A Dreadful Drenching in Dresden

Cloth Hall or Sukiennce behind me.

The journey back to Krakow the second largest city in Poland with a population of 756,00, was thankfully trouble free, though we did experience two heavy down pours and the temperature had dropped to around the 20 degree mark. An hour and a quarter after leaving Kielce we arrived at the Hotel Kazimierz, which we’d booked over the internet. It was close to the city centre and only 5 minutes from Wawel Castle and the historic Old Town of Krakow.


Wawel castle at night - half the lights had gone out!!

We unloaded the bike and within half an hour of our arrival, we were walking along the streets, past Wawel hill where the castle and cathedral can be found, then on into the Old Town and the Main Square (the biggest medieval square in Europe), where we discovered some wonderful, old and very historic buildings. The biggest building in the square is known as ‘Cloth hall’ or Sukiennice and runs the entire length through the centre of the square some 200m long. It was originally built as a bazaar, today it is a National Museum and houses some of the most precious and priceless works of art in Poland, in a total area of 1000 sq m. In Sept 2010, 4m below the main market square, the biggest European underground museum (around 4000 sq m) was opened.


Bascilla of The Holy Virgin Mary





In one of the corners of the square the magnificent and beautiful Basilica of the Holy Virgin Mary stands, one of the most important attractions within the square, with its spired towers soaring above the centre and attracting thousands of tourists every day. We were really so glad that we returned to Krakow. After some 5hrs of sightseeing, we found ourselves a nice restaurant in the main square and sat down to enjoy some local cuisine and a couple of beers before walking back to our hotel for some welcome zzzzzzz’ss.










Auschwitz - 'Death Camp'

 We got up early on Tuesday 19th July, we loaded the bike by 07.30am, and after a really good breakfast we left Krakow heading west towards the town of Oswiecimia, better known as Auschwitz and the Auschwitz Concentration Camp, about 40 miles away. Much has been written about this place and I suspect many have tried to explain its existence, it is so personal, I judge you have to experience it before you can even attempt to understand the enormity of such an atrocity. The Auschwitz concentration camp is a symbol of horror, a memorial to man’s inhumanity to his own kind, of organised slaughter on a scale never conceived of before and of the Holocaust, the planned and systematic destruction of a race of people. –. We had a guided tour along with 20 other people in our group, it was an incredibly emotional experience, we were speechless, and parts of the tour were almost unbearable, a large room divided by glass panels, was full of shoes removed from prisoners, another room contained hair, the real hair of women and children, another containing the shaving brushes of the men and other personal possessions, it was shocking, a visual testament to man’s inhumanity, we had to choke back the tears!!!!! 

Birkenau, you can just see the rail track that brought
so many people to the Gas Chambers



We spent five hours in Auschwitz and the nearby Birkenau concentration camps, it was an immensely moving experience. The wound for some, will no doubt, never heal, the sense of injustice was overwhelming and the evidence right there in front of us, and the harsh reality - it happened only 66 years ago. Above the door to one of the brick prison blocks were some very profound words, in summary they alluded to learning from history, if not, we will continue to make the same mistakes. Yes, you can learn about it in the history books with great teachers like Moira Nallen; However, Our visit to Auschwitz made this atrocity so much more tangible, and helped us to understand more clearly the enormity of what took place in the “Death Camps” during the second world war.

We left Auschwitz around 3.30pm to get back on the road, heading in a north westerly direction towards our ultimate destination, Dresden in Germany, some 300 miles away. We knew it was a big ask and so intended to make an overnight stop in Wroclaw, roughly half way between the two. Well I reckon the trip to Aushwitz must have completely drained us, cos only a short distance along the route I could barely keep my eyes open. We pulled into a nearby town for a drink and something to eat, hoping, I would feel refreshed afterwards. Over our snack, Ann admitted that she too was jaded and was happy to stop, so we managed to find a hotel close by, booked in, and spent the evening catching up before retiring for an early night.


The leaning Tower of Bautzen

 Next morning, after breakfast we set off for Dresden, unfortunately the weather had turned wet and somewhat cooler,the temperature only reached a mere 17 degrees. We decided that we would try and outrun the rain, and for about 125 miles we succeeded. However, it eventually caught us up very close to Wroclaw, so we decided to stop off for something to eat, to allow the rain to pass by. Alas we were mistaken, the heavensopened accompanied by an almighty storm that lasted well over an hour and the rain continued unabated, we, at least remained dry. After what seemed like hours the rain did subside and we took the decision to continue on to Dresden. Well, unfortunately the weather did not improve and so we stopped off at a town called Bautzen just over the German Border. We had covered 133 miles and still had about 40 miles to go to reach Dresden, but we were drenched and it was starting to get dark.Papa was watching over us, he sent a little messenger, and with his help, we found some affordable accommodation.

We spent three chuffin days in Bautzen, the weather remained awful, it rained persistently day and night, finally relenting on Saturday morning 23rd July and to make matters worse, there was no internet, it was harsh but there was little we could do about it. On the plus side, we got our kit dried and did get to see some interesting sites like ‘Reichenturm’ the leaning tower of Bautzen, leaning by 1.44m and St Peter’s Cathederal which is the only inter-denominational church in east Germany, it actually has a dividing rail separating the protestant area from the catholic area – really strange.


The German landscape with The Bastei in the background.



The Famous Bastei bridge


Come Saturday morning we were eager and ready to vacate Bautzen, we loaded our trusty steed and set off. We decided to head south to a national park Sachsische Schwiz, about 30 odd miles, before heading up to Dresden. The ride took us over some beautiful German countryside with some excellent motorbiking roads (a pleasant change from the motorways we had been using). We stopped off at The Bastei, which is a spectacular rock formation towering 194 metres above the Elbe River in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains of Germany (another field trip for Jim Nallen). Reaching a height of 305 metres above sea level, the jagged rocks of the Bastei were formed by water erosion over one million years ago. It had magnificent views of the surrounding area and some really interesting history. Neurathen Castle, the largest rock castle in what was Saxon Switzerland, the historic remnants could be reached from the Bastei by crossing the Bastei Bridge which was not for the feint hearted, the connection between baby and nappy, springs to mind!! This wasn’t your typical story book castle on a hill, this was carved out of the sandstone rock, it felt like going back in time to the stone age, you could make out various features within the ruins, some rooms carved out of the rock, one of them was a church, a water cistern devised to store the water for long periods, and stone shot used for defending the citadel with a medieval catapult, and stairs hewn out of the rock up to the highest point, and if you let your imagination go, you could almost experience how these people lived.


Those Crazy Climbers

 There were even some maniacs, (well rock climbers, actually) who were climbing up the vertical face of the rock, suddenly appearing at the top of these chuffin rock outcrops 200+ metres above ground, and walking and jumping about like they were on achuffin dance floor, it made me go weak at the knees. I don’t think they have any sense of fear. I have to say we really enjoyed the bastei, it was unexpected which made it all the more enjoyable, in fact so much so that we overstayed and decided to spend the night locally rather than travelling up to Dresden.

The following morning, we continued the sightseeing and even crossed over the border back into The Czech Republic to a nearby town called Decin, where we caught mass and even managed to visit a castle, which was unfortunately under renovation and not really accessible.

Sadly, it was a bit like Bratislavia Castle in Slovakia, and looked for all intents and purposes like a very desirable apartment block converted from the original castle, it was not that interesting – hey ho.






The Zwinger Palace

 At around mid-day we set off enroute for Dresden about 45 miles to the north west. The weather was dull and cloudy and the temperature never got above 20 degrees, quite a contrast from the day before. Dresden is the capital of the German federal-state of Saxony (Freistaat Sachsen). Located on the Elbe River, close to the Czech border, it is an industrial, governmental, and cultural centre, known worldwide for the Bruehl's Terrace and its historic landmarks in the Old Town (Altstadt), it has a resident population of around 523,000. In February 1945, it was almost completely destroyed when the city center was heavily hit by Allied air strikes during the end phase of World War II. Today, it has been rebuilt; the precise amount restored is difficult to say as a percentage. According to local historians, the city is said to look very much the same today as it did in the past. We spent two very full days in Dresden, it really is a beautiful city with so much to see in the old town. The baroque Zwinger Palace.


Semperoper Opera House


The Magnificent Semperoper opera house, Fürstenzug the biggest porcelain painting of the world shows (almost) all Saxon princesses and kings on their horses and splendid parade uniforms, Frauenkirche the reconstructed Church of Our Lady which was completely destroyed during WWII, (The City of Coventry, which was raided by the Luftwaffe in WWII, now twinned with Dresden, donated the golden cross for the dome of the church). We spent several hours in the Historisches Grunes Gewolbe museum, housed within the architecturally splendid Residenzschloss, it is renown as one of the richest treasure chambers in the world. It really was an awesome city and so hard to believe what we were looking at, was not the original.





Fürstenzug - One of the few treasures that remained in tact
after the bombing of Dresden.



The Hofkirche cathederal (left), beside The Residenzschloss.
Both buildings reconstructed after WWII.



Jagerhof, across the River Elbe from Bruehl's Terrace.

On Tuesday morning 26th July, we stashed our kit back onto the bike, heading south west out of Dresden, in the Sachsen region of east Germany, towards Bamberg in the Bayern region of south east Germany, some 180 miles away - that should confuse one or two of you. We had tried, but could not find suitable accommodation over the internet, so decided to “Wing” it and hoped to find some affordable lodgings where ever we finished up. Hotel costs in Germany are considerable, often not less than 60-70 euros a night, without chuffin breakfast – we reckon they’re havin a laugh, they tell us it’s High Season and I suppose they’re right. We spend sooooooo much time trawling t’internet looking for affordable accommodation, which in reality isn’t there, this time we just decided to take a chance. The weather had improved and temperatures were climbing towards the mid twenties but the lining was staying firmly fixed back in Ann’s jacket! Just as we were leaving I glanced down at the mileage – we’ve only gone and completed 9,000 miles, I had to pinch myself again, it only seems like yesterday since we left our family and friends at home in dear ole Blighty!!!!!!!

Well that’s it for now. Till the next blog,
hugs and kisses to all

The Easy Riders xxxxx