My family and I are en route home from Munich via Philadelphia, having just spent 10 days in Germany, traveling from the center of the country, north to Berlin, and finally to Munich and Bavaria in the south. The question in my mind is why it took me so long to plan a trip to this fascinating, complex and generally amazing country. It’s not as if I was ignorant of Germany’s well-known charms and attractions; I learned of many over the years through articles and tales from friends. Somehow, though, Germany never quite made it to the top of my travel list, despite having circled the country with trips to Belgium, the Czech Republic, France and the Netherlands. Maybe, but I can’t be sure, it was because I subconsciously held some of my father’s views as a former U.S. Army soldier in Brussels at the end of World Word II.
In the end, it was the family reunion of my spouse, Raymond, which finally brought me to the Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Our initial destination and the site of the reunion events would be the tiny town of Uder in the state of Thuringia, a verdant and rolling land of beech and pine forests that once was part of the DDR, the Communist half of a formerly divided Germany. Today, it lies at the geographic center of this powerful visitor destination of more than 80 million. Since even before re-unification, the few members of Raymond’s large and extended family in Uder had maintained relationships with their American relatives. When it came time to plan the bi-annual event for 2011, his German relatives offered to host and the American side of the family leapt at the chance to spend some time in part of the ancestral homeland. Meanwhile, I leapt at the chance to tag along and visit his extended family, and to use the event as a jumping off point to see some of Germany’s main highlights.
ON THE ROAD: Like millions of travelers to Germany, we arrived at the Frankfurt am Main International Airport, Europe’s busiest. Also like many arrivals, we did not venture into this city of 660,000 to explore. Instead, after being talked into upgrading our rental car to a BMW with navigation (o.k., so it didn’t take much of a sell), we started our two-hour drive north towards Uder. But, this is not to suggest that Frankfurt lacks for reasons to linger. Its reputation as one of Europe’s most important centers of banking, finance and publishing is well known, but “Mainhattan” also tempts visitors with several top-notch museums, including the Museum for Modern Art, shopping, dining and nightlife, all within several attractive neighborhoods along the River Main.
But we had a full German agenda, so we headed north from the airport and onto the autobahn where I learned my first lesson of the trip, which is that lollygagging along in the left lane on German motorways can be hazardous to your health. The posted speed “suggestion” of 130 kmh was widely ignored by an endless parade of (mostly black) BMWs, Mercedes and Audis rocketing along at well north of 100 mph. And, German drivers do NOT appreciate having to slow down for your pokey self because you plan to take a left in Peoria.
The second lesson I learned is that Germans graciously welcome one’s butchered attempts to speak German. And, with very few exceptions, locals can deftly switch to English to keep things moving and on time, another German trait I came to greatly appreciate.
Shortly after 8 a.m., we made our first stop for breakfast in the ancient and picturesque university city of Marburg. The city and university date to the 13th Century and the town center is a hilly and twisted warren of stairs and half-timbered buildings. On the early morning of our stop, the streets were full of university students groggily in search of their first caffeine and frühstück, the German breakfast. Despite locals’ linguistic dexterity, we still were too sleep-deprived to manage any multi-lingual communication beyond pointing, but we managed to secure a “Coca Cola Light” and rhubarb Danish before getting back on the road. Less than two hours later, our navigation voice, which Raymond had managed to switch from German to English featuring a lovely British accent, delivered us to the home of his German cousins.
Over the next three days, our German hosts treated us to a wonderful event that combined family time and sightseeing along with great food and company. They also went out of their way to showcase this region’s perhaps less well-known attractions. Uder is adjacent to Heilingenstadt, an immaculate and pleasant spa town of about 18,000 at the edge of the Eichsfeld, a beautiful, hilly and pastoral region of forests, manicured fields of corn and wheat, tidy small towns and some interesting history, ancient and recent. We visited the medieval Hülfensberg Church, which is perched atop a hill overlooking rolling valleys in every direction, and which features a cross that dates to the 11th century. Nearby, we spent a sunny afternoon at the Grenzmuseum, where visitors can stand at the former border that divided East and West Germany. On this beautiful afternoon, it was sobering to consider, looking out over abandoned guard towers and a verdant strip of green, how many people had died while trying to escape this narrow band of wall, mines and fences during the 40 years that divided this nation and its people.
The next day, I accompanied my sister- and brother-in–law and their daughter to the central train station (hauptbahnhof) in Göttingen, from where our niece was headed to Frankfurt to meet friends for a night of revelry in celebration of her birthday. After seeing her off, we set out to explore the pedestrianized central square of one of Germany’s most important university cities. Established in 1737 by King George II of England, who also ruled Hannover State, the University of Göttingen, also known as Georg- August University, long has been considered one of Germany’s top universities. It boasts a record number of 44 Nobel laureates and its alumni include the “Iron Chancellor,” Otto von Bismarck, the Brothers Grimm and former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. In fact, as the story goes, an agreement during World War II between the Allied and Axis powers spared the bombing of both Göttingen and Heidelberg, home to one of Germany’s other top schools, while a similar sparing was accorded Cambridge and Oxford. On this gloomy and cool June day, we walked past the famous statue of the Goose Girl in front the Rathaus (Town Hall), who serves an integral role in the university’s graduation tradition, which involves planting a kiss on her to symbolize another important rite of passage. The central core boasts a number of shops and restaurants and it’s a very pleasant place to spend a morning or afternoon while visiting the region.
After a final reunion event that lasted well into the early morning hours, we said goodbye to our German, American and Polish family members the next morning and made our way out of Uder and towards our next stop in this first exploration of Germany. Next up, the rollicking capital of Berlin.
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