The Broghammers´Sundays

What do the Broghammers do on Sundays?
The alarm rings at 5.
Because they have to catch the train that goes to Magdeburg and leaves at 6.33
It takes 30 minutes to arrive by foot to the Station and around 10 to make a ticket.
It should take much less, especially at that hour when you do not even have to queue.
But Mr. Broghammer has to be sure to get the best offer and that takes what it takes.
The tickets machine is like his home computer and just putting starting from and arriving to would be WHAT an Italian would do.
Being a German he HAS to make things a little bit more complicated.
What is the use of a German sophisticated machine if you do not use it at its maximum potential?
That is also the natural consequence of being in a country where it is a must to complicate matters.
In Italy the machine calculates the Kilometers and multiply them for the price of the unitary Kilometer.
What you get (plus of course some extras to feed the Railroad’s managers, the politicians who hire them and so on...) is the ticket price.
Here the ticket price depends more on how many people will be on the train, so that at 5 and on Weekends you get one price and on working days a totally different one.
Then you have the variable of the type of train, the seat, the whatsoever and FINALLY you get the price.
That price is further discounted if you are a "railroad fan" which you prove subscribing with 50 Euros per year.
Well, going back to the Broghammers, in order to be able to be on that train they have to leave home at ten to six, so that leaves fifty minutes for breakfast and getting ready.
Mr. Broghammer has the duty to prepare "frustück", while Mrs. Broghammer has to care for her hair ( in order to look "respectable" and rightly shabby, what they call "shabby chic" which is the maximum she can achieve with it).
The Sundays "Frustück" is particularly rich.
Instead of two slices of toasted bread (black bread which is healthier) they have three.
With Margarine and marmalade.
Since the day will be particularly busy, there won’t be time for a "complete lunch" and so that slice more will keep the stomach busy (and it will further be cheated with a few additional "sneaks").
This is an unhealty practice for your stomach, but a particularly healty one for your wallet.
And that is a must in a day in which the Broghammers in spite of saving on the tickets, already endanger their budget with a three and a half hours trip on the German Railroad...
But Berlin is well worth a Weekend ticket...

Wernigerode

The Broghammers love to wander around. It is their favorite sport.
Not too heavy, not too light.
They walk a lot and look and see and enjoy.
At least it has one of their favorite features: it is cheap and brings a lot for the money you spend.
Besides there is always the opportunity to find eventual bargains.
Enjoy and save...

Wernigerode is a real jewel, a gem few know and it is a real pity.
Because it is such a nice place to visit in an early Spring day.
At least if you like old towns.
They (the Germans) have a lot of original buildings also in the West, but the beauty of the East is that they are still as they were, roads and environment included.
In the DDR they just abandoned the old and built new ugly towns somewhere else.
That is why entering something like Wernigerode you feel like jumping in the past.
What brings you to the present is the huge mass of tourists sitting in the beautiful Cafes, eating ice creams (Italian) and enjoying the sun.

We walked and walked. We went to the Castle and coming back we finished in a "Gross" and beautiful Park.
After the Winter we had, it looked like Nature had died, the sun had gone away and the cold was our friend forever.
But suddenly Spring exploded and everything is so green that I guess a painter would have problems to copy it.
There were a lot of young people playing, small children running and mothers chatting.
The sky was blue and there was a very sweet smell in the air: the smell of flowers.

We finally sat in a fancy Cafe, had a coffee with the Schwarzwald cake, a huge slice, and we were, if not happy, at least very pleased.
If you plan to go to Germany this is a place to be.