The West (or was that the waste) of Germany
Trip Start
Mar 05, 2008
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78
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Trip End
Jan 11, 2009
Cologne,
North Rhine-Westphalia,
Germany
Monday, October 6, 2008
When we woke up on the last morning in Berlin, it was actually 'Unification Day' in Germany (I guess just like Australia Day), so we really thought about staying on an extra day, because we knew they'd been setting up for a big shin dig in the centre of Berlin. But we figured it was best to move on due to time & wanting to see other things, etc.
So we headed towards Cologne. It was a big drive, so we broke it up with a quick visit to Wernigerode along the way. We got to see the big Schloss castle up on the hill, but decided not to go up ... we are very quickly getting 'schlossed out'! The centre of the old town was once again really cool - all cobble stones and half wood buildings.
The Old Rathaus (town hall) was an interesting building with wooden figures carved on the outside. Legend has it that the guy fell out with authorities during the carving, and so added a few mocking touches - just to piss them off! I like him already.
The rest of the afternoon was spent making our way to Cologne. What started out as a pleasant day, got gradually worse, until we were once again in the pouring rain. We arrive4d about 6pm, got ourselves set up ... and then (Thank the Lord) we were able to do some washing! I think the people who have to sit next to us on the public transport are also thanking the Lord!
Cologne was a bit of a let down really. We only really went to see the big cathedral ... and yes, it was absolutely HUGE, but apart from that ... I guess we're just over the bigger German cities. Ian hasn't really liked either of the last two places, so I felt pretty bad for dragging us all the way over to the West coast, when we just could have gone South from Berlin. We hoped that our next stop would be more enjoyable.
We decided to do a trip down the Moselle through the Moselle Valley & we settled on a place called Cochem. It was a quaint little old town with plenty of the half wooden buildings we've been seeing ... and the now, mandatory castle up on a hill!
We did a wine cellar tour at a place called HH Hieronimi - it was all in German, so they gave us some English cards to read from. But when it came time for the tastings, one of the girls behind the bar gave us our own personal tasting & information session. So that was quite nice.
After the tour we took our free shot taster glasses, & our free bottles of wine and found ourselves a campsite for the night.
Next morning we headed back into town for a quick look around & to take a few snaps before heading off to Stuttgart.
Auf Wiedersehen!
