We woke to a grey and much colder day today – forecast was only 11 or 12 degrees.
Our first stop took us south of Dresden to the “Bastei”, a rare high spot in the landscape so far, on the river Elbe and not far from the border of the Czech Republic with Germany. More roadworks had us backtracking slightly again today but otherwise we were at the Bastei within about 30 min.
It was cold and windy as we walked from the car park. However you come upon the Bastei and are suddenly looking down steep gullies with granite towers shooting up from the bottom.
Stone bridge at the Bastei
In the 1300’s they built forts from wood around the granite towers and linked them with wooden bridges. If they got attacked, they just cut down the bridge. Later a stone bridge was built which connects part of the area today. From some sections there are views down to the river which must be quite a working river as 2 big barges went past whilst we were there.
Overlooking the river Elbe
As we left here we got our first few spots of rain. But talk about a clean country ! As we drove along one section of road, there were signs for work in progress. Then along came a truck with bottle brush type arms on the front and it was washing the reflective markers on the side of the road !
Our route took us down from the Bastei to cross the Elbe river below along a winding forest road through quaint german villages along the way.
We were heading for a castle called Konigstein, built high on a hill and so protected no one ever bothered attacking it. It was raining quite heavily when we got there and as it was quite a way to Nuremberg – our destination for the day – we decided to head on.
The changing weather on the
autobahn
The weather changed constantly as we hit the autobahn again. One minute it was torrential rain and the next minute bright sunshine. We stopped along the way at one of the many “Autohof” – basically a petrol come food stop – and had McDonalds.
We were disappointed they didn’t have McBratwurst or McCurrywurst on the menu – not even a Grosse Mac ! Just pretty much the same as home.
We also had to negotiate our first petrol stop. We had read varying stories of how they worked – some you had to pay first, some didn’t take credit cards – and at the first one we went to it was hard to work out so we moved on to try another.
This one had cars filling up when we got there so we watched intently to work out the correct protocol. A little red light came on when you started to pump the petrol. When you were finished it started to flash. When you went and paid it turned off – simple !
My “Zehn bitte” (for pump 10 please) must have sounded convincing as the attendant delivered me a German laden response – of which I have no idea what was being said.
My “Danke” in response seemed to satisfy him as he nodded, gave me back my credit card and I was on my way !
It was about 15:30 when we arrived in Nuremburg and we went straight to the Nazi rally ground centre. The information centre (The “Dokumentationszentrum”) had an informative audio tour which took you through the build up of the Nazi party and how Nuremburg was used in staging the annual rallies.
Herr Frau-tler – rallying the trucks ?
In this particular area, Hitler was trying to build a Colosseum like building which was never finished and as we went out on an observation platform it was starting to rain. So, with the way the weather had been changing so quickly when we were driving, we decided to have a coffee and see if it blew over.
Liam hatching his next plan !
Luckily it did and as we headed to where the rally grounds were – quite a walk – the sun was out again. The rally grounds are huge and standing on the same platform where Hilter gave his speeches had a bit of an eery feel about it. And imagining this huge area filled with people cheering was quite mind boggling.
After a good look around the main platform we noticed more dark clouds headed our way so we made haste back to the car and made it just as the rain came. It was about 18:00 when we got to our hotel. It is located just outside the wall to the old city and after dropping our bags we headed in to the old city to find somewhere to eat.
Luck was with us again and the sun had come out again so we were able to walk a bit around the cobblestone streets and plazas, over the river bridges and have quite a good look around before we found somewhere for dinner.
Buildings over the river
However as we left the restaurant our luck ran out with the weather and we got a good drenching getting back to the hotel. The only advantage of the rooms being so damn hot is the clothes are drying quickly !
So despite the variable weather we got to see quite a bit more than we expected today.