germany!

germany was brilliant. i had an amazing time, and want to go back sometime. miriam and her family were wonderful, and i thank them for being so welcoming and for making me feel at home.

my trip started on the 27th of december when dad and i drove down to london. we were stuck in traffic, and moved about 3 miles in 2 hours. literally. we arrived in london at 10 after telling the people we were staying with that we would arrive at 5. it was a long boring trip in which i spent most of the time changing radio staition in an attempt to find something i liked.

dad and i left early the following the morning to go to standsted airport where my flight was from. we had expected traffic and there wasnt any so we were 2 hours early! we decided to drive on to cambridge because it was about 20 minutes away. as we were driving there we noticed that the traffic was not moving in the other direction, because there had been an accident. we were going to be in that traffic on the way back, and would probably miss my flight. so we turned around and went back through small streets all the way back to stansted and arrived on time
luckily.

the flight to germany was fine. i had a window seat although i couldnt see much due to clouds. miriam and her mum and sister were waiting for me at the airport, so as soon i arrived we left for her house. she lived in a small village north of bremen. as soon as we got in side i saw their christmas tree. it was amazing, it was a real tree but it was perfect and had real candles on it!!
then i was shown were i would be staying, i had a house in the garden just for me!!
it had its own bathroom and large bedroom with a fireplace!

the next day we went into the city of bremen. we arrived at about 10 or 11 and booked a guided your for 2oclock. we walked around the old part of bremen which is amazing and then went and looked at the river.
we had subway for lunch :)
the tour was in both english and german which was good. some of the city is incredibly old, like from the year 600!

the next day we went to the universum, which is like a museum were you can do lots of experiments and things. it was really fun, there was an exhibition on chocolate there, as well as a completely dark room which you have to find your way around in. but we payed for all three sections (the science center, the chocolate exhibition and the outside activities) but when we went to the outside part it was already closed because it dark outside :(
that night we had feuerzangenbowle which translates to burnt punch. it is a hot alcoholic drink where you pour rum over a cone of sugar and light it so the sugar melts into the punch. it was really nice!

the following day was new years eve, so we rode (on bikes) to the shops and bought some fireworks and some traditional german cakes (which were more like sweet buns than cakes). then got ready for the night.
we rode to the train station and found out that the train wasnt coming for half an hour because it was new years eve. after the train we caught a tram to the party. although it wasnt really a party as there were only 10 or 11 people there. we then played games like the type people play at youth group until just before 12. then we went into the street to do some fireworks. as soon as it got to 12 oclock the entire sky filled up with light there were so many fireworks! almost every house in the city had people in front of it launching skyrockets and roman candles, and of course firecrackers which just explode really loudly! there is nothing like it in nz.
we left at 2:30 and caught a bus to the central station. here we caught the night bus which goes to the train station were we left our bikes. then we rode back to miriams house. we got there at 5.
oh and there was smole absolutely everywhere. it was like fog.

i slept until 1 or 1:30 in the afternoon, and then we went to worpswede. worswede is a small artists town close to where miriam lives. it was settled in by a few artists in the late 1800s. we went into one of the artists houses and it had many of his works displayed there. i am not much of an art critic but i thought they were really good, and can understand how these original artists made the town a famous art community where many young artists still go to today.

the next day it snowed! not much just a centermetre or so, but it was still really nice!
we caught a train to hamburg which took about an hour and a half. here we met up with one of miriams friends who could speak english :)
we went on a bus tour around hamburg which was cool execpt that the english translation didnt work, so i just looked out the windows. when the guide realised the english wasnt working, he began speaking in english aswell which was much better. THERE ARE MORE BRIDGES IN HAMBURG THAN LONDON, AMSTERDAM AND VENICE TOGETHER!!!. yeah there is a lot of water.
after the tour we went to st michaels church because it has a really tall tower you can climb. we went up and there was an amazing view!! and it was freezing up there! like really really really cold!
i couldnt use the camera properly my fingers were too cold :P
then we went to the hamburg dungeon, which was really fun, but sadly it wasnt scary...
BUT it was in german and the actors kept pointing at me and asking me questions etc and i had no clue what was happening lol
then we had pizza and went home. it wasnt til we got back that i remembered i should of had a hamburger!!

the next day was thursday, and my last day in germany. we decided to go visit the north sea, which is a couple of hours drive away. we arrived there and it was about -3 degrees and the wind was blowing really strongly, so it felt like -10!
we walked along the beach for a while then went and had hot chocolates and cake inside to warm us up. then we drove back home.

we left early on friday to go to the airport for my flight, and got there early. so we had another hot chocolate, before saying goodbye.
the flight back was fine, but then i had to catch buses back to manchester where mum and dad picked me up, and we went home.

thankyou again to miriam and her family, they were incredibly kind, and i enjoyed being with them, especially when we played the german board games at night :)

thankyou,