Wednesday, March 26, 2008
10:01 PM

The whiteness of winter

I imagined winter to be snowy, with snow piling by the road, on the cars, trees and houses. I imagine snowflakes to be falling gently as I take a stroll to the school. Yet, I haven't seen any of this in Hattenheim. Not until today.

Snow-covered vineyards caused overnight.

From the classroom

Amazing that I had to wait till March to see this. To think we thought Spring was coming real soon with wild flowers spotted on the grass patches and flowers blooming on the trees.

10:43 AM

Berlin, Hamburg

Berlin
18-22 Mar

I’ve always wanted to go Berlin. Because of its location, it has been a breeding ground for history and as the capital of Germany, perhaps will continue to make history in the future. Because it’s so difficult to get Dauer-Spezial train tickets at 29eur, we decided to try out what our German friends recommended – carpool. What we had to do was just to go to the German website, select the dates, departure and arrival locations, shortlist and best options, figure out other details in German, and call the person to enquire for space in the car. Guess what, it only costs 25eur per person to get from Frankfurt to Berlin, which is significantly cheaper than if we had bought the train tickets.

It was perhaps our first time on the real highway in Germany, and it’s true! There is no speed limit on the autobahn (except on certain bending roads that is)! Well, the speed limit will then have to be the speed limit of the car. It’s cool to see our car at maybe 160kph and more cars on the left lane overtaking us!

Halfway through, the landscape started to change. We started seeing more pine trees and snow. In fact it was pouring lumps of snow flakes, and at times little hail beads, covering many car plates – a good way to escape the cameras. You know, it’s really fun to play with snow, or feel the snow flakes gently falling on your hair and shoulders. But it’s really not, when the air is so humid 2ºC feels like -3ºC. I only had my Lycra t-shirt (not even thermals), woolen top, jeans and trench coat on, and no extra clothes in my bag. Laziness got the better of me. Good enough to keep warm in that temperature, but not enough to protect me from the wind chill.

After a 5 hour ride from Frankfurt, we spent the night at Wombat Berlin, after a wonderful experience at Wombat Munich. At only 9eur, linen is included, each of us received a welcome drink at the bar and we got a 6-bedded ladies’ dorm. There were tables and chairs in the room, lockers for everyone, plug at every bed and a toilet attached to the dorm. How shiok can this get?!

Pink Wing only for the ladies!

With the Let’s Go travel guide as our ‘Bible’, we started our tour of Berlin on foot with Potsdamer Platz.

Nice architecture at Sony Center

Legoland, which was not open yet.

Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe.

The famous Brandenburger Tor, built in the 18th Century as a symbol of victory.

The hotel where Micheal Jackson dangled his baby out of the window

The Reichstag. Where Hitler used a fire as an excuse to declare emergency and seize power.

1.5 hour queue to get in.

Finally in.

Interesting to have a modern architecture within an old building.

The Bundestag is possibly the only solar-powered parliament in the world. Beneath the cone lies the solar panels trapping the heat from the sun to warm the building.

Gloating at their plight.

Berliner Dom.

The interior was really grand.

Atop the Dom.

Not only was it cold, the weather was horrible. It was sunny one moment, windy most of the times, and worst snowing lumps of snowflakes madly.

Deutsches Historisches Museum, designed by I.M. Pei.

Aquadom. Unfortunately we had to pay 15eur to get into the seaworld, in order to take the lift to see the fishes, which we of course did not.

The famous Ampel-Männchen. Specialised shop selling everything Ampel-Männchen from pasta to towel.

To find out whether you are on the East or West side of Berlin, watch out for the Ampel-Männchen, where the green man strides jauntily with a wide hat. In the west side, the green man looks normal. Thanks to activists who tried to preserve what made the East East, and thus creating business to the souvenir shops.

Yet another Rathaus.

Inside the Rathaus.

Chandeliers in the Rathaus.

More.

For a moment, we thought there was a place in Berlin called Los Angeles. It was apparently the partner state.

Ran into an Easter market, which we tried yummy stir-fried mushrooms with garlic sauce. yums

Humongous pizza topped with greens, salmon, ham, salami and prawns for 3 which 4 people could not even finish!

The following day was meant for the East Side Gallery where we could see the longest remaining portion of the Berlin Wall. Yinghao and co wanted to join in the itinerary so we told them to meet us there at 9am. Knowing that they hardly ever step out of the hostel before 11am, we took our time, expecting them to arrive late. But to our amazement, they reached on time, even before we did!

Can you?

While the wall was merely a piece of concrete, seeing and touching it for myself meant more especially after having learnt about the Cold War. No bloody battles, but the wall meant more than just a border; it was division and oppression of freedom, the manipulation of power and fearful atmosphere.

We were so excited about the Beate Uhse Erotik Museum, as it was supposedly the biggest in the world. We thought we could perhaps gain some knowledge or amazing facts from this museum, so guess what? We saw many extremely explicit ancient paintings from mainly China and Japan, and other countries, on sex. The proportions in the painting were so warped, making the people look hideous. At times we saw exhibits of tools people used in the past. Perhaps the most interesting exhibit was that of the founder of the museum and its chain of sex shops. The founder was in fact a female pilot who wanted to open up minds and enhance people’s sex lives.

So we decided to repent after visiting a shop dedicated to lust. With so many visits to churches everywhere we’ve been, it sounds ridiculous to visit yet another church. Yet, this can be said to be one of the most special churches I’ve been to. The exterior looked perhaps like a library, or an admin office, or a warehouse. Anything but church. But the moment you step, you can feel the difference. Light shone through the cracked blue glass tiles into the church, creating an extraordinary aura. The organ played in the background as the player practiced the number for the next occasion, followed by a soprano honing her voice in the company of a piano.

You can feel an aura in the New Church.

You can see through the hole in the Kaiser Wilheim Memorial Church.

The next day was dedicated to Haus am Checkpoint Charlie, a museum about the Berlin Wall.

Desperate means like squeezing into the car boot, luggage, using a hot air balloon, or stealing IDs, just to escape to the West side.

What a statement!

1eur for this photo. 2eur if you want your passport stamped. Fortunately or unfortunately I did not have my passport with me.

I first heard about the polar bear, Knut, from Yinghao. It was rejected by its mum and there was a big hooha on whether to let nature take its course (i.e. let it die on its own) or feed it. No prizes for guessing – it became a celebrity in the Berlin Zoo and is now about 3 years old and not as cute as before. Berlin Zoo also housed another 2 celebrities, Baobao and Yanyan, gifts from China to the Berlin Zoo.

Cheena gate at the Berlin Zoo

Elephant gates

What a cute cub

Poor lion taking a peek at his lionesses and cubs.

It was singing "I like to mooove it".

The panda's room was empty.

My favourite animal!

The admirable emperor penguins.

The friendly penguin that swam over to say hi

while the rest watched on.

Knut at his cutest.

Knut now, scratching his back.

Hello Panda!

King Kong

Hamburg
22-24 Mar

I’ve always wondered if hamburgers really came from Hamburg. Well, firstly I couldn’t find Berliners (doughnuts stuffed with apple jam) in Berlin; at least they were called something else. I guess people in Berlin didn’t want to be called a pastry. Same for hamburgers. I’m pretty sure they came from US and not Hamburg.

Anyway it’s famous for its second biggest port in Europe, fresh seafood which is how rare in Germany, and its vibrant nightlife and strip bars. It’s the second largest city after Berlin in Germany and possibly is home to most millionaires in Germany. *raises eyebrow

Well, we were more worried about things to do on Easter weekend in Hamburg lest shops were all closed. Apparently, we found out that there’s this traditional Easter Market outside the Ethnology Museum “worth visiting”, as well as Osterfeuer (Easter fire) by the Elbe river. Fortunately, the Fischmarkt is open on Easter Sunday too, so our trip would not be a wasted one.

Our jaws dropped when we visited the Easter Market. The weather was cold and it was snowing and stopping every 15 min. With about 10 stalls selling meat, veggies, pastries and the likes, we were wondering why it was called the traditional Easter Market. Mmm…

So off we went to visit Hamburg’s iconic church – Michaeliskirche. And on the way there, Planten um Blomen.

Inside Michaeliskirche.

With such bad weather and lack of sleep, we started roaming the Altona area for food and window shopping like zombies. The opening hours of Hamburger Dom was not known, and our visit to the port was due the next day. So the Miniatur Wunderland seemed a wiser choice given that it was indoors. Guess what, it was a 45 min, at least in the warm indoors, and well worth it! Featuring Scandinavia, US, Germany, the Alps and Switzerland, not only could you recognize the landmarks, details were well-thought out, and add-ons were intriguing! The lighting was adjusted at fixed intervals to provide day and night time effects. What was better was that, when night falls, cars, trains and buildings begin to turn their lights on. Vehicles other than the trains moved on the roads with a magnetic strip in front; not that hard to imagine the mechanism, but changing of lanes, no? What about waiting at the junction for another car to pass? All these have to be pre-planned and well-thought out to make the model come alive and live up to its name, Wunderland.

45-min queue in a claustrophobic area.

Press a button and the UFO comes, delivering an alien. Press another, and the elves flutter about in the wood. Press that, the curtains open and figurines come out to perform. Where accidents occur, ambulances and police cars come to the rescue. In a UBS bank in Switzerland, a few men attempted to dig a hole from another hut to get to the vault. On the other side, you see police men waiting behind the door for these burglars.

Canoeing in the Grand Canyon!

Rocky Mountains

Las Vegas

ICE stopping at the Hauptbahnhof

Carnival by the Elbe in Hamburg

Stadium in Hamburg

Take a peek into the train station

Busy port on the Elbe

Ferris wheel at Hamburger DOM

Elf fluttering about upon the press of a button

UFO comes to save the alien!

Kiruna

Drama waiting to happen at UBS in Switzerland.

Satisfied from one of my most enjoyable museum trip (despite the mad crowds), we headed to the Hamburger DOM to find the fun fair in full swing. Exciting rides accompanied by screams and yummy snack stalls. It was supposedly the biggest fun fair in the North, and it was BIG and happy!

The real DOM.

Easter bunnies eating easter bunnies chocs.

It has been some time since I visited a real fish market when I had to tread on wet floor and avoid stepping on slimy and dying fishes flapping on the floor. I imagine big sweaty burly men in singlets shouting prices and deals in the market and dragging huge fishes on the floor. Others would chop up the fishes, dump them in plastic bags and hand them to the customers.

The Fischmarkt wasn’t exactly like that. The first few stalls sold bunnies and pigeons. Well, I’m not sure if people buy them for eating (you know, Easter bunnies sound kinda yummy), but I guess they’r too cuddly and nice to eat. More stalls selling fresh greens, fruits and souvenirs line the street alone the river. Inside an unused warehouse, bands performed for the early birds savouring their beers and sinful 3-sunny-side-ups-with-fried-potatoes (I can’t rmb the actual name).

Sinful brunch.

Then you see more stalls selling meat, cheese, flowers and pastries, but what happened to the fishes? Further down, my stereotype kind of came true. Big burly men in their aprons shouting at the audiences prices and bundles – something like: 20eur for fresh salmon (*throws a big fat slab of fish on the paper), fresh wadeva (*does the same), fresh wadeva (*does the same), big, fat, fresh and cheap, lelonglelong. It was kind of like a competition of who can attract the most crowd, and everyone was watching them “perform”. Fishes were not on the ground, and not jumping around, but dead, and displayed in the fridge cabinet. Each merchant has his own stall. Even the chocolate stall did the lelong and bundling thing, which was kind of entertaining.

Perfect weather for walking.

Church on a boat!

Blessed with good weather, we walked the whole of Elbe river till we reached the City area. In fact we covered like 3/4 of the length of the map and beyond that, in search of the U434 Russian submarine.

Claustrophic interior.

It's how you see it on TV, only smaller than expected.

Chanced upon Amphicar club members gathering by the river. These cars can enter the water (like those duck tour vehicles) and become boats!

In search of our millionaire husbands/ wife, we headed to Blankenese to have a look at the nice houses on the terraces and enjoy the walk along the river, before catching the Original Dirty Dancing (in German) at Neue Flora theatre. The lighting was fabulous. One scene showed the leads practising in the woods, balancing on the fallen log across the river. Another showed the girl attempting to do the 'flying' move in the hot springs, and then both of them tumbling into the water, which looked so real I almost believed there was water! Yet the acoustic technology wasn't as fantastic. I expected the traditional theatre where the actors would speak as though to the audience and hearing their voices at their rawest. Unfortunately they have mics that made their speeches sound almost like recorded. At times, the soundtrack was played when they danced, instead of being sung. Worse, the drama parts were in German, and it just went on and on, so I was guessing the story more than half the time.

Nice houses on the Blankenese steps.

By then, we remembered that the guy whom we were supposed to take a car pool with messaged us in the morning to tell us he cannot make it. Panic alarm! A check at the machine in the train station tells us that it costs 90eur to get back to our beloved kampong by train. Train was thus not a choice. We had to get another car pool and it was quite worrying considering we intended to get back the following day! We did not have a laptop but merely a WiFi-enabled phone. Mac’s internet was too ex and the phone doesn’t work in our hostel. Thus we headed back to the previous hostel for internet and wrote down a long list of numbers we could call first thing in the morning to try our luck. Somehow, we were so lucky, cuz the first number that got through, the guy spoke perfect English and had 3 places in the car, leaving that same day, in the afternoon.

Huge dog we bumped into.

Cheap fried Asian noodles with shiok chilli to keep us feeling full and satisfied.

Blessed we were too, that we were only half an hour behind schedule despite the awful traffic. And then, we were back home, in Hattenheim.