Schwerin For Spring Break we seem to alternate between Hawaii and something more cultural. Two years ago we went to NY City and Washington DC. This year we went to Europe. I had a work trip planned and Stac and the kids joined me for the second week of my trip. I spent the first two days in Luxembourg and the second two in Munich. Friday we met in Frankfurt at the airport. We stayed near the train station in Frankfurt which seemed to be a red light district with a bunch of drug dealing on the side. Pretty gritty city, at least where we stayed.

A Mighty Fortress Saturday we traveled by train via Cologne to Hiddenhausen. We stopped for four hours in Cologne to go see the Cologne Cathedral. Storing your luggage while you walk around is easy enough in the station as there is an automatic underground storage unit. The cathedral is hard to miss since as soon as you walk out of the station it towers over you.
Cologne Towers
The cathedral was started in 1248 and wasn't finished until 1880. They took a bunch of years off (around 400), but when finished it stood as the tallest building in Europe and is still the tallest cathedral at 157 meters / 515 feet. The towers soar high above you and the interior of the cathedral seems impossibly high. The building is most impressive and the area outside is as crowded as in the inside. We saw protesters about organ “donors” in China and vegetarians against the “murder” of animals complete with bloody suits with animal heads on crucifixes.
Cologne Cathedral
After touring the inside of the cathedral we hopped on a small train that took us to the Chocolate factory. Basically a big rip off as they made it seem that they did more of a tour of the city than they really did. We opted to not take the chocolate tour but bought a bunch of Lindt chocolate bars. Back to the Cathedral we had lunch and then boarded the train for Hiddenhausen, where Stac’s host family from almost 30 years prior lived when she did an exchange program with Germany.
Hotel Freihoff
We arrived at the very very teeny station at Hiddenhausen around 7:30. Besides us only one other passenger got off. There was no taxis and we walked the 900 meters up the road to the Hotel Friehoff. As we walked up to the hotel the sunset was going off; we checked into our two rooms and had a very nice dinner in the attached restaurant. The next morning I woke early to walk across the street from the hotel to a field to watch a beautiful sunrise through morning fog; a beautiful start to Easter. After breakfast, Dagmar (Daggi), Stac’s exchange student picked us up and we went and said hello to her parents Traugot and Helena at their home a few minutes away.
The Morning Breaks
Stacey stayed with them for 3 months the summer of 1986. They reminisced and showed us pictures of Stac’s visit to Germany and their visit to Dagmar and Stacey's parents in the States. Afterwards we went over to Dagmars house in Bünde for some lunch and then we walked around the city and got ice cream and spent a very enjoyable afternoon in their backyard soaking up the spring sunshine. For dinner we had bread, cheese and cold cuts. We were tired and went back to our hotel to close out the night.
Host Family
Monday morning we joined Daggi at their church where they had Easter Monday services at their local church. The program involved a lot of standing, sitting and signing. The program was in German but we were welcomed as visitors from America. Afterwards we had a lunch of soup and Daggi took us to the train station in Bielefeld where we said our goodbyes and waited for the train to take us to Hannover where we would transfer for our train to Hamburg.
Bielefeld
Our train was delayed out of Bielefeld and that was going to make for a tight transfer at the Hannover station. We gathered our luggage and waited at the door for us to disembark on platform 9. We had 5 minutes to get our Hamburg train on platform 7. We rushed off the train, down the stairs and over one staircase to ascend the elevator to platform 7. The kids and I with the luggage made our way ahead of Stacey. I pushed through the crowd and asked the platform conductor if the waiting train was for Hamburg. He said yes. I turned to the kids and said (based on what I remember), “Wait here with the luggage I am going to go find Mom”. I went back to the top of the escalator. I didn’t see her so I ran down the stairs. As I neared the bottom I heard Stac calling my name so I ran back up the escalator to find her having walked in the opposite direction of the kids. I grabbed her by the hand and we rushed to the train to find the doors closed and our luggage and kids no where in sight. Through the train door I could see Miles and Sofi. I yelled at the platform conductor “Our kids our on that train”, his response was some German statement to the effect of “Zurt” and to shrug his hands. I mouthed to Sofi, call me as I watched the train pull out of the platform.
Hamburg Train Station
Stacey had a very choice set of words for me and walked away to sit on the platform while I figured out how to solve what was clearly my fault. I went back down stairs to information and found the next train to Hamburg left in about 25 minutes. The attendant attempted to call the train and while waiting for someone to pickup, I got a phone call on my cell phone (I had cell service but no data plan). Sofi was calling me from the train. I asked if she was ok, she said yes but that “Miles was having a melt down”. I told her that we would meet her in Hamburg and we would be on the next train. I went to the ticket counter and re-reserved our seats on the next Hamburg train, bought me a grilled sausage and went to find Stacey. We boarded the train and Sofi called me again to say they would meet us in Information in Hamburg.
Rathaus from Above
At Hamburg I wandered through the station trying to find the right information location. They weren’t in the lounge and so I walked to information at one end of the station. Sofi and Miles were there with all our luggage with a very stern looking Polizei. I thanked him, and he just nodded and walked away. All is well that ends well and me being able to actually see Sofi before the train left and knowing her resourcefulness eased my worries quite a bit.

Warehouse District  We relaxed for the day, had dinner at a local Asian restaurant and the kids settled in at our hotel while I went walking around the Inner and Outer Lakes ( Binnenalster and Ausenalster) and sat at the outer lake shores as the sun set. The next day in Hamburg I went out exploring with Sofi. We first stopped at the St. Peters Church and decided to climb the steeple tower, Sofi initially joined me but the very tight stone circular staircase freaked her out and she went back down. I carried on, up and up and up until you reach the belfry and then large open wooden stairs carried me up and up until another very tight circular staircase took me to the very tip top of the steeple where small covered portholes looked down on Hamburg. Back down Sofi and I went shopping, ate some awesome grilled sausages at Mo Grill and then rented bikes from the street and rode out to Speicherstadt the old warehouse district of Hamburg. Large red brick buildings on a narrow island that is interlaced with canals. Very cool architectural space to ride around in.
Off We Go
Wednesday we woke up early and were out the door by 9am to the Hamburg station to catch the train to the small town of Schwerin an hours ride to the north east. I had googled castles near Hamburg and Schwerin came up and after doing a bit of research we put it on our itinerary. Schwerin is nice quaint little town with narrow cobble stone lined streets, a large cathedral with a outdoor market, a nice pedestrian shopping street and the main attraction of a nice large three story castle that sits on a small island in the middle of a lake. We put our luggage in a storage locker at the station and headed to the castle. The castle entrance was at the back and we paid the 3 Euro for a ticket and I paid the extra 3 Euro to be able to take photos. The tour takes you through the floors, up the stairs and down again. I never really did get why or who built the castle, but it had some nice examples of very well down wood inlay and an ornate thrown room with a bunch of old furniture. The interior was ok, but I really thought it was more impressive from the outside.
Schwerin Castle
After our tour we split up and Stac and Miles went to hang out at the station and Sofi and I walked to the Schwerin cathedral. I paid the small fee and walked (alone this time) up the narrow staircase to the top where an open aired balcony offered 360 degree views of Schwerin. A lovely little city to look across. Back down I rejoined Sofi and we walked to the Market Square where there were outdoor vendors selling vegetables, fish and most importantly a stand with a huge round circular grill that had sausages. We bought one and ate it with some strong German mustard and then sat at a cafe in the sun and relaxed.
Schwerin Staircase
Back at the train station we caught the train to Bad Kliener and switched trains to a small 2 car train that took us to Lübeck. At Lübeck we had a short layover and we caught the train that would take us to Copenhagen. We were in First Class with nice windows to watch the countryside. As we approached the sea the train stopped, then after a moment of waiting, the train drove onto the ferry and we disembarked to head up to the upper ferry deck of the 45 minute ride across the Baltic Sea to Denmark where the train carried on through the night to Copenhagen. We arrived in the large station at 10:30 pm tired and ready for bed. We had a bit of problem getting a taxi driver to take us on the short drive to our Hotel : Tivoli Convention Hotel but I preserved with it was late and we didn’t want to walk. It turned out that Google Maps had the wrong location for the hotel and so it was good we got a ride.
Sunset on the Baltic
The next day we slept in. Stac wasn’t feeling well and me and the kids headed out to find some food for lunch, I googled best pizza and best sushi in Copenhagen on Trip Advisor and we were informed that Stick N Sushi was the top spot. We took a cab to a location north of our hotel and we had a fantastically tasty lunch with some crack cocaine grilled edamame and some very nice sushi. We walked back towards the hotel. Along the way Miles and I went to the Copenhagen flag ship Lego store while Sofi had her feet massaged by little fish that bit your dead skin. Sofi walked on and Miles and I went to Tivoli Gardens the second oldest theme park in the world. We rode the worlds oldest wooden roller coaster and a bunch of other rides that had very short lines. That evening after taking the kids to the pool I rented a bike at the hotel.
First Morning Light
 The next morning I rose super early the rode off in the dark in search of a sunrise. I rode out along the waterways to see the black night split with orange in an early morning pre-dawn. Then I rode back over to Nyhavn, the old harbour along a narrow canal. This place is full of old ships, colourful buildings and restaurants along the sunny side of the street. Very picturesque and fun to photograph in the morning light. Back to the hotel where I gathered up the family and we took a taxi back out to Nyhavn for a wonderful lunch in the spring sunshine at one of the restaurants. I had the very traditional Danish cold mackerel smørrebrød sandwhich. We were then met by Christina Palomäki who took the train down from Sweden. We knew her and her husband when we both lived in Beijing. We walked down the long shopping pedestrian street : Strøget. Sofi, Miles and Stac stopped for the fish foot massage again while Christina and I chatted. Then we all walked over to Sticks N Sushi (again!) for a lovely dinner on the sidewalk before catching a taxi back to our hotel. I hopped on my bike again and rode back out to Nyhavn for the third time that day and photographed the sunset.
Nyhavn Sunset

Saturday was our return home day, we packed our bags and caught a taxi to the airport where we boarded our flight for Toronto. On the 8 hour flight Stac sat in Economy Plus and me and the kids shared the very last row of 3 on the plane. Sofi and I took a sleeping pill and slept for 6 hours and Miles slept off and on while watching videos. Arriving in Toronto we had to clear US Customs while still in Canada, it was a horribly frustrating experience. First you had to stand in line to scan your passports at automatic scanning machines. Then we had to wait until our names appeared on the board (this was apparently because your luggage was being transferred and inspected maybe(?)). Then we stood in another long line for someone to check our boarding pass, only to immediately stand in another long line to go through actual customs. And then in another long line to go through security. And then a long walk down the corridor and just before the entrance way another line to go through Canada passport control and finally the gate. Phew. A longish 5 hour flight ended with us in Seattle on a Saturday night at 9pm. Long day, long trip but great experiences and good memories.


Here are some of my musings as we traveled through Germany and Copenhagen. 


See all the photos on Flickr.