GOING TO THE WALL

We decided to go northeast by the quickest route possible which meant breaking our rule of avoiding motorways.  We spent a night beside the River Waal near to Nijmegen in Holland which meant driving several kilometres along the top of a dyke.  The following day was the first day of the International Four Day March – a walking event which attracts walkers from all over the world and is restricted to 40,000 participants!  The Waal is one of the rivers into which the Rhine flows and is one of the busiest in Europe and massive barges passed frequently day and night loaded with goods of all sorts.

Avoiding the walkers we pressed on into Germany and had two dry days just outside of Magdeburg.  This major inland port is on the River Elbe – another busy waterway.  It was heavily bombed during World War II and suffered further during the Communist era but is now being painstakingly restored.  The Protestant Cathedral still contains many elaborate carvings including the steps up to the pulpit where the balustrade includes the story of Adam and Eve. 

In a porch are statues depicting the Parable of the wise and foolish Virgins.  Those who had oil for their lamps greeted the Bridegroom with obvious happiness ...

... while the others were very sad indeed!

Nearby was a very strange modern building called “The Green Citadel”

And the round tower on the left really does lean so that the golden balls look as though they should roll off.

 There were sculptures everywhere, one of the most unusual being this glass statue.

On a miserable wet day we drove to Berlin which we visited over the weekend.  Our site was nearly thirty kilometres from the centre but we were able to get day tickets for our journey.  They cost about £6.00 each and gave us unlimited travel on the very efficient underground, trams or buses .

 We visited part of the Berlin wall where there is now a garden of remembrance in what was the death zone. 

The atmosphere there was very heavy and we found the photos and descriptions of those who had died trying to escape rather harrowing.

 Berlin has many neo-classical buildings as well as some very modern ones and we managed to see most of the well known tourist sites among which were:

Schloss Charlottenburg

The Jewish Museum housed in a very strange modern building which is intentionally disorientating

Checkpoint Charlie complete with phony American soldier and McDonalds behind it

And of course the Brandenburg Gate

Among the many statues, one of our favourites  was in the Victoria Park - Neptune wrestling with a mermaid caught in his net!

Just over the border into Poland is the town of Szczecin (Stettin in German) where we are staying at Campsite Marina and were blessed with warm sunshine and a lovely sunset.

Tomorrow we go towards Gdansk

HERE WE GO AGAIN!

We are on our travels again – crossing the Channel tomorrow (Sunday) and heading across northern Germany where we will visit Berlin before going into Poland and up into Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. 

During the last two and a half months we have enjoyed visiting family and friends and here are a few of the things we saw in between. 

Travelling to Scotland on the A68 we came to Jedbrough which has a huge ruined Abbey.

The whole of the centre of Jedbrough is a free WiFi hotspot – why aren’t all towns and cities so helpful?

We had two weeks on the Isle of Skye and in spite of heavy showers and very strong winds saw much of the island though the Cuillin mountains never appeared from the low cloud.  We did manage to walk up to the Old Man of Storr though.

While in Cornwall Jane photographed a beautiful Scarlet Tiger Moth in St Ives.

We visited the Maritime Museum in Falmouth

And walked up to an amazing rock formation on Bodmin Moor known as the Cheesewring.

On the Western edge of Dartmoor we visited the beautiful Lydford Gorge where we saw, among many other lovely things, the White Lady's waterfall

We will try to keep the blog updated as often as possible but as we are going into territory that is new to us we don’t know how often that will be.  Do keep coming back to see how we are getting on.