Jul 2006

Greetings from Germany!

Things seemed to have settled down here now from the World Cup, so was quite relaxing to spend a few days here. Travelled from Zurich to Nuremberg, where I met my friend Mareike, who is now working there. We had a nice evening, sitting on her balcony taking in the sunshine, enjoying some wine, was great!

Over the next couple of days I explored the city, there is quite a nice historic feel with some old buildings and a castle on the top of a hill where you can look out over all of the town. Nuremberg also has quite a history related to Hitler, so I saw some of those sights, like the half-finished colosseum he built, and also went to a museum detailing a lot of German history. Very interesting.

After she had finished work for the week, Mareike and I headed to Kassel to her parents' home. It took 3 hours, most of which was on the Autobahn, so that was certainly an experience in itself! I think the highest we got to was 170kmh, and even at 150kmh we were being overtaken. That was a sight to see, these Audi's and BMW's flying past! The roads are in perfect condition so it's very safe, and doesn't even feel that fast when everyone else around you is travelling at the same speed.

It was quite a nice and relaxing time in Kassel. It was quite warm, so spend some time just lying in the sun and reading, making the most of my holiday time. Got to experience all sorts of German foods and drinks, which were all really nice. Of course had to try the traditional German sausage, went down well with some nice German beer and wine! Was also a good chance to practise my German with the family, went quite well and I understood most things said to me. And I think I was able to make myself understood, however broken it was at times! But it was good to finally put it into practise after learning for a while.

Also got a chance to experience the local nightlife. Went to a couple of places in town, both were cool, first was more rock music, the other was R and B. It was a good night!

Oh one other thing that was quite funny..... since we had just stayed at home during the day, it was about 10pm before Mareike and I headed out to see the sights. Probably not the best idea, but there was still a little bit of sun. Anyway, so we had a look around near this old castle and walked through the hedge maze (a bit spooky at this time of night seeing there was no-one else around!) and then went to look at another monument. It was quite dark by now, and in the distance I saw a statue, well at first I thought it was, until it started breathing! We both got a little freaked out, cause we had been standing there talking for a few minutes not knowing we had company! Luckily he was harmless, but gave us a bit of a laugh!

So that was my visit to Germany in a nutshell, hope you enjoyed it. Stay tuned for next week's episode, live from Paris! hehe, should be fun, once I survive the 7 hours on three trains (via Belgium!)

Hope you are well, until next time
Scott