The Wests Head East to Germany - Week 1 East Germany

Castles, Cathedrals & Cuisine was the title of the 2008 Phi Mu Foundation trip. And the title lived up to its name as we saw many castles, tons of cathedrals, and ate like we were kings. My parents traveled with me on this two week adventure to Germany in early September.

After landing in Frankfurt on Sunday, September 7, we took a three hour train ride to Erfurt, the capital of Thuringia, which Martin Luther described as "in the center of the center" of Germany. Erfurt is an attractive, lively city where we lingered for several days before heading for larger cities such as Dresden and Berlin. The night we arrived we attended the premier of The Tales of Hoffman at the Erfurt Opera House. Richard Carlucci, son-in-law of fellow traveler Marilyn Mann, was singing the role of Hoffman.

Our walking tour of this beautiful city included the Domplatz, or cathedral square, which is also the site of Erfurt's main Christmas Market. Above the Domplatz are the Cathedral of St. Mary (Mariendom) and the St. Severus Church, which are reached by climbing a flight of steps from the 14th Century. Not far from the cathedral hill is the Petersberg citadel, which is said to be "the only extensively preserved Baroque city fortress in Central Europe." We were treated to an underground passage tour of the citadel.

The Krämerbrücke, or Merchant's Bridge, is an Erfurt landmark. The sandstone bridge is nearly 400 feet long, with 32 houses (many containing shops on the ground floor) on both sides of its cobble-stoned pedestrian street. The bridge, which was built in 1325 and widened in the late 1400s, is said to be the only inhabited European bridge north of the Alps.

We found medieval and Renaissance houses throughout the city center, including some that have been put to other uses. The Fischmarket, site of the neo-Gothic town hall, is lined with beautiful Renaissance houses from the 1600s. We also walked along the riverside park below the Krämerbrücke, where we had a nice rear view of half-timbered medieval houses that line the bridge. The Anger Square was worth a visit, both for its historic buildings and its role as the shopping center of downtown Erfurt.

We spent the day exploring the city with Reiner Bosecke, a local guide and musician who treated us to a trumpet concert at St. Michael’s Church, and Hannas Schmidt our guide for our first week in Germany.

Tuesday, September 9, we said goodbye to Erfurt and headed east to Dresden. Dresden is the capital city of the state of Saxony. Our first stop when we arrived was a leisurely paddle wheel steamer boat ride up the Elbe River.

The best way to start off a trip through Dresden is by taking a walk through the Old Town. Many of the main tourist attractions in Dresden can be found under a mile from there. Old Town suffered heavy damage during World War II, but since reunification, efforts have been undertaken and Old Town is in the process of being restored to its former elegance.

Some of the highlights included many historic structures. Built during the 18th century, Zwinger Palace today houses several museums and contains more than 2000 paintings; the foremost among the paintings is the famous Sistine Madonna by Raphael.

The Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady) is definitely one of the most popular tourist attractions in Dresden. Built in the 18th century, the church features a large 314 foot high dome. The dome weighs 12,000 tons and contains no internal supports. However, the Frauenkirche was destroyed during World War II. Reconstruction was attempted throughout the years, but it wasn’t until 1993 that the revival actually began. The price was steep, over $200 million, but by 2004 the outside of the church had been restored.

Perhaps the single greatest hardship suffered by the citizens of Dresden was the firebombing that took place toward the end of World War II. On Valentine’s Day, 1945, Allied planes carpet bombed the Altstadt (Old Town). Dresden was not considered militarily strategic, but the allies unleashed a bombing campaign because the Soviet army was merely fifty miles east of the city. The bombing was to stop the advance of the Red Army. The goal was to create a fire storm amidst the factories and buildings and prevent German resistance. However, ideal weather conditions caused a massive inferno that gutted tens of thousands of buildings and killed many innocent people. Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five" is based on this devastation in Dresden.

Wednesday we drove a short distance to Meissen. As the story goes, King Augustus the Strong ordered his subjects to find a way to manufacture gold. After much experimenting, scholars finally discovered the next best thing - "white gold" or porcelain, which proved a blessing for both the King and Meissen. The first porcelain in Europe was produced at the 300-year-old porcelain factory in Meissen. The factory brought fame to the town through the porcelain it exported around the world featuring the hallmark of two blue crossed swords.

In the afternoon we stopped at the Moritzburg Palace. The baroque palace of Moritzburg, which sits in a lake, much like an island, is one of Dresden's most charming recreation spots. In the 18th century, it was used as a hunting lodge by Augustus the Strong. The palace's collection of beautiful baroque leather wallpaper is second to none. But the “feather“ room was spectacular with a bedspread, wall hangings, and pillows all covered in beautiful bright feathers. The palace terrace is adorned with a number of sandstone statues dating from the 18th century.

Thursday we loaded up and headed towards Berlin, located in the north east part of the country, which is surrounded by the state of Brandenburg. Originally the capital for Prussia, Berlin has served as a cultural center for hundreds of years. The first written information of the city comes from as early as 1244 A.D. Berlin has swung between times of flourishing and times of darkness. The Thirty Years War in the seventeenth century saw a third of the homes damaged and half the population was lost.

However, following this devastating blow, Frederick William—a Duke, and later King of Prussia—instituted a policy encouraging immigration and religious freedom. A great number of people moved to Berlin in the following years and the city quickly rebounded. Following the dissolution of the Empire, the Weimar Republic was proclaimed in Berlin. The seizure of power by the National Socialists in 1933 saw Berlin as a focus once again by declaring it the capital of the Third Reich. Following the end of World War II, the city was split into two halves—East Berlin was held by the Russians and communism while West Berlin was held by the allies and democracy. In 1961, the infamous Berlin Wall was constructed, further separating the two halves. However, the wall was torn down in 1989 and the country was unified once more.

All these different events have had a profound effect on Berlin transforming it into a unique and beautiful city. Its mix of the past and the present creates a feeling of magic and wonder as I walked through the streets. We paid a visit to the Charlottenburg Palace, home of the first Prussian King; Checkpoint Charlie, Potsdamer Square, Reichstag, Bradenberg Gate and many more attractions.

Of course, one cannot mention Berlin without speaking of the Berlin Wall. There isn’t terribly much left of the structure that split the city in two, but the Brandenburg Gate still stands, serving as a reminder of the past. To have a better understanding of the history behind the wall, we visited the Berlin Wall Museum.

Thursday evening we cruised along the canals of the city for an evening boat trip. The city has more bridges than Venice - 3000 total.

Friday we began our day by venturing to nearby Potsdam to tour Sanssouci Park and the designated “world cultural heritage sites” of New Palace and Sanssouci. The New Palace was begun in 1763, after the end of the Seven Years’ War, under Frederick the Great and was completed in 1769. It is considered to be the last great Prussian baroque palace. Sanssouci is the former summer palace of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia. It is often counted among the German rivals of Versailles.

We dined at Cecileinhof Castle, which in 1945 was the site where the victorious allies negotiated the ‘Potsdam Agreement’. Just think, I was sitting in the same place as Truman, Churchill and Stalin.

The late afternoon was spent on Museum Island in Berlin. The Pergamon Museum is one of the best attractions in Berlin, probably the best museum on Museum Island. It features a wide variety of archaeological treasures from around the world, but the two truly exceptional ones are the Altar of Zeus from Pergamon, Turkey, and the Ishtar Gate from Babylon. The Pergamon Altar is both impressively huge and well-preserved, and features a long frieze depicting the battle of the gods and giants. The Ishtar Gate, built by the Biblical king Nebuchadnezzar, is beautiful with its blue glazed bricks. We also stopped by the Altas Museum to see the bust of Queen Nefertiti.

Enjoy my photos from East Germany:

The Wests Head East to Germany - Part 2 Mosel River Cruise

On Saturday, September 13, we met up with the rest of our travelers in Frankfurt for the second half of our trip – the Mosel River Cruise. We arrived in Koblenz, at the confluence of the Rhine and Mosel Rivers. It is a charming town, with cobbled open plazas and narrow streets. It was almost completely destroyed during WW II, but they rebuilt it in the original styles, which dates back to Roman times.

An aside, according to our guide, the original Katzenjammer kids were brats from Koblenz, whose names were Max and Moritz. They are immortalized on the outside wall of a restaurant by the same name. In typical German fashion, the mischievous deeds of Max and Moritz caught up with them, and they were thrown into a grain hopper, adding to the flavor of the local beer.

On Saturday our barge stopped in Cochem and toured the Reichsburg Castle. The castle has been on top of the hill for at least a thousand years, but was razed by the French about 350 years ago, and eventually rebuilt by a German millionaire using drawings and paintings of the original. It's a great tourist attraction, and lots of people visit each year. Only seven rooms have been re-furnished; the original furniture was sold when the owners were forced to sell it to the German Republic in 1942; but gradually the castle is acquiring items from the periods, and someday hopes to open more rooms to tourists.

A couple of us walked down the hill through the cute "old town", which was also razed by the French, so the oldest buildings are less than 350 years old. The town is characterized by shops for tourists: shoe stores, souvenir shops, restaurants of all cuisines, wine shops (selling Reisling, what else?) and hotels.

Tuesday was spent on the barge nearly the entire day. The river had risen and widen overnight due to heavy rains further upstream so we were unable to dock at any of the ports. By this time, I have had enough of going through locks. At first it was fascinating to watch, but after four or five a day, I’d grown bored with them. I did have a fun afternoon sitting in the wheel house with the captain and learning everything there is to know about sailing a barge. And who could forget our special cooking lesson with Mario. A Black Forest Cake will never be the same again.

We made a very quick visit to Trier on Tuesday, a 2000 year old Roman city where I was able to see the oldest Roman Ruins in Germany known as the Porta Nigra (the Black Gate). We did a lot of walking around the historic city center, took the cute little tourist tram and saw the main sights of Trier, as well as some old churches and quaint old neighborhoods.

Can you tell though that we were getting to that point in a European tour at which all cathedrals begin to meld together into one giant old Gothic Romanesque Neo-Whatever...it's not what we are supposed to do, we tourists...I think we're supposed to dutifully attend to the uniqueness of each site, but after a while the phenomenon sometimes called "museum fatigue" sets in, and so it was for us in Trier.

Wednesday we stopped in Remich, Luxembourg and took a bus to the City of Luxembourg. Raise your hands if you knew there was more than one city in Luxembourg. The state of Luxembourg is trilingual. French, German, and a bastard combination of the two. God bless the German language. Luxembourg City is a bit odd. There's a huge crevasse that runs near the center of the city, and one would think that a river would be at the bottom. No river, just miles and miles of urban forest and hiking trails. It's quite striking. The people are nice; the food was good, and the shopping not bad at all. I have now been to a Lush store in...let's see... Croatia, Luxembourg, and the U.S....A fun fact I realized today.

Thursday found us in France. Metz (pronounced 'Mess'), capital of Lorraine, is often dismissed because we think it must be an ugly, industrial town like so many in Northern France. Metz, however, surprised us all with its Roman origins, riverside parks, historic centre and attractive architecture. It made for a pleasant place to visit. Metz was an independent republic during the Middle Ages, before joining France in the late 16th century. It was annexed by Germany in 1871 and released back to France once and for all in 1944.

Metz's centerpiece is the Cathédrale St-Étienne. Under construction from 1220 to 1522, it is renowned for its wonderful 13th - to 20th-century stained glass, including some by Chagall.

Our barge trip was over too soon. Friday, we were dropped off in Mainz for our last night. Mainz is a beautiful city in Germany just a few miles away from Frankfurt. Mainz also has many parts where old buildings from before the war are still standing. These are filled with boutiques, and restaurants, and there is a lovely romantic atmosphere to them. Mainz's Old City, or Altstadt, runs along one main street from the Cathedral (surprise, surprise) about three city blocks. The Gutenberg Museum is in Mainz, but my brain was too overloaded to visit another museum.

Another wonderful Phi Mu Foundation trip that I’ll treasure forever. I was pleasantly surprised how beautiful the country was and will definitely visit Germany again. Vundarbar!

Enjoy my photos from the Mosel River Cruise.

Photos From New Zealand & Fiji Islands

Check out my photos from New Zealand & the Fiji Islands. Music is by Brooke Fraser, a native of Wellington, New Zealand. Be sure to read my trip journal which is right below this post.

New Zealand & Fiji Island Adventure

New Zealand - a place I have dreamed of going to - finally came to reality. From October 13-26, I traveled with 41 other adventurous travelers to New Zealand's South Island and then onto the Fiji Islands. Below are the highlights of my two week holiday:

We arrived in Queenstown, NZ, "Lord of the Rings" territory early afternoon on October 15. We spent three days in Queenstown, the exhilaration capital of the world. Here we packed in a lot of activities, despite the fact that it rained 2 of 3 days.

Queenstown was beautiful, sitting right on Lake Wakatipu with snow capped mountains called the Remarkables all around. It reminded me of an alpine village with all the chalets. It is definitely, however, setup for tourists. Every building is a hotel, bar, restaurant, or tour company.

On the first afternoon we went on a jet boat ride on the river and dodged cliff walls inches from the boat doing about 30 miles per hour. It was a lot of fun doing 360's on the water too.

After checking into our hotel, we met up and walked to the Skyline Gondola which rises steeply from Queenstown. At the top there is a truly world class view over the Remarkable Mountain range across Lake Wakatipu to Cecil and Walter Peaks. The scenery is simply stunning and it has a definite "'wow" factor. We had great fun riding on the luge; although I wasn't as brave as Tony and didn't go as fast.

Unbeknown to me, a 6.7 earthquake shook the region early Tuesday morning. I had no clue and basically dreamt I was in a vibrating bed. No wonder the elevators didn't work that next morning. Duhh...

Tuesday we loaded up the bus and headed to Milford Sound (providing all the roads were opened since there had been reports of avalanches). The drive to Milford Sound was beautiful even though the rain never let up.There were lots of lakes reflecting the surrounding snow-capped mountains. There was still snow as the bus climbed up into part of the mountains which don't get much sun. The cliffs hung right out over the road and there was evidence of avalanches and guys working to clear it all up. Homer Tunnel, which is about 1.5 miles long, was completed in 1953. This tunnel goes right through a mountain and makes access to Milford Sound possible.

Calling Milford Sound a sound is incorrect. It is actually a fjord created by a glacier thousands of years ago. The guy who discovered it called it Milford (after Milford Haven in Wales, his hometown) and because he mistakenly thought it to be a sound.

We went on a three-hour scenic/lunch cruise of the fjord. It truly was beautiful even though the weather was horrible. Extremely windy and and no let up on the rain. I was blown away (figuratively & literally) by the steepness and height of the cliffs. And was totally amazed anything could grow on them.

The waterfalls were massive. Stirling Falls is 50 storeys high. It was hard to get the scale of them until the boat took us up close and personal. I was wet, cold, and loving every minute of it. Author Rudyard Kipling called Milford Sound the eighth wonder of the world and now I know why.

Wednesday evening we took the vintage TSS Earnslaw Steamship (celebrating her 95th birthday) across Lake Wakatipu to Walter Peak High Country Farm. It was a real joy to travel on the ship. There is a feeling of elegance about her and she is known as the "Lady of the Lake". She has been conveying passengers across the lake since 1912 and is one of the last few coal fired vessels in the southern hemisphere.

Across the lake, the steamship stopped at Walter Peak High Country Farm. We had dinner that evening in the Colonel's Homestead and then watched a sheep sheering demonstration afterwards.

Thursday we left Queenstown and started our journey to Mt. Cook, New Zealand's highest mountain. Again the drive was spectacular, even though the weather still was not cooperating. We couldn't see Mt. Cook that afternoon due to the clouds. However the following day we lucked out and saw the magnificent mountain while driving towards Christchurch along Lake Pakaki. We also drove past the Southern Alps and around some amazing clear lakes. The scenery was breath taking!

Our last stop in New Zealand was Christchurch. I cannot believe how fast the week has flown by. I have loved every minute, even the rain. Christchurch is a very English city. It looks very much like Stratford upon Avon with its very own River Avon running through the middle. We spent the day wandering around Christchurch in the sun, enjoying the sights, and having lunch "alfresco" at a quaint restaurant.

Goodbye, New Zealand. But I'll be returning someday.

Bula! We arrived into Nadi, Fiji Island, Saturday morning for the rest of our adventure. After a two hour bus ride, we finally checked into the Hideway Resort, our home for the next week. Unfortunately, the first three days it rained on & off so that put a damper on most of our spirits.

Since I don't scuba dive and can't be out in the sun long, I was starting to get a little bored. But on Tuesday, nine brave souls embarked on the adventure of our entire trip. We had originally signed up for a kayaking trip, but because of all the rain the road leading to the river had been washed out. So the river company instead treated us to a whitewater rafting trip on the Upper Navua River.

The ride up to the river was the scariest thing I had ever experienced. It was a steep and very narrow mountain road and I just kept praying that the bus wouldn't slip off the edge into a deep gorge. Once we made it to the top, we had to walk about 20 minutes through a muddy slippery path to the river. We loaded up two rafts and off we went. Talk about awesome. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera, but the brochure referred to this river as the "Fiji's Grand Canyon" and I concur.

We rafted for 15 miles and then the "fun" began. We jumped on the bus to take us back but shortly after we started out, the bus became mired in mud. We jumped back out and the guides told us women to just start walking and they would pick us up. Inez, Joe & I followed their directions. About an hour or so later, Brian, Tony, Connie & Pier caught up to us. The monsoon rain soon started and after walking nearly 3 hours or approximately 7 miles in a jungle rain forest, the bus finally comes to our rescue. We were cold, thirsty & hungry, and our feet & legs were killing us. But it certainly didn't dampen our spirits. We laughed about it all the way back to the resort. And of course we became the talk of the group over the next couple days.

Thursday was a day long cruise on the Sea Spray sailing boat which had free food and drinks all day. While on the cruise, we visited a local Fijian village, snorkeled and visited the island where Tom Hanks filmed Castaway. While visiting the local village, I got my first chance to sample Kava, the traditional root drink of the region. Everyone sits on the floor while the Kava is prepared. The result is something which resembles muddy water and it doesn't taste a lot better. The Fijians lap this stuff up. I couldn't see the appeal. Apparently if you get the strong stuff, it not only numbs your tongue but also knocks you unconscious. (Did I fail to mention it's a natural aesthetic?) You have to drink about 3 cups before that's likely to happen. Think I'll stick to beer.

Fiji was paradise! I had a wonderful time sunbathing and relaxing. The Fijian people are very friendly and the mainland and islands are fabulous! Wonderful weather apart from the first couple of misty days.

I made lots of friends, took lots of photos, and had a great two-week vacation.