Sightseeing and Shopping in Wolfsburg, Germany

After we landed in Frankfurt on 23 May, we went to stay at my sister, Shanaz and my brother in law Abi. They live in a lovely apartment in the city of Wolfsburg where Abi is working with Volkswagen.

Here is a bit about the city. Wolfsburg was founded on 1 July 1938 as a planned town mainly to house workers of the Volkswagen factories erected to assemble what was to become the Volkswagen Beetle. That’s why they say Wolfsburg is Volkswagen, and a city pretty much brainchild of Hitler. Even the apartment building that Shanaz and Abi lives was built during those times but being typical European building, it is still good like new.

During World War II military cars, aeroplanes and other military equipment was built in Wolfsburg, mainly by forced workers and POWs at these factories. Though postwar Volkswagen Beetle production ended in Wolfsburg in 1978, the factories remain a key part of Volkswagen’s production capacity. Now it is Autostadt, which I will write about later in different entry.

In 1951, Wolfsburg was separated from the District of Gifhorn, and became an urban district and in 1955 the one-millionth VW Beetle was manufactured in the city. I am very pleased to got a chance to visit such a significant city. Someday when Miki is big enough to understand, I am sure he will also be proud that he visited the birthplace of Volkswagen.

We arrived at their apartment at around noon. Shanaz cooked us a great lunch and although it was already evening in Malaysia, and we were very tired from all the flying. We don’t wanna stay in and rest.

We decided to talk a walk to Wolfsburg city center which was well, walking distance from the apartment. Here are some pictures of us behind the apartment complex, basically belakang rumah Shanaz lah! Sangat cantik all the bushes was flowering, white, pink and purple…

 

There was a field with grass so green and dotted with fat fluffy wild rabbits. They are so cute plus in case you don’t know, the Diyanazman memang pun sekeluarga rabbit lovers.. Miki has a great time chasing after these bunnies, they would away even faster and plop into their hole before popping up from another hole. Super comel!

We then walked in the refreshing cold spring weather at Wolfsburg town. It was quite cold actually that we stopped at one of the shops and bought Miki that scarf for 5 Euro. All the shops there are interesting. Some are affordable, other are expensive.

Miki OOTD – Ralph Lauren khaki jacket and shoes, Soda jeans and scarf from a clothing store in Wolfsburg. hehe!

 

Isn’t Miki a cutey? Here is posing with the frogs in front of an optometrist where Shanaz bought me a bottle of saline solution for my lenses. I didn’t bring any from home.

Shanaz took 2 weeks leave from her job at Bosch just to have us in Germany. At this time she was in her first trimester of her pregnancy and she was asking me to keep quiet and don’t tell anybody. hahaha… That’s why she was all pale and tak larat. hehe

We walked  and totally enjoyed the sightseeing. Even Rafa was behaving in the stroller. There weren’t many cars on the road like in Malaysia. Many people just walk and ride bicycles. Well they could coz the weather was just nice. Kat Malaysia dah mati terbakar kot. Takpun mati kena langgar kereta.. we don’t have pedestrian walkway they other countries do.

 

 

 

A pretty little chocolate shop in Wolfsburg

As we walked further Miki saw something cute! Dandelion! He said so we stopped to blow some and the seeds fly. It was fun. My children’s first dandelion blowing… LOL! But I forgot to make a wish.. 🙂

Rafa OOTD – Jacket from Ralph Lauren, blue pants from H&M, beary hat from Pumpkin Patch (hands-me-down from Abang Miki). He has RL shoes similar to Miki’s but he likes to bite on them so no shoes at all! LOL…

 

This part of town is actually new the river, whereby Autostadt is located right across it. Actually Shanaz was taking us to the Wolfsburg Designer Outlet. I was like, dang! You have a designer outlet within walking distance from your home? Our nearest is JPO kot? Jauh giler…

I kalau dengar nama Outlet je terus tergedik-gedik cannot tahan… must go! LOL… so officially the first place we visit on out trip to Europe is this Wolfsburg Designer Outlet. hehe

 

The Outlet was not so big but still holds many boutiques. Among the brands  available are Lacoste, Tommy Hilfiger, Nike, Levi’s, Fossil, Polo Ralph Lauren, Mexx, Bugatti, Calvin Klein,Puma, Dockers, Tom Tailor, Lindt ( the chocolate), Le Creuset (the kitchen ware) etc etc.. They also have other brands that I am not familiar with like Sarar that Shanaz said is very high fashion in Turkey.

I don’t remember what we bought on the first day but I did get myself a Fossil bag for RM400. I saw one similar in Malaysia costs almost RM2000! yay!! So happy… A few days later we came to this outlet again. From both visits, we bought awesome stuff for cheap at Levi’s, Puma, Lacoste etc etc.. We also bought chocolates at Lindt, and although I itched to get some pots and pans from Le Creuset but they are just too bulky to bring home.

I love the stuff from Ralph Lauren a lot but I didn’t buy any. I guess because it is an American brand it was not so cheap even in the outlet. Plus Azman just got back from an American trip a couple of months earlier where he bought, among other stuff, these matching khaki jackets for the kids and himself that they were wearing. He got it for much less in the US compared to in Germany.

On our way back to Shanaz’s apartment we stopped for coffee and cakes at a cafe. It was still bright but suddenly Miki fell asleep on Rafa’s stroller, he didn’t even get a taste of his hot chocolate. Only then I realized it was midnight in Malaysia, no wonder Miki was so tired. 🙂

That’s the first day in Wolfsburg. A very friendly and lovely city. 🙂 Later, I will write about our trip to Berlin and the magnificent natural history museum where Miki got to see the real dinosour bones. Awesome! Stay tuned!

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