August in four countries

We left Rovaniemi on a course for Helsinki. The tom-tom took us south-east to Pudasjärvi along Hw78 where we saw loads more reindeer in the fields and forests alongside the road. No more close-up incidents this time! Even on the motorway at Oulu there are signs warning about moose on the roads, so much so, that there are moose painted on the roads at junctions. 

We’d plotted a course for a camp site at Pihtipudas, simply because it was half way to Helsinki. We’ve no camping guide for Finland, so we’re relying on tom-tom as a campsite source. When we got to the site, it was a roadside motel and we couldn’t see any camping at all. We left in search of the next one (which was shut). By this time we were low on fuel, low on cash and low on energy. The petrol stations in Finland are mainly unmanned automatic ones, and they don’t take our credit cards for some reason. You can feed cash in as notes, so we loaded our last bit of cash in (which was only about 20 euros) and hoped we’d find a site soon. As we drove, we saw a sign for Hännilänsalmi camp site and kept our fingers crossed. It turned out to be a fantastic place, set on the side of a lake in the forest. We got a pitch overlooking the lake and spent the night watching a pair of red necked grebes and a young one right in front of us. We also spotted 5 black throated divers further out on the lake. It’s idyllic!

Since we landed here, we’ve just enjoyed relaxing. We’ve built fires at the BBQ areas (the site provides the wood) and had BBQ’s (with a vegetarian option of course). There’s a trampoline which the kids love, and plenty of flora and fauna to keep the cameras busy. We’ve had a drive out to Heinäsuvannon Nature Reserve, just outside Viitassari, and walked along a wooden boardwalk through the forest to the tower hides that overlook the marshes. We were liberally covered in mosquito repellent which was a good job, because the marshes are mozzy heaven. We didn’t see much wildlife despite the fact that we were all fairly quiet as we walked through the woods. There’s supposed to be flying squirrels but they were grounded on the day we visited! We did see a few Whooper swans way out in the marshes and I caught sight of some kind of eagle, but not much else.

On Saturday the weather was glorious (our warmest day yet in Scandinavia) and the girls braved the lakes depths. As I write this, we’re waiting for a group of lads to leave the pier area so that we can have an evening swim (it’s nearly 9pm). The camp site owner brought us some freshly baked cakes at teatime which were delicious. We could stay here for ever! 

Driving to Helsinki 5th August

The drive down to Helsinki was pleasant with loads of sunshine. Just south of Juväskyla we noticed loads of people on the bridges looking down at the road. We wondered what they were doing until Andrew spotted several rally cars coming towards us. He then realised that that these were from the Finnish stage of the WRC (he’d been watching it on the Finnish TV stations the night before), en route to the next part of the race on this, the last day of the championship. We didn’t see the UK car but caught one of the Finnish cars on camera as it was cheered along by the crowds.

We were heading for one of the two city camp sites on the outskirts of the city, called Rastila camping. It’s a fairly big site with its own beach and is very clean and quiet. We decided to put the awning up which wasn’t without its problems as there was a bit missing! We cobbled it together and will have to try and source the missing bit at a camping shop. It’s great to have to extra space, especially with the glorious weather we’re having. The site also has free internet access (hence the reasonably up to date updates).

Helsinki Zoo 6th August

Helsinki Zoo is located on Korkeasarri island, one of the 621 islands that make up the Helsinki archipelago. We drove onto Mustikkamaa island where we parked the car, and walked across it for about 10 mins to a bridge that linked up with Korkesarri. The zoo is basically the whole island and only cost us €16 for the family. 

We spent all afternoon there, so it was great value for money. Afterwards we went back to one of the small beaches on Mustikkamaa and just had an hour or so sunbathing and swimming (well, the girls swam, we watched. Although it’s nice and warm here when you’re dry, it’s not like the Med. in August so you get cold quite quickly in the water, and we’re chickens!!). 

Helsinki City and Suomenlinna Sea Fortress 7th August

We bought the Helsinki Transportation ticket which costs €18 for us all: this got us transport for the day on buses, trams, trains and municipal boats to the islands. We caught the metro into the city which took 20mins and then set off on foot to Senate Square (a cohesive example of Neoclassical architecture, apparently). This is where the impressive white Helsinki Cathedral is (Finland’s most famous and photographed building), along with Government Palace, and the main building of the University. We sat on the cathedral steps in the sun, eating cherries and split peas, watching the world go by. Madi was on a mission for souvenirs (again) so we walked on down to Market Square (which isn’t a square), where there were plenty of market stalls for Madi to have a go at. We needed food also (but with a veggie option) so wandered up and down the food stalls looking for a veggie-friendly place. We eventually found a great one, with an enormous frying pan full of chicken, salmon, rice, potatoes and other veg. It was really scrummy and good value.

After Madi finally chose yet another necklace/earring set, we went to find the Viking Line offices to book the ferry to Sweden, only to find they were all booked up until Sunday. We booked that one, so will have to enjoy Helsinki for a little longer than originally planned!

We caught the ferry to Suomenlinna Fortress, a sea fortress built on separate islands (now linked by bridges), that has had historical significance in the defence of three states: Sweden, Russia and Finland. It’s on the UNESCO World Heritage List and is Helsinki’s biggest tourist draw. We wandered around the island, through the various tunnels and had a look at the guns, which still face towards Russia! 

Around camp 8-10th August

We’ve knuckled down to some school work this week, drawing up a timetable for morning lessons and afternoon fun. Algebra and biology! What joy!

We spent the afternoon of the 9th on Kallahdenniemi beach, a few kms from the camp, and the other afternoons just lazing around camp. On Friday it was Pat’s birthday so we wished her well and sang down the phone. Later that afternoon there was a rock concert in the park next to the site. The music was awful (even the kids agreed) so we didn’t stay long. It went quiet at about midnight so wasn’t a problem.
 

Transformers 11th August

We went back into Helsinki today, the plan being to take the kids to the cinema (they don’t dub in Finland, it’s just subtitles). They thought we were going to a museum so it was a great surprise for them to find out it was the cinema! (small pleasures!). Harry Potter 5 had already started so we opted for Transformers. This turned out to be a great film and we all enjoyed it. You should go and see it, the robot transforming effects were really great. 

We caught the train home with the people who are in the opposite pitch to us. They are a German couple with a little baby girl. Unfortunately they’d been at the hospital with their daughter, who was running a high temp. We swapped travelling stories (they are on a 6 month tour, taking a break from being teachers as part of their maternity/paternity break) and had a chat. 

The German couple, Karsten and Silke, came over to see us this morning. They are taking Dana back to the hospital as she is still not well. They gave us their address and email and invited us to visit them whenever we are passing by. They plan to be in Sicily in December too so we might bump into them again.

We boarded the ferry Mariella, ready to sail at 5.30pm. The girls wanted to play BINGO so we bought them both a ticket and waited with joyful anticipation for the multi-lingual bingo caller to start calling. As the 1, 2, 3 and 4-line winners claimed their cash prizes, Madi realised that she only needed 3 numbers for BINGO. The tension mounted as 2 of her numbers were called… and then….BINGO. Madi had won! She won €26, a hug from the host, and was absolutely thrilled (by the money, not the hug). Then they picked three of the bingo cards out of a hat and called out my name….a free drink from the bar and another hug from the host. Our total win was €33, from a €10 stake, which paid for a round of drinks, big bag of chocs (thanks Madi), and left the kids plenty to blitz in the video games room.

We arrived in Stockholm at 9.40am and were quickly off the ship and on our way. We’d originally planned to stay and visit Stockholm, but decided to give the city a miss (this time!). The girls were desperate for a pool, rather than the sea/lake, and there aren’t many campsites in Sweden that have pools (most are near the sea/lake). I’d seen a campsite around 2 hours west of Stockholm at Örebro, called Gustavsvik. It advertised itself as the ‘most visited leisure and tourist establishment in Sweden’, not least because of the ‘Adventure bath’, a big indoor pool with Europe’s longest wild water rapid, slides, waves etc. As campers we have free access to the outdoor pool and slides, indoor exercise pool and discount to the Adventure bath. It is probably the best site (5 star) we’ve been to yet, and they’ve thought of everything anyone might need. We tried out the outdoor bit on Monday and went inside on Tuesday. You realise you’re getting old when you don’t enjoy these places anymore and it’s too noisy. You’ve got one eye on your kids, and one on everyone else’s to make sure they don’t drown yours. The rapids were ‘wild’ and neither of the girls were that enamoured by them (fortunately only 1 run for us then) after half drowning most of the time. I’m glad it wasn’t too busy otherwise it would have been a nightmare. Back to the free outdoor pool tomorrow if the weather permits.

Finally…..IKEA! 15th August
At last, sad but true, we made it to an IKEA. There are odd bits and pieces we needed for the caravan, mainly ideas for making the most of our storage space (any excuse), and with IKEA being only 10mins away…..And, yes, it’s even harder to work out what things are when the name AND description are in Swedish. True to the IKEA spirit though, we entered wanting to spend £20, and left spending £80! Also found co-axial cable in the ‘Currys’-style shop next door (we’ve now got the site’s free cable TV-English TV with subtitles currently airing ‘The Simpsons’ as I type), and 2 really cheap DS games for Andr…I mean, the girls. 

Adventure Golf 16-17th August

Elena was a bit off colour yesterday so we stayed around the site, generally being lazy. Our educational event for the day was watching Mel Gibson in Hamlet. None of us knew the tale, and as we're going near the castle Shakespeare used for Hamlet when we go to Copenhagen we thought it was fitting to watch it. We plodded through the antiquated language and got the general gist of the plot. Not sure why everyone raves over Shakespeare though....must be missing the point! 

The sunset was spectacular last night  so we expected a warm day today. Alas, (sound like Hamlet now), we've had quite a bit of rain today already. Not daunted by this we're off to the adventure golf course on site now (4.30pm), which looks great. The holes are set amongst gigantic buildings of local landmarks (the castle, water tower etc). Off to Denmark tomorrow..... 

 13, Unlucky for us- 18th August

We left Gustavsvik camping site at Örebro, and headed south towards Malmo where we would cross the Oresund bridge (a combined two-track rail and four-lane road bridge across the Oresund strait. The bridge-tunnel is the longest combined road and rail bridge in Europe and connects the two metropolitan areas of the Oresund Regionn: the Danish capital of Copenhagen and the Swedish city of Malmö. The international European route E20 runs across the bridge, as does the Oresund Railway Line.) This site has been great, at every opportunity there are five stars displayed to remind you of the quality. In the showers, on flags, on the doors, on fences, on the bins and on and on and on. They seem to have a fixation on displaying “*****” everywhere. I half expected to wake up one morning and find five star son the bonnet of the car! The site was very good though, probably the best or definitely second best of the twelve we have visited so far on the trip.

After about six hours in the car we decided that the very small (only room for 60 caravans) site near Copenhagen, that according to the camping guide gets full every day and needs reservations unless you arrive before lunch time) could quite possibly be full. So we headed for a nearer site, still in Sweden to lay up for the evening so we could get an early start to get to the site tomorrow after a leisurely 2 hr jaunt.

Our nearest site was Borstahussens Camping, a three star outside a town called Landskrona. The price in our guide book was reasonable and it had wireless web access, so a good choice for our 13th, yes 13th……….did you get that….13th site……………….

As we rounded the last bend to the site entrance we commented on how large a site it was and how busy it appeared to be, that should have sent alarm bells but it was late and we needed to stop. We checked in, paid up and bought WWW access. The pitches are all the same, close together and next to us are a couple of young couples in tents who are sat right outside our front door.

Anyway, we’re only here for a night, just to lay low ‘til the morning so lets hope that the campers go to bed at a reasonable time or that it rains torrentially and forces them to bed, we’ll see. This is definitely the worst site we’ve visited…..Kids seem happy though, we’ve got cable TV and The Simpsons! 

The Campsite in a Fort- 19th August

Last night wasn’t as noisy as we thought it might be and quietened down by midnight. We were awoken at 7.00am, however, by the people next door dismantling their tent and roaring off site. It’s a strange site when you look around, really cramped and a bit scruffy. I can’t imagine wanting to have this as a permanent holiday location, despite it being on one of Sweden’s best beaches (a dubious claim, from what we could see anyway). Glad we only stayed for 1 night!

The drive over the Øresund Bridge was expensive (600 SEK which is about £50) but was impressive as an engineering project. My guide book estimates the total number of cars crossing daily is 10,000, so that’s a cool quarter million a day (it’s only £25 for a car). Not sure how much it cost to build but it’s been open since 2000, so that’s an amazing re-coup of about £3 billion, roughly (less running costs etc). Whoever’s idea it was certainly coined in with this one!

We followed Tom Tom through Copenhagen, again forgetting that it takes you literally the shortest route, so we ended up driving straight through the heart of the touristy bit. Not surprisingly we didn’t see another caravan on this route! Charlottenfort camp site is only 6km north of Copenhagen so we were there by lunchtime and we were pitched up quite quickly. It’s not the greatest campsite in the world- small pitches, close together- but it’s easy to get to the city. We are actually inside the fort and it still has 12 huge howitzers (disabled, of course!) pointing towards Sweden within the grounds. We’re right next to the beach, so there’s a lovely view from the top of the fort (with the Øresund Bridge and Amager windfarm in the distance). 

 Wonderful, wonderful, Copenhagen -20th August

Denmark, as with many other European countries, is big on cycling as a means of day to day transport. Consequently, every road has a cycle path, cyclists have separate traffic lights and pedestrians are usually in the way, especially when you can't tell the difference between a cycle path and the pedestrian path! As we walked to the bus stop we heard a loud whistle and a shout. We ignored it (as you do), until it happened again-only this time, much nearer to us. The source of the whistle, travelling at lightning speed, then screamed at us, gesticulating wildly, as we jumped out of the way just in time. He continued to shout stuff at us as he pedalled off! Stupid tourists!

We arrived in Copenhagen without further incident, the plan being to walk from the Rådhuspladsen to the Little Mermaid, which, according to my guidebook, should have taken about 11/2 hours. After posing for photos with Hans Christian Anderson we followed the route to the Kongens Nytorv (New King's square) which is a huge square with a statue of Christian V set in gardens in the middle. (this is turned into an ice-rink in Winter). There were also hundreds of huge plastic balls surrounding the central garden, each one containing information about technological challenges and solutions. We're not sure what the purpose of the display was as a whole, and there were too many to be bothered to find out, so we headed off towards the Little Mermaid. 

After about half an hour, I realised I wasn't quite sure where we were. It had started to rain when we finally worked out that since leaving the Kongens Nytorv we'd walked in a big circle and had ended up more or less back at the Rådhuspladsen, still miles away from the LM. As we were stood next to the canal boats offering tours, we opted to take one of those and see the LM from the water. The hour tour took us around the canals, under very low bridges, through Christianshavn (Little Amsterdam) with its trendy new apartments created from disused naval buildings and warehouses. The most expensive apartment in Copenhagen is in a building that used to be a dry dock for the navy and is worth £10million. 

We also sailed past Chrisitiania, the 'free state': a deserted military barracks that was set up as a hippy commune back in the 70s. Apparently the government tried to close it down but as the number of people living there grew, they decided to leave it as a 'social experiment'. About 900 people live there now, and they don't pay taxes, but have their own government, schools and financial structure. 

We also passed the modern new Opera House, the Royal yacht, Vor Frelsers Kirke (a church with a golden spire, with an external staircase that runs to the top), Amalienborg Slot (home to the queen), and of course, the Little Mermaid. Andrew was suitably under whelmed by her, not being prepared for her small size, but you can't go to Copenhagen and not pay her a visit. It's a pity we won't be there for her birthday (in 3 days), as there will be 94 girls in the water (topless, from what I can see from a photo of a previous year) spelling out the number '94'. That sight might have made the trip worthwhile for someone! We finished our visit to the city with a great Indian at a restaurant located on Hans Christian Anderson Boulevard and caught the bus home. 

 Topcamp Feddet -21st-22nd August

The ferry from Gedser in Denmark to Rostock in Germany has been booked for the 23rd at 11am, but Gedser is about 3 hours away from Copenhagen. Now that we’re not into early mornings we decided to travel nearer to Gedser so we’re staying at Topcamp Feddet, near Faske for a couple of nights. This site is quite big (860 pitches), with most of them seasonal. However, there’s hardly anyone else here so it’s great. We can hear the sea, which is just a few hundred metres away….peace! 

Back to Germany-23rd August

We arrived at the ferry terminal at Gedser just before 10am, thinking we were nice and early for an 11am start. As we drove up to the ferry terminal the woman at the kiosk seemed to be waving us to her booth, quite frantically, it appeared. We were then waved onboard and within minutes the ferry had set off. For a few minutes we thought we’d got on the wrong ferry, as according to our timetable, there wasn’t a 10am sailing to Rostock. Fortunately, the ferry was the right one and we landed at Rostock, 1 hour earlier than planned. We never did work out why the ferry went early!

We’d originally chosen a campsite right near Berlin, and headed for that. However, we noticed, before we got too close, that it was literally on the edge of an airport so decided against it. Instead, we drove to Potsdam, 20km to the west of Berlin. Potsdam was known to me only because of the Potsdam Conference, held towards the end of WWII by Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin (and finished by Attlee, Truman and Stalin), with the aim of sorting out problems arising at the end of the war. This is where they worked out how to set up the occupation zones (although how they came up with the idea of splitting up Berlin beats me- after we’d been and seen it for ourselves it seems, now, to have been the craziest idea to have come out of these talks!), punish war criminals, and set up the reparations. We didn’t realise at the time, but Sanssouci Park is also quite famous for its palaces (plural), so the girls are thrilled (not) at the idea of the forthcoming sight seeing plans! Sanssouci-Gaisberg campsite is on the side of a lovely river, very near to Sanssouci Park (as the name suggests). 

Sanssouci Park by horse and carriage-24th August

We headed for the nearest supermarket to stock up on supplies (thank heavens it’s back to Lidls again for cheap food!) but decided to go to the park first. We ate at a little café near to the Neues Palais, where Andrew tried a German dish of grilled herrings. The owner was quick to point out that the fish was served cold and pickled, probably because loads of English people order it and send it back expecting it to be warm. The girls and I chose something safer!

 Just as we left the café the heavens opened briefly, so we decided to take a tour of the park by horse and carriage. Having circumnavigated the park, glimpsing palaces as we went, the tour took us through down town Potsdam. Although a lovely town with lovely buildings we couldn’t help but notice all the graffiti. It seemed to be on every spare inch of space: lampposts, electric meter boxes, gate posts, even houses! It’s obviously a popular pastime for the Potsdam teenagers. After tea we cycled through the woods alongside the river for a few km’s before calling it a night and heading home.

Berlin: The Brandenburg gate, Checkpoint Charlie and of course, the Wall -25th August

We’ve really been looking forward to visiting Berlin. Although we don’t want Germany to be ‘just about the war’, we wanted to learn about the WWs and the changes that have happened to Germany since then. Coming to Berlin, where the war is very much a focal point for its tourism has been great experience for us all, as neither Andrew nor I really know a lot about the whys and wherefores of it. We caught the train into the main station and headed for the Reichstag, the home of the German parliament. It’s an amazing building mixing the old with the modern, the latter in the form of a huge dome that peeps out of the middle. The public can go inside the dome and spiral their way to the top. I’d read that the queues were enormous, and sure enough, it flowed out of the building, down the steps and beyond. We didn’t bother queuing! Instead we sat down eating Bratwursts (well, we did, Elena had to wait until we could find a veggie option) at an open air meeting of some kind. Everyone was very solemn and nodding seriously and applauding the speakers. Our German is terrible, but we think it had something to do with the 66th anniversary of Germany invading Russia.

We picked a busy day to visit the capital, as it happens. During the course of the day we saw very long queues into several buildings, including a hotel (red carpet for the queuers) and TV studio. Madi ear wigged a conversation and found out it was ‘open house’ for several buildings which everyone was making the most out of. There was also a rock concert right at Brandenburg Gate (no chance of a good photo!) to highlight school bullying (see, it’s not just Britain that has these problems).

We had a look at a monument for the Russians that died, which included tanks and guns, and also found a memorial to the Jewish that died, which comprised of over 2000 huge concrete stones. We posed for photos (and Karen got a postcard of this for her birthday-nice and cheery!). The girls were originally climbing (as were other kids) on the tops of these stones, but when we realised what it was we drew the line at Elena heelying along the tops of them!

The sights of Berlin apparently cover an area 8 times the size of Paris, so we opted to take in the remaining sights by bus, Ever budget conscious, we took a normal bus (rather than a tour bus) as the ‘100’ covers most of the main sights and is free with our travel ticket. It took us right through Eastern Berlin first, past the amazing old museums and churches, back to the Reichstag, and then onto Western Berlin to the Zoological gardens. We got chucked off the bus then as it was the end of the line, so had drinks and ice-creams overlooking the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche. This church is really a monument to the war as the tower has been left as it was after being bombed in 1943. Where the rest of the church once stood there is now a modern octagonal church and free- standing bell tower, which looks really odd as it’s really ‘60s’.

We caught the bus back to the centre and then caught a tram to get to Checkpoint Charlie, the notorious border crossing between the American and Soviet sectors. We walked along Zimmerstrasse, which is lined with information about the wall and the tragic deaths of people trying to get over it. Further on, we came to one of the few sections of The Wall that still remains. You get an idea how monstrous a structure it must have been for Berliners, forming a 155km solid barrier all the way around Western Berlin, annexing it from the rest of the West. To leave a Western enclave in the middle of a much poorer Soviet-controlled region of Germany now seems to have been a crazy decision and you have to wonder how anyone thought it would work. We bought a tiny bit of the wall as a souvenir to commemorate its 1989 falling, which we only vaguely remember watching on TV. It’s hard to explain to the kids about the Cold War and the tensions that led to the wall being built. That it only happened in Europe such a short while ago makes it even more unbelievable to all of us.

Also note, the photo of Andrew at a street especially named after him!!

We caught the tram and trains back to the pick-up point for the free campsite bus, which turned up just as we were scrabbling around for their telephone number. It had been called by Johnny and Liz, an English couple travelling for the summer. They’re on their way home via Hamburg, as they’ve already travelled through a lot of Central Europe. We had a good chat to them the following night, swapping travelling stories and e-mail addresses.
 

Andrew gets told of by a Palace official!-26th August

You might have known it'd be Andrew getting told off! We went back to Sanssouci Park to have a closer look at the palaces, and go inside the Neues Palais, which is apparently one of the most beautiful in Germany. There were signs telling us 'no photos' which we had every intention of following. In the 'Grotto', a really beautiful room with shells, precious stones and minerals entirely covering the walls and ceiling, Andrew decided to switch OFF his camera and fiddle with it. The 'guard' rushed over, wagging her tongue and finger at him, to which he replied 'I'm not taking a picture, I've no intention of taking a picture, I won't take a picture'. Obviously the woman didn't understand him, and to make matters worse, just to make a point, Andrew continued to twiddle buttons and look like he was getting ready to snap (a photo that is). She looked a bit cross and proceeded to follow him around the room, very closely.

Anyway, the palace was suitably impressive, made all the more fun for the kids because we all had to wear oversized slippers so that the floors weren't damaged. They enjoyed skating around the halls and rooms more than they enjoyed the fabulous palace!
 

Escape from Colditz -27-28th August

On our way to Dresden we opted to stop off at Colditz to have a look around the castle. Chris Watson bought us the ‘Escape from Colditz’ game years ago, so we thought it would be great to visit the place and see where it all happened. The campsite was lovely, set in the Colditz Forest. Nice and quiet…and cheap! On Tuesday we cycled through the woods to the castle, landing there at 2.50pm, just in time for the 3pm guided tour in English. As we were the only English ones there we had the guide to ourselves, and she took us around the castle, regaling us with escape stories and pointing out where they all took place. We all found the tales really interesting.

The castle was used during the war as a POW camp for senior officers, ‘special’ soldiers (related to British royalty etc), and persistent escapees (a Oflag, as opposed to a Stalag for normal soldiers). All the POWs were looked after really well as the Germans stuck to the Geneva Convention- even giving them books, paints and theatrical stuff to keep them occupied. Because of this, the Germans used Colditz as a ‘show’ camp, so that whenever the Red Cross wanted to check up on how POWs were treated it all looked acceptable. The Germans thought the castle was escape-proof, but having a lot of time on their hands the prisoners managed to think up loads of novel and daring escape plans, several of which succeeded. Those prisoners that failed were photographed and details of their plans circulated to all other POW camps. Because the castle only held officers and those good at escaping, the Germans ended up learning all the potential ways a solider could escape literally from the ‘experts’. 

Dresden- 29-30th August

 We left Colditz on the 29th and headed East to Dresden to stay two nights at Camp Wostra, just south of Dresden, in a small town called Heidenau. I particularly wanted to visit Dresden because a German colleague at Astrazeneca had told me how the cathedral had only just been rebuilt after being completely bombed by us during WWII. It was apparently quite spectacular.

The weather for the past few days has been fair, not exactly cracking the flags, but nice and sunny hovering around 15-17ºC. We cycled along the River Elbe on the evening we arrived, planning a double sight-seeing day the following day. We drove into Dresden on Thursday, which is still undergoing a lot of re-building due to the war, but also from major flood damage in 2002. We headed for the cathedral, the Frauenkirke, which was absolutely amazing, not least because it has been rebuilt with much of the original sandstone, collected up and cleaned. We saw postcards of how it looked until 1993, when they started the reconstruction, and it really had been completely destroyed. We walked to the very top of the huge dome, the steps and walkways spiralling up inside it. The views of Dresden were great, but the best views were inside. Since we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside the church (although unbelievably you could still see flashes going off), I bought a postcard. It doesn’t do it justice as it was magnificent. To think it had all be rebuilt in such a short time is incredible-all paid for by the people of Dresden (although it cost us €20 to visit the dome, so they’ll re-coup a lot of money in the long-run). We had a short wander around the historical part of the city, seeing the Fürstenzug, a 102m frieze depicting a procession of dukes dating back hundreds of years. It is made up of 24,000 Meissen porcelain tiles and I think it must have survived the war as there’s no mention of it being rebuilt in my guide book.

We ate lunch back at the van and then headed for Sächsische Schweiz, Saxon Swtizerland, to see the Bastei. These are iselbergs, tall rock formations that are unusual in shape and have now been connected by foot bridges. The footbridges are all made of steel, but the original ones were wooden, as the bastei had been used as a base for a fortress hundreds of years ago. It must have been quite hair-raising to put up the original bridges as they span several very steep crevices. There was a model, showing what the original fortress looked like.