Germany 2002

Whilst the UK partied over the Queens Jubilee weekend I decided to miss this oncein a lifetime opportunty and head to Germany for the long weekend.  The main reason for the trip was to catch up again with Jeorg, a friend I'd met travelling in SE Asia, but also to try to see a little more of Germany rather than the Bier Gardens and Bier Halls which had so dominated my previous trip.

Before Germany however I had to manage to successfully overcome a Friday night in London.  I was faced with a dilemma.  My flight left Stansted at 6:50am.  Stansted Expres starts running at 5:00 and takes 45 mins to get to Stansted......which woudl get me to the airport about an hour before the flight.....that was tight.  The problem I faced though was that Hammersmith to that the Stansted Express leaves from Liverpool street and Hammersmith is a long ride from there.  I decided my second option was to catch a coach at 3:30 from Victoria to Stansted......the only problem here was justifying going to bed early on a Friday night.  I contemplated it.....mometarily and figured it would be far easier not to sleep on friday night........the big problem was though I hadn't counted on wroking at our Croydon office and ending up having a few afterwork drinks and then kicking on to the Red Back in Acton until 1:30am..........short story = not much sleep, but made it to Stansted and caught my flight......slept the whole way on the flight.

Anyway, after arriving in Frankfurt I spent the day doing touristy stuff including the Jewish Museum, and the The Stadel.  The latter had some really cool paintings including a Picasso, a Matisse, a Renoir, a Botticelli and a couple of Monet's.......so feeling pretty cultured I grabbed some local food .....yep beer and a bratwurst and watched the second half of the GermanySaudi Arabia game.....8-0.

Caught the train from Frankfurt to Stuttgart and witnessed the post-match celebrations of a great German victory.  Met up with Jeorg and we went to a celebratory dinner.  I managed to crash Jeorg's post tennis tournement party......nothing like old travelling friends making plans to visit on weekends when you've got things on.  Really great night, and despite being a little tired from my epic effort to make to Stansted, I managed to make it to this German Afterparty......a little more sedate than the ones in London (no loud thumping music).........The highlight of the party had to be when the host opened a couple of fine Red Wines, by a Winemaker with a good German Name......anyone care for a Peter Lehamnn Clancy's Big Red?

Next morning, after a wonderful traditional german breakfast on Jeorg and Daggie's balcony we picked up a mate from London Stu Paton and headed out to do some sightseeing.  We went to the Palace in Ludwigsburg, which cann only be described as Germany's answer to Versailles.  unsing their local knowledge Jeorg and Daggie managed to score cheap entry and a free guided tour for us.....the place was huge and we spent a couple of hours wandering around with the group.  The furnishings and artwork were amazing.  After Ludwigsburg we headed to the "country" retreat of the Baden-Wurtenburg nobility and got an extremely impressive view of Stuttgart and its surrounds.

That evening Jeorg and Daggie took us to a very traditional beer garden.......no tourists here and we tucked into some traditional Schnitzels and other cuisine.  One thing about German menu's, unlike say Italian or French where you can generally work out what u are about to eat with Jeorg's assistance it was pretty much hit and miss.......a bit like a lucky dip with your food.......made it a bit more interesting.  after dinner we went to another beer garden and had a few more quiet ales and just watched the sun go down.

Monday morning w were off early and our original plan was to head to Munich......mainly because although I'd been there before all I'd seen of the place was the beer tents at Oktoberfest and the inside of these really nice German guys house I managed to hook up with after Oktoberfest......our big issue was time and where we were lying out of.  I was flying back out of Frankfurt, whilst Stu was flying out of Dusseldorf, both well North of Munich.  A quick reassessment and we decided to hire a car and head up through Central Germany to Wurzburg (where we lunched and visted another palace) and then onto the old East German town of Erfurt.

Erfurt was a great little town.  The contrast between it and Stuttgart or Wurzburg was remarkable.  Firstly there was the general lack of obvious afluence.  Where in Stuttgart and Wurzburg the number of top end BMW's and Merc's got to the stage where you didn't need to bat an eyelid, in Erfurt things were a little different.  We got to Erfurt late so we just wandered around.  Most of the sights are "free" and the warm evening made it easy.  We had dinner and a few beers in another beer garden.

Our final day, Tuesday was spent in two places, the morning was spen in this litle town called Eisenach, about 50 km's West of Erfurt.  The main feature of this place is another castle, set high on a hill overlooking Eisenach called Wortenburg.  Fantastic looking place.....just like a castle should be.  The unfortnate thing was that this castle only had tours in German and aside from ordering beer, my grasp of the language is pretty ordinary (even despite the lessons Em tried to give me).

Anyway that ended a pretty good weekend.....sorry about the length the e-mail's been written over the space of a few days.

So what's coming up - well its a pretty big month.  On friday I'm off to Madrid for the weekend.  I'm going as part of a Rugby 7's tour......no I don't play Rugby, but every team needs its Director of Liquid Distribution, particularly in the stifling heat.  The weekend after is Gatecrasher.....an all day music event......should be huge.  The weekend after is a going away for 4 of the people I hang with, so that weekend should be pretty big - they're off on a Europe Van tour.......so plenty of things to keep me occupied :)

Anyway......keep writing to me and I'll keep letting you know that I'm still having a ball and it still feels like I'm on holiday (despite those 50 hour working weeks)