sabrinakam

Heidelberg, Germany’s oldest and most famous university town, with its baroque old town, dominated by the ruins of the Heidelberg Castle, its lively university atmosphere, excellent pubs and remarkable architectural unity is hugely popular with visitors from all over. Famous visitors like the German romanticisms poet Goethe, Britain’s painter William Turner and the American writer Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) loved the city and got inspired by it. I found out that Heidelberg is an adaptation of Heidelbeerenberg (the German for Blueberry Mountain.)

Well, we visited Heidelberg too, thanks to Harry and Antje (see earlier report “Bretten and Black Forest”). It’s a real beauty but quite touristy. So expect many people (tourists), if you consider visiting it.

We made a boat trip on the Neckar to Neckarsteinach where we saw some fabulous half-ruined castles and strolled around town. A lovely cute place!!!

Then we navigated back on the Neckar to Heidelberg. Back in the “Blueberry Mountain City” we walked around the old town and visited the castle from where we had some beautiful views of the city. See for yourself!!!

Bye for now!!!

Sabrina and Fredrik

Bretten became our destination, just because Harry lives there. You remember Harry? He is this crazy German guy we met in Honduras and who we spent about 5 weeks traveling with in Central America and Ecuador. In Germany we wanted to meet up again and decided to visit him in his hometown, Bretten. The city is located in the region of Baden, which is part of the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg where the Black Forest is (the home of the cuckoo clocks) and where you can also find Lake Constance (Bodensee), Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and a lot more. On the Internet I found a campaign sticker from the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg itself saying: "Wir koennen alles. Ausser Hochdeutsch." Translated "We can do everything except speak standard German." This is an allusion to the fact that Baden-Wuerttemberg is one of the principal centers for innovation in Germany with many inhabitants having distinctive dialects, such as Swabian (Schwaebisch) and Badisch/Allemanic.

On Thursday afternoon the 30th of July we arrived in Bretten where we were welcomed by Harry, Antje, his lovely girlfriend and Harry’s mom. We had "Kaffee und Kuchen" coffee and cake, a strawberry cake prepared by Harry himself. Yummi!!!

The day after we went with Harry and Antje to Heidelberg (see next report "Heidelberg"). At night we went to see a fist ball (Faustball, in German) tournament. Both Harry and Antje are passionate fist ball trainers/players. Harry has won a lot of titles including winning the world championships as coach with the Women national fist ball team. Harry is the man!!!! Have you heard about fist ball? It is a sport similar to Volleyball but much older and it is played on grass with 5 players in each team. At the tournament there were participating teams from Swabia, Baden, a local team and the national team from Brazil. At the end the Brazilians won but it wasn’t too obvious. After the match we had beer, caipirinas, Sekt (sparkling wine) and lots of fun. Who wouldn’t?

The day after we went for another trip. We drove by car through the deepest Black Forest. We stopped at a massive dam and at a toboggan run (Rodelbahn) for some sliding. That was fun!!! I think you can tell from the photos.

We even made it to Baden-Baden, famous for its springs, spas and luxury Casino. The Russian writer Dostoevsky wrote “The Gambler” while compulsively gambling at the Baden-Baden Casino. We made it neither to the Casino nor to the springs. In fact the city is quite expensive so we had just money for lunch at “Nordsee”, a German fish food chain.

Then we headed back to Bretten. At night we had a delicious dinner (I had “Knoedel mit Pfifferlingen” a type of dumpling with chanterelles) at a local restaurant in one of the nearby villages. Later we had some beers in the Old Town of Bretten and the next morning Fredrik and I strolled around to see more of Bretten and its beautiful half-timbered houses.

By the way, Bretten has a quite interesting history. Harry told us about the “Brettener Hundle” (the dog of Bretten), which today is the city’s landmark, that in 1504 set an end to the siege of the city by the Duke Ulrich von Wuertemberg. The people of Bretten had fattened the dog and when it was chubby enough they sent it out to the besieging troops from Ulrich von Wuertemberg. When the Duke saw the dog he couldn’t believe that the people of Bretten still had so much food to live on that even their dogs would be that fat. He cut of the dogs tail and marched off with his men and artillery. The Bretten people still celebrate this day of victory, once a year at the Peter and Paul Festival.

Many thanks to Harry and Antje for a wonderful time!!!!

Lots of love,

Sabrina and Fredrik

Have you heard about the 'Bremer Stadtmusikanten' (Town Musicians of Bremen), a fairy tale from the Brothers Grimm, where four overworked and ageing animals, a donkey, a dog, a cat and a rooster, making their way to Bremen. Then you know at least something about Bremen. The city was established by Charlemagne in 787 and was back then known as the 'Rome of the North', because it was used as the main base for Christianising Scandinavia. In 1358 Bremen was ready to join the Hanseatic League and in 1646 it became a free imperial city, a status it sort of still enjoys today as a 'Free Hanseatic City' (Freie Hansestadt Bremen).

The mid-size city of Bremen (550.000 inhabitants) offers a wonderfully relaxing short break, with its unexpectly impressive old town centre - with Art Nouveau and medieval buildings alike -, shop-lined mini-maritime quarter and lots of cafes and restaurants. Everything is within walking distance.

You might wonder why I am praising this city this much. Well, it's no wonder, I have been studying and living in Bremen for four years and had, of course, an excelent time as a student. During my studies I made many friends (lovely people) and one very special one is, Meike. We became best friends and enjoyed our student life together, with all that entails. After our studies Meike married to Carsten and they got two kids, Mieke, who became my godchild, and Caja.

The reason for visiting Bremen was, of course, to visit Meike, Carsten, Mieke and Caja, the Lilje family.They live in Liliental, in the nothern part of Bremen, in a lovely house. We arrived on Saturday and had fun, talking, playing games, eating good food and walking in the rain. Well, the weather wasn't too pleasant, it rained almost all the time. But equipped with an umbrella, it wasn't too much of a problem. On Sunday we had breakfast in the city centre of Bremen and we strolled around in the Schnoor quarter, a former maritime and then red-light district, which today has a quaint maze of restaurants, cafes and boutique shops. We even found a Christmas shop, a strange thing to see in the middle of summer.

We had a great time!!! Thanks, Meike, Carsten, Mieke and Caja!!! Hope to see you soon again.

Lots of love,

Sabrina and Fredrik

Hello there!!!!

Yes, we visited Sascha, Anita and Greta at their new house in the village of Eldagsen, which is about 12 km from my home village, Seelenfeld. They invited us to a barbecue and a house tour. Arndt & Steffi and Kesi (Lange) with her two kids, Karlotta and Bastian, were invited too. We spent a lot of time together in our younger days (ops, are we old?) and it is always fun to get together again. Their house is a dream, it's like a mansion, and the barbecue was delicious. We even had draught beer from a little beer thing (see photo). What else could you expect from a German barbecue? Yummy!!!!

Thanks for a good time!!!

Love,

Sabrina and Fredrik

Birgit lives in Seelenfeld and the 22nd of July she celebrated her 50th birthday. The whole Kammeier family was invited, even Fredrik and I, and we partied all night. We met old and new friends of all ages and enjoyed ourselves to the fullest. At 5 o'clock in the morning we, the Kammeier family, even visited Eckhard, who turned 40 the same day, and Angela, our next door neighbours, who welcomed us with beer and schnapps. It was a long but very enjoyable night.

Love,

Sabrina and Fredrik