Germany: Burgs and Bergs

Having a place to call home when you are travelling makes all the difference.

The fields behind the Senk's home

Having lived in Germany for three years, I see it as my home away from home. I know the language, can navigate trains and shops, and generally know what to expect when it comes to interacting with German culture. Which is why I didn’t think to blog about Germany, though I spent more time there than in any other country. It seems so safe, so self-evident to me, especially against the backdrop of my adventures in Greece, Italy and Spain. After coming back from four weeks in Southern Europe I relished the familiarity, and fell back into the German way of life as if I’d never moved away from Germany ten years ago. Now that I’m back in the States, however, the pangs of reverse culture shock remind me afresh just how unique and charming Germany is.

During the last week of my Eurotrip I travelled to two very famous and very beautiful German cities, both of which started with the letter “H”: Hamburg and Heidelberg. Though their names begin with the same breathy consonant the cities are drastically different.

Sunset over Hamburg Port

I was whisked up to Hamburg in the well-appointed coaches of the ICE, the fastest and sleekest train in Europe. It’s the kind of train that makes you want to wear heels and have a full set of Coach luggage, instead of sporting travellers boots and shouldering a hiker’s pack. My friend Matthias, former study abroad student at Belmont Abbey, graciously hosted me for a few days and showed me around the second-largest city in Germany. Hamburg is sprawling and wealthy, a city where the elegant brick facades of Old Money nod affably at the state-of-the-art chrome facades of New Money across a network of charming canals. It’s a thriving port city that has been wealthy since the Middle Ages, and remains one of the most sophisticated and affluent cities in Europe. Hamburg really rocks the maritime theme; from architecture evocative of ships to concrete benches shaped like waves, everything in the city echoes its nautical roots. The river is, after all, the source of both the city’s consistent wealth and its particular brand of romance. On a boat tour of the gigantic Hamburg port, I enjoyed the smell of the water, the creaking of the towering cranes and the ships and old brick buildings looming on either side of our small vessel. The city as a whole is modern and easy to navigate while still retaining loads of Old World charm and history; a harmonious blend of the best of both old and new. You can find everything in Hamburg, and it’s not just your basic everything but the best of everything.

At the Landestrachetfest

We spent most of our time in the smaller towns around Hamburg, and one afternoon went to check out a Landestrachtenfest in a village called Winsen. Landestrachtenfest can be roughly translated to mean “Traditional Clothing Festival.” It’s an event where the locals dress up in the clothing native to the region throughout the ages. The variety of period clothing showcased was impressive- over 50 different kinds of Trachten were represented, each group displaying both male and female garb. The groups paraded down the main street to the beat of brass bands and glockenspiels, each with a sign designating which region and time period they represented. People on the sidelines laughed and oohed and ahhed and clapped, and needless to say drank. The best moment was probably when a group of women in their sixties, dressed in frilly bonnets and striped frocks and carrying flowered garlands over their heads, started marching in time and swaying said garlands to the beat of Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” as styled by the glockenspielers. Though any German teenager would be highly embarrassed to be seen at a Landestrachtenfest, and though it boasted a pretty high concentration of eccentrics dressed in tights and such, I found it to be an informative and pleasing cultural experience.

Quiet side street in a sunny corner of the Pfalz

After my sojourn into the north of Germany, I returned to the mild south and spent some time with the Hergrs, dear family friends, in the region called the Pfalz. The Pfalz (known in English the Palatinate) is a fertile plain located in the Rhine valley; its small villages, bountiful crop fields and lush vineyards stretch out idyllically on either side of the river Rhine. It’s surrounded by low mountains, which are always bluely and mistily visible on the horizon and act as sentinels protecting this treasure of a region from harsh weather. In the small villages dotting the countryside, grape vines grow on arches over the narrow streets providing fresh fruit and shade in summer. We enjoyed the sweet local wine, good sturdy food heavy on the meat and potatoes and cool walks through the woods. And I re-learned the difference between the words berg and burg; the latter means mountain and the former castle. They sound so similar- but try to use them interchangeably and you get weird looks.

Heidelberg Castle

Then it was on to Heidelberg, one of the main tourist spots in all of Germany, and for good reason. The town is one of the few completely preserved through both World Wars, with the old city district still intact. Heidelberg is a cultural center, home to one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in Europe. It’s relatively small, and home to an eclectic combination of the very wealthy, the intelligentsia, various kinds of students, and an inordinate number of tourists. There is an American army base just to the south, so throw some Americans in the mix and you have quite a party. The city itself looks and feels like a place where the scholarly and gifted have thrived undisturbed for centuries; it has a small-town artsy silver spoon atmosphere. Charming ancient brick buildings cluster on either side of the river Neckar in the shadow of an expansive and well-preserved castle- a castle with a gigantic wine barrel in the basement. This bad boy, called the Heidelberg Tun, can in theory hold over 58,000 gallons of wine but has only rarely been used throughout history. Supposedly the original builder of the Tun, Count Palatine Karl Theodor, had a hose rigged from the cask up to his private quarters. Not a bad job perk!

Claudia Senk, me, Thomas Senk

Sure, Germany was home for me because it is familiar, comfortable. But more importantly, it was home because I was able to stay at the home of a wonderful family, friends from our time living in Germany. Family Senk picked me up and dropped me off at airport and train stations, lent me a hairdryer and a phone for my trip, provided me with a cozy room to call home dump my things in and gave me constant support. I began and ended my trip with them; jogging in the fields behind the house, picking raspberries, laying in a sunny spot in the garden, hanging my clothes out to dry and bicycling to the bakery for fresh bread. Germany felt like home to me because I was taken into the home and the hearts of people who took care of me, who were like family. They became very dear to me over the course of my time with them, and not only because of the fantastic cheeses and homemade jam on toast, though that didn’t hurt.

Now that I’m back in the States, laying plans for my sally into the world of Graduate School and getting used to driving everywhere and bagged pre-sliced bread and superstores, I’m missing Europe most days. But I have a fresh and in some ways final perspective my trip, and I’m summing it all up in my next and last blog post. It will be a kind of Oscars/Razzies for the European countries I visited, with best and worst awards given in various categories. Be warned that these categories may center on trains and food. I’ll try to switch it up a bit though. I plan on posting soon, before my memory gets too rusty!