Fussen - 6th to 7th of July 2011

Travelling between small towns by public transport clearly isn't that easy in Germany, another 4 trains and 5 hours of our lives from Rothenburg to Fussen. We headed almost directly south, Fussen is on the edge of the alps, and has several ski runs that are open during winter. But it's main attractions are its castles, in particular the fairytale castle built in the 19th century by an eccentric king of Bavaria.

Arriving in Fussen early afternoon we checked into our hotel and hired some bikes for a cruise through the meadows and out to a cable car that goes up the side of the mountain.Back into town via a supermarket for a few drinks and a picnic dinner (more ham) to enjoy lakeside.A very early start the following day to make our 8am booking for the castle tours. There are actually two castles almost right next to one another, the first original one, Schloss Hohenschwangau, which the King grew up in, and his pet project, the crazy disney fairytale castle Schloss Neuschwanstein. We still had our bikes for the 20 minute cruise out of town to the base of the castles and a quick walk up to the first castle, Schloss Hohenschwangau, stopping off on route for a picnic breakfast next to the lake.Looking up at the fairytale castle from Hohenschwangau.A wander back down to the base before getting a minibus up to Schloss Neuschwanstein (very thankful for the bus!). We had little guided tours through both castles, which gave us some insight into the mind of the deranged king, King Ludwig II.
Quick ride back into town to drop off the bikes and pick up our bags before getting the bus out of town.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber - 5th to 6th of July 2011

What a mission! It took 4 different trains and nearly 5 hours to reach Rothenburg, but man was it worth it. Arguably our favourite spot in Germany, its a picture perfect town fully enclosed by walls. Similar to lots of other towns we've fallen in love with (think St Gimignano in Italy or Carcassonne in France), but distinctly German. We wandered through and around the town before finding some wine and sitting down with a book outside one of the town gates, an amazing afternoon.

Heidelberg - 4th to 5th of July 2011

An hour 40 minutes after leaving the Rhine Valley we were in historic Heidelberg - famous for its university, castle and old town. We had a quick look around the city before walking (ok geting a cablecar) up to the castle for great views of the city. We were pretty beat, so had an early wine and cheese night in our hostel with our books and got a good nights sleep.

The Rhine Valley - 1st to 4th of July 2011

Our friends took the Friday afternoon off work and so we picked up the hire car from the train station to set off south from Dusseldorf to the Rhine Valley. A few paperwork issues with the hire car company led to an unexpected bonus for Warren: he was the named driver, and so got to put the pedal to the metal along the famed AutoBahn. In surprisingly poor condition, the Autobahn we were on was basically a two or three laned highway, nothing special in the least, other than the no speed limits, and getting overtaken by Audis at 190 kph.

The main "Rhine Valley" tourist area is a 60km section of the river with castles around every bend. The northern point is a town called Koblenz, where we stayed on Friday night. Situated right where the Rhine River meets one of its main tributaries, the Moselle River, it has a great little old town overlooked by fort perched on the opposite river bank. We had a good look around and got a gondola over the river to the fort for a wine, sausage and views back over town. We happened to be in Koblenz when it seemed every man and his dog were there for some flower festival, that involved sound stages being set up in every square in the city. Couple of drinks later...
Nice late check out and great German breakfast of bread, cheese and meat, and we were on our way further south along the river. There are a number of cool little town perched on the rivers edge, and of course castles a-plenty. This one was Stolzenfels, one of the only castles we ended up actually visiting.
Next stop was a lovely little village called Boppard to stretch the legs.The days drive was only 30km or so, so nice and easy, and so we arrived at our destination, St Goar nice and early. A late lunch (pork schnitzel, still loving being out of Dubai!) and then a mini train up to the castle that overlooks the town for a few more beverages.
Turns out our friends are also big card players, so we found a good picnic spot for some wine and cheese and rocked out a few hands of presidents and 500.
With a whole day ahead of us, we picked up some hire bikes and headed south. Its about 30km from St Goar where we were staying to Bingen, the most southern point of this main touristy Rhine Valley section. We took our time, with plenty of stops along the way for wine tasting, beer, and sausages along the waters edge. Having finally made it to Bingen, we weren't going to turn around and do it all in reverse, so we threw our bikes on a ferry and cruised down river for an hour or so back to St Goar. Another great dinner and more cards and it was time to say goodbye to our friends. They left very early Monday morning for the drive back to Dusseldorf for work, while we jumped on a train south (via Bingen) to our next destination...

Dusseldorf - 30th June to 1st July 2011

Nearly 4 hours by train south and west to Dusseldorf. Friends of ours from New Zealand are currently living and working in Dusseldorf, so we dumped our bags at the train station and went for a walk around the city while we waited for them to finish work.
A great old town of cobbled lanes and beer halls spilling out onto the streets. Our designated meeting area right next to the Rhine, perfect spot for a pint and reading up of the guide book.Quickly back to our friends place before getting shown some typical German eateries - lots of beer, pork knuckle and roast beef, served with dumplings and red cabbage, now there's a hearty meal!
Following day walking around the local markets before picking up the hire car and heading south...

Hamburg - 29th to 30th of June 2011

A speedy 2 hour train north west to Hamburg. More of a stopover on our way to meet friends in Dusseldorf, we had an afternoon to walk around the city, through the town square and along the canals, and up the top of Michaeliskirche (St Michael's Church) for a lookout across the city). With one of the biggest shipyards in Europe, it is perhaps not surprising that it also has one of the biggest red light districts. A miserable night weatherwise, we found a cool little bar to shelter from the rain, a nice change from the endless sun in Dubai!

Berlin - 27th to 29th of June 2011

Arriving in Germany after a mental busy weekend in the UK, we couldn't do anything before a quick snooze at the hotel! Having heard they were almost must-dos in Berlin, we wandered over to Alexanderplatz mid afternoon for the start of a bike tour of the major sights of Berlin.

Checkpoint Charlie

Berlin Wall (or what's left of it)

Holocaust Memorial, still creating controversy today.

Brandenburg Gate

After all that cycling, thankfully the tour took in more culture, an awesome beer garden in the middle of a giant city park.

Final stop as the sun was going down, the Reichstag, seat of the German parliament.

Having ticked off most of the sights on the bike tour, we spent the following day going to the few remaining highlights and revisting a couple of sights in more detail. Namely the Jewish Museum the SS Museum and some of the remaining sections of the wall.

A pretty huge night out followed. We went out on a organised pub crawl with a bunch of 18 year olds, we figured it might be fun, and it kinda was. Met a few nice people and got showed a few "different" bars around a small part of the city. All topped off by an awesome Doner Kebab - Germany has a huge Turkish population and so Berlin in particular has a reputation for great Kebabs. We had our share on this holiday, but for some reason at 3am they are just so good!

Weekend in the UK - 24th to 27th of June 2011

We were lucky enough to be invited to the wedding of our good friends in Dubai, held back in the UK. We arrived at Heathrow on Friday morning and went our seperate ways - Ange into London to spend the day catching up with Nicola, and Warren down to Sussex to play a round of golf. We caught up later that night back in London with the old crew of London friends.

Up early on Saturday morning to head out to Somerset for the wedding, about an hour and a half Southwest on the train and another 30 minutes by cab to the venue. We were staying on site in an awesome old manor, so got dolled up and walked to the top of the drive to the private chapel for the ceremony.

Back to the manor for the reception, bubbly, croquet, and dancing.

Up early on Sunday to make our way back to London for an afternoon in the sun. We went back to one of our favourite pubs with a great beer garden, more time to catch up with friends about the latest goings on in London.

Too many early mornings in a row, but we had a flight to catch so were up early on Monday and out to Heathrow for the flight onto Germany...