I know we've only been here for two days and the first of those was spent in a sleep deprived stupor as we bumbled around (we got in at 5am after no sleep and couldn't check into a hotel until 4pm), but I definitely love it here.
The bits of the city that we've seen so far are very beautiful. Loads of old buildings and more than a few cobbled streets. There are a few apartment blocks as you get out of the centre that wouldn't look out of place in Hobart, but every place has its embarrassments and these are more than compensated for by the lovely trees.
We also found the English Garden yesterday and spent a few happy hours wandering around that. Apparently it's the place to go for nude sunbathing, but as it was a bit breezy yesterday, everyone was looking pretty well covered up. There were lots of beautiful old trees, a picturesque stream meandering through, thousands of good looking Germans (seriously, these people are stunning!), a gazebo full of lederhosen clad men playing oompa oompa music and then we made it to the middle. Here was the biggest beer garden I have ever seen. It was an amazing place. There were literally thousands of people feasting on bratwurst, sauerkraut, chips, cakes and pretzels bigger than a hubcap and it was so incredibly ordered. Everyone seemed to have at least one stein of beer that held about 2 litres (we got 1 litre ones and then realised that this was the equivalent of drinking lights) and there were no fights, arguments or even people bumping into one another. It's not that there were clear directions on where to go, everyone just seemed to know. We got in the bratwurst queue, not really sure what we were doing, but as it was about 20 metres long we figured there would be time to work it out, but in about 30 seconds we each had a huge tray of food, a beer and an excess of mustard and were sitting comfortable and saying "Prost" as we clinked steins with complete strangers. It was great.
The people we've seen so far are all really friendly and helpful. We met some lovely security guards at the train station on our arrival from the airport who showed us exactly what we needed to do to get around and then bought us a hot chocolate each (I think Bill's blog has an entry about them). After we dropped our bags off at the hotel (where they wouldn't let us in to have some sleep for another 8 hours) we went out to the Deuchland Museum to kill some time. We ended up walking for a while (in the rain) in completely the wrong direction, but we bumped into an elderly gent taking his morning constitutional who started to give us directions and then changed his route to show us personally. He also insisted that I share his umbrella (Bill wasn't so lucky, but after coming from a country where I had consistently been hissed at in the street just for being a woman, I was happy to take some preferential treatment). We even had to share a tram with about ten really drunk and loud heavy metal fans yesterday (there's a mini Oktoberfest here as well as a Pagan Festival so there have been quite a few people wandering around doing no hands skulling from long necks) who all politely got out of my way and stopped singing so I could get off at our stop.
We're off tomorrow on a train ride across the country to Langendorf, a tiny 700 year old village with a population of 300 where Nina's rellies have offered us a spare room for a few days. Then it's maybe off to Berlin or perhaps Prague.
Also, the standard breakfast here seems to be muesli which is keeping us both happy. Bill was having 'moosli' withdrawals, and I'm not a huge fan, but here it has tiny bits of chocolate mixed in. Also, this morning it came with fresh doughnuts.
Like I said, I love this place.
The bits of the city that we've seen so far are very beautiful. Loads of old buildings and more than a few cobbled streets. There are a few apartment blocks as you get out of the centre that wouldn't look out of place in Hobart, but every place has its embarrassments and these are more than compensated for by the lovely trees.
We also found the English Garden yesterday and spent a few happy hours wandering around that. Apparently it's the place to go for nude sunbathing, but as it was a bit breezy yesterday, everyone was looking pretty well covered up. There were lots of beautiful old trees, a picturesque stream meandering through, thousands of good looking Germans (seriously, these people are stunning!), a gazebo full of lederhosen clad men playing oompa oompa music and then we made it to the middle. Here was the biggest beer garden I have ever seen. It was an amazing place. There were literally thousands of people feasting on bratwurst, sauerkraut, chips, cakes and pretzels bigger than a hubcap and it was so incredibly ordered. Everyone seemed to have at least one stein of beer that held about 2 litres (we got 1 litre ones and then realised that this was the equivalent of drinking lights) and there were no fights, arguments or even people bumping into one another. It's not that there were clear directions on where to go, everyone just seemed to know. We got in the bratwurst queue, not really sure what we were doing, but as it was about 20 metres long we figured there would be time to work it out, but in about 30 seconds we each had a huge tray of food, a beer and an excess of mustard and were sitting comfortable and saying "Prost" as we clinked steins with complete strangers. It was great.
The people we've seen so far are all really friendly and helpful. We met some lovely security guards at the train station on our arrival from the airport who showed us exactly what we needed to do to get around and then bought us a hot chocolate each (I think Bill's blog has an entry about them). After we dropped our bags off at the hotel (where they wouldn't let us in to have some sleep for another 8 hours) we went out to the Deuchland Museum to kill some time. We ended up walking for a while (in the rain) in completely the wrong direction, but we bumped into an elderly gent taking his morning constitutional who started to give us directions and then changed his route to show us personally. He also insisted that I share his umbrella (Bill wasn't so lucky, but after coming from a country where I had consistently been hissed at in the street just for being a woman, I was happy to take some preferential treatment). We even had to share a tram with about ten really drunk and loud heavy metal fans yesterday (there's a mini Oktoberfest here as well as a Pagan Festival so there have been quite a few people wandering around doing no hands skulling from long necks) who all politely got out of my way and stopped singing so I could get off at our stop.
We're off tomorrow on a train ride across the country to Langendorf, a tiny 700 year old village with a population of 300 where Nina's rellies have offered us a spare room for a few days. Then it's maybe off to Berlin or perhaps Prague.
Also, the standard breakfast here seems to be muesli which is keeping us both happy. Bill was having 'moosli' withdrawals, and I'm not a huge fan, but here it has tiny bits of chocolate mixed in. Also, this morning it came with fresh doughnuts.
Like I said, I love this place.
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