Day 21 Friday 21 April 2017

Well, it is going to be an interesting night in the old town tonight.  It looks like Prague may be a the favoured destinaton for groups of young blokes for a boozy weekend away.  It is only Friday afternoon and already there are groups of  drunken young men wandering around the streets apparently looking for trouble.

It is an interesting city with an old centre that hasn't been significantly damaged in any of the wars to recently sweep through Europe.  The market square in the centre of the old town and various other squares all have stalls selling all sorts of barbecued meats along with beer and wine.  The meats are cooked over open wood fires and consequently the whole area smells like an Aussie barbecue.  Another favourite is a pastry type thing that is wrapped around a long rolling pin like device coated in sugar and again cooked over wood coals.  This can be eaten with Nutella or filled with ice cream.  I showed remarkable restraint and had mine plain.  What is amazing is that none of the people working in these stalls preparing or serving your food, wait for it, are wearing gloves!  I wonder if the hospitals here are full of people with food poisoning because they bought food from someone not wearing gloves.

You wanted a food photo

There is plenty of beer being sold in the same area or if you prefer you can have a cup of hot wine with your meal.  White or red they do both.

I am typing this sitting in the square in front of my hotel with a half litre of pilsner sitting in front of me.  I am just in connection with the hotel's wi fi so I hope that this all works ok.  It has been warmer today, it is currently a barmy 13 degrees.

My hotel

Couple of Prague photos

I previously mentioned that the hotel has character.  It has character in a dark mittel Europe sort of way.  The room is large with a huge wooden wardrobe across one wall and a chandelier providing light and two smaller chandeliers for reading whilst in bed.  It looks across the square in front of the hotel, has double glazing for noise and warmth.  The bed is a double bed but has two separate doonas.  Breakfast is included in the tariff.  This morning there was a range of cheeses, cold meats, pickled vegetables, pastries plus some eggs and bacon and toast.

I did a WW2 walking tour this morning.  As you all know Czechoslovakia was peacefully occupied by the Germans prior to the start of WW2 so there was no actual invasion or fighting.  A resistance movement developed through the war and in May 1945 there was an uprising against the Germans.  Prior to the start of the war Prague had a significant Jewish population which was very active in the business and cultural life of the city.  By the end of the war that population had been reduced to virtually zero and still only totals a couple of thousand.

After the walking tour I had lunch in a restaurant on the market square accompanied by a couple of beers.  Everybody drinks beer!

Talking about lads out looking for trouble and half dozen German lads have just sat themselves down at the table next to mine, going out of their way to be smart arses, whatever that translates to in German.

Just got my bill for my beer.  A half litre of draught Urquell pilsener cost me 43Kc or 1.70Euros, thats about $2.40 AUD, no wonder everybody drinks all the time.

Getting cold here, time I went inside.

Day 20 Thursday  20 April 2017

On the train from Berlin to Prague, a four and a half hour journey.  The first half I shared a compartment with a young German chap who lived in Dresden and he had just been to Hamburg to visit his sister for her birthday and was on his way home again.  He spoke English very well and was employed in a research centre in Dresden doing research into some sort of macro biology.  He was doing work in conjunction with Monash uni and hoped to be visiting Melbourne later this year.  He got off the train in Dresden and I am now sharing a carriage with 3 older Germans who are friendly enough but don’t speak any English.

I really enjoyed Berlin, especially the cold and the snow.  When I first arrived I noticed all these blue pipes running above the roads and footpaths and understanding Berlin to be a cultural sort of place I assumed that they were some sort of avante garde sculptorial installation.  I found out later that Berlin is built on a swamp so that any time they dig a whole to build something they have to pump the water out and keep pumping it out.  So these blue pipes were just to take water away from the building sites.

Blue Pipes

Berlin is a funny place it doesnt have any dominant physical feature, no castle on a hilltop, no 1,000 year old cathedral, no giant ferris wheel, but it what it does have is history by the wheelbarrow load.  When you think of some of the major events in European history Berlin was a major player in these events.  As a casual observation they are still not very fond of Napoleon.  The Deutsche History Museum has the hat that Napoleon was wearing at Waterloo, I wonder how many of these there are around.

When I did the walking tour, the tour guide asked if anybody in the group spoke German, I said ‘nein’ which as we know now means no in German.  Pretty funny eh?

In the part of Berlin that was East Berlin there is a large communication tower that is supposed to be the highest man made object in Western Europe, now this tower was built by the communists to demonstrate their superiority over the decadent west.  It is also known that the communists were strongly atheist and set about removing anything to do with religion in the area under their control.  Now here is the thing, under certain sunlight a large cross appears on the side of the communication tower. The locals call it the pope’s revenge.

The Pope's Revenge

Since unification of the East & West Germanies the Reichstag building in Berlin has become the site of the German parliament.  They have put this stunning dome on top of the building where a dome that had previously been destroyed sat.  I am not sure how tall it is but there is a ramp that is 230 metres long that goes from rooftop level to the top of the dome.  It is full of mirrors and directs light into the chamber below it also acts as a convection funnel for heating and cooling.

Reichstag photos

For meals, I have had wiener schnitzel, duck and wiener schnitzel as well as a delicious black forest cake with coffee for morning tea at the Deutscher History museum.

John, in the history museum in the WW2 part they had the engine of a shot down Halifax bomber.  The photos below are of the engine and the descriptive label.

I have arrived in Prague, this is going to be interesting I think.  From a quick walk around (and a beer and a sausage) the place appears to be half tourists and half locals trying to rip the tourists off.

Some of you may recall that in the past I have said that every now and again I like to stay in a hotel with character, well the Betlem Club Hotel has character by the bucket load.

Day 19 Wednesday 19 April 2017

Have I happened to mention how cold it is here!  As I was walking around today it started to snow, so I took shelter in a doorway to do up my coat and get my camera into its bag.  As I was standing there I chatted to the English couple next to me.  Now the forecast was for sleet but what was falling on me looked like snow so I asked the English couple if it was sleet or snow and they confirmed that it certainly was snow.

Pretty ordinary snow pictures

I am leaving Berlin tomorrow and going to Prague.  I have a few hours on the train to Prague so will do a further update then.  Dinner time now and I can hear a big deep fried schnitzel calling out to me.

Days 17 & 18 Monday & Tuesday 17 & 18 April 2017

I am in the bar of the Augustiner am Gendarmenmarket in Berlin, it is 6.00pm and they have just tapped a wooden keg in the traditional manner.  Just prior to that I asked the barman, ‘do you have wi fi in here?’ (although I made it sound more Germanic than that), he looked at me weirdly and said ‘nein’ which is German for no.

I am drinking Augustiner Dunkel, which is a dark beer and I have a suspicion it may be a little stronger than what I am used to.

Lets get the food stuff out of the way, last night for dinner I had wiener schnitzel with fried potatoes.  Note, that it was made from veal, not chicken, not pork but little cows. It was delicious, very, very thin veal coated with something, probably deep fried to a golden colour and served with fried potatoes with little bits of fried onion through it. Accompanied by a couple of glasses of Rhine reisling.

Flashy, the place is as Germanic as ever, then again what would you expect, it is Germany after all, the people are direct, which can come across as rudeness, but it isn’t, it is just their manner.  If you ask for assistance or advice they are only too happy assist, sometimes it just doesn’t seem like it.

Did I mention that it has been cold today, almost NYC 2008 cold but not quite. Maximum 7 or 8 degrees through the day.  It actually snowed today, would you believe snow, or sleet.  No wonder my man flu is lingering.

As an observation, every wine bottle in Europe is still sealed with a cork.  Apparently some cheap wines from Portugal or similar may use the compound cork but no way known are they using the screw tops that are being used in Australia.

I am staying at the Sofitel am Gendarmenmarket.  Great location and so far walking distance to everything I have wanted to visit.  This is in the old East Berlin, the whole focus of the city has changed since the wall came down in 1989 and since I was last here in 1986.

I did a walking tour yesterday, that was very well done, two different guides, an Englishman and a Canadian (can’t get away from em), both had lived here for a number of years and were up on their history.  I tested them early in their respective tours just to make sure.  Combined it was a 6 hour tour and cost 15 euros (if anybody at the Shrine is reading this, please note).  The beauty of these tours is that you cover a lot of territory reasonably superficially but with a wealth of information to delve into later.

The Dunkels might be kicking in so time to give it a rest and come back when making more sense.......

Day 16 Sunday 16 April 2017 (Easter Sunday)

This is a bit of an experiment as I am using the WiFi on the train to post the blog, it is very slow (the WiFi, not the train) so we will see if it works or not.

I left Lille at about 9.00 this morning and had to go back to Paris, the train came in to Gare du Nord and then I had to walk from Gare Du Nord to Gare Du Est to catch my next train in the general direction of Germany.  This was done successfully if not slightly panicky, as I didnt have a lot of time.  This train went to Karlsruhe which is just inside Germany, after a short stop in Strasbourg. I thought to myself I wouldn't have minded getting off in Strasbourg for a couple of days.  But not to be.

Changed trains in Karlsruhe and this time caiught a train to Berlin via Frankfurt.  This journey is a little over 5 hours so I dont get into Berlin until close to 7.30 this evening.  I've already had a beer and a toasted ham & cheese sandwich but I reckon I will be looking for the buffet car before this journey is over.  Dayumn, I forgot to take a photo of my beer and ham and cheese sandwich.  Maybe next time, I am not even going to try and upload any photos on the train WiFi.

I like Germany and I always get a bit of a thrill when I cross the border a bit of a return to ancestral homelands maybe, or the thought of roasted ham hocks and pitchers of beer, one or the other or both.

Not much to write about so far, sitting on a train going backwards through pleasant German countryside.

I will be back if anything interesting happens or I think of any pearls of wisdom to cast before you.  I've got another 3-4 hours to think of something.  As they say here Auf Wiedersehn (or something like that).  I studied German at high school for 4 years and still learnt more from watching re runs of Hogans Heroes.  (Maybe study was to strong a word).

Day 15 Saturday 15 April 2017

Thanks for the comments, much appreciated, good news about Alyssa and the team of mooters in the USA.  Just one question though, is winning or losing a moot a moot point?  Just wondering.

Andrew, thanks for appreciating the food descriptions but you know that there will not be any food photos unless certain previously stated conditions are met.

Today's blog will be a short one as so far nothing interesting has happened.

This morning I drove from Ypres to Lille and had the usual problem with finding the drop off point for the hire car.  A little bit of background for you. I am staying in a Novotel Suites hotel opposite the Lille TGV railway station.  This is a massive station and services all the high speed and express trains to and from this part of France.  Now, under the station are 4 or 5 multi level underground carparks all with very similar looking entrances.  For some reason known only to themselves the hire car companies refuse to put any signage at the entrance to the car park that is the one to return the car to.  It is only once you are in the car park and down a level or two that the hire car company's signs start to appear.  If I didnt know better and if the French weren't such a kind and helpful people I would suggest that it was done this way as a sheer act of bastadry, but they wouldnt do that, would they?

A little about the car I had, it was a neat little Peugot 308 that I got quite attached to.  Like pretty much all the hire cars here it was a 6 speed manual and zipped along nicely, sat on the speed limit of 130 km with heaps to spare.  It had only done about 9,000k and I reckon I did a further 1,000.  The only disconcerting thing I found was the keyless locking and ignition.  When I left the car I was never quite sure if it was locked or not.  The French certainly know how to make good cars, dont they Flashy!

A photo of the car

I am off to Berlin tomorrow and I must admit I am a bit excited about that.  Last time I was in Berlin was 1986 and the wall was still up so it is going to be very different this trip.  I have already booked to go up to the dome of the Reichstag, this was quite a complicated process and had to be booked well in advance with all sorts of details provided.  Probably due to security concerns.  And I have also arranged to do a walking tour on the Monday.  

It is a grey, dull day in Lille so I havent bothered with any photos.  Lille is a bit like Newcastle, Glasgow and Ballarat in that it has lost its traditional manufacturing economic base and is battling to find something to replace it.  It is certainly busy around the stations, but still lots of homeless around the place.  And the Gypsies are back, actually saw some Gypsy men begging today, that would be like going to work for them, they usually leave it up to the woment and the children.

As the hotel is on the edge of nowhere and I have a proper table and chair I am catering in house tonight.  Bread, ham, cheese, creamy pastry thing and a bottle of bordeux.

A donkey

Day 14 Friday 14 April 2017 (Good Friday)

Thanks for the tip Jo, I will certainly be keeping an eye out for some of that Becherovka, it must have some medicinal benefits by the sound of it.

Flashy, the Regina Hotel where you stayed the 1st time here is closed for renovations.

A quiet day in Ypres today, I have been coming down with a cold for the last few days so I decided to have a bit of a rest day.  So I got up late and wandered up to to the market square for an omlette for brunch, with orange juice and coffee.  It is amazing for a town that is in the middle of rich farm land and proud of their local produce they you give you milk for your coffee in one of those little plastic tub things.

Another interesting thing here is that although Belgium has a strong Catholic population Good Friday is not a public holiday, in fact there is nothing happening here to indicate that it is any different than any other day.

Ypres from the Zonnebeke ridge

The above photo shows you what the fighting was all about.  Whoever held the high ground had the advantage, and the high ground didn't have to be very high.  Just think, you have your artillery spotters on the ridge with the guns on the reverse of the ridge and you can fire away all day.  The photo was taken using my zoom lense, Ypres is about 7 - 10 km away.  Even the lightest of the German artillery had a range of at least 12 km.

Although suffering terribly from my man flu I decided to go for a walk around Ypres and get some photos to pad out this episode of the blog, so I hope you appreciate the pics and the effort that has been made to take them.

Market Square Ypres

Inscription on the Menin Gate

Two Goats