HARZ MOUNTAINS-GERMANY
As we will soon be handing over Fatima to her new owners, we have decided to take a look at some areas of northern Germany that we missed seeing when we passed through Germany last year.
The Harz is sort of a mini Alpine Region, with it’s highest mountain the Brocken, reaching just under 1250m. Here medieval castles overlook fairytale historic towns, all with their own legends and myths of beautiful princess’s fleeing from huge ugly knights, and of witches dancing on hilltop platforms. Goethe was inspired by those tales of witchcraft and magic, and went on to write “Faust” after a visit to the Harz.
The beautifully preserved 16th century half timbered houses are a work of art. Ornamental wooden carvings decorate gables and door frames, we could wander these cobble stoned streets all day admiring the craftsmanship.
There is also a steam powered train that chugs it’s way up the Brocken. It’s oldest engine still in use today was built in 1897. It’s was wonderful to hear the toot of the whistle and smell that unmistakable aroma of burning coal. The engines are all in remarkable condition, not a squeal or squeak as it pulled into the station to pick up it’s enthusiastic passengers.
WOLFSBURG-VW FACTORY TOUR and MUSEUM
It was only a little deviation to take us to the home of Volkswagen in Wolfsburg.
Called ‘The Autostadt” it is more like a theme park than a working automotive factory.
Set on an area roughly the size of the country of Monaco, it has pavilions built on their own small islands linked by bridges, for Lamborghini, Audi, Skoda (Czech Republic) and Seat (Spanish, all now owned by Volkswagen) as well as VW of course. Your entry ticket gains you access to all the pavilions with their various displays of latest models, a theatre, some sort of virtual reality arcade, at least ten restaurants from fine dining to a bar. And not forgetting the families, a great child minding centre complete with small motorized cars to drive around a track, computer games and face painting. And if your too tired to drive home after all this fun, a 5 star, Ritz-Carlton Hotel.
After arriving we booked our ‘English Tour’ and were told to report to the departure at least 15 minutes early, one thing you can say about the Germans, they are punctual. Right on time a three car VW train pulls in, the doors automatically slide open, everyone jumps in and gets settled and the audio visual show starts. We also have a live guide that explained the different departments and answered questions as went go along. It was amazing to see the vehicle assembly line maned by huge robotic machines with arms going here there and everywhere. One picking up a dashboard, turning sideways and placing it, while another set of arms, reached under the dash and connected the electronics, and tightened it in place. Further along front and back windshields were added and tyres, including the spare all attached. The plant is enormous and our guide told us that new employees often get lost, we can see why. VW supplies bicycles to employees to help them get around the plant easier and faster. Our tour took approximately 45 minutes, and we only saw a very small area of the factory.
There is also a museum with priceless vintage cars, they even have the patent model of the first Benz, a classic Horch and a chrome Bugatti. Brian was in his element.
We were sort of hoping to come back to the car park and find note on Fatima’s windscreen offering countless Euro if we would sell her to them. Alas there was no such note to be found, so in mid November she shall go and live in the Stuttgart area with her new family (more of that story to come).
DRESDEN
DRESDEN
Much of this city was obliterated over two nights in February 1944, when hundreds of Allied bombers dropped incendiary bombs and an estimated 35,000 men, women and children, many refugees fleeing the Russian advance died in the fiery inferno. Some of the finest buildings in Europe, gone overnight. A synonym for the worst, and darkest excesses of aerial destruction.
Graphic black and white photographs taken shortly after the raid are horrifying, still smoking bodies piled high awaiting removal. A city decimated. The beautiful 17th century Cathedral, the Frauenkirch totally gutted and with only a few walls still standing. Recently painstakingly reconstructed, the black stones from the original building, standing next to the paler new ones. It’s beautiful domed ceiling mural of The Virgin Mary carefully recreated, marble columns, grottos with landscapes and tons of gold gilt everywhere.
Every Friday a special service of remembrance is held here for the people of Coventry in England, another city that knows what it was like to be terrified by the air, and Dresden. We are told there is never a spare seat, the church always packed.
This once beautiful city, often referred to as the ‘Florence on the Elbe’, owing to the fact that artists, musicians, actors and master craftsmen once lived here, is slowly being rebuilt. Work wasn’t started until after the fall of the GDR in 1991 with funds mostly donated by the countries involved in the bombing, and seen as a sign of reconciliation. Much of Altstadt is being rebuilt, museums, art galleries, unless you had seen the photos, or knew of the devastation of this area, you would never know, the restoration work here is excellent.
We watch a steamboat dropping her funnel as she passes under a bridge as she
cruises along the Elbe River to Meissen, our stop for tomorrow to see the beautiful porcelain that has been made there for centuries
Outside the Altstadt, or old section lies the newer Neustadt, a concrete jungle of institutional like Eastern German architecture, we don’t linger here for long although we do make a stop to take a closer look at the state of the art VW factory.
Die Glaserne Manufaktur or The Transparent Factory opened in 2001 and you can watch the assembly, by hand, of the luxury VW Phaeton saloon car. The completed cars are then held awaiting delivery in a 16 level transparent tower that holds 280 vehicles.
We wondered what anyone watching from this high tech building might think as we pulled up in our faithful 1989 VW Camper, ‘Fatima’.
MEISSEN
After our visit to ‘The Potteries’ Wedgewood, Spode and Royal Albert in the UK, we wanted to see the German equivalent, Meissen.
Being a Sunday the tourist busses were already filling up the parking lot when we arrived. There was an interesting tour complete with an English Audio version that took us through the various stages of the manufacture. The hand painting and gilding was the most interesting for me personally.
The tour finishes in the museum, a change as you usually seem to exit into the gift shop. Some of the pieces in the museum where beautiful, some you might say not to our liking, but all very expensive.
When we did finally reach the sales area we looked for a small piece of Meissen, a souvenir of our visit, but even a small dish or coffee cup was €60 plus. A vase similar to one we had seen a couple buy earlier was over €8000, we can certainly think of better ways to spend our Euro. Although before we left, we did have a great coffee in the restaurant, served of course in a beautiful Meissen cup and saucer.
POLAND
Poland is a flat and fertile nation in the centre of Europe. Surrounded by conquest happy neighbours it has suffered centuries of war, invasion and foreign occupation.
KRAKOW
Kraków, the ancient capital lies in the southern part of Poland, on the Vistula River and is one of the oldest cities, with evidence dated at 20,000 BC. Legend has that it was built on the cave of a dragon, whom mystical King Krak had slain.
The Rynek Glowny or Main Marketplace is Europe’s largest medieval square, and measures 200m x 200m, it was here that homage’s to the King where sworn and public executions once held. The 14th century Renaissance Cloth Hall at it’s centre could be called the first public shopping mall, I was keen to go inside as I had read about a huge souvenir market and art gallery there, those who know me well will know where I was heading to first.
From there we walked the ‘Royal Road’ to see Wawel Castle, perched on a 50m high rocky out-crop overlooking the city and the river.
We continue our walk through the former Jewish district of Kazimierz, home for more than 600 years to Krakow’s Jewish population, many having fled to here to escape persecution from other parts of Europe. More than 40,000 Jewish residents of Krakow died in the Holocaust, and now there are very few Jewish residents, still, deserted synagogues and other signs of Jewish culture remain.
Just across the river from here is Podgőrze district, the site of the former WWII Jewish Ghetto where only fragments of it’s wall remain. Oskar Schindler’s Enamel Ware factory is also in this area. This is the man who saved thousands of Jewish lives, by telling the Nazi’s he needed people to work in his factory, then later smuggled them out of Poland to safety. This area is also where the Nowa Huta was located, one of only two Socialist Realist cities to be built. It’s steel factories cast a polluted shroud over the city of Krakow until finally it’s economic importance forced it’s closure. Many of the buildings in the old town where blackened by it’s industrial pollution, and the gold dome of the Cathedral on Wawel Hill destroyed forever.
We all should be forever thankful that Krakow survived the fiery fate that many other WWII occupied cites shared, this is a wonderful old city full of beautiful buildings, majestic squares, hidden courtyards and a wealth of history.
CAMPING in KRAKOW
There was only the one camp ground in Krakow still open in October, and it was nice and close to the city, only one short bus ride away, perfect for us. As we pulled in late one afternoon you could just about hear the moan of the elderly man that led us to our camp spot. He showed us around, unlocking the doors to the showers and toilets as we went. Although the website clearly noted that the park would close until Oct 31st, they had all but closed down..
Daily as we left the park to go into the city, or just across the road to the supermarket they would wait expectantly for us to come and checkout. The leaves around our camper seemed to get raked much more than the other areas, we did feel a bit sorry for them, but we were enjoying this lovely city, and not quite ready to leave. And it’s not yet the end of October!
When the day finally came for us to checkout and leave you can bet they had a little celebration, and promptly closed the gates, just in case someone else like us happed to arrive.
AUSCHWITZ
Few place names have more impact than Auschwitz, and for five long years the name aroused fear amongst the population of Nazi occupied territories.
Most of the Jewish population from Krakow were transported here, but as time passed the Nazi’s began to deport to the camp people from all over Europe. Soviet prisoners of war, Gypsies, Czechs, Yugoslavs, French, Austrian, German and Dutch were also among the prisoners of Auschwitz.
The camp was originally a Polish Army barrack and when Poland fell to the Third Reich the camp was taken over and doubled in size by POW labour
As you enter the camp, above the surprisingly small main gate there is a cynical inscription, “Arbeit macht frei” or Work brings freedom. Every day on their way to and from work details, usually 12 hour days of hard labour, thousands prisoners had to pass under that sign.
Because the camp is now a museum, there are signs which help the act of imagination. “The camp orchestra had to assemble here to play marches while the prisoners filed past. This would keep the prisoners in step and help count them as they went to and from work.” And a little further on “If a Polish prisoner escaped his family were arrested and sent to Auschwitz”. They were made to stand under a sign announcing the reason for their arrest, brutal but bearable. The next sign along the pathway is uncompromising. “Within five months of the opening of this camp, some 9000 prisoners had died, most of them of hunger, hard work and brutality.”
Inside the prison blocks is a series of displays that we found more affecting than any words. We see rooms filled with toothbrushes, hair and shaving brushes, eyeglasses, and artificial limbs, all would have been taken from the prisoners upon arrival. In another an almost unbearable sight, a sea of suitcases, all with names and addresses, in which the inmates would have brought their prized possessions, as they had been told that they were being re-located. Another is filled with shoes, all colours and sizes, but it is the small children’s shoes, tossed here, discarded in death, that are the most heart wrenching for me.
One of the most appalling sights is the pile of human hair, 30m long by 3m deep, 7000 kg of human hair, cut from the prisoners before or after death, tightly packed into bags to be sold and to be made into cloth. This ‘small’ quantity had not yet been shipped when the camp was liberated.
Auschwitz was the biggest centre for the mass extermination of European Jews, the majority killed in the gas chambers immediately upon arrival, others died a slower death from hunger, disease, exhausting work, criminal experiments or execution.
You think you can not possibly see anything more horrifying until you reach the gas chambers and incinerators where those who had been gassed could be instantly cremated. Three hundred and fifty bodies could be dealt with daily, an estimated 1.5 million men, women and children were murdered here. But by late 1941 it was not nearly enough.
In order to cope with the demands of the ‘Final Solution’ another camp, much larger was built. This camp, Birkenau, was specifically geared for extermination.
BIRKENAU
Less than three kilometres from Auschwitz, Birkenau was built.
Covering approximately 175 hectares of boggy countryside, three hundred accommodation sheds, some brick but mostly wood were built. Much of the camp has been preserved and the long gatehouse with it’s central watchtower and a railway line running right through it is familiar from documentaries we have seen.
Several of the buildings still remain, buildings built without foundations on the damp ground. Most had no floors, apart from the damp earth that must have turned into a quagmire in this cold and wet climate. Three tier high wooden bunks the prisoners slept upon where covered with nothing but rotting straw and there were virtually no sanitation facilities. At one time the total number of prisoners here reached an unbelievable 100,000.
We walk along the railway line that leads past the unloading ramps to what remains of the five gas chambers, half destroyed by the retreating SS men, in an attempt to conceal their criminal activities. Each one was three times bigger than any at Auschwitz, and by 1944 the SS were killing up to 7,000 people a day from all over Europe and the USSR.
We climb a grassy mound, a mix of earth and the ashes of those who perished here and see the International Monument to the Victims. Flowers, candles and messages left from visitors from around the world lined the front
The fact that the Auschwitz and Birkenau camps remain open as museums is surely right, the physical evidence should be here for ever. But the cries and screams of separated families, the visceral malodour of so many crammed into such a small space, the stench of the crematoria. The sheer corrosive pain of what it must have been like to be here in this place can only be re-created in the mind.
As we left this place of horror the thought’s running through my mind were that we can leave here, just walk through the gate, hop back in our camper and leave, the same thing would not have happened 65 years ago. Those gates would have been closed, rifles trained on us by those that despised us, and orders barked out by those who knew they could send us to our death without any compunction.
Being here shocked and saddened us, it is a place we shall never forget.
CZECH REPUBLIC
PRAGUE
I’ve always wondered where Bohemian’s came from…….now I know.
Prague is the centre of Bohemia, and it’s an outstandingly beautiful city. It’s architecture spans a 1000 years, a mixture of Baroque, Renaissance and Gothic. It even has Cubist building, which is now a museum.
It has and ‘old town’ that dates back to the 10th century, and in it’s massive square, a tower with an astronomical clock that has a figure of a skeleton ringing a bell to announce the turn of the hour. Then figures of vanity, greed and lust turn in place, and then 11 apostles accompanied by St Paul proceed across the face. Quite a show.
In front of this clock is where we met our guide for another ‘free’ walk. Alistair is from Scotland, doing pilot training here in Prague and earning a bit of extra money doing these walks. Today it was raining and we started with four in our group, but soon moved to two, just Brian and myself as the two young girls from the U.S. couldn’t take the cold, and asked to be left at the mall.
The three of us soldiered on and Alistair did a great job for us on our ‘private free tour’ taking us to the Jewish Quarter, Wenceslas Square, the beautiful Charles Bridge with it’s 30 statues along it’s sides. Alistair had great stories, maybe fact, maybe fiction about the various places we saw. He told us he also does the ‘Ghost Tour’ in the evenings, I think some of the stories he told us he tells then as well. Prague Castle was next and it sits atop a hill and overlooks the city, and it’s large, they say the largest castle in all of Europe. From the entrance gates the castle is guarded by two dramatically poised giants fighting dragons or some other mythical creatures. Also the human guards are plainly in sight, with their swishy uniforms, complete with daggers and rifles with bayonets.
I think Alistair would have gone on for longer, we were already in our 4th hour. But we had seen enough and it was getting close to ‘wine time’, so we paid him, a little more than we should have, but he kept talking about holes in his shoes, and the cold wet weather, and the poor boy looked like he hadn’t had a good feed for months.
Using our day transit ticket we ventured out of the city centre on the various trams and got a real feel for the place. Graffiti scared buildings and the remnants of Prague’s recent communist past, the ugly concrete box like buildings abound, so different from the city. Prague also has a ‘new town’, built in the 15th century, and the town has many beautiful and ornate buildings. Some you just have to stand and stare at, giving yourself time to see all that is going on, statues, painting and of course their architecture
We spend 4 days in Prague, the capital of Bohemia in the Czech Republic and now it’s time to move on to Poland and the next stop in ‘Our Big Adventure’,
The dictionary defines a ‘Bohemian’ as…somebody who does not live according to the conventions of society. Thomas Wolfe said “A free spirit, someone who will cross the line wherever they drew it, to look at the world in a way others cannot see, to be high, to live low, to stay young forever—in short, to be a Bohemian.”
I think we can say that Brian and I are living the life of ‘Bohemians’… and we love it!
MUNICH AGAIN
We missed Oktoberfest again. Last year it was by two weeks, this year only one. Although this trip to München was not to visit the beer tents, but to see our friends Gisela and Werner, and their children Leonie and Felix.
We met this lovely family while travelling Morocco earlier this year, and even did our overnight camel trip into Sahara, and trolled the souks of Marrakesh with them. Gisela is now expecting their third child and although we have kept in contact by email and text, we wanted to see them again.
We take the opportunity to catch a ride into the city with Gisela on her way to work, so we may visit this city one more time before we leave Germany.
Munich is truly the capital of all things Bavarian and a Bratwurst with sweet mustard is high on our list for lunch, so our first stop is the Viktualienmarkt, tucked in behind the beautiful Church of the Holy Ghost. The stalls are loaded with sumptuous products from the surrounding farms, and from around the world. It’s also the place to see men and women in traditional folk dress, shopping baskets brimming with fresh vegetables, cheeses and most probably the perfect wine to accompany.
The sunny day we started with has turned to showers so we make for Neuhauser Str, the pedestrian area lined with shops and cafes, and manage to find a couple of presents for up coming birthdays.
Gisela and Werner live in a town off the Romantic Strasse, a series of picturesque towns and cities and on Sunday we all go for a drive to Augsburg so see the Dult, a famous market, held here only three times a year. It’s a little like the Royal Easter Show, but without the animals. We bought traditional German sweets, nuts and some warm thermal socks, which I’m sure we are going to need all too soon. Gisela also took us for a drive to Landsberg, another beautiful medieval town on the banks of a river.
We had a great time with our friends, good food, wine and conversations that took us late into the night, but it is time to move on to the Czech Republic and Prague.
AUSTRIA
VIENNA
Baroque mansions dominate the inner city, while a short distance from the centre grand summer palaces, like the Schönbrunn with it’s 1400 rooms and gardens complete with fountains, statues and it’s own zoo are magnificent.
The city centre is a mix of old and new and with lovely walled gardens, and the most grandiose coffee houses that are a place to linger and absorb the atmosphere rather than grab a quick coffee to go. We had coffee at one just behind the Town Hall and the walls were papered with photographs, politicians we didn’t recognize as well as some actors we did. At a couple of the tables sat elderly men and women, reading the paper whilst having a coffee, they had that look of comfort and ease with the place, as though they had been coming here for years.
A visit to the Spanish Riding School was a must for us. Every morning there are morning exercises where the beautiful Lipizzaners practice their special steps accompanied by classical music by Mozart and Strauss, with their riders wearing double breasted waistcoats, buckskin jodhpurs and sideways sitting hats. The Lipizzaners are a special breed created by crossing Arabian, Berber and Spanish horses and are generally white or light grey in colour. The two hours flew by with so much to see, watching the horses as they leapt, danced sideways and on the spot. As well as taking in the beautiful surroundings of the school, the crystal chandeliers and decorative mouldings fit to be an any palace and built by King Karl IV in 1729 just for the Lipizzaners.
With our 72hour public transit pass we had plenty of time to see the sights as well as go to a Autumn Fair held in Grinzing, a pretty little village on the outskirts of Vienna. It was also our first chance to try ‘Sturm’ the new wine that had just been produced in this area. It’s a little bubbly and slightly cloudy and comes in red and white varieties, and it is delicious.
Vienna was nothing short of stunning, and would a place we would like to return to someday.
TIROL
We couldn’t miss the opportunity of seeing the Austrian mountains so we travel from the beauty of Palaces of Vienna, to the picture perfect Austrian Alps.
The place easily captures quintessential Alpine scenery, with majestic snow capped mountains dominating the view. We spend a few day’s near Kitzbühel and make use of a great free bus, museum and ski life ticket given out at the camp ground.
The gondola ride to the top of Wiedersbergerhornbahn (1850m) at Alpbach was great, the view over the high alpine pasture was like a post card. But the single chair lift at Sonnwendjochbahn to just over 2000m at Kramsach, skimming over the towering pines with only a plastic chair beneath you and a flimsy bar in front, that ran uphill for at least 5km bought back great memories of the ski areas in Western Canada for me. There was also a Museum of Tyrolean farmsteads included and only a short walk from our campsite. We have seen these lovely old homesteads throughout this area and it was terrific to be able to go inside, some where even furnished with the original furniture from the 16th and 17th centuries.
It would be wonderful to come back here in winter and ski, maybe one day we will.
HUNGARY
BUDAPEST is a beautiful city spread along both banks of the Danube River (Buda and Pest originally). It has been called the ‘fruit basket’ of history, and it’s easy to see why. Cultural influences from it’s many occupants in history have given it a sensible and logical layout from it’s Germanic occupants, the decadently opulent baths, the Turks, elegance from the Habsburgs and the straight lines and sober structures from the Communist occupation.
We stay at a great campground in Pest and it’s only a short tram ride into the city.
Our first day we hop on a spray paint decorated Soviet-era tram to a Museum on Andrassy Ave, that at one time it’s name alone must have filled people with terror. This museum, dedicated to telling the story of Hungary under Nazi and then Soviet
rule, is actually housed in what used to be the Nazi Party headquarters and then the Communist Party headquarters and their dreaded Secret Police during their respective occupation. We hear stories and see pictures of unimaginable misdeeds that happened in the very building in which we stood. In one room there are thousands of file folders that once held information gathered by a host of informers, a shadow army that watched people in factories, offices, theatres and even churches. You would not have known whom to trust. The aura in the building alone was enough to chill one to the bone, but this museum also commemorates the victims of terror while at the same time, reminds us of the dreadful acts of terrorist dictatorships.
A walking tour is always a great way to see any city, and one that’s free makes it even better. Well not exactly free, but at the end of the tour if you feel the guide did his job well, you learnt a few things about the city, and you had fun the guides appreciate (and expect) a tip. We had about 15 people on out 2 ½ hour tour, a mixture of ages and nationalities. Gabŏr our guide was great, he grew up in Budapest and could tell you anything you wanted to know, he even told some of the younger traveller’s good places to party in the evenings. Apparently the nightlife, music and bar scene here is legendary although we can’t comment on that, after a day of sightseeing we are usually tucked up in bed by 10pm
After our time in Bulgaria, and seeing the massive statues, monuments of the Communist regime, we visit a park in a northern suburb of Budapest where some of the statues removed from the streets of Budapest where taken after the fall of the Communist regime in 1989. A massive statue of Lenin at the gate greets you, and then many different statues, ghosts of the past dictatorship, that represent the socialist cultural politics, and probably would have created fear as well. Also interesting is that in Bulgaria statues such as these are still standing on corners and in front of schools, factories etc., are still in their original position and have not been torn down.
As it turns out, Hungary is situated over a number of natural hot springs, including the springs that lie underneath the biggest public bath in Europe, the Széchényi Spa. We feel after our 3 solid days of seeing all that Budapest has to see we need a rest and revive day, so we head to the spa. There are nine different pools, both indoor and out to choose from here, and we walk from pool to pool testing the waters. They are not like the public baths in Morocco or Turkey at all, these are all housed in very elaborate and beautifully decorated buildings, this particular spa built in 1913. You see people sitting in the pools playing chess, reading or just with their eyes closed, relaxing. They also have a sauna and some other kind of hot room we don’t try, we leave the spa a few hours later, a little crinkly, but feeling relaxed and revived.
Budapest was an exciting and thought provoking city and one defiantly worth the visit.
