Ah... yeah, that blog thing.

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Oops! It's er... been a while. And people are hassling me (Thank you! It's wonderful to know people are listening!)

So... where since Vilnius and the wonderful wierd reüpublic of Uzupio?

well, I took the nightmare trip across Poland (Two borders in one day) into Germany. Actually, the second border was fantastic: the customs offical there (the German one) was laughing and joking with his Polish counterpart, and with his customers... I think it's the first time I've ever seen a customs official even smile! I reckon it probably is a perfect foil: If someone doesn't relax at that, they're clearly hiding something!

Berlin was stupidly beautiful. And stupidly large. But luckily for me, I speak German, so could take full advantage of the public transport system. I went to as many museums as I could. Which was close to zero in percentage terms. But all of them were good choices. Haus am Checkpoint Charlie - The Maurmuseum was full on, but brilliant: all about the crazy and amazing escape attempts from East to West. Both those that succeeded, and those that didn't. Jewish history Museum was great, if a little over emotional towards the end. At the end of a museum, I'm too drained to have any emotion left. Sorry guys. The best bit was the bottom floor anyway, that showed little relics of people separated by That War. And told their story. Often they were things like last letters and family treasures- some of huge religious significance- entrusted to Christian friends before they were shipped off on trains to-- well, we know where, but they didn't. These made me cry. The old saw: a million deaths (or six million) is a statistic, one death is a tragedy. I also visited Sachsenhausen. It was the Model Concentration camp built by the Nazis and used by them and the Communists (up to 1956). Never an Extermination Camp, it still housed an experimental Gas chamber, amongst other set-ups for potential mass extermination. The most random one I found was the medical examination room. The prisoners were told they were getting a medical examination. they were then weighed, examined, then asked to put their back to the wall of a height measuring device. they were then shot through the back of the neck, through a secret hole in the measuring metre. What I want to know, is why the elaborateness of the ruse. Simply leading them into the room then shooting them in the head would've done it, why go through all the rest? Coincidentally, I just found out Karl Krushelniski's father was at Sachsenhausen (Dr Karl, if you happen to come across this, and would rather not have this info on the web, drop me a line).

Deutsches History museum was fantastic. I got to see Napoleon's Hat and Sword. Yes, he really did wear that ridiculous tricorn thing. Wirdly, when the Man left the battlefield (fled, his detractors would say) he seemed to have forgotten a great many personal effect. Letters, medals, money, clothes, a carriage. That sort of thing. The poms and the Prussians split it up amongst them, and the good old Kaiser found a liking for the hat and sword. and here they are today. It was very cool.

The Pergamom Museum, though, is what I will go back to Berlin for. For a start, it has the Pergamom Marbles. The most complete set of Greek Marbles outsideEngland. Actually, in Rapacious plundering, Pergamom rivals on the BM. The Highlight for me was the Gates of Ishtar, the fabulous smallest gates (a mere 20 oddm high by the same across) of the main Entrance to Babylon. Carefully reconstructed from the ruin where they were found. And there was so much more that I had not time for!

But Enough of that!

Dresden was beautiful. It was what I thought a European city should be: ie literally black with age. This is one of the things that has bothered me about Europe so far: everything, having been lovingly restored, is clean. It only looks twenty years old. I mean, I know, on paper, it is hundreds of years, but thatr's one hell of a facelift! But Dresden had beautiful gardens, beutiful old buildings and the City Festival: celebrating 801 years since founding. There was Mead(Met), there was Honeybeer (HonigBier), there were Bratwurst and all manner of things traditionally cooked in a traditional manner. And a mediaval band and stage show, with King Ludwig himself showing up. What more could someone want?

Onn I moved, to the Czech Republic. Prague was beautiful. And stupidly full of tourists. Especially trhe younger, drunker ones. But why not? Beer was cheaper than water, and there were hundreds of great venues. and the town wasn't bad to look at, either. The castle was gorgeous, the Cathedral a masterpiece of Gothic design (Ok, so my favourites are the gothic ones. What can I say?) St Nicks was a baroque bauty, with stucco statuary blending seamlessly with the painted ceiling, so it was difficult to tell where one started and the other left off. I also took a day trip out to Kutna Hora. This was a Sivermining town, once of a size to rival Prague itself, but it's mine ran out. It has a fat majestic gothic cathedral, overlooking a ravine, but it's main attraction is a small ossuary. Here the bones of thousands have been dug up in the course of centuaries (did you know that you only rent your gravesite, and that once your rentals up, so are you?), and rearranged... into giant pyramids, into lanternes, into the coat of arms of the Schwarzenberg family, and even into a giant chandelier claiming to have at least one of every type of bone in the human body (but stuff trying to look for the ossicles or for the sesamoid bones of hand a foot: half the bleeding ribs were missing. And the Ulnar and Radius!). Still, it was a stupidly impressive sight. As were the garlands made of femurs and skulls. Not nearly as urk as you would think: for some reason the Catacombs at Kiev Petcherska still were worse.

Next I moved onto Cesky Krumlov. This is a beautiful, Idyllic town set in a meander of the river (did you know that the word meander comes from the name of a Middle Eastern (Previously Roman) river that... well... Meandered alot?) It is tiny, but it is absolutly beautiful. It has a wonderful old castle, set above it, on the opposite bank on a cliff, but itself is so very cool. But you'll have to wait until I get a chance to add in Photos. I can't do it justice, otherwise.

Pilsen was the next town. And yes, I went for one reason. Beer. This is the home of Pilsener Urqells, and the home to the style of beer known as Pils. And yes, the brewery is still there. We got a tour (lots of shiny machines causing beer-crimes), and through the old machines, and the old cellars, and got a try of the only hand-brewed beer still left: unfiltered, and only for the tour. Yum! too bad, folk, you'll have to go yourselves. Also went on a tour of the old cellars (wierdest moment, coming back up, and reading a small plaque which basically concluded that the high-water mark of september 2003 flood was above the entire cellar. We would've been drowned.), and also of the Beer Museum, and a beautiful old Synagogue, and anoth wonderful Gothic Church.

Finally, I was back to Germany. Nuremburg was a fantastic old town. This is another place I will be back too: mainly because I never did see the place of the Nuremberg Trials, or even of the Nuremberg Rally. I did see most of the old town, and about half of an absolutaly fantastic museum, the Germanischesmuseum. It contained a lot of stuff by a bloke called Albrecht Dürer. And other stuff. 😉

And I am running out of time. And you, of patients

I will add photos. Just to let you know, there are 40, exactly, castles on the Rhine between Mainz and Koblenz. I counted.

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Comments

[Brita]

finally more stories!!! hooray!
Hi Ailie!! i was so facinated by you describing the sedlec ossuary i googled it. oh my gosh. pete really wants to go there too. and MEANDER WOW!!! i love that bit of trivia. looking forward to more! i wasn't one of those that pestered you for more posts but i was THINKING it!!!! PS pete and i inquired about tickets to europe for honeymoon woo! we can only afford london, paris, berlin, copenhagen, with free stopovers in zurich and tokyo. yay!