Germany Day 6: Triple Colossos

Today was our trip out to Heide Park, an amusement park an hour south of Hamburg. Roland, Susi, Chrissi, Caro, Kendra, Kirsten, and I met up with Doris' other son Volker, the one getting married on Friday and rode out there. This was our first experience on the German Autobahn and all of the stories about it are true. At times the traffic moved very, very schnell. It's truly a testament to German engineering that the cars and highway can routinely operate at that speed. I know ol' Bernie back at home would shake himself to pieces if I ever attempted that. And the highway etiquette was very impressive as well. No one got in the left most lane unless they really meant it and they accelerated enough to get back out. There was no one cruising in the left lane at ten miles below the speed limit yakking on a cell phone for sure.

So anyway, Heide Park was amazingly beautiful. You have to go to Disney World or Universal Studios to see the level of detailing in the states that they have. All of the grounds and rides were so immaculate and so richly decorated and appointed. Clearly Heide Park values quality over quantity (ahem, Six Flags).

Volker and I kicked things off with a ride on their Drop Tower called Scream which had a pirate theme while the rest of our party looked on. Then after that we all piled onto their bobsled coaster which was pretty tame but quite long and had some great curves. This was Kendra's first coaster since she was in college but she enjoyed it.

So naturally we went to their biggest coaster next, Colossos. It's one of the new breed of precision built wooden coasters and was a precursor to my favorite, El Toro. The line was already at ninety minutes at this point so we decided to plunk down nine euro and get three skip the line passes for their most popular rides. Once we were up in the station, Kendra and I paired up for the front seat.

And the verdict: Kendra thought it was a ton of fun. . . but once was enough. I loved it! Granted it wasn't as good as El Toro but easily a 90th percentile ride. Is that nerdy enough for you?

After that we went for a spin on Grottenblitz - their mine train coaster with wild horses engaging in combat, Mountain Rafting - their whitewater rafting ride, Wildwasser Bahn - their log ride, Big Loop - their looping coaster, a gentle boat ride through a garden and then back in time to see some cavemen, and also a stop at their biergarten for some beer and pretzels. Finally their other big ticket ride, Desert Race, opened after having some mechanical problems.

Desert Race is one of those rocket coasters that accelerate from a standstill to a high speed in a very short amount of time using cables, winches, and the power of hydraulics. Usually these rides accelerate and then go straight up but this one made a hard turn to the right and proceeded to do a series of high speed figure eights before abruptly hitting the brakes. This one was also a solid ride - a little short as the rocket coasters tend to be but still a whole lot of fun and one of the better ones I've been on. I really liked the fast turn after the launch.

We ended the day with another ride on Colossos (I actually went twice with three times total) and a spin on their other log flume which had a mine theme. Chrissi, Caro, Volker, and I also took a ride on their pirate themed splash battle ride where you go around this obstacle course in these large boats. Everyone on board has a hand crank powered water gun as do people on other boats as well as people walking by the attraction. Everyone is spraying everyone else with water without mercy for at least five minutes and needless to say we all got completely soaked.

After that we all headed back to Hamburg and a delicious meal of leftover wiener schnitzel. I'm seriously going to have to make it! The rest of the evening was spent hanging around relaxing after the long day at the park.

Germany Day 5: Hamburg From the Water and Air

Paragraph 1 of Day 5: We slept in and had a leisurely breakfast and it was great.

Paragraph 2 of Day 5: Doris, Hedda, Kendra, Kirsten, and I all went into Hamburg with hopes of taking a tour of the Alster Lake which forms the northern boundary of the central city and has many large houses all around it and of the canals which criss-cross the southern part of the central city before reaching the Elbe River. Unfortunately we didn’t get there in time so we had to go with the less popular tour of the canals north of the Alster Lake which wind their ways through the backyards of very opulent houses and apartments. It was neat at first especially going across the Alster with the skyline all around us but eventually it just became a pleasant boat ride as the houses started to look the same. But still, the name of the game was relaxation today so it was nice to sit for a couple hours on a boat and enjoy each others company without running about.

Prior to getting on the boat we had a little bit of time to kill so we strolled about the central area – mainly searching for camera batteries. It was very bustling with people rushing around. It strangely seemed busier than Berlin even though Hamburg is just a bit over half the size. Perhaps it’s because we visited Berlin on a weekend and today was Monday and near lunch hour. Anyway, there were a lot of people about. Not so many bicyclists but just as many dogs as in Berlin.

The dogs here in Germany are so well behaved that leashes seem to be an afterthought. It seems that two times out of five a dog will be off his leash and will be contentedly walking alongside it’s owner without any problems of running around. I don’t think I’ve known any dogs that could be trusted off a leash in a busy urban setting like that so we decided that it was clear that dogs understand German. I mean a whole European country can’t be better dog handlers than I and everyone I know, can they?

After our boat tour we made a beeline for St. Michaelis church to see the inside and check out the view from the top of the bell tower. The church itself dates back to the mid 1600s but has had a few fires and the current building was actually completed in the early 1900s. It is a huge and very bright and airy church. The windows are all clear glass and the walls and ceilings are all painted a simple white or pastel blue. The result is a very cheerful church but still managing to be humbling with its size and beauty. There were a few items that were saved from the previous churches but most of it was from the 1900s.

The view from the top was amazing, you could see that Hamburg is a very low profile city and the skyline is still dominated by church steeples, which was neat to see in a city of nearly two million. We took some great photos and I drooled over the Olympia Looping Bahn roller coaster operating in the distance at the Hamburger Dom. I’ll be hitting that come Wednesday. Hopefully twice! It’s only the holy grail of us American roller coaster nuts.

Kendra, Kirsten, and I took the stairs down and got to see the apparatus that controlled the hands on the clocks and the chime and were amazed that it was just a system of gears, ratchets, and cables. All of which were controlled by a simple pendulum. The whole shebang was stamped 1911 – those Germans and their engineering. . . Completely awesome! We also walked past the swinging bells that play on Sundays and were astounded at how big they were. They were controlled by modern electric motors and rubber belts but I could imagine actually bell ringers jumping up and down on ropes back in the day.

After finally leaving St. Michaelis we hustled back to Roland and Susi’s home for a delicious Wiener Schnitzel dinner. Susi taught Kendra and I how to make it and we’re soooo going to attempt it when we get back. Just delicious!

It was a very relaxing day which is just what we needed after hustling around Berlin for the weekend and a full day at Heide Park tomorrow. Auf Wedersehen for now.

Germany Day 4: Palatial Living

Another restful night spent being rocked to sleep on the Spree River and another beautiful Berlin morning. A coda for last night: it seems that the crowds that we encountered so late were people going to see a famous German techno music artist who was putting on a show in some performance space. It was a good turnout!

We checked out of the hostel and hauled our bags off to the S-Bahn stop but not before getting some German pastries for the road. I picked up a giant jelly donut that was delicious and satisfied three of us for a quick breakfast. We ditched our bags in a locker at the Zoo train stop which is a very major stop on the train system and continued on our way to Charlottenburg Palace.

The palace was built as a summer home for Sophie Charlotte and her husband Friedrich III, Elector of Brandenburg who became King Friedrich I of Prussia. The two were eventual grandparents of Frederick the Great.

During World War II the palace suffered quite a bit of damage so a great deal of it has been restored rather than being original but most of the restoration was superbly done and at times it’s difficult to determine what is original and what wasn’t. The guidebook that we had said that the palace wasn’t much if you’ve seen others but being that I hadn’t it was plenty impressive to me! There was so much gold leaf and expensive chandeliers and damask wallpaper. Sophie Charlotte also had a very impressive and extensive ceramics collection that was interestingly displayed in some rooms.

After a lunch in the palace café (complete with a very talented violinist), we had a very nice long walk through the palace grounds and toured the outbuildings such as the mausoleum and the belvedere. It was especially nice that the grounds were open to the public as everyone in the surrounding area were out bicycling through or walking or jogging or just enjoying the day. It made the place very warm and pleasant.

We stopped in a little Italian sidewalk café on our way back to the train station for ice cream before our train ride back to Hamburg. We parted ways with Ingrid and made our way back down to the platform of the Berlin Hauptbahnhof and caught the regular train, no ICE this time, back to Hamburg. Roland and Susi’s daughter Carolin (Caro for short) met us at the train station and drove us back to the family home and the rest of the night was spent getting to know everyone including Susi’s older son Christoph (Chrissi for short).

From here on out we’re hanging out in Hamburg. Tune in tomorrow for some Hanseatic adventures!

Germany Day 3: Yer Mom's a German Day

We got up early this morning to get up to the Reichstag before the crowds got there – but unfortunately we didn’t beat them and when we walked around the corner we were greeted by the sight of dozens of tour buses parked along the street and a line three times longer than we saw yesterday. So we got burned there but we decided to stick it out and wait. It ended up being about an hour and a half before we were through security but while we were waiting we were entertained by a troupe of puppeteers controlling a giant man who walked through the crowd hamming it up and doing various gymnastics.



Finally we made it into the Reichstag which as I said earlier is Germany’s current capitol building. The actual building has stood on this spot for a very long time but was burned to a shell at the outbreak of World War II. Actually there is quite a bit of political intrigue there but I won’t go into that (see more about that here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_fire). It sat abandoned throughout the Cold War with the wall running directly behind it. Eventually it was remodeled by architect Norman Foster into the amazing building that it is today. The biggest tourist attraction here is the great glass dome that replaced the old cupola that was lost during the fire. Two ramps spiral up the inside of the all glass dome around a giant cone made of mirrors that direct sunlight into the assembly room below. The dome is also completely open so it also creates a convection current that naturally cools the assembly chambers without any need for air conditioning. Also the view from the ramps and the top of the roof of the surrounding area is spectacular.

Leaving the Reichstag we walked up Ebert Strasse Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe– a brilliantly done public space. The land gently undulates in a bowl shaped depression laid over with cobblestones while a grid of large monoliths is overlaid that with each one having a different height such that the tallest monoliths are approximately at the deepest part of the depression. So as you walk into the forest of monoliths it becomes more and more like a disorienting labyrinth. I say it’s brilliant as a public space because it’s a thoughtful memorial without being too stern and it’s large enough so that kids can play in the space without disturbing people who are there looking for thoughtful introspection.

After that we continued down Ebert Strasse to Potsdamer Platz which has become sort of the Times Square of Berlin. The architecture is very bold and modern however it acted like a black hole and we were sucked in for what seemed like four hours having lunch and dessert in two separate places in what was basically a mall. It’s very heavily commercialized in the American/Western style and the context is quite jarring from the rest of Berlin which is fairly laid back for being such a large city. We finally left the area in various levels of irritability which eventually subsided as we got back into the more realistic parts of the city.

From Potsdamer Platz we walked toward Checkpoint Charlie with a short detour to see the ruins of Anhalter Bahnhof train station which suffered severe bombing during the war. Actually, now it is just the entrance that remains but it was still neat to see and in the middle of a Bauhaus style neighborhood. Checkpoint Charlie was incredibly tacky and we didn’t stay longer than the time it took to take a picture of the McDonalds looming over the little guard shack and grimace at the I Heart CPC t-shirts.

Instead we retraced our steps to the Topography of Terror museum of the holocaust. It was located at the former headquarters of the SS and was left as rubble with a portion of the wall and a small but very nice museum in a modern building. The museum was very moving and difficult to stomach but educational.

We had quite a bit of time until our dinner reservations but didn’t quite feel like going back to the boat so we ended up sitting at a café in the Gendarmen Markt between the French Cathedral and the German Cathedral – yes, those are their real names. Hedda had a Berliner Weiss which was sort of a watermelon or sour apple flavored beer that was a deep emerald green. It was not popular among our group. While we were sitting there a string quartet began playing by the fountain in the plaza and a bachelor party rolled by on a bar where each bar stool had a set of bicycle pedals so the party could pedal around the city and drink at the same time. The bartender was also the driver but everyone had to pedal (and sing drinking songs at the top of their lungs). It looked like a ridiculous amount of fun. We also taught Hedda and Doris the fun of Yer Mom jokes.

Dinner was at a Moroccan place called Kasbah that was in the northern part of the city that used to be more of a Jewish quarter but is now very international. It too was a very good dinner in a very nice atmosphere. The food itself was a bit too salty for our tastes but was still very good.

We ended the evening with a quick trip to the top of Fernsehturm, the Berlin version of the observation deck on top of a television transmitter that are always a lot of fun to go up into. The tower is most famous for it’s “Pope’s Revenge”. The story goes that the East German government made it illegal for churches to have crosses on their steeples and so as construction was completed on the Fernsehturm, which features a spherical observation pod covered with a faceted mirrored surface it became apparent that when the sun shone directly on the tower it would reflect off the mirrors – in the shape of a giant cross - and on the tallest structure in East Germany no less!

We returned to the boat and found our little neighborhood was jumping with revelers even though there really weren’t too many bars in our immediate vicinity. Even the bar on the top deck of our boat was alive with dancing people. Most of our group went directly to bed but Kendra and I decided to venture out for one last German beer before calling it a night. We crossed over the river again to a cluster of nice, sophisticated bars that we had noticed the night before and along the way we discovered the epicenter of all the revelry. We couldn’t figure out exactly what was going on but people were lined up around the block – well after midnight – to get into this nondescript looking group of buildings. But the bar we went to was nice, we sat outside and watched all the bicyclers still whizzing about even though it was so late. Those Berliners sure like their bicycles, they were everywhere! We returned to the boat after one drink feeling more relaxed and ready for sleep. Our final day in Berlin will be up tomorrow!

Germany Day 2: Sunny Day in Berlin

We woke up early from a very restful night courtesy of Roland and Susi and met up with Doris and Hedda to make our way to the main train station in Hamburg for our train to Berlin. Doris got us advance tickets on the ICE – Germany’s high speed rail although the corridor between Hamburg in Berlin is too short for the trains to really get up to top speed. Still, they were a very comfortable ride and they look cool. The northern German countryside looks a lot like the Midwest of the US – lots of agriculture plus big windfarms.


Upon arrival to the Hauptbahnhof of Berlin we caught the subway/elevated train over to the east side where we were staying in a hostel boat docked on the Spree River just on the other side of one of the longest remaining stretches of the wall in the city which is now used as a canvas for graffiti style art. Ingrid was waiting there for us when we arrived and waited for us to throw our bags in our rooms and get checked in.


From there the six of us retraced our steps back to the local station and retraced our tracks back to the center of town. We decided on a nice little pizza place in the Hackeser Markt area which was pretty good and quite affordable. I tried the local specialty drink of mixing the typical north German pilsner beer with sprite or some similar fruit soda. We all agreed that initially it was quite tasty but after awhile it seemed to just take away from the beer flavor. We got caught a couple more times with the beer – sprite mixture before we figured out what to avoid. I’m glad that we tried it though because we had heard about it from others.


Freshly fueled we finally made our way out into Berlin which was an amazing and modern city. Because of bomb damage during the war and then cultural damage during the communist days there has been quite a lot of development since the fall of the wall. The result is quite pleasant with very old buildings sitting next door to restored buildings that had been partially damaged sitting next to brand new buildings that architecturally sympathetic to their surroundings but still have an identity of their own. Our first stop as we crossed the Spree onto what the Berliners call Museum Island was the giant Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral). We had just missed the tour so we didn’t get a chance to go in but the outside was amazing and vastly different than the grand churches we’ve seen in Paris and London. Mainly because of the enormous dome on top and the fact that the German churches seem to be more square shaped than following the cruciform plan of the traditional catholic churches.

Crossing back over the Spree we followed the main street through Berlin which has several names but goes by Unter den Linden for this, its most famous stretch. The roadbed dates back to the mid 1600s and gets its name for the Linden trees that are planted along the road and the promenade down the middle. Walking down this street takes you past several important buildings in Berlin as well as Humboldt University which we found out later was the alma mater of Marx, Lenin, the brothers Grimm, and Einstein.


Unter den Linden ends at the Brandenburg Gate made famous to Americans by JFK and his famous speech, Reagan and his famous speech, and several videos on MTV by the Scorpions and Jesus Jones. I was actually surprised at its size, for such an important landmark in European and even world history the gate is quite diminutive. Size notwithstanding it was awe inspiring to be standing in the shadow of something that had witnessed so much history in so many lifetimes.

So that was pretty cool.


Crossing through the gate we stepped over a cobblestone line in the sidewalk which marked the former site of the wall. For those keeping track for historical purposes, we were now leaving East Berlin and going into the west. In front of us was the Tiegarten, which is Berlin’s central park as well as the Reichstag which is now the center of German government after witnessing quite a bit of history itself. We decided the line to get in was a bit too long for our liking so we decided to return tomorrow morning so more about the Reichstag tomorrow.

Don’t look at me that way, there’s other crazy stuff ahead!


Like fer’instance we decided to walk through the Tiegarten to the other side where there was a lake and a little café that Ingrid either remembered or had heard about and as we were walking through the park a completely naked man walked out of the trees and laid down in the grass. See, that’s pretty crazy right? Continuing further into the park there were many more naked man encounters. It seems that naked sunbathing is something to do in the parks in Berlin. The park itself was very leafy and wild, no sign of formal gardens or paved paths. There were a few footbridges and we did discover a couple playgrounds but for the most part, the park was entirely wooded with a few meadows interspersed for pick up games of soccer or naked sunbathing.



After our little coffee and beer break at the café by the lake we walked out of the park and onto Kurfurstendamm which was the main drag for West Berlin when the city was divided. Now it’s mostly a typical commercial artery with a lot of tourist schlock. We did stop by the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial which was the bombed out ruins of a church with another modern church nearby entirely composed of small blue stained glass windows. It would have been a very cool little memorial but the all the vendors crowding around the outside spoiled the mood.



From here we returned to our little hostel boat and freshened up for dinner. Ingrid had made us reservations at a Turkish place called Deneb which was across the river from our hostel in the area called Kreuzberg. It was a fairly lengthy walk but we got to see a lot of different facets of Berlin and the bridge we walked across to get to the other bank of the Spree was very cool and Baroque. The dinner was superb and we got to eat outside right on the sidewalk so we could watch the people going by and the river flowing past.



Later when we returned to the boat, Kirsten, Kendra, Hedda, and I all went up to the top deck bar for a nightcap and a lot of laughs. It was a solid first day in Berlin and we had a great time!

Germany Day 1: Pushing Through the Jetlag

Well the first day of jet lag has been conquered. Barely. Our flight over was. . . well I feel bad because normally I like Continental and I feel that they're one of the better of the old guard US airlines but they just didn't put their best foot forward. Or they perhaps put their best foot forward directly on a loose roller skate. Anyway, I'm not going to kick this latest blog expedition with a bunch of whining. I will mention that I watched Cop Out on the way over and was amused to see so many sites from our neighborhood (Bay Ridge) in Brooklyn.

Hamburg so far has been very nice. Kirsten's Aunt Doris met us at the airport and shortly after we arrived, Kirsten's mother and sister, Hedda and Kendra arrived. We all piled into Doris' VW Golf with all of our luggage and much nose honking (clown car joke) and made our way over to Doris's apartment in the city. She made us a delicious lunch and then we went for a very long walk through a nature preserve near her place. It was very astonishing and progressive to see such an enormous nature preserve so close to the center of the city complete with ponds and horses grazing.

After our stroll we returned for a little R & R at Doris' place before heading to Doris' son Roland house where Kendra, Kirsten, and I will be staying in Hamburg with him and his family. We had another amazing meal and plenty of great conversation and laughs. It's been fun listening to everyone jump between German and English. This evening we generally took it easy keeping in mind our early morning train ride to Berlin tomorrow morning.

Day 0: Butchering a Classic

Twas the night before Germany and all through the Apt.
Not a creature was stirring 'cept me and one cat.
The bags were all packed full of clothes just so
All set for tomorrow when away we will go.
The wife was passed out, sprawled all over the bed
Perhaps conjuring visions of bier in her head.
As I finish loading my ipod and rechecking my list
I hope that there isn't anything that I've missed.
I rub my eyes and stretch and say to the cat
"Well Manny, you know I suppose that is that."
He blinked and rolled over as if to say,
"Pay attention to me, you were out all day!"
And while rubbing his belly I got to thinkin'
All the details of the trip were starting to sink in.
We fly from Newark to Hamburg on a big ol' jet plane
And from Hamburg to Berlin we're taking a train.
Tante Doris is meeting us and with her son we will stay
And Kendra and Hedda will join us later that day.
Ingrid from England will meet us in Berlin
All these women. . . what this trip really needs is some men!
I feel my eyelids drooping like they do on the subway
It's soon time to power down and go hit the hay.
I look forward to flying to Europe like a duck
But twenty-eight verses of this I fear is too much.
It seemed a good idea when I started at first
But I know I can't finish it my eyeballs will burst.
Which is sad because I wanted to include
Something my Grandad said when I was a lil dude.
He would stop when he came to the part "threw up the sash"
And say to me, "I always thought it was 'threw up my hash."
Then we would laugh and giggle because it was silly
And to think of it now it rather still is, really!
Well I know there's an airsickness joke there somewhere
But alas it's midnight and my brain is threadbare.
So I'll leave you now with that great vision
Of vomiting out a window but that wasn't my mission.
But tune in tomorrow or whenever it may be
To find a new blog posted to you all from me.
And now as the garbage truck rolls by in the night
I'll see you in Germany! Boy, these pants sure are tight. . .