Germany
In 2013 Shirley and I spent six days in Germany before meeting friends in Tuscany. We started in Frankfurt, from which we took a day cruise on the Rhine and a trip by auto to Heidelberg. We went by train from Frankfurt to Berlin, where we spent another three days, two with a history guide and one on our own. As far as I know, all of my forbears were Germans, so Germany is my ancestral homeland. But two of my Beyer uncles fought against Germany in World War II, one in a tank and one in a B 17, and the Germans’ atrocities in that war are impossible to dismiss from one’s mind when thinking of that country, so I arrived with seriously mixed feelings. We left with the strong impression that today’s Germans own up to the country’s past and are determined to remember it and not repeat it. Much of our time in Berlin was spent going to places of interest regarding World War II and the Cold War. Frankfurt and Berlin are basically new, very modern cities, having had to be rebuilt from scratch after being virtually destroyed by Allied bombs in the 1940s. Rural Germany met my expectations—neat, clean, picturesque farms, towns and villages, beautiful forests and countryside. I thoroughly enjoyed our brief visit and would love to return there some day.
Old Town in Frankfurt, a small section of the city that has been rebuilt in various architectural styles of past centuries.
Traditional timber frame construction.
Modern skyscrapers rise over Old Town. Frankfurt is the financial center of modern Germany.
The Main River flows through Frankfurt to the Rhine.
There are many castles along the Rhine, dating from the feudal middle ages when Germany consisted of smaller, separate fiefdoms and states.
Picturesque villages line the Rhine with hills and forests in the background.
The river gets heavy commercial use. Our tour lasted only a few hours, but we saw many of these cargo barges and quite a few river cruising boats.
The day of our cruise was cold and damp, so these bright colors provided some welcome cheer.
A larger view of the same village.
As we traveled north, vineyards began to appear on the mountainsides. We were told that most of the wines produced in this region are whites, pinot blanc, pinot gris and reisling.
A rare spot of welcome sunshine warms up the hillside vineyards.
One final castle on the Rhine.
Like New York City, Berlin has in its urban center a very large public park, the Tiergarten (animal garden), so named because the park contains the city’s zoo.
The park contains beautiful esplanades and walking paths.
Lakes
Meadows
Dense natural areas
Statues and memorials.
This is the Beethoven Haydn Mozart Memorial, containing busts of the three great composers. This is Mozart.
In the Pariser Platz, a large square just north of the Brandenburg gate, Iranian dissidents were on a hunger strike in an effort to gain permanent sanctuary in Germany. I never learned whether they were successful.
The strikers and/or their supporters.
Just south of the Brandenburg Gate is a huge memorial to “The Murdered Jews of Europe”.
The memorial.
One can walk at various depths among the grim square blocks of concrete. It is a profound and sober experience.
Berlin is a vibrant city. We stayed in a hotel located in Potsdamer Platz, a large area just southwest of the Brandenburg gate. The Berlin wall ran along its eastern border, and we were told that until the wall fell in the 1980s, it was just a desolate vacant area.
By the time of our visit in 2013, the area had been developed into office buildings, hotels, restaurants, entertainment facilities and a spectacular pedestrian mall.
Berlin traffic is heavy at sundown.
A new office building in Potsdamer Platz.
Another Potsdamer Platz office building, after dark.
The Sony Center in Potsdamer Platz contains a large shopping and entertainment area, covered by a huge red flower-like structure overhead.
The views at night are spectacular.
One evening at a plaza in Potsdamer Platz there was a light show in which images were projected onto the buildings lining the plaza.
Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and other artists and cartoonists from the modern era were represented.
Sidewalk art was also on display.
The show was energetic and colorful.
Lots of photographers brought tripods.
All this wonderful visual stimulation made it hard to go the sleep that night.
A quiet street, but it’s surrounded by tall Potsdamer Platz buildings.
Brandenburg Gate from the Pariser Platz.
A memorial plaque at a railroad landing in Berlin where Jews from that city were loaded on cars and sent to concentration camps.
The fateful tracks.
A beautiful meadow in the Tiergarten.
Heidelberg. This was the only significant German city that was not heavily bombed during World War II.
The architecture dates from the turn of the 18th century, as the city was destroyed by the French forces of Louis XIV in 1693 in the War of the Palatinate Succession.
The Hotel Zum Ritter St. Georg was the only structure that survived the destruction. It was constructed in 1592, originally for use as a private residence.
Heidelberg is home to a prominent university and its many students.
We tourists may have outnumbered the students. The ruins of Heidelberg Castle, partially rebuilt, are on the hill in the background.
Student parking on an attractive square.
One of the buildings of Heidelberg University. The university’s main library is in an old building that has been thoroughly modernized and filled with computers.
It warms a Texan’s heart to learn that a Mexican food restaurant has been thriving in Heidelberg for 25 years. We opted for wiener schnitzel at a different restaurant. When in Germany….
Typical street scene.
A final look at lovely Heidelberg, from the castle.