goethe Wander-path) which Goethe famously wandered on...

A sign for the Goethe Wanderweg

A bench on the Goethe Wanderweg... It says "Auguste Gotze's dream-song" for some reason...

Another sign for the Goethe Wanderweg, with directions for different paths

Ashley walking on the Goethe Wanderweg with some sunshine

Die Stadt Ilmenau (the city of Ilmenau) from the Goethe Wanderweg

We took the 2.8km-long path back into town and looked around there.

Das Rathaus (city hall)

A caduceus-wielding woman on the corner of a bookstore called Buchhandlung Grimm (named after the Grimm Brothers who are famous for collecting German folk-tales and systematizing the German language in various ways)

After that we went to the small market in town and bought some fruit, cheese, and bread. We eventually walked all the way back to the Gästehaus and passed out.

Tag 11

Today Ashley had to read a bunch of pages in her books for her classes so we stayed in and relaxed. 

This is on the inside of the bathroom door in Ashley's dorm... they are stickers from 90s bands and other things

W.C. is the German term for toilet, literally meaning "water closet..." This is above the toilet

When Ashley went to her classes, I chilled for a little while and then went out to take a walk.

There is tons of anti-Nazi graffiti in Germany... this one goes as far as to say "Save Israel" (I wasn't aware it was in danger from anything)... Above the words you can see an image of someone stamping on and breaking a swastika

Although people are still wary about being patriotic in Germany, since the Euro 2008 soccer tournament is going on, almost every car has German flags in the windows... We even saw one mini-van with 6 flags driving by once...

After that we went to a nice Italian restaurant for dinner where Ashley told me a certain item was tomato sauce but it turned out to be chunks of ham...

Tomorrow we go to Thüringen (a state of Germany), home of the famous Thüringer Wald (Thuringian Forest)... specifically the city of Ilmenau. Then, the next day, we go to Eisenach, which is also a town in Thüringen.

Tag 10

We woke up and went to Mittagspizza, which is mid-day pizza at Pizzeria Napoli. We met Ashley's friends Kat, Anthony, and Tracy. I managed to devour an entire pizza. We went back to Ashley's room but she needed to work on her paper, and leave around 3pm for a meeting for her class. 

Ashley workin' on stuff

During that time, I sat around reading various books. At a certain point I decided to go outside and got some pastries. 

Nom nom nom

On the way back I veered off onto some nature path that is right next to Ashley's dorm.

Ein Weg (a path)

Looking up on the path

Ashley came back with some drinks and said that Kat & Anthony wanted to jam. We were originally going to go over to Anthony's dorm but Daniel, his friend, had the keys to the room and he was at work... so Anthony came over to Ashley's dorm where there is a jam room with 2 out-of-tune pianos, an electric piano, and a drum set that lacks a hi-hat and ride (but it has a double-bass pedal and one tom). I went outside at one point and a waiter at a bar next to the jam room said we needed a metronome. Then someone knocked on the door and got angry that we had taken a plastic chair from the bar's outside sitting area. We jammed in there for a while until Anthony left to go see Swedish music in town. Kat eventually left too and so just Ashley and I were left to jam for a while longer.

We came back eventually while Ashley read for a while for her class. This is a big mirror-thing that we found on the side of the road (someone was throwing it out) while walking back from Indiana Jones that we took...

Eventually, around 845pm, we went into the common room to watch the Deutschland vs. Türkei. I devoured two pieces of Brötchen (small bread) with some homemade hummus and some left-over Gouda from my cheese-buying escapades earlier in the week. At one point in the game, the picture went out and everyone was yelling. We switched on the radio to listen and Martín, a guy who is always lounging around in the TV room, said "Wilkommen an dem Neunzehnhundert Zwanzigsten" (welcome to the 1920's). Eventually the picture came back but it went in and out during the game, along with the sound being weird. The people in the commons room blamed it on the fact that the game was taking place in die Schweiz (Switzerland). It was 2-1 with Deutschland winning when Turkey scored a goal in the last 5 minutes, tying it up at 2-2. Then with literally 30 seconds left in the game, Deutschland scored another goal giving them the win with a 3-2 score. I could hear the honking all the way from downtown for at least 2 hours after...

After that we watched a hilarious Daily Show and passed out. 

Tag 9

On Tuesdays Ashley has class from about 3pm to 930pm... I wandered around and bought a coke and eventually made it back to her dorm. I watched all the episodes of Daily Show and Colbert Report that I had missed recently, including one with Cookie Monster as a guest.

Other than that, it was a pretty uneventful/relaxing day.

During the night we made flour tortillas from scratch and had some burritos, although its never the same as places like Nico's & Rico's & Cotixan... We watched some show about 'the next Uri Geller' which was absolutely ridiculous. 

Tag 8

A school day for Ashley... she has class from 415pm to 545pm. In the morning, Ashley did some laundry and I helped put them out to dry in the sun after they had been washed. I also helped to make and knead some bread that we later baked. 

I walked to Ashley's class with her at the Theologicum and then wandered through town looking for a market to buy cheese at which proved inordinately difficult. There are about 200 clothing shops and not too many normal markets. Eventually I found some natural foods store and got a slice of cheese which turned out to be a ridiculous 6,60 € but I only had 6,10... but they let me have it for only 6 € ...

When Ashley got back we looked at places to stay in Thüringin where the big Thüringin Wald (Thuringian forest) is... Johann von Goethe famously wrote his "Wanderer's Nightsong" there and wandered around. At some point we decided to see the new Indiana Jones movie. When we got there, they happened to be showing it in English. It was entertaining with some funny references to past movies but I thought the ending was unsatisfying so I sat during the credits hoping for something, but lo... We got out of the movie around 1am and waltzed back home to sleep.

Tag 7 (Hamburg Tag 2)

We left Eilenau Hotel and took a picture of this small car parked outside. In Europe people have really small cars to the point that a VW Bug looks kind of fat and big and the Mini car looks normal-sized.

Auf Wiedersehen, Eilenau Hotel!

We went into town and went to two of the big churches. This church is the only one not destroyed in World War II, although the interior is quite modern for some reason.

Stained glass and such

Alpha & Omega stained glass

Isis and Horus... errr the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus

After going to this church we passed by the Rathaus again, this time in daylight, while Ashley performs her best Edvard Munch imitation.

Das Rathaus in die Sonne (the city hall in the sun)

The inside of the Rathaus is extremely ornate and beautiful. There is a courtyard with this large fountain...

Fountain with female figure on top and a Satyr playing pan-pipes on the rim below

The top of the Rathaus clock tower

A picture for Jeremy (he will understand), found on the wall of the Rathaus

Ashley with der Löwe outside das Rathaus

After we went to the Rathaus, we walked to one of the bridges that goes over the Elbe river. You can see swans down and to the right...

Binnenalster (the name of this little water-area)

Swans chilling

After that, we saw a Gothic cathedral but did not go inside because you have to pay. Its been turned into a memorial for the dead of WWII...

Gothic spire

After that, we decided it was time to eat and found this nice Italian food place...

Pizza und Pasta und  spritzig Apfelsaft (pizza, pasta, and sparkling apple juice)

With our stomachs absurdly full, we wandered to the famous Hamburg pier...

Schiffen in der Pier (ships in the pier)

A walkway on the pier along the water

In the very far background there is a place that is showing the Lion King (der König der Löwe), which you have to take a ferry to get to... The pier was extremely crowded, full of things to buy, and smelly. It started to drizzle a little bit as we were walking...

Eventually we made it to the far end of the pier and turned towards the inner city again, and we found ourselves in the Reeperbahn, the area known in most places as the red-light district. Its also the place with the most bars (imagine that).  This is a small, small taste of the absurd amount of similar places

"Kino" means movies

After passing through this area which is supposedly quite busy and bright during the night time, rain started to pour heavily with some thunder to complement... We went into a small restaurant/bar thing to wait out the rain. Eventually we ventured back outside to find the U-Bahn but it started raining again. We found and U-Bahn and took it back to the main Bahnhof (train station)...

The gigantic Hamburg Bahnhof

From here we took a train back to Uelznel, and from there we planned to take a train straight to Göttingen. We got on the Göttingen train but it stopped after about 5 minutes and the person came over the speakers saying that a big tree had fallen on the rails (at this point it was raining hard and we could see lightning & hear thunder), so we had to turn back. After being silent for about 30 seconds, the man came back over the speakers and said something like, "Frau Donnehauer (Mrs. Donnehauer), you left your kid back at Uelznel station." I am not sure how she did not notice but luckily for the kid we had to turn back anyways. 

When we got back to the Uelznel station, it was pouring rain and was windy and there were no trains going directly to Göttingen... the train station had called in a bunch of buses to take everyone to the next train station except buses fit about 1/100th the capacity as trains, so they were quite packed. I was smooshed in between Ashley and a large German lady for about 40 minutes on a bus that went to the station past the tree-fallen rail. Eventually we made it to Celle, a small town with a small Deutschebahn station and took a train from there back home to Göttingen. So ends the short excursion to Hamburg.

Tag 6 (Hamburg Tag 1)

On the way to the Göttingen Bahnhof (train station), I took a picture of these 3 T-Mobile (or T-Punkt as it is called here) phones, all with video screens. Every single pay phone in Göttingen (and most in Hamburg) are owned by T-Mobile and most of them have video screens.

Drei Telefonen

We took a train to Uelznel, which is a small city where we transferred to a train that took us straight to Hamburg.

Ashley on der Zug (train)

Once we got to Hamburg, we realized how big the city is compared to the small map. We walked for about 10 minutes in the wrong direction and then turned around and found the correct street. We got to our Hotel (Eilenau Hotel) after about 50 minutes of walking with our backpacks and stuff. On the way we saw this advertisement which I found funny on multiple levels...

"Hella classic" water advertisement

Eventually we found the street (Eilenau Straße) that the hotel was on, but Ashley had written down the wrong address (66 instead of 36) so we wandered down the street. Eventually we found a sign for the hotel. It is like a mansion converted into a hotel. When we got there, we had to ring a bell for the hostess to come to the door; she led us into this nice kitchen-like area where she asked if we wanted water or coffee. In Germany - I'm sure my family would appreciate this - if you ask for water in any place they will without fail give you sparkling (spritzig) water. You have to ask for Mineralwasser if you want it without the bubbles.

Eilenau Hotel room

Our welcome gift of an apple (there were gummi bears also)

The view from our room

After exploring the room and trying to turn on the T.V., we walked outside to the U-Bahn station.

The path outside Eilenau hotel

The view from a path just outside Eilenau Hotel

We took the U-Bahn train from the region close to our hotel back into the middle of the city. We had decided to look for this Middle Eastern food place and so began our search. There are a bunch of huge buildings in Hamburg, including a Scientology church (which is still nothing compared to the one I saw in Berlin), but this structure seemed to stand out...

The T.V. tower in central Hamburg

After we found the Middle Eastern place and had some nice food I cannot pronounce, we went into this famous park called "Planten un Blomen." The name is 'low German' for "Plants and Flowers." I actually learned the most prominent dialect of German called Hochdeutsch or "High German." The park is 47 hectares of plants and flowers, including the biggest supposed Japanese garden in Germany (its still much smaller than Balboa Park).

Map of "Planten un Blomen" park

I was feeling mildly sedated from the medicine I had taken so we stopped for some coffee.

Eine Tasse Kaffee (a cup of coffee) with the cool square packages of sugar

After the short coffee break, we explored the park...

Manche Bunte Rosen in dem Rosengarten (lots of many-colored roses in the rose garden)

Gigantic chess set right by the coffee stand

Der Rosengarten (the rose garden)

A view of the T.V. tower from inside Planten un Blomen

There are many sites to see here, but the most popular is the Wasserlichtkonzert (literally, the Water-light-concert) which can be seen in the main lake of Planten un Blomen. It is a water/fountain & light show that is played live by two people on a "water organ" and a "light organ" (that is, their organs control the water and lights) while music plays. They played about 3 classical songs but also threw in "Mambo #5" and a song by Joe Cocker...

Wasserlichtkonzert #1

Wasserlichtkonzert #2

This started at 10pm, but since the Summer Solstice was yesterday (the longest day of the year) it was still pretty bright out. After this we walked back into the city. This is the Rathaus (city hall) at night-time, which prides itself on having more rooms than Buckingham Palace.

Das Rathaus (city-hall)

Eventually, we found a place to sit down and have some Pizza Margherita. I finally found a drink that uses an actual stein and took a picture (Tasha requested such). Yes, Dad, people do things other than drink in Germany... like drink and watch the Wasserlichtkonzert...

Bier und Pizza

After that, we found another U-Bahn and made our way back to Eilenau Hotel. So ends Tag eins in Hamburg.