Graptolite - Still on the Grand Tour
Graptolite's Sailing Log
Martyn Pickup & Heike Richter
Thu 22 Oct 2009 17:51
Marmaris growing weed on her bottom. The skipper isn't.
I'm still spending this Autumn in Germany, basically chauffeuring Heike
around to business meetings up and down the country. I get to drive a cool
car on the autobahns and I get plush hotels to stay in so I can't complain.
I've done all the tourist sights in Hameln (Hamelyn of Pied Piper fame) and
Berlin and Frankfurt recently and stayed in more schlosses than I can count.
Hamelyn is very nice. They make a big fuss about the Ratcatcher thing but it
seems to me that it is based on an historical event in the 13th century
where the local militia marched off to battle with a piper and part-time
vermin exterminator at the head of the column. As most of the youths got
killed or imprisoned and never came back, somebody had to take the blame.
The rest is tourism.
Berlin was much bigger and scruffier and looked more like a British city.
They've done some impressive rebuilding since the wall came down. Highlights
were a tour of WW2 underground bunkers, the Pergamon Museum and the
Checkpoint Charlie Museum. I actually went through Checkpoint Charlie while
it was still a checkpoint so it brought back memories of my small part in
bringing the Cold War to an end. A lot of the time was spent walking in the
rain using a Japanese-language street map (don't ask) so I got to know the
city fairly well.
Frankfurt was a flying visit today. I ate some frankfurters there, what
else?
M