Which way next?
Our first proper beer in a long while, taken whilst waiting for a mega bus at London Victoria.
Junction of the Heathrow Spur Road from the M4. This point marked the completion of our circumnavigation of the planet. In 440 days. We arrived at this point in September 2006 from the West, and arrived back at it from the East.
Where it all began. Back at Bristol Temple Meads. My only friend, The End.
Graffiti on the Wall.
Berlin.
A digger (kind of). Perhaps the most politically sensitive digger of the trip. This one is involved in the demolision of the former GDR 'parliament' building. Should it stay or should it go now? The Communists pulled down the previous 'imperial' palace to build their monstrosity because they wanted to erase the symbols of the evil past.
More interesting. German people in really tight trousers and hiking poles whilst walking in the park. A serious business, obviously.
Vicki with a Norman Foster designed halo.
Brandenburg Gate, Berlin, Germany. In the rain. Our last stop on the road home was Berlin. In the rain. The statue on top used to face the other way and was once pinched by Napoleon.
The Jewish Memorial, Berlin. Do we get censored if we say we didn't think it was very good?
Some apartments and a car park. This picture is taken standing directly above the bunker in which Hitler topped himself. These were really plush flats in the GDR days.
Another brick in the wall, Berlin.
Leaving Leipzig, Germany from apparently the biggest station complex in Europe. Hmmm. Leipzig saw the beginnings of the marches and demonstrations that most directly lead to the falling of the Berlin Wall. Bach also played the organ in the Catherdral here.
A big building in Leipzig, Germany. No idea what it is.
Christmas Market, Leipzig, Germany. They get through a serious amount of sausage at these places.
Colditz Castle, Saxony, Germany. Taken from our hostel window. My boyhood obsession with all things POW escape stories lead us here (a tricky journey by public transport, and not a place one might usually associate with being difficult to get to).
Inside Colditz Castle, in the Prisoners Courtyard, for anyone who used to watch the TV programme. Not sure if the car could be useful.
The 'only' entrance in and out of the prisoners courtyard, Colditz Castle. Airy Neave crawled along inside the roof space above the archway shown, popped down through the officers quarters suitably disguised and then strolled out to freedom. He later served a war crime indictement to Goering, became a tory MP before being car bombed by the IRA.
The VIP cell occupied by Giles Romily, the only VIP to escape (temporarily) from Colditz.
Colditz Castle, Saxony, Germany. Royal household turned Lunatic Asylum turned Gestapo prison turned POW camp turned 70's sado tele. The Brits planned to fly their glider off a ramp on top of the section of castle closest to us on the right, for those interested ...
Matt in the old student lock up room in Tartu University. This was used as a prison for student miscreants in days gone by. You got 4 days for insulting a women, 3 weeks for duelling, 2 days for trying to escape from the lock up, 3 days for a medieval S5 (cursing) and 2 days for smoking inside a university building. You also got 24 days for aimless wanderings after dark, Matt would have been in trouble.
New ski jump, the K90 and a digger, Otepaa, Estonia
Snowy scenes around the Otepaa lake, blessed by the Dalai Lama no less, Estonia
Walking tour, Riga, Latvia
'Three brothers', Riga, Latvia
Jeremy, Helen and Matt very cold in Tallinn market square, Estonia. It was snowing! Hooray
We warmed up in a Banya (Russian sauna). Here is Jeremy ready to get in
On our way to the Winter Palace, St Petersburg, despite no entry sign.
Outside our hostel, St Petersburg. Our place was on the second floor of the building on the right. We were amused to see this enormous pile of wood get delivered during the first night of our stay, perhaps inconveniently blocking the entrance behind it. During our week long stay it moved not a jot, nor did its purpose become clear. Things like this happen in Russia all the time, and no one pays any notice at all.
Our reading of Crime and Punishment lead us to search out some of the sights of the book, which is set in St Petersburg. Thus if you havent read it, this will look like a pointless picture of a knackered attic flat at the top of an oldy, crumbling apartment block downtown. Which, of course, it is. It is also considered to be Rodia's dingy flat. Which is impressive given that he is a fictional character. Nonetheless, on the way up the stone stairs graffiti praises the antihero as, well, a hero. Rodia forever.
Another Crime and Punishment shot. Staring morosely into the very canal en route to axe down a pawnbroker. You needed to be there. In the middle of the 19th century.
