Road Trip through Germany (April 2016)

We had the big choice: 1) Maldives, 2) Mauritius, or 3) East Germany. Due to current events, we decided on an approx. 10-day road trip through Germany with a focus on the East. It was a partly adventurous tour that took us…

through beautiful mountain regions, moors, and valleys, past castles, villas, and prefabricated buildings to the border triangle of Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic.

April 14-18 Chur (CH) – Hopferau (D)

Our first stop was in the beautiful Allgäu region. A small, picturesque village called Hopferau. We took a four-day break at Hopferau Castle. Culinary highlights, extensive walks through the beautiful Allgäu lake district, and another visit to Neuschwanstein Castle with our family from Saarland and Switzerland characterized these first four days, between Thursday and Monday.

The Hopferau Castle It was built in 1468 and has repeatedly changed owners, sometimes after only a few years. Shortly after the Second World War, Konrad Zuse sought refuge in the castle and developed the Z4 computer there, the first electromechanical computer.

These contrasts are immediately striking during a visit to the castle. An old knight's hall, a castle chapel (Marienkapelle), and a historic banquet hall with hand-colored wallpaper, of which only 3 examples remain in Europe. These rooms stand in stark contrast to the Zuse Room, where the original components of the first computer are exhibited, as well as several state-of-the-art meeting rooms with the latest LED technology.

If you happen to be in the area around Füssen, I definitely recommend visiting this castle. It's hardly inferior to Neuschwanstein =).

We then visited this with our families on Sundays. The fairy tale castle is, of course, always a highlight. Those who are lucky enough to have a super-fast grandma on board can experience quite a bit at Neuschwanstein. If you take your eyes off Grandma for just a moment, you'll quickly realize that 85-year-olds are by no means just followers. Within minutes, our grandma managed to be driven to Neuschwanstein by bus outside of the schedule, cross the entrance barriers without a ticket, join a Japanese tour, switch to a German tour inside the castle, and then wait for all of us at the exit in the end.

No trace of tiredness, she even insisted on walking down the mountain to the parking lot. That's how grandmas have to be =)

In the evening, we were invited to a BBQ with friends in Landsberg am Lech, which provided a nice and cozy end to the first stop of our trip.

April 18 - April 22. Hopferau - Saxony - Poland - Czech Republic

After a delicious and hearty breakfast, we made our way via Munich and Nuremberg towards Dresden, where we would only check into the hotel that day and enjoy ourselves at the restaurant. The view from our room is great. We look directly at the city from the other side of the Elbe River. The hotel is a bit hidden in the woods, so you can enjoy the peace and quiet and relax wonderfully.

On Tuesday, we continued east. Bautzen was our first destination. A now cozy little city that not only houses countless mustard museums but was also home to two former GDR prisons. One is still in operation today and is used as a correctional facility; Bautzen II now only serves as a museum. We visited this after buying several kilos of mustard and loading it into the car. The latter only becomes strange when you know that I don't like mustard at all. But who knows, maybe that will change.

Back to prison: Apart from Berlin, I'd never been to the East of Germany before. The region's history is incredible. Unfortunately, it's connected to great suffering, but you get a very good insight into the former lives of the people there everywhere. When you consider that carefully, the war here only really ended around 1989 or 1990. The buildings are correspondingly well-preserved, and you can still imagine everything relatively well.

Here's another funny thing for us. You could visit the inner courtyard in the prison wing. To do that, you had to push aside a heavy metal bar and open a double door. A sign asked us to also close the door when we were back. Just then, a woman around 70 and her daughter approached us. When I said I'd gladly leave the door open so they could go out too, the younger one immediately turned to her mother and said, „No, Mama, I'm not going out there. What if he closes the door behind us?“ She actually ran off in the other direction immediately. WHAT???? Do I look that criminal? *lol*

Laughing, but also understanding, we left the prison again and headed for Görlitz. Here too, we found amazing old buildings with beautiful architecture. We strolled leisurely through the city, looking for a hairdresser who could give us both a nice bangs cut =) Why does every second woman here have such a hairstyle??? Unfortunately, we couldn't find the answer to that.

In the afternoon, we drove to Poland where we saw a cemetery and a monument. However, we generally didn't like the area there and therefore returned to the hotel. It was already almost 10 PM anyway.

On Wednesday, we headed into the city center. To get a general overview, we took a city tour, and then later drove to a few spots that we found interesting. It was funny that our hotel was part of the city tour =) The bus took us practically out of the city, directly back to our hotel, really great *lol*

Afterwards, we went shopping at Altmarkt Galerie and promptly found a few good restaurants there that offered juices and salads. The city center is really worth seeing. Apart from the tourist highlights like Semperoper and Frauenkirche, the variety of buildings is pretty to look at, and the people there are all super nice and accommodating. Oh, and they're also cautious in Dresden. In the Frauenkirche, the supervisor next to us was snapped at because he closed the large door behind a woman.

Then we went to the Botanical Garden of the Technical University of Dresden and watched ducks there. Or rather, I did that =) There is indeed one there Sausage tree. And to all vegan vegetarians: Liverwurst... there's no animal in it!!!

After many cultural and botanical impressions, it was time for a bit of technology. VW's Transparent Factory is in Dresden, meaning the location where the VW Phaeton is built, by hand! Although production there has since been discontinued, there is an interesting section where VW's electric vehicle division is exhibited. Above all, there are innovative things to see there. Helene and I had the most fun, however, on the „Carrera track“ which could be powered by 2 bicycles. I won, of course =)

On Thursday, we headed to Saxon Switzerland, specifically to the Bastei. The large rock towers look very impressive, and for good reason, they are the most famous rock formations in Saxon Switzerland. There are several bridges there, carved into the Elbe Sandstone Mountains, over which you can reach Neurathen Castle. We took a look at that as well. After a quick snack, we continued on to the Czech Republic, which is practically around the corner.

In Ústí nad Labem (the name is usually written with a couple of apostrophes), we found a small castle that towers over the city. We had lunch there and enjoyed the view. This city is also located directly on the Elbe River. I found the view great, but Helene was bothered by the prefabricated panel buildings. Unfortunately, these also make up a large part of the cityscape. But that's just how it is.

On the way back to Dresden, Helene found a nice outlet center. Full of anticipation, we drove to a suburb of Dresden and realized that Helene doesn't know the Real supermarket chain *lol* Since Real has good internet marketing, you can find this supermarket under the keyword „Outlet Center Dresden.“ Good job. So we bought some fruit and drove back to the city.

On Friday morning, we then went on to Leipzig, where we only stayed for a few hours. „Quickly see the city“ and then on to FFM, where we are invited to a wedding on Saturday.

April 22-24 Frankfurt (Germany) – Chur (Switzerland)

We really liked Leipzig, but now we're looking forward to seeing our friends in Frankfurt and the upcoming wedding there. After arriving at the hotel in Bad Vilbel, we'll meet up in the evening for a delicious dinner.

The wedding ceremony is on Saturday morning at 10 AM and I'm the best man. It's a good thing we already had breakfast at 6:30 AM, because Helene's alarm clock went off 2 hours too early. Modern technology. At least that gave me enough time to get ready.

Big compliments to Caro and Chris, because we had a great day and they did too, for sure *g*

In the evening, we all went into the city together for the „Night of the Museums.“ It was extremely crowded, but a lot of fun. It's hard to believe that a „Night of the Museums“ event is replacing our club nights from back then, but one gets calmer with age. After a delicious dinner at Skyline Plaza Frankfurt, we drove home leisurely and relaxed on Sunday afternoon.

Conclusion

Not only the Saarland, but also the east of Germany is worth a visit. We visited many great places, not all of them described here, as no one feels like reading that long, and we'll soon be exploring the north of Germany. So, for those of you who haven't traveled much in Germany yet, you should definitely check out the Saarland... ummm... the East. It's very, very beautiful there.