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- 日2
- 2024年5月1日水曜日 18:26
- ☀️ 14 °C
- 海抜: 38 m
カナダWest End49°16’44” N 123°7’34” W
Sitrep Day 1

Hi folks, we started late this morning after a late arrival from our 13 hour flight last night, plus some issues with getting our e-SIMS to work fully. Now resolved - I think!!
We started with brunch at Breka Bakery, a cross between Brunettis in Melbourne and La Cloche in Wellington. Excellent.
Then onto the HopOn HopOff bus to Canada Square, Vancouver’s cruise ship terminal and conference centre. Three cruise ships in port, each one bigger than the last, the CROWN PRINCESS at 114,000 tonnes! We both agreed we were glad we weren’t on that kind of cruise!
We then caught a free shuttle to the 400m Capilano Suspension Bridge. Great experience, well worth the cost of the tickets. Des’s reaction “We did it, we did it, we really, really did it!”
Great gift shop. They had several attractive ammonite rings at half price (yes, I had to google it too!), but sadly they were all too small for Des’s finger. Bought t-shirt, hats & socks. 😟
Back to the hotel for wine and a light dinner - a long time coming in an empty restaurant, and my side of prawns was cold.
More Vancouver tomorrow, then Lufthansa to Munich.もっと詳しく
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- 日4
- 2024年5月3日金曜日 20:04
- ☁️ 11 °C
- 海抜: 526 m
ドイツBogenhausen48°9’7” N 11°36’59” E
Last Day in Vancouver

Excellent breakfast again at Breka Café. This morning we were joined by a strange of man who shuffled between the tables muttering to himself in gibberish. He wasn’t harassing anyone so we avoided eye contact and he eventually toddled off.
After having such a good time at Capilano the day before, we decided to focus on one destination rather than rush about (“aboot!”).
Van Dusen Gardens, developed by enthusiasts over 60 years on the site of an old golf course (rather like Pukeiti) was listed in the top 10 gardens of North America, so there we went.
Wow! And again wow!. This is a stunner for anyone interested in gardens. Towering pines and majestic redwoods, one picturesque lake after another. Walked around for two hours, then hopped on the golf cart tour and saw some more. People as always in Canada very pleasant and welcoming.
Dies Nefas! 3 May, Vancouver to Munich.
The Romans were very superstitious. They believed that particular days were inherently lucky - Dies Fas - or unlucky (Dies Nefas). Any venture undertaken on such a day was bound to go awry.
Our Lufthansa flight started well enough, with a fine modern Airbus 350-900. Wider seats and enough legroom to keep knees clear of the seat ahead.
Unfortunately the plane was choko, with us in the central (claustrophobic) row. Alas too, the temperature was set to poach the passengers rather than cool them. Wrapped up like a mummy, overheated, with selfish gits keeping their screens on full bore all night - and worst of all, a penetrating drone who carried on a loud monotone, seemingly forever. This meant I got no sleep at all, with Neil not much better.
Finding the baggage carousel in Munich Airport, then waiting for our bags, took almost an hour.
I found a minimart inside the airport, bought some basics, took a (seedy ) taxi to the hotel, tottered jet-lagged inside, then discovered I had left the groceries in their black bag in the back of the taxi - which of course had shot through.
Sigh. Worse was to come. When Neil finished unpacking he discovered - horror - that his best outfit in the black Rembrandt bag had been left behind inside the poky black wardrobe.
Aargh! Rang the hotel in Vancouver who had found the suit holder. We arranged to courier it back to NZ.
Things looked up when we discovered a little Imbiss (fast food shop) down the road from our Munich hotel. Meals basic but cheap and filling. Next door was a REWE supermarket. Replaced what we had lost with better quality.
Here’s hoping tomorrow goes better. Hop-on, hop-off bus tour of Munich.
Concierge very helpful. Bed looking pretty good right now.もっと詳しく
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- 日5
- 2024年5月4日土曜日 13:26
- ☁️ 16 °C
- 海抜: 530 m
ドイツSchlosspark Nymphenburg48°9’21” N 11°30’1” E
4 May: HopOn HopOff Day

Today I had booked a HopOn HopOff bus around Munich. We set off on the U-Bahn subway into town (Des wanted a window seat so she could look at the view), and hopped on the bus.
The first part of the ride was mostly office and apartment buildings as you might expect, so when the bus got to Schloss (Castle) Nymphenburg we hopped off. Good move!!
This was the King of Bavaria’s summer palace. We spent most of the day there, and as you can see from the photos, it’s stunning. Beautiful rooms, an amazing collection of porcelain, a fantastic museum of state carriages and gold horse regalia, and a geranium house full of geranium shapes and sizes I’ve never seen. And there were other palaces in the grounds that we didn’t see.
We’re both a bit knackered tonight - 14,590 steps today according to my watch!
Day trip by train to Salzburg in Austria tomorrow - Mozart’s birthplace.もっと詳しく
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- 日6
- 2024年5月5日日曜日 20:54
- ⛅ 16 °C
- 海抜: 526 m
ドイツBogenhausen48°9’7” N 11°36’59” E
Steps Day! Sunday 5 May

Up at the crack of dawn today. Caught the convenient local U-Bahn (Underground) into München Hof ( the main railway station) to catch our 0816 train to Salzburg. Having to pinch myself at the idea of nipping off after breakfast to a different country, then bimbling back for dinner!
Seats (First Class) very roomy and comfortable. The train was so quiet and rode so smoothly that the only sign it was travelling was the countryside rolling past. An hour and three quarters later we arrived at the very modern station in Salzburg.
Sunday morning: streets deserted, all shops shut! It was like a day-after-the-apocalypse movie. We did eventually find a café which did a delicious iced coffee with ice- cream topped mit Schlagobers (whipped cream). This accompanied applecake (good) and Sacher Torte (stale).
Then off to the Hohensalzburg, the massive castle complex (really a small town) which has dominated the town below since the Middle Ages. This was the seat of the Prince-Archbishops of Salzburg (100 of them) who ruled with absolute power.
First set of steps up to the funicular railway. This runs straight up the face of a sheer stone cliff at such an angle that the interior of the car is three separate rooms, each a storey above the last.
14,638 steps today! Up, down, along, around, beside, above and below. Walled terraces with amazing views. Prisons, watchtowers, medieval staterooms, an armoury, a museum of the later Habsburg Army, peeking out barred windows in massive walls many feet thick. Straight stairs, spiral stairs, worn marble stairs, more stairs.
It certainly was a massive if claustrophobic statement of power. Though beseiged, it was never captured. Certainly well worth seeing. It must have been so cold in the winter .
We were pretty hungry after using all those calories and tottered down to a most wecome Italian eatery in the square where we got excellent espresso macchiato (expresso with a touch of milk) and superb omelettes with sliced ham and cheese. Yum!
Next, to the exquisite Kollegienkirche (university church). We found this a month ago on YouTube. Perfect balance and proportion, the white figures reaching upwards on the walls, balanced by the brown and cream patterns in the marble floors, with larger-than-life paintings in dark colours in the side chapels in deep niches on the walls.
By now we were running out of puff so made our way back to the station, with a Grandma Seat break in the beautiful formal Mirabell gardens. This palace and gardens were built by one of the Prince-Bishops for his mistress and family of 15 kids. He so riled the townspeople that they rebelled, and imprisoned him own castle, where he died. So there!
Journey back home marred by the woman next to Neil dropping her suitcase on his head as she pulled it out of the rack overhead.
Pretty tired when we got home at 1920 but pleased with our day.もっと詳しく
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- 日8
- 2024年5月7日火曜日 18:59
- ☁️ 15 °C
- 海抜: 526 m
ドイツBogenhausen48°9’7” N 11°36’59” E
Schliersee: alpine meadows and a lake, w

We arrived at the Műnchner Banhof (main railway station) this morning in plenty of time for our 0904 departure to Schliersee, a pretty little country holiday destination 50km south of Munich.
Platform 33, our tickets said. Yes, there was a train at 33, but to the wrong destination. After much too-ing and fro-ing, we were told there were three trains stacked on platform 33; ours was the one at the very far end (see photo) and it was leaving in three minutes! Dashing Des put on a commendable turn of speed, and we made it with 30 seconds to spare!
German trains are clean, wide gauge, absolutely steady with no gdunk gdunk because the rails are laid in a continuous roll. A pleasure to travel in.
Some 52 minutes later we arrived at this charming spot. The village at the north end of the lake is full of traditional Alpine houses straight out of Heidi. It is a boating destination in the summer, with alpine sports in the winter. Health spa getaways are very popular in Germany (we passed several).
We followed the sealed pathway that runs 7km around the lake. Grandma seats at regular intervals!
We lunched at La Trattoria Vecchia in the little village at the south end of the lake. A traditional country inn, Italian themed this time, with Italian radio playing.
A yummy pizza and very generous glasses of Weissbier (happy Neil).
Highlights: tranquil lake, steep meadows with brown and white cows wearing broad collars with cowbells. As you walk you are surrounded by their gentle tinkle-tonk (see photo - I have a video to play at home). A pleasant break from the hustle and bustle of the city.もっと詳しく
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- 日9
- 2024年5月8日水曜日 21:20
- ☁️ 11 °C
- 海抜: 526 m
ドイツBogenhausen48°9’7” N 11°36’59” E
8 May: The Romantic Road

“The Romantic Road” was a marketing campaign in the decade after WWII to attract tourists back to Bavaria. It was hugely successful, and today it was our turn!
We climbed on a very comfortable bus, glad to get out of a persistent drizzle. It seemed to take ages to get out of the Munich traffic, but we eventually made to our first stop, Harburg Castle.
Schloss Harburg is reputedly one of the oldest, largest and best preserved medieval castles in southern Germany. It survived sieges and battles, and belonged to the same family for 700 years.
It was a fascinating comparison with Hohensalzburg that we saw a few days ago. Well worth the visit.
Then back in the bus, and on to Rothenburg ob der Tauber. This pretty little town still has a complete surrounding wall and medieval houses, but thankfully modern plumbing!!
There were a couple of highlights. First a great lunch - pork schnitzel and the local Franconian silvaner wine - which we were able to linger over. Des enjoyed the local delicacy, Schneeballen, “snowballs”, made of shortbread ribbons pressed into crunchy balls with an icing sugar coating.
Then a real eye-opener. The local St James church has a wooden sculptured altarpiece by Tilman Riemenschneider, the outstanding German wood carver of the late medieval period (as my art guru informed me!) Absolutely stunning.
In fact the whole church was amazing - everywhere you looked there was wood carving to die for. Plus original stained glass windows 56ft high! Apparently Riemenschneider started a wood carving school that lasted 300 years.
Another great day!もっと詳しく
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- 日10–16
- 2024年5月9日 12:14〜2024年5月15日
- 6泊
- ☁️ 16 °C
- 海抜: 517 m
ドイツSt Boniface's Abbey48°8’40” N 11°33’51” E
9 May: Wedding Anniversary

Three great things happened today.
First, we went to check out the church where my Jury grandmother (Julia Barbara Fischer ) was baptised in 1866. Finding this place was one of the reasons we came to Germany.
The abbey of St Bonifaz is still there, but although the church facade remains, the church behind it was bombed out in WWII.
Mass for the Ascension was ending as we arrived, and the monks made us very welcome, especially when I showed them my grandmother’s baptismal certificate! One of the monks showed us photos of St Bonifaz before and after the bombing. 😫
The new modern church is only half the size of the original, with the other half now a community centre - inside the old back wall.
Both of us found this experience quite emotional. Catching up on family roots is powerful stuff!
The second great part of the day was a visit to Ludwig I’s collection of Greek & Roman sculpture, now in a public gallery called the Glyptothek. Des was in her happy place, especially in the Alexander room. (The front-on dude with the don’t mess with me look.) I didn’t need an audio guide. Good coffee.
The third great thing was our anniversary dinner, shouted us by our four wonderful children.
We were treated like royalty in the hotel biergarten, the best table, complementary Prosecco, and fantastic food. We had white asparagus soup (never heard of white asparagus before), and follow up with exquisitely cooked pork dishes. I haven’t had crackling as good as that I stole from Des’s plate.
And so to bed - another fantastic day!!もっと詳しく
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- 日11
- 2024年5月10日金曜日 12:19
- ☁️ 18 °C
- 海抜: 522 m
ドイツBayerisches Nationalmuseum München48°8’35” N 11°35’26” E
10 May: Golden treasures!

This morning the sky was clear blue and the leaves on the tree-lined streets sparkled with the bright green of spring. A perfect day to visit rhe Bavarian National Museum on the fringe of the magnificent Englisher Garden.
On the way we passed the famous Standing Wave on the Isar river. Fun for surfers and onlookers alike! I regretfully declined Mike’s suggestion to give it a go.
Founded in 1855 by King Maximilian II of Bavaria, this impressive museum complex is worth looking at just as a building.
We chose the Renaissance Dream Vessels exhibition, showing ship design, sea battles and trade in the 15th and 16th centuries. I have always enjoyed detailed ship models (blame the shipbuilders’ models in the old Auckland War Memorial Museum).
Here were detailed models of famous vessels of their time, like Henry VIII’s carrack Henry Grace à Dieu, the “Great Harry”, and the Portuguese Bom Jésus, wrecked off the coast of Namibia in 1533 and found only in 2008.
Most spectacular were the exquisitely crafted golden ship-shaped goblets. These were the ultimate must-have table centerpieces of their time, made by the goldsmiths of Southern Germany.
The next room was full of beautiful things from the early nineteenth century, when Bavaria was an ally of Napoleon. I’ve always had a soft spot for the dashing Eugène de Beauharnais, son of Josephine. He was handsome, loyal, brave and had an excellent singing voice. Everybody liked him. He married the daughter of the King of Bavaria, and his children married into the great royal families of Europe.
These people had great taste in china. No Briscoes sales for them!
After all this time on our feet we were starving, and lucked upon an Indian restaurant the Sitar, which turned out to be first class and slso reasonably priced.もっと詳しく
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- 日12
- 2024年5月11日土曜日 15:02
- ☁️ 21 °C
- 海抜: 522 m
ドイツAlte Pinakothek48°8’52” N 11°34’15” E
11 May: Meeting the Old Masters

We planned to do some shopping today, so we started late - the shops don’t open till 10. We’re both feeling like a change of clothes, and I need to replace the strides left in Vancouver (now back in NZ), and maybe a jacket.
But all the clothes I looked at were so expensive they made Rembrandt look like Farmers!
So we settled for lunch and a return visit to the Frauenkirche, which made such an impact on us a couple of days ago.
We decided to spend the afternoon at the Alte Pinakothek. This art gallery is home to one of the largest collections of European painting in the world. I had no idea there would be such an extraordinary number (700) and range of paintings, from late medieval to early 20th century.
We were just blown away. Again and again Des would jump up and down, saying “I’ve got that picture in a book at home”, or come out (as you might perhaps have expected!) with some arcane but insightful comment about a Dürer, a Goya or a Rembrandt. She really has an extraordinary knowledge about many of these masters.
We looked at maybe three quarters of the collection before our legs ran out. Coffee and home. I resisted the 2000 piece jigsaws in the gallery shop!
Another amazing day in Munich. Last day tomorrow, on to Strasbourg Monday.もっと詳しく
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- 日13
- 2024年5月12日日曜日 15:36
- ☀️ 23 °C
- 海抜: 515 m
ドイツEnglischer Garten48°9’18” N 11°35’45” E
12 May: Munich farewell

Mothers’ Day today! Started with a first-class breakfast at the hotel.
Then as I took it easy, Neil fulfilled his long-held ambition to visit the site where his great-grandparents lived, Nymphenbergerstrasse 58.
Unsurprisingly the original building was gone (90% of central Munich was destroyed during WW II) but he did find the address, now an Apotheke (Chemist). It meant a lot to him to touch base with his family’s history after 158 years.
It was another glorious spring day, so we took Mike’s advice and visited the Englischer Garten, created by Englishman Sir Benjamin Thompson in 1789. This huge inner-city park, 375 hectares, has 78 km of paths, surfing on an artificial wave, a lake with boats, a riding school, Beer gardens, landmarks like the Chinese Tower, and thousands of majestic mature trees, all in vivid spring green. Thousands of families, hundreds of small dogs, bikes in every conceivable size and shape, people everywhere quietly enjoying themselves.
The helpful concierge had given us the number for our bus, which took us back to our hotel.
A lovely balmy afternoon, and an appropriate end to our stay in this beautiful city.
As Milton says,
“Tomorrow to fresh fields, and pastures new.”もっと詳しく

You look wonderfully well and happy Des, we are enjoying following your travels. XX [Helen and Malc]
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- 日14
- 2024年5月13日月曜日 15:48
- ⛅ 24 °C
- 海抜: 148 m
フランスPalais Rohan48°34’50” N 7°45’11” E
13 May: Munich to Strasbourg

Up at 5, breakfast, and into the taxi ordered for 6 am. All went well until the driver tried to take a shortcut. We got caught for 10 or 15 minutes in a narrow alley behind a not-moving rubbish truck. 😡 We got to the train with only a few minutes to spare, lugged bags up the stairs, and found our seats occupied already. 😟 It turned out that our travel agent had made seat reservations (a must on this train) for Sunday, not for the Monday I had booked!! 😡😡 I managed to track down the train “chef” and explained. He was great, directed me to a couple of unreserved seats. Three hours later we made it to Strasbourg France. Whew!!😀
We stayed in an apartment right in the centre of town, and after a light 3 course (“Plat du Jour”) for 17 euro at a local restaurant - and a divine espresso - we went down to the river, and caught an hour-long Batorama cruise around the inner city. Great fun!
A strange mixed day, with a stressful morning, but a much better afternoon.
Tomorrow am, the first of two reasons we came to Strasbourg - Notre Dame Cathedral, one of the great gothic cathedrals.もっと詳しく
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- 日15
- 2024年5月14日火曜日 15:02
- ☀️ 26 °C
- 海抜: 142 m
フランスStrasbourg48°35’2” N 7°44’46” E
14 May: A morning in Strasbourg

The historic city of Strasbourg is very compact, tucked into an island surrounded by the River Ill. Everywhere there are charming old buildings, some criss-crossed with crazy gables and painted beams, uneven with age; later ones in the severe French style, with straight lines, exact proportions, and shutters, with the windows opening inwards.
We were heading for the famous cathedral, but were side-tracked-fatally - by a little square full of open-air book stalls. I’m not sure how we will get it home, but I was seduced by a three-volume biography of Maurice de Talleyrand, a favourite of mine.
Strasbourg cathedral, one of the greatest Gothic churches, is another jaw-dropper, this time in red sandstone.
What power of mind could imagine the initial idea? Let alone have the skills to calculate the stresses and forces acting on mountains of stone, somehow magicked into soaring veils of stone lace?
Walking inside is like entering a jewel box of vivid colour, everywhere you look. Mighty pillars that somehow look like graceful treetrunks. Then at the end, the rose window glowing out of the darkness. And all this extended, repaired, maintained for 900 years through weather, war, and revolution. Everywhere beautiful statues, (eg Joan of Arc), altars, carvings, an organ somehow mounted halfway up the wall, and a magnificent old clock.
Emerging into the sunlight, we found an ice-cream shop - just the thing for a hot afternoon. Neil chose pistachio and chocolate; I had melon. Delicious. Don’t know why they din’t make it at. (They also had kiwi!! N)
A more serious note as we walked back was a squad of six French soldiers, in full battle gear, with machine-guns at the ready, fanning out through the crowd. Turns out there was a serious manhunt on after a prisoner escaped that morning; two prison officers killed, and others seriously wounded.
Back to the apartment for the challenge of the afternoon: 1: finding the laundry and 2: making it work!
Neil had found the local branch of the famous Paris store Galèries Lafayette, potential target tomorrow!もっと詳しく
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- 日16
- 2024年5月15日水曜日 11:08
- ☁️ 16 °C
- 海抜: 152 m
フランスPalais Rohan48°34’51” N 7°45’6” E
15 May: the 3 museums of Palais Rohan

Today was really different: we visited the building that started life in the 1730s as the residence of the prince-bishops and cardinals of the aristocratic Rohan family. It has hosted King Louis XV, Marie Antoinette and Napoleon, and more recently Margaret Thatcher and Barack Obama. It now hosts three museums.
We started the day with the beautiful state apartments (together designated a Museum of Decorative Arts), which provide a wonderful insight into the life of the rich and powerful through multiple regimes. These were overwhelming, and Des fell particularly in love with the library. This museum also included collections of chinaware and religious chalices etc from the period.
The Museum of Fine Arts was on the first floor of the building, and displayed an amazing range of paintings from the 14th to the 18th centuries.
In need of sustenance after all this, we retired to a cafe for the Plat du Jour, today (1) a fresh salad, (2) a pork steak smothered in a mushroom sauce, and (3) a mille feuille for dessert.
Another visit to Strasbourg’s stunning cathedral, then on to museum 3, the Archaeological Museum. We saw artifacts from all over Alsace, from the earliest inhabitants (600,000 years ago!) through to the Romans. Strasbourg got its name from a huge Roman garrison camp on the site.
We finished the day with a special exhibition of the work of Gustave Doré, the Alsatian famous for his etchings, paintings and book illustrations. What a talent!
Another very interesting and challenging day. Tomorrow, high speed train(s) - one change - to Cologne.もっと詳しく
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- 日17
- 2024年5月16日木曜日 11:17
- ☁️ 17 °C
- 海抜: 105 m
ドイツMörfelden-Walldorf50°0’33” N 8°35’42” E
16 May: Alarums and Excursions

Shakespeare’s famous stage direction is an apt introduction to today’s adventures.
This was our trickiest day. To reach Cologne we must board the TGV ( high speed train) at Strasbourg (France), travel to Mannheim (Germany), unload our bulky luggage, find the correct platform for the second train, board it and get off in time in Cologne before the ICE (German high speed train) shot off to its ultimate destination in Kiel.
After our scare in Munich, where we found the correct carriage and seats with only minutes to spare, we decided to take no chances. We arrived at Le Gare Strasbourg at 0800. Heaps of time (we thought ) for us to find our first train, due to leave at 0905.
The minutes ticked by as we paced the gloomy corridors, avoiding hoards of worried looking people on their way to work. Deutche Bahn, the German rail service prides itself on clear explanation, helpful staff and informative signboards so you can find your way around,
Not the French so-called “Information” office, staffed by a woman whose ancestors surely knitted at the guillotine.
Neil asked which was the platform for our train.
Until it arrives I will not know.
Who can I ask?
The train manager.
Where can I find him?
With the train. You must watch the notices.
What is the final destination of the Mannheim train?
(Triumphantly) I don’t know.
We were getting nervous by this stage as I had worked out that there was less than 20 minutes between when the incoming showed up on the signboard and when it left. But Google saved the day; once we learned the first train was going to Frankfurt we at least knew which name to look for!
We were later told by a friendly US couple, married 52 years to our 54, and similarly touring the great gothic cathedrals, that French railway personnel hate Eurail passes (like ours).
We had now learned to park our heavy suitcases downstairs on two-level trains. We then made our way upstairs to enjoy the endless variety of life on the TGV - a charming young man from Tunisia (North Africa), who works between Paris snd Strasbourg (his super-cute little boy gave us big smiles). Four young musicians totally focussed on a table covered in musical scores (Ionesco’s Octet).
The second leg of our journey went more smoothly. But we were relieved to exit correctly, on the right side of the train, onto the modern and well-lit Hauptbahnhof at Cologne.
And there, straight ahead, were the towering twin spires of Cologne Cathedra: at 157m, the tallest twin-spired chuch in the world, Germany’s most-visited landmark (6 million visitors a year.)
After dumping our bags with great relief at the hotel, we walked to the Rhine river and rhe famous Hohenzollern railway bridge (417m). The original three-span bridge was built by Kaiser William II in 1911. Its piers were blown up by the Nazis in 1945 in a vain attempt to halt the Allied advance into Germany.
It has now been reconstructed as a railway bridge with a separate pedestrian/ cyclist path. The wire fences are covered in padlocks.
We walked across, looking down at the huge barges passing underneath, feeling the path vibrate with each passing train.
Then back to the hotel, just missing a mid-afternoon thunderstorm and heavy downpour.もっと詳しく
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- 日18
- 2024年5月17日金曜日 13:12
- ☁️ 17 °C
- 海抜: 56 m
ドイツCologne Cathedral50°56’28” N 6°57’27” E
17 May: Cathedral & chocolate!

We enjoyed a late start today, lolling in bed till after 10 - a very comfortable bed too, though it squeaks with any movement!
We had a Thai curry for lunch, and then walked over to the Cathedral, or “Dom”. I had booked a guided tour at 2pm, but we had an hour beforehand, so we spent the time wandering around the church taking photos.
What an amazing building! Started in 1248, it took over 600 years to finish. We were both blown away by the beauty everywhere you looked. And so many different spaces - behind the high altar there are seven chapels to accommodate the Masses each priest in the Chapter had to say each day.
The Cathedral was started to provide an appropriate home for the supposed bones of the Three Kings of the Christmas Story. These relics quickly became popular with pilgrims, who came to venerate them.
The relics are housed in a beautiful gold casket, studded with 1000 gems- see photos.
Come 2 o’clock, we reported for our tour, which was led by a young religious brother. He gave us a lot of additional interesting information about the Cathedral, such as the age of different elements - the oldest stained glass window dates from 1260!!
The Cathedral is right next to Cologne’s main railway station, and close to the Rhine River’s bridges, so damage was inevitable in World War II. Fourteen incendiary bombs landed on the Cathedral, and although the lower windows and furniture had been removed for safety, the upper windows, roof and masonry suffered badly.
Fortunately the towers (mostly) survived, and there are pictures from that time showing the Cathedral surrounded by an utter wasteland. Awful.
As we left the church, Des caught sight of a little yellow train, and she thought that could be fun! The train turned out to be the Schoko Express, which took us to the Chocolate Museum. This turned out to be an excellent museum about the history and development of the chocolate industry. Funded by Lindt, the museum also includes a working chocolate factory, and a chocolate fountain!!
Another great day!
Tomorrow, day trip to Aachen and Charlemagne.もっと詳しく
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- 日19
- 2024年5月18日土曜日 10:30
- ☁️ 13 °C
- 海抜: 179 m
ドイツElisenbrunnen50°46’31” N 6°4’58” E
18 May: The shrine of Mighty Charles

This morning we headed west to Aachen. Cologne was humid, with the occasional thunderstorm. We dressed for spring weather, then travelled through flat misty countryside to arrive at decidedly chill Aachen.
Frustrating, as we had been carting around our winter clothes since Vancouver, and today had left them behind. Neil got a lot of mileage out of his nobility in lending me his raincoat!
After a reviving expresso we found the Cathedral Treasury. The mighty Charlemagne built the cathedral, started in 796, as his Royal Chapel, in the Byzantine style, a high octagon with marble pillars, sixteen vaults, and exquisite gold interlaced mosaics. A gothic hall for pilgrims and a stunning chapel with soaring walls of stained glass were added.
It is a unique treasure which has survived Viking raids, Napoleonic plunder and more recently Allied bombing attacks and artillery fire. Some parts of the complex were destroyed beyond repair, but 30 years of restoration, costing €40 million euros, have rescued this unique treasure, one of the first buildings to be declared a world heritage site.
We have seen a number of cathedral treasuries, but this one blows your socks off. This stuff is authentic (Charlemagne’s hunting knife, well worn, with sheath, and his hunting horn), of the highest medieval workmanship (how did they do this stuff back then?) and unique in the light it throws on earlier ages. These are not just superb decorative objects.. They are reliquaries - the golden hand with a bone from the emperor’s arm; the famous bust (in all the history books) with part of his skull inside, the intricate gold construction that holds part of his thighbone.
Pilgrims travelled from all over Europe to be close to these objects of power and blessing. We may scoff, but the adulation poured out on modern pop stars comes from the same impulse: to share a power greater than our own. Plus what we do in plastic, they did in gold of the highest workmanship.
This man laid the foundations of European civilization, three hundred years after Rome had collapsed. He deserves our respect..もっと詳しく
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- 日20
- 2024年5月19日日曜日 12:28
- ☀️ 22 °C
- 海抜: 海水位
オランダMuseumplein52°21’33” N 4°52’58” E
19 May: Rembrandts Galore!

We started early to catch our high speed train to Amsterdam. No problems in a 3+ hour very smooth trip - 268km. The only odd things were the periodic warnings (in 3 languages!) from the train staff about pickpocket train riders!
We caught a tram to the Rijksmuseum, our reason for the trip. After a stop for lunch we presented ourselves at the appointed time - when you book a visit to this museum, you are given a a 15 minute entry window, and told if you miss the window you won’t be admitted!
So to the Rijksmuseum. This wonderful place hosts 22 Rembrandts and four Vermeers. We saw most if not all of these, plus a good number of the other 6,000 paintings in the museum!
We had planned to focus on Rembrandt - and we spent considerable time with him - but the range of subjects and sheer talent displayed in all the paintings we saw was overwhelming.
At the shop we bought postcards - and a 1000-piece jigsaw of Rembrandt’s Night Watch painting!
After a break at the café and the WC (free here, not the usual 2 Euros!) we turned to a couple of other topics of interest, Waterloo and a collection of ship models.
The Waterloo exhibition was a disappointment, with most of the exhibits bearing little or no relationship to the battle, but a strong interest in the Dutch connection.
By contrast, the dozens of ship models were superb. Galleys, galliasses, merchant ships and warships were all created in such detail that made you wonder how anyone could have had such skill - and that much patience!
Now came one of the highlights. Take a 2-metre long model of a Dutch warship. Both the warship and the model were built in the 1860s, but the model is split fore and aft so you can see inside all the decks.
Now get some modern wizard to create little holographic people doing their thing in each deck - absolutely brilliant.
Back to the train station, and thence to Cologne. Another brilliant day!
But we’re ready for a rest day tomorrow - just as well, as all the shops are shut for Pentecost Monday!
Last word today from Des:
Song 🎼
A day trip to Amsterdam?
In our youth we were very demure
And our lives were obedient and pure
We worked at our studies and never got drunk
I lived with my folks, as did Neil, an ex-monk
While others flew off to enjoy their OE
We had beautiful babies and mortgages three
(Plus two others) which kept us both very busy
With the RNZN and my long PhD.
For our 40th at last we got Europe to see-
Covid nuked plans for anything more.
But now over seventy-five
We will celebrate being alive
We can do crazy things like a trip on a whim
To the great Rijksmuseum to see Rembrandt van Rijn
Despite aches and twinges and wrinkly skin
You’re never too old for a quest to begin
(Think of Bilbo! But hopefully not with a Ring)
We can all of us prosper and thrive!もっと詳しく
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- 日21
- 2024年5月20日月曜日 13:01
- ⛅ 19 °C
- 海抜: 54 m
ドイツCologne50°56’9” N 6°57’1” E
20 May: Rest Day?

Today dawned misty, humid (91% humidity and heavily overcast). We were tired after the big emotional high of our Rembrandt Run yesterday. But hey, this was our last day in Cologne, and we won’t be back anytime soon, so we headed off through the empty streets (today being a feast day holiday) down to the mighty River Rhine. (Cue Wagner🎶 Siegfried’s Rhine Journey).
The Rhine had swollen overnight. The riverside promenade was flooded, with Warning High Water signs closing access.
We found our cruise boat and sat on the upper deck watching the City go by, while eating sausage and chips with curry sauce.
A panorama of cultural treasures carefully reconstructed after the Allied bombing, cheap boxy housing run up after the war to house what was left of the people, and modern luxury apartments in interesting designs.
From time to time mega barges would shoulder their purposeful way past us.
In NZ we have seagulls. On the Rhine, ravens. I kept looking about anxiously for an old man with a floppy hat and one eye.
After the cruise we walked back through the Old Market and main shopping areas. Interesting to look at but saved from temptation as they were all shut!
Our last port of call was the Roman-German Museum. The Roman Emperor Augustus founded a city here in the first century CE: Colonia Claudia Ara Aggippinensium. This strategic site was a major military and trade centre. Soldiers, traders, workers, craftsmen, families came from all over the world, telling their stories in inscriptions and the huge numbers of everyday things like the 1.6 million objects , from boathooks to nit combs, retrieved by archaelogists from the bottom of the Roman harbour.
Wealthy citizens lived in city villas decorated with mosaic floors, wall paintings, fine tableware, exquisite glassware and jewellery.
We were running out of legs after viewing these treasures, remarkable because they all came from the same place over hundreds of years. Luckily the helpful lady at the desk pointed out a taxi stand a few metres away, so we gratefully took our throbbing feet home!
Time to pack up and prepare for our big rail journey tomorrow - four plus hours north to Hamburg.もっと詳しく

All that Roman history from the immediate area. Trust you Des to sniff it out but it sounds like a great museum. [Liz Major]
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- 日22
- 2024年5月21日火曜日 14:35
- ⛅ 24 °C
- 海抜: 19 m
ドイツBramfelder See53°37’30” N 10°4’4” E
21 May: To Hamburg

We shouted ourselves a lovely hotel breakfast, with the aim of keeping us fed through the four hour (432 km) from Cologne to Hamburg.
We made it to the main train station in miles of time - had to watch three other trains use our platform before our ICE arrived. As we found before, platforms at the main city stations in Germany are so long, that as well as its number, each platform is divided into zones A to G. Signage then tells you in which zone your carriage will stop.
For this train the Eurail planner told me when I looked that there was no need to reserve seats. So I didn’t - mistake! The first class carriages were packed.
Des & I eventually found a couple of odd unoccupied seats, and settled down. Half an hour and a couple of stops later, it turned out that the seats we were in belonged to a couple who had reserved their seats.
So we got booted out, but fortunately there were a couple of unreserved seats close by. We spent the rest of the journey back to back - quite peaceful, actually.
We arrived at Hamburg Dammtor station, built especially for Emperor Wilhelm II. As we were drifting along the platform, wondering if there was a lift to take us down to ground level, we were greeted by a wonderful smile - Des’s old friend Marie-Thérèse had come to pick us up!
Marie-Thérèse fitted us and all our junk into her car (another example of how accommodating and flexible a Honda Jazz is!), and we set off.
First we visited the cemetery at Ohlsdorf where Marie-Thérèse’s husband Gerhardt was buried 12 years ago. The cemetery is unlike any I have ever seen before, with graves surrounded (and mostly hidden from the road) by brilliant banks of mauve rhododendrons. We took a circular route to the grave, enjoying the walk, and in particular a couple of geese and their goslings’ antics.
Second stop was for ice creams - yum!
At home, Marie-Thérèse had cooked a lovely loaf of bread for our lunch.
As I began to write this, two beautiful ladies were in full flow catching up on years of unshared experiences interspersed with reminiscence.もっと詳しく
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- 日23
- 2024年5月22日水曜日 13:55
- ☁️ 21 °C
- 海抜: 30 m
ドイツUlzburg Süd53°46’12” N 9°59’10” E
22 May: A quiet day in Hamburg

Our journey from Cologne yesterday was the longest and last of our stages with (rather too much!) luggage.
So this morning we were happy to take things easy. I enjoyed the sound of birdsong rather than the EEE AWW of sirens. Instead of looking out the window to see grinding traffic, every window showed green lawns, trees in their spring foliage, mauve rhododendrons, foxgloves, and flame-coloured azaleas.
After meal planning we walked through this pretty garden suburb to the local EDEKA supermarket. This was large, pleasant and well-stocked, with a café where we enjoyed lunch.
The girls would enjoy the mini-car kiddy trolleys (see the photo).
We also chuckled at the variety of “Don’t Let Your Dog Poo On My Lawn” notices (one attached).
A thunderstorm was forecast for the early afternoon. Luckily for us it held off until after we got home.
We were booked for Miniatur Wonderland that night. Report on this in next morning!もっと詳しく
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- 日23
- 2024年5月22日水曜日 22:42
- ☁️ 15 °C
- 海抜: 17 m
ドイツSandtorhafen53°32’37” N 9°59’20” E
22 May: Miniatur Wunderland

We set off later that night to visit Miniatur Wunderland. 23 years ago, brothers Frederik and Gerrit Braun decided to turn their passion for model-making into a business. They started building intricate model scenes at a scale of 1:187 in one of the historic harbour warehouses at Speicherstadt.
Since then they have created 13 themed sites with over a million tiny figures, the world’s biggest model railway : over 16,000 metres of track, 1,231 engines, 12,000 wagons , 1403 signals, 541,000 LEDs, controlled by 59 computers. Cost: 45 million Euros!
It has expanded across four floors and is one of the most visited sites in Germany.
Displays are site-specific in tiny detail (with human interest and comic details if you look closely).
I’ve listed the two real-life scenes of Hamburg harbour at the start:
Elbphilharmonie Concert Hall, and harbour; Speicherstadt historic warehouses (Hamburg has more canals than Venice).
Then the Wunderland: Monte Carlo Rally (cars actually racing); Rio de Janeiro favelas (slums) and Presidential Palace.
Disneyland by night; Hamburg city (this display runs into the next room); Speicherdstadt warehouses; Ocean Liner leaving port.
Absolutely fantastic - a must-see if you ever get to Germany.もっと詳しく
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- 日25
- 2024年5月24日金曜日 13:16
- ☁️ 22 °C
- 海抜: 12 m
ドイツBahnhof Veddel53°31’14” N 10°1’2” E
24 May: A Tale of Two Museums

Next destination was a drive south to the Ballinstadt Emigration Museum. Albert Ballin, a Hamburg shipping magnate, invented the concept of the cruise ship, with the purpose-built Prinzessin Victoria Luise in 1899. (The sleek white ship in the photo).His HAPAG shipping line was for a time the biggest in the world.
He also turned Hamburg into “ the emigration centre of the world”. He set up a complex of emigration halls which were home to five million emigrants from all over Europe, seeking new lives in the US, Canada, Australia and even New Zealand (the Bohemian settlement at Puhoi). Rich, successful, favoured by Kaiser Wilhelm II, his empire crumbled with the onset of the First World War, which he had tried hard to avert.
His world-leading facility was taken over by the German Goverment as a military hospital, his emigration business dried up. In November 1918 his three crack liners Vaterland, Bismarck and Imperator were seized as war reparations (renamed Leviathan, Majestic, and Berengaria). Hearing that his friend and benefactor Kaiser Wilhelm II had abdicated, Ballin took an overdose of sleeping pills.
Three of the immigration halls have been rebuilt since the 1960s as the Ballinstadt Emigration Museum.
They show how thousands of people were fed, housed, organised, health checked, had the necessary papers organized, and were shipped to their destinations.
Memoirs from the people themselves tell what it was like. There are also displays on post-war emigration (Marie-Thérèse was comparing her own family experience as Dutch immigrants in the 1950’s) and
immigration worldwide (see the Banksy).
I was very taken with the gift shop’s souvenir soft toy, a fetching rat of great charm, but Neil drew the line and I sadly had to leave Ratty behind.
Next we drove north almost to Kiel, to the Schleswig-Holstein Open Air Museum at Molfsee. Here are 40 hectares of meadows, gardens, dikes and over 70 historic buildings, farms and mills typical of the region.
We missed the live activities that happen on the weekends, but the buildings, some over 200 years old, showed what daily life was like in a typical Schleswig-Holstein village.
There were also sobering exhibits on the plight of the desperate refugees who fled westward from the advancing Russian Army in the last bitter months of 1945.
Many thanks to our hostess for driving us far beyond the usual Hamburg city tourist sites for these unique experiences.もっと詳しく
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- 日26
- 2024年5月25日土曜日 13:38
- ☁️ 19 °C
- 海抜: 36 m
ドイツUlzburg Süd53°46’21” N 9°58’24” E
25 May: Rest Day!!

We had a quiet day today; not a single church, museum or even train!!
After a relaxed breakfast etc, Des & I went for a walk (~15 minutes) to the local shops. There are two competing supermarkets. We did our shopping at EDEKA - wonderful choice of cheese, including Gruyère from Switzerland. Once we’d finished, Des had to take a nostalgic walk through ALDI which we know from holidays in Melbourne, see photo.
Drifting back, we ate our bread and cheese in the porch at the back of the house. There is a lovely garden, graced by the actual owner of the property, Louis the cat.
The garden has a goldfish pond, which today showed a glorious water lily.
The next night we were going to La Bohème in Lübeck, so I put on our favourite recording of it, and Des & I played Scrabble. I won’t say who won today, but I scored two 7-letters words …
We had a late dinner on a table out the front of the house, sitting in the sunshine - at 8pm!!
One of the features of spring in Hamburg: dawn at 0430, and evenings that extend till 2230!もっと詳しく

Dear Neil and Des, great that you are living the dream come true. Lovely to see you two enjoying your precious time together, and also a country you love so much. Wishing you continuing health and fun on your holiday , lots of love, Malc ( and Helen) [Malcolm Peterson]
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- 日27
- 2024年5月26日日曜日
- ⛅ 22 °C
- 海抜: 495 m
ドイツHerkulesbrunnen48°21’59” N 10°53’38” E
26 May: What a day!

A Wow of a day!
First up: Lutheran Mass at Sankt Michaelis, Hamburg’s most famous church and city landmark. This baroque masterpiece from 1750, affectionately nick-named “Der Michel” (“Our Mickey”) has survived war, Napoleonic invasion, a disastrous fire in 1906 and damage from Allied bombing in 1944.
Today’s service was special as it incorporated a baptismal ceremony. To celebrate, there was a Haydn Mass (Missa Brevis of St John of God, always a delight) performed by professional singers and musicians. To top it off, the nimble organist played at three of the church’s four organs, including the Grand Organ of 1962, which at the time was the biggest church organ in the world.
A moving experience, plus an auditory delight, hearing beautiful music in 3-D sound in a superb church.
Next we drove 64K to the medieval town of Lübeck , “The Queen of the Baltic”. Lübeck was the leader of the Hansa League, a medieval commercial and defensive network of merchant guilds and market towns. For 400 years Hansa shaped the trade and politics of Northern Europe.
Its memory still survives in the German airline Lufthansa-“ the Hanseatic League of the Air.”
Marie-Thérèse’s friend Petra, who lives in the centre of the Old Town (originally a fortified island in the Trave River), acted as our guide.
On our walk we found two sets of “Stumbling Stones”. These are small bronze plaques set into the footpath commemorating Jewish families living at this address who were taken by the Nazis.
First stop was lunch at Schiffergeschellschaft (Ship’s Company) restaurant, founded in 1535!
This is decorated with all sorts of nautical memorabilia. The seats (like pews) have different carved emblems. This was to ensure that crews from different ships and nationalities sat separately and didn’t get into a fight!
After our delicious meal, Petra started showing us around the picturesque streets. Abruptly the clouds that had been gathering turned into a thunderstorm. Luckily for us , Petra knew the lady on the admission desk at the famous Marienkirche (Church of Our Lady), so we made a run for it over the cobbles and dashed through the door just as rhe storm burst.
This remarkable church, built from 1265 by the citizens and governing council of this wealthy city, is 102m long, has towers 125m high, has the tallest brick vault in the world at 38.5 m (126 ft) , and covers 4,400 sq metres (47,361 sq ft).
What makes it more remarkable is that this was the first ever Gothic church built in brick. It was enormously influential, “the mother church of brick Gothic”, and set the standard for 70 other churches in the Baltic region.
Sadly, Bomber Harris of the RAF was looking for revenge targets in Germany after the Luftwaffe raid on Coventry, and on the night of Palm Sunday 1942, the church was almost completely destroyed by fire, along with most of the city centre.
The Old Town was built largely of wood and burned well.
After huge efforts, much of this superb building has been reconstructed, and in 1987 it was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.
After a pleasant break at Petra’s charming apartment nearby, we walked over the cobbles to Lübeck’s Opera House for a performance of Puccini’s La Bohème.
We enjoyed this excellent production, first class voices, good orchestra, deep feeling. It’s an affecting story that had us reaching for our hsnkerchiefs.
The population of Lübeck is 318,000. Imagine a NZ city not much larger than Wellington staging 21 first-class performances of drama, opera and modern shows a year.
After this wonderful day I could only finish with “ They drove home tired but happy.”もっと詳しく
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- 日28
- 2024年5月27日月曜日 16:36
- ⛅ 18 °C
- 海抜: 25 m
ドイツKaltenkirchen Bahnhof53°32’59” N 9°56’8” E
27 May: Around & About Hamburg

Today we had a couple of objectives: first I wanted to get to see the firm that makes a travel version of the breathing machine I’ve used at night for years; second, we wanted to visit a riverside restaurant which acknowledges each of the many ships that head into or out of Hamburg port.
Carrying my bulky F&P machine on our travels has been an absolute pest for both of us, as we knew it would be. I tried to buy the small travel machine in Wellington, but pleasant and helpful though the Wellington agency staff were, they weren’t able to make the ResMed AirMini work for me.
ResMed’s Hamburg office is in Hafen City on the Elbe river, a car ride and a couple of subways away.
Between the car and the first subway we visited St Nikolai’s church, built in the shape of a tear. The original Nikolaikirche was one of the five great Lutheran churches in Hamburg. In the 1870s it was the tallest building in the world, but only the tower survived Bomber Harris in WWII. When the new church was built, the surviving fragments of the original stained glass windows were used to create a commemorative wall and rose window.
When we surfaced from the subway in Hafen City, we were surrounded by huge new buildings under construction, including a six storey Westfield mall. ResMed were great, I bought the machine, and used it successfully for the remainder of our trip. 🙂
Heading back to the car, we headed for afternoon tea at the Willkommen Höft, a large restaurant & wedding venue on the banks of the Lower Elbe.
On the way we detoured to the original Altona. This was originally the southernmost city in Denmark, until Bismarck seized the territory of Schleswig in a short, sharp war in 1864 (setting a very bad precedent for later politicians). The stress is on the first syllable, unlike the Melbourne suburb. Marie-Thérèse wanted to show us the magnificent fountain.
While we were at Wilkommen Höft, a couple of large ships passed us in the river. As they passed, the Hamburg flag on the flagpole was dipped, and the national anthem of the ship’s country of registration was played on huge speakers.
This practice happens between 8am and 8pm for all ships over 1,000 GT. It was started in 1952 by a retired sea captain.
Another great day!!もっと詳しく
Looks like a great first day! Love the photos xx [Alex]
Damn impressive day after a 13 hr flight. Enjoy! [Diane]
Totem look suits you! That bridge looks scary [Rick j]