Wednesday, 10 September 2014

Roads well travelled

We found a delightful mooring in the middle of nowhere, nearest village Schollene a kilometre away. Bodil and JensChr left us there after a great week together and it was here that Svend Ove and Jytte would come to join us.
So a few days on our own so what better plan than to take a cycle somewhere, so off we set.
Let's keep in mind that until 25years ago we were in what was once East Germany, so the roads deserve a blog all for themselves.
no its not someone's drive way

bit on the bumpy side



part of the Elberadweg, this is the 1200km cycle path following the Elbe river. On our bucket list.



! I'll say.

Knud up a plum tree gathering fruit for jam making! The quantity of plums, apples and pears growing along the cycle paths and roads amazing.

Bit of a catch up

Oh happy days!!! Hello world! Back in contact! We are in Dresden, staying in a hotel and their WiFi likes my blog so a bit of a catch up on the past 4 weeks.
We had a fantastic time back in Denmark, only there for 6 days so as you can imagine we were frantically busy. Our main reason was of course to help Anette ( Knud's sister) celebrate her 60th birthday. Photos appeared in the previous blog. What a great party , a great day needless to say we continued celebrating at every opportunity in the following days.
All too soon it was time to head south again, we were fortunate that our dear old friends Jens Christian ( he and Knud have been friends since they were 4 ) and Bodil were driving us back and then spend a week with us. So back to Brandenburg Plaue , where we had left Linquenda.
We planned to head up the Havel River and what a stunning waterway that turned out to be. A fantastic week exploring the Havel, we will be back here next year.

Relaxing in the wheelhouse


A beautiful evening on anchor


Premnitz , some great statues

Bodil , exploring Rathenow

River Havel

Bodil, JensChr, & Knud , exploring Havelberg

Wednesday, 20 August 2014

Annette's 60th Birthday Celebrations begin

Rain maybe?, better be prepared

the sunflowers though promise sunshine

A short ferry trip over to Årø

walk from ferry to the restaurant

more guests walking


what a feast we had

Anette with Freya

Entré , no its not a poached egg but a rather yummy sauce in a white dish

Karen and Helga

A walk after lunch around the island

Knud and Anette outside the farm that used to be home

The party continues latter back at Anette and Frede's, Stine and Karen preparing the next feast

Friday, 15 August 2014

Barb and David visit

Great to have Barb and David to visit us for a week. We picked them up in Berlin and made our way slowly back to Brandenburg Plaue , where we will winter Linquenda.
David and Knud wash down the side of Linquenda, that worked up a thirst.

David, Barb and Knud in the gardens of Sans Souci ,Potsdam . Amazing gardens and palaces covering many acres


Chinese Pavilion, SansSouci


Barb and I , we met on the first day at high school and still great mates

Barb relaxing in the wheelhouse
All too soon the week over, time for them to continue their European adventure and we have headed to Denmark for a week.
Oh happy days , Christoffer worked some magic and my blog started working again!!!

Bike parking

Now this is a great way to store bikes






Berlin, and the Wall

The Wall. What a fascinating history. So briefly a rough overview. After the second world war finished Germany was divide up by the allies, Russia getting the east part of Germany, England, France and USA the west part. Berlin being the capital and in the East was divided up too, Russia getting the east and England, France and USA the west. The reason behind the allies being in Germany was to get the country back on track, diffuse the Nazis etc., then hand it back. So there sits Berlin like a little island in the middle of East Germany. The Russians begin to close borders, communism the flavour of the day. Life in East Germany gets grim, food shortages, loss of freedom of speech etc, naturally people don't like this and by the 1000s flee to the west. The Russians get their knickers in a knot and decide that this will have to stop so one night in Aug 1961 they put barbed wire around West Berlin , then built a wall, 156km long! Families split apart and not reunited for years. Many amazing stories of escapes.
1989 The cold war finishes, the wall comes down and families reunited, 2 years latter Germany unified.
We have gone wall searching, some areas easy to see where it was, some not so.
Through a cemetery


This area more touristy, an interesting museum to see and lots of posters to read


No mans land, middle of Berlin and its still a wilderness


This is a marking that shows where the wall ran. Sometimes disappears under a new building then reappears again the other side.


A bit of the wall near Check Point Charlie, now covered with chewing gum

Claire heads home beginning of August

Has been ages since doing an update on blog, so many technical problems, but maybe it's working today so I had better get a move on and fill you in on what has happened.

Claire's last night on board, a beautiful warm evening so dinner up on deck

Time for Claire to head back to Australia, we will miss her happy laugh and smile