Took 'SqueezyJet' to Koln and then drove to Bavaria via Nuremburg. Stayed in a delightful place called Erlbach, about 20 minutes drive from the Austrian border.
On the way down to Bayern we visited the 'Center for Terror and Fascination' in Nuremburg and it really was full of fascination and terror. Centered around the Nazi Party rally grounds and the famous 'Zeppelin Field', the German Government has created a wonderful museum and exhibition center. The podium where the Fuerher gave his speeches from is still there, although now in quite a bit of disrepair and decay. It was supposed to last a thousand years....
The Zeppelin Field, Nuremburg
Me at the speaking platform at the Nuremburg 'Zeppelinfeld' with period photos above.
Our 'GastHaus' in Erlbach in Bayern.
The next morning we drove the 20 minutes to the Austrian border and crossed into the little town of Braunau Am Inn, birthplace of Adolf Hitler. The house is unmarked....no blue plaques here, however there is a memorial rock outside the house, taken from Mauthausen concentration camp. The inscription reads....'Fur frieden, friheit und Demokratie, nie wieder faschismus, millionen tote mahnen'. Translated....' For peace, freedom and democracy, never again Fascism, millions of dead admonish'..
Renamed Adolf Hitler Strasse in the 1930's after Hitler came to power, it now has its old title back....Salzburger Vorstadt 15.
The original enamel street sign
1930's views down Adolf Hitler Strasse
Hitler was born in the room third from left on the top floor on 20th April 1889. The photo on the left is a period photo from 1935, the one on the right I took.
The inscription reads....'Fur frieden, friheit und Demokratie, nie wieder faschismus, millionen tote mahnen'. Translated....' For peace, freedom and democracy, never again Fascism, millions of dead admonish'..
Onwards from Braunau to the fair city of Linz, where Hitler went to art academy...
Which way driver ?..straight ahead me thinks. The swollen Donau at Linz...The famous blue Danube was murky grey
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Charles Bridge, with Prague Castle in background.
Nina on guard with the guard at Prague Castle. Home to the Czech President.
Museum of Communism, Prague Gallery of Bolshevik tyrants...Stalin, Lenin, Marx, Khrushchev et al .....!!
Typical shop scene from the dark days of socialism. You could choose between a can of muck or another can of muck....or there was always a can of muck. Long live free market capitalism.
Easter market, Prague
Wencslas Square, Prague
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Jette...lost on the Prague underground!! Uncle Joe Stalin
Lidice, about 10 miles north west of Prague was the scene of one of the Second World War's most notorious atrocities. The little village was razed to the ground as revenge for the assasination of Reich Protektor Reinhard Heydrich by Czech commandos in Prague in June 1942. All the adult men where rounded up and shot dead, whilst the women and children were sent to Auschwitz. There were few survivors out of the 500 or so inhabitants. We went to the memorial where the village once stood . It was eloquent in its silence in the weak spring sunshine.
The recently unveiled bronze statue of the 82 children of Lidice.
Me and Nina by the Lidice memorial. The village stood in the background and was never rebuilt. The area is now a reminder to the atrocities of war.
In the Sudeten area of Czechoslovakia, the picturesque town of Cheb, or to give it its rightful name in German, Eger. At the end of the Second World War about 2 million ethnic Germans were expulsed from the Sudetenland and all the German names of famous towns like Karlsbad (Karlovy Vary) and Franzenbad were renamed in Czech. It remains a source of tension between the two countries to this day. The German border is only a couple of minutes from here.
Me and Helena with fancy old German letterbox !
The somewhat 'Stalin-esque' TransMotel near Karlsbad in the Sudeten Hills, great place for the setting of a cold war spy thriller !! The inside was wonderfully decorated in a bizarre psuedo-opulent 1970's style. The sort of place good Party Comrades were rewarded with a stay under the communist regime. Although a bit expensive by Czech standards (£60 for the night) the food and beer was cheap and very nice.
