UK and Europe 4 month sojourn!

Scash said:
It’s difficult to make comment on places like Sachsenhausen concentration camp other than it’s sobering and so sad what was done to people who were incarcerated in these places. It is beyond belief the atrocities that were committed and how any person could become like that. The guide at times became quite emotional and we were asked not to take photos of certain things out of respect for the murdered people. The camp itself has mostly been destroyed with parts recreated to give an idea of what it was like.

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I remember the day we went to Mathausen on our Contiki tour it was just deathly silence as we all got back on the bus. Sad that people still deny it happened.

On a brighter note I did enjoy going through the original Checkpoint Charlie - very interesting
 
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Still very much enjoying the TR. Did you notice if the Palace of Tears at Friedrichstraße Station was open? It was closed for renovations last August when we were in Berlin.

With regard to Concentration Camp visits, our first was to Dachau in 1976 when I was too young and stupid to feel the full effect. However our second was to Buchenwald in 2013 and it really played on my mind for the next couple of days. Its location next to Weimar, basicaly in view, which is revered as the 'German city of enlightenment' seemed to make it even more horrible. I will never visit another camp.
 
OZDUCK said:
Still very much enjoying the TR. Did you notice if the Palace of Tears at Friedrichstraße Station was open? It was closed for renovations last August when we were in Berlin.

With regard to Concentration Camp visits, our first was to Dachau in 1976 when I was too young and stupid to feel the full effect. However our second was to Buchenwald in 2013 and it really played on my mind for the next couple of days. Its location next to Weimar, basicaly in view, which is revered as the 'German city of enlightenment' seemed to make it even more horrible. I will never visit another camp.
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Yes the Palace of Tears was open but we didn’t go in as we didn’t have time but will try and get there.
 
OZDUCK said:
Still very much enjoying the TR. Did you notice if the Palace of Tears at Friedrichstraße Station was open? It was closed for renovations last August when we were in Berlin.

With regard to Concentration Camp visits, our first was to Dachau in 1976 when I was too young and stupid to feel the full effect. However our second was to Buchenwald in 2013 and it really played on my mind for the next couple of days. Its location next to Weimar, basicaly in view, which is revered as the 'German city of enlightenment' seemed to make it even more horrible. I will never visit another camp.
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@OZDUCK we made it to the Palace of Tears as part of a walking tour we did called the Communism and Wall Tour. It was a really interesting place particularly with the guide giving you information. I would highly recommend this tour.
 
Scash said:
@OZDUCK we made it to the Palace of Tears as part of a walking tour we did called the Communism and Wall Tour. It was a really interesting place particularly with the guide giving you information. I would highly recommend this tour.
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Good to hear. Unfortunately in our trip later this year we wont be getting much further north than Leipzig so no Berlin. Hopefully something for another time.

The 'communist' tour sounds interesting. The friends we are stopping with for a few days in November have some interesting tales to tell. He lived in West Germany but visited communist East Berlin a couple of times to visit relatives as a kid. So he got to experience surveillance by the Stasis and its informers. His wifes parents were Sudetenland ethnic Germans who were expelled from their homes after WW2. And one our second day there we will catch up with a more elderly friend who lives near Frankfurt and was a primary school student during WW2. So he went through the full Adolf Hitler indoctrination in school and had to shelter from allied bombing. The fact that he is of part Jewish descent made the whole period even more disturbing for him. His family was on the Gestapo radar but luckily the war ended before the worst happened. Unsurprisingly he is not too keen on naz_s and their sympathisers.
 
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OZDUCK said:
Good to hear. Unfortunately in our trip later this year we wont be getting much further north than Leipzig so no Berlin. Hopefully something for another time.

The 'communist' tour sounds interesting. The friends we are stopping with for a few days in November have some interesting tales to tell. He lived in West Germany but visited communist East Berlin a couple of times to visit relatives as a kid. So he got to experience surveillance by the Stasis and its informers. His wifes parents were Sudetenland ethnic Germans who were expelled from their homes after WW2. And one our second day there we will catch up with a more elderly friend who lives near Frankfurt and was a primary school student during WW2. So he went through the full Adolf Hitler indoctrination in school and had to shelter from allied bombing. The fact that he is of part Jewish descent made the whole period even more disturbing for him. His family was on the Gestapo radar but luckily the war ended before the worst happened. Unsurprisingly he is not too keen on naz_s and their sympathisers.
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It would be really interesting to sit with some locals and hear their stories, although I imagine this may also be upsetting for them.

Our guide really made the tour as he was knowledgeable, empathic and entertaining. The tour company was Sandemans and the guides name was Dustin. He was actually American but has lived and studied in Berlin for many years.
 
Scash said:
The shop signs in the alley ways date back hundred’s of years to a time when most people were illiterate so the signs represented what was being sold, ie umbrellas, hats, fish etc. When McDonalds came to town they wanted to install the big Golden Arches but the town wouldn’t let the so instead this is the sign above their restaurant.

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Nice and subtle - like it @Scash

After 3 years, am still challenging a Macca's in my 'hood through Council and VCAT.

Must say though @Scash , I was impressed with McDonald's in Porto where they embraced the old with the new on Av Aliados Screenshot_20230930_201104_Gallery.jpgScreenshot_20230930_201141_Gallery.jpg
 
Scash said:
It would be really interesting to sit with some locals and hear their stories, although I imagine this may also be upsetting for them.

Our guide really made the tour as he was knowledgeable, empathic and entertaining. The tour company was Sandemans and the guides name was Dustin. He was actually American but has lived and studied in Berlin for many years.
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They use foreign students because they are cheaper! :)
 
VPS said:
I remember the day we went to Mathausen on our Contiki tour it was just deathly silence as we all got back on the bus. Sad that people still deny it happened.

On a brighter note I did enjoy going through the original Checkpoint Charlie - very interesting
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@VPS I did a Contiki tour to Berlin in 1982 and visited Mathausen and did the Check Point Charlie experience.
Were you camped right beside the wall, we could hear dogs barking and gun fire at night.

@Scash I am so enjoying your trip report and photos, it brings back many lovely travel memories. And gives me itchy feet for our trip next year.

Did you book your train trips well ahead?
 
ellen10 said:
@VPS I did a Contiki tour to Berlin in 1982 and visited Mathausen and did the Check Point Charlie experience.
Were you camped right beside the wall, we could hear dogs barking and gun fire at night.

@Scash I am so enjoying your trip report and photos, it brings back many lovely travel memories. And gives me itchy feet for our trip next year.

Did you book your train trips well ahead?
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I was on a Sundowners tour in 1982 (after my Contiki tour) when we did Berlin and yes camped right next to the wall. The boys were playing frisbee and every now and then the frisbee would go into no mans land and the guards would nod and you could retrieve. After a wall they shook their heads and lifted their guns so we just left the frisbee.
Edit - just pulled out the photo album - I was there on 1/9/1982

Sorry to hijack the thread @Scash
 
@VPS and @ellen10 you’re definitely not hijacking the thread and I’m loving your memories. I just wish I had have travelled overseas back then as it would have been so different and more real. Don’t get me wrong I’m loving travelling now but it’s just so busy and places are so “touristy “.

@ellen10 we started planning this last year. I like to have flexibility when we travel but we found we had to book everything ahead as so many places were booked out and there was limited accommodation available. In some cases we’re paying exorbitant prices for average rooms.
 
@Scash travelling back then was very different and we were young and did lots of spur of the moment things. But doing those type of camping tours just whetted the appetite for our travels many years later. I remember that year travelling around the UK and choosing the cutest cottage for a B&B along the way for 5 pound a night!

Now we prefer the "slow travel" experience of spending longer times in one area and using a place as a base. I look back on our wonderful trips and experiences and feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to enjoy them.

I'm in the middle of planning our trip for next year and I agree you need to book things ahead and prices are high. But whilst we can we will continue to enjoy.

I have loved following along with your amazing trip report. Thank you!
 
Scash said:
@VPS and @ellen10 you’re definitely not hijacking the thread and I’m loving your memories. I just wish I had have travelled overseas back then as it would have been so different and more real. Don’t get me wrong I’m loving travelling now but it’s just so busy and places are so “touristy “.

@ellen10 we started planning this last year. I like to have flexibility when we travel but we found we had to book everything ahead as so many places were booked out and there was limited accommodation available. In some cases we’re paying exorbitant prices for average rooms.
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At least you are doing that now though which is great and I'm loving your TR.

I had a wonderful time but I remember times when I would walk for 2 miles just to save 1 pound bus fare and would walk around the town with my backpack on because it saved money putting it in the station left luggage. Now many of the stations hardly have staff let alone left luggage facilities. I shared a bedroom in London with 4 other women and I think there was one bathroom between about 20 people ( no way could I do that now but I had a ball) I met some great people on my Contiki tour and we still have reunions more than 40 years later.
 
VPS said:
I had a wonderful time but I remember times when I would walk for 2 miles just to save 1 pound bus fare and would walk around the town with my backpack on because it saved money putting it in the station left luggage. Now many of the stations hardly have staff let alone left luggage facilities. I shared a bedroom in London with 4 other women and I think there was one bathroom between about 20 people ( no way could I do that now but I had a ball) I met some great people on my Contiki tour and we still have reunions more than 40 years later.
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We did 3 Contiki tours back to back. USA, west coast to east coast, 21 days. Europe 2 1/2 months and the Russia Scandi, 21 days. I was over camping by then!
We also made great friends whom we are still in contact. I broke my arm in Vienna (had not even had a drink) having timed showers in small cubicles at camping grounds was challenging and then experienced a Soviet Union hospital to get the cast off. All added to the wonderful travel stories.

@Scash your photos and travels help us to reminisce.
 

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