Deryn's Conference Stories
Day One: Our bus left Hamburg with 35 on board, 33 Rotarians from US, Canada, Australia, Taiwan and NZ, and our driver and guide, who were both Czech. We set off for Bremen, a very old town with a Brothers Grimm fairy tale about the Four Musicians, a donkey, a dog, a cat and a rooster.Onward we went to Hamelin where we were to stay our first night. The town was full of rats! Fortunately, these days just painted or brass rats. After dinner we were each given a liqueur glass of rat Poison! It tasted good but one glass was enough, we had to find our way back to the hotel.
Day Three. Berlin: Visited The Bridge of Spies. This crossed from East Germany to West Berlin. Off then to Wannsee House where on 20th jan 1942 15 high-ranking representatives of the SS, the National Socialist German Workers Party and various ministries met to discuss their co-operation in the planned deportation and murder of the European Jews, The Final Solution of the Jewish Question. A real eye opener.
On to Cecilienhof Palace. It was here, in 1945, the Summit meeting of WWII victorious powers took place, attended by the Big Three Harry S Truman, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin. It was at this meeting they decided on which country was to have which territories, cutting out Germany altogether. That night Lois and I went looking for the Holocaust Memorial, or the Memorial to the Murdered Jews Of Europe. This covers 19000 sq mtrs and has 2711 large concrete blocks representing the people who lost their lives. Not dissimilar, emotionally, to our 185 white chairs.
Day Four. A visit to Meissen, where the first European porcelain was made.
Dachau Concentration Camp. A bleak place but puts things in perspective. 11,000 people were cremated here over 3 years. Followed by a fun visit to a beer and pretzel bar, Hofbrauhaus Brewery, very famous in Munich. Here we were each served a beer and pretzel. The beer generally came in 1L mugs, too large to hold!
Kehlsteinhaus, or Eagles Nest, Hitlers mountain home where he had built lots of underground bunkers to protect him and his family and friends from the horrendous things that he was orchestrating! This was pretty awful as we looked through the bunkers but the view from the top was beautiful. After most days reaching 30C or very close we were suddenly in snow, however, the air temperature was still very warm, so short sleeves were appropriate.
We had a trip to Salzburg which was nice but a long bus trip there and back. We had heavy rain and hail on the way back. We filled with diesel soon after. We didn’t offer to pay the bill 729.59Euros! for 465L
Then our final dinner together back in Munich.