Germany

I spent a few days in Germany on my way back to the UK. I started in Dresden, a relatively short drive from Poland. Accommodation was hard to find and I ended up staying at a camping ground. If I had done a little research I would have discovered that it was the weekend of Dresden's annual festival. So I was quite lucky, as there were many free concerts and a carnival atmosphere. Although Dresden was in the former East Germany it does not look like a typical "Soviet block" city, with some exceptions-

Dresden is famous for its Baroque buildings. But it is most well known because of the destruction of the city and those buildings by Allied bombing during World War 2. The centre of the city has largely been rebuilt and it now looks much like it did before the war. I went on an excellent tour of the buildings. The guide showed photos of the burnt-out buildings taken after the bombing, to contrast the now perfectly reconstructed buildings. This view shows the Elbe river and the dome of Frauenkirche, a church that was destroyed in the bombing and which only reopened in 2005.

From Dresden I went to Rothenburg. Rothenburg had been a very prosperous town but it then fell on hard times. The happy result was that its medieval buildings were preserved. It is now a hugely popular tourist destination.

My final stop in Germany was in Karlsruhe. Karlsruhe is a very nice city and home to the German Supreme Court. But my reason for going to Karlsruhe was to visit my friend Linda. Linda and her mother Liliana were very hospitable and Liliana made very nice Croatian meals. Linda took me on tours of Karlsruhe, including her neighbourhood and the botanical gardens, as well as of nearby Ettlingen. We also went to Bad Herrenalb, a town on the northern edge of the Black Forest. We went for a pleasant walk in the Black Forest. Liliana, Me and Linda-

It was then goodbye to the autobahn and on to Belgium.