One of my bucket list destinations was always Germany, for a number of reasons. When my Mom and her siblings were children, my grandfather was posted to Germany so they all lived there for a few years and the stories they tell are so interesting and amazing and funny. Also, when I was growing up, my great-uncle and great-aunt used to visit from Germany every year and they always brought yummy candy and chocolate and cookies for us all to share. So with hearing so much about Germany growing up from so many people, I knew some day I would have to visit!

When I first signed up for my intercultural communications course, I immediately knew I wanted to travel after, and since the course offered travel through The Netherlands, I thought I’d visit Germany – right next door! I booked my plane ticket home for nine days after the course ended and started researching places to go in Germany! This is the Part 2 post about my trip, to read about the main part of my trip, my four weeks in The Netherlands, see my Part 1 post here.

I thought a lot about things I’d like to see, and places I could easily fit into my short trip (visiting my uncle, cousin, and their family was a must do!). I also asked my immediate family who had lived there what their “must see” places and things were. Some of the ideas I had and my family suggested weren’t possible in such a short trip, but I narrowed it down to two family suggestions, one place I wanted to see, and visiting my German family!

• Bremen – at my Grandmother’s suggestion as it was one of her favourite spots to visit, and it was on the way to a couple other locations
• Köln/Cologne – at one of my uncle’s suggestion (not the German uncle) as it was a place he found beautiful the few years he lived in Germany
• Berlin – as such a vegan friendly city with a rich history, this was my top choice
• Hannover – where my uncle, cousin, and family live, to visit them

Other than researching destinations, vegan restaurants to check out, and potential accommodations, I didn’t do much trip planning until towards the end of my course in The Netherlands, which was lucky! My new friends from the course found out I wanted to go to Bremen and knowing how close it was to Groningen by bus, we all decided to take a day trip part way through the course on a free day!!!

Bremen

During one of the school weeks, my friends decided that since we had a no-class day coming up, we’d all check out Bremen by bus! We took an early morning Flix Bus from just outside Groningen Station, and got to Bremen, Germany (directly, no transfers) late morning. We headed right to the Market Square because we wanted to get coffee and check out some of the old buildings. We saw so much while spending the day exploring around the Market Square area, but the highlights were

• Visiting Domshof – Wochenmarkt to check out the market stalls and getting lunch at the nearby Alex so we could also enjoy the views.
• Taking photos of each of us at the Bremen Town Musicians Statue and checking out the inside of the amazing St. Petri Dom.
• Walking along the edge of Wallanlagen Park, which didn’t let us see much of the park, but it was still a lovely walk.
• Checking out the Schnoorviertel area, and stopping at the very charming Erzgebirge im Schnoor store so one of my friends could pick up a handmade Nutcracker as a gift.
• Relaxing at two different pubs in the afternoon; one where we could see the brewery area and got snacks and beer, and the other where we had drinks and exchanged stories with a few locals!

We all headed back to the train station early evening for our Flix Bus back to Groningen, where we arrived late evening, tired but happy.

There were fewer vegan options in the Market Square area than I expected, but I was able to find lunch at an omni place, so I was happy. There are lots of vegan options a short walk or transit ride from the old town area, I was just travelling with a group that wanted to stay central, and couldn’t check them out in such a short visit.

Köln (Cologne)

After my course in Groningen was over, I headed off to Germany. I travelled by train (about 5 hours) from Groningen to Köln (Cologne) for an overnight visit. The train station in Cologne is right by Cologne Cathedral so my arrival was amazing! Once you walk out of the train station you look up and the Cathedral rises up against the sky. I walked by the Cathedral and to the riverfront to get to my hotel. The riverfront was beautiful and busy with trails, grassy areas, docked ships, and people everywhere. After checking in to my hotel I started planning my visit.

This trip I planned each city once I arrived by researching activities and restaurants and places to go at the hotel or at my first meals. Usually I have a few activities planned before I even leave Canada but this time I want to practice being more flexible and seeing what the visitor informations, info centers, and hotel staff suggest. In Cologne I decided to see the Cathedral, the Heinzelmännchen Fountain, and the Praetorium (underground Roman ruins) – all of which were amazing!

• Cologne Cathedral was my first stop as its open in the evenings, so I could check it out before dinner. There’s a choice between free access to the main areas and paying admission to see the other areas, but on my limited budget I chose the free areas – which meant I got to see the gorgeous outside and the main worship area, including the stunning columns and extraordinary stained glass.
• Vegan Food options – For dinner, I checked out Past & Future vegan buffet. Like most European cities the vegan options have exploded since I was in Germany in 2016, so although Past & Future has closed, there are about seven vegan restaurants near the area I stayed instead of the one option I had.
• Hohe Straße – one of the oldest streets in Cologne and great for people watching if you aren’t a shopper, so even though it’s commercialized it’s worth the walk.
• Heinzelmännchen Fountain – a beautiful ornate stone and copper fountain that commemorates a legend about house gnomes that during nights used to do all the work for the citizens of Cologne.
• Roman ruins – One of my must sees was the Praetorium. After passing through the museum of artifacts unearthed at the site, you are able to walk alongside the ruins and see the walls and facade and sewer remains of the Governor’s residence. The museum has suitcase storage, so it’s the perfect spot to stop after you check out of your hotel. 

After checking out my top attractions in Cologne (most of them free!) I headed to the train station to purchase my ticket to Berlin, but luckily there was some time before it left so I got a vegan pastry from one of the station cafés and went back to the beautiful riverfront for a short walk to say goodbye to Cologne.

Berlin

I was so excited for my late afternoon arrival in Berlin. When I arrived at the Berlin Hauptbahnhof I purchased a three-day transit pass, then took the U-Bahn (one of the Berlin metro systems) to the Prenzlauer Berg area where I was staying to check in to my apartment-hotel. I chose Prenzlauer Berg to stay in because there were lots of vegan places to eat according to Happy Cow, and it seemed like the accommodations were more reasonably priced than near Museum Island or central Berlin, while still seeming really walkable still.

Even though I was only in Berlin for four days (and only two full days) I packed so much in my trip that I decided to post a Berlin-only post with details about the free or low-cost attractions I checked out, plus the amazing vegan food I sampled! If you want to learn more about Berlin than the trip highlights below, my Berlin post is here!

There are so many free or low-cost attractions in Berlin and if you are city walker like me, you can definitely pack your itinerary. My Berlin favourites were

• Attractions – Reichstag, my number one must do! Tickets are free but must be booked in advance. If you can’t book tickets for the days of your visit on-line, you can book them in person at the nearby visitor’s centre. Also, Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe – the most moving, haunting, disorienting, reflective experience of my trip; Brandenburg Gate; Checkpoint Charlie and the BlackBox Cold War Museum – a free, open air gallery and museum; walking around Museum Island; and Neuköllner Wochenmärkte am Maybachufer – a great twice-weekly Turkish market set up right on Maybachufer.
• Parks – walking and biking in Tiergarten, checking out the Berlin wall remnants in Mauerpark, and for a taste of local, lived-in Berlin – Spielplatz Helmholtzplatz playground near my hotel, where I saw old men playing chess on stone tables and children playing football (soccer) in a small field.,
• Food – Veganz – the vegan grocery on Schivelbeiner Straße; Savory Chay, a vegetarian Asian restaurant that I’d seen on Happy Cow; a vegan donut at Brammibal’s in the Neukölln neighbourhood; and Momos, a dumpling place that used to be located in Prenzlauer Berg and is now in Mitte.

On my last day in Berlin, I restocked my snacks before walking by the Reichstag and Spreebogenpark to say goodbye and crossing the Gustav Heinemann Bridge to Berlin Hauptbahnhof to catch my train to Hannover.

I had high expectations of Berlin from how vegan friendly it is, and from the pre-trip research I did, and I have to say it totally exceeded those high-expectations. It’s a must visit for budget-travelling vegans like me!

Hannover

I arrived in Hanover late afternoon and was met by my uncle and cousin at the train station. I was staying with my cousin there, so there were no hotels to book or check into and they had most of the activities planned for us already! They had a lovely condo near the city center, with beautiful views of the residential area they lived in. The first day we just visited a Greek restaurant for supper, picked up a few vegan groceries for me, and enjoyed drinks on their deck well into the late evening.

Since my family had most of our visit planned, I got to see their favourite attractions and places, which was amazing! We packed so much into just a couple days, but it was all meaningful and educational. The highlights were

• Visiting my uncle’s neighbourhood and his beautiful garden.
• Wandering around Hameln for the afternoon where we got a quick lunch and spent time exploring the area including the Market Church St. Nicolai and the hochzeitshaus with the Pied Piper of Hamelin Rattenfänger Figuren- und Glockenspiel. We climbed the tower of the church and from the top you could see the beautiful city in every direction.
• Driving to Süntel hills in the Naturpark Weserbergland Schaumburg-Hameln (or Weser Uplands-Schaumburg-Hamelin Nature Park in English) to see the Schaumburg Castle which ended up being closed, but we were still able to wander the grounds and take pictures and get drinks at the amazingly decorated Ritterstube in the Hotel Restaurant Schaumburger Ritter, which is a favourite special occasion dining spot of my German family.
• Touring Hanover on the Hop-on Hop-off City Tour bus – we didn’t hop off at any point, but we were still able to see amazing parts of the city like the Royal Gardens of Herrenhausen and the Old Town Hall
• Visiting the “New” Town Hall to check out the tower, tea room, and the exhibits. When you take the lift to the tower it actually travels in a curve to arrive just below the tower viewing platform (there is one short staircase between the lift and the viewing platform). It’s a really cool experience and well worth the visit. My favourite part of the Town Hall was the four models of the city on the ground floor. Representing the city from a few hundred years ago, in both 1939 before World War II and 1945 after the war, and as it appears today, the models are such a reflective, interesting representation of the city. My uncle pointed out the house his wife (my great-aunt) lived in as a child in both the 1939 and 1945 models and it was so heartrending to see.
• Driving to to another area my uncle and cousin love – one of the oldest cities in Northern Germany and a UNESCO World Heritage site – Hildesheim. Our first stop was the lovely Romanesque basilica of Hohe Domkirche St. Mariä Himmelfahrt aka St. Mary’s or Hildesheim Cathedral. Besides being one of the most stunning, simple churches I’ve ever seen with its plain stone walls and amazingly ornate chandelier and doors, it has a rose bush in the gardens that is over 1200 years old. Called the Thousand-Year Rose it even survived WWII despite all the main above-ground growth being destroyed, because the root system survived and regrew in 1945. After leaving the Cathedral, we wandered the picture-perfect town centre which looks exactly as you’d picture medieval German cities to look with the stone, plaster, and wood facades and the peak roofs.

The next morning after packing my belongings and all my souvenirs and saying my goodbyes to my extended family, my cousin and uncle drove me to Hannover Hauptbahnhof to catch the train back to Amsterdam, where I spent one last afternoon and evening exploring a few more must-do’s in Amsterdam before staying at an airport hotel so I could catch a very early morning flight back to Canada.

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I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of my amazing week in Germany. I crossed places off my bucket list (Berlin), visited places that are meaningful to my family (Köln Cathedral and Schaumburg Castle and Hildesheim), and explored areas both on my own and with others. I was a little over-tired part of the time and that made me a bit more critical and demanding at the time (both with my family and myself), but looking back it was one of the most amazing weeks of my life and I’m so glad I went.

I travelled Germany with a small budget and still managed to check out lots of free or low-cost attractions, plus went to the most amazing vegan, vegetarian, and omni-with-good-vegan-options restaurants. Germany is one of the easiest places to travel solo, on a budget, or as a vegan, so travelling as all three was as easy as vegan pie!

Have you been to Germany? What was your favourite part? If not, do you want to visit? Comment below!