Baden-Baden to Berlin

Yesterday morning we set off from the town of Baden-Baden to explore a nearby castle.  Though our GPS got lost at the last minute, we still managed to find Hohenbaden Castle at the top of a massive hill. It was built in 1102 and is known locally as the Altes Schloss (Old Castle). The views from the top of the castle were quite spectacular and I was very jealous of the couple who were having a private champagne breakfast at a table that had been set up along the castle walls.

After the castle we set off to check out the two German towns where my grandparents and mother were born. First we went to Ellingshausen, an absolutely tiny village in the middle of Germany. My grandmother grew up on a farm in Ellingshausen, so I was expecting a fairly rural setting. Instead it was just half a dozen streets full of normal houses. We walked around for a bit and let Iago swim in the stream that runs next to the town.

Our next stop was the town of Coburg where my grandfather used to live and where my mother was born. Coburg was quite a bit bigger than Ellingshausen and really rather pretty. It was quite late when we arrived so we didn’t have much time to explore but we did manage to check out the main square. The two most impressive buildings in the square were the Rathaus and the Stadthaus. If you look closely at the picture of the Rathaus (the building with the flagpoles in front) you can see a small statue in the centre of the roof of a man holding a bratwurst. This is a very important reference point in Coburg because the local delicacy – a sausage known as the Coburger Bratwurst – is always made exactly the same size as the one being held in the statue.  In other trivia, the Coburger Bratwurst also claims to be the only sausage in Germany made with raw eggs. 

Anyway, we spent a lot of time driving around yesterday so it was good to get to our hotel in Erfurt. We had a bit of a sleep in this morning, then set off for Berlin. We arrived late this afternoon and decided to go for a bit of a walk with Iago near our hotel. We quickly came across the Reichstag, a beautiful old building which houses Germany’s parliament, as well as Brandenburg Gate, a famous gateway into Berlin which has played a central role in the city’s history for almost 300 years. Walking through the Gate this afternoon I was struck again by how amazing it is to be able to see these kinds of historical monuments in person, rather than just reading about them in books. 

As we were walking back to our hotel I also noticed another famous icon of Berlin – the Ampelmännchen. For those who don’t know, the Ampelmännchen is the unique little pedestrian crossing symbol that is used in many former areas of East Germany, including Berlin. After German reunification in 1990, many pedestrian crossings across the country were standardised and the Ampelmännchen began to disappear. Fortunately, not everyone was happy about this and people banded together to save the funny little guy. Hooray! Speaking of funny little guys, here is Daniel enjoying a beer.

- Amanda