2010 had been a non-event year for us, travel-wise, but in April 2011 we executed a plan that had been worked on for months…a plan that would see us conquer new countries!
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| Spinnaker Tower – Portsmouth |
Neil has always had a strong interest in military history, particularly WWII history, and his extensive genealogy research had developed a growing interest in his own personal connections to the battles of the western front in WWI. By this stage Liam had also developed a strong interest in all things military, and had been serving for several months in the Australian Air Force Cadets. When we looked at the school calendar and realized that the 2011 April school holidays + the ANZAC day weekend were conveniently close to each other, we couldn’t resist the idea of a trip to Europe that would finish at the ANZAC day ceremonies at Villers Bretonneux in northern France. The idea grew and developed and the entire journey took on a distinctly military flavour…
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| At Portchester Castle |
Following in the footsteps of D-Day heroes we spent some time in the UK before our invasion of the continent, only 2 nights but we enjoyed a brief visit to the south coast of England, a part of the country we had not previously seen. We had a marvelous sunny day in Portsmouth, a town with a long Naval record ( illustrated by the spectacular Spinnaker Tower) and enjoyed seeing the exhibits at the UK D-Day Museum. In the afternoon we wandered through the picturesque Portchester Castle which was built by the Romans and added to by a succession of British monarchs who valued it for it’s strategic position at the entrance to Portsmouth’s lovely harbour.
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| Fish and Chips on Brighton “Beach” |
Our second day in the UK saw us driving across the coast to the grand, old sea-side resort of Brighton. Only the British could get excited by a seaside resort where the beach is covered in great big pebbles! Along the way we dropped into the cute town of Arundel to hunt for the cricket ground where all the early Australian cricketers played their first match of each Ashes series. We also stopped off at the seaside town of Bognor-Regis – simply because we couldn’t resist the name.
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| Brighton Pavilion |
Brighton is dominated by two extraordinary structures. The Brighton Pavilion is a oriental-esque fantasy palace built by George the 4th when he was still Prince Regent and where the parties were legendary. Down by the beach we wandered out to sea on the other spectacular construction, the wonderful Brighton Pier. As you walk out past the stands selling cockles and mussels, Brighton Rock ( lollies) and a variety of kitchy entertainments you can feel yourself being drawn back to an age when this sort of holiday entertainment was the height of fun!
A visit to the south coast of England isn’t complete without a sighting of the great white chalk cliffs that fall down from the grassy fields into the English channel. The Seven Sisters aren’t the famous white cliffs of Dover but they are the highest set of cliffs along the entire south coast.
The next morning saw us back at Heathrow, boarding the plane for our own D-Day. However, unlike the famous paratroopers of 1944, we weren’t going to parachute into France and then spend months battling our way across to Germany…we skipped the preliminaries altogether and flew directly into Berlin!
My original plans for Germany were centred firmly on the pretty parts of the country like Bavaria and the Black Forest but Neil was keen to visit Berlin so I was happy to include it in our itinerary.
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| Neil and Liam contemplating the remnants of the Berlin Wall |
It was a complete surprise to me to find that Berlin was one of my favorite destinations on the entire trip! It’s such an attractive city with the wonderful Brandenburg Gate standing tall with the greenery of the HUGE Tiergarten on one side and the majestic Pariser Platz on the other. We loved the Reichstag with its modern, gleaming glass dome and the stunning Berliner Dom – a Baroque masterpiece taking pride of place on Museum Island. We just walked and walked all around the city ( it’s almost dead flat and fantastic for walking) and learned to jump out of the way quick smart when the bicycle bells rang out – the cyclists love Berlin too!
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| The Berliner Dom |
The Berliners were friendly ( we were greeted every morning in the lift with a chorus of “Morgen!”s) and their bakery shops were amazing but Liam will tell you their best culinary invention is Currywurst – bratwurst roasted to a turn and swimming in a combination of tomato sauce, paprika and lots and LOTS of curry powder. It sounds awful but it’s surprisingly tasty and you can buy it everywhere, there was even a Currywurst museum near our hotel!! I guess it just tells you how important the sausage is to your average German 🙂
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| Dresden Opera House |
From Berlin we took to the Autobahns in a trusty little BMW ( naturally!) and drove south to Dresden, via Colditz castle, which was used to house the serial escapist POWs during WWII and has spawned a number of books, movies and TV series. Dresden is deep in what was East Berlin during the cold war but now it is a vibrant, lively city which has worked hard to rebuild it’s many beautiful 18th century palaces and monuments that were destroyed in a bombing firestorm towards the end of WWII. However, the bed we slept on that night was definitely a cold-war relic, I have never slept on a harder mattress.
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| Very cold at Saxon Switzerland National Park! |
South of Dresden, very close to the border of the Czech republic is a stunning landscape nestled in the Saxon Switzerland National Park ( VERY strangely named – it’s a loooong way from Switzerland?) it was a very cold morning when we arrived there but it didn’t stop us admiring the sandstone needles and bizarre cliff faces with strange conifers, primordial beech forests and deep-running streams. This area is hugely popular with those energetic German hikers and it was easy to see why. However we didn’t have time for a hike, we were heading to Nuremburg and the next stage of our WWII trek.
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| Nazi Party Rally Grounds |
The Germans are proud of their ancient history and ( I think admirably) determined not to let the horrors of the more recent history – under Hitler’s regime – be forgotten. They have done a wonderful job of documenting that terrible part of their past and make it compulsory for their schoolchildren to learn how and why it happened…so it never happens again. When we visited ( what is left of) the huge Nazi Party Rally Grounds and the massive Kongress Hall in Nuremburg, we saw a number of German High school groups – although like most teens they were more interested in chatting and flirting than in reading the information and watching solemn videos. Kids!
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| Nuremberg Old Town |
But there is more to the city than the Nazis – the old town centre is quaint and pretty, with a meandering river and a massive castle.
After Nuremburg we started to see more and more of the seriously pretty parts of Germany. On the well-named Romantic Road is one of the downright cutest villages that I have ever seen. Rothenburg ob der Tauber is one of the best preserved medieval old-towns in Europe and every time we turned a corner it was like looking at a picture postcard – except for the throngs of tourists.
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| Pretty Rothenburg ob der Tauber |
Liam and I enjoyed the local specialty, Schneeballen , which are basically a big ball of sweet dough and come in a variety of flavours – good solid German stodge but surprisingly tasty.
That night we stayed in Heidelberg, with its ruined castle dominating the view from everywhere in town. For some reason Heidelberg is hugely popular with Americans but I would have to say it was the least interesting of the cities that we visited on the trip. However, the wine at dinner that night was lovely, made from grapes grown on the hills above the town. Heidelberg is just to the north of the Black Forest and the next morning we drove a meandering, scenic route down through the forest to Freiburg. The trees and lakes are striking but the most outstanding feature of this part of Germany are the clocks.
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| Liam and lots of Cuckoo Clocks! |
You have never seen so many Cuckoo clocks , some as small as a matchbox and a few as large as a small house! I pity the poor beggar who has to wind them in the many Cuckoo clock shops and I noticed they made sure that they were set at different times – if those cuckoos all popped out at once the salesmen would rapidly have gone deaf.
On to Switzerland, which was chocolate box pretty, but the chocolate was expensive! It was a bit of a shock to see the costs of our meals treble as soon as we crossed the border.
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| Chocolate box pretty Switzerland |
However, the weather was fine and the snow on the Alps, towering over the green meadows and spring flowers made me feel like I’d wandered into Heidi country – “Heidi” was THE favourite book of my childhood and it was such a thrill for me to visit her part of the world. After a brief visit to Montreux on Lake Geneva we climbed into the Berner Oberland and spent a couple of nights in Interlaken. The next day we boarded a cogwheel train which climbed… and climbed… and climbed up the mountain ( and THROUGH the mountain) to deliver us to the Jungfraujoch, called the “Top of Europe” because it’s the highest place you can get to in Europe without resorting to a plane or helicopter.
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| At the “Top of Europe” |
There aren’t really enough superlatives to describe the view from up there ( or to describe the cost of our lunch!!!) but we knew we were up VERY high when we became dizzy after climbing a moderate set of stairs – the altitude certainly takes its toll.
One of the things I think us Aussies find so fascinating about Europe is how small the countries are, and how easy it can be to suddenly find yourself crossing a border or two. Over the next day we meandered in and out of Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria and back to Germany – on a couple of occasions crossing a couple of borders within the space of 20 minutes..
So, back in Germany … we visited Mad King Ludwig’s fairy tale Neuschwanstein castle – he may have been mad, but he know how to make an impact and it certainly had an impact on Walt Disney, who modeled his Disneyland and Disney World castles on Neuschwanstein’s turrets and towers.
Over another border into Austria and we had the difficult task of trying to decide if the Austrian lakes and Alps were prettier than the Swiss ones… I still can’t make up my mind on that one. Neil and Liam were determined to make a 2 hour side tour to the lovely Zel Am Zee, a crystal clear lake surrounded by alpine peaks. Not for the photo-worthy beauty of the place, but purely because it was the place that the boys of Easy Company of the 101st Airborne Division spent their last days of WWII. My boys had been enjoying the military aspect of the trip but our visit to Salzburg was my chance to get even – we were in “Sound of Music” country .
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| Mirabell Gardens in Salzburg ( Maria was here!) |
As we walked through the town and up to the gorgeous castle I was able to entertain them with descriptions of which scenes of the movie were shot here…and there… oh, and over there. I’m sure they enjoyed it ( Hmmm?) The other major claim to fame of Salzburg is it’s links to Mozart , he was born in a house in the old town that is now painted an eye-watering shade of bright yellow. We spent an evening enjoying a wonderful meal at St Peters Stiftskeller ( the oldest continuously operating restaurant in Europe) and were entertained by a wonderful concert of selections from his operas, serenaded by singers in 17th century costume – a real highlight!
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| BMW World |
Our final flourish in Germany was spent in Munich – and a large chunk of our time in Munich was spent at the BMW Velt ( BMW World)! We almost had to drag Neil out of the place… Seriously though,it was a fascinating place and we had a lot of fun sitting in and temporarily “owning” some amazing cars. It was a place of joy for those lucky people who were collecting their brand new cars and being shown the features before driving out of the building with huge smiles on their faces.
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| Dachau |
Another fascinating sight in Munich, but definitely NOT a place of joy is the museum that now occupies what was the Dachau concentration camp. You walk through the same gates that thousands of hapless prisoners did, but unlike so many of them we walked out again. It’s an incredibly thought-provoking location and we were all shocked at the sheer size of it. I am glad we visited but I don’t want to go back there – once was enough for me.
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| Not another bunker! |
An overnight train trip deposited us in Paris…on Good Friday…along with thousands of other visitors. We were only there briefly, as we immediately collected another car and negotiated the traffic jams north west towards Normandy. This was where the military aspect of the trip really kicked in. Neil had planned 2 days of serious WWII touring which encompassed the famous D-Day beaches ( Utah, Omaha, Gold, Sword and Juno) Point du Hoc, St Mere Eglise and Ouistreham bridge. Fortunately the landscape in Normandy is pretty with its green hills ,wide, sandy beaches and quaint grey stone villages so Neil’s ambitious timetable was a pleasure ( although I did feel Neil and Liam were a little TOO keen on visiting every bunker in Hitler’s Atlantic wall…)
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| Mont Saint Michel |
Fortunately the boys took pity on me for being patient about the bunkers and I was rewarded with a trip to Mont Saint Michel – the incredible Abbey island that is only accessible via a causeway. The climb to the top was a little breathless but the view once there was breathtaking. We also visited the fantastic museum that houses the Bayeux Tapestry. I think both my menfolk were surprised at how interesting the exhibit was – its done in a way which really brings the battle of 1066 to life.
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| our Normandy B & B |
I also have to mention our wonderful accommodation for our time in Normandy – a fabulous B & B run by an enthusiastic American woman married to a delightful Frenchman. B & B Bataille de la Fiere is a gorgeous building which dates back to Viking times and is located right next to a bridge that was the sight of a crucial battle in WWII. All the other guests were American and we were spoiled by wonderful breakfast and amazing help and advice.
Our trip was drawing towards it’s climax as we set forth the next day across northern France to the fields of the Somme. I had booked us into a small hotel on the outskirts of Amien – in fact this had been the very first hotel I booked for this trip, about 11 months in advance and in a bit of a panic when I discovered that almost every hotel within cooee of Villers Bretonneux was already booked out!
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| Villers Bretonneux – ANZAC Day |
It was such a shock to walk in the entrance of that little hotel in the middle of rural France to be met by a blast of Aussie accents emanating from the bar! This was to be the pattern for the next few days – everywhere we went we were accompanied by dozens of our compatriots – and when we finally arrived at the Villers Bretonneux memorial at 3am on a chilly, dark morning we were surrounded by 3000 of them. It’s hard to describe how we felt that morning, it was such a moving and beautiful ceremony, and I know it held a personal significance for Neil as several of his relations had died on those green fields – so far from home. I am so glad we went, and very glad that we took Liam with us. I’m sorry that Simon and Erin were not there as well.
In the day afterwards we visited the grave or memorial of all Neil’s relatives and also the tiny town of Morlancourt where his Grandfather had won a citation for bravery. I sometimes wonder if anyone else in their families was able to visit their resting places and thank them for their sacrifice. I’m so glad we did.
So that was the end of our invasion, and we had learned such a lot – not the least of which was that we really loved Germany. We have some tentative plans to return there in the future as we never did get to the Rhine or Cologne or Frankfurt, I would also like to visit those parts of Belgium where my own distant relative fought during WWI…and there must be a few bunkers that we missed!