13/8/04 Zeigenhain

One thing that is constant. Travel around the world to university gliding clubs and they do one thing in common.

They set fire to things.

12/8/04 Ziegenhain.

After eventually finding my way out of Hannover I got on the road heading south. The weather, which had been sunny for the great majority of the last 3 weeks, now starts to get a bit grey and misty. The Peugot really isn’t in the same class as the Audi Quattro so I am stuck with “only” 130kph. I am trying to get to where the Akaflieg Frankfurt (Frankfurt University Gliding Club) have their airfield at Ziegenhain. After some while of driving I decide to have a late dinner/early tea and pull off the Autobahn into the town of Goettingen.
This town has a link with aviation as it’s university did a lot of the early research associated with aeronautics in the early 20th century. So what do I get for dinner? A multinational hamburger. First time I’ve had fast food in Germany in the whole trip! Everything is the same as Australia except the language (and price).
Later in the day I turn off the Autobahn near Bad Hersfeld and proceed down the little country roads. Oberaula, Olberode, Asterode. How difficult it is to keep a list of these villages in my memory, which isn’t that good at the best of times. I have to stop every few km to make sure that the village I just passed through was the right one.
Eventually I get to the slightly larger town of Ziegenhain, where I drive around for ages looking for the airfield as my map isn’t really that clear at these small scales. Finally I drop in at the police station to ask the way and get half reasonable directions to the airfield. It’s about 9:30 PM when I finally roll up and of course the airfield is deserted. A quick call on the phone and Sabine tells me they are all at a private house where there is a party going on. It is a combined end of training course and two birthdays. So I walk back out to the road and Sabine picks me up. I remake the acquaintance of the two Chrisses and Tobias who were at Neuhausen way back at the start of my German holiday. I also meet Heike who has been to the Adelaide Uni Gliding Club in South Australia previously (but I never met her then). Not a bad party but I miss a lot of what is going on due to the language differences. I cause a bit of mirth by addressing the young (pre teen) daughters of the house as Gnaediges Fraulein (yes, I know that isn’t strictly done anymore, but I think I surprised the hosts that I even knew the expression at all).
After midnight it was back to the airfield and bed.

12/8/2004 Hannover

After missing (twice) the MIG17 on a stick pointing the way to the museum I finally get there.
It doesn’t appear to be such a big museum but once inside it is fairly packed. The curator/manager/whatever picks my accent (probably like being hit with a sledge hammer) and asks where I am from. They probably don’t get too many Australians here. After some general chatting I wander into the early aviation hall (ie pre WW2). Some interesting aircraft (mostly replicas I think) and a lot of good paraphernalia. Then into the more modern part, WW2 and later. While this hall has many fine aircraft, engines and other items, it is dominated by a Ju52 display as you enter. These bits were recovered from a fairly unusual place.

The story goes something like this…

In the early part of the Second World War, the fighting flowed, for a time, through Norway. During this time the Germans had the clever idea of re-supplying their forces using a squadron of Ju52s and flying them in to a ready made airfield. A frozen lake. A couple pranged on landing but most were OK. A long story short, they were abandoned there. Next spring thaw and all of the aircraft went straight to the bottom of the lake, where they quietly remained for the next 45 or so years. Come 1986 and the museum sets up an expedition to recover some remains.
Not only did they salvage virtually four complete airframes, they were in such (comparatively) good condition that within twelve months they had a restored, flying example.

While I was looking at the display, the curator/manager/whatever comes in and asks if I would like to go and see the restored original at a nearby German Airforce base. Damn, I can’t because of the time!

12/8/04 Gifhorn, Braunschweig, Hannover and Ziegenhain.

The Puegot 206 parked near the German Airministry.

(Wouldn't you go to the German Air Ministry on your holidays?)

12/8/04 Gifhorn and Braunschweig

<- The power station at the Volkswagen plant at Wolfsberg. Built in the 1930s.

At Ralf's place I have breakfast, including vegemite left from some long forgotten glider pilot and then Ralf drives me to Braunschweig airport where he works for the LBA. I know the Akaflieg Braunschweig, a research group who build experimental gliders, is also here so I wander up to see them.
The best laid plans…
The whole group is off flying somewhere else while their workshops are renovated. But I meet one lone student called Oliver who tells me about the technology they are using to build aircraft at the moment and also shows me bits of the SB14 and the new 15. I then catch a bus into Braunschweig proper where I look around the main part of town and call back to Australia while I am in a toy shop. As I have been pretty good with money so far I go to a car hire place and get a little Peugot 206 for the last couple of days. I go back to the LBA to say goodbye to Ralf and buy him some dinner but he already has eaten. He advises that there is a good aircraft museum in Hannover so I put that on my itinerary. I am planning to get to Zeigenhain tonight to stay with the Akaflieg Frankfurt and Sabine.

11/8/04 Berlin (Train ride out) and Gifhorn

There is an automatic ticket dispenser at the station which I study for a long time and watch others use. I _think_ I could get it right but to get to Gifhorn there is a change of trains required. In the end I am not quite confident enough, so I decide to get some human help. The lady at the information desk can speak a little English and she prints out a piece of paper with the exact two trains I need. With this firmly in hand, I proceed to the ticket office, where I am in the line for more than half an hour! It’s not really the ticket sellers fault, there are only three of them, and one of those is tied up by a young girl who really doesn’t seem to know what she wants. A lady in the line behind me is getting pretty irate, I don’t need to know what she is saying to tell that. Finally there is only a young lad in front of me and he walks up to the next free ticket lady, who promptly sends him back into the line. As he gets to me I ask whats wrong and he says that ticket seller only speaks German and won’t serve non German speakers. With a bit of trepidation I approach her and show her my piece of paper with the two trains listed and she seemed pretty OK with that. I tried to get first class, but “no first class to Gifhorn” apparently.
By 1955 I have left the Zoological Gardens station on the fast ICE (Intercity Express). 15 minutes later we are in the countryside. It’s been a fairly long day and I notice for the first time that the back of my shirt is streaked with salt. I hadn’t noticed this in the humidity of the day. The LED display shows the train is doing 220kph but there are no objects near the tracks so it doesn’t look fast at all.
I get to Wolfsburg at 2100 and it is a deserted place. I catch a local train to Gifhorn and the last few km take nearly as long as the rest of the trip. Ralf arrives to pick me up and we go back to his house.
As part of the amusement Ralf suggests we go out and see if we can see the predicted meteor shower (the Perseids). Ralf assures me that there is a deserted road which he often goes roller blading on. We nearly get run over three times! We also don’t see very much in the way of meteors either. I later hear from Sabine that a group she was part of saw them, but the sky in Germany is badly light polluted.

Thus endeth another long day.

11/8/2004 Berlin "The Wall"

I discover the Berlin Wall.

Or, at least a tiny bit left over at "Check Point Charlie"

11/8/2004 Berlin, The Technical Museum

I catch an underground tram (U6). Once again, only a two minute wait for the train. Somewhere I saw a sign that states a maximum waiting time of 5 minutes, I can well believe it. It is a bit warm and muggy down in the tunnels but as the train moves the breeze blasts through and is quite pleasant. A door or vent must be open. Next stop the Berlin technical museum. After I get off the train (at the wrong station) a nice chap offers to tell me the way. He has got cropped hair, orange glasses and a singlet and his directions lead me the long way round, but I eventually get there.
The Berlin Technical Museum is undergoing extensions so the upper galleries with the aircraft are not open yet. Still, there is a good selection of boats and trains and some other very interesting stuff. Including, in an out of the way cul de sac, an original example of an Enigma machine. In the train shed I also find an early example of a German ground level transfomer used in their distribution system. It makes a lot of sense to me now. Nearby the technical museum is a collection of old cars, but they are packed into a long narrow storage building and not shown off to their best. I also slip into the German equivalent of the Australian “Science Investigator Centre” (I have a complementary ticket from the tech museum. It has very similar displays to the one in Australia. I wander out to a little café/hotel type arrangement at the front of the technical museum and have a nice “Berliner Kartoffelcremesuppe”. I am pretty safe with that one because I like spuds. The waitress speaks English but I persist in using Germalian and seem to get by. I wonder what I really said. I have some more time to kill so I go to Checkpoint Charlie. This is also an interesting place to visit, but it is a real tourist trap and has a very artificial and rundown feel.
Finally, back to Freiderichstrasse to get my luggage (it was in a locker there) and try to get a ticket to Gifhorn.

11/8/2004 Berlin, The Pergammon Museum

The Ishtar Gate.

Famous in First Year High School History Texts!

I got chatted by the security people for this one (Whoops)

11/8/04 Berlin (What to do next? Museums and such.)

I head to the newsagents and get a copy of a Berlin Guide. The most likely thing is the “Museum Island” which is just down the road a little way, so of I head. As I approach I can see the dome of the Bode, but it is closed. A pity, so I keep going till I come to the Pergammon. As I walk past one of the museum wings and up into the forecourt I get the impression that it is a dirty and grubby place. I have very vague memories of dirty public buildings like this in some of the Australian capital cities when I was a very young child. A minute or two passes before the penny finally drops. There are many chips and pockmarks on the walls, the black is the result of fires and it is all un attended war damage! Anyway I buy my ticket and go into the museum. Well, this is unlike any other museum I have ever been in. The first impressions are that there are no human sized objects, no pots or tools or other relics of a human past. No, the museum is full of buildings! Nothing done by half measures here. If a previous culture was worthy, it seems its monuments were taken in their entirety. None of this namby pamby stuff like Elgin did with the Greek Marbles, taking only the interesting bits. The equivalent German collectors just took the whole building! While uncomfortable with the values that lead to this, the collection is an extraordinary impressive one. Not only that, it brings back first year history lessons with Mrs Kemp. As I enter one of the museum wings there is the Ishtar Gate. I remember the pictures of the blue walls in my history books and there they are, larger than life. Overall, the Pergammon is a really interesting visit, almost as much for what it says about 19th century mores, than the abilities of these older day peoples.
Leaving the museum precinct I wander back up the river towards the Reichstag. Of course now I am prepared for the little hints I see around me. There are very few old buildings to be seen and when I finally do get to the Reichstag, I am fully prepared to see the patches on what must have been an almost shattered building. Memories of the grainy black and white pictures of Russian troops with their flags are strong. Almost 60 years ago to the day. Anyway, the lines to gain entrance to the building stretch out for many tens of metres, down the steps and out onto the grassed area. Because I only plan to stay in Berlin for this one day I decide to give the inside of the building a miss and head back for the railway station.