Monday
08-Jul-2019 (Hallstatt)
We
visited Hallstatt in 2013 (the same time we stayed in Admont) – but only had a
few hours there… although we did get sun.
This time we felt the need for a rest “between cities” so decided to
stay 2 nights – both to catch our breath… and to be able to enjoy this
beautiful place. The only pity… it did
manage to rain, on and off, for both days!
Hence the slightly “cool” colours in the photos. And, curiously, the place is overwhelmed with
tourists (like us…!)… the tour buses started disgorging their cargos from, it
seemed, 8 AM each morning.
The
other objective was to visit the salt mines here – the oldest in the world – as
salt has been extracted from the underground source here, since prehistoric
times (the claim is 7000 years). Salt made the region very influential during
the iron age (approximately 800 to 450 BC)… and very wealthy, based on the
grave goods that have since been recovered as a result of excavations of a pre-historic
cemetery from near the mine – which itself is in a valley high above Hallstatt.
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| Morning on Hallstatter See |
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| The "classic" image of Hallstatt (pity about the car park!) |
And
so. to the salt mines we went… dressed in most fetching baggy clothing and in a
well-formed line…. From the outside you could imagine that we were a bunch of prisoners
off for a day’s “work” in the Gulag.
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| And off to the Salt Mines we go... with a rum-tum-tum... |
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| The beauty of Rock Salt... where the colour is a function of the mineralisation. |
And
today, salt is still being mined, 30,000 tonnes per year – mostly by a method
that dissolves the “rock” salt in situ, then pipes it out for re-processing…
turning it back into its solid (rather than brine) form.
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| A swan and cygnets on Hallstatter See |
Hallstatt,
even on a second visit is still very lovely – even though it is overrun by tourists…
such as us (yes we recognise that we are part of the problem).
Tuesday
09-Jul-2019 (Hallstatt to Grafenau)
We
decided that it was time to begin our northward travels in earnest…. and to
finally move to a latitude that was further north than where we began, in Isny
(Germany). Accordingly, we planned a two-day travel strategy to get to
Prague. The first step was to cross back
into Germany, with an intermediate stop at some convenient location – which
turned out to be Grafenau. Just north of Passau, where the Danube, Inn and Ils
rivers converge – to form an even larger Danube. It felt a little off-handed to pass by such
an interesting place (it has the largest pipe organ in a church in the world –
greater than 17,400 pipes, and daily organ recitals) – but being nearly halfway
through our time – and still many places to see – some culling decisions needed
to be made…
There
were few places to stop to take photographs… but the Donau (Danube) is so
impressive – that a stop was required!
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| The Danube (Donau) at Engelhartszell |
We
have seen some very curious “permanent pitches” at some of the camp sites we
have visited, but this one at Grafenau – seems to “take the cake” for perhaps
the most eclectic collection of items that we have seen. Look closely, and you
will find: a weather station in the hedge on the left, numerous types of bird
feeders / boxes, a good collection of immobile animals, and imaginary animals,
multiple light sources and solar panels, various wooden constructions, flags of
various sizes, a single-bike bike rack, a caravan, etc. etc.
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| One of the "permanent sites" at Bavaria Kur-und Sport Camping. |
We
arrived late… and we left early the next day – so had little time to enjoy the
delights of a campsite (with the brave name, “Bavaria Kur-und Sport Camping”,
advertised to be “beautifully located in the Bavarian Forest… directly in the
vicinity of a large swimming lake”. We didn’t
notice a lot of trees… or see the lake!
So,
moving on…
Wednesday
09-Jul-2019 (Grafenau to Praha (Prague))
When
crossing into the Czech Republic, we stopped at the petrol station at the
border and enquired whether we needed a Go Box (or similar), or a Vignette, or
nothing at all to travel on Czech Motorways.
In the discussion, English was a bit of an impediment, but we were
assured that a vignette was all that was required – so we bought one… for 10
days.
The
Bohemian countryside is very lovely, rolling hill country – and we enjoyed
travelling through forests, wheat fields and other grain types that we could
not identify. The “big” skies are a thing of beauty too.
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| Bohemia (Czech Republic) south west of Prague |
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| And again... |
While
the distance was not great… the roads were quite slow and there were quite a
number of detours and road works slowdowns along the way. However, when we did
finally reach the motorway into Prague from the south – we did begin to notice
structures along the way that looked to closely resemble those that we had seen
on the Austrian motorway system, under which our GO Box made a nice “ka-ching”
sound each time we passed one… So perhaps
a vignette was not quite enough!
On
arrival at the camp site – I did a little research with Mr Google… and it does
seem that vehicles over 3.5 tonnes, travelling on Czech Toll roads – do require
something like a GO Box… but it all seemed very confusing, and getting a Premid-Box
(their name for a GO box) did not seem straightforward… so we resolved that on
departing the Czech Republic – we would avoid all Toll and Motorway roads! We made
the appropriate changes to the Route Preferences in the GPS.
Thursday
10-Jul-2019 (Praha (Prague))
Our
research for this part of the trip had been a little “patchy”… so our visit to
Prague was based largely on the recommendations of others… and our relatively
limited understanding of what we would see and experience there. We did book in a walking tour though – to make
sure we covered the key points!
As
with the other countries that we have visited that emerged from under the grip
of the Iron Curtain in the early 1990’s the Czech Republic shows signs of both
the “old” Soviet influenced era and of investments made more recently – but nothing
can take away from the glory of the past that cities like Prague display… the
city of 100 spires…
So
what impressions did Prague leave on us? These are probably' remarkably
superficial… but they are our impressions regardless!
Let’s
start with the vehicles fleet they have developed to show the city off to well
healed tourists…
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| Phil - perhaps this would suit your Alfa Romeo requirements? |
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| Stretched Model T.... and counting |
And
the amazing shop windows…
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| Shop Window displays are tourist attractions! |
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| Clearly, Puppetry has a long history in this country! But this does look a bit gruesome don't you think? |
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| Nice Crystal... but a bit expensive for us - even the 50% off pieces! |
And
the Charles Bridge… built by said Charles IV, to replace a bridge previously damaged
by a flood in 1342. Charles was, among other things, superstitious – so he
consulted an astrologer to determine the best day on which to start building a
new bridge – that would never get washed away by a flood. He seems also to have
been quite “religious” and forward thinking – by both building a Cathedral and
establishing a University (so perhaps he was hedging his bets… or was not well
informed (re astrology)!). Well it seems the astrologers took the long view...
and proposed a date 15 years in the future… and with the help of court
mathematician, a precise date (and time) was chosen for the construction to
begin…: 5:31 AM on 9 July 1357 (which can be expressed as 135797531…) – I kid
you not. Perhaps the astrologers thought that they were safe with such a long lead
time… the King might even be dead by then (and hence their heads safe – should their
prognostication not work out well?) … but Charles waited… and the first stone
was laid at the specified time – which was clearly correct… as the bridge is
still there (it was completed in early
part of the 15th Century).
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| The Charles Bridge (formerly - for most of its life actually known as the Stone Bridge)… or a small fraction of its 500 some metres length - and a few Spires... |
The other point about the bridge, is that it crosses the Vtlava River
(also known as the Moldau)… and some of you will know that Smetana’s Ma vlast (my
homeland) is one of my favourite pieces of music (actually 6 independently
written symphonic poems) includes a majestic “movement” called Vtlava (or the
Moldau) – so it was quite special to see and experience this river – in its
gentle flow through Prague. Now… we
would have played Smetana in Fiat as we sailed across Bohemia in our house on
wheels… but for some unknown reason, the iPod input on the Fiat’s “Naviceiver”
(which includes the now well behaved GPS) is not functioning. I have checked
the software versions and it is 3 major versions behind the current release… so
I just have to figure out if I am game enough to try a firmware update… I have
downloaded it though!
Back
to Prague…
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| Prague Town Square.. |
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| And again... being used as a backdrop for a wedding photo shoot... |
Our
walking tour included the Charles Bridge, Prague Castle, including, Old Royal
Palace, St Vitas Cathedral, St George’s Basilica, and Golden Lane – which unless
you have been to Prague will likely all be meaningless words. But they were all magnificent records of what
man is able to do – to create enduring monuments… to demonstrate self-importance(?)…
to glorify God(?), or simply to project “power”… all things that seem common to
man today too.
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| St Vitas Cathedral... it took quite a while to complete. Construction began in 1344 but not completed until 1929... being built in three stages to the original plans... with some changes in style along the way! |
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| It incorporates, as a side chapel the original Romanesque "Rotunda", built in 930 - by Wenceslaus - and his tomb is the object covered in the red cloth on the right. Fortunately - the Baroque style (angels, and cherubs and gold and silver) was not applied to this - as it was to John of Nepomuk (who was drowned by Wenceslaus (Kingat the time)in the Vtlava river because he would not divulge the content of the Queen's confession)that can be seen in the main part of the Cathedral. By the way,... Wenceslaus was murdered by his brother. Not sure where the whole idea of "Good King Wenceslaus" comes from!? |
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| Frescos in St Georges Bascilica - the oldest surviving building in Prague Castle - from 920. |
The
Golden Lane is also famous, among other reasons, because Kafka used No 22 to write
during 1916 and 1917. In the wall behind the lane is a Museum of military equipment
(both of weapons and torture)… including a sword from 1400 BC, and a large range
of multi-purpose killing devices (swords, machete-like knives) that include a
pistol as part of their “toolbox”.
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| Golden Lane with #22 in Blue... |
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| I guess that if you miss with the pistol.... there is always the blade to be used... |
And
the skyline does have a lot of spires… and a famous Astronomical Clock (or Horologium).
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| The Spires of Prague... |
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| And some more... |
It
also has a Synagogue (the confusingly named, Old New Synagogue)… that was
completed in 1270, which happens to be the oldest surviving medieval synagogue
of twin-nave design. (Sadly) I think
this is the first synagogue that we have ever visited. It was an interesting experience, to contrast
with that from the many cathedrals (of which many may seem to have been built
to demonstrate the power of man…, rather than to the glorify God) we have
visited. The overwhelming “experience”
was that this was a place which was focused on honouring God, and that these worshippers
were a people of the Word. There was
nothing present in the building that took away from this focus. This compares
with the often (but not always, e.g. Assisi) sense we felt in other cathedrals –
which seemed to largely be focused on projecting temporal power, regional
prestige, and the worship of “Saints”, rather than a place of worship of God. I
hope I have not offended anyone with these comments, but if I have – please accept
my apologies (and feel free to email me to discuss).
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| The "Old New Synogogue" on the left (with the "fine renaissance" stepped gable). |
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| Insode... with the scroll of the Torrah under the red curtain at the end - and the place where it is read, on the blue covered "cabinet" in the middle. |
And
finally – as you would expect in a safety conscious city that is dependent on
Tourism etc… the horse drawn carriages come with disk brakes (as did the “Model
T” Ford pictured above … which also had a catalytic convertor…. But no power
steering!).
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| Note: Carriages have disk brakes... must be an H&S issue?? How fast can these things actually go?? |
We
have noticed that this “restful travel” can be a bit exhausting at time… with
15,000 to 20,000 steps per day, lots of steps (up and down), and longish days between
departure in the morning… and return in the evening (though trains are a great
way to travel!). Yes - it is a tough life being on "holiday" for 6 months!
Friday
11-Jul-2019 (Praha to Berguitzsee (South of Wittenberg))
The
next major stop was Berlin – but after the busyness of the last few days – we were
ready for a rest. So we chose an ACSI
site that sounded like it would be restful (among trees, by a lake, good
cycling opportunities).
Enroute…
the name Colditz started appearing on road signs – so out of serendipity, we
took a detour to Colditz Castle. We arrived too late to have a tour, but with a
convective downpour within view, and advancing in our direction… we made a very
quick trip up to the castle, and discovered that we could get into the
courtyard at least – and so get some sense of what it was like – and it did
look familiar – given that we have probably all watched the television series
on its use during WW-II to house
recidivist escapees!
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| Entrance to Colditz Castle. |
Saturday
12-Jul-2019 (Berguitzsee)
It turned out that Berguitzsee
was more interesting than we had anticipated… because it was also close to
Ferropolis – an open-air museum of old, huge industrial mining machines. You
are bound to have seen images of one of these enormous excavators for mining
coal. As Wikipedia notes… they can measure up to 30 m high, 120 m long, and
weigh up to 2000 tonnes…
All that was required to get there was a bike ride of about 8
km… well that is what I thought the directions said was the distance. I set out
around 3 in the afternoon… and after riding for nearly an hour at 16 to 20 km/h
and not reaching Ferropolis I appreciated that some error had been made. I did eventually find it, then discovered
that I could not actually get to it – because a music festival with 30,000 “hip
hop” fans (to quote another cyclist) were preventing access to the museum… so all
I managed was a picture from along the way (of which a few pixels from near the
centre of that image are shown here)
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| The machines of Ferropolis in the distance... |
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| The town of Grafenhainichen - close to Ferropolis - I suspect it didn't look like this during the days of the GDR, and mine operations. |
There was only the small matter of attempting to outrun the
convective shower on the way back to the campsite… speed was of the essence…
and “assistance” turns off at about 24 km/h… with an average of 18km/h, and a
max of 39 km/h! The plus… I did something like 40 km, and still had more than
60% of the battery available.
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| Included... because I love the threatening sky... and the sheep are interesting too. |
We are heading toward 300 km on the bikes – and they are providing
all the benefits that we had hoped they might yield.
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| Lutheran Church in Berguitzsee - one of the first times we have seen this type of brick and wood construction (we have seen it lots since). I had thought this was a style of construction from Skane in Sweden... but maybe it is the other way around? |
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| Simple interior of the church.. |
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| Sunset over Bergwitzsee... |
Sunday
13-Jul-2019 (Berguitzsee to Berlin via Wittenberg)
Conveniently,
Wittenberg, where Luther nailed his 95 theses to the Castle Church (All Saints),
ultimately leading to the Reformation, lay on our route to Berlin. When we visited Germany in 2017, the 500 year
anniversary of Luther’s posting of his Theses (which in the main relate to sale
of indulgencies for the remission of sin) – we made it to Efurt (where he
studied), to Worms (where he defended his views about salvation by faith etc.)
and to Wartburg Castle in Eisenach where he was secreted away for his safety
and translated the New Testament from Greek to German) – but we didn’t have
time to make it to Wittenberg. This time we did.
However,
one commentator suggests that if Luther were to return to Wittenberg today – he
may not recognise some of the sites that are associated with his time there. But I guess that is not unexpected – as 500
years is a long time. The “Castle Church”
that Luther posted his theses on was destroyed by fire in 1760 (during the 7
years war). The Church we see today dates back only to 1892, though the portal
around the original doors is apparently unchanged from Luther’s time… the doors
are entirely new (from 1857)… and have a lot of writing on them!
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| How the Castle Church looks today... - yes the building in the middle distance - it is definitely a landmark! |
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| Original (I beleive) portico for the doors of the Castle Church... but new doors! |
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| Interior of the Castle Church |
Perhaps
more familiar might be the Stadt- und Pfarrkirche St. Marien zu Wittenberg
(Town and Parish Church of St. Mary's) – the Church where Luther preached, and
the building in which the first celebration of the mass in German rather than
Latin, and the first ever distribution of the bread and wine
to the congregation took place, perhaps making it the mother-church of the
Protestant Reformation.
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| The Town and Parish Church - Luthers "preaching church". |
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| The view from the Altar |
The
altarpiece was painted by Lucas Cranach and installed in 1556 (Luther was dead
by this date), but the “neo-gothic” interior dates back to 1811, with ensuing “modifications”
having been carried out in 1928 and during the early 1980s. But the exterior is what Luther would have
seen (though the towers were topped with pyramidal shaped structures (see the
examples from Lubeck below) rather than the current octagonal caps).
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| The Cranach Altarpiece... see the text for an explanation. |
At
the time we visited we heard a clearly informed / authoritative explanation of
what the altarpiece “meant”, which as the speaker (the gentleman in blue in the image above looking back to where the congregation would be seated) noted, in his view, it defines what the “church” is. In very brief
summary:
- Top
Left: The Church is the people who believe – the priesthood of all believers (the
baby is not being baptised by a “priest” – but by a member of the Church).
- Top
Middle: The communion is open to all, and to be shared by all.
- Top
Right: All are afflicted by sin, and must repent – no matter their station in
life (aristocrat or thief).
- Bottom:
Preach the Gospel of Christ always.
Luther’s
House is there too… and a very large panorama of Wittenberg as it would have
looked during Luther’s time ..
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| The "Luther House" - where he lived when in Wittenberg... |
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| A small section from the Assis Panorama - showing people of all walks of life, lining up to buy indulgences... and off image, Luther is shown tearing them up! |
And
so, after that we motored the short
distance (about 120 km) on to Berlin. The campsite was in Mahlow – a 30 minute
train ride into the City (on the S-Bahn), and just 1.5 km inside the former GDR
(so there was no train service between Mahlow and Berlin for some 30 years…
1961 to the 1990’s!) south of the city.
Monday-Wednesday
14-16-Jul-2019 (Berlin)
Wolfgang
gave us some good advice on where to go, and what to see while in Berlin – some
of that worked out well… and others will forever remain unfinished… (e.g. take
a ride on the S-Bahn Ring line and see how the architecture etc changes as you
move from West Berlin to what was East Berlin… we did do that , but in the
anticlockwise direction the Ring was broken after only travelling around perhaps
100 degrees… there was a replacement bus service… but we didn’t manage to work
out how that worked!... and yes, the Pergamon Museum was open… but the Pergamon
Altar that gives it its name was “not on display… it’ll be back in ??... after
the entire Museum has been renovated…).
In
some ways this sums up our experiences in Berlin. It is a city that is a “work in progress”, in
particular in the former East German areas – which also seemed to have many of
the most important and interesting buildings (e.g. Museum Island). Obviously, the bombing and fighting at the
end of WW-II resulted in a cityscape largely devoid of functioning infrastructure
– just rubble and ruined buildings. Then there was the period from the end of the
war until unification when half the city was under the control of the GDR with
all of the strictures that implies. So,
there are cranes, and scaffolding everywhere, along with specific areas of bare
ground (location of the former Gestapo Headquarters, and the area above Hitler’s
Bunker (a dusty carpark), and the odd bit of graffiti.
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| Museum Island from the Dome of the Cathedral... count the cranes. |
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| Development is "ongoing"... Look for the Construction Sites and scaffolding... |
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| They didn't just stop at decorating the Wall... |
This
visit “refreshed” our memory of the role that this city has played in world
history during our lifetimes, and in particular the division of the city by the
Wall in 1961, the competition between capitalism and communism that played out
around the planet during the Cold War, and the potential for ignition of WW-III
during Tank standoff at Check Point Charlie in August 1961 (and perhaps at
other times that we are unaware of).
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| The Brandenburg Gate... restored ... |
The
city offers up reminders of many of these aspects of 20th Century
world politics… and underlines others, such as the Holocaust… the impact of
which must have shaped many of the policy decisions made by the leaders and
military of Israel over the last 75 years. And at the risk of offending some, some,
I would suggest that are not the most clever… walls being one of them, and
de-humanisation another…
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| A section of the wall near Nordbanhof... |
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| Where the wall used to run... but you have to be clever to know which side of the wall was East, or West (unless their is a plaque saying Berlin Wall... in which case if you are reading it the right way up, then you are looking toward the East... Well that is what we were told... |
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| One of the "components" of Check Point Charlie - complete with Solder Actors... |
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| The Holocaust Memorial - composed of 2,711 concrete "blocks" of different heights, and inclinations... no words... |
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| The old and hte new... bullet holes from WW-II at Fredrichstrasse Station |
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| One of the "delux" Cold War bunkers that were developed in the 70s for Berliners in the event of a nuclear event... yes it is a train station, with extra benefits... and a lot more infrastructure behind the walls... However, it seems that few people really new of its existence... and it would have been filled on a first-come-first served basis - up to a total of 3,339, for 14 days in 30C, 50% RH confinement... |
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| Nordbanhof... one of the ghost stations during the time of the Berlin Wall... but look... at least it has a street named after us... |
During
our visit to the Topography of Terror, a Museum on the site of buildings which
during the Nazi regime from 1933 to 1945 was the SS Reich Main Security Office,
including the headquarters of the Gestapo among other security organs of the Nazi
regime. We tagged on to a tour for English (probably) senior secondary school
students. The instructor (a born teacher) provided the “kids” (and us) with insights
into the methods used by the Nazi party. Unfortunately, my summary of what he
said will be a poor reflection of the key ideas he was trying to challenge
these kids with. But for me the take home message was, if you can gain wide
acceptance for dehumanising a section of the population (make them the objects
of derision, or scapegoats, or…), and the “right” propaganda, then you can do
almost anything you want after that... because “good” people will invariably
not object. A second point was that “good” people can be made to follow even
very bad orders, if they think they bear no responsibility for carrying out
such orders. He used the example of the ordinary
policemen that were sent into Russia (e.g.) as death squads to kill Jews, Roma,
and other “undesirables”… His comment, almost none objected … they followed orders.
He then made the interesting observation that for those that did object… their
only “punishment” was to be sent home… and to end up with a poor career path. Apparently,
there is no documented evidence of any one of them being harmed for not following
these orders (to kill). He then linked
these ideas back to what is happening in the world today. We should all take
note, as right wing, nationalistic ideologies are again on the rise… and in
some large countries, the populace seem very happy to support what I can only
be called fascist ideologies – where the term “fake-news” is the new name for what
we would
call propaganda.
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| A picture of the Bliss of a Socialist life - (see beyond the foreground) enlargement below... while the foreground is a pixelated image of a demonstration against that fiction - which led to live fire response |
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| Isn't everyone happy... |
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| Protest relating toe a Massacre of Kurds... |
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| At the same time a "freedom of the press" demonstration. |
Even
without the Pergamon Altar, the Pergamon Museum is stunning – with its Ishtar Gate of Babylon, the Market Gate of
Miletus reconstructed from the ruins found in Anatolia, and the Aleppo Room.
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| The Ishtar Gate - from Babylon (14 m high, and 30 m wide |
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| A closer view... and this is just the smaller of the two gates they have... the large one won't fit in the current building |
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| It was re-constructed from a vast array of fragments... |
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| The Aleppo Room |
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| Market Gate of Miletus - 60% of which is original. |
The
restoration of the Berlin Cathedral demonstrates how important buildings can be
restored
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| Restored dome of the Berlin Cathedral |
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| The Altarpiece (new too). |
In
other places the juxtaposition of old and new seems a little less successful!
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| The old (fountains), new (base of the TV tower), and the ubiquitous bike... and electric scooters |
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| The new and the old (under restoration). |
A
final comment… we enjoyed (for many reasons) our visit to Berlin… so much so
that we ended up extending it by 50% on what we planned. In reality – we could easily have stayed a
week. That said, it is a very different
city from other capitals we have visited, Paris, Rome, Prague, London etc. –
and because of its recent past – it bares many scars that have yet to be
healed.
Thursday
17-Jul-2019 (Berlin to Lubeck)
Perhaps
the first day on which I took no photographs… we just rolled across the plains –
enjoying the “big sky”, and billboards, and the roadworks.
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| The "swimming" lake adjacent to the camp site in Berlin... looked dangerous to ones health! |
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| Along the Road to the Motorway to Berlin... |
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| Amazing what CocaCola is able to achieve... |
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| Wind turbines... mostly stopped... and truck passing... we are allowed to travel at 100 kph on the Autobahns! |
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| Yet another section of road works.... where they are using emoji's to empathise with the drivers... |
Perhaps
this is a time to report on some progress facts (from our location on Tasinge,
Denmark on Sunday 21-Jul-2019 – for which I am adding a map – in case any of
you should be unaware of this place).
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| Hopefully you can see the "marker" indicating where we are now... and Lubeck is at the middle bottom. |
In
Fiat, we have now travelled just under 8,878km since leaving Isny, at an
average fuel consumption of 11.41l/100km, over a period of 183h and 43 minutes –
for an average speed of 48 km/h. As regards Gas (LPG) consumption, we have only
consumed 90% of one 11 kg gas bottle -so did a bottle swap in Berlin (for €20). We have 3 available in total. Of course, the
reason we have used so little gas is that we are only using it for cooking, and
for cooling when off pitch, and the engine is not running. The rest of the time
we are on 12 or 230V power. We are yet
to get stuck Robert (with our front wheel drive vehicle), and we notice that the
Fiat Ducato platform clearly dominates the Motorhome industry in Europe. I counted the number and types of Camper
vehicles (excluding wiz-bangs – Robert’s term!) at the last two camp sites. In
both cases there were about 20 campers, of which 17 were based on the Fiat
Ducato platform, the others being Fords, VWs, Renaults, or Mercedes Benz.
We
also need to talk about anaerobic bacteria, and their clever chemistry… As we
were leaving Dubrovnik – some weeks ago, we experienced, while driving along,
an incident with a significant olfactory impact! This was both a positive and a
negative… positive, because I finally had a sense of smell back, and negative,
because my immediate diagnosis was that we had an LPG leak – with associated
dangers. We stopped at the first
opportunity – and I checked the gas cylinders etc… everything seemed fine (the
straps needed retightening – but everything else except the smell seemed in
order). We drove on… As time passed – we began to notice the presence of some “wiffy”
odours inside Fiat. So we changed the chemical used in the Toilet – leading to a
“nice” lavender smell therein. But as
time progressed – it became clear that that was not the source of this new
odour. Time to check with Google. The explanation was immediate, anaerobic
bacteria in the grey water tank are happily making hydrogen sulphide gas, which
by whatever means was finding its way inside (perhaps from the tank vents under
Fiat). So, on departing Berlin – we passed
by a Camper Supplies shop – and left with a bunch of chemicals. Now all is well with the world, with regard
to the (absence of) generation of hydrogen sulphide. Our noses are no longer
being assaulted!
As regards the Dubrovnik incident... perhaps the grey-water tank simply "burped", after it was shaken up when we started out on that day's travel??
From
these last 6 weeks on the road – it is hard to remember the experiences of the
narrow (scary – will we fit / come through unscathed?) roads of Italy and
Sicily. Since then, for the most part,
the roads have been broad, and largely smooth (with the exception of a couple
of bad-GPS induced routes in Croatia). Also – we have fiddled with some of the
adjustments for the overhead bed – and managed to almost completely stop the “plink”
and “thwack” sounds that it would make on occasions when on bumpy roads… So we now travel in almost complete “camper-noises”
silence. And as regards GPS’s routing -
all has been well since we became a 3.5 tonne vehicle… even if on some
occasions we do need to sail pass the signs “suggesting” that “trucks” weighing
more than 3.5 tonnes are forbidden…
Being
at the halfway point of this adventure – our reflection on the experience is
altogether very positive. Fiat provides very comfortable travel, and when at
rest has everything one needs – it warms us up when we are cold, cools us down
when we are hot, although apparently small, the kitchen provides all we need
for meal preparation, and clean up. And there is no denying the advantages of
carrying around your own personal loo, for whenever you might need it! Only one serious issue is about to become a
problem: the (proper, i.e. NZ version!) Marmite resource is almost exhausted! Not
sure what we will do after that…
Friday
18-Jul-2019 (Lubeck)
Lubeck
seemed like an appropriate place to stop in northern Germany on our way to Scandinavia
– given the role of the Hanseatic League (that medieval trade organization.) in
the “development” of this region. It has been around for a long time. Iin the
14th Century Lubeck was given the name “Queen of the Hanseatic
League”, and in 1375 Emperor Charles IV named Lubeck one of the five
"Glories of the Empire", a title shared with Venice, Rome, Pisa and
Florence.
The
Holsten Gate is the city gate marking off the western boundary of the old centre
of the city and was built in 1464 – and is considered (by some?) to be among
the three most identifiable symbols of Germany (the other two being the
Brandenburg Gate (in Berlin, as above), and Cologne Cathedral… we had thought
that Neuschwanstein Castle may have made it in ahead of the Lubeck Gate… but
that is just us!
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| The Holsten Gate, Lubeck |
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| Would not like to be a roofing contractor here... the H&S Insurance would be a killer... |
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| Two of the 7 key church spirtes in Lubeck. |
A
walking tour, provided us with a good view of some of the architecture of the
old city – which in general is rather harmonious… but some of the modern
additions seem to be particularly curious…
A
few other points of interest… they are clever with marzipan… and there seems to
be a curious interest in “things of the American Wild-West”… we have seen a
number of advertisements for Cowboy and Indian shows and theme parks… and there
are the tepees too.… We wonder why?
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| Any one for Marzipan Lubeck? |
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| Or a Marzipan Ship |
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| And here is one of theose advertisments for a Cowboys and Indians event (we think). |
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| St Mary's - under restoration to fix the cement mortar problem... and a "beautiful" piece of modern architecture to complement the square...i |
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| Lubeck street and water front scenes... |
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| Not such a successful juxtaposition... of old and "new" |
And
the sea-faring history of the city is evident everywhere – including, in St Jacobs,
the sea farers Church, which displays the wreck of Lifeboat Number 2 from the
Pamir. The Pamir was the last commercial sailing ship to round Cape Horn, and
it has a NZ past too, being seized as a Prise of War in 1941. It was wrecked in
an Atlantic Hurricane in 1957 – from which there were only 6 survivors (from 86
on board), including 1 of the original 20 or so onboard Lifeboat 2.
Incompetence and a lack of maintenance seem to have been at the root cause of
this event…
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| Lifeboat 2 from the Pamir |
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| Ceiling decorations in the Seafarer's Guild building... a restaurant now? |
Another
interesting fact about Lubeck is that it has the church with the highest brick vault
in the world (St Mary’s) … which is also
the third largest Church in the country.
It was built between 1250 and 1350 and is the symbol of the power and
prosperity of Lubeck.
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| St Mary's over the years... |
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| St Mary's Vault... |
Restoration
is ongoing following severe damage from bombs during the war. Some interesting materials
chemistry has emerged from this restoration effort. It became evident that not
long after completion of restoration of the towers in 2006 cracks started to
appear in the brickwork. Research determined that these were due to the cement-based
mortar. These “hydraulic binders” react with water to form minerals such as
thaumasite that expand like dough – providing enough pressure to cause cracking
of the bricks. The original builders used high-fired gypsum mortar – for which
this is not a problem – so back to the original(s) methods!
And
a final memory of Lubeck…
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| A fountain to amuse all ages... |
Saturday
20-Jul-2019 (Lubeck to Tasinge)
A
reasonably long drive today… 350 km… although we are only 130 km (in a straight
line) north of Lubeck. But we are now at 55˚North…
the equivalent of 1,111 km south of Oamaru… And perhaps the first day on which
we have taken few photographs – as there were few opportunities to stop even
though we passed some interesting locations – such as one of the bridges over the
Kiel Canal – which links the North Sea to the Baltic (all of which have 42 m of
clearance).
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| Moving along... |
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| And a glimpse of the Kiel Canal |
Sunday
21-Jul-2019 (Tasinge)
Catchup
day… laundry and blog!.... And bear in mind that Karilyn is maintaining a detailed day-by-diary of our travels and the things we see (and source material for this blog)... it is about to start it's third volume!
