Well, here I am with my rest of the Europe journey which I didn't think would be as exciting as it really did.
The flight from Venice to Frankfurt was not much long and after couple of hours we were in our friend's car heading to his home and guess what my Moon was there to receive me and follow along with me to home.
It was kind of a relief to come home even though it was our friend's home. All other places it was nice and cozy place to live except Rome, yet one had to have their guards up all the time.
We reached home and were greeted by our friends and there two sweet smart boys Vasud and Vyaan. These names were new and rare to me and it took a while for me to remember. But the kids were fun and even though for them I was an adult but I often sneaked into their games and talks and enjoyed the fun.
A warm shower, delicious home cooked dinner with long chats and then to bed - very relaxing.
I do want to mention here, the idea and thought about Germany in my mind was always about the WWII and the incidents that took place here. Hence, I was looking at Germany with those eyes and hence it gave me a feel of darkness and you won't believe the weather was also playing with my thoughts as it was cloudy all the time. It gave me that dull and suffocating look when I looked outside of the window.
Though our friends have been telling great things about Germany.
Next morning, we had breakfast and got ready to explore Germany.
We were looking for things from WWII and hence were asking about those places. Our friends took us to Documentation Center Nazi Party rally grounds, which is a museum now in Nuremberg. It is an unfinished remains of the Congress Hall of Nazi Party rallies. It is a permanent exhibition of 'Fascination and Terror'. One thing you have to remember in Germany if you don't know German language it is indeed not an easy sailing. Thank goodness for having friends who didn't give us a chance to struggle with the language. When we came to this Documentation center, we heard the officials were speaking in English for people like us. We had our audio system that was given to everyone to listen the horrific history that took place.
One can purely see the fascination and the terror from the Nazi time. As you hear and watch the documentaries it leaves a sense of sadness and that sadness is so hard deep inside because it is unrepairable!!!
It was a bit sad and we decided to go to Handwerkerhof, which is a medieval old town an interesting place in Nuremberg. It was a totally opposite sight and experience after the Documentation center indeed. It gave me a feel of something like, after the death of someone you grief for long and after many years you accept it and then you take that deep breath to move forward - its kind of a shower that you take to get rid of all the dirt that you had all this time on you... its kind of that feeling I got it here!
Klappe zu, Affe tot! We went around the place and had the German sausage Bratwurst and Rostbratwurst with bread, it will look like our hot dogs but believe me the taste is ultimate and delicious. I loved it as it did make us hungry and this was a treat.
Going around the town and getting the smell of life around gave a sense of freedom for the people finally. It was nice to see fresh fruit shops, home made sausages and jams and vegetables stalls which some by Germans and some by Turkish people who migrated to the country and found a way to survive.
It was an amazing evening to be frank it was telling the story of life in general where you have the ugly, bad and good part of it all in one day. After having a Mexican late lunch we decided to come home.
Next day we planned to go to the vineyard as these are very famous here and one can see the miles and miles of vineyard along the sides. It was a great walk after getting back from Venice as here friend's car was taking us everywhere. I loved my walk through the vineyard.
The days that were left for us were little now and in that we were hoping wherever we can visit it will be a bonus for us. We planned to visit one of our another friend in Switzerland and hence thought to drive from Germany to Switzerland, it would be like a one day trip but at least we can get the feel of this heavenly place that we keep hearing and reading about.
Before that we had to visit Niederwalddenkmal a monument in Niederwald near Rudesheim am Rhein in Hesse, Germany. This was built in 1870s to commemorate the Unification of Germany after the end of Franco Prussian war. The sculpture represents the union of all Germans.
This is where when you see the nature, the landscape with vineyard and Rhein river, you won't remember that Germany had a history of WWII.
Beautiful town and the surroundings of old village town in Frankfurt was worth to experience by just walking around and the small streets and enjoying the local food in the restaurant.
After a nice fulfilling lunch with live music and that too the lady singer and the pianist did entertain us with our time music and believe me when you have tasty food in mouth, a beautiful ambience and then a music that you to can sing to - its called heaven!
After the fun experience of this town we drove around the Rhein river by saying we will come again!
By now you can figure out my love for Germany grew and like the cloudy days were gone with the sunsetting on us really gave me an opportunity to think with an open mind and not to hold the history too close to my mind.
We also had opportunity to visit some neighbors and enjoy the Indian food and savories as the neighbors had guests from Canada and it was a joyous evening.
Next morning we went to visit the Technik Museum Sinsheim, which had most of the American and German cars and the history about it. The concord plane and the entrance to the Concord plane itself was an experience worth it.
Getting into this museum briefed about many cars that were used from so many years and the thoughts put into it to make it better. Even those days there were competitions and when the cars didn't meet what it meant to those were also used in WWII. It was amazing how the car that Hitler used had all kinds of safety but below his belt. Something that probably no one thought of it in those days.
The inside the cockpit of Concord plane looked so complicated and would have been crazy if someone from today went to operate it.
I hope so far my readers are enjoying these places through the pictures and if this helps you to make a plan to visit Germany, I would say learn a bit of German language such that you can communicate when in need. I was lucky as my friends have been living at this place for past 20 years.
The Germany part was getting done for us when we got to extend our stay due to some unavoidable situation and hence we thought of Switzerland !!!!
Das Leben ist kein Ponyhof, so friends for Switzerland I have to get with another post so the journey is not yet over!!!
es ist noch nicht vorbei ;)
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