Blog Archives

Venice, Italy

19/9/2010

Like Venice, it appears they are standing on water

An overnight train from Vienna to Venice – our last long train journey until who knows when? South America is basically void of international trains and we have no idea how we will get around the USA………….

Anyway, it was uneventful and arriving at Venice – St Lucia was very relaxing. No touts, no pressure, just walk outside at 9.00am and find the right ferry (vaporetto), get some tickets (really expensive but better to have flexible arrangements than none at all) and sit back, enjoy the view and realize that this place is famous for some VERY good reasons!

We stayed at Lido, the main island on the sea side of Venice, complete with swimming beaches which we had no idea about – we really didn’t expect we would swim at Venice but first day there we did! Surprise number 1.

Lido is quiet, tourists and locals alike are well catered for with cafes and restaurants, and not too much traffic. Our hotel was a great find, an old building beautifully renovated into quite a smart, modern little hotel.

Day 2 was cloudy with a small amount of drizzle but fairly warm. Pretty good conditions for exploring Venice. We took a vaporetto along the Grand Canal and then walked through the old city back to San Marco Square. It would be safe to say that at this stage we had already fallen in love with Venice. Plans of day tripping to Pisa and Verona were dropped and we planned how we could absorb as much as this island city as we could. Venice seemed to be just that little bit more special than any of the other European cities we had seen…surprise number 2.

Saturday morning we were joined by Troy and Tracy in Lido and headed back across to the main city, getting off the vaporetto near San Marco. After a little bit of sightseeing we found a very cool café with a hilarious waiter and sat down to enjoy wine and pizza, although Troy managed to disappear for some time.

We wondering whether he would make it back for the pizza and debate ng having a second bottle of wine when through the crowded café appeared Julia’s parents!! Surprise number 3 – the biggest by far!!

It was David and Rita’s 45th wedding anniversary so to celebrate they had decided to get out to Venice to surprise us and see us off on our cruise! There was also a chance to have some early Birthday celebrations for Molly and just catch up.

It is an amazing thing about Europe that a long weekend in Venice is so achievable and without too much cost. Budget airlines can make the travel ridiculously cheap – David payed 20 Pounds one way and less than 20 Euros back for the air tickets, flying into Treviso which is just an easy (and in Italy cheap) 40 minute train journey from Venice. It would be nice if there was a little city like Venice on the far South Coast of NSW……………

We had a nice celebration dinner – lots of Pizza and wine. The pizza’s seem very good but the pasta is perhaps not as we would expect it in Australia (or England, Austria or Thailand for that matter!). My aim was to test and re-test my theories on how pasta is served in different Italian restaurants in Italy but the pizza’s always seemed to draw me to them!
As for "how're we doin'?" Well, let's just say we are cruzin'..................

The world's best looking taxi?

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Raindrops on Roses and Whiskers on Kittens, the Prater in Vienna and Warm Roast Pork Knuckles..

19/9/2010

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Just the three main food groups, thanks.......beer, pork cracklin' and fries

We had a couple of days in Austria (1 night) on the way to the UK for Julia’s Grandma’s funeral. The highlight was Julia’s sister Tracy, and her boyfriend, Troy, taking us to the Prater fun fair for giant roast pork knuckles followed by dodgems and roller coasters.

So over the last two weeks we have been in and out of Vienna, using their place as a base whilst visiting parts of Eastern Europe. There was time for more pork knuckles, dodgems and other games, most notable Julia and Troy taking the Sling Shot ride on our last night, hurtling out of the Prater at 160km/h whilst pulling 6 G’s. Both agreed it was not something they would rush back to but I must say it really changed them…….they have a certain air about them as they move through crowds, an apparent sense of importance that perhaps they feel puts them above, or at the very least separate, from others……

Vienna is a magical old city with great transport, great eateries and a fairly slow pace for a big European city. We were very sad to leave Troy and Tracy and the ease with which we had spent our time in Vienna. But we have a ship to catch!

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Hungary and Slovenia

19/9/2010

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Hungarian - Slovenian border. A picture of modernity and progress. Actually just a disused border station in depsarate need of tearing down!

On the mean streets of Budapest - well more wet than mean

After another working week (for some anyway) in Vienna, we headed towards Budapest for another Eastern European escape with Troy and Tracy. As we were heading further into Hungary and Slovenia on the Sunday evening, we hired a car and arranged to meet Troy and Tracy in Budapest on the Friday night.

Like many European countries still working out the good and bad of EU membership, Hungary hasn’t yet adopted the Euro, so time for new money. It also has a pay in advance system for using motorways so our first job was to work out currency rates and then buy a motorway ticket.

To do this we stopped at the first advertised services, at what was the old border crossing between Austria and Hungary. Throughout Europe, particularly on old Eastern European borders, these places have been left as they were to slowly decay. Imagine a large set of toll booths, room for truck and vehicle searches, billboards for notices and advertising and immigration / customs buildings, all left to decay for the last 5 – 15 years. They really don’t say: “Hey!! WELCOME to our wonderful, progressive and modern country!” It is more like: “YOU sure you want to come in here – things are pretty grim!”

Anyway, as with everywhere else we have visited in Europe, the border crossing was not indicative of the rest of the country. Budapest is an amazingly beautiful city.

On the way there we did get a taste of the local lingo and some of it’s complexities. Up until Hungary we have basically just slipped into a new countries language as easily as slipping into a favourite pair of old ……well, er, slippers. French, German, Italian…….even Polish seemed to just come naturally to us. And then there was Hungarian.

Those great Golden Arches establishments are a great test of a country’s progress in embracing the international language of McAmeri-Donaldo. After all, even chicken nuggets are chicken nuggets in French Mickey D’s. So with tired, hungry people in the car, McDonalds seemed to be an easy solution on the freeway to Budapest.

And then they decided to introduce a special menu and somebody married to me decided that she wanted it. It looked easy to pronounce, was not that long for an Eastern European word, had very few “z’s”, “y’s”, “k’s”, or “h’s” in unexpected places and was supported by the biggest sign in the store.

3 attempts later, young Hungarian girl looking at me like I was from another part of Europe (or feel free to insert continent, hemisphere or planet), and I still have not achieved what I could have done in a mere two attempts in the rest of Europe (only 1 attempt necessary in the Netherlands, probably because they already know Netherlander, Dutch and Hollander speak so McAmeri-Donaldo is just a short step to the next logical conclusion of internationalism!). Then it happened. The young Hungarian lady took one step back, asked me again with an agonized look on her face and then turned, walked to the big poster and in front of five full queues of hungry people, pointed at the picture of the said burger……….um, yeah, sure, and can I get fries with that?

Anyway, Budapest had no weddings, no movie auditions and the same weather as the other Eastern European countries we had visited so all up it was a great place to visit.

Molly went with Troy and Tracy to an old Hungarian thermal bath house, complete with a whirlpool, we all enjoyed dinner on the Danube and a great lunch in a small, local, neighbourhood bar where the schnitzels filled our very large plates and the “Mother Theresa” meals required football teams to eat them (so why is a turkey schnitzel smothered in bacon, cheese and silver skin onions named after a little Albanian Nun?).

When we left Hungary we enjoyed an easy run down along Lake Balaton to Heviz where Europes largest thermal lake is quoted as being the “singly most unique health giving body of water in the world”. We stayed ina nice pensione and the next morning wandered down early with the old, the frail and the hospital patients (don’t think too hard about sharing a swim with a bunch of post-surgery patients) and had a very, very, very healthy swim. The water lilies enjoy the water there and so did we, although we couldn’t stay long as Slovenia was calling.

Another very average border crossing and then great freeways took us quickly into Slovenia. Our aim was to loop through some valleys and then high country before turning back toward the East and then North into Austria. We could spend a night or just transit through, our plan was flkexible.

As it turned out, the roads were very good, not congested and what may have taken 3 hours on a Polish secondary road near Krakow was taking us 90minutes tops in Slovenia. Maybe it was timing, maybe it was regional location, but we certainly felt that Slovenia was a nice, picturesque and quite part of the world compared to some of the areas around Vienna in Czech, Slovakia and Poland.

We drove along a river valley where the mountains to the north appeared to have guard towers half way up, assumingly an old DMZ between east and West as the Austrian border was just over the ridge.

By now we realised that very few of Europe’s countries have any more or less uniqueness than another. Beautiful forests, mountains, green valleys, strong flowing rivers and alpine meadows – all interspersed with quaint villages and some good and bad cities, suburbs and traffic areas. Much of it is very unique to Australians, yet not entirely unfamiliar.

We would like to come back, but travel less and experience more…………..

Hoping the miracle waters at Heviz can restore some hair

A great way to start the day

Tranquility in Slovenia

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Czech Castles, Sausage Dogs and Polish Movies

18/9/2010

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Street Theatre, Krakow, Poland

We arrived into Vienna on a Friday afternoon and after a few drinks at the Yacht Club and dumping our main bags in Julia’s sister’s flat, we loaded up a hire car with Tracy and Troy and headed for Krakow, Poland.

Troy has lived in Vienna for 16 years and Tracy for 4 but without their own car experience to draw on, there was no definite plan as to how to easily get to Krakow. We all figured that heading to Brno in the Czech Republic was the best bet so off we went.

Things change pretty quickly when you cross from Austria to Czech Rep. Suddenly the roadside services include casinos and dancing girls (I assume they also dance?!) so we were a bit cautious as to where we would stop for the night. We clearly weren’t going to make Krakow so somewhere past Brno seemed like a good option.

Leaving the freeway we were soon driving through 1970’s Czechoslovakia. Small, drab towns with a sense of grim dread that made you lock the doors and hope you didn’t end up in a one way alley with less than 3 exits. No doubt by day these towns are great but without any obvious signs for hotels we tried to burn through one after the other as quickly as possible without injuring any local children – or worse still, prize livestock.

When we did encounter something that looked like accommodation we sent Julia and Troy in to request rooms for us. At the point they walked into a pub, got the same reaction as the American backpackers at the start of American Werewolf in London (for all we know the Czech pub may have been called the “Slaughtered Lamb”?) and then had to endure 10 minutes of Czech disco meets Achy Breaky Heart line dancing – and still came out empty handed, we did a teams change and sent in the pretty one, with Tracy as her Guardian!

First try and Molly and Tracy excelled themselves – a remote hotel approaching Castle status in both appearance and features, with an open restaurant happy to serve us at 10.00pm, a wine cellar well stocked and all sorts of other attractions – ping-pong, terrace, tennis. By next morning we were thinking that we weren’t that keen on Krakow after all. But we had a city to see so off we went.

After visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau on route to Krakow, we met some very bad weather by the time we started looking for a hotel. A little lost and unsure of how we would go looking in the city, we decided to try out a roadside hotel on the outskirts and thus sent in our “A-Team” room searchers.

Despite the gloom and rain, the team came back with very positive results. Rooms were fine, reasonably priced, and whilst there was a wedding in the adjoining function room, the restaurant near the foyer could still serve us some meals from the menu. And the menu looked good!

So we un-packed, freshened up and sat down for some (basically) home cooked Polish food. And then we tried to order…….

“Ah, no, there is no menu tonight, only wedding food.”

“Um, what?! You said you could feed us from the menu?”

“Yes, is possible, from the wedding menu……..there is salad, beef and chicken.”

“OK then, what does it come with?

“You can choose Beef or Chicken. The beef is actually quite large, the chicken tasty. All get salad and choose some sauce, potato and melon.”

Right, easy choice really. 3 of us went with chicken and then Julia and Troy didn’t – they went for the beef, complete with mushroom sauce.

The salad arrived, looking reasonably normal although I can still here the fizz from the grated carrot concoction that was obviously a little old for food and a little young to be a new type of Polish cider.

Then came the chicken meals, complete with a White Peach sauce, best described as a tub of peach yoghurt tipped onto what had been a warm ¼ of a chicken breast, sliced thin and dried out in an oven for several hours. The accompaniments were spot on for a wedding so we did feel privileged. Alongside the chicken was half a plate of frozen potato balls, perfectly re-heated in the oven, and finally a slice of water-melon – we had lucked upon a posh wedding party!

But at least we chicken eaters didn’t order the beef. Actually it may not have been beef. It could have been bread-crumbs mixed with egg and beef stock powder – but then that wouldn’t explain the gristle. Perhaps it was just poorly minced parts from a cheap cut of beef – but that wouldn’t explain the taste of 10 month old French sausage. Clearly it was a very Polish burger patty, fresh from the freezer, into a grill and served with the perfect accompaniment – a mushroom sauce dark enough to disguise what was underneath it.

After dinner we enjoyed a wine in the lounge, which would have actually been very nice had the fire been lit – and drunk wedding party people didn’t keep stumbling past. Whilst Molly, Troy and Tracy sat with us the highlight was the guy who looked like a groupie from a bad ‘70’s East German Satanic Rock band who each time he walked past the back of Troy did a little “get down!” dance, complete with a Michael Jacksonish shuffle.

After Molly, Troy and Tracy went to bed, the same guy lost his groove but not his eagerness to communicate – every passing was complete with a “hallooooo”, heelllllooooo” or a “halooouuww”. Come on, mate, we would do that to a Polish couple sat in the foyer of our local hotel! How long has this wedding been going on for?

The next guy to walk past, well into his 50’s and sporting a real Arfur Donga beer gut, gave us the answer to that question – we think he was indicating 4 days! That was how many times he walked past us in different directions, firstly toward reception, then towards the foyer toilets, then other guest rooms, then towards the restaurant, only to stumble back from where he came. Not quite a definitive answer until he came back armed with a friend – someone he could trust who actually knew where the front door was!! Apparently the exit signs, large double doors opposite reception and garish fluoro’ lighting didn’t give it away on his first recce!

His return to his room was followed by much laughter from that direction and then………..accordion playing! At least his room was in the same direction as ours!

Of course that is not to say that our room didn’t have a few surprises waiting for us. As we walked past our neighbour the noise of modern Polish pop music was quite literally deafening – and sure enough, the walls were paper thin. The fact that it was radio and thus music interspersed with a late Saturday night Polish DJ jibbering crap, didn’t make it better. But it could have been worse…….

The guy across the hall told our neighbour (or was it neighbours….?) to turn the music down – so off it went. It was heading on towards 1am after all. Too late for loud music………..not too late for any visitors to earn their money though.

It was truly like a (really) bad 1970’s Swedish blue movie, without the picture, complete with a (really) over the top actress! In fact for a while we wondered if they were making a really bad 2010’s Polish blue movie………

The next day things got better. The accordion player was almost sober so had brought his weapon of choice to the breakfast table – things were better because he had just finished by the time I sat down for a coffee.

And Krakow was a great city. Plus we were there for their world famous Dachshund Parade. That’s right, more sausage dogs than you could poke onto a stick in a week, all dressed up and looking very, very cute (or very ridiculous, depending on your opinion of animals dressed as Knights Templars, brides and oil paintings!).

Somehow, the drive home through Slovakia was uneventful, except to say that I did see the best looking castles of the trip so far, perched up on high rocky outcrops overlooking valleys and gorges. Ah, now that would be a weekend to remember, a wedding party in a castle in Slovakia, where the bride looked like a dachshund and the caterer was known locally as Mr McCain has done it again!

More Street Theatre in Krakow, this time with Aunty Tracy

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Paris

17/9/2010

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Serious faces near a seriously big tower

A mini Statue of Liberty, near a large Parisian Statue of Liberty, looking West towards the American Statue of Liberty

As you may have noticed on Molly’s blog, we have been to Paris and went to the top of the Eiffel Tower. The experience in Paris was made much more exciting and fun because we met up with Julia’s brother, John, and his wife ‘Cilla shortly after arriving. Their two boys, Louis and Henry, were very happy to see us as well and we all headed straight to the tower for a look and some photos.

That evening we didn’t have time to go up the tower so we opted for the next best thing to do in Paris – have a Parisian meal in a Parisian café, inclusive of French wine and…………SNAILS of course!

We all dug in (except perhaps the one with the most French name – who shall remain nameless!) and enjoyed the taste but not so much the texture. We wound up near the Statue of Liberty for some photos and drinks before parting again.

The next morning the three of us went straight up the tower before wandering down to the Arc de Triomphe, following the Champs Elysee towards the Louvre Museum and then back across the Seine towards our Hotel.

From there it was load up, head to the station and back on an overnight train, bound for Vienna via Munich. An easy event, despite our 4 berth cabin being converted to a 6 berth due to a neighbouring carriages electric failure. What was amazingly courteous of our German steward was that he gave us the option of whether we took additional passengers into the cabin – it seemed the only right thing to do as they were otherwise to be left stranded in Paris or in the aisles of the train, yet Julia noticed several other cabins remained virtually empty for the journey! We got a nice German guy with his Mum, separated from the rest of their family on a return trip from Euro-Disney. Our experience all the richer for being courteous and with a re-newed interest in maybe visiting one of the Disney worlds in the USA…..

Waiting for snails

'Cilla tackles the penultimate snail

Delicious!

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Back to Cambremer

17/9/2010

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A French Alpine Lake

One of only two Tiger tanks still in France

We decided that we wanted to do two more things in Western Europe before heading further East. One was to catch up with Julia’s brother and his family, on a camping holiday in Southern France. The other was to return to Cambremer and relax again – travelling really is tough work!

So we headed West through Northern Italy, and into the Southern part of the French Alps, at one point travelling for over 12 kilometres in one tunnel before popping out the other end in France, having entered in Italy.

We drove up through Frances own mountain lakes area, tried to work out how many famous mountains we were driving in the shadows of and then heading North West we skirted any large towns and stuck mostly to secondary roads to work our way towards Normandy. After a bit of a rest in the car during the night we found ourselves on part of the Le Mans race circuit the next morning before stopping for various incidental tourist sites……..Tiger Tanks, old bridges, that sort of stuff.

By this stage we had established that we would do the family thing in a few days time, after getting some rest in Cambremer, so it was basically full speed ahead for cider, smelly cheese, and lots of bonjours on the balconey at Bruno and Chrystels little French paradise.

We realised when we first visited Cambremer that it was the sort of town that we might like to have a holiday cottage in if we lived in the UK. In fact the idea of having somewhere in Europe to call home would be nice regardless of where we lived but I think the distance would make it a less attractive proposition.

Anyway, for us for another week it was to be as much like home as we had experienced for the last 8 months. Sure we had been welcomed and spoilt at family and friends houses in the UK, but this was a little more at our pace with our own space. It was wonderful.

We did still do some exploring and I managed to have some curious experiences whilst wandering around the country lanes………..

Whilst visiting the local War Memorial I said hello to an Asian lady that was walking past, seemingly on her way out of town. A little unusual I thought as there is no real footpath to speak of and not a lot of destinations.

By the time I left the Memorial she had turned back and we chatted again. This time she told me she was following the Cider route, a signposted tourist route around local Cider farms – for tourists in cars to follow I assumed!? Then the lady told me she was from Xi’an in China so I told her we had recently spent 10 days there. As we were talking she then explained that her ex-boyfriend had left her in Cambremer and driven off so she was now without a car but determined to see some more of the Cider route and get back to her hotel. I assumed that where she was trying to get to was where her hotel was……….

Basically, the lady spoke excellent French but only OK English so there may have been some mis-understandings as I communicated that I had a car to take her to her hotel and she communicated that she would like someone to drive her to the Cider farm that she had not yet seen. So I drove her to a Cider farm about 6km from Cambremer and when we arrived she asked me to join her for the small tour. I did as I hadn’t been to a Cider farm. After the tour there was Cider tasting and the lady, Emma, wanted to speak to the owner as it turned out she was studying Biology in Paris and was interested in Cider farming as a future career course. I was unsure as to what I was still doing there but she asked if I would wait and then she would return to her hotel.

So I waited and then we drove towards her hotel. When we got to Cambremer and she said that the centre of town was a good place to drop her off, I started to wonder what had just happened. Putting it down to mis-communication, I couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for this lady left stranded in the French countryside.

As I returned to our own accommodation she walked up the street past me commenting that she was a little lost but her hotel was just up the street. So I again said farewell……..

Until that evening when she bounced in after tea time with a bottle of bubbly cider and keen to catch up with Julia and I for a drink and a dance!???!! Well, we were being typically hospitable and obliged the drinking part and then sat around learning more about Emma whilst she listened to our stories of China. When we asked how she was getting back to Paris where she was studying, she was kind of blank about how she would get from Cambremer to the train station so I offered to deliver her. It is what any self-respecting French man would have done!

Actually, meeting Emma was a nice distraction from daily life in Cambremer and certainly an amusing one, with several lessons of the need to communicate effectively. Molly thinks it is very amusing that I took off into the country-side, drinking cider with a mysterious lady from Xi’an.

Apple orchards - waiting to reward the locals with cider!

We just couldn't get tired of the views from Bruno and Chrystel's house in Cambremer. It is impossible to not love the sunsets over an old French village.

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Quick visits to Austria, Switzerland, Lichtenstein and Italy

15/9/2010

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Lichtenstein

Switzerland, near Lake Constance

Firstly I should point out that there are entries waiting to be posted for Austria and subsequently Italy.

Meanwhile, the journey continues here from Germany, where we left Isny in the late morning and headed into Austria on a very small mountain road, crossing German and then Austrian valleys before crossing into Switzerland near Lake Constance. Whilst Switzerland remains separate from the European Union, crossing the borders in this region were still no different to crossing a state border in Australia. Maybe a few police looking half interested and a wave of the hand but otherwise, border control is obviously effected through other methods.

We drove from near the lake, South, up the Rhine Valley, dominated by rocky mountains and alpine valleys.

We detoured into Lichtenstein where we found that things seemed like Switzerland (or Austria or Germany). The castles were quite spectacular and despite the quaint size of the two towns we stopped in, there did seem to be a lot of high end stores.

Once back into Switzerland we tunneled our way South toward the San Bernadino pass, not quite the gateway to Italy but certainly a geographic divide between German and Italian Switzerland. At over 2000 metres the pass had snow on the peaks around it. Whilst this is apparently a great driving road, we were on the faster route that is predominately tunnels and overpasses so all smooth driving for us.

As seems to be the case everyday that we are driving, we arrived into Italy late in the day from Switzerland. We had thought about heading to the Lake Como area but decided to go to another Lake to the West, the direction of travel for us in the morning.

The scenery remained like Switzerland with large mountain ranges and ridges overshadowing our journey, although Italy seemed to have greater haze. It was hotter so possibly this explains it. In fact it was now as we would imagine the Mediterranean climate to be.

Not far into Italy (in this part of Europe the divide between Italy and Switzerland is not obvious) we came across tourist villages alongside Lake Maggiore. It was quite impressive, with some house perched above the roads on cliffs, the only entrance available a single elevator shaft from next to the road, where the owner’s cars were parked in a garage cut into the cliff!

There were lots of fancy cars (not necessarily exotic though as Italy is home to some of the most exotic car manufacturers!), people sailing and water skiing, and all of this along a VERY narrow ribbon of road. Time for a stop.

We didn’t like our chances of getting one nights accommodation but following signs, Julia checked a Hotel right on the waterfront, just to get a feel for prices and availability. Before we knew it we were swimming in the pool, dining on the terrace above the lake and enjoying a great Italian summers evening.

San Bernadino pass area, Switzerland

Lake Maggiore, Italy. Our little playground for a night!

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Germany

10/9/2010

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A German Cow, in Isny, southern Germany

The Reichstag, meeting place of the German parliament. It went unused for 60 years and was refurbished with the inclusion of a large domed cupola for viewing the city

We left Sachsenhausen to find Berlin and its Reichstag, as well as Brandenburg Gate. To be honest, with no guide book and trying to see so much, we didn’t have a great knowledge of Berlin…... So with some fear, we drove aimlessly toward the city centre and hoped for the best.

As it turned out, we came across a large set of old towering gates, West of the city centre. We were able to park near them easily so we jumped out and wandered around, getting lots of photos under the assumption that this was the Brandenburg Gates………..um, wrong! They were impressive and whilst we still haven’t found a name for them, we do have lots of pictures……..

We continued on, at this stage unsure of what we had seen and what we hadn’t, and then found the Brandenburg Gates. So that cleared up our last little excursion – a little bit, anyway – and conveniently we discovered that the Gates sit very close to several other big attractions, including the Reichstag building. So park the car and lets get walking.

We wandered along the Spree River, next to Museum Island where 5 museums are beautifully encased in modern architectural wonders. We also walked around the Reichstag building and imagined a city divided by a giant wall, separating families and friends for over 30 years.

By now it was past peak hour traffic time so we thought we might head South of Berlin to stop for the night, getting us along the way for our next destination, Switzerland.

Before we knew it we had enjoyed a nice German meal in a road side diner and as the rain came down, I felt good enough to keep driving. Eventually we stopped and slept in the car (!!) and then side tracked in the morning to a little village near the Austrian border for some breakfast and a walk around.

I don’t think there could have been a more perfect way for us to spend our last few hours in Germany. By now we had entered into Germany 4 times yet had barely seen any of it’s daily life. So the small village of Isny provided at least a small snapshot of that for us. At the foot of the Alps and basically at the corner of Austria, Switzerland and Germany, Isny is a very old town with ancient walls, cobblestoned streets and a friendly café lifestyle.

Brandenburg Gate, looking East. The original city gates to Berlin, over 200 years old.

The wall behind is 700 years old, built to defend the town from feudal wars in the region

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Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, Germany, and Auschwitz-Birkenau Extermination Camps, Poland

8/9/2010

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'Work brings Freedom' - Sachsenhausen main gate

Main gate, Sachsenhausen, above which sits the SS HQ, specially designed to dominate the entire camp from all perspectives

Whilst we visited these camps more than two weeks apart it seemed appropriate to enter them in the blog together and more importantly separate from the country entries for Germany and Poland.

Sachsenhausen was a concentration camp – in simple terms a place for the Nazi regime to “concentrate” all of the people that they saw as undesirable. The aim was to then use the inmates for work details or as time went on, relocate them. In the most part the concentration camps were poorly administered by often sadistic Nazi’s on frightening power trips. Sadly, the result was starvation, disease and exhaustion that took the lives of hundreds of thousands of Europeans, inmates due to their political, religious or cultural beliefs. There were also thousands of Russian prisoners of war who were treated by the Nazi regime as being less than human.

Auschwitz-Birkenau was an Extermination camp. People were brought from all over Europe to the South of Poland, where they were divided into those who could work and those who would die, the majority fell into the latter category.

As the girls had read about Anne Frank so recently, Bergen-Belsin seemed an appropriate concentration camp to visit. The German couple we had met in Sonderburg suggested that as we were going towards Berlin, we would find it easier to visit the camp at Sachsenhausen.

So getting away late again, this time due to the incredible breakfast – honest, we headed towards Berlin. The motorways were less crowded and given our late start, we were happy to arrive at Sachsenhausen by 3.30pm. We quickly realised this was a good choice in regard to visiting a concentration camp (if there can be any “good” relating to that phrase?). It was incredibly educational for us.

Sachsenhausen wasn’t the first concentration camp established but it was considered the “model” camp on which subsequent camps were designed. It was next door to the Headquarters of the Camp Agency, from where all German Concentration and Extermination camps were managed.

Built in 1936 whilst the Olympic Games were being held just down the road in Berlin, the labour came from early concentration camp inmates, mostly political opponents of the Nazi Regime, as well as homosexuals and other citizens deemed undesirable by the regime. Sachsenhausen was a frightening look at the Western world of not long ago.

Sachsenhausen has the dubious honour of being the camp that developed the most efficient form of execution for the murder of Russian prisoners of war, although this was eventually superceded by the horrors of the gas chambers.

Whilst it was over two weeks since we visited Sachsenhausen, arriving at Auschwitz-Birkenau it was difficult to not think about paying our respects at the front gate and continuing on – the enormity of the horrors carried out in these camps is overwhelming. However we had teamed up with Julia’s sister Tracy and her boyfriend Troy to have a weekend in Poland so a visit to Auschwitz seemed essential. It had been one of our “want to visit” places from before we left Australia.

It is a very different camp to Sachsenhausen. Indeed it is 3 main camps with tens of satellite camps, each with different purposes. There was a large labour force housed between the camps to work in the local factories producing munitions and accessories for the German war effort.

Sadly, the notoriety achieved by Auschwitz was due to the gas chambers. It is estimated that between 1 and 1.3 million people were put to death (murdered) at Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II - Birkenau. The calculating, measured and meticulous efforts taken by the Nazi’s to achieve this is staggering. The rail lines here at Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II – Birkenau have a truly sinister air. The conditions on the trains were terrible, but the prospects for those who got off at Auschwitz were much worse.

Unlike Sachsenhausen, some of the gas chambers and crematoriums remain as they were in 1945. The engineering and logistics that went into the wanton disposal of human life is frightening.

We found both sites to be incredibly educational, very thought provoking and respectful memorials. Sadly there cannot be a fitting memorial for so much loss of life though the complete loss of humanity.

The notorious rail line entering Auschwitz II-Birkenau

Main Square, Auschwitz I. The scene of daily roll-calls, public humiliations and hangings.

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Denmark

8/9/2010

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This should have been a really short entry – we were just going to pop into Denmark for a few hours, grab some lunch or afternoon tea, get some photos and then head back South.

But then we got away a little late, joined a bit of a Saturday mass exodus from the Amsterdam region and then joined a similar queue in Northern Germany. Although not summery warm by our standards, clearly the coastal areas of most countries are more pleasant than the cities.

So by the time we entered Denmark it was late afternoon so we figured we would stay the night. Just need to find a nice town….

Julia once again excelled herself, randomly picking a town on the map that appeared to be on the coast, kind of an island and not too big. Sunderborg.

When we got there it wasn’t long before we were wondering if we should stay 2 nights………..this part of Denmark (the only part we have seen!) is absolutely magical. History, castles, tall ships, street malls, green paddocks down to the water, lots of stone and lots of sailing boats of all shapes and sizes.

And then we went for dinner…….wow, it is true what they say about Scandinavia being expensive. Things were suddenly twice as expensive and as we had arrived quite late, we were left with few choices. So being in Denmark we thought we should have some traditional fare…..Mongolian BBQ!!

The Hotel had an indoor pool, the best breakfast in a hotel for ages and was in a great spot by the water so we stayed a second night. We figured we all needed a day to catch up. We were a little surprised when asking about local shops that the hotel staff suggested everything would be closed as it was Sunday. Sounds like the perfect excuse to do nothing!

Our quiet day in Sunderborg became a trip in the countryside when Julia read about a local village that was hosting a “tilting at the ring” festival. We headed across to hopefully see local horsemen and horsewomen charging through the town with lances, spearing small steel rings hanging from poles. But 6 loops up, down and around the little village failed to find anything at all so we figured it was rained out and headed back to Sunderborg.

By late afternoon it was warm enough and dry enough to sit outside, watching yachts come back in as the sun set across the water. We met a German couple who were doing the same thing and once again found that German tourists are incredibly polite and friendly, ranked alongside the Dutch we think for “friendly tourist” awards!

Before we knew it it was our third day in Denmark so time to head for Germany!

The 1864 memorial commemorating the war with Germany

A Danish sunset

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Venice, Italy

Raindrops on Roses and Whiskers on Kittens, the Prater in Vienna and Warm Roast Pork Knuckles..

Hungary and Slovenia

Czech Castles, Sausage Dogs and Polish Movies

Paris

Back to Cambremer

Quick visits to Austria, Switzerland, Lichtenstein and Italy

Germany

Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, Germany, and Auschwitz-Birkenau Extermination Camps, Poland

Denmark

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