Wed, 03 Sep 2003

author Liz	location Trio Camp, Praha, Ceská Republika
posted 12:30 CEST 07/09/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Deutschland/Deutschland 2 ( all photos )

Towards the Czech Border ( No photos )
On Wednesday morning, after a bit of catching up with journals and another breakfast at the hotel, we got ourselves packed up and moving fairly early.
On previous days in Berlin, we had done our best to find Internet cafés where we could plug the laptop in, but all to no avail. So on wednesday we went to a Starbucks where we paid a high price to get a very good and fast wireless internet connection. We had an hour and we certainly used it well. The main thing we did was book our airline tickets to get us back to Sydney. We now have tickets from Amsterdam to London and then on the 24th of November we fly out of London Heathrow and arrive in Sydney on the 26th of November, going via Singapore.
I'm glad we booked the tickets, but also a little sad because it will mean the end of travelling for a while.
Anyway, after the internet stuff was done, we caught a train back to the mechanics and picked Rosie up. They have replaced the fuel filter, and no wonder it needed replacing - it was chock full of dirt. Hopefully that will mean our problems are all fixed for a while. We have done a fair bit of driving since Berlin, and we have had no shaking and stalling trouble since (touch wood).
So, we drove south out of Berlin following the same path we had taken to Dresden a week before. In Dresden we got quite lost and spent a long while looking for the road we wanted. There are huge amounts of busy road work going on in the old East Germany - it seems the Soviets didn't keep the roads in top condition, and everywhere we have been around Eastern Germany has been full of frantic roadwork. This often means roadsigns are missing, and routes have changed to what is on our maps. It certainly makes driving interesting!
After driving right through central Desden, we kept going south towards our border crossing into Czech. Again, we were stuck in traffic jam after traffic jam because there are roadworks everywhere. But, after driving through some beautiful forest areas (Germany has lots of forest and lots of farmland), we made it to our German/Czech border crossing at Zinnwald.
The Czech registered car infront of us took a very long time to passport control, so we were expecting them to keep us for ages, but we actually went through very quickly. I guess because Tim had all his paperwork sorted out, and I was fine with my British passport.
And so we drove into the Ceská Republika (Czech Republic).

author Tim	location Hotel Remter, Berlin, Deutschland
posted 08:22 CEST 03/09/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Deutschland/Deutschland 2 ( all photos )

The End of Berlin ( 26 photos )
After a nice buffet breakfast in the hotel, we got ourselves organised and went out for a wander.
We were looking for an Internet café and found plenty, but none who would let us plug in. Very strange indeed for such a large city. We found a Starbucks with wireless but they wanted 7 euros to get online. Ouch. Perhaps we will have more luck in Czech.
Mid afternoon a call came in about Rosie which we decyphered to mean that they had driven her around for a long time and eventually replaced a fuel pump, filter or both. It was ready to collect, but we had already told the hotel we would stay another night, intending to head off early in the morning.
We eventually decided to go check out the Spanish / Portugese restaurant just across the road from the hotel for an early dinner, which turned out to be a good move. I had Paella for the first time ever while Liz enjoyed her trout. We both enjoyed that someone else was paying :)
After dinner, we decided that a visit to Berlin's top tourist attraction was most probably worth it - the re-constructed glass dome on top of the Reichstag building. A bus and a walk got us there, via a huge travelling circle of painted ceraming teddy bears, one from each of 132 countries around the world.
We queued for a long time outside the Reichstag, but apparently less than average. After the metal detector and a big lift, we were up the top and there it was! The original dome was destroyed long ago, and this re-design is proving quite popular. We could see down into the parliament (only one "house" in Deutschland), but there was nothing going on there this late at night - everyone seemed to be a floor or two up, just below us, at a rather swanky looking ball. They may have been having nice food and drink, but they were in the fishbowl and we were looking in!
We wandered up the spiral ramp to the top of the dome, but the central part was closed for renovation, so we had to come down the same way. The views were great, but it's funny how some architectural things just work and others don't. This one did, and the dome itself stole the show.
After returning to the bottom of the dome, we spent half an hour or so wandering around in a circle, viewing the history of the building which is very interestingly displayed all around.
We'd had our fill, so we walked out, looking for a coffee shop. We hadn't gone far when we heard a voice say "are you guys from Australia?" Perhaps the huge aussie flag on my backpack gave it away, but there we were, talking to Jacqui from Aus. After whittling it down, it turns out that she is from Carss Park, Carwar Ave, right opposite the bowling club. Grew up about 200 metres away from me and here we are, meeting for the first time on the other side of the world! Also, her best friend is Pandora Zahar, who lives two doors up from our old house in Erang Street.
We chatted for a while over a coffee on Unter Den Linden, said "It's a small world" a few times, then agreed to try and meet up through Pandora at some stage in a year or two.

author Tim	location Hotel Remter, Berlin, Deutschland
posted 10:06 CEST 02/09/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Deutschland/Deutschland 2 ( all photos )

Rosie Goes to Meet Her Maker ( No photos )
No, not that sort of maker - she's been taken to a proper Volkswagen dealer and mechanic at the expense of our Travel Insurance.
After speaking to the Melbourne couple, we decided to get ourselves organised while we were still in an interesting city (the capital of the country Volkswagens come from, no less), just in case the repairs take a few days.
First on the agenda was getting into town, back to the Czech embassy and finding out whether my Visa was ready again. Infact, it was, so I handed over a reasonable sum of cash for my one-entry thirty-day Visa. Liz pays nothing for her much greater freedom (on a British passport), the trade-off being that she doesn't get a pretty little sticker thing in her passport.
We then rang the insurance company to set some wheels in motion, before heading back to the caravan park to drive rosie a couple of suburbs in to the VW dealer at Zehlendorf, Auto Mann. Luckily there was someone there who spoke English, and poked and prodded at her as if he had worked on these old things since he could walk. We'll call back soon to find out what the situation is.
So, this left us without somewhere to stay for the night, and yet again our insurance has proved it was worth the expense. Since the British pound is so strong at the moment, when we are given a fixed number of pounds for hotel and dinner, that means plenty of Euros. We elected to find our own hotel, which we pay for and then claim back.
A room-finding service (hey, why not? We're not paying for it) at Berlin-Zooligischer Garten station pointed us to a very central hotel, quoting a price which he expected us to balk at. "No worries" we said, for it was still quite a way under our allowance. We tottered off to dump our stuff at the Hotel Remter, about thirty seconds off the main drag in this part of town in Marburger Straße. The place is nice, quite old but spotless and with good service.
We dumped our things, before heading off to an Internet Café where we had no chance of plugging the laptop in, instead just checking our emails (we will reply soon!) and doing a bit of research into some flights from Amsterdam to London.
Next, we needed to look more into flights so went in search of an STA Travel office. Eventually finding it, we waited for quite a while before being told that they can only book Air New Zealand from London to Sydney (but anything from Hamburg to Sydney), which is fine, but there are very limited seats available. Prices aren't bad, but we are going to look around a bit more first.
Now it was dinner time, and with someone else still paying, we ate in style at the very nice Joe's Mirtshaus Zum Löwen, a branch of the big Löwenbrau chain (there's one in The Rocks in Sydney called Löwenbrau Keller). A couple of nice steaks washed down with a couple of great beers and it was time to head back to the hotel.
We originally planned to head back out for coffee, but the lure of big beds we didn't have to fold out, mind-numbing TV and hot showers put rest to that plan.

author Tim	location Hotel and Camping am Wasser, Berlin, Deutschland
posted 22:42 CEST	section Europe2002/Europe/Deutschland/Deutschland 2 ( all photos )

Goslar, Quedlinburg ( 21 photos )
It wasn't far from the campsite north to Goslar, the second town on the Heritage Loop, and what a great town it was.
Seemingly endless rows of well-preserved half-timbered houses lead in to the central Markt square, adorned with even more ornate versions of the same.
You might just be able to pick out Liz in that photo on one of the chairs at the far right - that's where we ate our breakfast of cheese, salami, eggs, bread, toast, juice and coffee. Our treat to ourselves after making do with bread for one or two meals a day for quite some time.
We just wandered around town for a while, looking in craft shops (including a set which were in an old church with low entrance doors padded with pillows), touristy shops and many buildings with really old dates on their plaques out the front. On the way out of town, I saw a sign saying that the town celebrated its millenium in 1994, and some of these buildings wouldn't have been much younger than that.
We had come as far west as we intended for the time being, and now it was time to head back towards Berlin - but first, one more World Heritage town on the way - Quedlinburg.
We parked quite close to town, followed our noses into and around the place almost devoid of life. It is strange how so much of Europe seems to shut down on a Sunday, which makes it a great time to avoid the crowds.
By far and away the most pretty place here was the Markt square once again, containing probably the most gorgeous Rathaus (Town Hall) we have seen to date.
However, we chose not to dally for long, and pushed along the roads back to Berlin. The drive took longer than it should, because of the amount of road-work and hence detours around the place (a bridge was totally closed at one point which would have added about an hour, but Liz sniffed us out another one nearby), and also Rosie's bad behaviour.
We drove back into the same caravan park as before, located at the corner we were entering the city. Tonight we met and got speaking to Heather and Steve from Melbourne, who are doing almost the exact same thing we are doing except in the other direction. She's a Nurse, he's in IT, and they have been living in London also. Strange.
Amongst our conversation, we got as all combi-drivers do to the topic of mechanical problems - they have had plenty more than us so far. The interesting thing for us is that Steve has suggested that the problem we are having is the same as he had with a previous Combi - the valves need grinding as they sometimes don't close properly, letting fuel in to flood the engine.
At least it is a labour job so the insurance should cover the cost, but we aren't sure where we want to stop for that long yet.
Tomorrow we head back into Berlin hoping that my Czech visa is ready, and that we can find an internet café somewhere.

author Tim	location Hotel and Camping am Wasser, Berlin, Deutschland
posted 22:15 CEST 31/08/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Deutschland/Deutschland 2 ( all photos )

Erfurt ( 8 photos )
After managing to checkout and get a couple of coffees from the guy running the place with only a few bits of laughter at my German, we were on the road.
It wasn't far from our overnight stop into the town of Erfurt. The first of three towns forming the western part of our loop back to Berlin which are listed on the World Heritage List, it did not dissapoint.
We parked on the outskirts and caught the Park-and-Ride tram into town, after the driver attempted to explain how to buy a ticket. If there's one thing that the Deutsch do well it is to make things complicated. We ended up with five tickets, each worth a Euro, and no idea what to do with them. After a little bit of observation of fellow travellers, I discovered that by sticking one into a little box on the tram, it came back with a stamp on it. There was no indication as to how many we needed per journey, so I settled for one each, leaving us with one un-stamped one. No, there was no mechanism to buy four.
Through the town we amused ourselves for quite a while stopping in a bakery, dodging the rain, buying umbrellas (lost ours somewhere), looking into the Rathaus, around the Fishmarkt, Domplatz and just generally admiring the handsome buildings which somehow dodged the bombs.
There was a display in the Rathaus about the composer Pachabel which we didn't understand (it is not uncommon to find nothing at all in anything other than Deutsch this far away from the standard tourist sites), so we moved on to a couple of huge bookshops, just browsing around.
We jumped on a return tram to the Park and Ride and drove north through the town. After quite a bit of progress, Rosie decided to show us that all is not well mechanically. Although it has been much better, she got up to her old tricks yet again. We know how to handle it, so all is safe, but it is a little dis-concerting when it happens.
We made it into Camping Okertalsperre, just north of Altenau. To get there we had wound our way up through the mountains, not huge tall ones but quite different to the flat landscapes of our previous few weeks. The weather has become quite a bit cooler of late, and the rain seems more constant. We also see lots of places where the wind is so persistent that the trees on both sides of the road lean to the side.
We had a look around the park itself, playing in the playground like kids before noting on the way out the sign saying "Under 12 only". Whoops. A snacky dinner followed yet again, paving the way for something better in the morning.

author Tim	location Oettern, Weimar, Thüringen, Deutschland
posted 10:35 CEST 30/08/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Deutschland/Deutschland 2 ( all photos )

Leipzig, Buchenwald ( 13 photos )
Liz and I got ourselves organised reasonably early, and decided that driving into town would be less hassle than getting the tram, probably cost about the same and anyway, it was raining cats and dogs!
After parking in roughly the same place as the previous day, we had a coffee in one of the stylish arcades the city has on offer.
From there we headed to the Rathaus and the markets out the front to meet up with Baz, but in the end he was running a little late and had to go straight to the train station instead.
The rain had subsided for a while, so we turned our attention across the square to the dominant Thomaskirche, which houses the tomb of one Johann Sebastian Bach in front of the altar, one of Leipzig's most famous exports. There were also some instruments from his time on display, catching our musical minds' attention.
From there we wandered to the edge of the town to the Stasi Museum. The Stasi were the East German Secret Police in the time before the fall of the wall, and hence part of the Soviet Empire. The museum documented the total distrust of everyone everywhere, as they had collected everything from intercepted mail to scent and saliva samples in jars of pretty much everyone in Leipzig. The place has been kept pretty much as it was when it was invaded by citizens in 1989, stopping the destruction of the evidence that had been in process. It was fascinating to wander around, looking at lots of rooms full of tools of the trade, but would have been better if either our German was better or there was a more comprehensive English translation of much of the material.
We had just enough time before our parking ticket ran out to visit the temporary exhibition site of the Musical Instruments Museum of the University of Leipzig. The universal language of music helped us out here, especially when the helpful attendant threw a barrage of Deutsch at us, as we could see by her demonstrating the very interesting square organ complete with bird whistle, spinny flower things and of course lots of pipes. They had some really old clavichords, harpsichords and weird thirty-stringed lutes and even violas which we just about took in with the little time we had.

From there, it was out of town, heading west further on our "Old East Germany Ring Trip". Next stop was the Buchenwald concentration camp. From the outset we had a reasonable idea what we were in for - you don't visit places like this for an easy-going enjoyable afternoon. Once again we were a little let down, this time by the fact that we couldn't get an audio-guide despite the place not closing for many hours to come. We had to just wander and read a bit, not quite a way to do the horrific memories justice but still interesting to see the place where something like 56,000 people lost their lives.
There was a museum on the outskirts which was actually about the building of the memorial (getting the Allies and Soviets to agree on anything almost always involved enough to-ing and fro-ing to fill an entire museum), which contained an audio recording that an American reporter broadcast a day after the camp had first been discovered at the end of the war. That pretty much said it all for us, and coupled with the fact that the rain had come back we decided not to venture much further around the place.
Instead, we headed back to the motorway and a little way back east toward Weimar, where we checked ourselves into a nice little caravan park in forest land a long way from anywhere.

author Tim	location Oettern, Weimar, Thüringen, Deutschland
posted 10:12 CEST 30/08/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Deutschland/Deutschland 2 ( all photos )

Into Leipzig ( 6 photos )
The morning was spent lazing around Meißen, making full use of the electricity (or "energy") we had paid for by doing some work on the journal, before we got ourselves on the road in the direction of Leipzig.
This would be a continuation of our loop designed to take up a few days while we awaited my Czech visa back in Berlin. Also, it would get Dave one step closer to his next destination.
Off the motorway, I spotted a gas specialist and, in my deranged state still held the belief that maybe, just maybe they would have the right type of gas. Not the case at all, but they directed us to a large Hardware House type place up the road to look there. Not suprisingly, they didn't either, although Baz was in his element, and we found a 240v lamp to use when we are plugged into the mains which cost us slightly more than the price of a bulb to go in it.
From there into the centre of town (another place with no caravan parks central), we parked just off the funnily-named Martin-Luther-Ring (the city's ring road) and wandered into the town proper.
A girl Dave had met on the bus on the way over here had issued a formal invitation for him to go and stay for a while, at a little town called Aschaffenburg East of Frankfurt am Main. Much of this afternoon was spent trying to work out how to get him there - we eventually booked a hotel for the night here (sleeping on the front seat, floor and outside was taking its toll!) and a train to said town for the following day (at the Hauptbahnhof, which is Europe's biggest train station).
After dinner, we wandered back through town to Rosie as her parking was running out, then drove Baz to his hotel. After saying our goodbyes, then negotiating for Rosie's release from the car park, Liz and I drove a little way north of town along one of the tram lines to the closest caravan park.
Campingplatz Auensee turned out to be quite a nice place, where the guy running it and I had a couple of interesting conversations, he speaking English and me German, both attempting quite humorously no doubt to get our points across.
Having decided to do our city sight-seeing the following day, sleep soon followed. We assume Baz slept better as well.

author Tim	location Leipzig, Sachsen, Deutschland
posted 20:20 CEST 28/08/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Deutschland/Deutschland 2 ( all photos )

Dresden, Meißen ( 44 photos )
With the assistance of some helpful locals amused at our attempts to decypher the highly complicated Dresden local transport map, we found ourselves on a bendy bus heading to the Hauptbahnhof (main train station).
From there, we walked into Dresden itself, finding ourselves first at the tourist office. Here, for the sum of 26 euro cents (apparently 25 cents wasn't quite covering the costs), we purchased an English guide to the city, complete with self-guided walking tour. Great!
We needed coffee, and the efficent-as-a-robot girl at the first-floor café in a shoe store helped us out no end. Although the tea that David and Liz managed to acquire was of unknown type - certainly not English Breakfast or similar like they thought they were getting. It seems that unless they get used to drinking coffee (which is universal), this sort of thing is going to become very common.
I bought some cheap tacky thongs (the ones that go on your feet, British people!) as my other pair which had come over from Sydney with us had fallen apart a while back. You need them for the showers in the caravan parks, which can be a bit grubby.
Next, we headed to the start of our tour at the Rathaus. We almost walked past it, as it isn't in a square as most others are. There were some great brass statues out the front which looked like they could use a bit of a polish - Baz suggested a school group should be given a few bottles of Brasso and told to keep themselves busy for the afternoon.
Inside, there was a photographic exhibition, some of the entries of which were quite humorous, but most of the rest of the building was off limits. Or at least that's what we thought the signs said - the Deutsch language has a habit of making really nice things sound really nasty!
From there, we wandered in and around quite a lot of the Altstat (Old Town), which, curiously enough, is mostly newer than the Neustat (New Town), due to almost total destruction during World War II. We ducked our heads into the Kreuzkirche which was undergoing renovation, then into the Altmarkt, the city's oldest and largest square.
Fairly random wandering (it was difficult to follow our tour) then brought us to the breath-taking Fürstenzug, on Augustusstraße. This is a huge long mosaic of 24,000 tiles shows all the rulers of Sachsen from 1124 to 1904, made of Meißen china (more on that later).
From here, Baz decided to wander across the bridge to Neustadt, eventually finding an Internet café to organise some flights and things, while Liz and I first turned our attention to more of Altstadt.
The square right on the south side of Augustus-brücke (bridge) was quite a sight to behold. On all sides were huge old buildings - a Cathedral (which we ducked our heads inside - less ornate but still more beautiful than most we have seen), old towers, walkways and bridges all around us. It is really quite difficult to imagine that most of it is less than fifty years old, you wouldn't know to look at it.
We wandered west, taking in the also-amazing but strangely named Zwinger. This "outer bailey" is a vast couryard surrounded by old buildings and a wall. The Police Orchestra was playing at one end, which we sat and watched for a while, missing our Georges River Band quite a lot. We spent quite a while just taking photos and soaking up the atmosphere of the area - the city is famous for its music and there were little combos, buskers and here a full band everywhere you look.
The nearby Semperoper (Opera House) also had a large sign promising Jazz, but there appeared to be no way in other than for a concert at night or via German-language-only tour.
Now it was time for Liz and I to turn our attention north of Augustus-brücke to the Neustadt. Here we walked along the banks of the Elbe river (it gets around, flowing through at least Hamburg and Meißen also, and I'm sure quite a lot more) to the strangely-located Japanese Palace. Then on to Königstraße, a potent symbol of how Dresden used to look (you hear that quite a lot here). A few churches and interesting streets later, we were on Haupt-Straße. This long pedestrianised street is the focus of this part of town, lined with eateries, cafés and poky little shops.
It was here that we ate a snacky lunch, before delving into a book shop to see what it offered. What we ended up purchasing was an album designed to store all the different Euro coins. If you didn't know, all the Euro notes are the same everywhere, but the countries are allowed to produce coins with their own designs on one side, hence providing good grounds for a collection.
It hasn't taken long to gather the entire Deutschland set, of course, but other countries are proving significantly more difficult. It's a shame we didn't start earlier, having travelled already through Ireland, Finland and Netherlands which are on the Euro, but I'm sure we will work it out.
At the south end of the street (and hence the north end of Augustus-brücke), there is probably the most glittering gold statue I have ever seen - the Goldener Reiter (Golden Rider). This is of Augustus the strong, and was hidden away in safety during the war, before being un-veiled again in 1956 for the city's 750 year anniversary.
We spent a few minutes resting our legs and quenching our thirst in a café on Albert-platz, before heading back across the bridge. We met up with Baz once again, and wandered our way back in turn to the bus stop then Rosie, whom we had parked outside the camping place.

Not too much of a drive away was the fantastically-preserved little old town of Meißen. Famous for its china / porcelan (see earlier), there were refreshingly few places attempting to sell it to us. However, the ones which were were breathtakingly expensive - AUD $2000 for a tea service!
Perhaps it is because this is old East Germany which tourists have avoided for so many years, but the place was great. We wandered aimlessly amongst the entirely cobbled streets, and then up the hill to the Dom (cathedral) and Schloß (castle) perched right on top. There was a great view across the valley to the other parts of town.
By now it was dinner time, and we found a restaurant which promised great views according to the sign on the front. They weren't lying - we sat on the balcony of a restaurant which has been operating since the fifteenth century, looked out over the town and just tried to take it all in.
Something else we tried to take in was the menus. This proved rather difficult, however, as they weren't even (for the most part) written in Deutsch (which we can kind of fudge our way through now) - they appeared to be an old Saxon languange! The waitress obviously saw our distress, and offered us some English menus - much better!
We sat there and ate some great traditional meals, drank a couple of local beers, and were suprised (well, relatively) at the reasonable prices - methinks the fact that tourism hasn't quite discovered this place is a blessing in more ways than one.
From there, we walked back down through town to Rosie parked by the Elbe, and located a caravan park some way north of the town in Niederau. The intriguingly-named Campingganmeldung (careful how you pronounce that one) came complete with the most amusing English-speaking Deutschlander we have found. It was definitely a you-have-to-be-there sort of thing, but his phrases and vocabularly obviously learnt from American movies made for much amusement for us. Examples included when he came to "give us energy" (plug in the electricity cable), and the instruction to "follow with me into the meadow" (a word almost nobody uses in day-to-day English). For all that, he spoke far better English than any of us did Deutsch, so we were grateful.
The caravan park had a "pool", which actually turned out to be a small lake complete with ducks, and hence completely filled with duck-muck. Swimming out of the question, we elected to feed the ducks for a while, before doing very little and eventually sleeping, tired from our first day with two separate places in quite a while.

author Liz	location Meißen, Sachsen, Deutschland
posted 10:48 CEST 28/08/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Deutschland/Deutschland 2 ( all photos )

South to Dresden ( No photos )
We got up bright and early, and again made our way into Berlin. We went back to the Visa department of the Czech Republic, where Tim filled out forms to get a visa. Unfortunately it takes three to five working days for the visa to become valid, so we are now waiting for it to come through and travelling around this part of Germany for a few days.
We found a small café and had tea and coffee, then decided to go back to the caravan park and get on the road. Back at the caravan park we packed up, paid the grumpy staff member who had a dummy spit about Tim disturbing his lunch to give him money, and drove south out of Berlin.
It was not a big drive - about 180km to Dresden, but we stopped for some lunch about half way.
In Dresden, finding the caravan park we had chosen proved to be very difficult, especially as, like all the old Communist areas of Germany, most of Dresden was undergoing major roadworks so many signposts were missing. In the end we found Campingplatz Dresden-Mockritz, and it was quite a nice one. We got some food from the local supermarket and spent the afternoon relaxing with Tim cooking up a storm on the barbie.

author Tim	location Meißen, Sachsen, Deutschland
posted 10:16 CEST 28/08/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Deutschland/Deutschland 2 ( all photos )

Berlin on Foot ( 15 photos )
First task this morning was to organise some hot water for a coffee (still no gas). I amused myself and a helpful woman running the caravan park's café by asking in German whether I could have some hot water. She helfully provided a thermos full, and we enjoyed the change of our own brewed hot drinks.
Back into town via bus 620 to Wansee then fast-train RE1 to Friedrichstraße (we were getting the hang of this by now), we wandered down Wilhelmstraße to the Czech embassy. I'm not sure what John Howard or his predecessors have said to the Czech people, but Australians are amongst the few remaining people who need a visa to enter the country. The embassy was open five days a week (better than most), however only from 8:30-11am - we had arrived too late.
So, from there we set about finding a late breakfast / early lunch - and the tour guide's suggestion that the huge, visible from everywhere TV tower (Fernsehturm) was cheaper than you might think was sounding good.
After walking along there along Unter den Linden, standing in the queue for a while, taking a reasonably fast lift up to the top and then standing in another queue for a table at the restaurant, we were there!
The tower itself has an interesting history - concieved by the Soviets as a display of their engineering talent, they infact had to sub-contract to the Swedes about half-way through when it was clear that they didn't know how to build the rest. Knowing that were were in safe Swedish hands, we enjoyed the fantastic views from the restaurant all over the city, rotating twice an hour which is much faster than in Centerpoint / AMP tower in Sydney.
Back down on the ground, there was a couple of museums we wanted to look at we had passed at speed on bikes the day before - firstly the Mauermuseum Haus am Checkpoint Charlie, back at Allied Checkpoint Charlie. This museum was first started just a couple of years after the wall went up, and has been in a constant state of change ever since. It documents the terrible history surrounding the wall, escape stories (home-built submarines, tunnels, hot air balloons, smuggling people in cars) and the ever more deadly technology to stop said escapes. We spent a few hours slowly wandering around taking it all in - a truly great place to do so.
Our next stop was a little way away, back into the former Soviet sector then along the wall's previous path (the bottom bricks of the wall have been left in the tarmac, showing the path it used to follow). A few sections still remain, amongst them a part housing the Topography of Terror exhibition in the former Gestapo Headquarters.
This was quite a chilling place to be, complete with audio-guide explanations of the otherwise German-only descriptions of orders surrounding the holocaust, all inside the place most of them were ordered from. Pictures completed the explanation.
It was quite interesting to see just how the entire population was swayed with propoganda, and that the hatred often directed at the German people in general for past wrongs really only stems back to a few nasty people, far from the entire 80 or so million living here today. Those who stood up against it (and there were plenty of them discussed here) were all sent to pretty much the same fate - one of the many concentration camps.
By now it was dinner time, and some random wandering landed us at a Chinese Bistro off Friedrichstraße. The menu was quite difficult to navigate, so in the end we resorted to "pick a number between 40 and 80", and ordered the dish with that number. The worst that resulted was that Liz's choice had some seaweed (we think), but otherwise it was all quite good and cheaper than expected.
Waiting for our train, we went back to a bar for a coffee, but eventually caught another fast train home with no problems.

author Liz	location Meißen, Sachsen, Deutschland
posted 20:38 CEST 27/08/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Deutschland/Deutschland 2 ( all photos )

Berlin by Bike ( 28 photos )
In the morning Tim and I caught the bus from just outside of the caravan park to the nearby S-Bahn station, Wansee. From there, after a bit of confusion about which platform we had to catch the train from, we eventually got on an express train to Berlin (geez, that thing went fast!). It didn't stop at any stations until Charlottenberg where we got off, and it really zipped along at a speedy pace.
At Charlottenberg, we bought tea and coffee and then walked up the road to the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtnis-Kirche (memorial church). This was quite amazing - a huge church that had been bombed in World War Two and so it still had most of its spire missing, and ornamental stone-work blown out of the windows.
Just here by the fountain was where we met Dave. We sat and chatted for quite a while before going into the nearby tourist information to find out where we could store Dave's suitcase for the day. This could be done at one of the nearby train stations, which seemed to be three stations in one - an S-Bahn, a U-Bahn and a big Central Station. Anyway, after asking lots of non-english speaking Germans how to store the suitcase by pointing wildly at said object and gesticulating excitedly, we finally found our way to the lockers, located a big enough one for the suitcase, and locked Dave's belongings away.
Whilst in the tourist information, Tim had picked up a brochure that had lots of tours around Berlin advertised, and all were in English. The Insider Tour Berlin by Bike tour appealed to us most of all, as it covered most of the sights we wished to see. As an added bonus, seeing Berlin by bike would save a lot of walking - it is a very spread-out city. And bikes are lots of fun too!
So, from the Zoological Gardens train station we were at, we caught two trains out to where our tour would start. This was a big adventure - when Tim (in quite good German) asked the platform attendant which side of the platform we should catch our train from, the guy spoke rapid German and pointed first at one side of the platform and the the other. Dave and I were standing to one side trying not to laugh, and when Tim came over, he smiled and said "he said go here!", pointing to the first platform.
As it turned out we managed to get the right train! Two stops later we had to get out, cross to the other side of the platform, and catch another train to continue our journey. Now it all made sense, and we understood why the platform attendant had pointed at both sides of the platform.
Another two stops later we got off at Friedrichstraße S-Bahn station, and sat in a café and had lunch. We another hour to go until the tour started, so we walked across a bridge over the river Spree and found a small park to sit in a sunny spot and relax before our big ride.
At three pm we were at the meeting point for our Berlin by Bike tour, at, funnily enough, a bike shop. We were each given a bike of suprisingly good quality (the brakes even worked - our last bikes in Singapore didn't even have brakes!) and then asked to hand over a passport or credit card for security.
The tour was four hours long, but we were not on the bikes as much as I thought we would be. At each sight we came to, we stopped and were given a spiel on the building or the area, including lots of history (which Berlin is bursting with). We even stopped for a coffee break after a couple of hours.
We saw heaps of sights - our first stop was the Reichstag - the parliament house, an impressive buiding built in 1894. It was partly gutted by fire probably started by Hitler and his cronies, but has been rebuilt and is a beautiful building. From the Reichstag, we rode to the Brandenburg Gate, once the boundary between East and West Berlin. Further up the road, we stopped at an old remaining section of the Berlin Wall. I found it suprisingly un-impressive - an ugly concrete and steel wall with huge chunks missing out of it. The next stop was a car park. Doesn't sound too impressive, but it was the exact spot where Hitler had his bunker, and where he committed suicide. The whole bunker has been blown up and covered over. There is no plaque or anything there to say what it used to be, because they don't want Neo-Nazis to come there and pay tribute to Hitler.
At each stop, and sometimes in between, our guide Kenny would tell us about the area, the buildings, and most importantly the very interesting history. We learnt more from the guide than we could have from any book. There was certainly a lot of interesting history in and around the area of Hitler's bunker - all about the massive building that once stood here where Hitler ruled from, about Hitler himself and how his staff tried to hide his and his new wife's bodies.
Further up the road we came to Checkpoint Charlie, one of the crossings between East and West Berlin, where there is a replica building of the checkpoint standing in the middle of the road. Just near here was where we stopped for a coffee break.
Back on our bikes, we rode a bit and then stopped in a big open square which had some beautiful old buildings in it. Soon after this we stopped in some old university buildings where a massive book-burning of, among others, Einstein's works took place.
Another stop was at an ugly building in a state of dis-repair. This was where the communists had their headquarters, but it is about to be pulled down. Just up the road was the preserved balcony where the declaration which had effectively started World War I was made. Also visible from here was a beautiful church.
Our last stop was in a park with a statue of Karl Marx, and we were told the last bit of history and war information about the area. The last bit of the tour was riding ten or fifteen minutes back to our starting point. It was a really good tour and we saw so much stuff - a great way to see Berlin.
At the train station we bought some food to cook on the bbq, and made our way slowly back to the caravan park, collecting Dave's baggage along the way. It took us quite a while to get there, as we caught a slow train, so by the time we managed to get the barbie going and some food cooked we were all warn out. At 11pm we fell into bed, Dave sleeping on the passenger seat.

author Tim	location Hotel and Camping am Wasser, Berlin, Deutschland
posted 09:26 CEST 25/08/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Deutschland/Deutschland 2 ( all photos )

Drive to Berlin ( 12 photos )
After loading up the bus, and cleaning the flat, we did one last run around Aldi before heading off.
However, we had one last stop in Hamburg - Liz's father Ingo's old house in Gryphiusstraße. We hadn't walked here earlier as it was quite a way from where we were staying. Liz took some photos around the area while I parked illegally (very busy area now), before we headed back through town.
It was a little harder than expected to locate the autobahn out of there, but in the end we were on our way to Berlin.
Some of our initial plans had included making it to the Berlin Love Parade, but in the end we didn't quite do that. Here we just drove and drove, through strange dust blowing of freshly-ploughed fields which looked like brown smoke in the distance.
It was interesting driving the bus again - a little more power, quite a bit less wobbly on the roads, but still being blown around in the strong winds like only a top-heavy high-top combi can.
Upon reaching Berlin, we drove down the western side towards one of the camp sites picked at random, the best of a bad bunch. This is the closest, and it is 15km out of town! I guess tourism has only become high on the priority list since 1990 or so, so perhaps this will improve with time.
After our drive, it was quite late in the day, so we decided against finding our way into town, instead opting to relax at our site by the river, and eat some bbq-ed steak cooked at the outdoor restaurant here. When it became apparent to the cook that he couldn't quite get his point across about what type of meat it was we were able to purchase off him, he completed the picture by snorting, making some truly great piggy noises.
Bill Bryson (the travel writer) describes travelling in foreign countries as being like a child once again. You don't know what the signs mean, people are saying, or what meat you are eating. It's nice when someone is willing to jump in and help out like that!

author Tim	location Hotel and Camping am Wasser, Berlin, Deutschland
posted 09:20 CEST 25/08/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Deutschland/Deutschland 2 ( all photos )

Rosie Returns ( No photos )
After meeting up with Jens early afternoon, we were treated to a guided three-bus tour of Hamburg's suburbs out to the mechanic's place.
This is actually little more than a house with people interested in cars living in it, but they have done a good job for very little money. Contacts come through again, thanks guys.
So we drove Rosie (complete with new antenna, spark plugs, two new rear tires and far less water in the fuel filter) back to Jens' place, where we sat and had a chat over a few beers. We were happy to speak to someone else who spoke English, and he was happy to give his English a work-out.
We then went back towards Seb and Jessi's place, located a parking place and headed inside.
We spent a slow evening packing the place back up, getting organised to pack our lives back into the van again. It's strange missing a "real" house, but we were itching to get back on the road again.

author Tim	location St. Pauli, Hamburg, Deutschland
posted 13:17 CEST 22/08/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Deutschland/Deutschland 2 ( all photos )

Around Hamburg Again ( 5 photos )
After spending most of the morning watching yet more videos, we decided by mid-afternoon that walk into and around town was in order.
This took in the Rathusmarkt, where a huge international food and drink festival thing was happening. All manner of international cuisine, local wines and beers were available. Not to suprisingly, the temptation to try a little was strong, and we caved in. Not to badly though, just a cheapish meal and a couple of drinks.
We also took a walk around Binnenalster, the Inner Lake of Hamburg (couldn't quite get across the train tracks and roads to the Aussenalster - Outer Lake). A fairly dull day limited good photo opportunities, but this is a marked change from when we looked around this area in the overpowering heat last time.
Wandering back to the flat, we settled in for another relaxing night, getting to bed early quite tired.

author Tim	location St. Pauli, Hamburg, Deutschland
posted 14:45 CEST 21/08/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Deutschland/Deutschland 2 ( all photos )

Away one year! ( No photos )
It doesn't seem like it, but today marks three hundred and sixty-five days since we left Sydney!
Wow, we have covered so much, yet still feel we have plenty to see. Every time I look at a world map it seems we have seen so little, yet a quick browse back through the journal shows the contrary.
To honour this amazing feat, we decided to do pretty much nothing. We worked our way through Seb and Jessi's video collection, whiling the day away in a very lazy manner. A bottle of duty-free champers helped the celebrations, before I turned my hand to learning some more Deutsch from the language learning CD we have.

author Tim	location St. Pauli, Hamburg, Deutschland
posted 14:37 CEST 21/08/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Deutschland/Deutschland 2 ( all photos )

Rosie Goes to the Doctor's ( No photos )
We had until 2pm until we had to meet Kristina to take Rosie for a bit of TLC, and we passed it doing very little.
Liz decided to stay while I went out to battle a strange city with no map (although I found out later that Seb had left us one in plain view which I hadn't seen). Either Jens' directions or my ability to follow them turned out to be lacking (probably the latter), and a few SMSs, phone calls and crossing motorways I wasn't supposed to be crossing later, all while driving a big bus in a small city, I arrived fourty-five minutes late to meet Kristina.
She turned out to be such a friendly and helpful person, claiming not to be worried that I was so late. I followed her to the mechanics, where she explained in Deutsch too rapid for me to follow the problems which needed attending too.
After handing over the keys, I got into her tiny VW Golf (everything is tiny compared to Rosie - I felt like my knees were just under my chin), where she helpfully drove me back to Seb's place in the torrential rain via her own for a quick stop.
Not much happened for the rest of the evening, continuing our trend of relaxing in one place after being in so many different places for so long.

author Tim	location St. Pauli, Hamburg, Deutschland
posted 14:23 CEST 21/08/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Deutschland/Deutschland 2 ( all photos )

Back to Hamburg ( No photos )
(Continued from Danmark 2)
We fueled up across the border, noting with some anxiety that there was no 98 octane fuel available. Bracing ourselves for a rockier ride, we pushed on towards Hamburg, stopping at a road-side place for some lunch and an ice cream. The weather was quite warm, pushing and perhaps exceeding thirty degrees.
Into Hamburg from the North this time, we had no real problems finding our way to Paul-Rossen Straße where Sebastian and Jessi usually live. I say usually because they are currently in Scotland, on a band tour! However, they have kindly allowed us to use their place while they are away.
They left their keys with a friend (vocalist Jens from the band we went to the rehersal for last time we were here), so while waiting for him to finish work we stocked up at ultra-cheap supermarket Aldi and relaxed for a few hours, reading and resting in Rosie.
Jens' address flashed up on the phone, and off I went, walking what turned out to be one of the longest possible ways to his flat on Stresemann Straße. Upon arriving and chatting, I told him we were basically here to get the van fixed at any random place we happened upon. Before I knew it, he had recommended a place, and organised his sister Kristina to guide us there and back! Wow, thanks so much to these two for all their help, it has made our life much easier. They even translated what is wrong with the van into Deutsch for us.
Walking back to the van in half the time (and hence appearing from the other direction and confusing Liz), we found our way into Seb and Jessi's flat. Big thanks also to them for leaving their home to people from another country for a while when they themselves are far far away. They left the place spotless, so now we have quite a cleaning job when we leave!
It is good to be back in a "real" house where you don't have to clean up piles of clothes and books to get to the sink, and the bed is there all the time, no un-folding required. As such, we used the oven (how strange!) to cook some dinner, before starting on our long period here of doing very very little.

(customised)