Germany Towns & Picking Wild Mushrooms In Germany's Forest

Rode into the forest near Andreas home and went to pick wild mushrooms. It's amazing how much greens they have around the town. Seems like they have more preserved forest than us in Malaysia!

Already had 2 straight dinner of wild mushrooms. Not really going well with my stomach but it was delicious. Germans just love their mushrooms. Cooked it then fry the mushrooms with onions, eggs and add in salt and pepper. Then they will have it with their toast bread.

Some of the places visited:

Hamburg  

Second largest city in Germany.

 Hamburg Rathaus

Travemünde - Baltic Sea

Attracts a lot of tourist in this resort town, especially in the summer. From here you will also see a lot of large ships passing and is one of Germany's largest port in the Baltic Sea.

 

The town of Mölln in Schleswig-Holstein

A small town in Schleswig-Holstein famous for Till Eulenspiegel, the clown/pranskter.

 The legendary clown, Till Eulenspiegel

 

Helgoland - North Sea

This is an island out in the North Sea. Took 4 hours boat ride to the island. Luckily the sea was not as rough as predicted, as the day turned out to be an excellent day. One of the warmest days since I arrived in Germany. However, I was feeling a little sea sick, but luckily was ok when arrived. Some, not so lucky, vomited in the boat. Saw one elderly lady was trying to open the toilet door but didn't get there in time and was vomiting while closing her mouth with her hands. Well, I think some not so lucky ones sitting beside her got some of it! 

The motto of Helgoland:

Grün ist das Land, (Green is the land)
rot ist die Kant', (Red is the brim)
weiß ist der Sand, (White is the sand)
das sind die Farben von Helgoland. (These are the colours of Heligoland)

Lots of duty free shops in this island and it attracts a lot of tourists as well.

 Famous landmark - Lange Anna

Northern Gannet birds

Some of the shops in Helgoland

Helgoländer Eiergrog

4 More Days To Berlin Marathon

It's been 1 and a half weeks since arriving in Germany. Andreas was kind enough to show me most parts of North Germany, including the Baltic Sea and North Sea. A friend was here for 3 days and we went out to the beach of North Sea and some smaller towns. Will upload the photos later.

Had a 3 day break from running after our easy long run on Sat. Today did a 1h10m run, with surges of 6 x 1 mins just to get my legs going. Not too sure how I will run the race but just hope I will enjoy it. Most likely leaving for Berlin this Friday morning and will be staying with Andreas's uncle. Me and Andreas will be starting from the same block, 3h 15mins. That will be the 4th block from the elites. Anticipating to take probably a few mins before passing the starting line.

Starting Block

 Some information from Berlin Marathon newsletter:-

Marathon on TV – Live on n-tv and Eurosport

The real,- BERLIN-MARATHON will be presented live on TV once again this year. Both n-tv (8:30 am to noon) and Eurosport (9 am to noon - 3pm Malaysian Time) will be broadcasting the race live on September 26. There will be a new concept for the TV broadcast this year, and we will be presenting the real,- BERLIN-MARATHON from new perspectives to make it more attractive to the general public. A three-hour live broadcast on n-tv and Eurosport will make this possible, for which SCC-RUNNING will be producing the images for the first time.

Marathon live ticker

You will be able to follow the race from the starting shot at 9 a.m. all the way to the finish of the elite women’s runners (approx. 11:20 am) online at www.real-berlin-marathon.com. This is an ideal service for all marathon fans in Germany and around the world who cannot watch it on TV. The live ticker will be updated constantly and is available in English too (on the English part of the marathon website).

Of course there were lots of meat in the menu, but generally, a lot of "makan roti: menu. I miss my rice!  

Currywurst from Kochlöffel



Another of meat spread on toast



Sausage in Hamburg

There's this island we went called Helgoland, is a duty free island. Alcohol are so cheap here that you can become an alcoholic. Imagine a vodka for less than €10 (approx. RM40!!). Bicardi was less than €9.



One of the duty free shop in Helgoland



First Step In Germany

Arrived in Hamburg Airport after slightly more than 13 hours flight plus a 4 hours of waiting time at Dubai International Airport. Andreas was there to pick me up at the airport and he told me that I can expect only wet weather in Hamburg and it's surrounding areas. We left the airport and Andreas's house is about 40mins drive from the airport in Reinbek. It's a very small town. Basically it's all green surrounding the area. We stopped over the bakery to get some cakes for tea before reaching his home. You can't imagine how quiet his home is. All I can hear are neighbours closing their doors or going out to work. Otherwise, it's just plain quiet.

Andreas's home

The next day, we drove to his hometown in Lübeck, one of the World Heritage Sites. The city centre is basically like a small island surrounded by Trave River. Also, once upon a time it can only be entered through one of four gates, with only two remaining now. One of them is Holstentor (pic below)

Holstentor

The world famous Niederegger Cafe

 

  Mazipan in pork knuckle form - don't think of something else!

Image of Lübeck city

Andreas mum's house in Lübeck

Andreas and mum with their plum tree

Did 2 training runs here already with Andreas. The first one was done around his home, both on trails and asphalt.

Andreas showing me the way thru the trails

My first run in Germany

 My second run was with Andreas club, Barsbütteler SV, consisting of mostly senior runners, but most of them has very good track record. Some even ran 2:40s in marathon in their younger days. Andreas himself is a sub-3 hour runner, which he did it in Berlin.

 Barsbütteler SV

So what kind of meals am I having here? In Malaysia, we always say this when we have no money, "Makan roti loh". Well, basically these are daily meals for Germans. in general. They eat so much bread here! Of course, what you put on your bread is a different matter. Salmon, salami, wurst, butter, cheese, etc. Black bread and Brötchen are their normal meals.

Brötchen with a German beer, Wernesgrüner

Fast food (Sausages!!) - Onkle Curry

And of course, what is Germany without going through it's well-known "No Speed Limit" Autobahn. This is the "derestriction" sign...

This is well over 200km/h. But there are certain sections where speed limits are imposed. So, no we didn't go through the whole journey with 200km/h.....

So far I've been to city near Reinbek such as Bergedorf and Lüneburg. The buildings in Lüneburg town is just amazing.

Town Hall, Lüneburg

View from Water Tower Lüneburg...

 

We then proceed to Scharnebeck near to Lüneburg to witness ship lifting. This is a twin ship lift. Boats are basically lift right up from the ground (water) and ship it to the other side of the river. One of the marvels of engineering.

Ships being lifted up

Ships realeased on top