I'm mainly writing this up to not have to answer the question where I have been every time anew, because, well, the answer is a bit longer than you might expect.

In the last week of April and first week of May 2004, I spent 14 days travelling; no further plans but a rented car, a brand new map and a charged credit card. I really needed to get away from it all, not actually knowing when or if I'd make it back. So I kicked the tires, and found the car would be just fine, and off I went.

My trip led me from Cologne to the cities where I used to live; first, Bielefeld, where I stocked up on chocolate in this wonderful shop. I can only highly recommend it.

Then to Minden, where I walked up to the Porta Westfalica hills; this is the tired old branch of the tree at which feet I used to sit and think, and so I did once more. It is obvious the tree isn't all too well. However, as you can also see, new life is already sparkling. I hope it will be with me for a few more years, though.

In beautiful Minden itself, I wandered through the Glacis, a former defense ring which surrounds the inner city and is now a green belt. To me, it was much more, a place of retreat and quietness. The picture shows the cathedral, which surely is no match for the Dom of Cologne, but hey, it is mine. Alas, the city could not hold me for the night even though I walked around the places of old, paid my old high school a visit, had dinner, and on I drove to the northern sea.

I fancied I'd have breakfast in Norddeich, which looked to be pretty much most north-west on the map to me. This turned out to be a silly idea, as I arrived there in the morning way before the shops opened, and the town was quite boring, so I continued along the shore. I had a great timing flying my kite on the beach, even if getting to the beach isn't all that easy, and flying a kite is almost prohibited everywhere, because it could annoy people; for heaven's sake, I was almost alone, it's not in the middle of the season. Oh well. I got a sunburn, so I bought a cap... And I also drew some words into the sand, as you can see on the picture. Silly old Kreisler song which was still in my head...

I spent the evening in Bremen, where I had dinner. For some reason, I keep stumbling across chocolate shops, and I can only highly recommend this one! They carry the whole line of Michel Cluizel products, Bonnart and Dolphin. Though I'm a Cluizel man, myself. The shop was just about to close when I wandered by, but the store owner let me in when I pleaded him with big eyes, and we actually chatted almost an hour about chocolates. With Cluizel pralines and truffles I left, very much enjoying Bremen. That night I spent on the shore, close to Bremerhaven. The next morning, I walked the dunes, much before anyone else was up; oh, the loneliness before coming alive.

This picture is Cuxhaven, not Bremerhaven, where I took a look beyond the horizon; alas, as you can see, it's a pretty busy haven, and sometimes, the horizont is a bit clouded and obstructed... Still, I had a great piece of strawberry cake in Cuxhaven. Amusingly, a few students interviewed me about whether I'd visit a cocktail bar in Bremerhaven, and when I replied, sure, just tell me where it is, they told me that unfortunately they were only doing market research for a school project, and that there was none yet. Oh well. So, once more, I was not bound, and carried on via the Elbe shores to Hamburg.

In Hamburg, the black and white lines brought me to places of old. Door bells which I have not rung for years now, and names which have moved on from the street addresses I still recalled all too well. I allowed the past to catch up with me for a moment, took some pictures so that I shall never forget, and merged with the city again.

In Hamburg, I stayed with a friend, who graciously allowed me to sleep on her couch. We had dinner on the Reeperbahn and actually there was parking space almost just in front of the restaurant. And she also knew about a Wise Guys concert on the 29th of April, which happened to be my birthday. So I jumped at the chance and spent another day there and went to said concert, which was just great as always. The next morning, once more, I was back to the black and white lines.

My next stop turned out to be Hannoversch-Münden, close to Göttingen. For those of you who aren't good at German geography, in this town the Werra and Fulda river merge to form the Weser, the river which then flows through my home town Minden and finally reaches the northern sea in Bremerhaven. This stone has the very brief poem to go with it; in English, it translates to some not very lyrical gibberish, so I won't translate it. I really liked the town center; it's hard to describe, but it felt familiar. And the writing on the wall of this old house just so perfectly described the reason for my vacation.

As I drove on, I decided that with it being Beltane, I should really spend some quality time on a mountain top. Being short of real mountains and concluding that the Brocken would likely be way too crowded, my map advised me that the next hills closest to me would be the Taufstein in the middle of the Vogelberg area. So via a short, unremarkable stop in Fulda I got there. Alas, the village youth was having a drinking feast, which made me not stay; I just walked up to the top of the hill and took a picture of the so-called Bismark tower erected there, and then sought myself a quiet little clearing in the forests, where I finally fought off some daemons which had been plaguing me for a while with my swords; as you can see from the picture, which my digicam took so well in the brightest moon light. A very successful Beltane, I might say.

Spending the night in my luxurious car and a sleeping bag on a parking lot, I decided that the autobahn A5 was too busy and noisy, and relocated myself to a parking lot on the A66 or something, where I slept perfectly well. On this very Saturday, after breakfast in Worms, I made my way to Griesheim (close to Frankfurt/Darmstadt) and to friend of mine who I value a lot, Elvira and her friend Bernhard. We had dinner with Sascha and Conni on Saturday at a really nice Thai. The pictures show Elvira and Bernhard and the medieval fair in Freienfels we went to on Sunday; I've been to a few of those, but this surely was the biggest I've ever seen. Truely impressive. I learned to throw axes there, and we climbed up the tower through way too narrow stairs and ladders...

On Monday, even this weekend had come to an end, and I continued via Ulm to Munich to meet another good and, by now, old friend of mine, Melanie. It is amazing, but I have known her for years now, same as Elvira. It is amazing how friendship seems to last longer than love. We had great Sushi for dinner, and as always, I greatly enjoyed her company. (And to all you sick minds out there: No.)

On the next morning, I drove on to the Dachau concentration camp memorial site. And there I lost my words, and had tears in my eyes. Never again, indeed. Dachau was actually freed on April 29th in 1945, on my very birthday - the yearly anniversay meant that there were still fresh flowers everywhere. Seeing the barracks, the museum, the churches erected on site for the memorial services was moving, but when I continued on to the crematory area, I almost could not take more. Ash graves of thousands unknown, the ovens still there. Words fail short of to the feelings and emotions that place invokes. And keep in mind that it was only a concentration camp, not a termination camp, though even there many were killed. The thought of visiting one of those frightens me, yet I know I will have to one day. The most common engraving on the memorial statues reads For the honour of the dead, and for the memory of the living. And yet, people's memory already seems to be failing, and history repeats itself again and again. I have pictures of that site, but as of yet, cannot decide which one does justice to it; I recommend that you visit one of those sites yourself, one day. Unfortunately, there are way too many all over the world, in different countries and remembering different regimes, so I fear there will be one close to you.

On a lighter note, my trip continued to the Bodensee, and the city of Lindau, where I had a wonderful cup of ice cream with so many fruits I needed a knive and a fork to work through it, and had a hard time deciding where to start. As you can see, I eventually finished. The Bodensee is quite beautiful, though my good luck with the weather began to fade; it started to drizzle. I stayed in a small and family-owned pension for the night in Uhldingen, before using the ferry to Konstanz, and driving on to Stein am Rhein, where the Rhine river springs from the Bodensee. Amazingly, one can still see the ground of the river there, which is totally impossible in Cologne. Did I mention that I found a confiserie in Stein am Rhein, and that the pralines were just wonderful, in particular the ananas pyramids?

These are pictures of the Rhine river, and the Rhine river falls in Schaffhausen (which, by the way, is in Switzerland). Also very beautiful to see. I wrote a short letter to The Lady and Fate and threw it into the fall, informing them that both of them had lost that game; standoff. (I wrote a bit more than that, alas, I won't repeat it here.) It's that little piece of paper on the third picture.

Continuing, I drove to Freiburg. There was a brief stop in Katzingen, because a road sign informed me of a factory sale of sweets; and with roughly two kilogram worth of fresh gummi bears I rode on. In Freiburg, I stayed with Sonja and Alex, and I can only highly recommend you fulfill your craving for adult toys from her online shop - this advertising is my reciprocation for the pizza ;)

I needed to feel some more kilometers under the tires, so I did not stay for the night, and drove on, almost making it to Saar-Louis. But then I suddenly got very tired, and stayed at a highway motel for the night. This proved to be the worst idea of the trip, because on the next morning I woke up with an aching neck, so painful I indeed felt like I had upset my spine or neck; I went to see a doctor about it, but apparently it was just muscle cramps, even if they were the worst I've had ever. Driving is kind of hard if you can't move your head, so I stayed the day and night in Saarbrücken, and spent it reading and writing, which wasn't all too bad. As a side note, as I went to Saarbrücken from Saar-Louis, the only other cars who ever overtook me on the French highways were other Germans; I was sticking to the speed limit (with some, well, German tolerance), but apparently every other German was going like it was a true autobahn. That's europeization for you.

Then I made it to Luxemburg, a city and a country which was wonderful, and where the beautiful waitress served me the best Espresso of the trip, even though she refused to serve me sweet crepes because they only made them in the afternoon. Damn. Oh well, nothing for my sweet tooth, after all those chocolates and sweets...

Finally, I not only was close to Cologne once more, but also in the mood for returning. Not taking the direct route, I drove back, via some small cities and towns in the Eifel region.

On Saturday, I attended a theater play: Kaiser der Verluste by Fabre. My two friends and I were the only ones in the audience, and it surely was one of the most difficult pieces I ever went to, and am still not sure what to make of it. Though Marcus, who is actually a friend of us too, really did act well, the text is very complex and deep, basically a ninety minute monologue.

Sunday was very uneventful, returning the car and sorting the worst of the chaos I created when I packed and unpacked.

There is probably a few stops missing in this story, and maybe I will complete it over time, with more pictures and memories as I recall them. But I was not driving around with the intent of seeing a lot, but with getting away from even more, finding some quiet and distraction in which I could re-create myself, so the sight-seeing was just a side effect.

The trip was successful in its intent, the car which I picked up with a three digit mileage counter was returned with four thousand kilometers more. Personally, I feel like I have travelled a lot farther than that; the physical distance covered and places visited do not reflect that well enough. I've left quite a bit behind on those roads, and regained some of what I had already feared lost or had forgotten. That's all I will say here.