Rundreise: three weeks through Germany and Austria

I recently returned from a three-week trip through Germany and Austria. I spent the first week with friends in Austria's capital city, Vienna, followed by a few days in the beautiful tiny town of Vöcklabruck in Upper Austria. From Vöcklabruck, I traveled north into Germany to explore Dresden for two days and then continued further northward to Hamburg, where I stayed for ten days before returning to Stuttgart. I traveled the entire journey by train. The picture below shows the approximate route.

The three-week tour.

I started out with Austria: first in the capital city of Vienna and then in the small town of Vöcklabruck. One of the highlights of my trip to Vienna was seeing a performance of "Swan Lake Reloaded", the street dance reinterpretation of the classic ballet. It helped to know the story of "Swan Lake" ahead of time, but it wasn't entirely necessary. The street dancers captivated the audience's attention, and by the end, left many of us yearning for more.

In Vöcklabruck, time moves much more slowly than in Vienna. I spent relaxing days wandering park trails and visiting the nearby lake, "Attersee." As Germany's seventh most urban city, Stuttgart doesn't have any major lakes and so I particularly enjoyed this opportunity to spend time on the water.

View onto the Attersee

Admiring the view

The surprisingly clear water

After the Attersee, I took the train to Dresden. I expected Dresden to be covered in bombed-out buildings from World War II, the Frauenkirche being one of the most well-known. While Dresden can still be summarized as one tragically beautiful building after another, the city has come a long way since 1945.

Dresden on the Elbe River

While in Dresden, I stayed at the Weltcafe, a fair trade cafe with a few guest rooms upstairs. I don't normally advertise businesses on my blog, but I was so impressed with the hospitality shown toward me at the Weltcafe that I highly recommend you check them out if you happen to be passing through Dresden.

After Dresden, I took the train to Hamburg. For some reason, I expected Hamburg to be a lot closer to the sea than it actually is. Still, it does have one of Europe's major ports, around which has now been built "HafenCity", or "Harbor City". It also claims the title of having more canals than Venice and Amsterdam combined.

Canal in HafenCity

Houses along the canal.

Boats at HafenCity

HafenCity "boardwalk"

Hamburg's city center is marked by Alster Lake. Here you can find park trails, restaurants and cafes, street performers, and generally people enjoying being outside (when there's good weather).

Hamburg as seen from Alster Lake

Alster Lake

Birds hanging out on a log.

Forty minutes outside of Hamburg is Wedel, a town on the Unterelbe River and best known for its Schiffsbegrüssungsanlage. (Yes, that word does have 25 letters.) Broken down, this translates to the "ship-greeting facility". Whenever an international cargo ship arrives at the port, the operator inside the Schiffsbegrüssungsanlage raises the flag of the ship's country and plays its national anthem. When the ship leaves, the operator plays the anthem again and lowers the flag. I was told that the ship captains occasionally stop and have lunch with the operator, but I have yet to find another person to confirm this.

"Willkomm Höft", basically the ship's "welcome center"

The ship's national flag is raised when the
ship arrives and lowered when the ship leaves.

The rocky shore.

Sand prints.

Sun reflecting off the water.

Size comparison: ship vs. little girl.

~*~

Hamburg and Wedel were my last stops before returning to Stuttgart. It was a long, six-hour train ride back as I thought about everything I had seen and experienced over the past three weeks.

The next day, I had to return some library books at Stuttgart's city library and check a few new ones out. I was on the eighth floor when I noticed a group of senior citizens opening a special door I never noticed before and walking out onto the roof terrace. Wait. There's a roof terrace?!

Stuttgart Library

It turns out you can actually walk out onto the library roof, and being on the eighth floor, can see for miles out over the city. The picture below shows the view from the roof.

As I stood there looking out over the city, I thought about how sometimes it can be hard to return home from a long journey--and sometimes that journey opens your eyes to things you had previously overlooked. Here's to new seeing, and eventually, to more new journeys.

Looking out over Stuttgart