Travelling Germany through Anja's Postcards

Today I'll take you to an amazing journey dear Anja took me through postcards for Make Me Smile RR, Special Group 10. Here we go...

After landing in Frankfurt we take the ICE train to Cologne which takes only an hour. When the train crosses the Hohenrollen Bridge over the Rhine River we can get the first glimpse of Cologne Cathedral.

Once we get out of the main station and turn left, we just have to climb a few steps and we stand directly in front of this majestic cathedral that the people of Cologne just call "Dom". From the inside it is beautiful as well. It has lots of stained glass windows and if the sun shines through them, it fills the cathedra wit colorful lights.

Nex to the Dom, we find the Roman-German Museum. Cologne was founded as Colonia Claudia Ana Aqrippinesium by the Romans in 50 A.D. The Roman-German Museum ws built over an ancient Roman mosaic that was discovered in exactly this place in 1941.

After that we go down the stairs to the River Rhine. We take a stroll up the river to the Chocolate Museum and the German Olympics and Sports Museum. On the way there we can have a break at one of the brewhouses that serve the local beer - the only dialect we can drink. It is called "Kölsch" which is also the name of the local dialect. If instead of going up along the River Rhine from the Dom, we go down the other direction we'll reach the zoo, one of the best in Germany.

From Cologne, we take the train to Bremen. The train takes about 3 hours and brings us up to the North of Germany. In the city center we see the statue of the Bremen city musicians who actually never made it to Bremen. Near there we also have the Roland Statue and the Town Hall, both UNESCO WHS since 2004.

We also find the oldest quarter of Bremen, the Schnoer. The houses date back to the 15th century. It is a beautiful quarter with its narrow alleys and old houses. We can go to the Universum, a rather new science museum.

From Bremen we can do a day trip to Bremenhaven at theNorth Sea. On a beautiful day we take the ship down the River Weser. In Bremenhaven we can visit many interesting museums. There is the "Klimahaus" tht takes us around the earth through the different climate zones on the 8th line of longitude, starting in Bremenhaven.

We can also go to the German Emigration Center. This museum is dedicated to the history of German Emigration, especially to the US. Visitors can experience the process of a historical emigration. The museum also provides access to data banks with immigration records.

Back in Bremen, we take the train again to go to Germany's capital, Berlin. We have to change trains in Hannover but it only takes 3 hours from Bremen.

Berlin is a city full of recent history. There is Checkpoint Charlie and the Eastside Gallery - leftovers from the time when Berlin was divided in two. There is Brandenburg Gate where we now can walk through again since 1990 - before that it was part of the border between East and West.

Only a 5 minute walk from the gate is the Reichstag (seat of the German Parliament) with its big glass dome. We can walk up to its top inside and have a great view across central Berlin. Then, there is the Museum Island, UNESCO WHS site since 1999, with the Berlin Cathedral and several fascinating museums. Anja's favourite is the Pergamon Museum, where we can see the huge Pergamon Altar, the Market Gate of Miletus, and the Ishtar Gate.

At the end Anja asks if we enjoyed travelling with her. We surely did Anja. Thanks a million...