I’ve just spent the last half hour talking to a washing machine in Serbo Croat. I’m exaggerating of course, it was 10 minutes in Czech. All I wanted was a 40 degree wash and the darned thing was asking me what language I wanted to communicate in. I chose English (GB) briefly wondering what the difference was with English (Aus): does it say G’day to you instead of Hello? I’ll never know….. I wrestled with the knobs and various digital displays and off we went. It rewarded me by washing my clothes beautifully and even had a little light at the end so I could see in the drum. Where else but Germany? And what else but a Miele?
There’s an awful lot to like about Germany: they do everything so well and they are so thorough. Whether it’s cycle paths, litter collection or childcare, they’ve got it covered: throw the children in the deep end, walk outside every day, let them learn through experience, they’re pretty robust, no mollycoddling round here. Everything is so well organised and clean and then suddenly…. they just do random stuff, completely out of the blue: the bus which is arriving in 3, 2, 1 minutes on the display board suddenly disappears, it’s off motoring around in a parallel universe; another bus driver just barges straight ahead at the lights when the bus is in the right hand only lane and no, it wasn’t a special bus lane…signs telling you to do something don’t mean what they say. It’s bonkers! But refreshingly so, after all the orderliness! And don’t talk to me about Umleitungs, I think I’ve seen more roadworks here than I’ve had hot dinners (well, almost, my childhood wasn’t that deprived!)
And the biggest barminess, which I think I’ve mentioned before, is probably the gas guzzling as they race down the autobahns at 180 kph, in a nation which prides itself on its ecological stance….but I like the contradiction, it would be too boring and goody goody otherwise!
We came back into Germany a while ago, after leaving Prague and travelling to northern Czechia. I have to say, I was glad to leave the Czech roads, probably the country where I’ve felt most anxious about other drivers’ competence after Sicily. It was, shall we say, erratic? Otherwise, we enjoyed Czechia. It’s still unspoilt and the people are friendly without being all over you like a rash. It’s really cheap by comparison to Germany and I found myself eating strange dishes like strawberry dumplings and of course drinking the very good Czech beer.
We travelled to the north to visit Sloup Castle and see if it had any similarities to Royston Cave where I work as a guide occasionally. Perhaps it does, I think you see what you want to see…..Then on to a lovely spacious campsite by a……..lake! No, we didn’t swim but another family did. The site itself was grassy with deciduous trees everywhere, it was quiet and the showers were hot and worked! Yes! It was maybe a bit basic but we liked it and had some intriguing conversations with the owner who spoke very little English. I like Czechia, it’s  a great place and the Czechs are obviously making a go of it. Unlike their East German neighbours they didn’t have a big western sister to invest shedloads of cash to bring the country up to speed with Western Europe. They’re getting there. It’s a great place culturally too, with fabulous design and a lot of activity in the performing arts.
And so into Germany to Pirna and a camperstop by…..the river! No I didn’t and wouldn’t swim there, in fact before I go any further, I’ll admit I haven’t swum since I left Germany towards the end of August so I won’t even mention it again….
We organised our eco sticker, needed to travel in many German cities, based on your car’s exhaust emissions….this was at a depot where we were welcomed by a delightful couple who offered us coffee, chairs, windscreen cleaner and so on. While Alan sorted the sticker with the young assistant, I bobbed around in another flood of German from the friendly boss.
We motored on to Meissen in the rain next day, resisting the beautiful mugs at 159€ each in the factory (you’d really have to love(and trust) someone very much)….and parked behind the swimming pool in town. Ambling around the enormous site, I came across the remains of the old lido, with plants growing up in it! It was enormous! Perhaps the largest pool I’ve ever seen but sadly, beyond repair, hence the new one with all bells and whistles also known as saunas, steam rooms and slides. There was a singularly unpleasant woman at the site, complete with zebra skin type leggings (it seems to be the fashion here for women of a certain age: animal print, plus light knitwear, plus a lot of bling and bouffant hair). Well, she was one of those and looked as if she had sucked a bagful of those horrible sour cherry sweets, so yes, she did the random thing and parked where there was no space indicated, muttering about our electric cable and ignoring Alan’s pleasantries…..kein problem!
To Leipzig, where we had no water on site! By a lake yes, water no. There was a burst pipe, it was Saturday but it would not be repaired till Monday ‘cos in Germany, you do not work at the weekend! It’s sacred and everything closes down in small towns from Saturday lunchtime….. so no water repairs. See what I mean? But it wasn’t really a problem for us and we hopped onto a bus into town, admiring the strange mix of new buildings with very old frontages and visiting the Stasi Museum. Interesting but sobering, dreadful to see the child’s signed commitment to spy on his friends, neighbours and family but heartening to see the employer’s refusal to comply when directed to dismiss a woman whose son had written anti socialist thoughts…..fortunately the Wall came down before any further action could be taken.
Driving through eastern Germany I do find myself wondering what life was like in the Communist era, looking at people of my age and wondering what they think and what they were like then. Apparently there were over 90,000 Stasi employees…
So here we are, parked on a site on the outskirts of Berlin, on the river Havel! Got to keep a good thing going!  There are very few families now, I’m guessing our fellow campers are mainly ‘empty nesters’; we’re not into serious retirement, mid winter, let’s all shamble around in our dressing gowns till lunch time mode yet!
We’ve been into town and seen the Wall, in all its grimness; the magnificent Brandenburg Gate, glittering in the sun; and many reminders and exhibits about the Nazis. This makes it sound dour but far from it, Berlin is a wonderful, green, leafy place with a lot of water (!) not at all what I expected. Tomorrow it’s the Reichstag and maybe a boat trip. I must admit I’m all Walled out now and I’m rather sobered by my exposure to the excesses of Nazis and Communists……
So time to go home: we’ll point our noses and tyres West and here we come!