Sophie – Off We Go

Twirling on a Mountain

by Roslyn Green

June 18, 2012

6:57 pm

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Travelling

cable car, snow, Sophie, Untersberg

“Do you think we’ve become closer since coming to Europe together?” I asked Sophie a few days ago.

She tossed her little head and hit me across the face with her ponytail. “Maybe,” she replied.

Sophie in the cable car

In such circumstances, a shared adventure was needed, just to cement the new, closer relationship. It wasn’t enough that I had fed and clothed her and catered to her every whim for nearly three months on our trip. I realized that I would have to do more.

Which is why, this morning, on our last day in Salzburg, when she said, with a sorrowful look, “I just wanted to go up the Untersberg,” I said to her, “There’s still time. We could go today.”

It was hot and muggy in Salzburg, but up on the Untersberg the air was cool and fresh. Snow still lay in the shady hollows, allowing Sophie to frolic for a while and make a snowball. Our cameras were unable to capture the beauty of the views, but we walked around companionably and snapped pictures of the mountains, the snow, the blue distance and the miniature world below us. No harm in trying.

The blue distance

Sophie was a bit worried that I might trip and fall headlong over the steep edges. “You’re more unco than I am,” she explained. I think this showed that, despite her earlier offhand remark about our mother-daughter relationship, she really does care.

She even let me eat some of her Konfekt ice cream after we’d returned to the valley. If that doesn’t show an improved relationship, what does?

Love from Ros

Pockets of snow despite the sunlight

The splendour of the mountains

Sun and snow

The miniature world below and some very strong cables

Europe through David’s Eyes – Part 2

by Roslyn Green

June 15, 2012

7:26 am

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David's Photos

Capri, Captain, Florence, Patrick, Rome, Shannon, Sophie, Sorrento, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, View from Il Duomo in Florence

Sights of Berlin

by Roslyn Green

June 8, 2012

4:12 pm

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Travelling

Allies Museum, Ampelmann app, Brandenburg Gate, Communications Museum, cyclist with cello, Die Welt, Historical Museum, Hotel-Pension Bregenz, Lego Discovery Land, Patrick, Potsdamer Platz, Sophie, Story of Berlin exhibition, Television Tower, Trabi, U-Bahn sign about the Berlin Wall, Walter Ulbricht, Willy Brandt

Sophie works a digital forklift at the Communications Museum

A hot air balloon displaying the logo of Die Welt hovers in the sky over Berlin – photo by David

Have cello, will travel – snapped by Davey

A large public area at Potsdamer Platz. This part of Berlin was once truncated by the Wall, which the East German Government called the Anti-Fascism Protection Wall. The West referred to it as the Wall of Shame. Consequently this area was once a barren wasteland of concrete, barbed wire and guard towers. Look at it now!

A memorial to the books burned by the Nazis in 1933 – at the Story of Berlin exhibition in Kurfürstendamm

…dort wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man auch am Ende Menschen.

– Heinrich Heine in 1820

(Wherever books are burnt, people will eventually be burnt too.)

Bombs dropped on Berlin in WW2 – at the Allies Museum

Neon bikes – photo by Davey

Patrick with a Trabi at the Story of Berlin – East Germans had to wait about 13 years for one of these moving boxes. Meanwhile the elite party members got to swan around in Volvos.

A painting of the famous picture of the East German soldier who leapt over barbed wire to escape to the West – also at the Story of Berlin

The giraffe at the entrance to Lego Discovery Land

The traffic lights man (Ampelmann) is now an app. My top score so far is only 120. If you score well enough the little guy gets to meet up with Ampelfrau and have little Ampelkinder…I may be exaggerating slightly. At any rate, this charming East German design has spawned a chain of merchandise and even has its own shops. I find this wonderfully ironic. But the app is free.

The view from our room in Hotel-Pension Bregenz, Bregenzer Strasse

The Television Tower was built by the East German government and is still the tallest building in Germany. When the sun shines on it, it reflects a cross, as shown in Davey’s photo above. Since the East German regime frowned on and suppressed religious belief, this reflection was a cause of great amusement. The tower was nicknamed “The Pope’s Revenge”. Some also referred to it as “Ulbricht’s Last Erection”. Ulbricht was the weasel who famously lied: “No one has any intention of building a wall.”

A modern German version of a rickshaw – near the Brandenburg Gate

Part of the display at the Historical Museum, showing how German refugees in the last years of WW2 and in the post-war years loaded their possessions onto small hand carts and set off to find a new home

At the Brandenburg Gate

The evening scene at a Greek restaurant near our hotel – the managers had placed televisions out on the pavement, at each end of the eating area, so that people could watch the soccer while they ate.

Words of history above the escalator leading to the Brandenburger Tor U-Bahn:
Weasel words by Ulbricht:

“No one has any intention of building a wall.”

Strong words by Willy Brandt to the East German officials and soldiers controlling the border zone:

“Do not shoot at your own people.”

Dressing for the Occasion

by Roslyn Green

June 1, 2012

10:34 am

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Cycling

headwind, Lenzen, Schackenburg, Sophie, warm clothing

From Lenzen to Schnackenburg

Barry in the deserted main street of Lenzen, where nearly every second house or shop was empty and dilapidated

Our hotel room in Lenzen

Sign referring to the division of Europe and Germany in the past

A chill wind blew over the steppes.

Whoops, that’s the start of my Russian novel.

“You might need to wear something warmer,” I told Sophie.

She scorned the idea.

As usual she had dressed herself in her tiny thigh-hugging shorts and thin tee-shirt. Tossing her hair, she trotted down to breakfast.

Later, as we cycled into the bitter wind of late spring in Germany, her little face began to look pinched and pained. When we realized that we had in fact ridden 3 kilometres in the wrong direction, she was desperate for any extra garment. “Have you got any socks?” she asked me.

I had nothing to offer her, but Davey gave her his shorts. Not his lycra knicks, of course. He would never surrender those. Sophie pulled on his ordinary shorts and her own raincoat and we set off in the right direction, with the wind behind us.

Sophie dressed for survival
It made a surprising difference, having that icy wind behind us rather than in front. Suddenly it had become our friend, pushing us kindly along the Elbe dyke path towards our next refuge. The people passing us in the opposite direction, however, were obviously still suffering.

Barry cycles along the dyke path

“No point greeting them cheerily,” said Barry after a while. “For some reason they don’t seem to be as happy as we are.”

And indeed, their faces looked ruddy and their eyes bloodshot. Much as Sophie had looked half an hour before, although of course these people were more sensibly dressed.

By the time we were just north of Schnackenburg, all the same, I was beginning to wish that I had taken my own advice and worn more clothes. The mere thought of socks almost brought tears to my eyes. Especially when a farmer told Barry that we would have to ride back into the wind to find a bridge over the Elbe. Luckily there was a ferry with a ferryman who patiently waited for Barry to take a photograph or two before we left the northern bank.

We found our pension in Schnackenburg, our lugagge arrived just after we did and I rooted through my bag for socks and a thermal. I have rarely been happier. Sophie put on her beloved ugg boots and her jeans and looked much more contented with her lot. After goulash soup and other delicacies in the little cafe downstairs, we were all toasty warm and ready for our afternoon nap.

Sophie in closer fitting and warmer gear
Sophie had thawed out completely – enough to make a little speech.

“Mummy,” she said, “I am sorry that I didn’t listen to your sage advice this morning. From this moment on, I shall always listen to what you say.”

Oh sorry, that last bit is part of my Russian novel too.

Love from Rosi

Old sign in the Schnackenburg Museum, referring to the former border between West and East Germany. The Elbe River formed part of that border, as the old watch towers along the dyke path reminded us.

Patrick rides in the quiet streets of Schnackenburg, where our guesthouse was also a restaurant and a kiosk. The only other signs of commercial life were a hairdresser and the tiny but fascinating museum.