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Published: October 23rd 2008
After the morning was spent walking in the Bohemian Switzerland National Park we crossed over into Germany and arrived into Dresden in the late afternoon with the alarm buzzing lots! With only 200 kms till Berlin we were waiting to get it fixed then.
Spent the next morning having a quick look around Dresden. Very cool little city which was pretty much annhilated at the end of WW2 and is still in the process of rebuilding. Despite being rebuilt it has kept it's old style with the impressive Frauen church rebuilt to it's former glory, completed only a few years ago. The main highlight was the Zwinger complex.
Ventured out into the more alternative and funky part of town with the arty Kunsthoffe passage, before heading back to camp to drive up to Berlin. The drive was uneventful thankfully, with the alarm only buzzing when we got close to Berlin. Tried two camps unsuccesfully before finding an ok one, right on the city limits.
We decided to give RAC a chance to redeem themselves by helping us find a local VW repairer. With a few addresses in hand we managed to find a completely different one to the
RAC in the same area. They were all very helpful and friendly and managed to work out our problem despite the language barrier.
Three or so hours later after a few back and forths they informed us they couldn't fix anything! Despite being the home of VW, we were told it would take up to a couple of weeks to get some parts while others were not even made! (we were tempted to tell them to try some of the UK distributers we have used).
Having wasted most of the day to achieve nothing we left somewhat frustrated. The only positive to come from the ordeal was that they reassured us that it was an electrical/sensor fault and that the oil pressure was ok, some comfort for us to continue on!
Decided we should achieve something for the day and head into Berlin for the night. Two hours later we were in! We really are out in the boondocks, surrounded by lakes and some 30kms out from the centre.
Wandered around the old Eastern and Jewish parts of the city before finding a cool cafe/bar for a few Berliner beers. Stopped off for a doner kebab on
the way, as they are reputedly invented by a Turkish immigrant in Berlin!
The journey home proved to be an even more epic journey due to railway works, with one train stopping and then changing direction. As a result we saw the last tram depart from across the train platform and had to wait almost an hour for the night bus. Met some nice German chavs at the stop before the mini-bus ride home followed by a 2-3km walk home in the dark. Got home after 1am totally exhausted having done not too much for the day!
The following day was much more productive as we managed to squeeze in all the major sites in one day. Roughly followed the walking tour we had starting in the centre at the modern area surrounding Potzdamer Platz. Continued past Hitler's bunker site to the Holocaust Memorial, spending a few hours in the below ground exhibition. Once again depressed about the atrocities handed down by humankind, we ventured to the historical landmark of Brandenburg gate where we also saw the controversial wall victims memorial.
After some local currywurst to re-energise we continued on past the Reichstag and parliamentary buildings tracing
the former wall back to the shopping quartiers and Checkpoint Charlie which appropriately had wall's of information on the wall! There are still a few fragments of wall left in some parts of Berlin, some of them just standing alone amongst all the weeds. Most of the inner parts of the city also have a line of bricks from the wall marking the former boundary. Kind of weird to walk around and think what it would have been like.
Finished the sightseeing with a visit to another wall memorial site, a few of the more significant squares, the Berlin Dom (Cathedral) and the retro TV tower. Another huge dinner of pork and beers at a Brauhaus and we were done! Of course we had another epic journey home, this time getting frightened to death when we stumbled upon a boar in the woods (we think..it was too dark to see, but by the grunt it was probably huge!).
The following day was a driving day, getting us to the start of the Grimm Brother's famed Fairytale road at Hameln, home of the Pied Piper. The next day was spent driving along this trail, stopping off at Bodenburger famous
Bebelplatz
Memorial at the scene of the burning of Jewish booksfor the tale-telling Count Maunchausin. Other sites were Cinderella's castle in Polle, Trendelberg to see Repunzel's tower and the Grimm Brother's museum in Kassell. Made it out to a lovely campsite at Nauremberg for the night.
After a late start, we drove across to Koln getting in around 5pm before riding into town to test out the beer halls. In Koln (Cologne) the big stein is non existent and instead they serve tiny 200ml glasses of the locally brewed Kolsh. After intially being bemused by the drink serving situation we managed to sample a few beers and finally had that German schnitzel we were hoping for. Although the beer was tasty, being tiny and not too cheap we had a pretty quiet night heading home along the Rhine river on our bikes in the cold and dark!
Tomorrow we have to keep moving to the city of Amsterdam, not sure what to epect?? A shame to have to rush Germany but a nice introduction.
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valda mason
non-member comment
Dresden
Hi, Went to the Church and had about an hour to look around here, did you notice the little brigde that looks like the Sydney Harbour bridge? Nurernburg was beautiful and rebuilt. Poor Clancy! hope the miles keep being burned up under the wheels. Love Auntie Val.