Around old haunts in 21 days!

Yes! I know I'm way behind but tough! I'll take this opportunity to say that this entry will be rather like a tin of Nestle's milk - condensed!

This is Europe... three weeks in a rather lovely Renault Clio. We wanted to drive through Germany to visit our old haunts from the olden days when we loved in Nordrhein Westfalen -so we did.

The drive nowadays is pretty simple thanks to Europe's open borders. Although we saw border guards, complete with binos, they weren't even vaguely interested in us. We soared through from Poland and went from autostrada which went to old Nazi Tank Road to beautiful Autobahn. There really is very little traffic on the eastern German roads and wew enjoyed the cruising very much.

We stayed in little Gasthauses, ate wonderful food, and generally relaxed into Germany again. On our second morning all plans went awry. We had intended driving inot thje Harz Mountains, but en route we saw a magical sign - one we soimply couldn't ignore> Colditz! Yes folks! THE Colditz. Of course went for a visit and we were especially lucky as one of the group with which we went round was the daughter of a former POW there! She brought stories to the visit and we enjoyed feeling it all come alive. Visit this place if you can! WELL worth it. Unfortunately we wanted to get nearer the Harz so after a very quick snack - good old bockwurst and brot - we headed off.

In the Harz we think we found where we used to stand a look at them looking at us...etc. It's so much nicer now! Overall impressions - everything was very tidy and clean - such a pleasure to walk everywhere without the fear of stepping in something narsty!

Then towards our old stomping grounds - Paderborn, Bad Salzuflen, Herford and Bielefeld. It as magical to visit the street we used to walk when our children were little. Our old quarters were still there, the streets looked pretty much the same, but the areas were bigger of course. And it didn't take us long to find Bratties and Pommes or Kartofel Salat!!! Mmmnnnnn......

We visited Herman's Denkmal, the Frielichtsmuseum, walked in the Teutoburgerwald, had Ice-creams in the old cafe on the ridge at Bielefeld.... it was trip down memory lane! Wonderful. And so after this indulgence we wandered across to Mons to see friends again. A weekend enjoying their company, and seeing some things locally, including Van Goch's house in the swamp, was a real tonic - our livers have recovered!

Next to the Allgau! We lived there for 4 months and we always wanted to go back. It is simply beautiful. So green and pretty and the village of Weitnau where we used to ski and eat was looking terrific. The old gasthaus that we'd rented was gone - flattened and the land turned into discount shops - but we could still see the old road and the place we used to park the vehicles. Ahhhhh memories!

We also met up with very dear friends who live in the area - well, Kempten and Augsburg. We hadn't seen them for about 20 years and it was just like we'd seen them yesterday! a truly lovely time.

Next heading south towards Lorraine and Logie de France! If you haven't used them you really must. Wonderful accommodation and top quality food - MOST times. Our first place was just fabulous. An old chateau in a village with such good food and one that we really should have stayed longer! From here we visited Verdun town and the Salient. Yes - another WW1 trip.

But then - on to Alsace to sample the delights of the Rhein. Not such good Logie, but convenient for touristy things. A visit to a silver mine was the highlight. We donned the helmets, gumboots and rubber coats (!) and headed in with our French speaking guide. It was unlit so our helmet lamps were a necessity. I don't have a problem with this sort of thing, but I wouldn't recommend it if you are at all claustrophobic. It gets very narrow and there are a couple of places where you have to sit down and s-q-u-ee-z-e through very narrow gaps! How the miners could have done it day in, day out I really do not know!

OK - so to finish our trip we went into the Czech Republik. We skirted round Prague (That's for a November visit!) and went onto Kutna Hora. It's a little town that once rivaled Prague and is fascinating. We stayed in a rather good hotel this time, and walked all round the old town. The highlight here was a visit to the chapel - inside totally decorated with ----- bones! Just a tad morbid and ghoulish and we were actaully quite happy to leave!

So then..... we came back to Krakow. We knew when we'd entered Poland as the roads went to rats!

It was a fabulous trip and the next time we do this sort of thing I have only one demand - we get a car with Satnav!! It is very annoying to see one type of road signage on a map only to find it's all different on the ground. Plus.... we never did find those well known places in France Autres routes or the other one Toutes directions. :)

In Flanders fields

This entry is published just after our trip across to Belgium. We wanted to do a couple of things. First, we wanted to see some old friends whom we hadn't seen for 16 years - and we also wanted to see some of the WW1 scenes of battle in Flanders Fields.

We were flying Wizz and that meant the totally inhumane start of 01:00!!!!!!!!!! YUK! A taxi to the bus station at 02:00, then the Wizzbus at 02:30 - for a 2 hour bus run to Katowice. (That took longer than the actual flight to Charlerois!!! We boarded and were all set to take off - we pushed back and ..then sat on the apron for TWO HOURS because the fog was so thick. We thought our flight was doomed, but at least they let us use our mobiles...so we contacted our friends so they wouldn't leave the house too early.

We finally took off and got to Belgium without further dramas. N & V were there to meet us and what a reunion! Of course we all claimed we hadn't changed a bit!! Despite the early start I managed to stay awake all day. Wed went to a SSAFA lunch, then relaxed till evening when we had a BBQ and a few friends came round. That was such a good night. Roast lamb bbqed! Oh boy! First lamb we'd had for 6 months........................ Just delicious.......

Our friends live just outside Mons and we had an absolute ball with them. It's amazing when you can just pick up the pieces and gossip as if you've just been away for a week or so!! We were very lucky as our friends took leave to spend time with us and so the four of us went off together....

On Sunday we did the Battle of Mons, guided by a friend who knew his stuff. We learned a great deal, such as ...did you know that the first and last shots of the war were fired about 10 meters from each other - on opposite sides of the road? Or that the first and last allied dead are buried in Mons Military Cemetery opposite each other? That was by chance.

The first blood drawn as actually by sabre - not by bullet and the places where the first and last 'action' happened is literally meters apart. You could say that the allies managed to cross the road after more than 4 years of bloodshed!

Well, after that we had to have a decent sit down so repaired to a lovely Belgian pub called the Maggots by our SHAPE friends. Excellent beer and company....

Monday was set aside to drive to Villers Brettoneux. This was our chance to see part of the Somme and visit the Australian memorial. the town is very pro-Aussie. As you can see, they are into kangaroos!! We'd managed to adopt a couple of stray Aussies and they came round with us. We found the smaller of the two places and after walking round I found the original grave of the Australian Unknown Soldier. That was quite a surprise. I can tell you.

Then we had a typical French lunch -the set menu and wine! This was very good and set us up for the afternoon when we went to the main cemetery which is HUGE. With the rain -which decided to fall we had a good idea of how soggy and awful it must have been for the men trying to fight over the impossibly open ground. Our resident experts enjoyed talking tactics while we listened and read some of the notes and so on that had been left.

I leave today's notes with an image of mixed sentiment. There was a cyclists' corps and someone had visited. Sad yet so apt.