Ok – so we have now got underway… at about 11am on the 10th March we headed out towards the Channel Tunnel, leaving normality and loved ones behind on a blustery but beautiful English morning.
Day 1 420 miles
Good time to Folkestone and over to Calais by 4.45pm.
Lots of traffic up to Amsterdam with rain, snow flurries, wind etc. After four hours and a certain amount of flustered dissention, we found our rather sad looking hotel just off Dam Square and even managed to manoeuvre the giant into a low slung underground car park
Hotel as seedy as this part of Amsterdam so all that was left to do was a Chinese meal and wander into the Bulldog bar area before deserved sleep.
Day 2 440 miles
Up early and out of Amsterdam by 9.00am.Long run through the snow, due east. Potsdam is a few miles outside Berlin and houses the summer residence – Sans Souci - as well as gardens, formally laid out and now in the snow barren and heavily weighed down. Hidden bowers with no sign of life, just white harsh and cold but giving views of carefully planned avenues leading to yet another ruined folly.
Then Berlin and a modern safe car friendly stop!
Day 3 0 miles
Berlin with heavy snow showers. We march out for a full day of sightseeing! It is still a strange place – it has the atmosphere of a reforming schizophrenic. In part this is the most powerful capital city in Continental Europe with wide open boulevards, filled with top brand shopping and substantial 18th and 19th century public buildings culminating in the Reichstag, probably the most imposing advertisement to federal democracy in the world after the Capitol building in Washington. But at every turn there is a question. The great buildings – from the Brandenburg Gate to the Opera House – have all be reconstructed from the desolation of the last War. The Reichstag stands as a reminder of the lies and cynicism of the 1930’s. Around it passes the route of the Wall to remind us of the same lies and cynicism of a later era.
It is strangely quiet as a city. Not quite endowed with the brash internationalism of London, New York or even Paris. It seems to be a city which is still not quite comfortable in its skin. But they were momentous events weren’t they and we will all have difficulty in allowing Berlin to move on…..
However, I saw Nefertiti at the Altes Museum and in the end that lifts us all above the recent past.
Day 4 214 miles
Left Berlin via Unter den Linden and into Kar Marx Alee. Huge residential blocks regimented by the former regime gives a totally different feel to the eastern pats of the city. Head south towards Dresden down an eerily empty autobahn. Into the city where we park outside the main police station – a vast edifice presumably required by the builders of Karl Marx Alee. Walking into the centre, we meet a series of huge building sites. The city’s ancient buildings are going through second major reconstruction phase to bring back all that was lost in the last war. The blackened stones, chequering the ancient rebuilt cathedral and public buildings are a lasting mute rebuke to the fearsome bombing raids of 60 years ago.
As we head south to the border with snow, lorries and -6 temperatures, Summer comes alive. He sniffs the Slav air of his roots and we enter Prague. She is a city of compact beauty. Her role as a leader of the revolt against totalitarianism now rewarded with huge numbers of tourists, of casinos, curios and cambios. Despite this, Prague is a city of great beauty and style with its castle standing high and proud beyond the Charles Bridge. Much sightseeing and walking from the intrepid duo through today and tomorrow…
Day 5 0miles 14 March
A morning spent discovering the city. Walked through a park, up behind Prague Castle-magical in the snow. Into the castle complex which is huge and dominated by St Vitus Cathedral. Back down over the Charles Bridge to meet Julian in the Old Town Square for lunch, taken in a square-side restaurant. Dire and probably the cause of our first medical emergency. Afternoon spent at a string quartet concert in a baroque hall. Evening in a good French restaurant.