20 Years On: Day Trip to Düsseldorf

This was the single trip I made on my own when I was living in Köln, North up the Rhine by train to the next major city, Düsseldorf. I made a couple of trips down the river to Bonn, once with a friend visiting from the UK and once with a set of my British friends from Köln (and I remember it raining that day too). Though it would have been nice to go to Düsseldorf with someone it was surprisingly successful. I do not know why I left it so late in the morning to depart; I never make impromptu decisions to go anywhere so it must have been planned. I went back to Düsseldorf in 2004 and it did not seem to have changed at all.

I remember being intrigued by the amount of signs in Japanese there were throughout the city which seemed to jar with the very European looking canals and buildings in the centre of the city. Düsseldorf has always had the greatest presence of Japanese of cities in West Germany. Of course, in the 1980s the Japanese were seen very much as the Chinese are now, the people you had to do business with if you were to prosper.

I also remember seeing a lot of bad contemporary art in both Düsseldorf and Köln. I suppose it went with the territory of having all these wealthy business people. In Düsseldorf I remember a life-sized reconstruction of part of the Amsterdam red light district you could walk around and a replica of a military equestrian sculpture tipped through 90° so the horse's backside was on the plinth, it had been daubed with colours and surrounded with plastic soldiers and military vehicles.

Interesting range of names of British students who formed The Raj. I never knew Biff's real name, she got it for being rather a boisterous girl in her youth. I remember Lynn ended up as that, rather than 'Lyn' or 'Lynne' as you would expect, as her father was drunk when her birth was registered. Joss's full name was Jocelyn, one of these names that has moved from being male in the 1920s to female by the 1980s like Hilary and Evelyn. I remember Ismail was a 20-year old Moroccan who spoke fluent German, French and Arabic, but also had some Farsi, Afghan (Pushtu?), Japanese, Italian and English.

'The Bunker' was one of the two bars and one tea room at the foreigners' blocks. Note, also that with no internet or emails and only some students having telephones in their rooms and most of us having to use callboxes (phone booths to US readers), the main way of communicating with people back home was still by letter, this makes 1989 seem a century away.

Again, I am not certain about all the locations shown in these pictures, so if I have made a mistake, please let me know and I will amend the captions.

Wednesday 24th May 1989

Today I woke promptly and after breakfast and a bit of reading I went to the station and caught the train - the 11.04 to Düsseldorf, going there by the West bank route, arriving at 12.00. I went to the Jagdhof and looked at the Goethe museum, then walked through the Hofgarten to two art galleries: one with poor modern sculpture and one with a good range of 20th century art. I then walked around the Altstadt and looked in the Ship museum and walked around more of the town before coming back via a few bookshops. I caught the 17.43 train back. Back in hall I chatted with Paul before we went to 'The Bunker' [bar] barbecue. We were joined by Jane, Emma and Jenny, then Matthew, after that Fiona came, followed by Biff, Lynn & Lee and finally Gabrielle and Joss. We sat eating and drinking and also danced. Paul and I stayed on the longest with Julie & Ismail and Julie's sister too. Monika also popped by and we had a conversation in German. Then Paul and I came back. I had had about six bottles of Becks. I began a letter to Barbara. I got to bed by 04.00.

Weather: Sunny and hot.

Ornamental Canal in Düsseldorf, West Germany in May 1989

Avenue in the Jagdhof grounds [?], Düsseldorf, May 1989

Spire close to the Jagdhof in Düsseldorf, May 1989

Statues close to City Art Gallery, Düsseldorf, May 1989

The Ship Museum, Düsseldorf, May 1989

Mobile Jazz Band Stopped for a Break, Düsseldorf, May 1989

This jazz band was driven around the pedestrianised area of central Düsseldorf playing from the back of their car.

The 'Studio Am Burgplatz' Puppet Shop, Düsseldorf, May 1989

Cat in Bookshop Window, Düsseldorf, May 1989

Seeing a copy of „Chronik des 20. Jahrhunderts“, i.e. 'Chronicle of the 20th Century' seems ironic given what was going to happen in the next couple of years after this photo was taken. Even the most ardent German nationalist would not have predicted a reunified Germany in less than three years. To think the events of the 20th century were almost done and dusted was a major mistake many of us made.

Statues and a British Telephone Box in the Forecourt of the 'Ssst' Gallery in Düsseldorf, May 1989

20 Years On: Part 5 of Account of Hitch-hiking through southern West Germany

When I had been inter-railing in August/September 1988 I had been conscious of getting too far from the UK so that I could not get back if there was any problem. However, I found that with a base in West Germany I was happier at being in the South of the country than I had been the previous year and wondered if I should always rent a property as a kind of 'bolt hole' when away. Of course I never had the money for such a strange approach, but it is interesting how I had a mental limit to how far I would travel alone without beginning to feel uneasy. At this stage, with the local authorities still holding my passport I was unable to leave West Germany; Becky had had to apply to them specifically to get hers back in order to enter Austria. We followed suit, making up all kinds of excuses for why we needed our passports back. The local authorities were incompetent, because unless I had been able to find a bureau de change which would change money for me without showing my passport as most asked for, I would have run out of money too. In fact they certainly showed the lie of the assumptions about German efficiency. I remember the Post Office being reluctant to give me post with my name on it because my driving licence (like all UK driving licences of the time) did not have my photograph on it and they could not believe that. They found out I was correct and had to accept it. I suppose this was a result of being in a suburb, even a well-off one, rather than in the city more used to foreign visitors.

I remember the health authorities were bad in a different way. You used to get a form called an E111 which allowed you free health care across the European Community. In the UK by this stage you got one for life but in West Germany they had a limited duration. I had to stand and make a scene in the health office for them to return it to me. They said it had expired and I said, if that was the case, then why did they need to keep it. They said they had to, but as a consolation offered me a photocopy of my supposedly 'expired' E111. This showed that they had over-stamped it with so many local stamps that many of the details were now illegible so it would have been useless anywhere else. At that stage I gave up and applied for another E111 when I got back to the UK. I wonder if my E111 is still lodged in that local office and whether I can go and view it in 2020 when the thirty-year secrecy limit has expired.

The man who drove me back to Köln took advantage of the unlimited speeds on the German autobahns (in those days most of which were still only two lanes) and was regularly doing in excess of 190 Kph. We passed a BMW which had hit the central reservation at such a speed that its engine had been gouged out and was left separate from the rest of the car which was turned to face the wrong way into the traffic some metres further on. The driver (I was in the passenger seat, another hitch-hiker, a woman was in the rear) thought I was tired as I kept my eyes closed most of the way, but that was from fear. He covered two-thirds of the length of West Germany in five hours. I have never got farther North in Germany than Essen in the Ruhr. This was the last hitch-hiking I ever did.

Rather embarrassingly despite having visited Munich three times and having written two novels set there, I cannot identify many of the locations featured in the photos I include here. If anyone can let me know where they are I would be very grateful.

Monday 15th May 1989

Today I woke promptly but dozed after breakfast and then walked to the station from where I caught the 09.59 to München. Becky is leaving Augsburg to travel to Innsbruck to see Ashley. On arriving in München around 10.40 I went to the Mitfahr centre just to the South-East of the city centre. I had just missed one lift to Köln but there was another at 15.00 so I went by U-Bahn back to the center of the town and walked through the back streets to the Englisches Garten where I had a lunch of sausages and chips, and, of course the compulsory litre of beer. I then walked through the city taking photos and then caught the car, with a woman as well, to Köln. The weather was much better [by now]. We arrived at 20.30, the driver having gone very fast. The total cost was DM45,- each. Dad said I should travel on a bit but I only have DM170,- left in cash and I have done most of the South of West Germany. I think I will use the Mitfahr to go to the North. I had a MacDonalds then came back. I chatted with Carol then unpacked and talked with Paul, Joss, Fiona and Gabrielle. Then I began reading "The Champion of Garathorn", then letters from "Wirral" Paul and Nick & Julie.

Weather: Sunny and warm, some dull periods.

Opera House [?] in Munich, West Germany in May 1989

Square in Munich, May 1989

Entrance to Weinstraße in Munich, May 1989

Pedestrianised Street in Munich, May 1989

Pagoda in Englisches Garten, Munich, May 1989

Archway Dedicated to the Bavarian Army, Munich, May 1989

Political Posters on Official Noticeboard, Munich, May 1989

I have cropped these two pictures as the background, with numerous men standing around selling cars to each other seemed less interesting than the political posters.

The parties advertised, clockwise, starting at the top left are: CSU [Christian Social Union - the Bavarian branch of the CDU Christian Democratic Union, a conservative party]; SPD [Socialist Party]; No idea, possibly the Grüne Partei [Green Party]; FDP [Free Democratic Party - centrist liberals]; Christliche Mitte [literally Christian Middle presumably a Catholic Party as opposed to the cross-denominational CSU; despite the name it is listed as being right-wing]; Christliche Liga [literally Christian League]; ODP [the Ecological Democratic Party, a green party]; Bayernpartei [The Bavaria Party].

The back of the noticeboard had the more extreme parties advertised, left to right are: DVU [German People's Union - Nationalist]; Die Republikaner [The Republicans - an extreme right-wing party who were gaining strength at the time], FAP [Free Workers' Party - I can find no details about this party, but I assume given the name it was another far right party], MLPD [Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany - a Communist Party; many of the other extreme left parties are missing probably certain of gaining few votes in conservative Bavaria].

20 Years On - Part 16 of Account of Travelling by Train Around West Germany and Austria

Fortunately I was able to get away from the holiday very quickly, but that meant I did not fully learn the lessons of what I had done wrong or that my holidays were always going to be blighted by things that were going to be unpleasant and cost more money. Reflecting now, I think I was fortunate that I had no money to go on holidays in the 1990s because I am sure that if I had done, I would have many more bitter accounts of this kind and I would have turned into an utter xenophobe as a result of such trips. Anyway, this was the last time I ever tried to go inter-railing.

Tuesday 6th September 1988
Today I woke early and walked to the station and was able to buy some more chocolate and the stamps for the last five postcards which I had written this morning to the Sussex family, Neil, Robin, Mark and Andrew M. there. I was able to catch the 09.08 train and it cost only DM32,-. I reached Oostende by 14.00 and caught the jetfoil for only £6.40. I was at Victoria by 16.04 British time and was home by 18.00. I then unpacked and sat around talking about my trip with Mum and Dad. Following that I watched television.


Weather: Sunny and warm.

20 Years On - Part 15 of Account of Travelling by Train Around West Germany and Austria

This was the day I swore I would never return to West Germany. I was so furious at the lost of my Inter-Rail ticket and the German bureaucracy that all the problems with the frosty reception I had often received came out at once. Ironically of course I would return in January of the following year, but I think this marked the day when any fantasy of ever living or working abroad or having a relationship with a European woman (and as a result of this trip, I began to start using the British distinction between Britain and Europe) were all ruled out. Of course I was going to experience far worse than this when I went to Köln for four months in 1989, which I did more to escape what I was having to put up with in the UK than because I was any kind of enthusiast for West Germany. I also realised that my attempts at speaking German, which had been a key motive for the holiday, were a farce as was to be proved in the examinations the following Summer. I stopped even bothering to try to speak German which made dealings with the police on this day very complicated. Trying to read the counter-foil which I had been promised would get me a replacement Inter-Rail ticket, the police, who seemed to have no other work to do, totally misunderstood the layout of British addresses and filled in their form saying that I had bought the ticket in the town of 'Travel'. One officer plaintively asked if I spoke even a little German and I said I did not and (accurately) that very few British people did. Given the size of the town they oversaw (135,000 people), popular with British coach tours through West Germany, they seemed incredibly ill-prepared for even this minor incident. I broke down into tears in the railway station when I was told I had to wait 3 days for a replacement ticket and was so angry with the elderly women who patronised me so severely about how there was no need to cry. I am still angered by the memory of their behaviour to this day. The people at the train office seemed startled that I did not want to stay in Würzburg and wanted to get out of the town as quickly as possibly. I could not have stayed anyway as there was a limit of three nights you could stay in a hostel and I had already used up one of them.



This day shook me clear of many of the delusions that I had been travelling under, but unfortunately not enough to avoid making many of the same errors and many new ones, the following year. It was also incredibly frustrating, because though Würzburg is a comparatively small place, I kept getting terribly lost and trying to get back to the youth hostel I found myself back at the square close to the railway station from where I had started out. I broke down in tears on the telephone to my mother, feeling I was trapped in something out of 'The Prisoner' television series.





Monday 5th September 1988

Today I woke up promptly and walked to the station where I found that I had lost my inter-rail card so I walked back to the youth hostel but could not find it, so I took my counterfoil to the station and they sent me to the police station where I had a form filled in which I took back to the station where they told me I would have to wait three days. By now I was annoyed and upset. I decided to catch the train to Köln and telephoned home. The fare was less than two days stay in Würzburg, DM85,- [compared] to DM120,-. I left at 12.00 and was in Köln by 16.00 where I bought presents - a coffee table book on the Rhine for Mum and for Dad a beer glass and a beer mug and an illustrated "The Communist Manifesto". I also bought some chocolate. Then I went back, unloaded all that and walked to the cinema where I watched "The Blues Brothers" which was excellent and cheered me up. I then walked back to the youth hostel.



Weather: Dull and rainy.

20 Years On - Part 14 of Account of Travelling by Train Around West Germany and Austria

Surprisingly, despite losing my hat and the rain, this holiday had gone quite well, but this was the day I lost my Inter-Rail ticket. Looking back it probably happened at the Residenz in Würzburg. The guidebook said I could enter the gardens at the rear of the building but two stroppy young grooms working physically barred me and shoved me back, saying I was going the wrong way.

Of course, not travelling by train that day, I did not know that the ticket was lost, but effectively that ended my holiday, though there was more rigmarole to go through before it was completely finished. Still being in Bavaria, I remember meeting two very frugal British women, annoyed that they had to hire bedding in the youth hostel and were leaving the town because of that. I thought it was a little extreme but advised them that if they found it such a problem they should get out of Bavaria for one of the other states with different rules .

My morning in Nürnberg shows the range of museum activity that you could engage in on a Sunday in West Germany.

Sunday 4th September 1988

Today I woke up promptly and walked into town as I had to do both Nürnberg and Würzburg in one day as everything in Würzburg is closed tomorrow. I looked around the German National museum, then went onto the town museum, Dürer's house and then the transport museum. Then I caught the train to Würzburg where I walked to the Residenz and went on a guided tour and walked around the gardens. The rooms were spectactularly decorated. Then I went to the youth hostel which I climbed up to and used the last of my film before buying dinner and coming back to sleep and watch some television.

Weather: Dull and mild.

Bridge in Nürnberg, September 1988

Statue in Nürnberg Market, September 1988

View from Residenz in Würzburg, September 1988

View of Church in Woods near Würzburg Youth Hostel, September 1988

View over Hills above Würzburg, September 1988

View across Würzburg, September 1988

20 Years On - Part 13 of Account of Travelling by Train Around West Germany and Austria

I certainly remember the train carriage filled with the solicitous elderly women. It was a good thing they were there as the sandwiches I had packed had gone mouldy and they gave me replacement food. Later walking through Nürnberg I had burnt up so much energy that I experienced what I now know was a hypoglaecemic attack, i.e. my body lacked sufficient blood sugar for the activity I was doing and I wolfed down the pallet of peaches one of the women had given me and the fruit sugar helped get me back to normality. I also remember being pestered by American religious people dressed in smart suits who seemed to haunt the railway station and you had to dodge away from.

As in Koblenz, the youth hostel in Nürnberg is in a castle with a great view down across the city. The medieval historic nature of the city is one reason Hitler used it for his rallies. In keeping with that I dined in a restaurant in a cellar. By the time I returned there in 2004 my knowledge of German had deteriorated so much I could no longer understand the menu, which had, however, changed little.

I remember on the tour of the castle, a local family: husband, wife and grown-up daughter taking around a British couple who in the UK would have been perceived as 'caravanners' wearing rather dated, dull, cheap synthetic clothing and almost 1950s hairstyles which contrasted sharply with the big hair of the two German women and very expensive designer leatherwear all their hosts had on. For some reason I remember the wife had a leather skirt suit with a nipped waist held with a bow at the back of the jacket, all very Eighties in style. The Britons almost seemed like their pets, being patronised and led around the place like children. I just wondered how these two groups of people had met because they seemed so different.

Saturday 3rd September 1988

Todau I actually overslept for the first time this holiday. I got up, had breakfast and talked to some Americans. I caught the train to Nürnberg at 09.20. The one [that left] an hour earlier would have got me there two hours earlier.

Just as an aside, here sitting in a train surrounded by three middle aged women - two Austrian and one German, all doing crosswords, those difficult arrowed ones without black spaces; German women seem addicted to crosswords. I also know now why there are so many cinemas in Wien - they are listed by district - because the television is so bad and boring.

I arrived at Nürnberg by 15.00 and walked quickly to the youth hostel which is just North of the centre, in another castle. After unpacking I went to the castle and had a guided tour, then I went out for a meal with Nick, an English cyclist, we had a tasty if basic meal - I had a hunk of meat, dumplings and salad. Then we came back to talk to two Finns before going to bed.

Weather: Dull, some rain.

Nürnberg Youth Hostel, September 1988

Nürnberg Castle, September 1988

Note the Bavarian Flag flying at half-mast

View across Nürnberg, September 1988

20 Years On - Part 12 of Account of Travelling by Train Around West Germany and Austria

My attempts at cycling in Vienna were terrible. I set off down a one-way street on the wrong side of the road (it was the first time I had not been a passenger on continental roads where they drive on the opposite side of the road to the UK). In these days no-one considered wearing a cycle helmet even in a city like Vienna. 'Brunn' means fountain in German and this was something common at the Schönbrunn (literally 'beautiful fountain') palace on the outskirts of the city.

Friday 2nd September 1988

Today I woke up promptly and hired a bicycle. I cycled off in the wrong direction at first but got on the right, if busy route to the Armoury war musem but it was closed on Friday. I bought some drink and biscuits and unsuccessfully tried to find the entrance to the Belvedere. I then went back via the city museum and dropped off my purchases. I picked up my kagoul and then set off for the Schönbrunn Schloß and walked around the gardens and had some lunch after which I cycled back into town. I looked around the market, Stephans Dom and then the Parliament and the Rathaus buildings in the pouring rain. I walked back through town where I bought some bananas and some chocolate before going to the youth hostel where I sat talking to two Germans about politics, having already eaten my dinner.

An interesting thing I noted was the number of Hungarians stocking up on electrical goods - hi-fis, stereos, videos and televisions and small shops selling all this stuff where the proprietors spoke Hungarian. I forgot to mention all the newspaper sellers who stand at the street corners in the afternoon and at night selling their city paper, dressed in bright red and yellow livery.

Weather: Dull in the morning, heavy rain by afternoon.

Entrance to Schöbrunn Palace outside Vienna, September 1988

Grounds of Schöbrunn Palace, September 1988

View across Vienna from the Grounds of Schönbrunn Palace, September 1988

Fountains in the Grounds of Schöbrunn Palace, September 1988

Avenue in the Grounds of Schöbrunn Palace, September 1988

Views of Park in Central Vienna, September 1988

Vienna Rathaus, September 1988

Austrian Parliament Building in Vienna, September 1988

20 Years On - Part 10 of Account of Travelling by Train Around West Germany and Austria

I think one reason for getting up so early was to miss the crowd trying to get breakfast. While I seemed to get on well with many people I met others were far more of a challenge. In particular I remember an Israeli woman who nagged me because I was not going to the Dachau concentration camp. I told her that having studied the Holocaust at 'O' Level, 'A' Level and as part of my degree programme, I wanted a break from it. She said that I had to have some sourness with all the sweetness of my holiday. I said that I did not come on holiday to be depressed and refused to speak with her any more. In general I came away from this holiday both irritated by Germans and Israelis, people from both nationalities seem to keep telling me I was doing things wrong and had no hope of ever getting them right. By the end of the holiday, I felt that not only did travelling reinforce prejudices but also created new ones and I swore off travelling again for fear I would end up a real bigot. Perhaps it is the difference of the British character to that of other nations that we try to be diplomatic and understanding but that does not shield us from people being very assertive about what we 'should' be doing.

I am glad that I did not go to Dachau despite the bullying. Given how churned up I get by discussion of any genocide, even individual stories from these events, I think I would have found it difficult to cope with seeing its presence for real. Sometimes you need the fuse in your system of being able to keep things a little at arm's length otherwise you freak out. Given my dalliance with suicide as it was, I doubt I could have coped. Going to a location like Dachau is something you need to think about a great deal and make the decision which is not going to do you harm. One can understand and oppose genocide without having to rub one's face in its traces.

I remember going to a strange art exhibition in the gallery at the Hofgarten which simply consisted of black and white photographs of different types of water towers. I actually came across a book of the photos for sale in a gallery in Köln the following year. You can see the photo I sneaked while inside the gallery in the collection below; I took it as I was amusedly incredulous that a gallery could show such things.

Wednesday 31st August 1988

Today I woke up early, showered and walked to the Nymphenburg Palace where I arrived at 08.00, an hour early. When they did open I walked around the house interior and then the very pleasant gardens and the four lodges - Amalienburg, Badenburg, Pagodenburg and Magdalenklause, having already seen the carriage/porcelain museum. I then walked back towards town taking the underground to the centre where I looked around the Frauernkirche and the München Stadt museum. I stopped for lunch before moving onto the Residenz and the Hof Garden and ending up in English Garden which was full of locals, many naked and also had a [traditional style Bavarian] band in a the pagoda. I had dinner and a litre of beer, then I walked back across town which took half-an-hour. I checked up on the train times for tomorrow, it looks likely that I will have to change at Salzburg. As the bureau de change is open from 06.00 (to 23.30) I will easily be able to get Austrian Schillings before I go. So far the plan is Wien, Nürnberg, Würzburg, Marburg, Kassel, Köln, Oostende, home or earlier if I run out of money.

Weather: Sunny and hot.

Roads and Ornamental Canal Leading to Nymphenburg Palace in München, August 1988

Front and One Wing of the Nymphenburg Palace, August 1988

View of Nymphenburg Palace Gardens, August 1988

View of Interior of One of the Lodges of the Nymphenburg Palace, August 1988

View of Ornamental Canal in Grounds of Nymphenburg Palace, August 1988

View of Another Lodge in the Grounds of the Nymphenburg Palace, August 1988

Doorway in the Residenz in München, August 1988

Folly in the Hofgarten in München, August 1988

Inside Art Gallery Close to Hofgarten in München, August 1988

20 Years On - Part 9 of Account of Travelling by Train Around West Germany and Austria

Before re-reading this I had forgotten how much competition there was to get a youth hostel place in Munich. The rules in the Land (province) of Bavaria were stricter than in the other parts of West Germany. In most areas people of any age could stay in a youth hostel, in Bavaria you had to be under 26. In most areas you could bring your own bedding; in Munich you were compelled to hire it. The youth hostel was well used and the dormitories were huge compared to the rooms I had stayed in up until now, leading many visitors, unfairly to a prison camp. I think this was partly because most German youth hostels were luxurious compared to the bulk in the UK. I had no complaint.


I travelled from Freiburg-am-Breisgau to München on a train which was run by the East German Railway service (ironically still labelled 'Deutsches Reichsbahn' on the carriages, literally 'German Imperial Way', the pre-war name for the German railways) and all the instructions were in German, Russian, French and Italian, not English. The attendant who turned the beds (three on each side of a carriage up the wall) back to seats and wall panels, wore a very naval looking uniform, she appeared like a rating from the 19th century. Unsurprisingly for East German staff they were very surly and had no interest in speaking to a non-German. Another thing new to a young British man was sitting opposite women in sleeveless or short-sleeved tops who had not shaved under their armpits. When the German singer Nina had appeared on television in the UK with her Number 1 hit, '99 Red Balloons' (1983) her unshaved armpits had raised much discussion but to be exposed to it across a train carriage left me uncertain where to look. It is funny these social mores, I probably would have been less embarrassed if these women had been topless.


I remember being impressed by Steve the American who was from, I think, Kentucky, and had studying engineering had come to West Germany to practice his German as he felt it would assist him in his engineering career. I remember Mark the Australian walked around the streets of the city barefoot.


Tuesday 30th August 1988
Today I woke up early and walked to the station along the quicker footpath route this time. I caught the train to Karlsruhe where I changed for a train to München. I stopped off in Karlsruhe where I bought some food. I arrived in München by 15.00. Then I walked to the youth hostel, already quite full. Within two hours, that one and the others, one affiliated and two non-affiliated were also full.


I met an Australian, Mark and we walked into the centre of town where we looked around some bookshops and at street-performers. Then we came back and I dried my washing at an excellent 24 hour laundrette. Then I cam back to have a beer. The youth hostel is rather rough. I am in a dormitory rooom which is rather smelly - forty people. There is quite a lot of complaint, but the town is decent. I went out again with Mark and an American, Steve, for some more drinks.


Weather: Sunny and warm.

View of the Schwarzwald Close to the Freiburg-am-Breisgau Youth Hostel, August 1988

Mural on Block of Flats in München, close to the Youth Hostel, August 1988

20 Years On - Part 8 of Account of Travelling by Train Around West Germany and Austria

When in my first year at university I had met a fourth year German language student (a British woman studying German as a subject; language degrees are four years rather than three as the students spend their third year in abroad) called Melissa and we had an ambivalent relationship. She used me at a party as a kind of shield against a very smarmy man called Tony and as a result I had my first real passionate kiss. However, as discussed before, I had no confidence in my abilities with women and did not know how to handle the situation. Melissa and her group of friends lived on the corridor in halls next to the one I lived on so they would often socialise with my friends as a group. I had not gone to university until I was almost 20, whereas most of my friends in my year were closer to 18, so in age I was not much younger than Melissa. She was a confusing character anyway, very flirtatious but then when you talked with her you realised she was very naive too and did not really realise what men expected from her given her flirtatious manner. Anyway, she had spent her year abroad in Freiburg-am-Breisgau in the South-West of West Germany and had mentioned she might be there in the Summer of 1988 and so I wandered around the town hoping that I would run into her and have some romantic encounter. It was wasted pining as when I met her at a party at her house in Herfordshire on the Saturday after I returned to the UK, it turned out she had never got to West Germany that year and instead had been in California. Anyway, she must be in her mid-40s now but I have not seen her for just under twenty years.

On the way to Freiburg-am-Breisgau in the Schwarzwald (Black Forest) I also remember meeting a strange young German man on the train who was obsessed with cows. He had a book of photographs of different breeds and travelled the country to see them. He spoke about slaughterhouses as one might concentration camps and he constantly extolled how beautiful cows were. The photograph with the bicycle by the tree was my attempt to replicate a similar arty poster I had of Oxford, but the light levels were really too low with all the rain to allow it to be successful.

Fabrikstraße means 'factory street'. The term 'yuppie' was very much in fad at the time and stemmed from the phrase 'young upwardly-mobile professionals' who seemed to be at the forefront of Thatcherite society. In Britain, München is better known as Munich, Wien as Vienna and Nürnberg as Nuremberg. In the end I did not get to Augsburg until the following Summer. At that time I returned to Freiburg-am-Breisgau too and found out that the rain on this visit had spared me the key problem of the youth hostel there, which is that it sits right next to a broad, shallow, fast moving stream and throughout the night (if the windows are open) you are kept awake by its noisy bubbling.

Monday 29th August 1988

Today I work early and caught the bus to the station. Then I caught the train to Freiburg. I looked around the cathedral and the old town, then wandered around a park in the foothills of the Schwarzwald. I walked through the rain to the youth hostel, through real yuppie areas of new houses and fancy schools, ironically called Fabrikstraße. At the youth hostel they did have [clothes] washing facilities but the dryer was out of order. I did the washing which was smelling terribly and also read "Newsweek" and "Time" lent to me by an American. I ate in the youth hostel for DM6,- and with no lunch saved me some cash. Tomorrow I think I will got to München probably via Karlsruhe. If there is no room I will go to Augsburg, and onto Wien and then back to Nürnberg.

Weather: Heavy rain, sunny and warm later.

Market Hall in Freiburg-am-Breisgau, August 1988

Decorated Doors in Freiburg-am-Breisgau, August 1988

Cobbled Street in Freiburg-am-Breisgau, August 1988

Note channels along road side to allow stream to flow through the city

Bicycle Leaning on Tree in Freiburg-am-Breisgau, August 1988

View across Freiburg-am-Breisgau from the Schwarzwald, August 1988