Euro trip !

[Rick Lee]

I'm in Prague now and wish I had brought more warm clothes. Brrrr.

The Wartburg is definitely worth a look. It's a bit of a climb from the parking area. It's been about 20 yrs. since I was last there, but I don't recall it being right off the hwy.

Anyway, I went to Lidice yesterday on the way to Prague from Plzen and today we visited the church where Heydrich's assassins made their last stand. That was the best $4 I ever spent and it was very satisfying. Don't miss it. I'll start a thread on this trip soon.

[svandamme]

Just arrived in Prague.. Got about 1800 km's under my belt, did most the driving myself.. Poland prague was off the highways. Great roads.


Spent 5 hours in Auschwitz and Birkenau...
Incredible places.
Birkenau is Huge.. Pure organised Evil.

Have lot's of pics, but can't post em now..
Rick, you still in Prague tomorrow? Prolly left already?

[Rick Lee]

Sorry man. In Vienna now.

[svandamme]

And i'm home again, 2936 something high speed kilometers.. drove most of it myself.
I'm beyond tired now.. It's one thing to be experiencing Prague night life to the fullest from sat to sunday.. and then to drive back.. luckily just tired, there was no hangover worth mentioning..

will post pics later, once i'm recovered.

It was a really good trip.. Great fun.

[svandamme]

Day 1 , stop over at Wartburg Castle, Where Luther translated the bible

Very nice region, lot's of forrest







Knights bathtub..








So we sat down in the sun , for a beer on the terrace of Wartburg castle.
and i got myself a sausage as well

The sausage.. i don't get it... if you gonna serve a sausage with a breadbun
Why serve a 10 inch sausage, in a bun that's only 3-4 inch long. It does not make sense.

we sit there drinking our beer, and 4 big, 45-55 year old, fat germans, park themselves at our table, because there's no room outside...Full biker leather, plenty of BMW Motorrad apparel.. they were very equipped and confident.

No attempt to at least try some casual small talk by them.
they just sat down and started yapping amongst themselves.

So my pal Karel goes, "hi, we are from Belgium"

At which one of them says smugly in German" hah, they speak perfect english"
Some laughing and chuckles in their group.

And ignores the attempt to at least strike up a conversation, despite the fact that they came to our table where we were minding our own.

So i broke out my best German (which is less then perfect but perfectly understandable)

"We sind von Ypern und Passchendale.. kennen sie das nicht??"
some vague looks of not knowing . And some more smug laughter.

"Aber, sie musten das kennen, Die Deutschers sint zwei mahl op visite gekommen unt zwei mahl zuruck mussen gehen.... 14-18 unt 41-45.. Yperen... Das musten sie toch kennen?!?"

That un-smug'ed things considerably.

Pretty funny looking back at it now.

[svandamme]

We drove on to Poland, very nice roads, the Highway in Poland was new as can be.
They had toll sections, but it wasn't implemented yet..
Kept up a good pace.. It's flatter then Germany, but it's vast.. big stretches where you see nothing but forrest.

We had little Traffic the entire day, and perfect sunny weather.
When we got nearer to Auschwitz town, we had a bit of traffic.. And the scenery changed a bit.
It's not a very pretty town , Auschwitz..

The Hotel was another thing, apparently it was some kind of old school hotel..
never renovated since i think the 60'ies or 70'ies.(And neither was the hotel lady..)
It was cheap as piss though, so we didn't mind.

Couple of beers, and that was the end of Day 1.

Day 2 , we got up, early breakfast and went to Auschwitz 1 before the masses..

It was odd, but when you first arrive there.. after having seen Auschwitz town. which is not pretty. It does look like a very nice, clean place.. especially in sunny spring weather.
If it weren't for the electric barbed wire , you might call it a nice play to be.



the famous sign (replica, real one is in protective storage since it got stolen once)




The exhibitions are in the blocks.
The stairs in those blocks are worn from the masses that visit them



There are a lot of little details that struck me

The sign near the electric fence.
inside "stop"


outside "careful"

[svandamme]

Mengele's place of torture and experiments





The execution square between Block 10 (medical experiments) and block 11(prison block)


The court room in block 11

[Jim Richards]

Originally Posted by svandamme

The sausage.. i don't get it... if you gonna serve a sausage with a breadbun
Why serve a 10 inch sausage, in a bun that's only 3-4 inch long. It does not make sense.

They mistakenly thought you were a porn star, Stijn.

[Jim Richards]

Nice pics, Stijn.

[svandamme]

The main gallows (replica) at Auschwitz... last man to hang was SS-Obersturmbannführer Rudolf Höss. Ratted out by his own wife no less. At least in his case it was well deserved and good riddance.


Former ammunition bunker (Auschwitz was a former Polish army garrison) converted into the first Gas chamber/crematorium.



Propaganda from Belgium, calling people out to work for the Germans.


the sign says "Are you also so happy and pleased"
below "he works in Germany"
"Contact your local work office for details"

This one pissed me off quite a big, my grandfather had been a force laborer..
We know damn well that he did not have a big smile on his face there.
His whole life he was saving every little thing, never wasting anything.
He hardly spoke about his time in Germany.
And when he returned home he was skinny, his mother and sister at first did not recognize him.
First thing he said was "Mum, you can cook the sole of a shoe , i don't care , i'll eat it."
so no, he was not that pleased.

At Auschwitz, in Mengele's place and the cell blocks. and when watching all the belongings of the people they killed.. I was walking around with clenched fists, i was in total fight mode.. The things i've seen there are offensive to the core of me as a human being..Especially the kids shoes, and pictures of 3-5 year old kids , walking towards the gas chamber...Animals did this..

I do not, in anyway understand how some got sentenced so lightly.
Or how some responsible got sentenced and then received amnesty by the German government after 5-10 years or less.

I don't get it, and i need to read up about that. How did those bastards get off so easy and why anybody speak up at that time?
I'll post some more tomorrow. still sorting pics..for Birkenau and Prague.

[recycled sixtie]

Thanks Stijn for the pics. In regards to going to a pub and talking to the patrons I have no trouble doing that in the UK as quite often the pubs can be close to full and there is nowhere to sit except next to somebody.
I find the British can talk freely. Probably a language thing. It helps that u know some German and u made the effort even though the bikers were not that receptive.I would like to go to Germany but I would know I would feel like a foreigner not knowing the language. France I can get by. In Canada I don't go to pubs much but ran into some Americans who were friendly. Thanks for the enlightenment and education. Lest we forget!

[svandamme]

It wasn't really a pub, it was the cantine at the castle.
And though i have no problem sharing our table, i'de simply expect them to at least ask if we mind sharing the table we sit at.. for all they know we might have been waiting for friend to join us.

And if you do share a table, you don't make fun of the people who shared their table with ya because they did not instantly speak your language.

And in the end, the joke is on them, cause i can speak about 5 languages reasonably well and i can order beer in 10 more.
They apparantly can only speak german, so who's the silly sod now?
Anyway, it didn't bother me to much, but respect has to come both ways and i'll be damned to let such a thing slide without mentioning the War.

[Rick Lee]

I had a pretty good chat with some folks who sat at our table in Bamberg last week. Not everyone wants to chat with strangers. I usually don't, but make more of an effort to be social when traveling abroad and especially in German-speaking countries, since I speak the language very well.

[svandamme]

Fair enough if they don't feel like chatting, but they don't have to get all smug when somebody speaks English to em..

[Rick Lee]

Do you know how old they were and where in Germany they were from? English among the older than 30 crowd in eastern Germany is very rare. They learned Russian in school because, back in the day, the thought of ever traveling to an English-speaking country was unthinkable. I know plenty of folks in that part of Germany in their 30's or older who couldn't order lunch in a McDonalds in the US.

[svandamme]

Dunno where from, but they were 45-55. Big, and not skinny...full BMW gear and apparel.
Not knowing English doesn't mean making fun of those who do, they never bothered to try and say, "sorry, i don't speak english" ,
they just laughed smug amongst themselves. It was very clear and i did understand what he said to his buddies.

[recycled sixtie]

We have two different sets of German families in our neighborhood and we find that they keep to themselves and don't mix with us but the 2 families talk to each other. Living in the UK till I was 19 I worked in France 2 summer holidays and cycled round Holland. The friendliest tourists I have met in recent years are the Americans and the Dutch. I usually meet "tourists" when I hike. It is easier for people to open up to me when they have a common interest such as hiking. It is a definite advantage to have a 2nd language. You did your best and that is all u can do.

[recycled sixtie]

One more thing and that is irrespective of peoples' nationality, many people lack basic social skills to deal with strangers. So if they are faced with somebody that cannot speak their language, they are stumped and sometimes say idiotic things.

[Rikao4]

older Herms can be a bit reserved among strangers..
a few reason for this..
none of which they like to remember..
and you pointed those out..

but as Rick mentioned..
it can also go the other way..
you find yourself at the 'Stammtisch' with some locals..

don't let this be the memory of your trip..

Rika

[svandamme]

Oh it's not , it's just an anecdote , nothing more ,nothing less.
Auschwitz and Prague are way more memorable.