Micky Walker

浪漫德國之旅(三)

第五天的行程是搭船遊萊茵河。郵輪起點是緬因茲(Mainz)，終點是科隆(Cologne)，全程需費時11小時，而觀光重點便是欣賞萊茵河(Rhine)沿岸的城堡。我們買的德國鐵路通行證(German Rail Pass)有送一趟免費的萊茵河郵輪之行。於是我們一大早就起床趕公車、火車到緬因茲，在一個好心的美國黑人帶路下，及時搭上郵輪(Koln-Dusseldorf  KD German Rhine on the Rhine)。萊茵河最精華的一段就是從緬因茲到科伯倫茲(Koblenz)，需費時約5小時25分。由於我們時間有限，於是我們就搭緬因茲到科伯倫茲這一段，再搭火車到科隆，由科隆搭機飛回倫敦。

The fifth day of the trip in Germany is to take a boat trip on Rhine. The boat trip departs from Mainz and arrives at Cologne, which takes about 11 hours. We can take a boat trip to get the excellent view of castles along the river. The German rail pass we bought includes free transportation on the boats Köln-Düsseldorf KD Germain Rhine on the Rhine (Köln-Mainz). The boat departs at 8:45 am in Mainz. Therefore, we have to get up very early to catch the first bus and then catch the train fro Heidelberg to Mainz. We met a friendly American-African who led us the short cut to the port. We took the boat trip from Mainz to Koblenz, which took us more than 5 hours. We didn’t have too much time, so we had to take the boat trip, and then take the train to Cologne. After that, we would fly back to London.

第三天我們稱之為火車之旅(始於08:40 AM結束於11:00PM)，因為在一天之中我們把德鐵的各級列車全都坐了一遍，從最高級的 ICE(號稱時速280km媲美日本新幹線磁浮列車)，到連接歐洲各大城的IC/EC，到區域性的RE/RB。當我們從慕尼黑搭上08:40 AM 的火車到達海德堡時，已經接近12:00了，而原訂的計劃是造訪另一個羅曼蒂克大道(Romantic Road)上的小鎮羅騰堡(Rothenburg o.d.t.)，據說它就像是一個從童話故事中蹦出來的小鎮。但每天從海德堡到羅騰堡的公車(車程約1.5小時)只有一班且早在08:00時離開了。如果要搭火車必須換三次車而且耗時五個多小時，因此我們只好被迫更改行程到較近的烏茲堡(羅曼蒂克大道的起點小鎮)。但不幸的事情發生了:因為我們不知如何換車，因此本來要到北邊的法蘭克福，竟然到了南邊某個不知名的鬼地方，而且還被列車長趕下來，因為那是最後一站，全車的人都走光了，只剩我們兩人還在傻傻地等著永遠不會出現的法蘭克福。最後當我們到達烏茲堡時已是6點了。

We call the third day of the journey “train trip” (started from 08:45a.m to 11:00 pm.) because we took all kinds of DB (Deutsche Bahn, German National Railway) in one day. We have bought the GermanRail Pass so we could take ICE (Inter City Express), IC/EC (InterCity and EuroCity ) and RE/RB (Resional Express/ Resional Bahn). We took the 08:45 am train from Munich to Heidelberg. When we arrived in Heidelberg, it was almost 12:00am. We planned to visit another small town, Rothenburg O.D.T., on Romantic Road because it is said that it’s like a real town in fairy tales. Unfortunately, if we took the train to get there, we had to change the train three times and it would take us almost five hours to get there and the only bus had left--- at 8:00 am! We had no choice but changed our plan--- went to another small town, Wurzburg, which is located on the start of >Romantic Road. We were not familiar with the train system and we didn’t know when and where we should changed the train. Therefore, we intended to go to Frankfurt am Main in the north to change the train but arrived somewhere in the south instead. We stayed on the train until the trainman asked us to get off the train at the last stop. We had to take the train back and changed the train again and again. When we got to Wurzburg, it was 6:00 pm. 

第四天我們前往黑森林(Schwarzwald)中的蒂蒂湖(Titisee)並品嘗了著名的黑森林蛋糕(Black Forest Tart)。黑森林意指林中數目繁多茂盛、枝葉蓋天，又瘦又高的針棕樹長滿每座山，林間不見天日，故稱黑森林。蒂蒂湖是黑森林及著名的景點，有”黑森林裡的小巧明珠之稱”。而正宗黑森林蛋糕內加了櫻桃白蘭地、櫻桃果粒，在加上厚厚的鮮奶油，口感濃厚，香氣十足喔！如果你不知道如何點的話，環顧四週看看四周是否有人點用，照著點就對了!很可惜是我們不能在黑森林久待，它是個面積廣大的區域擁有許多景點，就算住上一個星期都不夠呢！

德國之旅 (Germany)

我們在布拉格用完美味的晚餐後，趕著搭火車前往下一個目的地---慕尼黑。這是我們第一次撘這種有臥舖的火車，有分六人房、四人房、三人房、雙人房及單人房。我們定三人房但只有我們兩個人，太好了!大家可以瞧瞧廂房的設備：左邊是我們的床，可以向上翻成座椅，右手邊有洗手台及衣櫥，每節車廂皆有衛浴設備，甚至還有小吧檯。

After having delicious dinner in Prague, we hurried to catch the train to next destination---Munich. This is our first time to take this kind of train, sleeping train. Our “chamber” is a shared room for three people but fortunately, there is no other person except us in this chamber. Let’s take a look at our chamber. The left hand side are our beds, the other side are the basin and the closet. There is a bathroom in each coach, and there is room-service as well!

我們在德國第一天的行程開始於新天鵝堡(Neuschwanstein)，迪士尼睡美人城堡的真實版。巴伐利亞國王路易二世是這座城堡的建造者，這座城堡1896開始興建，1886才完工。路易二世曾給音樂家華格納寫道: “我想要以古德國騎士城堡的方式來重建靠近Poellat峽谷的Hohenschwangau的古堡遺跡，這地方是曾經被發現過最棒的地方之一…” 新天鵝堡之所以如此夢幻，主要是最初的設計圖並不式建築師畫的，而是舞台佈置者及劇院的畫家創作的，充滿了路易二世對中古世紀騎士故事的幻想。我翻拍了幾張月曆上的照片讓大家一窺城堡內部(因為城堡內禁止拍(攝影))