When the East meets the West!

25 September

After drinking lots of water in the hope of warding off the threatening hangover headache, Mark and I headed off towards the hilly Hambach area on our way to Hohe Log, a lovely walking track with chestnut forest that leads up to a nice restaurant at the top of the 623m hill where Mark's father was working. We were going to try the local Neustadt specialty cuisine, leberknödel and sauerkraut which translates to Liver dumpling and pickled cabbage respectively. So as you can probably forgive me, I wasn't exactly looking forward to this cullinery adventure with springs in my steps.

So Mark's friend, Christian played chaffeur of the day and took us to a certain point along the way and then we walked the rest. The trip was mostly uphil on a gradual ascent with beautiful chestnut trees right and left and ocassionally, you see other visitors but it wasn't crowded. I was able to draw in a lungful of fresh clean air for a change and it was delightful being entertained by Mark and Christian's stories of Germans, their childhood antics, their voices often interrupted by the cheerful cacophony of callings from the dwellers of the forest.

Then, we went to Hambacher Schloss (castle) where on 27th May 1832, the first demostration for unity freedom and democracy in Germany took place. After a super quick look around, we had to go to another friend of Mark's place, who was also called Christian. This Christian was taking us to a Germany's top division badminton game in a nearby town. I know I'm suppose to be here in Germany sightseeing, but hey, I also love badminton so why not. It was a good afternoon and I must say that the skill at that level in Germany is quite comparable to that of NZ's top division.

The walking track on the way to Hohe Log

From left, yours truly, Mark and Christian

Hambacher Schloss

Adelina came, saw and conquered Hambacher Schloss *roar*

26th September

Mark and Tanja had to work as it's now Monday. I decided to take this opportunity to visit the information centre and be a real tourist for a change. Armed with my camera and phrase book, I located the centre easily and sighing with relief that the people working there do speak English, I quickly collected a series of tourist pamphlets, albeit most of them in German. It is interesting to note that although one would expect tourists visiting Germany would not be able to speak German and accordingly, one would think the pamphlets would be in English, but that would be too easy, wouldn't it? Anyhow, thankgoodness maps and pictures know no language barriers and soon I found my slight annoyance with this fading away with the early morning clouds. Walking around the small town noting various beautiful attractions, made more beautiful in the sunny light was simply delightful. The highlight was seeing The Stiftskirche, Neustadt's main landmark which is an old church, consisting of two unequal sandstone steeples towering over the town for more than 500 years now. The 57 step church's tower is also the home of Germany's biggest bell made of cast iron, one of the many spared during World War II. Oh, the time flew when one's having such a good time and before long, it was time to go home again as I was playing badminton with Mark in the evening. Here are some of the wonderful photos taken on that day.

A narrow 'gossen' (small street) heading towards the town square.

Tudor style cafes and shops located at the town square, also known as the Markt.

The stunning Stiftskirtche, piece de resistance of this small town, located in the heart of the Markt.

27th September

Tanja had a day off and suggested perhaps we catch the 20 minute train to the nearby town of Speyer (sher-pa-yer). Lots to see and do in one of Germany's oldest town, established in 3 B.C by the Romans! Upon arrival, we first trotted off to Altpörtel (the Main City Gate), one of the highest and most important city gates in Germany. Lower sections were constructed between 1230 to 1250 and the top floor and the tower (all 154 steps to the top, I counted!) with its late-gothic balustrade and the arcades were added in 1512 to 1514. Tanja and I took some pictures at the top and also of the view of the city from the tower.

The Main City Gate from the outside

Pic of me taken at the very top of tower, at the background is the main attraction, Cathederal of Speyer.

Who's that poser??! More view of the city in the background, the rightful attraction!

Impromptu pics of Tanja, me and the wind!

Next,we headed off excitedly towards the main attraction, Dom zu Speyer (Cathedral of Speyer), the most impressive and stunning building I've had the privilege to see so far in Germany. It was found in 1030 under Emperor Conrad II. The crypt located in the cellar of the cathedral was well preserved and containing the tombs of 8 German emperors and kings, four queens and several bishops. Check out these photos!

View of the front of the cathedral and the nearby building.

Getting closer...

About to enter through the front door when Tanja got a call from work!

Few of the many tombs of the kings/emperors down in the crypt.

Walls of the Cathedral adorned with beautiful renaissance paintings of life of Christ.

View of the eastern wall of the cathedral with a nice pagoda of the 12 apostles.

Tanja and me to give you an indication on the size of the cathedral.

After ooh-ing and aahh-ing at the cathedral, Tanja and I decided to have lunch to recharge before tackling the local museum. We dined at a local cafe in the centre of town and Tanja ordered the saumagen, another local German cuisine, made out of meat, potatoes and finely chopped parsleys and other herbs and spices which are then cooked in 'pig's stomache' (thus the german name of the dish) but Tanja assured me that the pig's stomache only acted as a vessel for the food cooked inside. It looks and taste like burger patties. Couldn't think of a better way to wash down the delicious food with the 'new wine'. It's a wonder I'm not more sloshed than usual given how easy it is to drink the wine here. Here's an interesting anedote. Every taxi in Germany is a Mercedez. I mean surely, just because it's a German made brand, you don't think every taxi driver would drive one? You Porche owners can let go of your breath as I have yet to see their prestige eroded in such manner.

Once our physical hunger and thirst have been appeased, we realised our minds were equally famished for facts and history of this wonderful town.So we enthusiastically made our way to the Historic Museum of the Palatinate, built between 1907 to 1910. Inside, we learnt of the town's birth through Roman establishment, and its growth as a wine central and a favourite resting place during the winter for its rulers of the past.

The secrets of the land can be found here!

Just as knowledge was food for our mind, the Rhine river we knew would quench our optical thirst for natural aesthetic beauty. As you can see from the picture below, it is indeed a sight to behold, the remarkable Rhine that stretches from Switzerland, right through Germany and all the way to Amsterdam. Nearby from the river is the Sea Life Aquatic Centre giving Tanja and I a glimpse of what would be under the Rhine, fishes, sting rays, sea horses but we didn't find Nemo unfortunately.

Bridge over the Rhine.

Although Nemo was no where to be seen, meanwhile, who says Germans don't have a sense of humour?

By the end of the marine tour, we were quite happy to make our way back to Neustadt, but not before we got some ice cream from Tanja's favourite local ice cream parlour and 'onion bread' from the local bakery, apparently the perfect compliment to the 'new wine'. Luckily I had badminton again that evening with Mark to ensure my waist line don't get any funny ideas.

Germany, or rather, this part of Germany I've had the pleasure of sampling has indeed been that extra more special as a result of living with and experiencing it through the eyes of two of its locals, Mark and Tanja. I am forever grateful to both of them for the kindness, patience, hospitality and readiness in which they have welcomed me not only to their town and their own home, but also into their hearts. I believe I have found two more friends for life. Danke et Ich libe dich!

From Neustadt with Love...

AO rating: New wine, new discoveries, new and everlasting friends.

I gather it would take some time before I come to grip with the fact that it may only be an hour's flight from Amsterdam to Hamburg (and even less still to other countries within Europe), the fact is, all these flights are still classified as international flights, hence requiring the standard 2 hours before departure time checking in. I can see most of my friends back home reading this would by this stage start shaking their heads and think that they know what's coming.

Despite having past statistic going against my favour, I'm happy to actually announce that despite checking in about 40 mins before the departure of my flight, I actually made it thankyouverymuch!

I was not stopping in Hamburg however as through my many international business connection overseas (sounds better than saying from a geeky badminton website), I was only passing Hamburg on my way to Germany's wine region, Neustadt Weinstraße where Mark and Tanja live. Lucky for me, my visit coincides with their wine tasting festival and also Tanja's visit to Heidelberg, one of Germany's more famous region (aka tourist mecca). I must say despite warnings from my trusty Lonely Planet guide book regarding how Europeans differ so much in terms of personalities and customs based on their countries of origin, I certainly was still taken aback by how much this is the case. While most Dutch people speak fluent English and often on first point of contact, they would start a conversation with you in English, the more serious and proud Germans will address you in their native tongue first and upon receiving blank puzzled looks from you, they would then kindly switch to English, often much to your relief!

It was the problem with communication that saw my stress level suddenly shooting up at warp speed after 2 days of the leisurely pace and life in Amsterdam. It was with much difficulty before I managed to find a bus that would take me from the airport to the central train station in Hamburg. The next mission arrived when I had to explain to the ticket seller at the train station as to where I was heading. Neustadt means 'new city' and besides Neustadt Weinstraßen, there's all these other Neudstadts in the wine region which meant I had to say the full name of this place. After trying very much to get the right pronounciation and intonation right, spitting at the poor woman behind the ticket counter in the process, I wrote it down instead and much to both myself and the lady's relief, she nodded happily and issued me with my ticket, showing the train leaving from Platform 13.

Checked the time when I got to Platform 13, ahh, with 10 minutes to spare, excellent. Feeling relaxed for the first time, I began to look forward to my train ride and texted Mark to advise that I would depart at 18:30 (Germans tell time in 24 hour system) and arrive at 23:30. When the train finally arrived, I had trouble finding the wagen (car) number. After a few minutes of panic, decided to harass the impatient looking conductor who quicky waved me out of the train with a dismissive 'nein,nein, wrong train, nein!' I got off and went to ask what looked like the station staff (with red buret that made them looked more like first aid officers than train station staff). I was then informed that apparently, 5 mins before the train arrived, it was announced (only in German of course) that my train has switched from platform 13 to 14 and the train had just left, he said smiling at me, obviously not paying attention to my hissing and murderous looks I threw him. I was told to get my ticket changed to the next train (the last one for the day). So had to march back up several long stairs and dragging my backpack which was getting heavier by the seconds, all the way back to the ticket counter to get a new ticket. This time I was informed that the train will be on Platform 14. Got there and waited but this time, I was 'slightly' more cautious, checking every 3 minutes with the red buret rodents, err I mean station officers on whether there has been any more change in platforms. In fact, 2 minutes before the train arrived, that was what took place, another change, my train now arriving at Platform 13. This time thankgoodness I asked and was able to finally get on the right train. The rest of the trip remained uneventful which of course was a welcomed change.

Arrived in Neudstad at 12:50am and was so grateful to get off the train and meet Mark and Tanja for the first time. Within the first 5 mins of meeting Mark, I had to readjust my impressions of Germans as the serious and quiet type. Mark has more energy and life than the Energizer bunny, more so than even Steve Irwin (perhaps Mark got it from him when he and Tanja went to Australia for 3 months in a cycling tour). Tanja is more quiet and shy, also beautiful and sweet, with a welcoming smile that quickly put me at ease and my reservations of intruding on their lives at rest.They live in a very lovely one bedroom flat about 5 minutes walk from the town centre. We retired early as we were all tired and that night, I slept like a baby for the first time since my trip, perhaps partly due to exhaustion and jet lag, but partly also due to not sharing a dorminatory with 5 other party-crazy 'flying pigs' in Amsterdam.

23rd September

Mark took me into their local township for a quick look around of reasonably famous buildings, restaurants and the fountain full of lil statues of Elwedritsche-brunnen, these rather strange imaginary creatures that has a body of a chicken but with human heads and body parts. It is customary during wine harvest season for locals to have a party during the night where they bring bags and a special 'shiny' bait to try and lure and capture these creatures that are rumoured to be hiding between the grape trees. One group of the party will be walking down from one end of the vineyard,carrying lanterns and making loud noises to trap and move the creatures going towards the other end of the vineyard where another group of the party are waiting with the big bag 'trap' containing the shiny items to lure these elwedritsche-brunnens. Of course, the outcome#s always the same where everyone will boast later about this most mangificent and special brunnens that somehow 'got away'.

The Enchanting Elwedritsche-brunnen

A bit of background info. Neustadt is a wine town with nine neighbouring wine villages (about 5,000 acres of vine area) surrounding it and together, they are a home to a population of 56,000 people. It looks over the fertile valley of the Rhine (river) from an elevation of about 100-200 metres above sea level. The oldest town records date back to 1245 with the foundation stone for the first building in the town being laid in 1368. Of course I had to research this information myself no thanks to Mark and Tanja's "we live here all our lives, but don't ask us the history".

The locals were just starting to get ready for the wine tasting festival that was to start in a few days. It was really warm and balmy as we walk around and saying 'tag (g'day) or morgen (morning)' to the friendly locals. We had to cut our tour short to go meet Tanja who would be taking me to Heidelberg, which was about an hour's train ride away. This town by the Neckar River boasts of the infamous magnificent castle, Heidelberg Schloss built in the 12th century but never got finished and parts of the castle were constantly destroyed either in battles or due to poor building structure. Took some great pics, had an ice cream and then went back to Neudstadt to go watch Mark play badminton in a local league.

The garden located within the castle

View of one of the castle walls

View from another 'destroyed' portion of the castle wall

Views of the Neckar River from the castle's highest point

24 September

This was a nice lazy day for us. Spent a bit more time to get to know Mark and Tanja. Mark's currently studying towards his Electrical Engineering diploma and Tanja brings home the bacon working as a database administrator for a big beauty/healthcare store. Mark and I then went into the local town to see what the weekend Market has to offer. I offered to cook Mark and Tanja my famous Malaysian curry and so we went to the only local chinese grocery store to get the ingredients and for some reason, I tried hard not to crack up laughing seeing a Chinese guy speak German..hard to explain but really funny!
It's like watching a german dubbed kung fu movie or something.

The market was busy that morning with people getting their local fresh produce and stopping to chat with friends over a cup of coffee at the nearby cafe, very relaxing atmosphere indeed. Mark then explained to me the difference between Kiwis/Australian customer service vs Germany's. Basically, vendors in Germany don't always believe that customer's always right, in fact, they often go out of their way to make you feel like you're begging or being a nuisance for wanting something from them, this is more apparent within the civil service like in post office due to the state owned services of the past.

In the evening, Mark and I had a quick game of badminton before he played in another local league. I was cheering him on when I kept getting strange looks from the other people there. Mark later explained another German etiquette to me. Apparently, these are reserved people who don't like showing too many emotions and they frown upon others that do and in fact, cheering on your team mates in a sports context may be regarded as being rude and uncalled for, go figure...

Later that night (Saturday night), we all went out to the Market again to sample the "neu wien" of this year's harvest. There were all sorts but my favourites are two; the first was rather a sweet concoction that taste like any ordinary grape juice, so easy to drink, but whoa, underestimate its alcoholic potency at your own peril ladies and gentlemen. I was gigglish by the third or fourth sip. The other favourite was called Rieslingschorle which has 2/3 of Riesling wine and 1/3 of sparkling mineral water so it taste like a 'diet wine' and the bubbliness gave it that champange taste. It was a good night as being perhaps the sole Asian girl there, I was a favourite target for drunken marriage proposals and before you start having a cow mom, no, I didn't accept any......yet!

Since being here, I've been trying to learn a bit of German but I must say it's a language that is not catered for the short asian tongues. Each time I have to pronounce the words, it's always accompanied by spits and I often felt like I was trying hard to spew my guts out to get the gutteral sound right. Some of the words I've learnt so far:

1. Riesling miesling (german slang for drink up man and no worries)
2. Papa slumpch (Papa smurf and I refuse to divulge how this came about!)
3. Böser mann / frau (bad man / woman)
4. Tschüs (informal goodbye)
5. Briefmarke nach Neuseeland (A stamp to NZ)
6. Ich liebe dich (The 3 words feared by most men..I love you, surprisingly, though, many of them seemed to forget this fear on the wine tasting night)

Part Two to follow....