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Leipzig, Dresden, Weimar, Germany
Tuesday, Jun 01, 2004

Eastern Germany

David Murray
2007-02-21 18:47:58

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in them !!!!! According to a German soldiers diary at the time, he was guarding the wine cellar, and he decided to try some, and his notes stated that the French wine tasted of piss, but as it was French, he would be all sophisticated and continue to drink it !!!!! It was quite amazing to see all of the things they found there, the lights for the tunnels, the radios and the original designs of the glider. It was never used by the way, unlike the movie. It was an awesome experience and one I will never forget. It was nearly lunchtime, so we left and drove over to Dresden. It was a nice place, but you couldn't help feel that they were trying to hide their communist past. There was an amazing communist mural, but it was covered in a see through like material !!!!! We also saw a church, which they were rebuilding. It had been destroyed in the war. It will be amazing when finished. As we walked away, a boy with a perfect Stasi accent started questioning us. Where are you from? Where have you come from? How long will you stay here? As we left him, John started taking the piss out of the way he spoke, then he walked straight into a sign. Even funnier in my opinion !!!!! We had seen it all, so we drove back to the flat, jumped on a tram and went into the city. Then it happened. For the first time in my German experiences, I saw a woman, dressed officially, as she went to get on the tram, she put an armband on. This was a dreaded inspector. I looked at John, and said quite normally, "I think we should leave now " John asked why, but by this stage, Lucy and me were walking down the road quite inconspicuously. We had dinner, and by this stage, Leipzig was thick with Goths. Having been a bit of a Glam freak when I was younger, it was quite funny to see them all dressed up. Now the guys were freaks, but there were some very attractive girls around and I nearly imagined myself turning Goth !!!!!

The next morning, we jumped in the car early as we had a long drive to get to Buchenwald. A death camp. We followed the road up to it, and then it stated that it was closed, but being the non-believing type of signs like these, we drove up the road, and there it was. Were the locals trying to keep this place a secret ????? We will never know, but we grabbed a tape/guide and walked around. Lucy and me, have been to other death camps before, so it wasn't knew to us, and just like all the camps, it was very quiet. Hard to believe that there had ever been a camp here, but I guess that was why they were so successful and it was hidden well. The worst aspect of this was that for 5 years after the war, the Soviets continued using this as a death camp for Germans after the war had finished and only stopped in 1950 !!!!! It was grim, but for all the gremlins in my head, I needed to see it. We finished by taking a look at the huge memorial, then it was time to go back into Leipzig, but not before a brief visit to the Stasi museum. Here were all the old workings from the spies in Leipzig. It was very interesting to see, and highly recommendable. We dropped the car back, jumped back into the tram and went Goth spotting again. We even managed to find a boy who looked like the Statue of Liberty, but he would not hold a lighter for us !!!!!

The last day was spent driving to Weimar, as this was the old home to the Government. Lucy had always come here, so we had a quick walk around, and then it happened, we found the home of Goethe. All through Germany, streets are named after him, so it was slightly exciting for us to see this important piece of German history. Last but not least, we even managed to find the odd Trabant to knock, and then it was on to Erfurt. We had another walk around the town, it was a nice place. There was not much more to do, so we went back to the airport as it was time to go home.