Wolfsburg

9 November

I decided to do some more spontaneous traveling, heading west from Berlin towards the Netherlands (where I’m going to get a ferry to the UK) but not knowing quite where I was going to stop. Looking at a map, I chose Wolfsburg firstly because it looked like a small town and I wanted to see some of small-town Germany and secondly because it had a cool name. When I got here I discovered it is not a small town but in fact an industrial centre where the Volkswagon car-making plant is. From the train station I could see the front of the plant and apparently it stretches for three miles behind.

Finding a place to stay was an ordeal. There was an information centre at the railway station and they helpfully booked me into a place they said was ‘not really a hostel but something similar’ and then they showed me what bus to catch to get there. The bus dropped me off in a pretty remote street and finally I found the right place but I’m still not sure what it was. Part of it looked like a school, other parts like low-rent apartments, and other parts like a government institution. There was a sign saying guest house but there was no one there at reception. I found a man who worked in the place in some capacity - I don’t know what - and he phoned a few people for me but with no luck. So I had to catch the bus back into the main town and walk to Wolfsburg’s sole hostel, which is what I should’ve done at the start.