The Road North March 7
The Road North
Prague to Dresden
Tuesday, March 7, 2006
Today after breakfast we loaded the car and headed for Tierezin – a WWII concentration camp that was called the Paradise Grotto....about one hour north of Prague, on the way to Dresden. It is out in the dingles and took awhile to find and it was snowing on and off the whole time about around 33-34 all the time. We finally found it around 1030 and after a 2 hour walk around we were back on the road north….thru the snow. The passage to Germany
(a mountain pass, skiing, etc) was super busy with trucks,probbaby can't seem them but there are from one edge of the picture to the other, ahead of us,
sometimes as many as 20-30 trucks going our way on a 2 lane hiway that we could only pass every once in awhile…so the going was slow….and yep, snow and cold!!
We had intended to go further but made it only as far as Dresden. Yep, we will sort of go north the same way we came south. Our plan is to be in Rostock Thursday nite for the ferry on Friday to very close to Copenhagen. Tomorrow nite, who knows?
Right now we are in an IBIS and it’s nice to be inside as it is cold and still snowing! At about 8 we went down for some dinner, in the hotel. I had intended to have goulische mit brot but they had something called “nudelengratine” that sounded very good and it turn out excellent. Picture noodles, tomato, onion, mushrooms, mixed with a spicy cheese and then baked – it was ono with just the right amount (for me) of fire.
I went happily to sleep about 3 hours later.
Dresden to Rostock
Wednesday, March 8
We were on the autobahn to Berlin by 930 – after breakfast of egg salad, kosher pickle, liverwurst/tongue, one hard roll/apricot jam, gouda and emmental cheese, 2 orange juice, 2 coffee and 15 pills.
We stopped in an area called Spreewald – pastures, forests and many canals traversed by everglade type flat bottom boats/poles, usually a female Sorb – a CZ and Polish people. Turns out this is a group also targeted by Hitler to eradicate. Also, the area is the Schloss Lubenau – owned by a count who was a conspirator to assassinate Hitler. He was executed, his family had to flee to Portugal. After reunification they returned and reclaimed their property and now the family operates the schloss as a very nice 4* hotel with great restaurant. The whole area is more or less idle now with the season running from April thru late October with summer being a time to avoid because of the heavy crowds. The woods of the Spreewald are said to be full of ‘darky” spirits and there is much lore surrounding the area.
At about 2pm we had returned to the autobahn and traveled to Sachsenhausen, a concentration camp
just north of Berlin. This camp was in operation from 1933 and was “the best” according to Himmler. It was the administrative head of all camps and was the most notorious of the SS camps right up to the end of the war and this was continued by the Russians (as part of E. German/Berlin from 1945-60). It was only in the early 90s that the mass graves of many thousands of prisoners were found. This was not a Jewish exclusive camp, rather one that was targeted for homosexuals, gypsies, dissidents, Jehovah Witnesses and others, including Jewish. After the war, soviet soldiers who contracted sex diseases from Germans were interned here as well. The area (the model only got about 1/2 of the total camp)
of the camp was massive. As aside -my imagination?? -- when I was viewing one of the guard towers there was all of a sudden about 2 dozens ravens, the huge black birds, 3-4 times the size of a crow – in a tree right above me – talk about a sudden chill.
The autobahn stops are really nice with showers, childrens play areas (both in and out), buffet of salad stuff as well as the meats and potato stuff …regular sit down restaurants, lots and lots of snack food and drinks….and wonderful backerei….of course I stay away from all the bad stuff!
We left Sachsenhausen about 4 and by 7 we were driving around in the old town of Rostock – with many one way, very narrow, lots of construction blocks, in the dark, everything totally strange – but handy GPS got us to 4 hotels in about 45 minutes – closed, no room, to expensive, no twins and finally, paying more that we had wanted, under 100Euro, we found a 4 star for 115E…….it’s like the Radisson’s, the lap of luxury and it has secure parking and of course includes breakfast. It’s now 830 and I’m writing notes before I forget.
The road north after leaving Sachsenhausen was pretty much boring autobahn all the way. We stopped about 3 times, cokes, gas, etc, and there were many many deer in the fields….all the ground except for the odd patches here and there were snow covered, maybe 8inches…about half fields and half forests.
We arrived in Rostok at night
Tomorrow we get on the ferry from Rostock to Gedser, Denmark and from there just a short drive into Copenhagen where we find a place thru Monday night, turning the car in on Monday, boarding our SAS flight to Seattle on Tuesday….then on Wednesday I fly NW from Seattle to WARMTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I called home to say good nite (for me) good morning for them. i usually get a new or revised set of marching orders so it was no surprise when i was asked "what is it about not eating fried foods" that you don't understand? Are you bundling up when you go out? etc, etc, etc. sheesh, you'd think i was a kid. Last nite, however, was a real problem. I was told "don't eat anything with feathers"
An aside – before I forget yet again, there are various places of urinal sport for men – Copenhagen airport had some sort of embedded fly that would move; German truck stops have a goalie with net that you can shot past; some have a small ball on top of a sort of spring that bounds around as you shoot at it. Great fun.
Another aside – Europe is into wind power, at least Germany is, big time – they are everywhere along the autobahns.
Rostock
Thursday March 9
It's a beautiful day so I took a few pictures of the square across our hotel
for a ride on the ferry, nearly 2 hours. Sure hope they have not farmed out the maintenance to the Egyptians! Okay, remembering my new orders about feathers? Okay, fine, i understand the words....so this morning i carefully studied all the cold cuts, fruits, etc, etc, and could find no feathers, so i had some. As i mentioned we are in a 4* hotel so they make an omelette to order - wow, so i order one, tomato, onion, ham, and cheese - then remembering my orders, i say "excuse me, and also, please, no feathers!" so there, my first day with a new order, and so far so good. Laters, now up to the room to get repacked.
Prague to Dresden
Tuesday, March 7, 2006
Today after breakfast we loaded the car and headed for Tierezin – a WWII concentration camp that was called the Paradise Grotto....about one hour north of Prague, on the way to Dresden. It is out in the dingles and took awhile to find and it was snowing on and off the whole time about around 33-34 all the time. We finally found it around 1030 and after a 2 hour walk around we were back on the road north….thru the snow. The passage to Germany
(a mountain pass, skiing, etc) was super busy with trucks,probbaby can't seem them but there are from one edge of the picture to the other, ahead of us,
sometimes as many as 20-30 trucks going our way on a 2 lane hiway that we could only pass every once in awhile…so the going was slow….and yep, snow and cold!!We had intended to go further but made it only as far as Dresden. Yep, we will sort of go north the same way we came south. Our plan is to be in Rostock Thursday nite for the ferry on Friday to very close to Copenhagen. Tomorrow nite, who knows?
Right now we are in an IBIS and it’s nice to be inside as it is cold and still snowing! At about 8 we went down for some dinner, in the hotel. I had intended to have goulische mit brot but they had something called “nudelengratine” that sounded very good and it turn out excellent. Picture noodles, tomato, onion, mushrooms, mixed with a spicy cheese and then baked – it was ono with just the right amount (for me) of fire.
I went happily to sleep about 3 hours later.
Dresden to Rostock
Wednesday, March 8
We were on the autobahn to Berlin by 930 – after breakfast of egg salad, kosher pickle, liverwurst/tongue, one hard roll/apricot jam, gouda and emmental cheese, 2 orange juice, 2 coffee and 15 pills.
We stopped in an area called Spreewald – pastures, forests and many canals traversed by everglade type flat bottom boats/poles, usually a female Sorb – a CZ and Polish people. Turns out this is a group also targeted by Hitler to eradicate. Also, the area is the Schloss Lubenau – owned by a count who was a conspirator to assassinate Hitler. He was executed, his family had to flee to Portugal. After reunification they returned and reclaimed their property and now the family operates the schloss as a very nice 4* hotel with great restaurant. The whole area is more or less idle now with the season running from April thru late October with summer being a time to avoid because of the heavy crowds. The woods of the Spreewald are said to be full of ‘darky” spirits and there is much lore surrounding the area.
At about 2pm we had returned to the autobahn and traveled to Sachsenhausen, a concentration camp
just north of Berlin. This camp was in operation from 1933 and was “the best” according to Himmler. It was the administrative head of all camps and was the most notorious of the SS camps right up to the end of the war and this was continued by the Russians (as part of E. German/Berlin from 1945-60). It was only in the early 90s that the mass graves of many thousands of prisoners were found. This was not a Jewish exclusive camp, rather one that was targeted for homosexuals, gypsies, dissidents, Jehovah Witnesses and others, including Jewish. After the war, soviet soldiers who contracted sex diseases from Germans were interned here as well. The area (the model only got about 1/2 of the total camp)
of the camp was massive. As aside -my imagination?? -- when I was viewing one of the guard towers there was all of a sudden about 2 dozens ravens, the huge black birds, 3-4 times the size of a crow – in a tree right above me – talk about a sudden chill.
The autobahn stops are really nice with showers, childrens play areas (both in and out), buffet of salad stuff as well as the meats and potato stuff …regular sit down restaurants, lots and lots of snack food and drinks….and wonderful backerei….of course I stay away from all the bad stuff!
We left Sachsenhausen about 4 and by 7 we were driving around in the old town of Rostock – with many one way, very narrow, lots of construction blocks, in the dark, everything totally strange – but handy GPS got us to 4 hotels in about 45 minutes – closed, no room, to expensive, no twins and finally, paying more that we had wanted, under 100Euro, we found a 4 star for 115E…….it’s like the Radisson’s, the lap of luxury and it has secure parking and of course includes breakfast. It’s now 830 and I’m writing notes before I forget.
The road north after leaving Sachsenhausen was pretty much boring autobahn all the way. We stopped about 3 times, cokes, gas, etc, and there were many many deer in the fields….all the ground except for the odd patches here and there were snow covered, maybe 8inches…about half fields and half forests.
We arrived in Rostok at night
Tomorrow we get on the ferry from Rostock to Gedser, Denmark and from there just a short drive into Copenhagen where we find a place thru Monday night, turning the car in on Monday, boarding our SAS flight to Seattle on Tuesday….then on Wednesday I fly NW from Seattle to WARMTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I called home to say good nite (for me) good morning for them. i usually get a new or revised set of marching orders so it was no surprise when i was asked "what is it about not eating fried foods" that you don't understand? Are you bundling up when you go out? etc, etc, etc. sheesh, you'd think i was a kid. Last nite, however, was a real problem. I was told "don't eat anything with feathers"
An aside – before I forget yet again, there are various places of urinal sport for men – Copenhagen airport had some sort of embedded fly that would move; German truck stops have a goalie with net that you can shot past; some have a small ball on top of a sort of spring that bounds around as you shoot at it. Great fun.
Another aside – Europe is into wind power, at least Germany is, big time – they are everywhere along the autobahns.
Rostock
Thursday March 9
It's a beautiful day so I took a few pictures of the square across our hotel
for a ride on the ferry, nearly 2 hours. Sure hope they have not farmed out the maintenance to the Egyptians! Okay, remembering my new orders about feathers? Okay, fine, i understand the words....so this morning i carefully studied all the cold cuts, fruits, etc, etc, and could find no feathers, so i had some. As i mentioned we are in a 4* hotel so they make an omelette to order - wow, so i order one, tomato, onion, ham, and cheese - then remembering my orders, i say "excuse me, and also, please, no feathers!" so there, my first day with a new order, and so far so good. Laters, now up to the room to get repacked.
posted by Drue at
11:47 AM
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