Berlin

Who needs another columnist to point out that the thing
'Bout living in the suburbs is that it ain't like Berlin?
Just in case all of you in Melton were ever wondering.

One reason it has taken me so long to bother posting anything about Berlin is that it has already been photographed from every conceivable angle and under all lighting conditions.  While I'm going to refrain from posting pictures of the Brandenburg Gate, I'm not really convinced any photos I will post add anything new.

To be honest, Berlin had been hyped to me so much by various people that it was initially a bit disappointing.  It turns out that this was probably more due to the miserable weather I encountered, and the fact that I don't know anyone local there to show me the interesting things you can only find if you live there for a while.  Once the sun came out my opinion of the place improved a lot.

The East Germans initially established a memorial at Sachsenhausen concentration camp, but at the time the focus was entirely on a memorial for communist prisoners.  This is one of the quasi-religious pieces the communists put together.

These days there is a memorial for all the prisoners.  I had avoided any ghoulish tourism in Germany up till this point, but went on the recommendation of a colleague.  While I found it grueling, my very good tour guide pointed out that we still live in a world where concentration camps exist.  The experience has prompted me to think about how my own country treats asylum seekers, and what I might do to nag current politicians about their decisions.  I don't think it's overstating things at all to make this comparison.  I've always been quite cynical about the prospect of politicians considering what citizens write to them about, but then it would be horrible to think that there are a multitude of people like me who haven't bothered to speak up because they didn't think it would make any difference.

Who needs psychedelics when you have the Mexican embassy?

The Pergamon Museum produces conflicting feelings.  On the one hand, it contains truly amazing artifacts.  On the other hand, it's such a blatant example of national theft.  In any case, here are some sculptures of Greek gods kicking arse.

I'm told that this is what happened to the floor of Hitler's chancellery when the soviets were rebuilding Mohrenstrasse station.

A memorial to Johann Georg Elser.

Memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe.

Not to worry, I did find time for a beer.

Weltenburg Kloster

Where does the time go?  Well, not a month too soon...

One of the things I felt I really had to do was make the trip to Weltenburg Kloster, since they make a beer I quite like.  It's another one of the breweries that claims to be the oldest in the world.

Taking a bus through the countryside, passing by many hop farms with vines only starting to grow for the season, I found myself back on the Donau.  There's a short walk from Weltenburg to the kloster along the river, where I saw this:

This little ferry doesn't have a motor.  It's kept from being swept downriver by a cable, and it uses a rudder and the strong current to move the boat from one side to the other.

 

Hmmmn, I wonder if there's some kind of trend.

And just like the other oldest brewering in the world, they have a flamboyantly baroque church.

Barock Dunkel.  This is their most popular beer, and is more picturesque than my actual favorite...

Asam Bock!  I was a little disappointed that the vessel you're supposed to drink this from is not actually a glass, so you can't see how fantastic it is.  You'll just have to go track some down and drink it yourself.

A cool thing happened as I drank my bock.  A farmer turned up and parked her tractor next to the brewery.  They then started pumping spent grains into the trailer, so she can take it off and put it to some good use.  Lots of malty liquid was seeping from the trailer onto the ground.

More photospheres

Rather than link to them all individually, I'm going to be lazy and link to my Google+ profile, which seems to be the only way I can share these properly (without submitting them to Google Maps, which some of them won't suit).

https://plus.google.com/118418360285960780865/posts

Of course my blog posts are automatically linked there too, linking back to here... A bit like disappearing up my own arse.  In the future this link won't be as useful.  Maybe I'll fix it one day.

Nürnberg

Naturally everything will be an anticlimax after Bamberg, but I cycled to Nürnberg in the weekend.  A German bloke I'd chatted to told me if I hurried I would make it for the end of a semi-annual market for "old things".  I suggested "antiques?" which he latched on to.  It turns out that it was a giant flea market throughout the city, I didn't see anything particularly old.  Even though the cycling was easy going, I got there tired and it started to rain.  The bits of the market I got to see as people packed up looked no different to others I've seen, but I don't get excited by flea markets.  Buying anything just means carrying it on the bicycle later.

Found some interesting beer and wood smoked sausages, which was pretty exciting, though.

I just missed this barge going through a lock (is that the right word?).  You can't really see inside the lock though, so that's about all there is to see.

Part of what puts the berg in Nürnberg.

The museum at the castle in Nürnberg is pretty cool if you're into armour, swords, and early firearms (even just a little bit).

They even have the holy hand grenade.

For David's son.  Two trains for the price of one!  The white one is an ICE and the one in the background looks like an RE.  The ICE goes pretty fast.  It didn't have the space to wind up to the same speeds as some of the Japanese shinkansen trains I caught (which have way cooler farings), but fast all the same.

Bamberg

I am now in the hypocenter of beer.

The circles represent breweries (and not all of them).  With possibly 100 or more breweries within cycling distance I am left with no option but to admit defeat.  Let's make some crude assumptions:

• Each brewery makes 4 different styles of beer.
• Each 0.5 liter beer contains 2 standard drinks.
• My body can healthy metabolize 4 standard drinks per day, but I can only do this six days a week (in maybe 12 hours the sound of somebody in Australia correcting me that it's actually less will reach me).
• I have absolutely nothing else to do.

I figure I would need the better part of  year to try them all, even with complete devotion.  It's also false economy to try to fit more breweries into a day, as it just takes you out of the game the next day (of course this would be a rookie mistake that I did not commit earlier in the week).

Nonetheless, I have done what I can.  I set myself a rule that I am not allowed to drink the same beer twice.  I found myself breaking this tonight when I ran out of breweries (that I know of) within the city itself.  I spent most of today cycling through villages, and past breweries I would have liked to stop at.  The idea was to be able to cycle back, so I only had one beer while cycling.  A smarter person might have bought bottles at those breweries and then drunk them back at the hostel, but I only thought of that now.  It's possible I liked the rauchbier from down the road so much that I wanted an excuse to get more.

Still, I have found myself in the predicament that I might have more photos of beer than I do Sakura.  It would probably get quite repetitive to post them (and the notes of them), except possibly for beer fanatics.  To the beer fanatics, just go to Bamberg.  It lives up to the hype in this regard.

You're still going to get some beer photos...

Possibly because I followed a recommendation, the first two beers so far have been my favorites.  Rauchbier has a smokey flavour.

The Märzen was particularly nice.  If you're in Bamberg, go to the Christian Marz brewery.

These kind fellows explained to me that you order a beer at Mahr's brewery by saying "ä ü".  This will get you an Ungespundent.

One thing I've noticed is people take their dogs to the pub, or the restaurant, pretty much anywhere.  I like it.

Every time you look up in Germany you see vapour trails (oh noes, chemtrails man!)

Bloody motorists spoiling my exposure.  Or was is a cyclist.  Bah!

Some of the cycling drudgery I've had to endure.  Bamberg is in the distance, not sure how well it shows up.

I really want one of these.  It's a bottle capper with a foot operated lever.  I can't believe this never occurred to me before.

There is at least one brewery in Bamberg that gives you sane sample sizes (well, sane if you want to get through every brewery).