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| In front of the Cathedral |
We had originally planned on making this trip to visit with a classmate of mine from Westtown; however, it seemed that at the last minute we realized that there had been miscommunication and our day of arrival was his day of departure … Auf Wiedersehen Chuck and maybe next year. Sean was not able to go with us either as he was working in the ICU, so this was the first long weekend trip that I made with the kids here in Germany.
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| 1/2 timbered house |
Braunschweig, you might ask, well, at least you are wondering it with a name … for about a month people would ask where I was going and my response was, “some city about 1.5 hours west of Berlin.” Turns out that this was a major city between the 13
th – 18
th centuries known for its wealth due to a thriving trading network; which means it was also a seat of political power and cultural. Prior to WWII it had over 5,000 ½ timbered homes dating from the 14
th thru 16
th centuries and now it has about 800 left after the 42 bombings by the RAF. 26% of the population was killed and only 20% of the buildings in the city center that stood prior to the war were still standing without damage. So, this is a city with pockets of history surrounded by modern buildings.
What sticks out most in my memory is that on the train ride in we saw a lake, no photo – darn, with at least 100 swans on it and then as we walked from the train station to the hotel we passed bunnies all over the place. They were so cute, and MJ was even cuter trying to go up to them and pet them. It was definitely the start of a very nice weekend.
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| Paddle boating down the river |
So, Clark and MJ had off school on Friday, so we had headed up on Thursday night. On Friday we headed to the tourist information center, picked-up a map, 3 mp3 players for a 3 hour tour of the city. MJ managed to listen for an hour before she decided that the story was just not that interesting and she could make up a better story on her own. Clark and I got over 2 hours and the last 5 sites were a long walk. We decided that lunch was much more enticing than paying the extra money to keep the players, so we found a comfortable bench, sat down and listened to the last few pieces before turning them and heading to lunch. Ok, I really need to brag here, my kids had already walked over 5 miles in just one morning! Not many other people have kids that can go that long and stay focused on the history of a city. That afternoon we headed over to some parks and just enjoyed the sites of the city.
While walking along the river which encircles the town, we came across a place that rented boats, so on Friday evening we rented a swan paddle boat and enjoyed our time on the river. Saturday afternoon we rented a canoe for the other ½ of the river.
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| Happy RIZZI House, sculpture done by NY artist Rizzi |
designed by the New York artist, James Rizzi, designed by the New York artist, James Rizzi, The great part about the city was the history, shopping and boating. The downside was that we never found a really good restaurant; honestly, our little town of Landstuhl has more great restaurants. It was a fun weekend and amazing to see how the city had come back from such terrible destruction.
Clark’s take on Braunschweig – It was a lot of fun. I really liked the chance that we got to go on a paddle boat and canoe all in one weekend.
MJ really liked trying to pet the bunnies in the park.
The complete
set of photos if you are interested.
