Mr & Mrs Annhig go bummelling round Germany.
 

I need to say this at the beginning, lest I be accused of misleading my reader. If you are hoping for a long account of a comprehensive tour around the vast extent of Germany, you will be disappointed and should probably stop reading now. OTOH, if you are interested in my account of a short - 10 day - leisurely wander around some parts of Germany that seem to be more or less off the UK tourist map - read on.

This didn't start off as being a 10 day trip - I'd have preferred at least a fortnight - but work commitments meant that 10 days were all we had. It didn't start off being a trip to Germany either - I wanted to go to Italy, and DH wanted France, so we compromised and picked Germany where both [or neither?] of us wanted to go. It's not new to us - I've been going to Germany regularly since I first went with my parents about 45 years ago, when british people were just rediscovering it as a holiday destination, and we made a visit to the family of my then newly acquired german penfriend. I'm not even sure now that we warned them we were coming. [no internet then. Perhaps we had a phone number? I really can't remember but have a feeling that we just "dropped in"] Somehow my dad [who had learned german at school in the '30s and still loved speaking it, despite all that followed] navigated us to the tiny village in the Pfalz where my penfriend's family still live, we knocked on the door, and found ourselves welcomed permanently into the bosom of a german family. Despite language problems [my penfriend spoke a little english and only my dad and I spoke german, and that not well] somehow we all hit it off. My penfriend's father, who had been a british POW in Hamburg, turned out to be as pro-British as my father was pro-german, and even her grandfather seemed to enjoy telling us about how the various armies of "panzer" had driven over his land in WWI. This first visit led to many more, and after all this time we still write and visit each other, though less in latter years.

So if a visit to our friends could be worked into the trip, that would be a bonus. How to get there? some desultory net surfing had revealed that it is now possible to fly from our local cornish airport [Newquay] to 3 german cities - Hannover, Duesseldorf, and Stuttgart. OK you have to change planes in Birmingham, but these are still "direct" flights in the sense that you pay one fare and your luggage disappears at one end, and re-appears [hopefully] at the other end of the entire journey.

A plan soon emerged - we would fly to Hannover, spend a day or so there, then hire a car and tour round some bits of what was East Germany [the DDR for short] which we'd not had a chance to see before, and then finish our trip with our friends, who live about an hour's drive [in theory] from Stuttgart, and fly home from there. Only the area where our friends live was familiar to us so we would be able to see a lot of new things.

This then was the plan. Back soon with how it worked out!

Hello Annhig, looking forward to the rest of your report!

Lavandula

Looking forward to the report. DH and I did a driving tour of the former East Germany a few years ago and enjoyed ourselves immensely.

Looking forward to more!

Oh goody! I always love an annhig trip report. Looking forward to more!

ANNHIG, ditto above. I am along for the ride...

Me too!

Looking forward to this - you always write so well.

Is "bummelling" an English term for roaming the countryside? If so I am in for the ride. If not hmmm. Oh well I am still in.

Bummeln, in german, means to stroll....

Signing on, but puzzled by "bummeling". Of course my English English is very out of date.

I was hoping for a long account of a comprehensive tour. It would really help thousands of readers out here.

More paragraphs will be helpful.

I am following too.
Waiting for the next episode.

Did you say you are "bemmelling" or bumbling around Germany.! :).

I am also looking forward to the next installment!

Always enjoy reading about your travels Annhig...looking forward to more! :-)

I can't wait to read more! Count me in.

oh, where did my last post go?

glad to see that you are all on board and thanks to mokka for the translation, though bumbling round Germany might also have been accurate.

and apologies for the lack of paragraphs in the first post - my excuse is that i was typing in bed. [a non sequitur, i know but it's my excuse and I'm sticking to it].

anyway, while you're waiting for the next instalment, a quiz: [Mokka probably ought to be disqualified on the grounds that he knows most of the answers!]

1) Where did the elector of Hannover live?

2) What did he elect?

3) What had Queen Anne failed to produce by the time she died in 1714?

4) What connection does the Elector of Hannover have with Dr House of Boston?

Let's see, without googling - 1 and 4, I don't know but I bet 1 isn't Hannover.

2. The Holy Roman Emperor.

3. An heir.

1) no idea
2) no idea
3) an heir (guess)
4) no idea

So clearly I need to be educated as well as entertained.

Bring it on Annhig !