On Monday, 22 Humboldt Fellows and spouses/partners came from all over Nordrhein Westfalen to the Bochum main train station to find the bus that would take us all over Germany. Unfortunately, children were not able to come, which precluded Holly joining me. I told her I wouldn’t go unless she found a good alternative for her and Daisy, which she found in the Mediterranean. Our group consisted of four of us without an accompanying spouse/partner (all because of children, with one Japanese man, a man from Cameroon, and a man from Nigeria), a Japanese couple, a British/Kyrgyzstani couple, a Polish couple, a French couple, five Chinese couples, a tour guide and a raucous bus driver. Our fields of expertise included chemistry, biology, and literature. The tour was all in English. During the trip, we were to have five dinners paid for by “Uncle Alexander,” a night at the theater, a wine tasting, a few city tours, and a meeting at the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation headquarters. Aside from two city trains in Berlin, I did all the site-seeing by foot, an exhausting feat.
On our first day, we drove to Bremen, a new city for me. I was impressed: a beautiful old downtown square, and a cozy district called “Schnoor” filled with closely-packed half-timber houses with an array of not-so-touristy shops and restaurants. A poster informed me that Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany, would be giving a talk that night in the city center in the run up to the national elections this month. Unfortunately, we were told that we would hold our first “Uncle Alexander” dinner during the speech. After ordering our food that night, many of us revealed that we would love to see Merkel, and as she was speaking just around the corner, we snuck away for about fifteen minutes while our meals were being prepared (much to the chagrin of our tour guide, we later learned). Merkel’s speech sounded great, although I don’t think any of us really knew what she was talking about.
Alley in Schnoor, Bremen
The next morning, we drove to Hamburg, which Holly and I very much enjoyed visiting a few months ago. It was nice to see some favorite sights again, although the second time taking a 1.5-hour boat tour around the harbor in German is slightly less thrilling than the first. That night, we held our second “Uncle Alexander” dinner on the water right in front of the beautiful Rathaus (town hall).
Waterfront terrace where we enjoyed our second "Uncle Alexander" meal by the Hamburg Rathaus
The next morning was spent at NDR Fernsehen headquarters, a major German television station. We enjoyed pretending to be newscasters in front of a blue screen on the set of the “Tagesschau,” a mainstay of German nighttime news. We then got back on the bus for a day trip to Lübeck, the former capital of the Hanseatic League and now a UNESCO world heritage site. The brick architecture was charming, and the apparent obsession with skeletons in the local churches was a bit surprising. We then returned to our hotel in Hamburg to pass the night.
The gate into Lübeck
Lübeck's unique cathedral decor
In the morning, we headed to Rostock, our first day in the former East Germany. Rostock is on the Baltic Sea, and swimming there was one of the highlights of the trip. The water is very shallow: you can walk out about a quarter mile into the water without the water reaching your shoulders (well, I can). There were hundreds of tiny jelly fish, which I found quite alarming at first until I saw children playing with them. I was assured that they were harmless, so I went out to swim in the cold waters of the Baltic. I was about as cold as I remember being swimming in Lake Superior. That night we held our third “Uncle Alexander” dinner, and the members of the group began to bond. We started talking about science, and before long, I saw the all-too-familiar glazed look on almost everyone’s faces (except the Brit, with whom I had a number of excellent scientific discussions).
After swimming in the Baltic Sea, Rostock
The following morning was spent driving to Berlin, where we stayed two nights. Holly and I enjoyed Berlin immensely when we where there two months ago. It is a gem, with so much architectural and cultural diversity derived from a rather complex recent history. I had tea with John, a friend I had met at the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, who was also passing through Berlin on a different Humboldt tour. During the afternoon, I watched as the competitors in the men’s marathon of the World Championship in Athletics ran down Unter den Linden, many of whom I recognized from the last Summer Olympics. That night, we enjoyed our fourth “Uncle Alexander” dinner. The following night, we attended an experimental musical theater double-header put on by a small private troop. Berlin is known for this sort of thing, and I found it very unusual and not at all to my liking; it was, however, very well received, perhaps demonstrating why Berlin is Europe’s hotspot for budding artists.
Largest remaining portion of the Berlin Wall
Our next stop was Potsdam, very near to Berlin. Here, we saw the palace where the allied leaders (excluding the French) met after the war to decide the fate of Germany. We also saw the palace “Sansouci”, built by Fredrick the Great, an enlightened despot, as a getaway from the troubles of ruling Prussia. It was pretty, but I had just visited Versailles, which it was supposedly modeled after, and which it did not really compare favorably against (of course). That afternoon we drove to Weimar, home at times to people including Goethe, Schiller, Bach, Luther, Anna Amalia, and Franz Liszt. Franz Liszt made surprise appearances all over the city, appearing behind Goethe and Schiller on a famous statue, and with a paper-mache bust of his head covering other statues in the city, including one of William Shakespeare. All over the city, signs read “Liszt Lebt!” (“Liszt Lives”). It was creepy. Weimar is a real gem. It is in the heart of the cultural center of Germany, and it is a beautiful and serene place. Too bad we only had a few hours to see it on a Sunday night.
Fredrick the Great's Sansouci Palace
Palace gardens
Famous Weimar statue of Goethe and Schiller, with Franz Liszt making a surprise appearance
Our next morning, we travelled to nearby Erfurt, the capital of the German state of Thüringen (English Thuringia). I quite liked the shallow stream that lazily wound through the city, and the charm of the medieval-style downtown is hard to resist. I took Thüringer Bratwursts for lunch, which is one of the best kinds of bratwurst in Germany I think. In the afternoon, we drove a short while to Bamberg, also a UNESCO world heritage site, and for good reason. Our hotel was a converted palace, and the town was celebrating its annual festival, with food stands everywhere. The old cathedral, royal residence, and monastery were classic, accessible by cobblestone streets. We ended the night by watching the fireworks that marked the end of the annual festival.
Medieval house-bridge, Erfurt
Bamberg riverside homes
Bamberg square
The next morning we travelled to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, one of Germany’s best-preserved medieval towns. Holly and I had visited in the winter while we were living in München. As with most things, it was much nicer in summer. In the afternoon, we traveled to Würzburg, also on the UNESCO list of world heritage sites. Würzburg, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Erfurt, Bamberg, and Weimar would, in my opinion, make an excellent medieval vacation. These are my favorites of the German towns. The royal residence is breathtaking, and I enjoyed walking to the only castle on the tour. That night we had a wine-tasting at the Bürgerspital winery (home to the world’s oldest bottle of wine, 1540 A.D.), which also serves as a home for the elderly. The residents here are allotted 250 mL of Bürgerspital wine every day, and double on Sundays and holidays. The average age is 90, and the waiting list is very long.
Rothenburg ob der Tauber
Royal residence in Würzburg
World's oldest bottle of wine, Würzburg
Our last trip was to Bonn, the formal capital of West Germany and home to the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. We enjoyed lunch with the staff of the foundation. It was there, we were told, that our applications to the foundation were scrutinized by the infamous “selection committee.” It is a remarkable foundation, paid almost exclusively by government grants. The goal of the foundation is to create a word-wide network of scholars with ties to Germany by providing funding for foreign post-doctoral scholars to conduct their research in Germany. Uncle Alexander has been very good to us.
The last morning we returned to Bochum, said our goodbyes and went home. I had had a wonderful trip, but was more than ready to see Holly and Daisy again. It had been way too long. It’s remarkable that the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation would put so much money into its scholars’ experience of Germany, but I’m very grateful that they do. It was a trip I’ll never forget.
