Memories and hints of a travelling IT professional.
High above the Danube, at the heart of Budapest (Hungary): the Halászbástya (Fisherman’s Bastion) is a wonderful neo-Gothic monument, located where once the fish market of Buda was. The white walls and towers were part of the city walls of Budapest, this segment protected by the fishermen. It is close to the St. Matthew church and you’ve got an awesome view on the city from here.
Continue reading “Fisherman’s Bastion”
The Great Synagogue of Budapest, Hungary has been built from 1854 on by an architect from Vienna. It is located in Pest close to the city center, not far away from Erzsébet tér. It has been built in Moorish style and looks a bit like the Alhambra in Granada, Spain.
Continue reading “Dohány Street Synagogue”
An important place in the centre of Budapest, Hungary, where you can learn one thing very good: how little you know about Hungarian history. Béla IV? Coloman? Ladislaus I? Imre Thököly? Lajos Kossuth? István Bocskay? Does this ring a bell? No? Don’t worry – somehow the stories of Eastern Europe have been hidden behind the Iron Curtain.
Continue reading “The Heroes’ Square”
The first question is always: why does one stay in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany? Not the Frankfurt in the heart of Germany, the one with lots of skyscrapers of banks and Äppelwoi, but the one close to the border to Poland. At first it has to be said that even Frankfurt (Oder) has some nice city quarters and a good university – but for me it was only a good stop because on the next day I had to travel early to Bremen for a soccer match.
When you were a child, did you read the book “Krabat” of Otfried Preußler? The one in which a child becomes apprentice in a mill not knowing that the black arts are teached there? Not expecting that in the end every year one of the young residents has to die to keep the master alive? And where only true love could save you from death? If yes, then the name Schwarzkollm (Čorny Chołmc) does ring a bell to you.
Continue reading “Visiting the wizards”
The Spreewald in Germany is a very special place. One you normally only visit to get a canoe to travel on the long and branched river network. Or to cross the area by bike. But some people even come here for a specialty that was once imported from the Netherlands: sour pickles.
Continue reading “Pickles, canoeing & mosquitos”
There are not many train stations that are directly located at the shore. One of these dead-end stations is the terminus of Lindau, Germany. It is very impractical but of historical value. If you leave a train here you only have to walk approximately 100 meters to get to the harbour of Lindau and have a wonderful view on Lake Constance.
Konstanz, Germany is a very good starting point to discover Lake Constance (in Germany called “Bodensee“). It is a very big lake with a surface of 536 km² and river Rhein is running through it. Three countries have access to the waters: Switzerland, Austria (with the town of Bregenz and the theatre at the shore) and Germany with Lindau, Friedrichshafen and Konstanz as the most important cities.
Continue reading “Lake Constance”
The Black Forest (“Schwarzwald“) in Germany is a legend: because of the original cuckoo clocks, the special and very tasty ham and the strange outfits the natives wear on public holidays. And it is a very interesting landscape you can best enjoy from the coaches of the “Schwarzwaldbahn” – a railway crossing the Black Forest.
The castle of Heidelberg, Germany is well known to the world – because of its beauty and because of the big amount of US soldiers stationed in nearby Ramstein that visited it. It is first mentioned in 1225 and was until 1697 seat of the Palatine prince-electors. Today it is a wonderful ruin in Renaissance style made of red freestone.