We got up early and set off for Berlin. Breakfasted and washed, we were off by 09:00am and called first at a small supermarket to buy food and drink for the day.
Day 5
It took us some time to get out of Prague and onto the open road north to Germany, but we made it. The countryside seems to be a little cluttered around here (with pylons, factories etc.) but I suppose that that is the result of years of neglect. The Czechs seem to be a hardworking people, so there’s hope for the future. We didn’t see many beggars here.
What we did see on our journey north, particularly as we neared Germany and drove up into the mountains were lines of ‘ladies’1 plying their trade at the side of the road. Young and old alike, there were many groups of them waving at passing cars, trying to make them stop. I was almost tempted to stop and ask ‘how much?’ (purely for research reasons I must add), but they might never have let the car go again. They were certainly very colourful.
We also passed a very large brick-built structure which we thought at first must have been a military barracks, but as it was disused and as it seemed to go on and on, we began to wonder. Only when we got to the town centre and saw the tour buses and the enormous ‘Jewish Memorial’ did we realise that it was a concentration camp2. The town was Terezin.
We drove up to the border at the mountaintop and had no rouble getting through. We bought lots of cheap vodka and a Magnum each before driving off into the beautiful ‘East’ German countryside.
I mentioned Magnum just now. Early in our tour, this became our official rate of exchange. When we could not tell how much things were (in Holland for example), we gauged it on the price of a Magnum. Stephen insisted that they were only 99p for three at the Mirfield Co-op, but that most vendors charged that amount for just one. So, the rate of exchange was 1 x Magnum = £1.00. Therefore, whatever the cost of a Magnum (or equivalent) abroad was directly convertible into English. Simple, see? The rates of this exchange from town to town and country to country varied enormously (as you can imagine), so thank goodness for international exchange rates, which we now believe are more reliable. (lol).
Having filled up in Germany, something we had sought to avoid as the fuel is much dearer, we set off towards Dresden. We had not been able to fill-up in Czech as the petrol station did not take visa and we didn’t have enough Zlotaks left. Dresden looks a beautiful city but the video camera had discharged itself and we were not able to take any shots as we passed. We definitely intended to make Berlin that day so we didn’t stop, preferring to get to Meissen, just up the road instead. We stopped at this old and famous (for porcelain) town for a late lunch. Because it was so hot, none of us wanted more than a cake from the shop and a cold drink. At the top of the town is a tower and a church. To get to these, you have to climb 200 steps (I don’t know who counted). The heat was almost unbearable by now and we were completely shagged when we got to the top. However, from up here, we could see for miles around. The red roofs of the town were all below us and it obvious that cheap loans are now available via ‘soli’3, in this ex-East German town for upkeep and repairs. They are obviously hoping to cash in on the tourist market and so they should, as the town is a pleasant place to visit. We did witness some ugliness though. As we walked back towards the car we passed along a street with Turkish or similarly owned businesses where the windows had been broken. This sort of thing is rife in Germany, where the Germans are afraid that cheaper Turks will take their jobs.
Our drive continued and we reached the autobahn. It must have been one of Hitler’s first and hadn’t been maintained since. In places the concrete carriageway was so uneven it was positively dangerous. In parts, one lane was 2”-3” higher than the next – tyre ripping stuff. It was good to finally reach Berlin. Although, for many miles you wouldn’t know that you were in one of the greatest capital cities of the world. We’d bought a map on the outskirts and headed towards Templehof Airport, which was roughly in the direction we wanted to go. Our aim was to find a hotel somewhere out of the centre but near a Metro station. We couldn’t have done this however, until we found out where we were on the map. This led to a frustrating hour trying to find out where that was exactly. We drove along a promising road signposted >>Centrum>> which was cobbled for about 12 miles. We saw no hotels.
We eventually found ourselves on the map and tried several promising looking areas but the whole time (perhaps another hour), we found only two. Hotels. One was £100 per night and the other looked a little shady. We then shot out of a road4 and found ourselves right next to the Brandenburger Tor and on Under Den Linden. This was fascinating, especially after the forty odd years that Berlin was split as it once was5.
What we hadn’t realised until now, was the we were looking for hotels in what had been East Berlin, where of course, commerce had been subdued for the forty years following the war and had little need for the type of hotel we were looking for. By now it was late and we were tired and fed-up. I tried to phone a hotel out of town, but my money wouldn’t stay in the and I got nowhere.
We eventually found a hotel right opposite the Berlin Opera House, The Hotel An Der Opera, and although it was more expensive that we’d hoped, it was the only hotel we had seen – so we took it. On reflection, the price wasn’t that bad, bearing in mind what we had paid in Czech. The estimated conversion of the bill from deutschmarks was £204.10 for two nights (I paid by Visa and didn’t note the exact amount later). That’s three people B & B. Add the Czech bill of approximately £61.65 and divide by five night (although one was really just a morning lol) and it’s down to around £17.70 per person per night, which is roughly the cost of a room in France. So, seven nights at a rough conversion rate (not Magnum rate) cost us about £14.50 each per night, which isn’t that bad at all. The meals however, did cost a good bit more.
1 – The term used at that time was ‘mucky women’ lol.
2 – Looking at Google maps, it seems that the road to Germany had been diverted since our visit. We certainly drove around and through the town. It was eerie.
3 – Following the fall of the Berlin Wall the German government introduced a “solidarity surcharge,”, which is, even now apparently, still imposed. https://www.dw.com/en/taxpayers-demand-end-to-soli-tax-to-boost-eastern-german-economy/a-41315805
4 – That must have been Wilhelmstrasse.
5 – For all of our lives, none of us three had ever known anything other than a divided Berlin. To be so close to this poignant reminder of the wall that figuratively divided Europe, which was there until finally demolished just a few years before our arrival, was thought provoking.
Picture Credit:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall#/media/File:West_and_East_Germans_at_the_Brandenburg_Gate_in_1989.jpg
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