Kuala Lumpur - Sydney

We both had showers at KL airport, in order to try and feel slightly human again.

This was the plane that we flew on from KL to Sydney. It was absolutely packed. KL must have been the change point for people flying from India, as the plane was full of Indians. There were too many families with babies for the number of cots, and many families split between rows, so there was a lot of manoeuvring. The cabin crew didn't seem to care that people were slightly upset. We were seated in two seats at the edge of a 5-seats-across-the-middle section. We had a young mum and with her young toddler on her lap, slap-bang in the middle of the five seats, so we swapped with her so she could at least be on the edge and free to get up if her daughter got too squirmy. She had actually booked a cot but had been told "Sorry, there's none left." But the little girl did very well (our son wouldn't have!), though I am sure that the mother was willing the flight to end from the very start!

It was quite late when we got in, and Tim's father picked us up and we stayed the night at Tim's parent's, ready to see our son in the morning when he woke up. It was interesting to see his reaction to us - a good deal of caution, but he warmed up pretty quickly. It was great to see him and nice to be home.

We loved our trip to Germany, and hope to go again (Tim definitely will need to for his PhD research). And I think Ursula would be very upset if we didn't bring the kids next time!

Frankfurt - Kuala Lumpur

We woke up in the morning to a magical surprise - it had snowed overnight - on our last night in Germany!

Here's what the view out our hotel window looked like the day before:

Here's what it looked like the morning after (yes it was pretty early, but the snow ploughs had already been through clearing roads and paths):

We packed up and caught a taxi to the airport. We weren't sure how much snow would ground planes, so were half prepared to not go anywhere, but thankfully it wasn't blizzardous, so the planes were still flying. Breakfast was McDonalds - classy.

Once we were on the plane they used a high pressure hose filled with something to hose down the aeroplane's wings so it was safe to take off. The whole time we were thinking how much our son would love to see that!

The trip to Kuala Lumpur was pretty much like any flight. Food average, not much sleep, wishing we were finally home...

Nürnberg - Frankfurt

The next morning we found our car, which we had left and ignored for two days, and it was covered in ice. We then managed to negotiate our way out of Nürnberg (I always felt this was a big achievement, being the navigator, and not understanding German, and therefore not really comprehending the street signs) and headed for Frankfurt.

It was a rather uneventful journey, where we spent most of the time skipping between relatively awful radio stations. We must mention the radio stations here: they seemed to have a fascination with Dido, and we heard the same songs over and over again. One station also had a particularly annoying jingle that they played everytime it was time to ring up for the current competition.

As we neared Frankfurt we needed to gauge where it was best to refill the car with diesel, as we needed to return the car with a full tank. We managed to locate the rental car entrance to the airport, returned the car unharmed (apart from a tiny chip in the windscreen, which the guy checking the car immediately noticed - probably mainly because the car had been brand new when we got it - it had been driven from Flensburg, up near Denmark, where it was registered, straight to Frankfurt, we reckoned).

We caught a taxi from the airport into the city, to the Marriott, where we were staying in luxury for our final night. This was the view from our hotel room:

We found a post office to post the fire helmet back home - it ended up taking up too much room in Tim's luggage - and then for something to do we caught the train into the city to the shopping district and had a wander.

We had dinner that evening in one of the three hotel dining rooms, along with some business men, and three American ladies who worked for Avon and seemed to be in Germany for a conference. We kept being given free courses by the waitresses (it was a bit weird) including a small plate of venison: "Excuse me, I didn't order this." "Oh no, that's a complementary dish".

We retired for the evening to watch tv - a novelty we hadn't seen since Possenhofen. This included a German movie that was actually set in Western Australia, but everyone spoke German, including the obligatory Australian Aborigine.

Nürnberg

As it was a Sunday, and not much was open, we decided that this would be the day to go to visit the Nazi Party Rally Grounds and the Documentation Centre within part of it. Nürnberg has struggled to shrug off the burden of it's Nazi legacy. The Nazi Party Rally Grounds have a number of buildings and venues, all with intimidating megalomanic architecture, where orchestrated propaganda campaigns were held to rally support for the party. The Documentation Centre was opened in late 2001, within part of the Kongresshalle (Congress Hall), and houses a fantastic exhibition called "Fascination and Terror" about National Socialism and the rise of Nazism before and during the war. At the time there was also an exhibition on of Leni Riefenstahl's work.

Not really knowing how far it was exactly, but believing it to be a walkable distance, I convinced Tim that there was no need to catch a tram, but walk instead. It was freezing, and in the end took over an hour to get there (it might have been closer to 2 hours). We needed to stop at a bakery to get hot drinks along the way to warm us up again. Tim repeatedly has a go at me for the fact that I made us walk all that way (Tim: and rightly so!), but in any event, had we caught the tram we would have been there way before it opened, whereas we reached it just in time for it to open on foot.

The first place we went to was the Documentation Centre. Built in part of the Congress Hall, the architects did a fantastic job of adding in thoroughly modern architectural bits that totally break up the severe Nazi geometry. We spent a long time in the "Fascination and Terror" exhibition.

We then walked around the Nazi Party Rally Grounds to all the different lcations - it covers a vast area, so this took quite some time.

The inside of the Congress Hall, which was never finished. It was supposed to outdo the Colosseum, and would have been enormous if completed.

The outside of the Congress Hall.

Looking along the Great Street which runs as the central axis for the grounds. It was to be used as a marching ground. If you were to draw a line from this avenue back to the old city of Nürnberg, it would connect the rally ground with the old Imperial Castle. The significance of this was that the Nazis were trying to connect the ideology of National Socialism with the imperial German past. Nürnberg had a special, mystical & mythical importance to the Nazis, particularly in relation to the foundation of National Socialism.

A view across Dutzendteich Lake (though currently drained) to the Congress Hall. I can't remember exactly why the lake was drained at the time, but it was something to do with the fact that there was some sort of bacteria contaminating it. Dutzendteich Lake sits between the Congress Hall and the Zeppelin Field, part of which you can see below. The Zeppelin Field was the parade ground for Nazi Party rallies. It had space for 200,000 people.

The two photos above show the Zeppelin Grandstand (the second is of the door in the centre of it). The grandstand is in front of the Zeppelin Field. There was originally a large swastika on the top of the grandstand, which was blown up by the Allies after Nürnberg was liberated.

The photos above and below show the Hall of Honour. It was constructed after WW1 to commemorate the fallen soldiers from Nürnberg. During the 1929 Party Rally, Hilter commemorated the fallen soldiers of WW1 and the martyrs of the National Socialist movement. Today the memorial commemorates the fallen soldiers of WW1, WW2 and the victims of the National Socialist rule of terror.

After our visit to the Nazi Party Rally Grounds we took a tram back to the old city, once we had worked out how to pay for the tram tickets - Tim asked an old couple for help: "Hello we are from Australia. Can you help us...", and they protested that they couldn't speak English very well until Tim demonstrated that he was able to speak German quite well, but just didn't understand how to use the ticket machine! We walked back through the main shopping area, and took some photos of the buildings, on our way back to the youth hostel.

In this photo above you can see the youth hostel - the great big castle on the hill.

Tim went for a walk later at dusk and took some more photos.

Albrecht Dürer House, where the artist Albrecht Dürer lived from 1509-1528.

Once again for dinner we decided to chance our luck with a kitchen hopefully more reputable than the youth hostel's, so we walked back into the old city, and tried to find a nice restaurant to eat at. One that we walked into appeared to be holding a private party (though there was nothing on the door to say so) and we got some rather hostile looks from the patrons. We worked out we weren't wanted! We finally found a nice italian restaurant, and sat next to a large extended family, a number of whom seemed to be of the gothic persuasion, plus a young couple who appeared to be on a rather awkward first date.

Another night of giggling girls next door.

Vilshofen - Nürnberg

We left for Nürnberg the next day, and spent a good part of the day travelling. There was not much of note on the journey, apart from when we went past the BMW factory near Regensburg, which was absolutely enormous.

When we arrived in Nürnberg we found the youth hostel, which Tim had booked for us to stay in as it was "in a castle" (cue trumpets sounding) except that when we got there, because it was in a castle it was a bit of a dive. It was unfortunate that in the whole of Germany, the only youth hostel where we had to share a bathroom was there, when we were on the home run, feeling travel weary, and in need of something slightly more upmarket than we were presented with. It also didn't help that in the room next to us (and we shared the bathroom with them) were four giggly American teenage girls who were apparently there with a school group. Talking in high pitched voices and giggling in the middle of the night seemed to be a fun thing to do for them... not so for us...

We went for a walk around the centre of Nürnberg that afternoon to explore and had a late lunch at McDonalds. McDonalds in Germany is a bit different to McDonalds in Australia, evidenced by the fact that you can buy McBeer. They also differ in their opinion of whether a thickshake is a drink or a dessert, with the Germans being in the dessert camp on that.

We also went to see the German National Museum, which was largely boring, though we did get to see a number of portraits by Dürer. I continued to be disappointed by the German lack of interest in displaying traditional pieces of embroidery in their museums.

We went out for dinner that night, because the fare on offer at the youth hostel didn't seem at all enticing (says us, who had McDonalds for lunch!).

Vilshofen - with a day trip to Regensburg

Ursula informed us that it had been -15 degrees celsius overnight. Hmmm. Slightly cold! Thank goodness for central heating!

We decided to take the train to Regensburg for the day. We caught the train to Plattling, and then had to change for Regensburg. We travelled through lots of snow covered country, and through quite a bit of fog too. We realised part way through the day that it wasn't snow falling on us from time to time - it just didn't seem quite snow-ish, maybe more ice-ish - but it was in fact frozen water vapour. Somehow different. But it wasn't snow.

Regensburg is a lovely university city, and is situated on the Danube. Oskar Schindler lived in Regensburg for a time. The Altstadt (Old City) is a lovely maze of pedestrianised narrow cobbled streets and squares.

We really had very little idea where to go once we got off the train at Regensburg, so just basically followed the crowds down a main road leading from the station. Amazingly we managed to end up heading in the right direction!

We went to the Regensburg Historical Museum first, where Tim took lots of photos of Roman artefacts once again. Regensburg is a former Roman settlement, and we then went to see the Porta Praetoria - an arch in a Roman wall that was part of the Roman fortress, Castra Regina, after which Regensburg was named.

We wandered on to the Dom St Peter, apparently one of the most important Gothic cathedrals in Bavaria (according to the Lonely Planet Guide, though it neglects to say why).

The next stop on our walking tour of the old city was the Steinerne Brücke (Stone Bridge) which is the oldest in Germany, and only recently was closed to cars. It spans the Danube.

We then walked to see a Jewish memorial in the centre of a square, and hoped to visit an underground museum that was just near it, which had excavations from the Castra Regina, and the mediaeval Jewish quarter (discovered when the square was dug up in 1995 to install electrical outlets for the city's annual Christmas markets!). Through a series of misunderstandings about when it was open, and where to get tickets to it from, we missed out on visiting it, which was slightly annoying, especially as we had been hoping to get some souvenirs for Tim's work colleagues from there.

We visited a few shops, had lunch in a lovely pizzeria - where they cooked the pizzas in big stone ovens, and then we managed to almost not get lost on the way back to the station.

That night, back in Vilshofen, Ursula cooked a traditional wiener schnitzel with potato salad for us, as it was our last night with them. We thought it was most amusing that when Ursula wanted to cool the cooked potatoes for the salad, she stuck the bowl of them outside the back door in the snow!

Tim and Winfried went out to the local watering hole again that night, but I stayed home and went to bed early. Apparently there were more free drinks, plus Tim was made an honorary member of the local's table.

Vilshofen

We spent a day at "home" on this day, just catching our breath. I knitted and Tim read.

We did go out for a morning walk around Vilshofen though, and took photos of some of the sights, and I bought some wool to make this scarf for Tim.

This is the main street of Vilshofen, still decorated for Christmas. I wonder who decides what colour the buildings are - is it individual building owners? And what would they do if the owner next door painted theirs a clashing colour?!

The Vils River flows through Vilshofen, and the ducks were having a bit of "fun" swimming in the close-to-freezing river - there was a frozen layer over most of it.

This is a benedictine monastery in Vilshofen, as seen from Winfried and Ursula's house. In the afternoon, Ursula took us for a drive to see it, and we also went inside to see a mission museum, of artefacts collected from Africa by missionaries from the monastery. The following two photos were taken from the monastery carpark.

After the monastery we went to an Aldi-style supermarket (Ursula was astounded that we actually have Aldi in Australia) - very much a variety supermarket, with food as well. I had offered to make dinner for them that night - a stirfry - and we had to get supplies, as it was not something Ursula normally cooked, and she didn't have any sauces that I would normally use.

I can't remember which day it was, but it could have been this day that in our travels we dropped over to Austria for petrol - it was about 25 euro cents cheaper than in Germany, and wasn't that far away. So I can say I have been to Austria. For petrol.

In the evening we went with Winfried to his favourite local watering hole, and one of Winfried's friends, Rudi, had spent some time in Australia when he was younger. He spoke English and was very pleased to be able to practise it with us! The publican was delighted to have some Australians in his establishment, and kept giving us drinks on the house.

Vilshofen - with a day trip to Passau

In the morning after breakfast Ursula took us to see Passau from a lookout, one which we had been to on our last visit to Vilshofen.

Passau is quite close to Vilshofen, and the Danube flows through it, meets the Ils and the Inn rivers and then flows on to Austria. It is quite lovely.

The lookout was at the Vesta Oberhaus, a 13th century fortress which gives a great view of Passau.

In the foreground is the Danube, and the background is the Inn River.

Up on the opposite hill from the lookout is the Wallfahrtskirche Mariahilf, a baroque abbey built between 1627 and 1630.

This is me with Ursula, trying to be warm!

A not-very-good photo taken from the car as we were going down the hill from the lookout.

Ursula dropped us off in Passau, and we went exploring. There are lots of narrow cobbled lanes in Passau, great for photo opportunities!

We wandered through some delightful shops of art and craft made by local artists and artisans (nice tasteful stuff, not your touristy kitsch stuff), and then visited the Passau Museum of Glass. This is an amazing rabbit warren of 35 rooms full of glass and crystal jugs/glasses etc. It takes an age to get through all of them, so filled in quite a bit of time.

We then walked back to the train station through the main shopping precinct and after quite a wait where the station staff didn't quite seem to know what was going on, managed to get a train back to Vilshofen.

Ursula had once again organised kuchen for afternoon tea. Mmmm!

That evening, after a slightly rushed dinner (Ursula is a great cook), Winfried had organised for us to visit the Vilshofen Volunteer Fire Station, because Tim was a member of the volunteer bushfire service here in Sydney. We had known about this before we left, so Tim had organised to take a bushfire helmet to give to them as a present (it took up quite a bit of space in his suitcase!) and they returned the favour and presented Tim with a German fire helmet, which glows in the dark! They thought the bushfire helmet was very flimsy and plasticky, and would melt too easily - Tim had to explain that if you were close enough to the fire for your helmet to melt you were too close!