Huh?! English only at the tables please.
PS Delighted to hear yer habing der gut time.
Only sporadic internet access until now but I'm having the most wonderful time.
Cliffy-type notes
Drove with Mrs RED across bits of France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. buying food along the way and stopping in scenic locations to eat it while sitting in our end of season bogof folding chairs from Halfords.
Evenings in those picnic/rest stop type areas that they have in Europe. Free parking, hot showers, clean loos etc. Read lots of books, watched some DVD's on our little 12 volt player and slept in the van. Lovely.
Eventually arrived in Berlin. What an amazing, thought provoking place. 70% destroyed during the war, and all the remaining pre-1945 buildings showing obvious damage. Then there's the wall... What a flabbergasting thing that is/was. Imagine such a vast city being divided overnight. Factories, hospitals, roads. railway lines, families, all split in two at a stroke.
There is still several large sections of the wall left, but that's only a small percentage, after all, there was hundreds and hundreds of miles of the bloody thing. Still there is enough to give you a real flavor of what it was like.
Nowdays, a double row of cobblestones mark the plce where the wall once stood, so you can trace it's path. Even where a building has been built across it, if you go inside, the path of the wall is marked along the floor.
Behind the wall was a broad strip of no-man's-land called "The Killing Ground" Lots of important buildings like churches and stuff found themselves trapped in the killing ground no-man's land and had to be abandoned. The Brandenburg Gate was out of bounds to everyone for 28 years. (more on the wall and the Brandenburg Gate later, it's an amazing story)
Checkpoint Charlie. A visit to there will make the hair stand up on the back if your neck. Google it, read about it's incredible history and see the pictures of Soviet and US tanks facing off at point blank range.
Abandoned our van in Berlin for a few Days (You can park anywhere in Berlin, even in front of the Reichstag) and took a 10 hour train ride through the stunning Polish countryside to Krackow, It was an unforgettable journey, made all the more so by the fact that the air-con (Small fan behind grille) in our carriage broke down so we were moved in to first class.....
It was dark when we arrived in Krackow, and we were surprised to find a holiday type atmosphere. Crowds throng the roads and pavements, street performers plying their trade in the square, and groups of dark-hared, vivacious young girls swan about in their going out clothes, leaving a trail of heady perfume and slack-jawed old men in their wake.
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