Off the Beaten Path - Germany Travel Guide

On June 12th my wife and I took a comfortable Lufthansa jet to Berlin (Tegel airport) where we picked up a car we had reserved from Avis, though the car had been reserved through Auto Europe. We were supposed to have an Audi A4, but we got an Opel Vectra which was satisfactory, but did not feel safe being driven above 130kph (85mph). We had made most of our reservations over the Internet before going and this is something I would recommend. Just put the name of the town in a good search engine (I used Hotbot) and you should find the information you need. We reserved a place in Quedlinburg [pictured on the front page and at Schmiedehausen, Damm 16, telephone 03946/4344], Wittenberg (Pension Sternstadtchen, Rooseveltstrasse 10/11, telephone 03491/4201) and Lubbenau in the 'Spreewald' (Pension Am Stadtgraben, Bergstrasse 9, telephone 03542/3532). Before we left Germany to return home, we stayed at the Novotel right at the airport which I highly recommend; you can turn in your car and be transported to the airport in a few minutes. Tegel is an airport where it is very easy to get around. We were off the plane and on the road quickly. We had no reservations for the first evening so we started toward Quedlinburg with the idea that we would stop when I got tired. On the way to Magdeburg I decided to get off the Autobahn (A2-E30)- of which I was already tiring - so I cut off at Theessen and drove roughly parallel to the Autobahn and to the town of Burg where it was time for lunch. We wandered through the town till we came to a point where there where the ruins of an estate and, on the corner, a little restaurant where we had an excellent bowl of asparagus cream soup. After eating, we went over to the estate and followed three ladies, who seemed to know where they were going, into a little chapel which had badly faded drawings and paintings on the walls, although it was still worth seeing. That's the benefit of wandering around sometimes - you find things unexpectedly. I finally got a little too tired to drive at the little town of Heyrothsberge, right outside of Magdeburg and we stayed the night in the Hotel Zwei Eichen, Konigsborner Strasse 17a, tel 039292/27882. It is off the road and quiet, but it is someplace you would easily miss and you should not if you want a good night's sleep and a nice breakfast that will restore you. We wanted to eat dinner and were told that there was a place we could eat 100m on the main road. Neither of us particularly liked the looks of the place and, when I remarked on the page of horsemeat listed on the posted menu, that decided the issue for my wife. We drove west on the main road till we came to the first place to eat, a Gaststatte (restaurant)in which we both had excellent meals - my wife settled for a farmer's omelette (potatoes, ham, cheese) which is always good when you are traveling. The next day we explored Magdeburg - worth seeing, especially for the central church area. Don't miss the statue of Christ crucified on a tree in the interior of the main church. Today Magdeburg is a beautiful town with broad streets; I wish we could have given it more time. From there we took a side trip to Wernigerode, which is a 'must see'. It is a beautiful town full of half-timbered houses. We had difficulty finding a room there and finally opted for the Hotel Gothisches Haus (Marktplatz 2, telephone 039436750 which is right off the Rathaus square, but at $125 a night was far more than we were used to paying (our reserved rooms having been around $40 a night with breakfast; however, today you cannot expect breakfast to be included so it is best to ask. Breakfast in some places comes at an extra charge). Since there was something going on all the time on the square and we didn't have to drive and park we felt a little better about the price of the room. Quedlinburg was another town with half-timbered houses that is on the UNESCO world treasures list. It is being redone so if you want to see a good 'before and after' go to Quedlinburg and then to Wernigerode. While we were there we took side trips on our own to Falkenstein Castle (begun in the 12th century) and to Eisleben, where Martin Luther was born and died. Wittenberg is an easy town in which to find your way around and is filled with Reformation history. After Wittenberg, we stopped off at the Bauhaus in Dessau, which is under repair, but is worth seeing. It is not too difficult to find if you know what you are looking for. Finally, we ended our trip at Lubbenau in the Spreewald, which is an area of canals, fields, and woodlands inhabited by the Sorbian (Wendish) people. There you can take a ride on a punt through the canals, rent a kayak if you are more adventursome, but be sure to try the local pickles! Nearly all of the places I've mentioned have web sites or can be easily found with a good search engine. I think it is best to have at least some high school German because many of the people we encountered did not speak English. I do understand some German and I always depend on my 'Mini-Worter Buch' German-English, which I picked up many years ago in Germany and always carry in my pocket.

Off the Beaten Path in Germany

Germany Off the Beaten Path

Visiting Germany?

Visiting Germany?