From Sopot, we travelled a short distance northwest to another impressive Polish seaside resort called Leba where sand dunes and spectacular beaches abound. Leba is a popular summer holiday destination with lots of restaurants offering good seafood on the menu and sensible sized glasses of beer. Leba marked the farthest location north on our trip and from here we followed the Baltic coastline southwest to another interesting resort town called Miedzyzdroje just a short distance from the German border. Our next thought-provoking stop was Peenemunde, Germany to see the infamous WWII Army Research Centre museum. This is where the Nazi’s developed the A4 rocket, more commonly known as the “Vengeance Rocket II” or V2. At the time, this facility was considered the most technologically advanced centre in the world and besides the unimaginable destruction that resulted from it’s existence, it was here at this location that the entire space race frenzy began that allowed the Russian’s to launch Sputnik into space and NASA to ultimately put a man on the moon.
Moving along at a quick pace, we drove to a nice campground close to Potsdam. Potsdam is near Berlin and has more palaces per square kilometre than any other place that I know of. In one of these smaller summer palaces the “Big 3” Churchill, Truman, and Stalin met after the war to carve up Germany and thus setting the stage for a troublesome East West divide. Potsdam is also where you find the “Spy” bridge (Glienicker) made famous during the “Cold War” and also the headquarters of the KGB in East Germany. A short train/metro ride from Potsdam takes you to the main station in Berlin. This station is amazing with it’s many platforms and levels, truly a tourist destination in itself. We walked about Berlin and revisited many of our favourite places before moving on to Dresden. Dresden was a beautiful city that was completely flattened in WWII but once again, skilled craftsmen have reconstructed the ‘Old Town Centre’ to much of it’s original glory and this restoration work continues to this day.
Driving west we stopped at Nordhausen. This is where you find the Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp that provided a massive amount of manpower for a familiar project. This was the main production location of those “V2” rockets that were produced using the technology developed at Peenemunde. This surprisingly massive and complex tunnel system was excavated to accommodate the mass production of V2 rockets and it was built, and then operated, at the expense of countless slave labourers. Only a few guided tours a day provide an opportunity to visit a small section of the tunnels where you can still see rocket components littering the snakelike landscape. An impressive but sobering place to visit.
Onward to Hameln, Germany. This is the beautiful little town where the famous fairy tale “The Pied Piper” was written; the story was supposedly based on a true event?? Throughout the town centre you find dozens of small bronze “Rat” tiles set into the cobble stone streets. They all seem to be following a statue of the Piper himself along with a number of unsuspecting children. We were lucky enough to just happen upon Hameln and were once again reminded of our favourite traveling experience; that feeling of excitement with a surprise discovery of something fun and interesting.
Finally, we made our way into the Netherlands with a quick visit to Amsterdam and one last welcoming stop in beautiful Leiden to say a goodbye to our wonderful Dutch family there and also to give Bob and Katie a “High 5” as our two individual trips just happened to cross paths. Thank you again Hedy and Kees for taking such good care of us again and treating us all to that delightful boat ride through the old canals of Leiden.
Now, onward to Dümo Reismobile in Dulmen, Germany to return our cozy little motorhome thus completing our wide circle tour of Europe and bringing to an end our 2019 trip. A little sad to be ending this “gypsy-like” lifestyle again but filled with all kinds of excitement and anticipation to see our kids, grand kids, friends and family once again.