Memories and hints of a travelling IT professional.
There are many good reasons for having a cat at home – and also many for not having one. Sometimes people in your household have allergies. In my case, I’m just travelling too much to have a pet. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy the pleasure of watching cats playing or sleeping (which they often do). At the city quarter Charlottenberg of Berlin, Germany, you can find the coffee bar ‘Zur Mieze‘ – the home of seven cats.
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The Teufelsberg (devil’s mountain) at Berlin, Germany, is a lost place. Deteriorating and shabby. A place you can explore, where you can learn about espionage and a location full of anarchy that you might experience in Germany only in Berlin. It is the second highest mountain in the city, and it is artificial – created from the wreckage originating from World War II. Located within the British occupation zone, it was first used by the United States of America to control the air space over the divided German capital.
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The Jewish cemetery at Berlin-Weißensee is the largest one in Europe. It was created in 1880 and contains on 42 hectares more than 115,000 graves. Because of the Jewish burial tradition which causes that graves remain forever, you can see very old graves here and very beautiful ones. The continuous deterioration and nature extending over the graves make this a beautiful place. Another good reason to visit this place are the buildings in Italian Renaissance revival style made with yellow bricks.
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The Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten Kreuzberg in Berlin, Germany, is not the right hotel for you if you like quiet environments. It is located at the Skalitzer Straße with the drug deals of Görlitzer Bahnhof direct in front of it. But if you like to be at the centre of the action this place is great – for example, it is only a very short walk to the great club SO36. As a surplus, the hotel is located above the wonderful Korean restaurant Kimchi Princess.
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Within Kassel, Germany, you will find different smaller concert venues which give you the chance to listen to a wide range of bands – newcomers and bands with a smaller audience. One of them is the Schlachthof in the city quarter Nord-Holland close to the university. At this location, there was once the slaughterhouse of the city until it was moved to Waldau in 1973. The buildings have been destructed and the Elisabeth-Knipping-Schule, a school providing vocational education, was built. Only the gatehouses remained and are now the home of the community centre and concert hall.
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I’m always a bit hesitant when it comes to local museums in small towns. They’re often seen as a must-have independent from the question whether there is something to exhibit or not. The Städtisches Museum of Hann. Münden, Germany, is a place I would nevertheless recommend if you’re interested in local history. It feels like a wild mix of topics and some sections look very old-fashioned but it offers enough content for an informative visit.
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Sometimes you don’t have to travel far to find interesting places. And sometimes they are hidden just around the corner and you’ve passed them many times without noticing. I had this experience with two air-raid shelters (in German often called ‚bunker‘) and a beer-cooling cellar north of the city centre of Kassel, Germany. In the city quarter ‘Vorderer Westen‘ you can find a mountain called Kratzenberg consisting of shell limestone. During the time of the dinosaurs, the area was under water and the remains of shellfish sank down and created this limestone. Within this material many breweries created cellars later.
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Borussia Mönchengladbach, the soccer club of Mönchengladbach, Germany, was once playing at an epic stadium called the Bökelberg. Legendary fights are recorded from that times. A lot of stories could be told of that place (like when in 1971 the goal post broke in a match against Werder Bremen). What is left? The Bökelberg still exists even though the stadium was destroyed from 2005 on. It defended itself and withstood the first explosives – but today it is converted into a residential zone. You can still see the terraces and the structure of the stadium.
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The Tiergarten of Mönchengladbach, Germany is just a small zoological garden but one that is fun – especially for families. They don’t have too many species there but you can get pretty close to most of them. Especially the alpacas, donkeys, horses and pigs will expect that you have something for them in your pockets. Fortunately, you can buy some fodder for the animals at the cash desk. That way you can easily attract them and pet some nice animals. In addition to domestic animals, they also give a home to species like kangaroos and seals.
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To be honest, the city of Mönchengladbach, Germany, isn’t such a beauty. If you want to visit a wonderful building you’ll have to travel a bit and search the castle Schloß Rheydt in the outskirts of the city. No worries: buses from the train stations (Hauptbahnhof, Rheydt) bring you there easily. It is a water castle created in Renaissance style between 1558 and 1591. The manor house is very beautiful and it is especially nice to get here in the evening hours when it is enlighted in warm colours. In 1940 Joseph Goebbels wanted to use it as a guest house, today you’ll find a good restaurant and an interesting museum here.
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