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| Ottohaus in Cramberg |
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| Setting up for Ottofest 2005 between the house and barn |
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| Picturesque Eulengasse |
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| The Elk Room |
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| Not so mounted Elk |
| This was my room |
| Church in Cramberg |
| The epitomy of a European landscape |
| My friend the butterfly |
| Friday 29 July 2005 After a nice breakfast of a potato and mushroom omelette my flight flew into Frankfurt am Main Airport early. I breezed through customs but had to wait forever for my luggage. My dear friend Alex and husband, Tommy, woke at sparrow's fart to collect me and take me to their wonderful home in Cramberg--about 40 minutes drive northwest of Frankfurt. Traffic was light as we were travelling against the morning rush so I enjoyed the scenery. Five minutes out from Cramberg I saw a castle, two deer grazing alongside the road and a few squirrels scurrying through a forest 'carpark' looking for scraps--it was breathtaking. And Ottohaus was just as picturesque. After a typical German breakfast with a table covered in pastries, breads and cold meats and toppings, I went to 'my room' and organised my luggage, had a much-needed shower (as you do after flying for 24 hours next to strangers and their bodily secretions) and snoozed a bit before Vivian arrived from lower Baden-Wurttemberg (sorry can't find the umlaut in this basic web program). |
| Still full from breakfast, midday arrived and it was time for lunch prepared by Alex's mother. At lunch I met the Alex's and Tommy's families, but was lost during the conversations most of the time due to the dialect. Alex's brother commented he understand Vivian's Swabian as well as he understood my English--not at all. hahahha After a traditional lunch it was time to do some decorating for the party ahead until 3 pm when Vivian and I headed to Limburg, to meet another of Alex's friends, Nina, who was going to show us around the historic town--isn't every place in Europe historic?! |
| What could be more festive than a row of fairy lights made from Jack Daniels bottles. The sign points to Camp A |
| Camp A |
| Beer anyone? |
| Limburg Dom on the Lahn River |
| Nina and the disgusting sandwich |
| The ornate building which houses the bakery selling the offending 'sandwich' |
| The 2nd oldest house in Germany |
| It was raining lightly as we walked around Limburg, but not enough for us to look for shelter. Like most churches, I find the more decorative they are on the outside, the plainer they are inside as was the case with Limburg Dom because I didn't even take any photos inside. During out travels we had to sample the local produce--Vivi and I had icecream (mmm) and Nina bought this 'sandwich'--it's a damper-style white roll sandwiching a huge marshmallow covered in chocolate on one side with a wafer on the other--so disgusting I had to take a photo of Nina describing it after she'd taken her first bite. After a couple of hours walking we sat in front of a pub where I had a glass of Apfelwein (or Ebbelwoi) which is only served in this region. |
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| Saturday 30 July 2005 Even though I maintained Europe time as soon as I got on the plane, I went to bed early and rose early this morning, so I made coofffeee and waited for Alex and Tommy to wake up while I looked through the latest EMP catalgue. It's a good think EMP don't deliver to Australia. No sooner did we finish breakfast, it was time for lunch with family members at Alex's parent's home (also on Eulengasse and her brother lives opposite). After lunch with a few hours to spare before it was time to get ready for the wedding, I walked around Cramberg, took in the scenery and even climbed a hunter's tower. While I was walking through the wheat fields, a butterfly kept following me and landing just ahead of me until I'd walk past and then he would fly past and land ahead again. This continued until I took a photo of him, then he flew away. And yes, only males can be that proud of their beauty! |
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| The local castle |
| When it was time to go to the church we gathered on Eulengasse and rides were organised to the 1000+ year old church where the wedding was to take place. More photos here. As with all weddings, people had travelled for near and far. Guess who had travelled the furthest? |
| The wedding church |
| Inside its wooden interior |
| Heard of the singing nun? Meet the singing priest! |
| The happy couple after the ceremony |
| After the ceremony the 'reception', which I'd christened Ottofest 2005, filled the quiet ambience of Cramberg; as guests arrived, alcohol flowed and food smells wafted through the country air as steaks, sausages and potato sizzled on the barbeques--no wonder Germans and Australians are members of the same mutual admiration society! Oh..and it's as if they knew I was coming (well, they did!). Lots and lots of German icecream :-)p I had every flavour! |
| Breakfast barn line up |
| Yeti wearing the recent Bang Your Head festival t-shirt |
| The ultimate festival transport mode and still the Bavarians sleep |
| Which way do we go? Read the signs |
| Castle ruins close to Cramberg |
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| Ottofest continued to all hours of the morning, but unfortunately jetlag was still lingering so I ended up crashing rather early. Sunday 31 July 2005 The next morning all the people from afar woke and made their way to the breakfast barn--all except the Bavarians, who were still sound asleep in their campervan even when I left Cramberg with Vivian at midday heading for Stuttgart. |
| People arriving for Ottofest. Photos: Sandra |
| Chowing down with the Bavarians and Vivi |
| The drive was pretty smooth except it was quite a hot day and I felt like a roasted chicken by the time we arrived in Stuttgart. We were met by Bernd, who I met at Wacken in 2004, with whom I would be staying for a couple of days to visit the sites of Baden-Wurttemberg and do some serious shopping. I was paranoid about my luggage being in the car at the train station carpark, so we headed to his place in Neckartenzlingen, so I could freshen up before heading off to Tubingen for dinner. Tubingen is a university town on the Neckar River and it's extremely pretty with its old buildings and cobble stone streets. Too full still from the Mexican dinner, I missed out on German icecream :-( |
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| The building on the riverbank is where we ate dinner and the trees on the right cover a Biergarten where we started with a drink--there was so little on offer, however--I was forced to drink a shandy. Blah! |
| Monday 1 August 2005 Give me my coffee and no one gets hurt--After having to wait an eternity to get my caffeine level back up and avoiding a breakfast of white flour, we made our way to Ulm. The drive was lovely, partly along the Neckar River. It was another warm day, so the first priority was to find XtraX, an awesome rock/goth store that had a huge tent full of excellent attire at Wacken in 2002 and 2003, but the past couple of years has not been there forcing me to make an inconvenient detour to buy some leathers--not just any dyke-on-bike leathers, but leathers with style! I gave Bernd the option of meeting me in a couple of hours--he was warned--until I was done in the huge store. Did I achieve my goal? Two pairs as well as a couple of gothic hairpieces (for bad hair gigs). I was as happy as a pig in mud! Even Bernd picked up a couple of things. All shopped out, we had a break in the Platz before attempting the biggest walk of my tourist career--up Munster tower (taller than the tower of Koln Dom [Cologne Cathedral]). After the climb we checked out the interior. Exhausted by one building, we headed to a tapas bar for some nice food, which serves me the wrong food--my German isn't that bad, especially reading out simple numbers. Grrr. I wanted German icecream for dessert, but Bernd suggested we grab a tub on the way back to his place. We ended up at a service station with more Streets icecream than anything. The only 2 European tubs are vanilla and one with revolting peach syrup. And guess which one he buys, suggesting he can eat all the syrup and I have the vanilla :-/ Blah! It was still revolting. My appetite for German icecream was not appeased. On the drive back to Neckartenzlingen we were hitting about 180 km/hr when 2 black BMWs flew past us at jet speed jolting our car sideways. Within seconds they were out of sight - wicked! |
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| Views of Munsterplatz |
| Almost at the top |
| Finally we make it to the top--7 attempts later due to high winds and glaring midday sun and about 70 cm between the wall and grill, I manage to get photographic proof! |
| A gargoyle! |
| The Danube separates Ulm from Neu Ulm; Baden-Wurttemberg from Bavaria |
| Tuesday 2 August 2005 A day of lousy weather stopped us from further sight-seeing. I sat down to a late coffee breakfast and spent some time chatting with Bernd's mother. Then we went for a drive around the area and I grabbed a few essentials and some food I could eat for my overnight train trip to Schleswig. Went back to finalise packing my purchases before we left to have dinner in Stuttgart. Reservation offices are always busy in Germany regardless of time. At least 45 minutes later, I had my reservation (you never know when you'll end up on a full train) and we grabbed a taxi to a Japanese restaurant as it seems Bernd rarely has company willing to eat more adventurous food. The food was nice, albeit rudely expensive (paying Euro19 for something I can get for $5 in Australia). We gave ourselves enough time to get back to Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof to collect my luggage from the car, grab any other 'essentials' from a kiosk at the station and arrive on the platform before the train pulled in. At 2200 I was to take an ICE train to Frankfurt am Main where I would change to an IC train around midnight and travel overnight to Hamburg. Wednesday 3 August 2005 Unfortunately, this train was not a NachtZug, so didn't have couchettes. Travelling with a 1st class Eurrail ticket, I generally have less problems finding a vacant seat, so was hoping to get at least 2 seats to myself so I could catch some sleep. I was lucky enough to get a whole compartment, until some young Wackenites boarded the train later asking another non-German to share with me--no problems, I still had four seats to myself so I stretched out and got about 5 hours sleep. You meet some very strange people when travelling. My cabin companion was of Oriental appearance and wearing a Metallica t-shirt. In the morning, seeing my suitcase, he asked where I was from. He then stated that I bought my suitcase at Grace Bros, because the brand was a Grace Bros brand. I didn't know, it was a gift--whatever! Then I start talking to him about metal and Wacken, assuming even though he was carrying only a small sports bag, he was headed for the festival as well. I wasn't even close. He'd never even heard of Wacken and started asking about it. Like dude, don't you even look at the pictures in metal magazines?!?! He asked if Metallica were playing at the festival. *Sigh* I realised "oh, you're that type of "metalhead"--NOT! Had a seamless transfer at Hamburg Dammtor for my train to Schleswig. God bless the trolley carts with hot coffee, etc on the regional trains...mmmmm... coffffeeee I arrived in Schleswig at about 0900 and was met on the platform by Sandra, who had kindly offered to give me a lift to Wacken so I could leave my suitcase in her car during the festival, when I was deciding whether to take a backpack this year (as I have previously) or to travel a bit more stylishly with a wheeled suitcase. After the added weight of my purchases in Ulm and the bulletbelt at Wacken I'm so glad I brought the suitcase. Wednesday 3 August 2005 to Sunday 6 August 2005 My Wacken experiences can be seen and read here. Continuing the story, Sandra woke me after about 3 hours so I wouldn't ruin my sleeping rhythm. We didn't really do much. The gorgeous person cleaned my mud-encrusted boots while I slept and was ready to polish them until she realised they weren't leather. We ate leftover pizza and a spanish-style omelette while chatting away and debriefing the festival. Eventually Sandra and Andreas said goodnight and left me in their "party flat". I made sure I was packed completely for the 0600 departure the next morning with Sandra to Hamburg, then watched some German television until I felt drowsy again. Being a TV junkie in Australia, I love watching TV in Europe. Monday 7 August 2005 After waking at sparrow's fart Sandra and I were off to Hamburg--she to work, me to a connecting train to Rostock. We dozed on the train, well at least I did after some hot coffee. With 2 hours to kill before my 0920 IC train, I walked around the Hauptbanhof, stocked up on the first class quality metal magazines published in Germany, bought some breakfast and then waited on the platform IN 12-DEGREE CELSIUS temperatures!!! WTF!?!?!? Sydney's winter was warmer than this! I had a snooze on the train and when I arrived at Rostock, I put my luggage into a locker and went to explore the town. It wasn't a particularly interesting place--one extremely old church, Marienkirche and a couple of old town gates; the Rathaus wasn't very exciting . I had about 6 hours to kill before I had to be back at the train station to collect my luggage and take the shuttle bus the to "ferry" to Finland. I walked around and found my favourite German store, Rossman's--it's like Priceline in Australia--to stock up on my favourite moisturiser (Rossman brand, of course) and some other goodies like sweets and munchies for my trip across the Baltic Sea as I'm sure the price of things on the "ferry" will be rude. By 1400 I was starving, so stopped at a cafe, sat outside, watched the local shoppers while I consumed a hot meal of chicken soup, local Wurst with mashed potato and a pot of coffee. Not in the mood for further shopping, I returned to the station full and warm to try and kill 2 hours before the shuttle bus arrived. Still ear-shocked from Wacken, I couldn't bring myself to switch on my iPod. At least Rostock was warmer at 19-20 degrees celsius. |
| Last updated 21 December 2005 LARGER PICTURES OPEN BY CLICKING PHOTOS |
| I was happy to see the shuttle bus and enjoyed a different view of Rostock on the way to the "ferry" terminal. I was travelling with Superfast and if you click on the link, you'll understand why I keep typing "ferry". This ain't no Sydney Harbour style ferry. It's a full-blown luxury cruiseliner. The shuttle bus took us first to the check-in office. The woman serving me asked me if I had a reservation, to which I replied: "No", presenting her with my Eurrail ticket (with a bonus of pasage with Superfast ex-port taxes and high-season supplements) and with a look to say "don't mess with me, bitch--if your people would answer emails, I'd have a reservation!" Anyway, 38 Euro and no problems later, I was back on the shuttle bus with my boarding pass and cabin key in hand to be driven to the gangplank. The ship was nowhere near full. I was allocated a 4-berth room, without views, which I was to share with a lovely Finnish lady, Arja. She was travelling with her car, which was in the car/cargo hold and only had a small daypack with her. I spread my luggage everywhere (as I'm known to do) to organise myself, get some fresh clothing and my toiletries in preparation of my first HOT shower after Wacken. Quite excited about my trip across the Baltic Sea, I checked out the ship while I waited for the last of the cars to board. When the restaurant opened I had dinner and like any good Russian, worked the buffet with 5 types of smoked salmon, cold cuts, vegetables, salads, juice, herbal tea, coffee, hot food (which was rather disappointing) copious cake offerings, fruit and icecream like Homer Simpson in the episode with the all you can eat seafood restaurant, until I was full to my ears. I was surprised at how many Russians were travelling on the ship as well--mostly men--but decided to keep my Russian background to myself. I returned to the cabin and had an extremely long and hot shower. I passed out at 2300 feeling like a human again. |
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| Steintor--one of the remaining city gates |
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| Leaving the shores of Germany |
| The other remaining city gate |
| Tuesday 8 August 2005 Woke at about 0900 but stayed in bed and dozed until 1100 which meant I missed the buffet breakfast-DOH! I got dressed and bought a boring baguette, a pastry, awful coffee and juice and sat in the lounge. While I was paying for my stuff, some of the crew were talking about how rough the conditions were--apparently the roughest they've experienced. Typical. Just my bad luck. I didn't think it was that rough, but this is my first time on a ship of this size so I have nothing for comparison except the ferries on, and cruising around, Sydney Harbour. I then went back to the cabin and sleeping until 1500. Missed lunch-doubleDOH! Repacked my luggage and then Spot, Joey and I went up on deck braving the strong headwinds which were delaying our arrival. With nothing else to do, I bought an internet card and hooked on for 30 minutes where I managed to organise someone to buy me a Children of Bodom (Finnish band) ticket before they sold out, which was possible any day. I had a look around the ship's gift shop. Rude prices, as to be expected, but I did find something I was extremely interested in and tasting this was one of my goals for Finland, alcoholic cider--a can of pear and a can of apple and strawberry. Packed and ready, I spent the rest of my time on deck as the shores on Hanko appeared ahead of us. I watched as the tugs brought us in and couldn't help smiling and feeling excited that after 4 years, I was finally in Finland. |
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| I disembarked with my luggage, when through immigration, which was an informal passport check by some handsome Finnish officers. It took a while for the shuttle bus to Helsinki to be organised, but then we were off. The 2-hour journey to Helsinki showed Spot, Joey and I a part of Finland we wouldn't get to see this trip. The mere site of the moose (elk) and reindeer signs made me excited. By this time, I was pretty hungry. When we arrived at Helsinki central station it was about 2200 and a comfortable 20C degrees. It was already dark and not wanting to struggle through an unfamiliar city, I took a taxi to Hostel Academica, which during the year serves as student accommodation. My apartment was bare, but great; two single beds, a table and chairs, a lounge chair, a writing desk, bookshelves, plenty of storage room, kitchenette with stove and a bar fridge, a spacious bathroom and, the piece de resistance, a balcony, which was fully enclosed by glass that could slide open. What a find! What luck! Exhausted and hungry, I unpacked slightly (as I was suppose to be changing rooms I 2 days), hanged out my leathers, on which the mud still hadn't dried, had a shower and managed to make a meal out of some squirrelled supplies and staples I carry with me when I travel (coffee, whitener, instant soup). It was past midnight by the time my head hit the pillow. Wednesday 9 August Not to miss breakfast, I set my alarm for 0700 and was off to the restaurant at 0730. Breakfast was served at the restaurant attached to Helsinki's culinary school, so I was expecting quality fair. (Yes, I know I write a lot about food, but that's part of the whole travelling experience!) This morning breakfast was lots of coooffeeee, black bread (yay) toast with cold meats, boiled eggs, fresh tomato, fresh and pickled cucumbers, Swiss cheese, lingonberry and apricot jam and juice. The other hot dish served was barley porridge...eew :p One thing I didn't realise was while I was in Helsinki the World Athletics Championships were taking place, so the hostel was full of people from all over the world who were attending the event and they all discussed past and future events at breakfast. I found a small supermarket opposite the hostel reception building and bought a couple of items, then went back to my room and snoozed until 1100 before setting out to meet the city. Today was the day for the Metal Walk. I had all the metal pubs and clubs and stores mapped out and went to check them all out. I manouevred easily in the city, noting supermarkets close to the hostel on my way and making note of buses that were travelling in the area. How funny that one full-time metal pub in Helsinki city was at the top of my street. It was a cool, overcast day ranging between 15-17C degrees as I walked around. When I walked into On The Rocks, the first song I heard played was Nightwish's Nemo. What a welcome. Covering most of Helsinki in about 4 hours during the metal walk and stumbling upon the Russian Orthodox Parish House, I went in search of a particular t-shirt I had seen and bought some postcards. I was starting to get hungry so went in search of food outside the the realm of McDonalds. I didn't want to sit in a cafe either. I found the food hall in Stockman's department store and my mouth watered when I saw all the pastries on offer--many looking very like much the pastries made by Russians. I bought a savoury one similar to an individual-sized meat pirog (Russian-style meat pie) and an individual blackberry pirog. Famished by this stage, I'd finished the meat pirog before I'd even exited the store. I looked around to see what Finland had to offer. I was surprisd how tiny Helsinki city really is, but what a lovely little city. On my way back to the hostel, I managed to pop into a couple of the larger supermarkets and get some gourmet supplies and stumbled upon a discount department store, where I decided to buy a couple of warm items of clothing--a long sleeve t-shirt and a sleeveless anorak/puffy vest with hood/parker without sleeves and pick up a couple of local CDs. Tarja Turunen's voice (singer of Nightwish up until 23 October 2005) met me in the sound section. It's so good to hear the music you love piping through store speakers, even if you do have to travel 1000s of kilometres for the joy. At 2100 the rain started to come down while I was eating my dinner of a cold blinniy pirozok (Russian for crepe filled with chicken, rice and vegetables and lisichkiy (chantarelles) instant soup, while sampling blueberry cidar and strawberry cidar. I sat on the balcony in the airmchair and planned the next day. I washed some of my clothes and hanged them on the racks in the bathroom, but my leather pants still weren't dry, so there was no cleaning for this evening. I noticed a heater in the bathroom, so switched that on to provide a little extra warmth in the tiny apartment and to speed up my leathers drying. |
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| Russian Orthodox Uspenski Cathedral (left) and Parish House (above) |
| Tug pulling us into the port at Hanko |
| Seaside resort, Hanko |
| Beaten by strong winds |
| Thursday 10 August 2005 I woke at 0700 and went off to breakfast about an hour later. It was the same as yesterday and the only thing to change would be which porridge would be served. Today it was 'flour porridge', but I think they meant wheat grain. Full of good food and excellent coffee, I went back into my room and snoozed until 1100. The day was grey with extremely light showers. I packed my gear and went to catch a bus to Seusaari Open Air Museum full of historical buildings from all over Finland. It's nowhere near as good as the open air museum in Stockholm, but I still enjoyed it. |
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| Helsinki Harbour |
| As Seusaari was quite small, I decided to do some retail therapy back in the city. More yummy groceries and, of course, a new pair of leather boots for my collection. Friday 11 August 2005 to be continued |
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| The lutheran cathedral and momument to Tsar Alexander III of Russia overlooking Helsinki Harbour |
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| Check out the excellent Finnish parking style ;) |
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| Gorgeous wooden bridge to Seusaari |
| One of the tame squirrels who decided to crawl up my leg to my elbow to inspect if I had any tasty treats. SO CUTE! |
| Food larder--Finnish style |
| Self-portrait on the bridge with a swan family in the background |
| Papa-Swan come to say hello and eat my dill chips which were rejected by the squirrels |