Germany

Berlin dan Istana Musim Panas Sanssouci di Potsdam
5 - 6 September 2008

Liburan kali ini kita bertiga kita pergi jalan2 ke Berlin ala backpacker. Dari Hamburg, cari praktis dan murah untuk ke Berlin ialah dengan menggunakan Berlin Linien Bus. Untuk penginapan, kita tinggal di backpacker Hotel Berolina Charlottenburg, yang letaknya persis di depan stasiun kereta Charlottenburg.

Program pertama adalah mengunjungi Istana Musim Panas Sanssouci di Potsdam. Pergi kesana dengan menggunakan kereta cuma membutuhkan kurang dari 1 jam. Terkenal di Sanssouci adalah istana dan taman yang menanjak di depannya.

Setelah dari Potsdam, kita kembali lagi ke Berlin. Sempat mampir ke Olympiastadion, tapi sayang sekali tidak bisa masuk. Kita pergi ke "Biergarten" Schleusenkrug, tempat makan di taman di Tiergarten. Setelah itu kita jalan2 keliling kota Berlin. Mulai dari pergi ke "East Side Gallery" di stasiun Ostbahnhof untuk melihat sisa2 Tembok Berlin, terus ke Checkpoint Charlie dan masuk ke museum sejarah orang2 yang kabur dari Jerman Timur. Terus lanjut ke Brandenburger Tor, Reichstaggebäude dan sempat juga ke Sony Center di Potsdamer Platz.

Tagesausflug nach Augsburg
8 March 2008

Augsburg is reachable within 40 minutes using train from Munich. The city is small and nice, however it has several sightseeings, has many signs and therefore is friendly for tourists. We did all sightseeings by walking. We went from the main station to the north, passing the townhall and the cathedral until reaching the Mozart's House (W.A. Mozart's father's house). We didn't enter the Mozart's House, however the cathedral is worth to visit. Then we walk further until the St. Ulrich Basilica, which I guess the southest sights marked on the small map we had. From there we continue to walk to the "Fuggerei", the oldest social housing project in the world. They keep 1 building as a museum, where you can see the old style furnishing of the house. Interesting and worth to visit !!! Well.. it was just a half day trip, but worth to do once only! :-)

Strong beer festival at Paulaner am Nockherberg
1 March 2008

Every year during the fasting time all the beer breweries in Munich celebrate the Starkbier festival. During the short period, they brew the Starkbier (Strong beer), a type of dark beer with more than 7% alcohol. Among them, Paulaner brewery is the most popular with their Starkbier "Salvator". We went to the Paulaner am Nockherberg restaurant on 5. During the festival, there is €1 entrance fee just to enter the beer garden area. The situation is similar like oktoberfest, many people are wearing dirndl or lederhose. 1 Maß beer(1 liter mug) costs € 7,95 and the food price are quite acceptable. I ordered a Steckerlfisch(grilled Mackerel), which cost me € 9. The other food also cost from € 8 - € 13, just like normally. But be careful with the Starkbier. Because of the higher alcohol percentage, many people told me not to drink more than 2 mugs.

Nürnberger Christkindlesmarkt
9 December 2007

Christmas Market (Weihnachtsmarkt or Christkindlesmarkt) in Nuremberg is the most famous one in Germany. It's also probably the biggest, although it's not as big as it looks in pictures and television.

In the market stands, you can find many varieties of ginger bread (Lebküchen). The ginger bread is mostly sold under the name "Nürbernger Lebküchen", showing that it's the speciality from Nuremberg.

Jesenwang to Schwangau in 1 hour
Southern of Bavaria - 30 September 2007

Yeah.... on this day Christ and I finally experienced the probably once in a life time opportunity to join Capt. Jan to fly. After being postponed 2 times, finally the weather and the wind direction allowed us to fly. We started from Jesenwang, that's the place of the flight school, which is located about 30 minutes southern of Munich, where Capt. Jan already booked a Cessna 172 P, an old airplane from 70th.

We could take off from Jesenwang at 10 am after worrying for a while about the wind direction. The problem was with a wrong wind direction, 3 of us would be too heavy for the Cessna to fly over the forest during the take off.