One Week - One Thousand Miles

An orchard in Praha with free internet. Thank you kind neighbours. Napoleon is resting today, he deserves it after the slog of the Autobahns across the width of Deutschland. Having bought the books on Stellplatzes "aire de services"...camping for free, we made for Bruges, with nothing other than GPS coordinates and a sense of direction. Or one of us had! Within his first day on the continent, Napoleon broke the rules! went up a one way street, an example was set as others followed in his brave tyre tracks.



Bruges was a surprising treat, its walkways following slowly flowing canals, which on the whole are surrounded by medieval buildings. The town planners wisely have refused to admit any modern austere architectural behemoths and are sticking to their past. However, they do admit many a tourist, who wildly fling their "sit up and beg" bicycles along the cobbled streets with alarming lack of control. Tinkle tinkle go the bells. Pedestrians beware, there are mad pedal pushers about.



It is strange to abandon normal means of doing things. In the local watering holes, you do not wait for your drink at the bar, unless you are an old man in deep converstion with your barman. Instead they bring it over on trays held high over their shoulders and pour it from acute angleswith flourishes and wrist flicks that would impress a badminton player.

No fresh milk! I am slowly discovering long life milk, condensed milk without the enjoyment or taste. In short, this liquid has not found a place in my belly's list of delights. I might have to take to putting custard in my tea and coffee soon. The first night on the continent finished with an empty tin of beans...very European.

Across the flat Belgian motorways to the roaring Autobahns of Deutschland. NApoleon shifted up a gear and began to growl, forgetting past misdemeanours and old age, he flexed his muscles and made it over 120, that's KmPH! Eventually the Rhineland arrived. It took both of our powers of map reading and intelligence to find this region of once contested land. Vineyards scarpered up steep cliff sides as the Rhine woulnd its way towards the industrial shipping yard of Rotterdam. Barges and Freight Ships sailed up and down this fine river, some full of haulage containers, others empty. Leaving the roads less congested with trucks and tankers. We got a sense of the importance of this river to its inhabitants by the numerous fortifications and castles perched along its cliffs, overseeing the events below. Another night of free camping and then onto Dresden the next day.

Napoleon left his autobahn tyres behind and put on his climbing boots, as the Rhineland turned into winding mountain passes. No more breaking the century mark on the dashboard dial. Slowly Dresden arrived. Quickly the blisters came - the fault of the sandals and not the land. Dresden once obliterated by the RAF during the 2nd world war, has arisen. While the communist era in Germany resuscitated it, the capitalist era leaves it mixed up. A sense of what was, more than what is abounds. Plenty of disused vast buildings. A museum to the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin sits on a very quiet street near the Elbe. Monday is not a good day to try and see the museums of Dresden. They stay shut on mondays. It is a good day to cycle around. Cyclists in what was Eastern Germany, have priority over all other vehicles except for emergency services. They have cylce paths on the footpaths and all traffic must yield to the clists as the path crosses the roads. The salvation of momentum and the safety of the cyclists. We visited a Getrankt Discount Markt, which possesses a fine display of German beers, all bottled. Only Guinness could be found in aluminium cans. Spartan Deutsch was utilised to problem solve the problem of an unco-operative card payment machine. "Konnen sie sprechen Englisch, bitte" "vielen danke" und "Das ist alles". I knew the Irish education system would not let me down. It also enabled us to only pay for one nights lodgings in Dresden, as opposed to two - a simple mix up of the verb tense, Bleiben and two nights became one.

Tschuss zu Deutschland und yo Czech Republicke. Some more photos have been added to the flickr site.