Eau d'Cologne - 06/11/02

The night train took us from Munich to Prague, capital of the Czech Republic. Prague is a beautiful city, perhaps the most beautiful in Europe, certainly it is up there with Barcelona, Florence and Rome in my estimations. It is quite amazing how the centre of Prague escaped too much destruction at the hands of the Soviets. Perhaps they knew they had something special here and they ought to keep it all intact.

The heart of Prague emanates from Wencelas Square, a long driveway that heads down from Muzeum to Mustek and into the Stare Mesto (old city). Inside the old city the staromestke namesti (old square) is lined with churches and old buildings including the clock tower that all the tourists were waiting to take a picture of on the hour. Across the river rises the Hradcany, the famous Prague castle with its amazing views over the city of 100 spires. The walk up to the castle is lined with souvenir stalls selling the worst of nasty tourist tack but the view from the top is excellent.

Walking back to the old city means crossing the Charles Bridge, a sight in itself as it is lined with 30 statues. A little known attraction in Prague is the spiders and scorpions museum and we visited in the afternoon for something exciting to do.

Charles bridge, Prague

Prague is the sort of city that you can walk around and around, visiting the same places over and over and never get bored. So the next day we did exactly the same as before, just looking at bit more at everything we had already seen.

From Prague we took a train to Krakow, arriving in the freezing cold snow at 5am. A guy picked us up in his Lada and whisked us to his flat where we attempted to warm up slightly.

Krakow is another beautiful Eastern European city. The town square (Rynek Glowny) is the biggest square in Europe and Wawel Hill that houses the castle and cathedral has an amazing view over the town. Walking south back towards our flat took us through the Jewish quarter, although of course these days there are not too many Jews left in Poland.

Close to Krakow is one of the main reasons why there are not many Jews left, the former Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz. It has been rebuilt as a museum dedicated to the memory of those that were victims of Hitler and is open and free to anyone. It is a sobering experience to visit, I would almost describe it as scary. Some of the blocks have been transformed into different exhibits, those for various aspects of the Holocaust, including Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals and black people, as well as shocking exhibits such as the collection of combs from the former inmates, the collection of shoes or the pieces concerning the torturing and experimenting that took place. The most chilling experience though is as you see those infamous words above the gate – “Arbeicht macht frei”. Just a mile or so from Auschwitz is Auschwitz II, also known as Birkenhau. This was not a concentration camp but was rather simply for extermination. The inmates were housed in cold brick buildings as they waited to visit the gas chambers and then be blown away out of the giant smokestacks. After visiting these two sites of Auschwitz all I wanted was to back at home in Norwich.

And so from Krakow to Warsaw. A brief stop here as most of the historic old city was bombed and destroyed in the war and has been replaced by ugly communist era buildings and uninteresting modern developments. We did stay on a Botel on the river however which was a novel idea and a fun way to stay in Warsaw.

On the night train to Dresden we were robbed by somebody who can only be described as a… Words can’t describe how angry I was in the morning nor how upset Claire was, but that’s life. Dresden used to be the Florence of the north but as a result of the infamous Allied raids on Dresden during WWII most of this has also disappeared. STATS

Berlin is possibly my favourite city in continental Europe. Perhaps because it does remind me of London. In the same way it is quite ugly, it certainly is not pretty like Paris or Rome, but it is full of hidden secrets. It is an interesting city and one with a lot of history. You can be standing on top of Hitlers bunker without realising it, or walking across where the Berlin Wall used to stand. From extravagant buildings such as the Charlottenburg Palace and gardens to the Zoo station, from the famous Brandenburg gate, which has figured prominently at various times in history to the newly rebuilt Reichstag, designed brilliantly by British architect Sir Norman Foster. From the new developments at Potsdamer Platz to the old tower at Alexander platz and from the famous Checkpoint Charlie to the touristic Museum Insel, Berlin is full of attractions, often not aesthetically pleasing but always far more important to the shape of the world today. We also went swimming in a commie-era pool on the outskirts and wandered around the alternative Kreuzberg and Ostkreutz districts. The weather was miserable but somehow that is how Berlin felt it always should be. A real gem of a city.

Heading north our next stop was Hamburg. It has to be said that by this time we were just on the way home and each stop was simply one stop closer to Norwich. I enjoyed Hamburg however. The seedy Reeperbahn was interesting, especially as the Beatles used to play there in their early days and the port was something interesting to see. Hardly surprising bearing in mind I can spend hours at Great Yarmouth watching the boats load and unload, dock and depart. Again there was a Christmassy feel in Hamburg, lots of cheap wrapping paper and decorations on sale and the people were warming themselves with mince pies and mulled wine whilst the icy wind off the sea was biting into peoples faces.

Heading back south we stopped in Koln (Cologne), home of both an amazing and huge Cathedral and also the 4711 Eau d’Cologne. I bet you never put 2 and 2 together and got 4711 did you? We stood outside the 4711 shop for a while waiting to see the display from the clock on the roof, which did not disappoint.

We spent Halloween in the posh city of Luxembourg city in Luxembourg. Apart from the valley sperating part of the city from the rest and the incredibly posh and upper-crust feel to the whole place it was rather uninteresting. We celebrated Halloween by eating out, treating ourselves to Pizza Hut, because we know how to live dangerously!

Due to Brussels being choc-a-bloc due to some sort of conference or exhibition or fair we based ourselves in Bruges and made day trips around Belgium and the Netherlands. Bruges is one of my favourite cities in Europe, ultra-touristic but in a good way, that is in a beer, chocolate and waffles kind of way. It is also beautiful, with its cobbled streets, 13th Century buildings, squares and canals. I much prefer it to Brussels which, although nice, is rather a financial city with a big emphasis on its standing as the home of the EU. The Grand Place in Brussels is nice but the Mannekin Pis is disappointingly small. Antwerp is another nice Belgian town, as is Ghent, but neither are as beautiful as Bruges, and Antwerp especially is developing as something of a shopping centre.
 

Mannekin Pis, Brussels

I have never been a big fan of the Netherlands. Great at football of course but I also found the country to be vastly overcrowded and Amsterdam especially to be over-rated. In fact it is the most densely populated country in western Europe, and this density is intensified in the region that encompasses Amsterdam, Rotterdam and the Hague. Amsterdam is OK, the canals are nice, the buildings are interesting and there are a lot of parks and gardens but I always just felt that its Liberal stance has attracted so many people to the city and, in the macro-sense, the country that they are now finding it hard to house them all. The red-light district is infamous and of course worth a stroll around, if only for an eye-opener. The legalisation of cannabis was once a great reason to visit but if you don’t partake in this pastime then just watching the hordes of Brits that do is enough to convince you that it is time to change citizenship. The ugly groups of lads on stag do’s smoking, drinking and shagging their weekend away is simply depressing and embarrassing to other Brits.

The Hague is another nice Benelux town, however I found Rotterdam to be one of the ugliest places I had visited in Europe. There is some song that is sung by Ajax fans when they play Rotterdam that is along the lines of “Rotterdam is flat….” And something about the reason why being because it was bombed to smithereens in the war. The mixture of old and modern architecture is absurd and the town just feel likes one of those that would appear in a series of “Europes 10 ugliest” or something.

This is the end. 17 countries in 65 days. The fastest I have ever travelled and the last time I will do so. I would love to revisit Hungary and the Czech Republic and I have ignored the former Yugoslavian states and Scandinavia this time around.