Salzburg was fantastic. From the moment we pulled into the well named “Panorama Campground” we knew that Salzburg was going to be special. The weather was perfect on our arrival with a cloudless blue sky and white capped Alps that framed the city like a beautiful painting. Mozart’s old home town was smaller then expected which seemed to promote a more cozy and intimate atmosphere. But, as we discovered later, the true splendour of Salzburg became crystal clear when we rode the old cog-train to the top of castle hill. The castle stands gloriously on a sliver of rock that overlooks and separates Salzburg into two main parts.  We’re not sure if we have ever seen a more spectacular view or setting. This castle was started in 1077 and was never forcefully breached by an enemy until it was surrendered to Napoleon in 1800 without a battle. You can easily see why this castle was considered virtually impregnable when looking “way-down” from it’s imposing fortress towers and walls. A fantastic medieval castle with breathtaking 360 degree views around, above, and below. Impossible to capture the grandeur of this place in a single photograph but It has been said that this is one of the most beautiful vistas on earth and we could easily be convinced of that. If you do go to Salzburg, you must visit the castle.  Just behind our campground we found the most incredible Bavarian style B&B (Rauchenbichlgut) with a traditional restaurant so we decided to give it a try. We got back to “BrumaRV” rather late in the evening but we had such a fantastic time. The very Bavarian atmosphere, wonderful local friendlies and a delicious 4 course home cooked meal all combined to make this our second most memorable meal so far (First prize to our Valentines Day fondue). Onward toward Munich, but Salzburg will be very hard to leave behind. 

If you’re looking for fashionable shopping, fancy cafe’s, fantastic museums, opera and theatre all wrapped up in some amazing architecture, then Vienna is definitely the place for you. A more refined and polished atmosphere by comparison to Prague but in our opinion, at the expense of some earthy personality. Great shops, great streets, great buildings and great branding… with prices to match all that grandeur. We did a lot of walking and exploring and found lots to do in our 3 days including a trip to the opera on our first night. I would love to report that we got all dressed up and sat in wonderful comfortable seats, but that would be stretching the truth just a bit too far. On our subway ride into Vienna we got talking to a wonderful young lad from Argentina that was on vacation with his family and he told us about the best deal in Vienna. It turns out that the renowned Vienna Opera House puts aside about 400 “standing room only” spaces for the jaw dropping price of 4 Euros (about $6) 90 minutes before each evenings performance. Considering that some legitimate opera patrons can pay 200+ Euros for a performance that sell out months in advance, how could we turn our backs on such an opportunity. We got in line for our tickets about 2 hours before the show and then ultimately stood for the entire 3 hour production of “Eugene Onegin” (A Russian Opera). I know it sounds like torture (the standing part) but the fact is we sat and visited and the time went by very quickly with virtually zero pain. Our actual viewing location, with it’s padded leaning rails, was fantastically located on the main level, dead centre of the house about 20 rows back. All-in-all, it was great fun and a great experience that we will never forget. The grand tour of the Royal Hofburg Palace with all it’s splendour was a wonderful way to spend the better part of a day. Topping the day off, Margot got her chance to take her mom’s advice and sample authentic, world famous, “Chocolate Sacher Torte” from the actual Cafe Sacher where it was invented in 1832. Off we go to Salzburg.

As we approached the Czech Republic we wondered what we’d find considering it was only in the 90’s that this country stepped through the “Iron Curtain”. What we discovered in downtown Prague was an eclectic mix of old and new where capitalism is thriving. There appears to be no apparent shortage of brand name establishments with willing spenders to fill them. But, as we left the central core of the city, our overall impression deteriorated slightly when driving through some well worn outer industrial areas surrounded by some obviously depressed neighbourhoods. I think however, the Czech Republic will very soon be “nose-to-nose” with some of their more highly developed neighbours to the West. We spent our last full day in old town exploring the Royal Palace and sampling some of the local cuisine before packing it in. On Thursday our drive along the secondary roads towards Vienna took us through some very beautiful countryside and farmland.

After six full information packed days in Berlin and countless miles walked, we reluctantly packed things up and headed South towards Prague. On our way out we stopped at Potsdam, just south of Berlin to visit the famous “Park Sanssouci Palace” complex. Yes, I said complex… this massive park like area contains a number of very impressive Palaces, two of which were built by Frederick The Great. It’s hard to believe that people could actually live in such extreme decadence when so many unfortunate citizens suffered in poverty.  We did a quick drive-by of Dresden on our way South. Dresden was a major cultural centre and was once considered the Florence of the north. This city was virtually obliterated by a firebomb raid on the night of February 13, 1945 by thousands of allied bombers. Rebuilt yes, but I don’t think it’s the city it once was, another example of great loss of life and culture. As we moved on, a few other pop-up surprises along these secondary highways made this drive very interesting. We pulled into Prague later on in the afternoon and managed to find a nice campground inside the main city limits only a short metro ride from old town. We ventured in late this morning to check it out and literally spent the rest of the entire day walking around in a total state of “awe-ness” at it’s historical grand beauty and vibrant beehive atmosphere. This city with all it’s little shops and restaurants is truly a gem that has somehow weathered the stormy past and survived virtually intact. Ornate buildings that date back many hundreds of years, and twisty cobble stone streets that make you feel as if you should be riding through them in a horse drawn carriage. This place is truly worth seeing in person as photos just don’t do it justice. Tomorrow we plan on spending the entire day exploring the magnificent Royal Palace that overlooks the city and is considered the largest in Europe.

We want to take a moment and say “thank you” to everyone posting comments on our blog. We truly love receiving them and appreciate all the nice things that have been said (so far). It’s comforting to know we have so many wonderful friends and family showing such an interest in our own crazy adventure. Please keep your comments coming and know how much we enjoy them.  Following are a few more pick’s from around Berlin.

Turns out BrumaRV is parked virtually on top of what was once part of the “Berlin Wall”. We discovered this as we walked out of our surprisingly central Berlin campground this morning. We then followed a fragmented  pathway that was once a part of this notorious wall and it stretched all the way to the “new” Reichstag (German Parliament). Interestingly, sections of the old original wall still exist in many neighbourhoods but for the most part you’d be hard pressed to find concrete evidence of its existence in this rapidly changing city. This is not the same Berlin that Bert and I saw in 1972. No mean looking and threatening GDR military guards at “Checkpoint Charley” to contend with.  Instead, work cranes everywhere filling in the empty gaps of old East Berlin with massive building projects and creating impressive ultra modern structures all over the city. Todays Berlin is truly an amazing city with a friendly, safe, and vibrant feel to it. Walking through the Brandenburg Gate this afternoon was an exciting experience for me considering the last time I saw this Gate it was literally trapped in a strange and surreal “no-man’s-land” between the East and the West. Bert and I could only  look at this impressive historical Gate from atop a wooden tower on the Western side of the dividing wall, about a 100 yards back. Nearby we had an interesting conversation with a young East Berliner couple as we waited in a lineup to get reserved access tickets to walk through the new glass Dome of the Reichstag that covers the main legislative chambers. This very impressive structure built to replace the old “bombed-out” dome was only in the conceptual stages in 1972 but now it provides a wonderful panoramic view of central Berlin. Walking along some impressive boulevards we even found the Canadian Embassy and a great Mediterranean buffet.  Much more to see tomorrow.

We drove into the small city of Weimar late in the day with the intent of spending a night in the “Stellplatz” park-up near the town centre and then heading out in the morning for Berlin. A Stellplatz (German) or “Aires” (French) provide a great alternative for overnight parking when on the move. Most of them have limited services so you need to be somewhat self contained. Often the locations are near town centres or sports facilities where you can use the complex’s amenities for a reasonable charge. The free Stellplatz in Weimar turned out to be a good one and the electrical hook-up was a pleasant surprise but more importantly it’s proximity to the old town centre was fantastic. Weimar seemed to be a cool place so we decided to spend the day and check it out and we’re sure glad we did. Turns out that this has been a major arts centre for 500 years. It’s magnificent palace is now used as a cultural centre and art museum and we really enjoyed going through it. Famous painters, author’s, poets and composers including Bach himself have all called Weimar home. What a great day we had starting it off strolling through the cobble stone streets with our coffee and snack in hand and basking in the warm sunshine. We found a great little ‘Roma” hat and clothing store that we know you would love Kristen. We capped the day off with a wonderful traditional German dinner and beer in a popular tudor pub that I’m sure has served many interesting people over the years. This morning we got up, pointed ourselves in the direction of Berlin, and then drove through some magnificent countryside. Rolling green hills with scattered towns and villages that date back hundreds of years. Driving into Berlin on a Sunday evening turned out to be a very good decision considering the reasonable traffic we encountered. We are now staying at a “no-frill” campsite near the centre of Berlin which is just a short walk away from the Brandenburg Gate. Tomorrow we begin our Berlin experience in earnest.

The massively devastating impact of Hitler’s Third Reich regime become overwhelmingly real and emotionally painful when visiting the German National Memorials of Wewelsburg Castle and the concentration camps of Mittelbau-Dora and Buchenwald. We made our way across this beautiful countryside to the impressive Castle of Wewelsburg. Built in 1603-09 it’s the only triangular Medieval Castle in Europe and it’s very unique but it’s real diabolical claim to fame is that this is the location Himmler himself chose to establish a “Reich Leaders” SS School. His plans for the castle and village were nothing short of spectacular and to that end he established a concentration camp of workers nearby to help realize his dream. Recently the German Government has established a very impressive educational and interpretative centre in the old SS administrative building next to the Castle to provide the public with an opportunity to examine this notorious organization. Both the memorial and the castle are well worth a visit. A short distance away is the Mittelbau-Dora site. This is where V1 and V2 rockets were produced under-ground destined to ultimately rain down on London. The very large concentration camp at this site provided the labour force to build the mega tunnels and manufacture those terrorizing rockets. Hitler’s grand and devious plans of the nearby Jonas Valley facility (also built into  the side of a mountain and still a restricted area) was his last chance of using advanced technology to turn the tides of the war in his favour. This second massive underground facility was conceived and well underway by 1945 with the purpose of building many more rockets and jet fighter airplanes. This was also going to be the location of Hitlers command centre and last stand if he had to evacuate Berlin.  Furthermore, evidence exists that the development and testing of nuclear related devices took place here in 1945. Fortunately for everyone time ran out before this facility could become fully productive on all fronts.  Much of the large labour force required for this huge project was provided by two concentration camps, the largest one being Buchenwald not too far away. I won’t even try to describe this camp as the appropriate words fail me. The camp facility itself is now a massive historical display and adjoining the camp is a gigantic memorial built by the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in 1958, dedicated to it’s internees.  Walking through this left us numb and in silence. Like the military casualties of war that we take time to remember every November 11th, countless other innocent and unfortunate souls also deserve to be remembered and their tragic and painful story should serve as a sobering lesson to humanity.
Tomorrow we start heading north for Berlin and we’re so looking forward to experiencing all that this incredible city has to offer.

Well… I think (fingers crossed and knocking wood) we have most of our WiFi Hotspot SIM card issues resolved which surprisingly only took us about three days worth of exciting I.T. time to accomplish. We hope the only remaining electrical complication we have now is finding signal strength strong enough for our WiFi to function properly and keeping all the batteries we have fully charged. Keeping the electrons flowing is no easy task considering how much of our time has been spent off the main power grid and all the various electronics that we need to keep powered-up and functioning. At some point, when I run out of really important things to talk about, I may do a blog on just the electronics that I have collected to make our travel communications, navigation, and photo management so easy and stress free… Not!
As we now head East right through the centre of Germany we find ourselves in the midst of some very sad and emotional, yet strangely fascinating WWII historical landmarks. Many of these truly sobering sites were at one time behind the iron curtain not easily accessible by the general public and not maintained. With the reunification of Germany  in 1990 there has been a determined effort here to honestly recognize, address, and take responsibility for darker periods of past generations. The German government has done an admirable job of maintaining sites and providing easy access with acute information about many of these dark places. The modern and impressive interpretation centres clearly promote the concept of  “We must face our past in order to move on, and we must learn from it so it will never happen again”.  In future blogs we’ll introduce you to a few infamous sites that we’ve visited, many being within close proximity of each other. Until then here are a few pictures of us on the road again.

Well, three nights of free camping has turned into four as we keep finding more castles and villages to explore in this under-publicized gem of an area. We visited 2 wonderful medieval castles and one amazing palace yesterday. It turns out that Burg Vischering Castle is one of the oldest and best preserved fortified medieval castles in northern Europe. It dates back to 1270. Like slipping into a time warp, you can just imagine the lifestyle of the day. In the photo of me holding open a round door in the floor of a castle tower; this is an “escape” hatch for women and children when the castle is under enemy siege and it leads down a circular stair to safety. The amazing thing is, you only have to walk about a kilometre away to visit another wonderfully preserved rival castle, Ludinghausen Castle.
Next, we moved on to our first official campsite and have spent the last two days here in the city of Munster. Some very interesting history here including a very famous Astrological clock in an amazing Gothic Cathedral. We also saw the impressive court room where the peace documents were signed to end the 30 year European war in 1648. We had a delicious bowl of sausage & pea soup in a cold but cool “open market” while enjoying the fantastic 1700’s old town centre of Munster.
On a more frustrating note, we’ve been having some WiFi SIM card issues over the last few days that we hope to sort out soon. Will keep you posted!