Tour of Northern and Eastern Germany

On other occasions I have passed through Eastern and Northern Germany; in particular I had been in Berlin for a few hours, in Monchengladbach, I had landed at Warnemunde, I had changed trains at Flensburg and Hamburg. Having reached Germany with my Fiat Tempra from Austria, and after sleeping near Nuremberg, my first German stop was Weimar, seat of the famous Republic and rich in the memory of numerous artists and thinkers. The city is surrounded by well-kept parks. Continuing into what was once East Germany, I headed for Dresden with its fine monuments overlooking the Elba, a city that was almost completely destroyed by Allied bombing during the Second World War and is now rebuilt. Evening in Bautzen, an ancient medieval town with walls and palaces, then transfer to Berlin to overnight near the famous Alexander Platz, once the centre of East Berlin, capital of the G.D.R.

The next day was devoted to visiting the city with the aforementioned square surmounted by an astronomical clock and the television tower, the Town Hall, the Nikolai Kirche, the Marien Kirche, the Marx Engels-Platz, the cathedral, the museum area (I visited the Pergamon Museum, which houses the Pergamon Altar, the Royal Way of Babylon, the market gate of Miletus and numerous other testimonies), the famous Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, once the seat of the Nazi Directorate. In the Zoo area there is the famous church whose bombed bell tower has been left as it is as a warning for peace, a little away from the centre the Charlottenburg Palace, and scattered here and there the remains of the wall that until '89 divided the city into two states, the communist G.D.R. and the capitalist F.R.G.

The next day to Potsdam to visit the Park and the Palaces of the Kings of Prussia, with baroque interiors and exteriors. Afternoon in Wittenberg, the city of Martin Luther, father of Protestantism, and evening in modern Magdeburg, which nevertheless offers an imposing cathedral. The following morning I returned to what was West German territory, to Goslar, a little town made up of perfectly preserved half-timbered houses, in the afternoon to Hildesheim, which has a fine church with a stupendous frescoed ceiling, in the evening to Lübeck, a beautiful Hanseatic city with walls, pointed towers and churches. The next morning to Hamburg, with a visit to the canal port, the town hall and the stock exchange. Afternoon in Bremen with a fine cathedral, and evening at the cathedral of Münster.

The next morning to the imposing cathedral of Cologne, in the afternoon to Aachen with the tomb and throne of Charlemagne, then leaving Germany for Holland (see the relative Tour).