Webber.net.nz

On the Saturday we visited an old Russian U-Boat that somehow a German had ended up buying. It was interesting to do a tour of it and see the miserable conditions that Russian Seamen had in the 70’s and 80’s. After climbing through the bowels of the ship for a while we went to the Miniatur Wunderland.

22622256

This is the world’s biggest miniature railway which takes up two floors of an old port warehouse. It seems people list from all other the world to see this place which has mocked up villages of USA, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway and of course Germany. It was all very cleverly done with one of the most advanced control rooms I have seen running the hundreds of trains and cars throughout their vast network.

Sunday we went to Visit Lubeck which was a smaller medieval town with a double tower town gate and quaint cobbled town square. We discovered that the town is famous for marzipan, of which I am also a fan so quite a few these almondly goodies were consumed.
2280

This Friday Susan was delivering a training course in Germany so I took a couple of days to be with her. Susan arrived the day before me, she had a shocker of a landing and then somehow ended up outside the terminal without her luggage. Also to top matters off her Taxi driver was so gutted to find out she only needed to go 10 minutes from the airport she had to be taken to the hotel instead.

I arrived the next day but my German was very rusty if non existent when arriving. Fortunately I had some Euros so found my way onto an Airport bus easy enough. Not quite the same experience for one of the other travellers on my flight who seemed surprised the German driver didn’t take British Pounds.

I spend the Friday wondering around the streets of Hamburg city, in search of Hamburgers. The city was an old port town but wasn’t exactly a huge tourist destination. And the only Burger joints I could find was Burger King and McD’s so there is a significant gap in the market for someone who wants to set one up.

Hi we got back from Berlin today.

Had a fab time visiting the Berlin Story, which gave a good history of WWI and WWII and some information about the Berlin Wall.

We then went to the Judiches Museum which was a really abstract musem but is the biggest Museum in Europe.

The highlight was probably CheckPoint Charlie and its museum where we saw some of the amazing schemes the east Germans tired to cross the border. Plans from making your own scuba kit and hiding in the undercarriages of cars were all attempted.

We also looked at the war at the East Side Gallery and the German Parliament.

Well here are the photos I’d add captions and beef this post up a little when I get time.

Hi from -5 degree Berlin.

We had a great day traveling around the icey German capital today. I´m probably going to make this short as I´m typing this on a German key board in the hotel lobby and I keep missing the ´y´ key.

First today we checked out a German market and looked at all the old records and WWII memorabilia. I did find a Derek and the Domino´s LP though…. which I probably would have purchased if I had something to play it on.

The Market was near the Brandenburg gate so we had a quick look at the famous entrance to east Germany where Regan said:

“Mr Gorbachev – tear down this wall”

We then walked along the uttered Den Linden to the Pergamon Musesum we were thawed out while looking at Babylonian artifacts.

Finally we got caught in a small snow storm as we walked around and finally got to the Aqaqdom which is an aquarium/lift that looks like a blender in Radisson´s (5 star hotel)lobby.

Tonight we had tea at a place called Stäv which served fine Pfälzer Saumagen (stuffed pork stomach). Not suprisingly Susan stuck to Pizza.

Well I better sign off andd get back to Susan who is currently defrosting in the bath. It´s forcast to warm to -2 tomorrow.

Auf Wiedersehen

Susan went down the high street to buy a warmer beanie and scarf… yeap we are of to Berlin tomorrow.
With the temperature between -2°C and -9°C I think her new hat could be a good investment. Tonight I’m going to type up the itinerary, which Susan is trying to steal form me as we speak.

Oh good news on the car front, our car is starting again which is going to make dropping off at the garage to get fixed just that bit easier.

Also I have out done my personal best in the 2km rowing challenge.
New rowing time 7.32.0