Doug and Kerry Hudson in Germany

After leaving Vaals in the Netherlands, we soon arrived at Aachen, just into Germany. We were extremely impressed with this beautiful and historic city. The cathedral was incredible, the most impressive we had ever seen. Even now, it still ranks among our favourites. The interior was completely tiled with mosiacs and gold leaf, and the enormous gothic stained glass windows surrounded the alter in an octagon shape. This was where Charlemagne ruled Europe from, after he conquered most of it in the AD 900's. In fact, you can still see his grave and throne in the cathedral.

From Aachen, we intended to press on for Eisenach, but it was again too far for a single day's journey. So we headed south to the Moselle river, and wound our way along it. There were thousands of tourists, particularly bikers. However, the picturesque scenery and the picture-postcard villages made it worthwhile.

There were vineyards all over the slopes of the valley. One town, Cochem, had a castle perched atop a rock overlooking the town, in true gothic style. We continued towards Koblenz, one of Doug's old swimming venues, and eventually found a campsite to our liking just under some trees beside the river.

The following day, we revisited Cochem to investigate the castle and town in more detail. Then we visited Burg Eltz, another castle nestled away in the Eltz valley. This one was particularly impressive, as it lies on a huge rock in the middle of an oxbow of the river, thus forming a natural moat. We tried to imagine how hopeless it would have been to attack such a impregnable rock, with arrows and rocks raining down.

We had an excellent meal at the campsite restaurant, one of the best meals we had in Europe. Kerry had pork schnitzel with chips, and Doug had "Dicke Bohnen". Doug chose it mainly because he found the name funny, but it turned out to be delicious: spicy sausage, three great chunks of boiled ham, boiled potatoes and a white wine sauce with white beans. Lovely! The portions were extremely generous too, and neither of us finished our plates. Those who know our appetites will recognise this as a significant event!

From Koblenz we headed east into former East Germany, towards ther historic town of Eisenach. We found a campsite just to the south, and set up right by the lake there. Before long we were visited by mother duck and her cute little ducklings.

Just outside Eisenach is the impressive Wartburg castle. It was at the top of a steep forested hill on a rocky outcrop. There was even a drawbridge. Besides looking cool, this castle is also culturally and historically significant, because this was where Martin Luther translated the bible into German, back in 1542. At the time, this was forbidden by the Pope and Roman Catholic church, making it was a very bold move. It was also an important step in the development of the written language in Germany and also the education of the common man. Martin Luther was actually in protective custody in Wartburg at the time, because he had just been outlawed and excommunicated by the Pope for his 95 Theses. These basically denounced the Roman Catholic church as corrupt. They went on to form the basis of the Protestant movement and the Reformation that would sweep throughout Europe. What a rebel!

In the little town of Eisenach we saw Martin Luther's house, and also Johann Sebastian Bach's house. There was also a golden statue of St George in the Markt square. This town was very quaint with lots of old buildings, however being former East Germany, some of them are really run down and in need of repair. In Eisenach we first became aware that our car was drawing lots of attention. Maybe they had never seen a Honda Prelude in East Germany before. Or maybe not one so dirty. Or maybe it was the unusual number plate or the right hand steering. Or maybe the strikingly handsome young man driving and his gorgeous wife... We'll never know!

Erfurt is a larger town east of Eisenach. It's most attractive features were the Cathedral and St Severus church which stand side by side on a hill overlooking the town square. The altar in the cathedral was fabulous, the most highly decorated and lavish we have ever seen. The other notable thing we saw was a bridge lined on both sides by timber framed houses, which this town had in abundance.

The following morning we visited the Buchanwald Memorial and Concentration Camp. This was an incredibly powerful experience.

We were still shellshocked from Buchanwald when we visited the little town of Weimar, so perhaps we didn't enjoy it as much as we would have under other circumstances. There was certainly a lot of culture and history there, and some very famous people (artists, poets, architects etc) had lived there.

From Eisenach we headed south towards Bavaria, along the route known as the Romantic Road. Kerry wanted it renamed as the Stinky Road, due to the farm smells all along the way. Our way took us through tiny German villages and beautiful rural countryside. In order to avoid a major town along the way, we ventured onto the Autobahn, a motorway with no speed limit! It was just as much a test of our nerves as it was a test of our car's speed. Even though we travelled at between 130kph and 160 kph, there were still cars overtaking so fast it was like we were stationary. It was very rare indeed that we overtook another car. Terrified at first, Kerry ended up describing the experience as "exhilarating"!

We stopped for lunch at a very pretty town called Rothenburg ob der Tauber. This town consisted entirely of very old timber framed houses lining narrow cobble streets. It was all enclosed within a defensive wall, complete with towers. Every way we turned it was photogenic, as if Gold Hill (Shaftesbury) or Elm Hill (Norwich) had been spread all over the town. No wonder German tourists don't come to England: they don't need to, they have everything we have and more, in abundance in fact, right on their doorstep! By the way, this was the first place in Europe that we encountered Japanese and American tourists...

When we arrived at Fussen after our long journey it had just started to rain. Fussen is a town in Bavaria just north of the Austrian border. As we approached along our winding road, the Alps rose up suddenly out of the lush meadows. We set up our tent before the heavens opened, and boy did they open! Kerry persevered and successfully managed to cook us a meal in the rain, while Doug stayed dry in the tent drinking a nice Bavarian beer. Doug has to say, at this point, of how proud he was how Kerry just did not give up, even though the damn potatoes were not cooking quickly enough! As if the rain was not enough, Kerry also burnt herself several times, which added to her frustration. After a while, water started to drip into our tent. We did our best to stem the tide but in the end resorted to emergency phone calls to our respective parents. More for sympathy than any practical help they were able to offer from so far away, though!

Just outside Fussen we visited the castles Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein. These were both very impressive but overrun with tourists, which did detract from our viewing pleasure somewhat. Neuschwanstein was built by a mad man who wanted a fantasy castle. Disney used it as a basis for their logo, you know.

It was definitely time to move on to somewhere quieter, and where better than beautiful Austria?

World Trip >> Europe >> Germany

Last updated: Sunday August 27, 2006