As soon as we entered Germany there was a noticeable
improvement in the quality of the road surface and the courtesy shown by fellow
drivers but on the other hand people seemed a bit more wary and circumspect
than the Czechs. It is interesting to remember that the Berlin Wall only came
down in 1989 and many people’s lives were completely changed thereafter.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/witness/november/9/newsid_3241000/3241641.stm.
There are still the soviet style concrete apartment
blocks in many towns and cities, built using preformed concrete sheets much as are
used for building industrial units etc in Australia today.
They could build a block of flats in 118
days!
Dresden was visited as an after-thought because we were
passing through on our way to Berlin. It was worth the 36 hours spent there as it is a
relaxing and roomy city; it was levelled in 1945 and subsequently rebuilt with wide
open streets and large expanses of grass, pedestrian and cycle ways. The
amazing detail in the re-constructed historical buildings in the centre has to
be seen to be believed, especially the Frauen Kirche and the Catholic Cathedral
which you would swear were hundreds of years old.
They
have a motto that Dresden is ‘a city for everyone’ to counter some of the more
right wing rhetoric about refugees in recent years.
They have also set up a remarkable trans-disciplinary
partnership –
the Dresden Concept - between universities, researchers and
industry to develop sustainable solutions including new insulated building
materials, green walls and many other projects.
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| Dresden: Designed to filter the smog and catch rainwater |
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| Dresden: across the Elbe |
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| Dresden : The Free Church, reconstructed after it was destroyed in WW2 and re-opened only a few years ago. |
German efficiency is really a pleasure, nothing is left to
chance and nearly everything works like clockwork. Public transport is spotless
and runs so well that at every tram-stop or train station a list of the next 6
arrival times are posted up on electronic boards. We have been really impressed
with how many
wind and solar farms there are in Germany and all across Europe,
the entire country ran for 24 hours recently only on alternative energy.
Meissen just along the Elbe River from Dresden produces some
of the best porcelain in the world; amazingly detailed exquisite pieces which
are still all hand-painted using the same techniques practiced here since 1710
and are hence very expensive! It is still a state owned company and had a thriving export market even when it was behind the Wall.
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| Meissen Porcelain |
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| The staircase at Albrectsburg Castle |
The
museum has a large collection dating from the inception
of the pottery and many pieces made for overseas markets like China, Japan, Russia
and Italy. In the oldest castle in Germany just up the road at Albrechtsburg, a group of mining experts and scientists perfected the porcelain mixture known as 'white gold' and produced their porcelain for 150
years before realising they needed more space and the castle needed to be
preserved.
Albrechtsburg is worth a
visit with an elevator up to the castle from the parking area – much appreciated!
The displays cover the porcelain manufactuary
and also the innovative architectural designs incorporated into the building –
diamond brick vaulting etc.
German autobahns are not the faint-hearted, however full
concentration with plenty of indicating both left and right means you can
travel pretty quickly and free of any tolls. The outside lane is often “open
speed” so it is a good idea to stay out of the way of the mostly black Mercs,
Audis and Beemers who race along and suddenly appear behind you if you are a
bit tardy at changing lanes.
Berlin was full of tourists and many of the ‘sights’
involved the war time period and the Wall.
It is obviously heavily influenced by recent history; that is the last 75
years since the end of World War 2. Virtually destroyed by bombing because it
was the Nazi centre of power, Berlin was then divided up in quarters by the
Americans, French, British and Russians and surrounded by the Soviet client
state East Germany until 1990.
Vast
building projects are now being undertaken and there are more cranes here than
we saw in London with the federal German government especially prominent.
Having visited countless museums and galleries highlighting the reformation and
renaissance and impressionist art on our European odyssey,
we concentrated on finding out what had
happened in Berlin in the 20
th century. We have been impressed by
the openness to confront the catastrophe that was Berlin after the war with
families split up and neighbourhoods bricked up; with commentary often taking a dig
at the Stasi secret police and the methods the communists resorted to try and
keep the “evil west” out. The
DDR Museum was excellent and gave a very full
picture of what it was like to live in East Germany complete with a
Trabant - the car that ran on two stroke – we recommend you visit the DDR Museum first
thing at 10am or after 5pm, otherwise it is too crowded to see everything.
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| Berlin Wall: across the wall - many families and relationships were broken or separated when the wall was built. |
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| Taking a boat ride is a great way to get your head around Berlin's layout |
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| Contact details for those who want to hire a Trabi! |
We stayed out of town in Altlandsburg in a lovely AirBnB run
by a family of beekeepers with a wonderful garden. We took the twenty minute S Bahn train into
Berlin each day which also connects to the U Bahn, trams and buses. You could also rent a Trabi from the bicycle shop nearby!
Our stay near Berlin included a day spent at the
Sachsenhausen Camp Memorial & Museum we saw the sobering and terrible evidence displayed
of Nazi atrocities, visited on every country they invaded or fought against –it
was pure evil. The camp was taken over by the East Germans after the war to
house political prisoners and then by the Soviets.
Many prisoners did not survive the
experience.
The site of the camp is very
close to Oranienburg town, so close many of the guards lived in the town.
Potsdam was a completely different note to end our visit to
Berlin with the summer palaces and extensive gardens of
Sans Souci Park to walk
around.
We then drove from Berlin to the Hook of Holland in a couple
of days, staying at a tradition German guesthouse in Rheine Messum overnight
where we had a marvelous dinner and friendly hosts whose family had owned the
guesthouse and restaurant since the 1500s…ah history!
Now we are in the old Blighty for another 6 weeks to catch
up with family & friends again.
