Leg 10 - Germany, another dose of ex-communism before the comfort of old Europe, the West

12 Dec 09

The border is so close and we are over it almost without realising. All the traffic is going the other way – daytrippers. It is little faster in our direction tho’ ‘cos everyone is religiously obeying the speed limits – note to be careful.  We do note that the roads are in good nick and there is an air of well-offness.  Quite a lot of W German money must have come in here early on after The Wall came down.

As ever the cloud is low so we miss our first point – Brimham Rocks, German style – and go on to Konigstein Fortress. This is the largest castle in Germany atop a craggy hill. It is more a mansion than castle these days and it’s preparing for a multi-coachload Xmas extravaganza so we move on. Done the tick so press ...

Netbook GPS takes us to the hotel in Dresden by mid-afternoon. That’s the hotel we’re booked into – in a suburb – as opposed to the other Radisson Chris thinks we’re booked into in the old part of town ... A booking at 3 in the morning when she couldn’t sleep was good value, but ... In fact it turns out fine as we enjoy using local transport and this is on a tramline straight into town. A disjointed health-farmish hotel; we have the advantage of a suite with utensils for the first time so we can breakfast in the room.  Free wifi,

but a charged car park – ha ha, the truck is too high to get into the carpark, so park in front – QED no car park charge.

A quick change and we are off into town, in daylight.

Dresden - we are always shown the worst picture they took, showing the "destroyed centre", and it was awful. If you look behind that camera, few of the buildings to the river and beyond were badly damaged (for WW II that is). So there is a swathe of class buildings about 200 m deep along the river side that survived. The other side of the river is similar. I read this when I was a kid, but Dresden was the 7th largest city in Germany and had not been bombed until that fateful night in 1945. Dresden in 2 days took 7.000 tons of bombs. The next highest, ie in the top 6 German cities was in the 30,000 tons of bombs bracket. So I am led to believe that some of the furore was from sympathy for a baroque city that those well travelled will have known well; the furore was also started in the comfortable time when the winning of the war was assumed by those in Britain. The Western views are, not surprisingly, Western orientated - here they of course have a more Soviet view. There was Soviet pressure on the Allies to bomb Dresden as it was seen as a point for the regrouping of German forces to re-attack the Soviet army as it worked across Germany; Dresden also remained a major transport hub. The arguments will continue for ever, but in the UK we tend to bend so far over backwards to be balanced and impartial that we can become partial in our unbalanced weighting of views. That's enough of that, it is 65 year old history thro' a modern eye and I only wanted to air the subject ...

It's fascinating seeing the recovered buildings - the Frauenkirche, the worst damaged one, a huge church, looks almost brand new, but the new white stone is dotted with recovered black bricks and it's possible to identify the 2 corners of the building (black) which remained standing after the bombing. It was only re-consecrated 5 years ago, following post-communist reconstruction. They have done a fantastic job of re-building the centre, it's a real demonstration of industry, and it goes on.

The Alt (old) town has a big Xmas market, a real one – the square is jam packed, but it‘s the best we’ve seen so far with more than just food and drink on offer. There’s all those different stalls you expect: wood carving, pottery, knitted clothes, Xmas decorations, blah ...  Every square seems to be filled up with stall-holders all showing their wears. It's the second December weekend and it is heaving.  My little co-traveller definitely likes pretty German towns – probably more than all that exciting Middle Eastern stuff. By the end of the evening we’ve seen half the town, well illuminated, and retire to the hotel early, exhausted. Too tired to contemplate the only musical culture we had found to be on in our 2 days here.

 

13 Dec 09

Dresden is famous for it’s skyline – certainly it is an interesting baroque-spired skyline and Canaletto was moved to paint it, but after all this hype we were surprised how small it is. It was more impressive to walk the streets and have these baroque buildings towering over us. As in the rest of eastern Europe, they put more statues and intricate work on their buildings than we have in the UK. These buildings are impressive in a different way from London’s and other UK cities. There has obviously been a lot of wealth here, from early days (15th and 16th centuries) and we wondered where from. Well, they mined silver and gem stones locally – the wealth of ornaments and gifts is shown in a museum called the Green Vault. Many seemed to be gifts to the elected ruler of the principality (Saxony) or their own wife, but the detail is stunning and over powers many of our Empire collections. An array of medals presented to the king from many countries brought the difference home – all with stones and gold inlaid, except the Order of the Garter from England. The Order is a pretty medal and with much detail, but it is largely enamel on base metal!

As we’ve been museumed out for a while now, this was the only one we paid for in Dresden, well worth it. The rest of the day was spent wandering the numerous Xmas market areas – they’re everywhere, you can’t move on the streets for Xmas market stalls, every single space in the centre is filled. This was interspersed with space-heated watering holes – almost like the desert, but – with gluhwein. We only found 1 iffy department store and a mall, but retired early again tired and not having bought much.

Something else wasn’t quite like the desert either: low cloud, grey sky, more real snow and its cold.

I’ve been conscious that as we close on Western Europe, this blog may become mundane and a yes we know all that, list of events. We had the idea on a walk a few days ago and refreshed it while walking around Dresden – we’ll try to draw-up some lists of tens, eg: ten biggest surprises, ten biggest disappointments, etc ... Of course when we first muted the idea we had loads of suggestions and were hooting with laughter as we walked along. Why is it then that when you sit down to record all these brill ideas they have evaporated? Maybe ‘cos we’re so often knackered at the end of a day; we will be glad to get home for a rest. Or was it too much gluhwein?

14 Dec 09

Out of Dresden and to Meissen, famous for its china pottery. That’s not to our liking, too flowery, but a proper little town and shopping cente – v pleasant.

Colditz castle – good little museum and worth the visit, but looking more like a baronial home than the grey stone castle in the film series. I was most impressed by a scale model of the glider they built but never flew out before the end of the war.

15 Dec 09

Leipzig as we drove in yesterday (straight to hotel as I’m getting a handle on this simplistic sat nav programme) did not impress after Dresden – it certainly doesn’t have a famous skyline. Today tho’ we were impressed, despite 3 degrees below. It’s a larger old town centre, it is more close, narrow streets with more in them and more real activity. Many more cafes and there are plenty of interesting old buildings, but they don’t have the towers dominating the skyline. So on balance a more attractive city centre. The Xmas market stalls were also more accessible as they were along streets and squares rather than clogging them. Better quality shops are also here, so we found a decent department store – for us one of the strengths of German shopping. A full day in town did not exhaust us and there is as much to do tomorrow, worryingly with a couple of ‘good’ shopping malls to come. Got some culture in as well ... The BBC has headlined recently how, from Berlin, the curryworst (a curried German sausage) is taking the country by storm. Thought I’d better try this extravaganza – what a disappointment, it's just a normal German sausage in a tomato based sauce with curry powder sprinkled over it. T’was v mild curry powder at that – back home we’d use the strongest curry and marinate it in the stuff for hours so it would blow your head off (well it would start with your head!). So after that cultural disaster ... PS: have since seen real (pre-curried) curryworst, but yet to try.

We never resolved the problem of finding a concert or opera on here (or in Dresden) as our dates just did not work – here, Xmas week is busy and autumn has been busy, but we’re just at the wrong time, in between. That was a real disappointment, but as many places do, there are often smaller scale local performances on. I’ve done the same in the UK and it is a different cultural experience. Today we found a choral performance, celebrating 600 years of university – historic instruments, a brilliant youth choir and several solo singers. It was in a church so pretty good acoustics and the heating was on – what more could you want? We also noticed tonight as we went into the centre, a lot of youths carrying musical instruments, maybe 1 in 3 – their musical heritage will continue. That is a sight I’ve not seen in the UK for a few years.

All was rounded off with an Italian and a sleeping draft. – we like Leipzig.

16 Dec 09

Another day to wander the streets, I think I could become a vagrant in retirement. So cold, -2 to -5, that we need frequent gluhwein stops to thaw out, but we cleared all the outstanding posh public buildings (and there are a few) and interspersed cafe thaw-outs, with shopping malls which also thawed us out. Finally, after 5 days, found an exchange to clear our Czech Koruna – the last of our funny money. Two other shopping malls were not as good as the first, yesterday, but still the best we’ve seen for a while and we clocked a few Xmas pressies. Will work out later how they’ll fit in the truck. Ate in a Sardinian restaurant in the evening. No chicken on the menu for Chris – do they not eat chickens in Sardinia? A good tiring day, so off to bed – we have an early start tomorrow and the truck needs some repacking. Will also be emptying the last extra petrol container if there is space in the tank – not been in a rush for this as they are strapped down under all the other luggage, but we’ve been getting just a few fumes from the petrol, surprisingly on the colder days, not the hot ones with this container.

 

17 Dec 09

A lot done to prep departure, but it is a short day – away about 11. Let’s not mess about – sat nav to get out of Leipzig and to Weimar. Weimar is to Germany as the Mount was to Moses – their 1st constitution was signed here and it was a power centre for Hitler – deliberately used because of its place in German’s minds. So early pics of the Nazi parades past Hitler show him outside the Elephant Hotel here and the Town Hall.

It’s a cultural centre in many ways and a pretty town, but not unusually so (they have so many). We saw Goethe’s house – he’s a cultural icon: playwright, author, scientist; a great literary influence. The gluhwein was okay as well – my friend is becoming an expert on this matter.

To Buchenwald, just outside the town a place the locals claimed to know nothing about. We have difficulty with that statement – it was the main centre for training Hitler’s dreaded SS and had a camp next to it where they could practice their inhuman techniques on the inmates. A camp that 250,000 people from across Europe went through and 56,000 died in it, but all sorts of cruelty and experiments were carried out. At the end of WWII, the Americans who captured it, paraded all the townspeople through it. A town living on the support of a camp of thousands must know where their income is coming from, especially in the closed communities of those days.  It’s now a memorial, but we thought rather a sop to what went on. There is not a prisoners’ hut standing and nothing to make an impact – so all the school trips which go there will not have a dramatic experience, they’re more likely to be bored by the place. We did see a reasonable 30 min film, but not much archive stuff – the BBC has better.

It was in a dramatic forest setting, v pleasant. Off to Erfurt our night stop. Nothing booked – we’ll look around and choose a nice cosy little pension. Mme, that doesn’t work too well as where we want to be is restricted to cars and too often one-way, the wrong way! Found one interesting point, after negotiating the bridge which could only just take the truck, the cobbled road was so narrow that the tyres were rubbing on the kerbstones on both sides and it led to a ford. Apparently my friend anticipated future events and had decided that she would not let me cross the ford ... came to nought as I decided to turn round anyway – not an easy task either! So straight into the first acceptable hotel we find – plain but warm, hurrah, 'cos it's freezing.

We were straight out to gluhwein and Italian – good service and the most involved presentation of the ‘house red’ I have ever seen. Each glass was rinsed with wine to aroma them and there was a separate tasting glass. Of course the cork was presented for sniffing – doesn’t do anything for me, I know what cork smells like – and the wine was transferred to a jug decanter. All most impressive, but didn’t improve the house wine any.

We immediately warmed to Erfurt, old buildings, activity and Xmas market stalls, but plenty of character and variety with it.

 

18 Dec 09

Erfurt is delightful, we enjoyed a wander around with Xmas markets busy, decent department stores and old crooked streets and buildings. Despite several gluhweins and department store visits to warm up we were COLD, there’s a couple of inches of snow and it’s still falling. Must check, but at least -5; retired to do this blog in our warm room.

No BBC World – I guess they have started charging too much. Just as Kuwait’s Showtime dropped BBC World this year, it has not been much in evidence since Aqaba, Jordan. I think we saw it one other time in Bucarest. So the CNN weather forecast – not so thorough and near us the forecast for tomorrow is -12 Moscow and -6 Prague. I estimate we’ll manage -5 or -6 tonight.

Another Italian – they do good quick food and there is always an atmosphere – great. Too cold so early to bed again!

 

19 Dec 09

Out to the car before breakfast, just to see if the low temps might give us a problem. I think I mentioned that we put anti-freeze in the radiator back in Bulgaria – premature you may have thought! Good news, the water is still completely liquid. Well I’ll just run the engine for a couple of minutes to get everything used to the idea of working; it does feel cold. Starts first time and up comes the temperature gauge ... wot! It has managed an astonishing -13C overnight. The last time I saw temperatures like these in the UK, -12 in Lincolnshire, as I drove off to work and indicated to turn at the first corner, the plastic was so petrified that the indicator stalk snapped off in my hand! Best we be careful, Japanese motor or not.

I remember putting in our resume for the Blog at the right here, that we were going from the fire to the cool box – how prophetic.  Tho' I should have said freezer.

We are not going to enjoy driving today, thankfully it will only occasionally snow. Another time – funnily enough when we drove across Europe with a failed wheel bearing - from hitting Holland off the ferry we were in frost, sheet ice and snow all the way to Munich and back with ice building up over the front of the car nearly an inch thick and even the lights covering in ice when on! Even with full heat on the windscreen then, the wipers froze-up, they did not sweep properly and a healthy windscreen cracked all the way across because of the heat differential.

Today has its points of interest tho’. Do you know about super-cooled water? Any pilots amongst you will. Water can remain liquid well below the freezing point, but when disturbed the shock can cause the water to then turn to ice – this is aided if there is something to exchange heat with, the latent heat of freezing. So in clouds with super-cooled water droplets, an aircraft comes along and disturbs them. The aircraft provides the shock and the heat exchange surface and the water freezes out, very quickly, as a most dangerous ice sheet. What on earth has this got to do with driving home to the UK? So, in our home, our little truck, once upon a time there were 2 sealed bottles of water, lying next to each other – one said to the other “I am going to turn to ice”. I found this one in the back of our home this morning, at -13. The other bottle said “I’m going to have a quiet night and I enjoy being liquid water so I will stay as water”. I also found this little chap this morning – a crystal clear bottle of water at -13 degrees ... then into the home came this big nasty man dressed in winter clothes and he disturbed our little clear bottle. He only picked it up, but as he did so, the shock started the formation of tiny ice crystals which made the water start to look milky. It became milkier and milkier, until within 5 minutes is was a block of ice, just like his mate... Sorry, no happy ending for our little bottle; once he’d thawed out he was poured over the windscreen many times ...

Back to matters in hand: just 2 places to see today and then a long drive up to my cousin’s in Hamburg, our jumping off point for the ferry home from Denmark. Judith’s was the 1st wedding I ever went to as a youth of 16 – hence the 1st suit I owned was tailored for the occasion. Burtons was a real tailors in those days, tho’ they had a reputation of making the arms different lengths etc. This suit was built to “allow for growth” and lasted for another 15 years! Judith was also one of my godmothers, so I can blame her for my misguided upbringing! Sadly she lost her husband Peter, suddenly, only a month ago between us seeing him in the UK in the summer and looking forward to spending some time with him this week. Insistent on us still staying with her, we’ll be there for 2 nights and it will be some relaxation. Then just the Esbjerg, Denmark – Harwich ferry to go.

Today we’ve planned Wartburg castle where Martin Luther (the 1st protestant) hid when the catholic church put a fatwah (sic) on him.  It's a mere -11 now.  The half mile walk from carpark to hilltop castle has me expecting frostbite in my nose.  Best we get inside and do the castle tour soonest ... oops, that'll be after a gluhwein.  We expected a quiet, maybe closed, castle, so why is the carpark full?  That's 'cos there's a Xmas market here as well - getting fed-up with these things, and they always get in the way of a decent photograph.  Worth seeing the displays, but the important Luther ones were the only ones without an English translation!  Eisenach the neighbouring town is pretty (again) and worth a look, but beyond a lunch, at -12 it's not to linger in.

All day had to stop every other autobahn park to wash the salt off the screen, so I can see where we're going.  Despite windscreen washer fluid already in the bottle and another load added, it's all completely frozen and not clearing.  The blades are freezing up and not following the screen contour, so they don't work either. Can't get more fluid as the garages are running out.  A messy day.  A large stone chip we've got is starting to spread as a crack.  Each time we stop and the temperature change across the screen varies, it extends.  One neat little chink sound had it spread 2 feet across to my side.  Later, no sooner than I had said to Chris: 'I wonder which one will win' - which what? Chink - 'I win'.  Chink - 'you almost won'.  'We've cracked it' says me - pun intended!  Within 10 seconds we are cracked completely from side to side of the windscreen.  It's not a great problem as it's the outer glass laminate - the middle plastic and inner glass remain intact and still give strength to the screen.  Replacement will wait to the UK.

The sat-nav got us straight to the house, brilliant, despite telling me we were wandering through fields, rather than on the road several times this afternoon. It is the better-off end of Hamburg with some old merchants mansions not so far away. A light evening meal and to bed, we have an early start tomorrow.

 

20 Dec 09

An early start ‘cos we’s off to church. This time it’s to Judith’s church so we’re a captive audience, but not without desire. We have been to many places around the World and dropped in on religious services, not only for the services themselves; we also find them a good bell-weather of local society and are often engaged and even invited to following events despite being known to be ‘tourists’. This expat centred church was of course different, we were introduced to many by Judith and it was the day of the children’s nativity play so a busy service. Importantly, Judith’s grandchildren were stars of the show – Emily was Mary and Frederico, the innkeeper ... and one of the 3 kings - an able young man of 8 years.  Like so many in the family he speaks 3 languages - almost as able as my favourite Bulgarian police officer!!!  It was a warm and welcoming community.

On leaving we were given the practised Judith grand tour of Hamburg. What a pleasant surprise that Hamburg has so much to offer. With multitudinous lakes and rivers (many frozen over) it also has many historic buildings, docksides and warehouses and culture to match. It’s been a cultural centre for a long time and was where the Beatles honed their skills for subsequent fame. The day was rounded-off with dinner for 8 chez Judith’s. A great relaxed evening with multi-lingual conversation – German, English and Italian.

21 Dec 09

Up early to clear the overnight 4 inches of snow off 3 cars, check oil. water etc and get ready for the ferry crossing. Sat-nav out of Hamburg and off to Denmark.

Ribe is a delightful old village, the oldest in Denmark, and just 45 minutes short of the ferry terminal, so well placed for a lunch stop and final drive to be on time for the ferry at Esbjerg. Lots of old buildings, well preserved, and tourist, quality shops displaying that classic Danish style and design. Oh and classic Danish prices ... just the £40 for 2 soups, a glass of wine and a beer. LP-less, we didn’t know whether Euros were still good here. No they’re not – Kronas are – good thing they took cards.

It’d been warming up this morning with temps around -3 and I’d hoped the windscreen washer system might thaw-out, but no such luck and a blizzard hit us whilst in Ribe. Little evidence of salting left the roads v slippery and not worth more than about 50kph, 40 max on roundabouts – exciting stuff. There was enough salt to block out the screen tho’.

Still, well on time for the ferry – shame really as loading took ages and we were 2 hours waiting – tall trucks were last on ... great. Hopefully first off at Harwich will be the pay back. Discovered why it took so long – it isn’t strictly a Ro-Ro ferry as loading and unloading takes place at the same, rear end of the ship. So every vehicle has to do a 2-point turn and reverse into position – maybe that’s why reversing and 3-point turns are still in the driving test. To watch the professionals position the articulated trucks is impressive and speedy work, but some of the private drivers shouldn’t have passed that driving test – so which way does that wheel turn when going backwards, is that the left or right? My left or your right ...?

Got chatting to a guy from Gothenberg, Sweden, he’d imported used bikes into the UK and put us at some ease saying tomorrow should not be a problem and we have 12 months to register the Pajero. We shall see, but he seemed to confirm my plan A for getting thro’ HM Customs etc at Harwich. He’d noticed our Kuwait registration, just as we’d noticed him loading – from our vantage point, I’d remarked how small the original mini is, after I’d persuaded myself it wasn’t the BMW model. His original (one of the last production models) was the Cooper Sport with massive flared wheel-arches.

On the ferry the Xmas dinner we’d bought into was a bit too cafe-ish, but for £50 for 2 t’was fair value – 1st Xmas turkey and it was spot-on. Good thing I checked that price, just noticed we’d paid for breakfast as well (doing this blog at the breakfast table) – we’re about to pay again. We booked this ferry about 3 months ago so we’ve forgotten what we paid for- the girl on the reception desk wasn’t so helpful and she didn’t explain that the dinner was included in my ticket, the breakfasts were on each ticket. The ticket was also a bar-code read door key ... etc, etc. All other items are paid on board; whichever currency is offered, it’s changed then any cash change is only given in Danish Krona – that really useful international currency. So we’re carding everything – a faff. Overall it’s a good service – DFDS Seaways have been £380 total (car, cabin, 4 meals), the sea leg is about 400 miles, so we may be saving 4-500 miles driving and at least one hotel stay. There’s not much in it and by ferry we are rested and delivered north of London.

 

22 Dec 09

Sailing towards the Thames estuary and the sky has just broken a little from the dark gray we enjoyed for a couple of weeks. Lots of deep tankers and container ships waiting for the tide to go up the Thames, we’re shallow draught enough to press-on to Harwich.

Harwich – I’m always reminded of an old article on the British Post Office and how good it was (note: was) at delivering letters despite difficult addresses. An example given was one from Pakistan addressed to a house in “Arrishaba”. Where is that? ... try it phonetically ... arich arbour? ... that’ll be Harwich Harbour then! These days we probably deliver such letters to the nearest lake, the UK equivalent of that post box in the desert.

Have to go out on deck to experience our arrival and met Andrew from last night – with Swedish acclimatisation he’s in shirt and t-shirt, impressive as we are in multiple layers with wind/water-proof outers as there’s a 30 knot wind over the deck. Oh for a blue sky and some warmth. A few castles and some history as we enter harbour.

We disgorge to a queue of course, but at least we were one of the first off the boat and are near the front.

The grandchildren are about to arrive pre-Xmas and I haven't done my usual minor editing (crop and shrink) of the pics, so I shall interrupt this blog.

My plan A is to declare our intention to take the truck to France rather than import to the UK.  So I pull in to the "To Declare" lane and ask to speak ... nowhere near the difficulties I anticipated.  We are home and dry with me driving on an internatinal licence and the truck on a Green Card for insurance.

The UK roads are not quite as bad as the continent ... but there's not much in it.  There's as much snow, but the temperature is a little higher.  Classic for the UK tho', the warmer conditions place the temp around zero - freezing point - these are the worst possible conditions 'cos the layer of water over ice is the slippiest.  It also leads to our problem of overnight sheet ice which just forms that water layer in daylight to refreeze the following night.- slippy and hard to clear.  My driving is cautious in these conditions and 'cos we're on the 'wrong' side of the road! (sic).  In the last 11 years we've spent 8 overseas and are not as familiar with UK roads as we would like.  Also, the steering wheel is on the wrong side for the UK!

A straight forward drive to Nottingham reminds us of some of Englands grand historic buildings, with a quick shopping stop in Peterborough and then we are there - car wash, arrival delayed birthday dinner for my friend and Christmas ...  We dun it.

To all of you who have persevered thro' this blog and the few (limited number of addressees allowed) who have watched over us, with the regular GPS tracker position updates using Google Earth references, thank you.  We've very much enjoyed and appreciated all the support we've had; I've enjoyed writing this blog and will continue to give it minor updates as it will remain our own record of our adventure and, despite all the time it takes and the difficulty of a clear enough head at the end of a long day, it has been a prompt and a reminder to record the events.  So, finally to all our readers, a Happy Christmas and all the best Wishes for the New Year.

Leg 09 - Czech Republic

7 Dec 09

We already have the vignette so press. Until we hit thick fog, well actually we’ve just climbed into the cloud. It is of course dark by now, the road markings are inconsistent – tend to be non at hazards and in the towns (skin flints), but okay on state financed straight stretches. So with a varying speed, down to 40 kph at times and following locals whenever possible we make it to Telc; Cesky K is too far. We are a half day ahead now and will enjoy the town tomorrow morning. I think 9 hrs driving is enough in mist and fog, we’ve covered 550 km and are feeling pleased we’ve made the most of the terrible conditions. Our 1st contact with the Czechs (not at the border as nobody there) was in a garage and was promising.  The old boy there couldn't do enough, exercised his English and washed all the windows and lights v carefully.  Wasn't bothered when I apolgised as I didn't have any change to tip; we're back into local currency here.  I did slip him a Euro - sure he'll be able to use it.  Another sign of progressing westwards, is that here we experience our 1st German style loo - but I'll go into more detail (sic) on 10 Dec.

We’re staying in the medieval town square and I am enjoying a Grambrinus – a local yellow ale before we eat. As nearly all the bars/pubs to date, smoking is the norm, only v few have no smoking rules – we aren’t used to so much smoke.

I blame you guys – apparently I’ve just missed tonight’s show – our barmaid, equipped with most things pierced, orange/red hair and tattoos, shirt lifting to apply a fresh dose of deodorant. You just don’t realise the culture you’re missing here. Love to all, din dins beckons.

Din dins (dinner) was not that easy to arrange – no restaurant in town had more than 2 people in and for most those 2 were the kitchen staff and chef! We knew it was the off season but not the NO-Season. To be fair, everywhere has been v good at fresh production of food; long menus should not be off-putters as everything is freshly prepared and as ordered. So tonight’s meal was good and for a grand total of £14 we had 2 main courses, 2 side salads and a drink each. The drinks here are 90p each. These must have been the sort of prices which set Bratislava off as a weekend booze city.

8 Dec 09

A fine night's sleep has us expecting a clear day - no such luck, the fog is still on the church spires and it feels like rain it is so damp. The town is impressive even in these conditions, but we press-on for Cesky K. In

clear weather it would be a delightful drive with pretty lakes and woodland; perhaps we'll return one summer. Though it's foggy there is not far to go and we are settled by 1 o'clock, with just a short deviation to look for a Mitsubishi garage - no luck. The bearing was squealing lightly on bends last night, both left and right; after 550 km of fast driving perhaps no surprise. It often happens with a failing bearing that an overnight stand allows the grease to settle and redistribute when next run - whoopee, that seems to be what happened. I doubt it will gets us home, but we'll see.

Cesky K is a delightful touristy town and fairly busy (for December!), but they are all day trippers from Prague or enroute to elsewhere. Guess we'll be almost alone again to night - I'll let you know. There are plenty of restaurants to choose from and we detect a sense of humour here - fun to come?  Maybe after a couple of gluhweins we're imagining this.  I think the cafe maitre was serious when he put on his hat and coat each time we asked for a gluhwein, which was in an urn just outside the door!  I

was tempted to carry-on drinking for the entertainment., well that's my excuse.  Then later when we leave our hotel room, non of the light switches work, so I have to get my torch to find our way out - well to the front door which is locked.  Yes, we are locked in our hotel alone with no lights!

Quiet would be kind - same story, just 1 restaurant with more than 2 people in it.  Good spot for carnivores tho' - my piece of duck came with a whole smoked ham steak, and just the 1 pork steak hidden under that.  I've changed my ideas on sauerkraut - done properly it is great.  It's certainly not the boiled cabbage I grew-up on.  Following that carnivores delight, slept rather well.

9 Dec 09

Obviously our hotel owner/staff do not sleep on the premises, but now we have seen the town operate for a couple of days, we deduce that it is a bit of a Disney town that just happens to be medieval original (rather than mock).  It does not function as a town, that must be the surrounding town outside the old walls.  Its reason d'etre is tourists and that is all it does, so when the tourists are absent it is dead space.  It leaves an erie feeling - UK equivalent towns (eg York) are living towns.

Okay, enough theorising.  Good chilled day, wandeered the castle grounds and part of the bulding even tho' can't "go inside" as such 'cos it's the closed season.  Sampled some red draughts and chilled in our v nice corner room/suite which is medieval with windows onto 2 old streets.  Blogged and watched a film.  Also got

receptionist, lovely helpful young lady, to phone ahead and book some work on the truck.  We're in Plzen tomorrow (that's Pilsen to those boozers amongst you) - seemed a good place to be if there is any delay in fixing the truck!  Youthful acceptance - she rapid fired a request for wheel bearing fix, 30,000km service and 2 new headlamps.  No surprise when the garage said "no, too busy, try next week".  She kindly advised me that it was not possible, try just the bearing, no they are too busy until next week.  Just ask them again, bearing only.  Okay, so that is what we are booked in for a new bearing tomorrow.  30K can wait, we'll only be 2 or3 over when home, but would be nice to do the lights - tried scrapping the lenses, more lens than fablon comes off!  I anticipate that these jobs will be about half UK prices around here, just hope the parts are as well.

It will be an early start in the morning, to make the garage by lunchtime, so an early night is in the offing.  Have done some replanning, binned yet another medieval town near Prague (can see that when we return to Prague another time and it will mean a lot more on its own); that generates an extra day in Germany which will ease a day's travel.  It does tho' slip us forward another day - we've been struggling to arrange concerts/opera for Dresden and Leipzig, now it seems to be impossible.  That will be a great shame as they are both towns renowned for their World class performances.

10 Dec 09

The day started full of promise with a blue sky, an early breakfast and parking ticket for the truck which allows us just an hour outside our hotel to load. On arrival, 2 police cars had stopped to check us – so we had hoped the same thoroughness would ensure the security of the truck in a public car park just inside the town walls ... yes, secure over the 2 nights. So while I get the truck Chris rushes off to see if the tourist shop which sold us a nice red vino last night is open to increase their sell on this rather pleasant local light red. No, most shops don’t open until 10 each morning – this is commonplace, but more so in this tourist only Disneyland.

Truck is covered in a healthy frost – must remember to get those longjohns out! We’re away by 0930, good going for us. It hasn’t seemed to be easy anywhere, there’s always a faff which consumes time and tho’ 2hrs is prob the norm, today’s 1½ is good – breakfast to wheels time. No wine – we’ll just check the Coop on the way out – 2 similar ones are okay. Am trying to have a collection from across Europe for our family Xmas. The blue sky didn’t last long, it became progressively greyer and then rainier as we progressed to Plzen. Sat nav last night had the garage and the hotel in it so no problems – we’ll drive by the garage then I’ll drop Chris at the hotel with the netbook and valuable bags, and she can research accom ahead (mainly Dresden and Leipzig – the replan has also made Dresden a busy pre-Xmas weekend stay!) while I get the truck done. Sounds dead easy. Now, I don’t think its me – this sat-nav can be really good; but the programme Dell seems to have bought into, tho’ I’m pleased with the European mapping, is the most user unfriendly I’ve used since the last time I swore at Bill Gates. Can we find the hotel ... no. The programme is called ‘Co-pilot’ and pondering (3 days later as I write this in Dresden) it occurs to me that co-pilots can’t do more than one thing at a time, so all is explained ... The girl on the desk is helpful but not especially good at directions – on the third attempt of mobile phone talk-in we make it. The garage booking of 1-2 pm arrival is in danger of fading as it’s now 1-30. Thankfully the drive-by paid off, I get straight back to it and we go for a test drive. Well, it took me 10 minutes to persuade the guy, who doesn’t speak any English that there is a bearing problem and his guess is the front left, okay, one of my 2 but not my first choice ... very EU and HandSAW (Health and Safety at Work – for those who haven’t had the pleasure), I am not allowed in the workshop while they are working so a good book (thanks Graham) and the reception room for me. “A problem” – they’ve decided that it is the rear left bearing and so discovered the slow puncture. Well actually now a fast puncture as they’ve made the mistake of taking the nail out! Can they fix it – okay. Brill – 2 hours and we are done and dusted - £25 the lot. In the UK I would pay more than that for the new part, the bearing, alone. Assuming that they did the right bearing (!) that is a good afternoon, 2 problems solved.

Now to a much more important matter: here we are at the centre of the known universe (for yellow beer drinkers) and there is some business to be done. Chris doesn’t even like beer, but has researched brewery visits whilst I’ve been bearinging – the better is in English and is at 4.15 this afternoon. Not only will we get a tour – lager is a different brewing process (bottom fermenting) from UK dark beer – we should get a free drinking session and meet some people to talk to. Everywhere we’ve been has been so quiet recently that we have not had a conversation with other than ourselves for days. Back to the hotel for 3.45 and out for a quick walk to arrive at the Pilsner Urquell brewery with 2 min in hand for the English tour – made it. So people to talk to ... mme, we’re on our own! The guide is a local PhD engineering student, his English is okay, but for an engineering student not as inquisitive as I would have expected –

maybe he was put off by these 2 smart a...s who kept asking difficult questions. I would have expected him to know how they got the pressure in the cans tho’.  A gem he did impart but couldn't explain, was that the water tower was a coy of a Dutch lighthouse; does that make it the furthest inland lighthouse in Europe I wondered; I konw the UK's is at Cranwell!  And the free beer – only a glass of unfiltered beer, but not bad. We did then go in the restaurant attached – the largest in the Czech Republic with a massive underground room and the best pilsner beer I can remember. So at last it was worth it.

Back to our v ordinary room.  Ah, the 2nd with a German style loo (toilet).  Those of a sensitive disposition may wish to skip this paragraph.  What is so special about a German loo?  They're the ones with the platform to the front of them, as opposed to the UK style (a la Thomas Crapper - you may recognise the name as he invented the UK flushing toilet) which drops straight down.  So why the platform ... so you can examine your production for worms etc ...  I don't think this is a Teutonic fetish, rather a practicality of eating uncured bacon and its like.  Surprising these days as the general quality of German ham/bacon is outstanding and probably far better than the stuff we are served-up in the UK.

I should have said skip 2 paragraphs.  The subject has reminded Chris to remind me ... Toilets we have seen - they've steadily improved as we've travel west.  One of the most serious problems in the early days of this trip was the bathroom facilities, or lack of, for Chris.  It's okay for blokes and anyway across most of Europe we can stand at the roadside (no not behind a tree) and wave (sic) at the passing throngs.  For the ladies a different ball game.  Thoughout the Middle East, the available toilets (shops, cafes, rarely garages) were only squat types and filthy - if you've seen filthy, these were worse!  Squat is difficult when clean, these ...  You know the Middle East attitude to waste and rubbish - now transfer that to the bathroom.  I'll dwell no more.  At least in Europe a visit to a cafe will normally these days generate an acceptable bathroom, tho' public facilities are sadly lacking.

Oops, just had a break from this blog – visited that other planet ... Ebay. Didn’t mention, while waiting for the truck, enquired at the garage what price a couple of headlamp units would be for the Pajero: a mere £370 each, yes each and without bulbs etc ... labour may be cheap in the Czech Republic, but not parts. Just bought the only ones on Ebay for £95 the pair, phew. I‘m a confirmed Ebayer, 1st buy was the Sony laptop I took to Kuwait – half price at a year old – the best thing I bought for the job in 4½ years.

11 Dec 09

Slept well on those sleeping draughts.  Chris had seen the town, Plzen, in a walkabout yesterday and confirmed the LP judgement – not much to see/do. So today a lazy start, minor repack car ‘cos we have accumulated a few Xmas presents and decided to empty the powered fridge and store the pressies in it to protect them. We’re away about 11.30 and only have about 80 miles to do today to Hrensko, just short of the German border, via Prague and a concentration camp. If it goes quickly and don’t linger anywhere we could cross the border, but finding accom on a Friday night in Dresden which is only 34 miles over the border would be difficult and would lose us a couple of sights.

Not far except for the roadworks around Prague in which we never saw a sign for our road.  Over an hour wasted going into Prague, then out, then cross-country to intercept the road we really wanted ...  The essence of some of this is the Czech way of road signing - potentially a good idea that a turn is pre-warned by about 100m, except that the pre-warning and the 'at junction' sign are both in the same format so we don't know whether it is now, later ... oh, or just past!  U-turn options are rare and junctions can be km apart so finding your way back to that wrong turn may not be possible, or on several occasions has given us an hour traffic jam - what fun.  Well the upshot of all this is that we are running late, but have time to drop in on a Czech concentration camp, Terezin.

The camp comprised 2 parts in napoleonic era fortifications - those huge star shapes in brick with the entrances recessed between the star points and with large motes.  One small part is a Jewish memorial and museum - we declined an hour tour here to get to the other large site, half a mile away.  So a quick rush around and off to discover that the other much larger site, and the true concentration part, remains a military camp area and is not accessible.  Only a small memorial, railway tracks and the crematorium remained accessible.  What was interesting was that the town was within the old fortification walls and so immediately next to the concentration camp - there would be no claiming by this local population that they were unaware of what was going on.  To this day a rather strange place.

Now we are  running late, phone ahead to book Hrensko accom, he asks when we'll be there - that's okay and we have time to eat and look around Litomerice.  This yet another pretty town square with a Xmas market - well an excuse for one and v few poeple around.  Eventually find a restaurant with people in it and discover it is the LP choice.  It's 3 floors down in the vaults/caves under the Town Hall, good food, an interesting spot but hard to find.  This is not the first time we have struggled to find where the locals hide out - many of these countries need advice on how to sell themselves.

I didn't mention that tonight's pension owner did not speak English, German was the only language we had in common - of which I know v little.  As I drive I'm trying to remember enough German to sort out our rooms when we get there.  I'm also reminding myself of German numbers, mme, did he say a time in the 24hr clock that I agreed was our arrival time?  I had thought I'd agreed 6 o'clock, but he'd said 16 (just as similar in German) which was 4 o'clock - I'd dismissed it 'cos it was 4.15 when I was talking to him.  maybe he didn't have a watch on.  I became sure that 4 not 6 was the agreed hour ... and it duly came to pass that the pension was locked-up with no lights and, we guessed, no heating on. 'Don't want to stay there, even if it is the LP recommended one.'  A local advises that there is only one hotel open in town - that will be the one for tonight then.  Basic, smoking and with a dog - there is a lot running against this place - but it is warm (space heating the district).  Arrange an early breakfast and collapse into bed.

12 Dec 09

Breakfast was laid out by the night watchman, tho' he didn't even switch the room lights on for us- he was a man of no words.  Away early for a walk in lightly falling snow and a healthy -2 degrees.  This area is known as Little Switzerland (both sides of the border), for it's pretty hills, ravine valleys and fast streams.  There are also unusual rock formations: limestone pinnacles and cuts similar to Brimham Rocks in Yorkshire. Great walk by the river in autumn colours, but cut short when blocked by a locked metal door - an off-season HandSAW directive we thought.

On our return thro' the village, what had been locked-up shed-shops (like Blackpool in mid-winter) are now displaying all their tripperish wears.  They are ready for the cross-border day-trippers from Germany - it is Saturday after all.  The border is only about 2 km away, the garage is full of cars with various petrol syphoning devices and there is even a duty free shop.  We deduce that prices are about to jump.

The Czechs have been an industrious folk and helpful when approached, but their public face rarely shows a smile.  The lovely places we've been to have been suffering off-season and, for some, tourist money seems to be the only lifter of activity.  What has struck us is the speed of their speech and yet again the madness of some drivers - overtaking on double white lines over the brow of a hill and around a bend (yes, all at once) was almost commomplace.  They would appear not to learn from the plethora of roadside memorials.