Map driving up to Berlin stopping in Dresden

Another night in the tent in the German countryside

Stopover in Dresden

This is a photo of the city after the bombing in 1945

This is one of the churches in the main square that has been completely rebuilt

The Elbe River runs through the city and once again there are many canal boats

This Palace was in the middle of the city

Some of the many buildings in the city that have been fully restored

Photo for Nic

Some restoration on one of the historic buildings 

Before building they are doing some historic surveys of the old city cellars

 and infrastructure all covered over after the war

This old transport aircraft few over a Ju 52

the German equivalent of the DC3

Maree having a nice lunch in Dresden

Map through the Czech Republic into Germany

Stayed in this little place in the Czech Rep

Excellent food and bed for the night

Telc the world heritage village just west of where we stayed

Then a quick visit to Prague

Maree making friends at the beer museum 

This fellow was just hanging about

The astronomical clock in the square in Prague

Inside the church behind the clock

The Vltava River runs through the city center 

Germany - Altenburg - Dresden - Berlin

We camped the first night in Germany. The proprieter and his helper were half sozzled when we arrived and started giving me a hard time about my New Zealand accent and the Italian number plates on the car. So I told them I stole the car and did they want my money or not; as my euros were as good as anyone's. We got along fine after that! Cheeky shits! Needless to stay we are camping down the end of the camp away from the office. 

By the way Jim and I have defined roles on this trip, Jim is driving and navigation, I'm communications, food and cash., oh and snacks in the car; Jemma you will appreciate the importance of snacks.

3rd - 4th June 2014

We have arrived in Berlin later in the day, so after finding accommodation we went for a walk. We made our way up the avenue to the Brandenburg Gate, it was early evening and the gate was lite up by lights and I think looked better in the evening than in the day time, we wandered around the square, a few people wandering about but not the frenzy of the day time. These cities are also set up for bikes and have dedicated cycle ways everywhere, hence lots of cyclists even in the evening.

A big day walking around the main areas of Berlin, first to the Berlin Wall Memorial; there are several areas where you can see and read about different aspects of the 'Wall' its history. Where it has been dismantled there are pavers set in the street to show where it was. We also stopped at the National Natural Museum, from Marisa's recommendation.

The next stop was 'Checkpoint Charlie', the  old American checkpoint between east and west. We then visited the Memorial of the Murdered Jews of Europe, which has a memorial called the Fields of Stelae; above ground, and a exhibition below it underground.  The Topography of Terror, exhibition is next to part of the Wall and it has info panels and also an exhibition room too view.  I am unsure how to express what I thought about both of these exhibitions; thought provoking, anger, and such sadness and how incredulously such things went on. Lessons have surly been learnt. Both displays were very well presented however and I would recommend them for a visit.   

After being quite exhausted we opted for a hop on hop off bus to see further afield and have a bit of a rest and stayed on for the whole tour. They are quite good value and you get your bearings in the city and a look at attractions you might not necessarily walk too. We saw many palaces, churches, museums, government buildings... all very impressive in their own right. 

There is heaps to see and do in Berlin and it seems a very well organised city. We have found it easy to navigate around and you could stay here a week easily, however other places to see, so we farewell Berlin reluctantly. 

http://happyhostelberlin.de/

A great place to stay in Berlin, cheap and very clean, lovely team of two sisters who are owner operators. 

It gets light in the morning at about 4.30 am and dark as late as 9.45ish, quite annoying in the morning if you haven't got shutters or if we are in the tent. 

We are thoroughly enjoying the food here and in the other countries, lovely bakeries, deli food, and plenty of fruit & veges stalls everytwhere.  The beer and wines not bad either. 

29 5 2014

Hungary into Austria

Two days at the National Park

1 6 2014

Austria into the Czech Republic

First stop in Austria 

A small park Maree having a bit of a sit down 

A May pole all the villages had one of these

They are trees cut out of the forest and stood up in town

Years ago young lads were suppose to climb them and get the goodies from on top

Neighboring villagers were known to cut down the May Pole,  but it's now considered bad form

Camping in the Danube-Auen National Park

Ranger Barbara with the children doing the cooking on the camp fire

Off for a bike ride in the morning

Ranger Barbara with a snake showing the children

The guided boat ride on one of the arms of the Danube

The river is not usually this dirty, but there had been a lot of rain in the last week. 

Maree paddling hard 

Mistletoe in the trees beside the river

Some of the critters in the park

Falcon, Ground Squirrel, Stork Colony

Turtle, and large Slugs 

Lots of boat traffic on the river

An old flour mill that use to tie up and use the flow of the river to turn the grinding stone

Passenger boat - overnight trips

The river in Vienna

A boat with a swimming pool attached

The ferry we use leaving Vienna - not through great planning that trip over the river

St Stephens in Vienna

Some of the historic buildings in Vienna

Lots of stories, excellent city to walk around 

Thanks to Robert 

Photo for Mathew: the sign for a carpenter been there since the 1800s

Marees thinking of getting one of these to drive to school

Our friend and host at the National Park, Ranger Barbara , who spoiled us, excellent experience 

Robert our guide in Vienna- an outstanding morning

Border crossing number ????

Czech Republic

We are staying at a country pub come accommodation house tonight called Bilŷ Beraneks, about an hour over the Czech border. We aren't planning to stay long in this country as we want to spend more time in Germany.

We headed to Prague in the morning but not before we visited a small medieval town called Trels on the way, beautiful buildings with painted murals and designs on then and very colourful. 

In Prague we visited "The Old Town", and again the architecture is quite amazing considering the age of the buildings, The Church of Our Lady Before Tyn was a stand out, as was the Astrological  Clock made in 1410, that still works. When it chimes on the hour a skeleton pulls a bell and above the clock there are two windows on either side and old puppet men poke their faces out, amazing! All around the Square are many rather impressive buildings, cafés and street performers, as well as off all the adjoining streets. It would have been great to contrast this area with the town centre on the other side of the river, but you can only see so much in a day.

For a realitivly small area they jam in the churches and the buildings. 

From Prague we headed towards the German border to get over before dark and find a camping spot, it's only about two or so hours from Prague to the border. 

Austria - Eckartsau - Donau-Auan National Park - Vienna

Thursday 29th May

The Austrian Hungary border was a straight drive through, no passport checks, across into another country before we knew it ... and the weeks seem to be flying by. 

There are many wind machines on either side of this part of each border, and by many, there are hundreds, also a lot of agriculture either side and not only red poppy farms but pink also. 

On the Austrian side the region has many vineyards, and we stopped off at a lovely town called Gols for a coffee break, noticing several cellar doors along the main road. It was a public holiday and everything was closed. 

We made our way to Eckartsau to meet up with Barbara and it is so great to see her again, so lovely and welcoming. We are staying on camp with her as she is working as a Park Ranger who is Independant of the parks and takes paying guests on treks, tours, nature study hikes in the National Park, on the Danube River and its tributaries. Usually Barbara lives in Vienna, but this is the start of her busy time of the year so on camp it is. The camp is all set up and it is either tents or cabins. Tonight we meet the other two families and had a campfire dinner featuring Austrian sausage. 

(Shelley and I looked after Barbara and Nicolai when they visited NZ last year, unfortunately Nicolai couldn't make it to see us here, nor could we visit him in Russia, the distance too great.)

Saturday 31st May

We have been treated too all sorts of activities at the Donau-Auen National Park, which has the Danube River flowing through it. We have biked along the Danube River, visited and taken part in activities at the castle, which is the visitor centre, toured the grounds and it's many features, boated along the tributaries of the Danube, picniced on its banks, visited a stork colony...  and enjoyed the company of the two other families, including partaking in some great food and local Austrian wines. 

From this area of Austria we went for a drive around before dinner tonight and we were able to look over one of the rivers near where we staying and see Slovakia, and the town of Bratislava in the distance, we waved to Lydia. 

We have been thoroughly spoilt here and tomorrow we head to Vienna to be met by Robert a friend of Barbara's who is going to show us around the city. 

Sunday 1st June

We sadly farewelled Barbara this morning and headed to Vienna for the day and met up with our wonderful guide Robert, who was a wealth of information about the city and its history. A lovely city and all the sights are very central in the inner city, and being a Sunday a lot more quieter than we expected. We parked about a km from the central city and walked in to meet Robert outside St Stephens Cathedral. 

We drove through to Retz and on the way crossed the Danube on a ferry which was very unexpected, it wasn't until the GPS said board the ferry in 200 metres we realised!