Impressions of Eastern Germany

It has been almost 20 years since "die Wende" - the commencement of the reunification of the DDR (German Democratic (?) Republic - East Germany) and BRD (People's Republic of Germany - West Germany). As soon as the borders opened (high barbed wire fences with automatic anti-personnel devices - lethal directional fragmentation grenades staged with overlapping kill zones at multiple heights on the wire - dog runs, and armed guards with orders to shoot anyone attempting to cross from east to west), the former DDR immediately commenced redevelopment and "westernisation". The only remaining vestiges of its socialist past are the museum exhibits portraying life in the Soviet era, the unattractive, box-like concrete buildings erected after WWII, and perhaps the reluctance of its population to bathe daily and apply deodorant...

Germany's architectural beauty comes mainly from a blend of medieval castles and cathedrals, combined with the steep roofs of "half-timbered" houses, many of which are also hundreds of years old. It should come as no surprise that the landscape in the former DDR is almost identical, except for a few city blocks here and there with the aforementioned functional, Soviet style office or apartment buildings. The only other clues that this part of the country isn't quite the same are that the farms are enormous (farmers were forced into co-ops, combining their private lots into massive communal farms), and there are far more derelict houses and factories - most likely government-controlled manufacturing industry that collapsed in the competitive market.

The museums portray a disturbingly oppressive environment before 1989. The Stasi - the State Security apparatus - appears to have been a frighteningly paranoid and incredibly pervasive organisation. With the assistance of teachers, they recruited suitably patriotic children from schools to groom for lifelong careers as agents, and maintained incredibly comprehensive surveillance over the entire population. They even went so far as to maintain a collection of sealed glass jars containing scent samples of hundreds of people so that they could be tracked by dogs!

The purpose of the Stasi really appears to have been to ensure the security of the government by keeping tabs on those of its citizens who might have the courage to speak out against it. The penalty for opposing the government was equally disturbing. Numerous prisons - many of them former concentration camps - are scattered throughout the former Soviet territories. These were crowded with people, many of whom simply "disappeared" in the early period of Soviet occupation, or in later years were more formally arrested and incarcerated for persisting in their attempts to leave the DDR or oppose the regime.

The movie "The Lives of Others" presents an excellent portrayal of the operations of the Stasi. We watched it the other day (in German), and had I not seen the museums and exhibits beforehand, I doubt I would have believed it to be entirely plausible.

In Berlin, there is no sign of the wall which once divided the city. However, the museum at "Checkpoint Charlie" presents a fascinating history of the history of the wall and many of the attempts (both successful and foiled) to cross it. The museum opened while Berlin was still divided, and has collected some amazing artifacts, including modified cars and machinery used to smuggle people over the border, as well as ingenious home-made escape apparatus ranging from underwater scooters and SCUBA gear to hot air balloons and ultralights. Of course, the museum also relates the stories of those who failed to make it, or were so badly injured by either the gunfire from the guards or the anti-personnel measures that they died during the crossing.

Aside from learning so much about the "recent" history of Germany, we also enjoyed a variety of experiences ranging from the picturesque river valley of the Ulm where we stayed in a "private room" - a room in a private house rented out as a B&B, to the medieval festival in Dresden, to the forest trails and limestone mountain lookouts of Saxon Switzerland. More on these soon...

East German Odyssey

Tomorrow we set out on a 2,000 km trip around Eastern Germany. You can see our proposed route here at Google Maps.

The plan is as follows:

• 17th - Wuerzburg and Bad Schandau (where we'll base ourselves until we go to Berlin)
• 18th - day trip to Dresden
• 19th - day trip to Prague
• 20th - day trip to Saxon Switzerland national park
• 21st - Berlin via Leipzig
• 22nd, 23rd - Berlin
• 24th - Rhea's house in Belgium, via Goettingen

Unlike our last trip, where Rhea played tour guide most of the way, this itinerary mostly covers places neither of us have visited before. Plus, since its oil change, Rhea reckons the Peugot is running like a Porsche...

Edible Europe

The early European settlers arriving in Australia must have been pretty disappointed by the lack of edible vegetation. You can hardly walk five paces through a German forest or garden without stumbling over tasty morsels growing wild.

I've already found wild blueberries, red currants, blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries. The garden in Belgium also sports a couple of apple trees and hazlenuts.

The fresh berries for sale at the markets are delicious - especially the raspberries! They come in large punnets, filled to the brim with juicy berries, and cost about $2-$3 per punnet.

Dining in Deutschland

Food and wine over here is a whole new experience. I'm gradually learning about European wines, starting with Germany. On the other hand, I'm learning very quickly about food!

Bread is a real staple in the German diet. I haven't seen mass-produced, pre-sliced loaves anywhere. Instead, every corner has a small bakery offering at least 20 different varieties of freshly baked bread, pastries, etc. We buy bread at least every other day - usually small crusty rolls (Broetchen), and sometimes mini loaves.

With the bread, we usually eat cold cuts. I have never before seen such a variety of pork products! We always have various types of finely shaved smoked or cooked ham or bacon, salami, and mettwurst. It's quite novel to eat so much uncooked meat. Mettwurst is basically salted raw pork mince with a touch of onion, and probably some other preservatives. Smeared on a buttered Broetchen, it's quite a tasty breakfast option.

And last, but by no means least, we have the cheese. There are approximately 12, 247, 003 varieties of cheese in the supermarket (by my last count). We usually have a medium-aged gouda, and a soft cheese like brie or camembert.

Between meals, cake is never far from view... although we've only bought one so far. There are hundreds of varieties of crumbles, flans, strudels, etc. loaded with sour cherries, apple, plums, apricots, marzipan, and who knows what else!

Strange Smells

In the garden in Belgium the other day, Rhea asked "does it seem strange to walk through a forest that doesn't have a particular smell?" I guess we hardly notice the scent of eucalyptus, having become so accustomed to it. However the European forests really don't have a distinct scent.

On the other hand, German farmland has a very distinct odour! Last night, soon after we passed through the Mosel Valley, I noticed a distinct smell of onions. "Was riecht nach Zwiebel?" I asked. "Zwiebelfelder!" came Rhea's reply - onion fields.

I'm glad they don't grow onions in Tuebingen....

Simon's European Adventure Begins

It's a long flight from Sydney to Stuttgart! You can imagine my excitement when the flight attendants stopped me as I tried to board the plane after the stopover in Hong Kong. I was starting to wonder if they were bumping me off the crowded flight, since I was flying on points - however instead, they upgraded me to business class since they'd overbooked the economy cabin. The moment that seatbelt sign went out, I was fully reclined and sleeping all the way to Heathrow.

Londoners are clearly paranoid about airport security. You must remove your shoes, jacket, laptop, and bag of fluids and queue with hundreds of other impatient passengers to get into the terminal. They proceeded to confiscate my small can of aerosol deodorant, since it was too big. This was pretty annoying, since I was counting on using that can in an attempt to cover up the foul stench of travel-weary clothes before meeting Rhea at Stuttgart. A quick tour of the airport terminal brought me to Boots, where I quickly purchased exactly the same size and brand of aerosol deodorant before heading to the BA first class lounge spa for a long, hot shower while waiting for the Stuttgart flight.

My arrival in Stuttgart was uneventful. It was great to see Rhea there, and the 30 minute drive home to Tuebingen went by in a jetlagged daze.

Road Trip to Belgium

Since last Sunday, we have based ourselves at Rhea's holiday house in Belgium. It's in a little village called Hauset, about 10 minutes drive over the border from Aachen. Peta joined us in Aachen on Monday, and the three of us have spent the week making day trips around Belgium and Germany.

Autobahn!
German motorways are so cool! Excellent quality roads, wide lanes, and clever interconnections with other motorways and highways make it pretty easy to get around. I've been doing my share of the driving in Rhea's little Peugot 106, and I've really become accustomed to the idea of overtaking trucks at 160 km/h (the dial goes to 180, but I can't get it past 175), and having a Mercedes materialise in the rearview mirror, flashing its lights to pass at about 240. The little Peugot handles the Autobahns remarkablly well - even better since I inflated the tyres to spec and put some oil in the sump...


Sprechen Sie deutsch?
This week has provided a couple of key opportunities to practise my German speaking and comprehension skills. Rhea and I have been a bit lazy about this, particularly while Peta was around, but we have made a couple of social visits this week that put me to the test. Firstly, our neighbours in Belgium are friends of Rhea's family, and so we were all invited to dinner. They speak pretty good English, although the conversation tended to oscillate between English and German. They served up a delicious meal of roast pork fillet and vegetables - Belgians apparently take their food very seriously, and it shows from their kitchen! We also visited Rhea's father and his partner, who have just built a house near Aachen. Whilst Rhea's father speaks very good English, Uschi speaks none, but understands a fair bit. Again, we all enjoyed a delicious meal, and an interesting multi-lingual conversation. With a little more practice, and a few more beers, I'm confident I'll get the hang of this...

Aachen & Monschau
We visited the Dom (famous cathedral commissioned by Charlemagne), bough Printen (cardamon-flavoured gingerbread, a local specialy in Aachen), and finished the day with a trip to delightful little village of Monschau. Beatiful places to visit, but not so exciting to talk about. Take a look at the photos on my Facebook site!

Belgian Supermarkets
I've already been to my share of supermarkets in Germany, and apart from the enormous range of cheese and cold cuts, they're not that exciting. Not so in Belgium! While wandering the aisles looking for flour, I stumbled into the beer section!!! A whole aisle of the best Belgian Trappist beers, in crates, six-packs, long necks, and even mini-kegs, starting at less than 1 euro (A$1.60) a stubby! To think we pay in excess of A$7 for this stuff. Needless to say, I've bought a few six packs to take back to Tuebingen.

Rhea took us to her favourite praline shop in Eupen, just down the road in Belgium. The smallest quantity we could buy was 250g, but we opted for 1kg of assorted pralines. These are the smoothest, most delicious creations I've ever tasted. And although many things over here are a little more expensive than I'm used to, this was a remarkably well-priced investment - about 12 euros!

Chateau Bouillon
Unfortunately, the weather conspired against us in Belgium. It's been overcast and drizzly for most of the week. The morning we had planned to drive to Brugge for the day, it was raining hard, and none of us felt like driving 2 hours each way to wander around in the rain. Instead, we made the excellent decision to head south to Bouillon, just near the French border. Chateau Buillon is a superb medieval castle that is still pretty much "as it was", and the Belgians are quite happy to let tourists crawl all around the fortifications, dungeons, and grounds. The Chateau within the foritifications is off limits, but it is nevertheless an excellent place to visit. This also proved to be quite a cultural excursion, taking us away from the German-speaking provinces of Belgium into the French-speaking region of Belgian Luxembourg. Fortunately, Rhea's French is pretty good, and I could remember enough to order a steaming bowl of mussels with "pomme frites" on the side.

Duesseldorf
The last couple of days we've zipped across to Duesseldorf to meet up with some other Aussies. Matt Danckert lives in Duesseldorf with his German girlfriend, Christine. James Guy and Peete Wilkins flew in from Norway and the Netherlands to join us for the weekend, and Matt treated us all to a tour of Duesseldorf and a tasting of Altbier - stout which is the local speciality and favourite. We said farewell to Peta last night, and left her in Duessldorf to continue her travels. This afternoon, Rhea and I will head back to Tuebingen for a few days.

Tuebingen

"Home" for the next few months is Rhea's flat in Tuebingen. Tuebingen is a picturesque little university town about 30 minutes from Stuttgart. Rhea's flat is less than 10 minutes walk from the Altstadt - literally "old city", which refers to the heritage part of town with cobbled alley ways, traditional buildings fronting the creek that flows through the town, and many little bakeries, cafes, bars, and shops. The focus of the Altstadt is a large stone church, known as the Stiftskirche, and a very pretty, traditional town hall (Rathaus). Perched defensively on the hill overlooking the Altstadt is the local Schloss (castle), complete with moat, battlements, and everything else one expects to find in a castle. Today, the Tuebingen Schloss houses one of the faculties of the university (archaeology, I think...), and the grounds are open to the public.

I'll take some photos of the town when I have a chance to spend some more time in Tuebingen. We've walked around the town quite a bit so far, but I haven't bothered taking the camera with me on these brief excursions.

For the few days we spent in Tuebingen before setting off to Belgium, we kept ourselves busy undertaking some improvements to Rhea's flat. A trip to Ikea and a hardware store equipped us with more bookshelves, storage gadgets, and the necessary hardware to hang mirrors and picture frames. As soon as we tidy it all up, I'll post a picture of the fruits of our labour.