After Copenhagen it was time to chill for a few days.
One of Meg’s friends from Shanghai, who we haven’t seen for a few years was living in Herning (c.4 hours from Copenhagen), so we naturally wanted to say hello. On the way to hers we stopped off at a town whose little green men at crossing lights were soldiers, slept under a bridge, and then visited some large statues of 4 men sat on seats overlooking a power station. The randomness of travelling. We had a couple of days in Herning (Scandinavia’s 11th largest city. Home of Urtzon - designer of the Sydney Opera House) just taking it easy and then it was off to Hamburg. Again, we had a friend of ours (Bruno of SafHair fame, for those following our travels - Mum!) who happened to be there on business. It was only a flying visit, for both of us. We were going to spend a couple of days in Hamburg, and then a few more days in Berlin, but it seems Europe was having a bit of an Indian Summer, and some heatwave was going to hit (now that there is a dog involved in this venture, it was felt that leaving Gogi in Mike during the day, was not a very responsible thing to do). So, we did some route rejigging and felt we should head South towards Munich instead (via Bratislava & Budapest). We were always planning on being there for Oktoberfest anyway, so it was no big shakes to do Budapest first, and Berlin afterwards. On our way to Budapest, I made Meg stop off in Colditz for the night. She had never heard of the place, but in the UK it is an extremely infamous WWII prison for Officers (mainly for the numerous escape attempts – including secretly building a glider in a hidden attic). It was great to be there and read about the various methods used by the Allies to try to escape. It was apparently obligatory (& probably still is) for Officers to do all they can to escape from captivity, and was one big game of cat & mouse between them and the Germans (who, I got the impression respected the attempts, as the punishments of being caught didn’t seem too extreme) We arrived Sunday afternoon into Budapest and managed to get a few hours of walking about to get our bearings of the place. I hadn’t been there for about 15 years so my memory was a little hazy, and I did not remember it being so grand. Strolling along the river, and seeing these huge Baroque buildings lit up reminded me a lot of Paris, Prague, etc. I have a feeling I am going to like this city… Comments are closed.
|
AuthorHairventures Archives
October 2018
Categories |