The beginning
For reasons not
quite known, my mother had wanted to visit the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg for quite some
time, and my
trip to
Vietnam in 2002 seemed to accelerate these plans, so we (including
my brother) decided to go there in the spring of 2003.
Planning
This
would be a ferry/car trip, so no hanging around at airports...and it was
time to dig up some information about our planned destinations. I
decided to order some literature from
Amazon in UK again - these being 'Rough guides - Germany', 'DK
Eyewitness travel - Germany', and 'Philip's Europe road atlas'. I also
contacted the Luxembourg tourist office directly, as well as the
Norwegian branch of the German tourist office with a request for some
brochures. After having read up and down and surfed the net for quite
some time, a round trip began to form.
The first leg of our journey would start
from our capital, Oslo. The ferry would take us to Kiel in around 19
hours, and we would start well rested and awake on the continent. The
first stop would be Lübeck, which is around 70 km southeast of Kiel on a
smaller main road (Bundesstrasse). Our journey would then continue in a
southwestward direction on the A1 Autobahn past Köln (Cologne), via the
Mosel Valley to Trier and Luxembourg.
The return trip would go back to the start of the Mosel Valley, then
southeastwards through the most scenic part of the Rhine Valley, past
Mainz and Frankfurt to Würzburg, where our road would take us northwards
on the A7 Autobahn past Hannover, Hamburg and back to the ferry in Kiel
- the last part would include an overnight stop in the old town of
Goslar, not far from Hannover.
After scouring the obtained information
and road map, and deciding on a rough plan on what to see and visit, we
set aside 14 days for the trip, to be on the safe side and not
underestimate the distance we would be covering.
And they're off to a good start...or?
A 19 hour boat trip sounded
quite long to me, as I am not used to cruising like this for long
periods of time. Indeed, after a bit of walking around and getting to
know the ship, it was time to get bored..finally, night came, and with
it, the discovery of how loud those engines sound when you have a cabin
pretty near to it. And with the addition of fog and a blaring horn
throughout the night, our hopes of waking up fresh the next morning
dwindled fast.
This might be a long day...back on land
again in Kiel and it was time to look for signposts that said
'Fernverkehr' which would translate to something like 'faraway-traffic',
mostly referring to motorways (called Autobahns in Germany). We did find
the Bundesstrasse leading to Lübeck, and after an hour and a half, we
were there.
Hansestadt Lübeck
This
town is a good example of the heritage from the Hanseatic age, when
there was a lot of trade between ports on the Baltic Sea. Now counting
214.000 citizens, it has also achieved status as a UNESCO World Cultural
Heritage Site, and the old town is quite big with a lot of architecture
that is typical for the age. Major sights include the town hall with its
small spires, the Marienkirche, and the Holstentor ('tor' in German
meaning 'gate') which also houses a museum. Lübeck is also famous for
its traditions with making marzipan, with brands like Niederegger dating
as far back as the early 1800s.
The remainder of the day saw us on the A1
towards the Ruhr area, which is quite densely populated, with several
bigger cities such as Dortmund, Düsseldorf, Essen and Köln. Our chosen
stop
for
the night was the Waldhotel Eskeshof
on the outskirts of Wuppertal. This place was a pleasant experience, as
it was situated right at the end of a quiet road, and indeed lying near
the forest. The only major 'sight' in Wuppertal as far as I know is its
unusual tranportation form - a monorail, dating back to the early 1900s.
A monorail is a railroad which travels on an overhead rail structure,
this one being inverted (suspended), making it a somewhat peculiar sight
above traffic.
Köln & Mosel
The next day started with a 50 km drive from Wuppertal to Köln. In
the days of the Roman empire, this was known as Colonia, hence the
english name of Cologne (and yes the name of 'eau de Cologne' or
'Kölnerwasser' is from here). This is Germany's 4th largest city and
counts somewhere around 1 million inhabitants. The most famous landmark
would have to be the cathedral, which rises 157 metres above the flat
cityscape
and is so easy to find that you don't need a map to get there - signs
will also show you the way. The cathedral, which is mainly gothic in
style, has evolved for 600 years until it was finally completed in 1880.
We did a short roundtrip, where we parked the car, walked to the
cathedral and inside it (remember to try not to break your neck when you
look up at the spires), then down via the somewhat smaller Romanesque
church of St. Martin, across the Hohenzollern railway bridge which
crosses the Rhine river, then back again across the bridge to the car.
We noticed that stops like these easily eat up a couple of hours of the
day, even though they may not seem
to be that long. Still, there was more to come, and we followed the
stretch of Bundesstrasse which covers the floor of the Mosel valley,
around 190 km from Koblenz to Trier. Spring seemed to have been very dry
so far, as there was not much green stuff to be seen at all, naked trees
and vineyards on the gently sloping valley walls, which I am quite sure
made our visit less interesting than it could have been. However, we
decided to go for a 'quick' visit to a side valley which houses the
peculiar Burg Eltz castle. This was a somewhat more unusual sight
compared to the other numerous castles in the valley, as this one seemed
to be a mix of both old and new building style, and looked as if it had
originally grown straight up from the rock on which it is perched.
Time for another overnight stop -
Berghotel Kockelsberg on the
outskirts of Trier. This small hotel is every bit as beautiful as it
seems to be on the home page, and has a great location away from all
traffic, lying on a hill slightly overlooking the town. The staff was
also very friendly and hospitable, and the two we spoke to were very
well versed in the English language - one with a cockney dialect (found
in part of London), while the other had a broad American accent - both
very surprising for Germans, as they usually tend to embrace their own
language eagerly.
The
town of Trier itself is Germany's oldest towns, which says quite a lot,
as Germany has an abundance of old history and historic sites. Its age
is officially around 2000 years, while an inscription on one of the
buildings on the town square says in Latin that 'before Rome, Trier
stood one thousand and three hundred years', a legend which refers to it
as being founded
in 2000 BC. Officially, it was founded by the Romans as Augusta
Treverorum, this town was one of the biggest in the northern parts of
the territory at its time, with around 100.000 inhabitants - as many as
today - and it had two bath facilities, namely Kaiserthermen and
Barbarossathermen (the biggest north of the Alps), it had a 6.4 km long
city wall, of which today only remains the big gate leading into the
town - Porta Nigra, named so for the dark discolouration of the stone it
was built from, and it had its own amphitheatre which roomed 20.000
spectators - not bad for a town considerably smaller than the seat of
the empire. The old part of town is a very nice experience, as there are
buildings and build styles from several different
epochs
and countries - I felt that some of the buildings on the main square
looked as if they had been fetched from Prague, while others looked more
oriental in style. The amphitheatre is a bit outside the old town, and
if you want to go for a stroll similar to the one we did, be prepared to
spend at least 3-4 hours. Other sights include old cranes on the Mosel
river, and the cathedral, which houses an impressive relief cupola.
Ra-di-o Lux-em-bourg!
From Trier, Luxembourg City is a mere stone throw away - 50 km, and
you will barely notice crossing the border. We were lucky enough to
arrive on a friday afternoon during rush hour, and noticed that road
signs
were different from the ones in Germany - here, they liked to write
directions and lane info on the lanes themselves, so as these were
packed as we got there, it took quite a while to find our way to our
chosen hotel - the Etap which belongs to the big
Accor Hotels chain. The
hotel itself was brand new and almost smelled of fresh paint - the
standard was ok enough but nothing spectacular - but then again, this is
the budget series of the Accor chain, so € 35 per night including
breakfast (biscuits and jam) was definitely enough. The hotel was
situated right next to the airport, which was no problem really, since
the traffic there was mostly from 7 in the morning till 23 in the
evening. Our problem was however that there was a dog expo this weekend,
and a lot of people had chosen this hotel and the Ibis (also part of the
Accor chain) next door to stay in. Many left their dogs in their cars
during the night, and thus, a fair bit of the night was spent listening
to the dog's argumenting against this - not exactly lucky timing on our
behalf!
Luxembourg
City itself is perched on a slightly rocky terrain, and is divided into
two halves by the Petrusse and the Alzette valleys. These are covered by
only a couple of bridges, which tends to create a few traffic jams here
and there. As one of the European Union's main cities and a financial
capital, there is quite a few modern buildings to spot in addition to
the much older ones (it houses e.g. the European Court of Justice). It
was founded in the year 963 AD, originally as just a castle perched on
top of a rock, but with a 270 degree view - a great advantage for
fortifications. The capital itself houses 75.000 of the country's
population of 465.000, and the total area of the country is only 2600
square kilometres. The official languages are German and French, in
addition they have their own language which some people in the
countryside or villages speak - Lëtzebuergesch.
We found out that there are two sides of
Luxembourg City - the trafficked, noisy central parts of town including
the bridges, and the countryside-feel valleys where you can take a
leisurely stroll and enjoy the
houses and see the remains of the fortifications of the old castle. What
remains of these is a newer tunnel network - named the Bock and Petrusse
casemates. 17 of the original 23 km of these tunnels still exist, while
only a small part of this is open to the public. This is well worth a
visit, and you will also enjoy some views over the valley floor from the
cannon openings. This can easily be included with one or both of the
classical walks in the valley - the Vauban and the Wentzel walks (see
links at the bottom of the page, under the official Luxembourg pages).
Today is..castle day!
A whole day was set aside to a visit to the countryside, including
two nice looking castles. The first was the
obvious
watchdog of the small village of Vianden (pronounced with a German 'v',
thus 'Fianden') as it was perched on top of a small hill around which
the village was situated. It was constructed between the 11th and the
14th centuries. Originally the seat of the counts of Vianden, it
eventually fell into ruin during the 19th century as it was sold piece
by piece under Dutch reign, until as late as in 1977, the family of the
Grand Duke of Luxembourg transferred it to State ownership, thus
beginning its restoration.
You get to walk through most of the
castle, and it is interesting to see the insides, which is not nearly as
pompous as the ones you may find elsewhere.
Another short drive sent us to the
Müllertal, where we found the ruin of the Beaufort castle. This was what
one could call an open-air museum, as the roofs were long since gone
after a fire. The style was clearly different from the one in Vianden,
even though it was built in the 12th century. Here, we found some very
small rooms - but one of them was obviously for elite visitors, as a
picture showed a knight washing himself in a stone basin, and the basin
was indeed visible - even with an exit hole straight into the garden!
This castle seemed to belong to a darker age, as we observed a prison
cell complete with chains, as well as a torture chamber with devices
that one would recommend against using one's imagination too much to
figure out how they worked.
Just outside the castle lies the start of
a footpath through the Müllertal, and we decided to go there to devour
the impressions from the last days. We were however soon welcomed by
thunder, lightning and rain, and decided to cut the walk short and head
back to the car and the capital.
The return trip begins
Our return trip saw us quickly back to Koblenz via the A13 with a
short stop inside the town itself to visit the Deutsches Eck. This is
where the two rivers Mosel and Rhine meet, forming an even bigger Rhine.
The Eck, which translates to 'corner', has been built into the shape of
the bow of a battleship, and on top of a pedestal as large as a house
sits a huge statue of Kaiser Wilhelm I. The coat-of-arms of all the 16
regions of Germany is also displayed in a semi-circle behind the statue.
Koblenz is also the starting point for the most scenic part of the Rhine
valley. A 100 km stretch to the twin town of Mainz/Wiesbaden sees you
through numerous small villages, and as you drive by you will see
castles perched atop virtually every hilltop. One of the most famous
stops is the Lorelei cliff, rising some 120 metres above the most narrow
part of the river between Switzerland and the North Sea, thereby causing
a strong current, which in addition to the rocks below have caused many
boat accidents there. The name is also that of one of the Rhine 'sirens'
(similar to the ones found in Greek myth) who lured seafarers to their
doom.
We had originally planned to stay
overnight somewhere in the Rhine valley, as we figured this would be
enough driving and sightseeing for one day. However, time was on our
side, even though we had a strange incident where the road was closed
due to construction work, which sent us onto a ferry landing to cross
the river. This one turned out not to be operative, so we had to drive
back to the nearest bridge and continue on the other side of the valley
instead - a good thing that there are two roads leading through the
Rhine
'gorge'. We managed to continue on the autobahn past Frankfurt and ended
up in Würzburg before the clock showed 17. As this was not quite
according to plan, it was time to bring out some literature and search
for a hotel. This was done on a Walmart parking lot (of all places), and
we ended up aiming for a castle hotel visit - namely
Schloss Steinburg. After
searching a while for the road leading up there, we found out that it
had an absolutely spectacular placement with a marvellous
view
over the entire town, and even had its own vineyard on the slopes below.
Each of the 52 rooms have been individually furnished, making every
visit unique (unless you request your old room of course...), the stairs
were creaking, and there were coats-of-arms and even a full-fledged
plate armour on display in the breakfast room, standing watch over the
guests perhaps?
The breakfast was great, with a huge decoration of fresh roses on the
main table, and most you would want out of a breakfast buffet - and
something else: white wine jam! I tried it, and it did indeed taste like
white wine, but presumably with the alcohol removed.
It was time for a bit of sightseeing in
Würzburg, the main attractions being the Schloss Marienberg and the
Würzburg Residenz. We chose to go for the Residenz and nothing else, and
this turned out to be quite an
experience of pompous baroque decorations! With that being said, it was
quite a magnificent structure. Construction started in 1720 and it was
finished in 1744. Sadly, almost all of the town, including the old
parts, was ruined by a British bomb raid in 1945, even though Würzburg
had no military significance. It took 20 years to painstakingly rebuild
what was ruined, while the restoration of the Residenz wasn't
finished
until 1987 - some of this work is on display and explained in detail
along the hallways of the Residenz - quite fascinating reading. The
magnificent staircase, which was designed by the artist Balthasar
Neumann and decorated by the Venetian Giovanni Battista Tiepolo has an
amusing tale of its own: sceptics would say that the staircase, being
roofed by an unsupported vault, would collapse eventually, while the
designer claimed that it would shrug off cannonfire. No tests were done
however - until the fateful air raid in 1945 where the building was
heavily damaged - but the staircase survived intact. The ceiling fresco
is one of the largest ever made, measuring 18 x 30 metres.
More return trip
The rest of the return trip was covered by the A7 autobahn, apart
from a small detour and overnight stop
in the old town on Goslar. Situated at the northern end of the smal Harz
mountain area, it is probably one of the best preserved complete old
towns in the country. There are some 1500 houses which all make up the
UNESCO World Cultural Heritage town, some of them dating as far back as
the 16th century. This is definitely a place where it is easy to get
lost, as the narrow roads wind left and right and might lead you in the
opposite direction than what you intended to in the first place. A good
map is recommended here. Some of the major sights include the town
Marktplatz with the church, old houses and more old houses - and some
different-looking but still old houses :)
We tried dining at a chinese restaurant
here, named Goldene Palast, right next to the church. This was a very
pleasant experience, and we tasted for the very first time a drink
imported from Japan - delicious sweet plum wine on the house. This is
definitely a place to return to if Goslar is re-visited (and it was
indeed).
Hannover
was our final stop before the port town of Kiel. In addition to being
Germany's tech city, there are some neat other sights here - including
the 1913 Rathaus (which is town hall - the German name sounds amusing
when pronounced in English, of course :)
There's also the EXPO sights, including a rainforest house, and the
large baroque Herrenhäuser Garten.
After an overnight in Kiel, it was time
for the final leg of the journey - the ferry ride back to Oslo. This
time we ended up with a quieter night, and had a nice sunset as well as
a pleasant breakfast in the 'Crystal Room' of the ship Prinsesse
Ragnhild (Color Line), although this ship has been replaced since then.
What
was originally planned as a 14 day trip, turned out as a 9 day trip - a
lesson learned was not to underestimate the efficiency of the German
autobahns and the generally excellent infrastructure there.
General information
Both Germany and Luxembourg are countries
in which it is easy to get around. The infrastructure is really good,
and efficiency and road culture is well above average. Driving is not a
problem, but the autobahns with no speed limit may seem a bit scary at
first. However, there are always at least two lanes, often three when
near bigger cities, but slower moving traffic such as lorries, buses and
trailers will fill up the rightmost lane and cruise at around 90-100
km/h. A recommended average speed depending on traffic density is around
120-130 km/h. Construction work is abundant, as are speed reductions, so
pay attention to the road signs. If there are any sudden stops, you will
often see cars in front of you turn on their disaster lights - to warn
drivers coming from behind - you should follow this good unwritten rule
as well. Also, open up your radio for incoming traffic info, as you will
hear important information about traffic jams (staue) here - these tend
to happen even on the autobahns near the big cities such as Hamburg and
the Ruhr area during rush hour.
Also, remember that Germany is the only
European country with no speed limit on their autobahns - when you cross
the border to a neighbouring country, speed limits will again apply - in
Luxembourg it is 120 km/h on the motorways.
Get a good road map which covers the area
you will drive through - mine showed all entry and exit points with
numbers matching the ones found on the signs - a great help indeed. A
good one should also show the locations of possible 'Raststätte', most
of which have high quality cafeterias and very clean toilet facilities.
In Germany, 'Ordnung muss sein' - 'there
must be order', and people will point out if you do something wrong
traffic wise - but it is out of helpfulness, not a desire to complain.
Language barriers do exist - Germans tend
to prefer to keep to their own language, and some will refuse to speak
English - accommodation wise, this may vary but tends to follow the
standard of your chosen overnight stop as well as the location -
generally, higher standard hotels have english speaking staff.
UNESCO sites visited on the journey:
Hanseatic City of Lübeck
Cologne Cathedral
City of Luxembourg: its Old
Quarters and Fortifications
Upper Middle Rhine Valley
Würzburg Residenz with the
Court Gardens and Residence Square
Mines of Rammelsberg and
Historic Town of Goslar
Links:
Official Lübeck tourist site:
http://www.luebeck-tourism.de/
Trier info:
http://www.trier.eu
Official Luxembourg site:
http://www.visitluxembourg.com
or http://www.lcto.lu
Castle Vianden:
http://www.castle-vianden.lu/english/index.html
Offician Goslar tourist site:
http://www.goslar.de/englisch/index.htm
