I went to Germany not expecting much and was pleasantly very surprised. It has alot more going for it than the stereotypes of unsmiling germans in socks and sandals where you can't mention the war. Germany has moved on - especially in Berlin, which is relaxed, cosmopolitan and full of polite, english-speaking germans. The food is dominated by sausages- well meat in generally actually, Gez and I ate about a cow each in our one week stay- but there are also great bakeries full of german pastries, which help offset the huge meals of meat.
We started our trip in Berlin and stayed at a very cool Berlin hostel (fake grass on canvas decorated the walls) and spent the four days at the spots every other tourist congregated at- Brandenburg Gate, Berlin Wall and Checkpoint charlie, Reichstag, nazi sights, jewish museum, art galleries, museums..... There is alot to see in Berlin and we were busy each day jostling with the other tourists for the best pictures, the best memories. The past is very real in Berlin, it is around every corner as you see the sight of Hitler's bunker (now a block of flats), the remnants of the SS buildings, the wall (still in chunks in places and fascinating to see). The highlights were many- the DDR museum showing the life in East Berlin under communism showed a post-war brown and green world of bad 70s clothes, furniture and nude bathing (everyone did it apparently) complete with the Trabi car, the only East German-made car. The Checkpoint Charlie museum on the sight of the Berlin wall was full of the inventions people used to slip past the guards on the walls- such as suitcases, hot air balloons (!), prams, car boots, anything big enough really. It also gave an insight into German humour, with many thankyous to the guards for not learning how to shoot straight.
We finished off in Berlin in time to get a ride through a carpooling service (the germans are very environmentally friendly, maybe it stems from all the nude bathing) to Munich (Munchen). We were driven down by the very jovial and long-haired Joachim, who communicated through facial gestures when he couldn't find the right english word, whilst rushing along the autobahn.
Munich is as different to Berlin as it is humanly possible. They may be in the same country but they are worlds apart- Munich is old Germany- conservative, traditional, full of beer gardens, huge meals (of meat) and elderly very well-dressed couples. The best thing about Munich was the beer garden, the waitresses (beer wenches?) actually wore socks and sandals with long black dresses that had a white 'wenchy' top underneath. It was like they had been dressed for a fancy dress party, though you couldn't tell them this as they were very serious waitresses- efficient, but serious. The food was always quickly dispatched, and involved slightly different variations of sauerkraut or potato accompanying larger and larger sizes of meat. On our last meal Gez ate a pork knuckle which stood completely alone on the plate, its immense size meant the potato and sauerkraut had to be dispatched separately.
The sights in Munich were not as varied as Berlin. The architecture was big, stately and grand, the streets wide. Proportions were large in Munich. The streets when we were there were dominated by two very different groups; the first being the mostly pissed out-of-tune groups of scottish football fans cheering on their team which had beaten Munich FC and the other was a protest of Kosovans cheering the announcement of the independence of their country. Both events happened under the glockenspeil clock, similarly looked on by the well-dressed Munich locals.
We flew out of Munich at night and arrived back in London reeling from the beer, meat and sights of Germany. Wunderba!
