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EUROPE - 2007 |
| AUSTRIA, GERMANY, CZECH REPUBLIC |
| At the beginning of July 2007, Tony & I flew to Koln, spent the day at Phantasialand before staying with U. David & A. Renate near Wesel. The following day we drove 7 hrs down to Munich, where we met up with Aussie friends Steph & Bryon, and drove them to a wedding they were attending in Reit im Winkl, near Salzburg... |
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| From Reit-im-Winkl, T & I visited Skyline Park near Munich, spending the evening at the tip of Switzerland, in the picturesque harbour town of Lindau, on the shores of Lake Bodensee. We climb the harbour lighthouse to watch the sun set... |
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| Staying the night in Freidrichshafen, we head off to Europa Park for the day, passing the Zepellin factory & airbase... |
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| The journey to Europa Park took us through the Black Forest... |
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| We then met up with Steph & Bryon again, and then had a rainy 5 hr drive up to Prague, where we'd spend the next 3 nights. The 1st day we drove North to the village of Chribska, where Steph's family (Kreibich) originate. Pictured are some houses, typical of the styles found in this fairly remote village.... |
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| The only life we saw here was a glassware workshop, surprised to find tourists in the area we were invited to have a look around... |
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| The small village of Chribska... |
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| We saw signs pointing to holiday camp, where we found a fishing & swimming lake (yeah - you swim with the carp!) and a bar under a blue tarpaulin!... |
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| From Chriska we headed to Varnsdorf, where Steph's ancestors ran a textile mill, which is still standing. We also visited the graveyard where Steph found the grave, and the house nearby which was built in 1903 by her great, great Grandfather... |
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| From Varnsdorf we headed back to Prague. With T & I visiting Prague earlier in 2007 with Nancy & Anna, (click for pics of Prague) we had a good idea of where everything was, so we managed to guide Steph & Bryon around the entire cities main attractions in 12 hrs!... |
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| I wanted to check out Prague's Luna Park, which is located within Stromovka Park. Also here is the (largely unused & semi - derelict) exhibition centre, and a small museum in a building called the Lapidarium... |
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| We were amazed to find the most beautiful, impressive, historical stonework from around the city in here. The original statues from the Charles bridge are in here & were so much more impressive than the ones on the bridge now!. We were the only tourists anywhere near this museum, yet Prague is packed with tourists visiting the city for its history... |
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| From Prague we headed back into Germany, and spent the next 2 nights in Augsburg. Conveniently situated close to Dachau, the former concentration camp run by the Nazi's. I was slightly disappointed to find Dachau not as moving as I'd thought it would be - its rather sterilised with its modern museum flooring, clean walls & interactive displays... |
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| We found conflicting documentation of the 'shower' block... some guides said it was built, although never put into use as a gas chamber, while other guides spoke of the system used to get the people into the shower room. Its certain that many thousands were tortured & died here though, the original single furnace to dispose of the bodies could not cope, so a larger furnace was constructed, but even these 2 could not efficiently dispose of all the bodies, many were dumped in mass graves nearby... |
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| While educational & sobering, I'd found the Holocaust memorial near Jerusalem a more 'moving' place to visit than Dachau. Both however, serve a stark reminder as to how blissful our lives are... And while beneficial to reflect, one must move on... so we spent the rest of the day in Legoland. Followed by a nice evening meal in Augsburg... |
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| The following morning was time to say goodbye to Steph & Bryon, but we had a great trip together. T & I then went onto Tripsdrill theme park for the day, before an evening flight back to Manchester from Stuttgart. |
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