May Update 20/5/08 Bad Schandau, Germany (3,871km)
We visit Checkpoint Charlie, newly rebuilt for the tourists. On the way there we stop by a piece of the wall and there are people protesting against the nuclear star wars project by the United States which includes installations in both Poland and the Czech Republic. I ask where to sign the protest. One of the protestors tells me that around 85% of Czechs do not want these installations in their country but, as usual, both their government and America don't care about that seemingly minor point. It is another example of American bullyboy tactics enforcing their particular brand of totalitarianism on the rest of the world.
I ask the man why the piece of the wall is not protected from all the new graffiti that the tourists are leaving on it (mostly a name and date with short message) and covering up all the original cold war graffiti. He says he now lives in a free country and that the writing will not hurt the wall. It’s a good point but I do think it’s a shame that the poignant original writing that was undertaken by desperate people in desperate times should be lost to mindless tourists who clearly don’t even understand what the remnant of the wall symbolises or even that what they are doing is stupid and totally unnecessary. We should never forget the horrendous things we, as humans, have done to each other and this piece of the wall should preserve that memory. Perhaps that is why wars happen so soon after each other – because humans forget all too soon the atrocity of their own actions and the suffering left behind each time.
| Checkpoint Charlie was the American checkpoint during the cold war. Berlin was split into four after WWII with France, UK, USA and USSR all getting a slice. | |
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Once Russia realised all the skilled workforce in its sector were migrating into the other three sectors they erected a wall through the city to prevent a total drain of workers. Of course the wall continued into the rest of the country in the form of tight border controls. |
I wonder why this border and not either of the other two became famous. Although Checkpoint Charlie does have a certain ring to it and alliterates well – surely it wasn’t purely for poetic reasons?! Answers on a postcard please!
We visited the fascinating Checkpoint Charlie museum documenting ways in which people tried to escape the East. Some tragic, some funny, all desperate. One man smuggled his girlfriend out under the spare wheel in his Volkswagen and a mother hid her young son in a wheeled shopping basket. Three friends fabricated a ladder device which snapped together from pieces concealed in shopping bags then fitted in an arch over the wall and fell apart when a bolt was released. Another amazing tale was of two friends who drove into the country near the border with Czech, climbed a big electricity pylon and with pulley and harness slid along the wires for several miles until they were safely across the border. They had decided to wait until it was raining before making their attempt as they thought the guards would be less likely to look upwards!
| We resisted a tour of the city in a Trabant but I did rather like this one advertising the tour... thought it matched our curtains! I wanted to buy it for Keef but couldn't find a jiffy bag big enough to send it to him! |
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Back on the road again we headed south towards Bad Schandau - a great couple we met in the campsite by the lakes suggested this area as it is very pretty and has good climbing. He came from this area and knew it very well. On the way we stopped at the wonderful Chateaux Moritzburg, which was built as a hunting lodge, where we stretched our legs with a walk around the lake.
Click to enlarge the picture
We spent the night in a car park in the forest having been turned away from the local campsite for being too tall!! The following morning we wandered around Meissen looking for breakfast. The medieval fortress town stands on the river Elbe and it is here that Augustus the Strong of Saxony created the first porcelain factory in Europe in 1710... I hope he had better luck finding breakfast on a Sunday than we did!
Once in Bad Schandau we settled into a rather smelly but otherwise nice campsite and Oz disappeared for the day mountain biking as it was too wet to climb while I pottered about doing the washing and cleaning ‘like a good wife’ our campsite neighbour told me!
Slight change of plan – we have decided that being only 10 km from the Czech border it would be rather rude not to pay a visit. So it’s an unscheduled 2 or 3 days in Czech for us and hopefully we’ll catch up with Jan and Milos our Czech friends as well.
