Germany Trip, February 2005

When my friends and I landed at the Frankfurt International Airport, we rented a car and headed south to Ramstein, about 30 minutes away by highway. When we arrived at our hotel, I excitedly asked our host when I would get to drive on the famous autobahn. “You just did” she replied. This was the beginning of an extraordinary week of adventure, and very fast driving around Germany.

After dinner at a quaint local restaurant and sleeping at the Hotel Pirsch-Ramstein, we were off the next morning to Trier, which is said to be the oldest city in Germany. During the Roman period two thousand years ago, Trier was known as Roma Secunda and was a satellite capital for the area. Our first stop in Trier was at the Porta Nigra (Black Gate) which is the only surviving part of a great Roman wall which once surrounded the city.

The Porta Nigra

Next, we walked a short distance to the Der Trierer Dom, a cathedral which was started around 1035. We then strolled to the Karl Marx Haus, the birthplace of Karl Marx. Soon, we were back on the autobahn heading for Heidelberg at 130 miles per hour in our rented Fiat. “I can’t believe we are having to stay in the slow lane” I said to my passengers while holding the gas pedal to the floorboard as several BMWs and Mercedes Benz passed us. “I can’t either” said one of my nervous friends in the back seat who had turned a pale shade of white.

Der Trierer Dom

  Above, The Karl Marx House, a marker on the house, and a building in Trier.

As we arrived in Heidelberg, there was a gentle snow covering this beautiful university city with the Neckar River running through it. On the crest of a nearby hillside we could see the thing we had come to this area to see: Heidelberg Castle.

As we winded our way up the hill on a narrow street, we passed several old Gothic style houses literally perched on the side of the mountain with birds eye views of the city. As we entered the main gate of the castle, which is mostly a ruin, we encountered the Hall of Mirrors Building which was constructed around 1550. This building was decorated with numerous statues and apparently now is just a shadow of it’s former glory. Next, we walked down a steep ramp to the cellar of the Wine Vat Building.  “Since Heidelberg is in the heart of German wine country, it is only natural that royalty would have had such a large cask” said an employee of the castle as he showed us the Great Cask.

Heidelberg Castle

This cask was built in 1750 and holds approximately 55,000 gallons of wine” he said.  After lunch at the castle, we were back on the autobahn barreling through the beautiful Black Forest on our way to Munich. Along the way, we stopped at a small craft shop where I was able to buy a very nice hand made cuckoo clock. While there were several beautiful clocks to choose from, I picked one that looks like a house in the German mountains. At the top of the hour, the cuckoo bird comes out of the attic and bellows the number of times that correspond with the hour. Then, three dancing couples come out onto the terrace and three men sitting at a table on the front porch raise their steins of beer while a short German tune is played.

Heidelberg Wine Cask!

 The weights are metal and are shaped like pine cones. “The large pine cones, such as the ones on your clock, indicate the clock is an eight day clock. The smaller cones indicate the clock needs to be rewound every day” said the store clerk as she showed me around. “ The Black Forest region is the home of the cuckoo clocks. It was in the year 1730, that the clockmaker Franz Ketterer created the first one in Schoenwald in the Black Forest. He succeeded in imitating the natural cuckoo call with two different bellows” she said. “The clocks are still made today just as they were two hundred years ago” she added.
Later that night we arrived in Munich where we rented rooms in the Pension Westfalia, a four story building built in 1895 and facing the field in which the famous Oktoberfest is held. “We have got to go out for dinner and a beer before we go to bed” said my friend Cary Kennedy after we got unpacked. Soon we were at the world famous Hofbrauhaus Beer Garden, which was founded in 1589.

Above, Bavarians at the Hofbrauhaus Beer Garden in traditional dress, me at the Hofbrauhaus Beer Garden without traditional dress, and The Pension Westfalia. 

 As we entered, we noticed that in addition to the waitresses, many of the customers were wearing traditional Bavarian dress. As a Bavarian brass band played we enjoyed a huge stein of beer and large homemade pretzels. Along the walls were small lockers in which regular customers stored their personal steins until their next visit. “It‘s almost as if Oktoberfest runs year round here“ said our waitress. “This is interesting” said another friend as she read from a local guide. “This is the beer garden in which Hitler launched his Beer Hall Putsch in 1923” she read.

Above, Left to right: Antikensammlungen, the Propylaen, and the Glyptothek.

The next morning, we started off by walking across the street from the pension to visit the
Ruhmeshalle ( Hall of Fame), an open U-shaped building overlooking Theresien Field, site of Oktoberfest. The Hall of Fame is dedicated to the heroes of Bavarian history and has a bronze statue in the front which apparently represents the State of Bavaria. 

We then boarded a city tour bus in which we saw the Marienplatz, the town square which is named after the column of the Virgin Mary. The square is surrounded by Old City Hall and New City Hall, both beautiful Gothic style buildings with high bell towers. We then proceeded to pass the Royal Palace and National Theater.
Next we saw Konigsplatz in which is situated the Propylaen, a huge classical arch which was formerly the gates to the royal palace. It is faced by two other buildings built by Ludwig I: Glyptothek and the Antikensammlungen. Both are now museums. We then passed both the Isar Gate and the Karlstor Gate both of which were part of the original city walls constructed in the early 1500s.

  Then we passed Peterskirche, the oldest church in Munich, and the remarkable Frauenkirche. The towers of the Frauenkirche, with their onion domes, have dominated the city’s skyline since about 1525. We then headed out to The Olympic Grounds, a park which features a stadium and tower built for the 1972 Olympic games. And finally, a quick stop at the BMW Museum, which was just across the street. We then caught a bus to Schloss Nymphenburg, the summer palace of Bavarian royalty which is situated on 500 acres and was started in 1664. Its ornate and much gilded great hall was almost breathtaking as we entered the main door. “Bavarian kings wanted their palaces to be just as ornate as the French palaces” said our guide as we walked through the palace.

                            Three photographs of Schloss Nymphenburg.

The following day we traveled just outside of town to one of the most heart-wrenching and memorable sites we had ever seen: the Dachau Concentration Camp.

	Started in 1933 on the site of an old factory, Dachau was Hitler’s first concentration camp. It is estimated that during its years of operation, over 50,000 people were killed in this camp alone. As we entered the gates, it seemed as if we were entering an abandoned prison with high walls and watch towers.   The original barracks were long ago torn down, but two had been reconstructed to show how inhumane the prisoners were treated.
	At the far end of the front of the camp, three memorial chapels faced us as we walked along a poplar tree lined lane. One Jewish, one Catholic and one Protestant, all erected in the 1960s. At the back corner of the camp was a small path that led to a more secluded area. At its entrance was a small stone marker that only hinted of the previous horror. It simply said “krematorium”.
Above, the gate at Dachau, the Krematorium Building, and the actual ovens.	We walked down the path to a small quaint looking building which belied the savage brutality and cruelty which was perpetrated there. When we first entered the building, to the left was a room in which people were “sanitized”. Then they were led to an airtight gas chamber. In the next room were about eight ovens in which human remains were cremated.  As we exited, we walked to the back iron gate which had a sign that read “Arbeit Macht Frei” or “work will make you free”. As we drove away, it took some time before we spoke. “Its hard to imagine such horror” we all agreed.

The following day, we decided to drive to Hohenswagen, at the foothills of the Bavarian Alps, to see Neuschwanstein the fairytale castle of “Mad” King Ludwig II. As we approached, we could see both Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau, the more sedate palace built by Ludwig’s father Maximilian II in 1836. We decided to ride a horse-drawn carriage to the top of the mountain to see Neuschwanstein. Inside the castle, the guide explained that parts of the building are unfinished. “When the king died in 1886, all work stopped and has not been touched since” she said. “Ludwig was a great fan of composer Richard Wagner and had a concert hall built in the castle for private performances” she added. After, we toured the Throne Room and the king’s private quarters, the guide explained that the castle was a model for another famous castle. “The castle at Disney World in the United States is modeled after Neuschwanstein” she said.

From Left: Schloss Neuschwanstein, Hohenschwangau, the horse carriage that took us to the top of the mountain, and a postcard photograph of Schloss Neuschwanstein.

After riding the carriage back down the mountain in the bitter cold, our whirlwind odyssey headed north to Berlin.

The following morning, we began sightseeing in earnest. We started at “Checkpoint Charlie” which was the American checkpoint between East and West Germany during the cold war. Then we visited a remnant of The Berlin Wall and saw the story told of over 250 Germans who were killed by East German guards while trying to escape East Berlin.   We then drove to Bebelplatz, the square in which the famous Nazi book burning took place in 1933. Next was Alexanderplatz to see the famous TV Tower, the second highest structure in Europe.
Along the way, we passed Kaiser Wilhelm Church, which was mostly destroyed during World War II, and the Berliner Dom, Germany‘s answer to St. Peters Basilica in Rome. We then visited the famous Brandenburg Gate, which is one of Germany’s most recognizable symbols. “This gate was incorporated in the Berlin Wall” a local man told me in broken English.
Next we walked to the Reichstag, the German seat of government. Burned by Hitler in 1933, bombed by the allies in the war, and neglected by the East German communist government, the Reichstag was restored to it’s former glory after German reunification.  The original dome was replaced with a glass one, and visitors may walk up a winding ramp in the dome for a bird’s eye view of Berlin. On the edge of the city, we visited Olympic Stadium, the arena built by Hitler for the 1936 Olympic games.   As we left town, we stopped at Schloss Charlottenburg, the palace built by Freidrich I in about 1701.	Above, Checkpoint Charlie, The Brandenburg Gate, and a remnant of the Berlin Wall.

 The palace courtyard features an impressive statue of the king on a horse. While the palace encompasses a huge compound of royal apartments and museums, we did not spend enough time to adequately explore this gem of a tourist attraction.

                    Above, The Reichstag, Bebelplatz, and Olympic Stadium.

The following morning we visited what I feel was the highlight of our whirlwind tour: Lutherstadt Wittenberg. This beautiful town is where Martin Luther lived and preached over 400 years ago. Our first stop was the Schlosskirche, the church where Luther nailed the Ninety Five Theses on it’s door in 1517. While the original door was destroyed in a war centuries ago, the doorway has a bronze door which was installed in 1858. This door has the text of the Theses inscribed on it. We then entered the church to see the tomb of Luther, and also of his friend and fellow reformer Philipp Melanchthon. Two blocks away we visited the Stadtkirche, the church in which Luther preached for many years. We then visited the local monastery where Luther lived, the Lutherhalle Wittenberg. “This oak tree marks the spot where Luther burned the papal bull of excommunication in 1520” said a guide as he pointed to the tree. We then went to the plaza in front of the City Hall, which has statues of both Luther and Melanchthon. Other items of interest were the beautiful water fountains throughout the city and its 450 year old water supply line called the Jungfernroehrwasser.

     Above, the famous door of the Schlosskirche, Martin Luther's tomb, and the Schlosskirche building.

As we sped down the autobahn toward Frankfurt for our return home, we realized that we had only scratched the surface of the countless points of interest in this beautiful, ancient, modern and fascinating country.

More Germany photographs.  To enlarge, click on the thumbnail.