www.theblisspages.com - travel: Germany
www.theblisspages.com - travel: GermanyI've been to Germany on many occasions, so I thought I'd concentrate on the main conurbations I've visited.
I last visited Hamburg as the tall ships visited. The crowds were unperturbed by the light drizzle falling, and the boats were a magnificent sight.
Another sight was the 'Reeperbahn' - the red light district. This was extensive, but I only walked down it to get to the harbour. Honest!
I was there shortly after the breakdown of my first marriage, and was sometimes enveloped in a miasma of depression. I remember wandering round the streets - no, not those streets - with my walkman playing Depeche Mode's Black Celebration album at high volume, and this album still always reminds me of Germany.
I have fonder memories of Cologne (or Köln): sitting in beer gardens drinking aromatic white wines with a former colleague, Elvira; eating asparagus in the 'Spagel' season; the magnificent Köln cathedral with its superb views; and the trams.
I spent a happy weekend with some colleagues travelling down the Rhine in a hired car. To start with, whenever we stopped for refreshment, my colleagues would have a glass of house wine, and I would sample the delights of the wine lists. They looked at their insipid white liquid and then at the rich almost oily greenish-yellow nectar I was drinking. By the end of the weekend, they had been converted, and we were all sampling the best the Rheingau has to offer. I drank wines from other regions in Germany too and bought some wines to take home, including a couple of bottles of Bernkasteler Doctor, one of the smallest Einzellages in Germany - only a couple of hundred yards long. I kept it for nearly a decade before drinking it.
Of course, I can't talk about Germany without mentioning Essen.
I have been to Essen several times for the International Games Fair. See my games page for reports on my visits there.
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: © Mike Bliss 2008