Germany - Part 3

The next part of our trip in Germany was probably my favorite, because I got to accompany my dad to the small town where he used to live with my mom when they were stationed in Germany in the Army in the early 1970s. Dad and I left Munich and went to Nuremberg, which was our base to visit some of the places he remembered. We checked into our nice hostel right in the center of Nuremberg and basically left right away to make it to the town of Herzogenaurach (where they lived) because we knew that the weather was only going to be nice that day. We were disappointed to find that there was no longer train service right to Herzogenaurach, as there had been when dad lived there. Instead, we had to take the train to Erlangen, and then get on a bus that would take us into Herzogenaurah. The bus ride was funny because a whole class of probably about 5th-graders and a few teachers boarded it halfway through, and we were laughing at how much the heat and humidity increased with those kids and all of their hormones on the bus! I was asking dad how he managed to teach that age of kids for so many years - it seemed to me that one would need a lot of patience! When we arrived to town, dad recognized enough even after almost 40 years, to know what stop we should get off at. We got off near the town center, and followed signs to the tiny tourist office. The man there was very informative, and was able to explain to us that the old Army base was indeed no longer there, which was what dad had thought. He gave us a couple of Herzogenaurach Army Base stickers, which was cool, and a map of where the base used to be. So, first we went to the center of town to see the two towers, which used to be part of the old town wall. At dad's house in Appleton, there has always been a painting of one of those towers hanging in the dining room, so it was cool for me to be able to see it in person. Since the weather was so nice, we sat outside at a little cafe and had coffee and apple cake, which was lovely. Then we went walking to find the house that my parents had lived in. It was really fun for me to imagine them living there, newly married, enjoying life in their small German town. My mom was pregnant with my oldest brother while they lived there, too, and I liked imagining what her thoughts were and how she felt about everything at that time in her life. We found the house, and it looked just as my dad remembered. He knocked on the door to see if the current people were home, but they weren't. The neighbors across the street were able to tell us that the man who had lived downstairs, and was my parent's landlord, had passed away a few years ago. After that, we walked to the outskirts of town to see if anything was left of the base. There were a few buildings still standing, but my dad wasn't sure what they had been. Now, that whole area is home to the headquarters of Adidas and Puma, the sports apparel stores. On the walk back into town, we stopped and had a couple of beers, and then went into town and realized that most restaurants were closed, even though it was early. We ended up having really good burgers and beers near the center, and then headed back to the bus stop to catch the last bus of the day back to Erlangen, and then back to Nuremberg.
The next day was spent attempting to see the sights in Nuremberg, but it was a rainy and cold day. I could tell that it is a really nice city, and would love to go back for the world-famous Christmas market someday. Again, it was fun hearing dad's stories about what he and mom did and saw there. We tried some typical street foods, which included nurembergers (basically a small hamburger bun with three small sausages in it, typically served with mustard) and pretzel sandwiches (a big soft pretzel cut in half with various toppings; mine had butter and chives).
On the final day that my Eurail pass was valid, July 21st, we headed back to Berlin, where we would spend the last 6 days of dad's trip, and where I would spend 2 weeks total before heading to South America. I had really been looking forward to spending a longer time in one place, and also to the fact that that place was Berlin. I had heard such amazing things about Berlin! Unfortunately, much of our time there was overshadowed by the rainy, cold weather. At least while dad was there, the days were only partly rainy, whereas when I was there alone for my last week, it rained all day just about every day. So, dad and I were really productive despite the weather and saw pretty much everything we wanted to in the city in those 6 days. We stayed in a hostel in the district of Charlottenburg and had a private room, which was a real treat especially for me! We each bought the Berlin Welcome Card, which entitled us to 5 days of unlimited transportation on city buses, trams, and trains, as well as gave us some discounts on museums. At first the subway system seemed confusing, but by the end we sure were experts! We were even able to figure out our way around some construction routes without much difficulty! My birthday fell on our first full day in Berlin, but sadly for me it was the absolute worst day for weather. I can't even remember what we did for most of the day, but I do remember going to a big mall called the Europa Center and wandering around there, and then having dinner in a restaurant there. The dinner was a typical German dish called koenigsbergerloppse (which I was able to get the name of from a German friend that I just happen to be traveling with at the moment), which consists of meatballs with a caper cream sauce, and is really delicious! Of course I also had a huge German wheat beer to wash it down, and dad treated me! Afterwards, we went to the Kaiser-Wilhelm Memorial Church, where we saw a free xylophone concert, which was not really what we were expecting. It was fun nonetheless to see a music performance, especially inside that church. One of the days was spent seeing some sections that are still standing of the Berlin Wall. My favorite was the East Side Gallery, where artists come and draw on large sections of the wall. It was once again really interesting for me to learn so much about this dark time in the history of humanity, and to see the evidence that it really did exist. We also went to Checkpoint Charlie, which was a major crossing point between east and west Germany during the war. The Topography of Terror is parallel to a section of the Wall, is on the site of the former SS-Gestapo headquarters, and is an exhibition that documents the horrendous crimes of the Nazis. We also went to the Jewish Museum and to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, which is a collection of hundreds of rectangular-shaped cement structures arranged in an interesting formation. We went to the Brandenburg Gate, which is the symbol of Berlin and was once the boundary between east and west. One thing that was really cool for my dad was that he finally got to see the front of the gate, or the actual faces of the horses and the rider. When my parents visited Berlin in the early 1970s, they were only able to see the gate from the west side, or the "backside" of it.
One aspect that really improved our stay in Berlin was that we were able to meet up several times with my former landlords in Denver, Martina and Valter. They live part of the time in Denver and part of the time in Berlin. It was really awesome to feel like we had friends somewhere so far from home. We met up with them for beers, coffee, and a meal or so. It will be fun for me to be able to hang out with them again in Denver in the near future, too. Even though we had 6 days in Berlin, dad's time seemed to go by fast, and before we knew it, we were getting up at 4 a.m. in order to make it to the airport so that he could catch his flight back home. I accompanied him to the airport, and said goodbye, and headed back to the hostel to sleep some more before it was time to check out. All was well until I woke up in the hostel room, alone. Then I got really sad! I hadn't really been homesick on my trip thus far, and it came as a real surprise to me! I realized that I missed my family and friends a lot more than I thought I did. The hard part was that I then went to an internet cafe to buy my next flight, but it wasn't leaving for another week, and so I was faced with spending a lonely week in a huge city in which I had already seen most of the sights. By then, Berlin felt like "our" city, and so I wasn't sure what to do anymore. To make things worse, the weather was awful, as previously mentioned. Thankfully, the hostel I moved to was pretty nice, and within walking distance to a nice internet cafe, where I would spend part of every day that week catching up on my blog. There was also a nice cafe with free wi-fi that Martina had introduced us to, so I spent some time there, and at Starbucks, which I realized also had free wi-fi in most of their cafes. My last 2 days in Berlin were actually pretty nice, and on one of them, I walked to the Turkish market, which was pretty far away. On my last day, I had decided to try going to a Nikon repair shop that I had found online to see if they could possibly even just give me the required form for my insurance company so that I could get reimbursed for the broken lens. When I arrived, they initially told me that they would probably be able to actually fix it, but that it wouldn't be ready until the morning. I told them that I had a flight to Colombia in the morning, so that wouldn't work, and then they said they could fix it in about an hour. I went to a park for a bit, and when I went back, sure enough - my camera was fixed! It was like having a brand-new camera, and was so amazing, especially since I had been dealing with it broken for probably 2 months by then. Even more great were the two people who worked at the shop. The receptionist spoke no English, but was still so helpful and friendly, and the repair tech spoke enough English that we could communicate pretty well, and he was also so nice! The receptionist and I even had a conversation via google translate at one point! Because of them, I then was on the way to the last leg of my trip with a fixed camera, which was completely unexpected, and it was just such a great way to end my time in Europe and Germany.