Day 1 - Regensburg - Düsseldorf
Our week started last Sunday at around 5:30 when we caught the bus to the train station to start our 'epic' journey to the north. In an effort to save precious funds we always travel using the cheapest option possible (that, and the fact that the other options are ridiculously overpriced) but this unfortunately limits the choice of trains you can travel on. Basically you can only travel on the 'Regional' trains or 'slow' trains, as everybody else knows them. This being the case, the journey to Düsseldorf took us over 9 hours, with 6 changes in between. The journey wasn't actually as bad as I had been anticipating and obviously we had each other for company, as well as Lois' iPad for entertainment. Our last leg of the journey was spectacular, as the train chugged alongside the Rhine, passing through picturesque towns, villages, countryside and past amazing castles. The weather was promising and I think the excitement made the journey go quicker. It was a relief to arrive in Düsseldorf and this is where our few days of 'craziness' began. This time of year 'Karneval' is celebrated in NRW, amongst other places. It's basically a week of hard partying ending on the Monday. It's a regional holiday so everyone gets the day off - that's how serious they take it. And it's not just for the young people - Everybody takes part. Everybody. It's a long standing tradition and it's a celebration of identity for the people of this region, who get to show how proud they are to live here. I believe it stems from when the people would express anti French / Prussian feelings during times of occupation and has grown ever since. But enough with the history...
As we stepped off the platform onto the main concourse of the station, we were met with huge crowds. Huge, loud, colourful crowds. And when I say colourful, I mean really colourful. Every single person was dressed up. Most were holding a beer and all walking towards the town. We had to dodge these partygoers as we too made our way out of the station in an effort to find our hotel. After some now very well practised Lois and Marcus navigation, we found our hotel and checked in. It seemed good, so we were pleased. We then made our way into the city for some tea and an explore. We found the main street and it was alive. It turns out that this is where all the people we had seen in the station we heading. The street was lined with different groups of people, usually all in the same fancy dress, and enjoying alcohol and blaring out music from homemade hi-fi systems. Everyone was happy and the atmosphere was electric. We were shocked by the amount of litter and mess on the streets however, and it seemed as though the parties were coming to an end. Or so we thought.
We entered the Altstadt, or old part of town, and got even more of a surprise. If the main street was electric, the Altstadt was on fire! Bars were overflowing, the music was deafening, we had to squeeze our way through crowds of jovial revellers. People in onesies were dancing on tables, superheroes walked past us and doctors and policeman (fancy dress - I hope!) were drinking like there was no tomorrow! It's a good job we kept moving, because even as we walked through this area we found our feet sticking to floor. And this was outside! It was chaos. Actual chaos. But it was fun. And the atmosphere was happy. But our chances of finding somewhere for a drink and some food were immediately dashed, as every single bar was full. And there really are a lot of bars in Düsseldorf. Fortunately we managed to find a respectable bar to escape the chaos for a little while. After catching our breath we decided to head back in preparation for the next day, and also to escape any further 'craziness' that was almost certainly going to happen that evening. We bought 'tea on the go' and went back to the hotel.
Day 2 - Cologne
Our day in Cologne also began early as we wanted to get there early to beat the crowds. 'Rosenmontag' is the last day of the Karnval celebrations and also the highlight of Karneval. A huge parade takes over the city and people spend the entire day celebrating. This is why we were here. If you want to experience Karneval, in Cologne on Rosenmontag is the place to experience it. We had been warned but no amount of warnings could prepare us for what we were about to see.
We arrived in Cologne station shortly before 9:00 and the place was already buzzing. Like the previous night, the station was full of people dressed up and being very loud. We made our way into the city and the crowds grew and grew. As we looked around we soon realised we were receiving odd looks because we weren't dressed up! We passed groups of clowns, a family of zoo animals, cavemen and I also noticed a Pope wandering through the crowds. People really do go all out. To our surprise we noticed that all the shops had been boarded up. This was to keep the store fronts safe from the craziness of Karneval - This shows exactly how mad it is! We found a good spot on the parade route that wasn't yet too busy and decided to set up our camp. The pavements alongside the parade route were fast filling up, but we had a good spot. The parade wouldn't start for another 2 hours, but we were kept entertained by all the colourful costumes and intoxicated people staggering past us. Opposite, a group of clowns had set up there camp, including beer kegs taped to lampposts to allow the beer to flow freely. Shots of liquor were being handed down the lines of people stood aside the road and more homemade music boxes blared out German party music. The atmosphere was great and as Lois commented, every single person was smiling, laughing or dancing. There were old women, also dressed up, old men dancing down the road, mums and dads with young children, all in fancy dress, we even saw a baby dressed up as an elephant. Karneval really does attract every age group. We laughed a lot, as hilarious and ridiculous costumes passed by. The pavement was now pretty full, but thanks to our planning and early arrival, we were at the front and had a great view as the parade began.
The costumes in the parade were impressive and the bands sounded great. The floats were often very clever and most of them had a political theme. Facebook privacy settings, Merkels phone being hacked, Obamas' political policies and the Ukraine crisis were all mocked in the form of weird and wonderful floats. The floats were approaching serious topics in a light hearted and jokey way and made lots of people laugh. People spend all year planning and making these floats and you can certainly tell. Now to the best bit of the parade - the sweets. Each float and each group that comes past throws sweets into the crowd. When I say throw sweets, I really mean throws sweets. And not just a few. At first I was stunned at the amount of confectionary falling at my feet, but after a while you become used to it. Sweets, chocolates and biscuits were falling around us and everybody was suddenly on their hands and knees grabbing at whatever they could find. Often the parade would come to a standstill and at this point, the crowd would cry 'Kamelle' (Sweets in NRW dialect) and even more would come flying out of the parade. I found myself becoming increasingly greedy and trying to get as many sweets as possible. My favourite float was a canon which was filled with sweets and then fired them out in batches of hundreds at a time, into the crowd. It really was wild. It was insane. It was mad. Before long we had a carrier bag full and at this point decided we had better calm down. But even then, when you weren't looking for sweets, you couldn't help but find them. On several occasions I was hit in the face by flying sweets and I was actually severely injured by a chocolate bar thrown in my direction. Lois was also lucky enough to receive a few flowers from several of the men in the parade. The parade was just endless. Before we knew it, we had been stood watching the parade for four consecutive hours and it was still in full swing. At this point, we decided we wanted to move on, so then the task of getting away began. With us surrounded by numerous revellers and with the entire city on 'parade lockdown', we found ourselves IN the parade in an effort to find an exit. We walked along side a band, past the screaming crowds until we found a sneaky exit and darted down it. After trudging around and getting lost amongst more crowds, we finally made it to the main station. We caught the U-bahn to the zoo just outside the city and spent the last few hours of the afternoon there.
Angela Merkel as the Mona Lisa
Cologne Zoo is big and has one of the largest collection of animals in Germany. Obviously since the parade was on, the zoo was pretty quiet, so it was a great time to go. It's only a few stops out from the city centre and I was surprised at just how good it was, to say it's close to such a big city. We saw all the usual zoo animals and managed to watch the penguins being fed. The elephants, giraffes and hippos were particularly impressive. After seeing all the animals and visiting the aquarium as well, it was time to find some tea. We returned to the city centre, where to our surprise the parade was still going! It was now 18:00! The floor was a crystallised mess of broken bottles, party streamers and bits and bobs of various costumes. We were able to find a small Italian restaurant offering a pizza and pasta buffet which suited us perfectly and we enjoyed our meal. All that was left was for us to make our way back through the endless parties, past all the overflowing bars, past all the mess and to the station to return to Düsseldorf. We were pretty exhausted after a whole day of being on our feet - and this was only day one!
Day 3 - Bonn
Following our tasty buffet breakfast at the hotel we caught the train to Bonn. At Bonn train station we met with our friend Matt from university who is currently working in Frankfurt on his Year Abroad. As we sauntered into town, it was immediately clear that the people of Bonn had also celebrated Karneval since the town square was also strewn with remnants of last nights parties. Bonns claim to fame is being the birthplace of Beethoven, and to be honest that's about it. We found the house in which he was born, which is now a museum but with none of us being classical music fans we strolled on.
The man himself
Beethovens birth houseMaybe I lied when I said Beethoven is Bonns only claim to fame. Much more importantly for us, Bonn is the birthplace of Haribo. (Haribo was founded by Hans Riegel from Bonn - hence the name Hans Riegel from Bonn) Unfortunately you're unable to tour the actual factory, but they do have two stores dedicated to Haribo. The one in the town centre has every single Haribo product produced available to buy. You can buy bags, tubs or help yourself to the pick & mix, which we obviously did. There is also loads of Haribo merchandise available for purchase, from toy bears to haribo cutlery, it's amazing to see just how big the brand is. We also visited the factory outlet store, where you can buy all Haribo products in bulk. It was mouth-watering to wander round and see boxes and boxes of sweets at very reasonable prices. People had trollies stacked with enough Haribo for a year! It was hard not to do the same! In the afternoon we partook in the Germans' favourite thing to do when you have no other plans... beer drinking. We sampled a few different bars before heading to a traditional Bavarian restaurant for tea. That's right, we spent 9 hours on a train from Bavaria just a few days earlier, only to end up eating Bavarian food in a Bavarian restaurant. But it was good food and it was really great to catch up with Matt and spend the day with him. Whilst we were disappointed with what Bonn had to offer, we're glad we visited (if not only for the Haribo!) but another day was soon over and it was back to Düsseldorf for us.
Lois made a new friend
We had a great day with MattDay 4 - Dortmund
Another major city in NRW, Dortmund is home to the world famous BVB football team, second best in Germany after Bayern München (of course!) We began our day in Dortmund with a visit to the Museum of Persecution and Resistance. A little depressing, I hear you say, and you wouldn't be wrong. This museum is actually located in the former headquarters of the Dortmund Gestapo and was a prison for opponents to the Nazi regime. It was in German, so we found it pretty intense but interesting non the less and we left with some additional knowledge we didn't know before. We then made our way to the centre of the city and we were both shocked at the size of it and what was on offer. It turns out Dortmund is a very modern city with loads and loads of shops. A huge great shopping centre houses all types of shops (even a Primark - the first one of which we have seen here in Germany!) and the main street has even more. It was nice to browse for a little before we had a coffee break and relaxed. Late afternoon we met Anna, also an Aston student on her Year Abroad, and had a drink with her. It was once again lovely to share stories about our experiences and talk about how excited we all are for final year together. Following a recommendation from Anna we visited Italian chain Vapianos for tea. At this restaurant you get given a card, order everything yourself at the kitchen, watch your meal being freshly prepared and then enjoy. The cost of the meal is put on the card and then you pay for whatever you've had at the end. It's a great system and seeing your food prepared is really different and special. The food was delicious, well priced and the restaurant ambience was really nice. A lovely meal out and another place we hope to revisit.
The museum that we visited
Day 5 - Cologne (again!)
Cologne really is a super city and there is quite a bit to see there. Seeing as though our first day in Cologne was dominated by craziness and the parade, we wanted to go back and see the city in a different light. As we arrived, it was almost as though nothing had ever happened. The majority of the streets were clean and empty. The stands where people sat to view the parade were still up and underneath there was still lots of mess, but the majority of the city had returned to normality. The cathedral is naturally the most popular sight in Cologne. We have seen it from the outside, from the inside but never from the top. So the first thing we did in Cologne on Thursday was climb the 533 steps to the top. It really was a long way up but the views at the top were impressive. The Rhine below looked lovely, yet the city wasn't anything special to look at from above. After this, we went to the famous Lindt chocolate museum. This was really interesting and it had heaps of information about everything to do with chocolate. We saw cocoa plants, did chocolate quizzes and even watched workers and machines producing real chocolate. It was a really good way to spend a few hours. After the museum we went and walked on Colognes famous love lock bridge. The bridge has over 40,000 love locks padlocked to it. It is estimated that the padlocks have added an extra 2 tons of weight to the bridge, which is a little scary really. It's quite amazing to look at and the way they all sparkled in the sunlight really was quite romantic. Tired from all the walking we'd done we settled down by the Rhein and enjoyed a cold beer. The sun was out and everybody was enjoying it. It was a very picturesque scene. We visited the 'Eau de Cologne' museum but decided against going in. Lois did however get to sample the original 'Cologne' fragrance, which is definitely a cool thing to say you've done. Cologne, like Dortmund, has also got a huge variety of shops which we enjoyed browsing. It's a really bustling city and has a good feeling about it. For tea we visited a Chinese buffet, which was disappointingly average. Another day over and we were really worn out. Back to Düsseldorf before our last day out.
Nice views from the top of the Cathedral
The love lock bridgeDay 6 - Aachen and Düsseldorf
Our last day in NRW was spent in Aachen. For those of you who don't know, Aachen is in fact the twin town of Halifax (my hometown) so I was keen to visit. Aachen was also the first place in Germany to be liberated by the allies in the second world war since it is so close to the border. We were really surprised by Aachen. We hadn't expected much, but the city was beautiful. Very old, historic and with some fantastic buildings. The sun was once again out and it made the city look lovely. After exploring the city, we enjoyed an ice cream whilst sat in the sun in the park. This is the first ice cream of the year and hopefully the first of many! After this we hopped on a bus in search of the 'Dreiländereck' or 'three-country-corner' and made our way to the border. We had already heard French and Dutch being spoken in the city and the city really is right on the border. Upon disembarking from the bus, we walked just a few yards down the road and found ourselves in the Netherlands. No border to cross, nothing to warn you, all of a sudden you're just surrounded by Dutch signs! We hiked through some forest on the actual border itself and carried on up and up. The walk was strenuous and we didn't really know where we were going, but soon enough we came across it. The 'Dreiländereck' is where Holland, Belgium and Germany all meet. We were both expecting huge signs, fanfares, flags and basically for it to be a big deal. But it's not. It's just a stone marking the point where the three countries meet. Nevertheless, we find it really cool to say we've now visited Belgium and Holland on our Year Abroad (Yes we only went a few metres over the border, but that still counts, right?) We descended the mountain we had earlier climbed and the scenic walk back to Aachen was wonderful. It was so peaceful and everyone we came across was so friendly. Once back into Aachen we caught the train back to Düsseldorf in an effort to explore a bit of the city we had been staying in all week, but which we really hadn't seen much of!
I'm stood in three different countries here!
Seeing as though Aachen is Halifaxs twin town and seeing as though I was representing Halifax, I wore my flat cap like a proper Yorkshire lad!We didn't get into Düsseldorf until early evening and seeing as though it was Friday, the place was again buzzing. We found what appeared to be 'the strip' - full of bars, restaurants and clubs and it was packed. Düsseldorf seems to be a mix of old and new. The Altstadt has some really old 'German' buildings whilst the inner city had lots of shops and funky nightlife. It seems a really nice city. We enjoyed a drink in one of the bars before heading out of town to a Mexican we had found online. The cute little restaurant was small but cosy and we just managed to get served before people who had already reserved began to arrive. One tasty burrito later and we headed back to our hotel via one last bar to reminisce about fun packed week. Honestly, we were pretty exhausted by this point. The stairs to our room had become increasingly difficult to climb as the week progressed because of all the walking we'd done. But we wouldn't have changed it and we definitely got the most out of the week.
Day 7 - Return to Regensburg
All that was left was the small matter of our 9 hour journey back to Regensburg. And unfortunately Deutsche Bahn let us down. Our second train didn't arrive. That's right, it just didn't come. How can a train just disappear? How can they just cancel trains? We were pretty annoyed by this as it meant our whole journey now had to be changed and consequently, the new journey was longer. But there was nothing we could do but accept it and get on with it. With the help of '24' on Lois' iPad the journey wasn't as bad as it could've been. We rolled into Regensburg at 2000, dashed into the shop to get some supplies for tea (we were the last transaction so we made it just in time!) and then finally got back to my flat. Tired but happy to be back and with lots of great memories from our week away.
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