Berlin (1 of 2)

After dragging ourselves out of bed we made our way into Berlin. We
bought our tickets from the booth in the underground - this time
remembering to actually validate them (something we didn't do in Vienna
or Rome - so we'll still have tickets for next time!) we jumped on the
underground and made our way to our first stop at Alexanderplatz.
Our first impressions were mixed - the city looked quite run down and
1970's style prefabbed buildings were everywhere. We decided the best
way to see our surroundings was to make our way up to the 250m high TV
tower that looks over the city. From here we could see the vast
differences in the landscape. Most of the historical buildings in Berlin
have been rebuilt, although some have been left in ruin as a reminder of
the city's past. Many areas are being redeveloped or are in desperate
need of renovation where as the main strip leading up to the Tier Garden
look a bit like buildings from around Europe transplanted into one
place. Potsdamer Platz, on the other hand, could have been lifted
straight from America with its glass fronted sky scrapers - if it wasn't
for a great slab of Berlin wall in the middle of the path serving as a
constant reminder of the areas history.
We also visited 'Check Point Charlie' after a bit of wandering in the
wrong direction as by this time it had started to get dark. The mix of
cultures in Berlin is evident and is somehow hard to believe this is
Germany's capital as it still seems very much a work in progress. That
said, it is certainly somewhere I think we'll revisit as I'm sure that
in our lifetimes redevelopment will progress at such a rate that

Berlin (2 of 2)

Some more pics from Berlin

Weimar & Dresden

We drove from our free aire into the small town of Weimar early this
morning - we had no problems parking in the centre yet again and we
found that the parking was only 50 cent for 1 hour which was the
cheapest we had paid so far. We literally had the town to ourselves as
there weren't many tourists around. We took a few photos and wandered
round for an hour or so and headed back to the camper so have our breakfast.
We made our way toward Dresden which was around 100 miles from where we
were. We hadn't really researched Dresden so didn't know what to expect,
we just drove toward the centre. It was around lunch time but we spotted
some pretty impressive cathedrals etc and a wide road with a few cars
parked down so we pulled up and found that we were able to park there
for a few hours. It only took about 5 minutes to get to what seemed to
be the main attractions.
Dresden was beautiful and had lots of things to see, quite a few
Christmas markets also - We stopped off at one to have a Bratwurst with
mustard (Very tasty!!)
As we made our way in the direction of Berlin two of the Aires that we
stopped at were questionable so we decided to make the trip into Berlin
early. The site we stopped at is run by the German AA and is right in
the city centre, Adam spoke to the lady at the reception who spoke
little English but said that the underground was a 5 minute walk up the
road which would take us into (one of) the centres?! Supposidly Berlin
is so big that it has 3 centres .....
After having to use the underground in many places as a means of
transport ,we were fine with using it again as driving into the centre
of Berlin with a campervan was sort of out the question!

Nuremberg

A few photos from this morning ....

Munich

Just found a Wi-Fi hotspot, uploaded a few photos ...

Last post from Austria

This will be our last post from Austria - we are currently travelling to
Munich. We found out last night that winter tyres are compulsory in
Czech and on the spot fines are handed out on the motorways if
travelling with summer tyres.
Austria has just had it's first proper snow and they seem to be handling
it much better than in England - all the roads are perfectly clear.
Yesterday we travelled from Vienna to Linz (With the intention of going
to Czech!) not many photos as Linz was largely industrial and we spent
the night at a free aire just outside the city (See photo above)
Upon leaving Vienna we needed to fill up with LPG since we had not
filled up since Italy and had been using the heater on gas quite a lot.
We hadn't realised but LPG is as rare in Austria as it was in
Switzerland and also taking into consideration it was also a Sunday not
many places were open. However, we had loaded all locations of LPG
filling stations in Europe onto the satnav so we headed for the nearest
one to find it was nothing more than a giant gas cylinder on a piece of
wasteland. To make matters worse it was pay at the pump and only
accepted Maestro cards which neither of us had!!
Fortunately a friendly German who was waiting behind us let us use his
card in return for euros so luckily we were able to fill up with gas and
didn't freeze to death last night! We are quite disappointed to be
missing out two countries (Czech and Poland) but are really looking
forward to Germany, Netherlands and Belgium and also Paris right before
Christmas.
Penguin has also taken to the snow.

Vienna more photos ...

Here are a few photos of the main square at night and we captured a
couple as it started to snow ....

Vienna

The morning was very cold, it had snowed in the night but we had kept
the electric heater on overnight which took the chill off.
The city centre was just 30 minutes away by a short bus ride and then an
underground station ride into the centre. With neither of us being a
lover of big cities, we didn't know what to expect - but we were
pleasantly surprised. Although it was very cold (to the point that we
bought a pair of very silly, but very warm hats with ear flaps from a
Christmas market!) the sights were spectacular and we went up to the top
of St Stephens and wandered around many of the other sites. We took in a
flask of tea which made a well earned break as well as a Austrian hot
dog - which was about 80% sausage! As we were in quite early we left
around 4 and went back to the site as we were going to move on to the
next place, however it started to snow and we decided rather then leave
we would venture back into the city for tea. What's more appropriate
then a nice big Indian when visiting Vienna!? The curry certainly helped
clear out the old ENT!
Tomorrow we head to Linz, with maybe only 1or 2 days left in Austria
before we head for Czech, we'll certainly be coming back here to visit
some of the high bits that were closed off due to the snow.

Graz

We travelled to Graz this morning after having an uneventful night
staying on our free Aire. We managed to park near the centre yet again
and spent a couple of hours walking round another delightful city. Lots
of historical things to see and we found another Christmas market in the
centre.
We are now parked up at a campsite west of Vienna (Wien) which has a
direct bus route into the centre of Vienna - we will be getting up early
to catch the bus tomorrow morning. It is now thundering and lightning so
we are hoping for the best tomorrow! It also says on metcheck.com that
it will feel like -12C tomorrow so we will be wrapping up nice and warm!

Altenmarkt in Pongau

After visiting Salzburg we headed for a campsite about 40 miles South of
the centre. The campsite was called Tauern Camping, and again we were
the only people there but the campsite owner was very friendly even
though he had just flattened his thumb with a hammer!
We managed to get lots of washing done and had a turkey stir-fry for
tea. In the morning we had an amazing shower, probably the best we have
had so far! We left the campsite quite late and we only got charged 15
euros which was very cheap compared to the other campsites we have
stayed on so far in Austria. We filled up with water and headed for a
free aire close by to Graz - on the journey we encountered lots more
tunnels, some of them stretched to over 3 miles long in the middle of
which we passed from one region to another.
Compared to the rest of Austria the south of Austria seems slightly more
industrial and not as mountainous than the other regions, nevertheless
it was still nice to drive through.

Salzburger Land

We woke up this morning and looked out of the window and as you will be
able to see from the photos above, all we could see is snow.
We didn't know we were so high up so we skipped having a shower and
thought the best thing to do was to get off the side of the mountain and
head for the main roads as the snow was falling quite fast!
We drove about 20 miles to Salzburg and got parked pretty much in the
centre again - we ventured up to the main attraction and took the tram
up to the top (see photos) It was pretty cold today, it said around 3C.
There seems to be quite a few Christmas markets which start up in the
next week so we have started to see lots of xmas lights been put up in
the centres and in the smaller villages which are really pretty during
the day and even better at night.
We are not parked up for the night at a campsite 20 miles south of
Salzburg and our next stop is Graz ....