November 18, 2008
travelog - Germany & Switzerland
Travelog, Germany & Switzerland1 - 15 Nov 2008Travellers: Mummy & me3 Nov, 10:41, en route to Heidelberg
Honestly, it was a little depressing arriving in Frankfurt on a Sunday (very early) morning. 6am at the FRA airport, there weren't many people around and most demoralisingly, very few people seemed lost and in need of some clear(er) English directions, except us. Actually, just me, since my mum thought she only needed me.
Ironically, the moment we settled down into our room in City Hotel, I started counting down the days to going home. I was tired (didn't sleep much on the Qantas flight cos a long-legged angmoh was sitting behind me and I could feel his knees 'kneading' the back of my seat), confused and determined to learn German next year. And... (oh shit!) I missed Emman already.
We had a terribly salty lunch (roasted half chicken + rice), which we compensated for by having two scoops of ice-cream (yumm!). The pleasure of eating ice-cream in a cold environment adds the yumm-factor to any ice-cream, seriously. After lunch, we waited half an hour for the Ebbel-wei Express that turned out to be too full to have us onboard. I had the presumption that the Hauptbahnhof area was pure boredom. This presumption was later confirmed by Chris and Frederike.
The highlight of a depressing Day 1 was our dinner with Christian and family. Real Frankfurter food, as Chris said, at a rather cosy and traditional restaurant in Alt-Sachsenhausen area. I had Ochschenbrust + handkase with musik (boiled beef slices in Frankfurt green sauce + Frankfurt cheese with onion) while Mum had bratwurst with sauerkraut. We all had apple wine - the trademark beverage of Frankfurt. Mum found it to be gross while I found it all right. Chris, Rike and I had a good chat over the places we should visit while in Frankfurt. Mummy was rather entertained by what a clever n fast learning little boy Jona is. Jona is just impossible not to like.
Day 1 in Frankfurt. I need to pick up the Bahn network fast, and stay positive that this trip will only turn better, soon.
Me: When we arrived, everything was so quiet, hardly anybody around. When do you guys usually start your Sunday? Chris: We never start our Sundays.5 Nov, 12:40, en route to Munich
We just left the very charming idyllic town of Rothenburg ODT, for the city of Munich.
Rothenburg was lovely and I could easily understand and appreciate why it's the most romantic town in Germany, with or without the Christmas market.
The whole marktplatz n town hall area is peaceful while the people are warm and friendly. Every shopkeeper we encountered had a smile and a 'hullo' for us. We even met a lady who was so kind to send Mum and me to the bahnhof when I asked her for directions (because I was lost following a 'shortcut'). For me, the best thing was that they all spoke English, even those who couldn't tried to make us feel welcomed in their beautiful town with smiles and nodding of the head. That, to me, is fundamental in raking in the tourist's bucks.
Before Rothenburg, we went to Heidelberg, supposedly the most beuatiful university town in Germany. Personally, I won't contend that. The university library already looked awesome on the outside.
Heidelberg was nice, but in a different way from Rothenburg. It's a very youthful place, naturally because of the hordes of varsity students. It has an academic kind of charm because everywhere, students (and perhaps teachers too) were peddling on bicycles, schoolbags slung around them. I imagine it's not difficult to fall in love and find a university sweetheart in such a place. We had lunch at the university canteen, which was an ironic experience for me.
Day 5 in Germany... started with a series of train rides to Munich. I hope our hotel in Munich is good and we meet some friendly Germans there. Nevertheless, this is Germany. I can't get my hopes too high for the latter.
Das sonne. Banyak sonne. 8 Nov, 12:52, en route to Zurich
The ICE was late.
Today, we have to travel 7 hours on trains to get to Zurich from Munich, then Interlaken from Zurich.
Munich turned out to be a nicer city than Frankfurt. Not quite as hostile and personally, I think the DB network in Munich is more eser-friendly than Frankfurt.
We joined a guided tour to visit King Ludwig II's Schloss Neuschwanstein and that was possibly the best decision I've made since this trip started. I got the story of King Ludwig II from Amanda, our Australian-teaching-English-in-Germany guide, and summarised into Mandarin for my mum. Inside the opulent fairy-tale castle, I felt the mad king's loneliness immensely. How terribly lonely it must be to live alone so high up, even in such opulence! He must be quite crazy for opting to live like that and then, can you blame him for going (even more) crazy if he lived like that? I'd prefer my noisy AMK HDB flat anytime!
We also visited Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site. Images of the movie "Schindler's List" kept coming to mind as I walked the grounds of the camp. It was cold, huge, bare and harsh. It's depressing if I tried to think about the horror that thousands of prisoners had to live with when Dachau was a landscape from a nightmare, and not a memorial site yet. The barren open space only made the whole landscape more bleak and sad.
Mum, however, found it difficult to appreciate both visits even after my story-telling. Maybe I should brush up on story-telling in Mandarin.
We took a meal at a restaurant that was recommended by Amanda as rather authentically Bavarian and reasonably-priced. I had chilli sausage with pan-fried potato and fried onion rings while Mum had a lamb-shank with potato-cheese gratin. Plus, my first weissbier in Germany. Really, it was good. The food and the beer.
At this point, as far as I'm concerned, my Germany tour is more or less over. I've covered the grounds that I've set out to cover in this part of my trip. One week in this continent, we are looking forward to the magnificence of the mountains in Switz.
Meanwhile, the train continues to take us through towns and fields.
Amanda: Don't have to worry about the grammar too much. Make sure you have good sentence construction and a wide vocab to use. German's not difficult! The pronouciation is very easy too. me: (are you sure?!?!) Ok! Thank you so much! 12 Nov, 12:02, en route to Frankfurt
Day 10 of our travelling in this part of the world.
Interlaken turned out to be a rather boring town, if not for the breathtaking (albeit arduous) tram ride to Jungfraujoch. Mum and my first contact with snow, on a real mountain somemore! Jungfraujoch is 3471m high. It was fun, a little exciting as we geared ourselves before encountering the temperature of 8 deg celsius below freezing point. Surprisingly, I wasn't too freezed, even without my gloves on. It was cold, but not windy. Which was a very good thing.
On the other hand, we were really cold and icy on Mount Pilatus (2073m). It was a sunny but windy day on the mountain. Mt Pilatus turned out to be quite a disappointment for me. On one hand, it's less touristy but that also means there're lesser things to do and see. Also, there was only one self-serve restaurant that was opened when we were there. We had a rather miserable (by Switz standard) Swiss pasta with apple sauce for lunch. That was the only hot dish on the menu. The rest were just salads and sanwiches.
Luzern, however, remains a charming little town, just as I remembered it to be. Alas, the wind direction was towards southern Europe and poor Mum's coughing got worse cos of the climate.
We are on our way back to Frankfurt now, and closer to going home.
I guess, this trip has definitely turned for the better since Day 2. But even I am beginning to miss my fishball mee pok and chicken rice.
The thing about gettin away from home is always that it makes you appreciate your homeland and what you have at home even more.
Posted by 杏 cy （Jancy） at 15:02