Berlin Bound...And Beyond

After an incredible few days in Wachtberg we throw ourselves straight back into camper van life. After 154 km we arrive at our first stop, Seige. We have no gas or electricity which makes for a long cold night. Our next stop is 258 km away in Hofgeismar. We spend the night in a quiet carpark in the centre of the small town alongside two other campers. We stock up on yet more blankets from a discount textile store in the village before moving on once again.

Hofgeismar, Germany

Hofgeismar, Germany

We drive 80 km East to Einbeck. The drive is beautiful, quiet country roads lined with huge trees the leaves are brown to gold and every colour in between. We count hundreds of discreet hides camouflaged in trees lining the the fields around us used to hunt deer. After driving for two hours in the beautiful countryside we reach our stop. We are staying in a carpark next to a swimming pool and are one of two campers. We head out for a leg stretch with Oscar and search for the town centre when we pass a very excitable dog and his owner. We get talking to the lady and she kindly invites us along with her on a dog walk. She tells us all about her dog Chief who she rescued from America last year. Her story was heart breaking, she found him on the side of the highway chasing cars and took him to a shelter where she was told to take him back to the highway because the shelter was too full and they would only have to put him down in a few days. By now she'd grown attached to him and obviously wasn't prepared to leave him by the side of the road. She had him flown back to Germany for a grand total of $2000. She explained that he is hard work at times but he looked so happy and grateful of some love and attention. Just the cutest story. So whilst we quizzed his owner on the village and surrounding areas Chief and Oscar spent the walk chasing each other in and out of the river and across muddy fields. The walk takes an hour or so and afterwards the lady walks us into the city centre to show us around. This place is unbelievably beautiful. A famous beer producing city, dating back to prehistoric times. The entire place was almost completely destroyed by fire in 1540. The fire was started by an arsonist, Heinrich Diek who was convicted and died in an iron cage which is now on display in the town hall. We spend the morning wandering around before setting off again.

Einbeck, Germany

Einbeck, Germany

We travel 582 km east making a stop in Klosterberg before arriving in Berlin. After attempting to check into three different campsites to no avail we finally find a camper parking site in Kopenick 20 minutes outside Berlin city centre. After a busy day we wander into the town and stare in awe through all the shop windows shivering in our inadequate winter coats. An hour later Jac and I are the proud owners of new, very practical winter coats. Feeling guilty after blowing our budget we wander back and settle in the van to watch a couple of episodes of Dexter before getting an early night ready to meet my cousin Aaron at Schonefeld airport the following morning.

Today is November 14th, we've been away 29 weeks and are overly excited about seeing a familiar face. We catch the train from Kopenick to Ostkreuz (Central) then onto the airport. We wait anxiously in the arrival lounge, our eyes lighting up every time the double doors open to reveal another passenger. After what seems like an age Aaron finally appears and we briefly catch up outside in the bitterness. We are about to head back to the train station when the doors open once again and to my shock/horror/surprise........my dad and uncle Tony walk through, suitcases in tow.

Best. Surprise. Ever.

By this point I'm bounding around like an overexcited puppy and nobody can get a word of sense out of me. We spend the whole train journey gabbling like a flock of geese before dropping their cases in the hotel and heading out for some food. We enjoy a marathon catch up over steak, burgers and beer at 'Ribs & More' and spend the rest of the night in cocktail bar.

So excited to see my Dad



Jac, Aaron, Uncle Tony & Dad at Ribs & More

The following morning we are nursing our hangovers like bears with sore heads, we struggle to shower and dress ourselves before meeting Aaron, Dad and Uncle Tony at their hotel. We try and fail miserably at finding something that resembles an English breakfast before giving in and consuming a mountain of eggs and fruit. Feeling slightly more human we head, on the train to Oranienburg where we walk 2 km to Sachenhausen Concentration Camp. This is the third camp Jac and I have visited so whilst the others take a look around we educate ourselves in the library and warm up with a hot chocolate.  Later that afternoon we head to the Brandenburg Gate, built as a triumphal arch city gate in 1791. Next we head to the Reichstag, the 19th century home of the German Parliament, remodelled in 1999 by Norman Foster when an impressive glass cupola was added. This now serves as a huge tourist attraction with a restaurant affording views over the new government quarter that has developed around the Reichstag available to visit by appointment only. Next on the list is the Holocaust Memorial, officially known as the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. A moving arrangement of 2711 upright concrete slabs of varying height designed by Peter Eisenman and Buro Happold. The memorial took 20 months to construct at a cost of 25 million Euros. There is also an underground information centre holding the names of all known Jewish Holocaust victims.  We head back through the Brandenburg Gate and stop in an Italian restaurant near Pariser Platz for dinner. We walk back to the hotel with the others and enjoy a couple of drinks in the hotel bar. Jac and I leave around midnight to head back to the camper.

My Dad and Jac at breakfast



Sachenhausen Concentration Camp, Berlin



Berlin, Germany





Brandenburg Gate, Berlin



The Reichstag, Berlin



The Holocaust Memorial



These four in their 'Boy Band' pose

The following morning we meet at the underground station to head out for another day of sightseeing. All three of them (Dad, Aaron and Uncle Tony) look shattered and are struggling. It doesn't take them long to confess that they managed to run up a 150 Euro bill in the bar last night. We get the tube to Prinzenstrasse where we visit Checkpoint Charlie the best known Berlin Wall crossing point between East and West Berlin during the Cold War.  None of them are particularly chatty until they get a McDonalds breakfast (or two) inside them. After breakfast we head to the Berlin Wall open air display where we learn about the construction, failed and successful escape attempts and are able to see a portion of the wall. We follow a trail which takes us along the former course of the wall until we reach Friedrichstrasse where a large part of the wall still stands. Here we are also able to see parts of the former Gestapo and SS Headquarters which now houses a huge photography exhibition named Topography of Terror. After a morning of sightseeing in the rain the others head back to the city centre to do some shopping whilst Jac and I head back to the Brandenburg Gate for a hot chocolate. We meet at the hotel where the guys are printing bording passes and getting ready to fly home early the following morning. We head out for dinner and a few drinks to celebrate a great weekend and say goodbye before heading back to the camper in Kopernick. An amazing action packed 3 days has left us exhausted so we spend the following day relaxing before leaving Berlin.

Harry & Lloyd looking worse for wear

 

Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin



Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin



Oscar at the Berlin Wall



At the Berlin Wall & former Gestapo and SS Headquarters



My Dad and I after a busy day of sightseeing

Next stop...Poland.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



48hr Austrian Adventure

We arrived at the Austrian border late afternoon to a rather smug looking lady flagging us down at Border Control. After waving us into the search bay she asked where our vignette was. A small sticker costing 8€ that you display in the windscreen to enable you to travel along major routes across Austria. I, feeling very pleased with myself; pointed out the official looking green sticker in the corner of the windscreen thinking maybe she hadn’t seen it. She was quick to inform us that although we had done very well in purchasing and displaying our Austrian vignette we also required one for the half mile stretch of Slovenian road we had travelled along to reach this point. Annoyed and slightly bewildered I reached for my purse willing to hand over another 8€ and pass across the border. Regardless of my good intentions she informed us that it was not possible to buy one from her and as we come this far without displaying the correct vignette we had to pay a fine, of 150€.
I shrieked in utter disbelief whilst Jac had an uncontrollable and slightly embarrassing Tourette’s seizure. The kind lady attempted to comfort us by explaining that the normal fine is 300-500€, however as we were strangers (I think she meant tourists) and we weren’t to know we would receive this special discounted rate of 150€ (In our language, 1 big blow out, 2 weeks fuel or 3 weeks food). Try as we might, there was no getting out of it. We paid our fine and got on our way, hoping to reach our next stop before dark. We drove approximately 500 meters up the road before reaching a standstill and traffic for as far as the eye could see. Obviously something local drivers are used to, everybody switched off their engines and got out of their cars to smoke and catch up with utter strangers from the surrounding cars. After half an hour we started moving and soon realised that the hold-up was due to road maintenance and a closed tunnel that had now reopened.
Feeling that we’d been dealt our fair share of bad luck we continued on our journey. For the next three hours we chugged along through dense dark forest willing the van to make it. A long afternoon, many tantrums and 185 km north east of Lake Bled we reached our next stop, a sleepy town called Murau. With no energy, no electricity and almost no will to live (maybe a very slight exaggeration) we decided to write off the day we had just had and fell into bed.

The following morning we continued our journey another 315 km north to Linz. It rained the entire journey and the drive was uneventful, our highlight being a stop at a hardware store to buy jump leads as today was the third morning in a row we’d woken up to a flat battery (it’s all part of the experience, or so we keep telling ourselves).

We spent the following day at Mauthausen Concentration Camp, one of many set up all over Europe between 1933 and 1945. More than 195,000 people were imprisoned at Mauthausen and around 105,000 died there. It was eye opening to say the least; we spent a good few hours exploring the immaculately preserved camp whilst listening to our audio guides. We entered the camp through the main gate between two watch towers. Just inside the gate was an area referred to as the ‘Wailing Wall’. This was where new prisoners would enter the camp, they would be chained to the wall via iron rings that can still be seen today and stripped of their clothes and possessions. They would be left there for hours if not days and would often experience mistreatment for the first time at the hands of the SS. We continued to the prisoners camp or preventative detention camp where we were able to see inside the accommodation blocks, kitchens, gas chambers and the crematorium, the guards barracks and the Wiener Graben (the quarry where the prisoners were made to work) and its ‘Death Steps’  before visiting the museum.

Later that afternoon we arrived in the centre of Linz, a pleasant city straddling the Danube River and the childhood home of Adolf Hitler, we collected Spike from Linz Airport and headed straight for Munich.  

The British memorial at Mauthausen

Mauthausen Concentration Camp

The perimeter wall carried a 380 volt electrical current

Mauthausen Concentration Camp

Wiener Graben & 'Death Steps'