We left Nuremberg the next day (Friday 6 Aug) by train to Hof, to the north. DB did a special bit of making the journey negatively memorable. Our train was at 11.38. We went briefly to the railway museum, which is not part of the negativity - it was good, but not enough time - and got to the platform about 10 minutes early to find it very crowded. No sign of the train, which was starting there, but arrived in the platform about 20 minutes late and was only 2 carriages for a lot of people. We managed to get our bikes on, though not everyone with a bike managed this. Lots of people standing. The train then stood there for at least another 20 minutes and finally left. It was hot. Most of the children were extraordinarily patient, though one baby was not and had to be comforted all the way. But the train finallly left and got to Hof still about 40 minutes late.
From Hof, along the Saale Radweg, by the river Saale and back the way we had come a few months ago. We got to Joditz and had a drink and cake in the same place, and then to Hirschberg where we rejoined to Iron Curtain Trail, EV13. A very steep hill out of Hirschberg and to the Gasthaus pre-booked. We met George, Tom's brother, here. The next day to Modlareuth village, about 1.8 km on. Thisd village had arioginally been in two Lander, Bavaria and Thuringia. So when the "inpenetrable" border was built, they contructed a Berlin-style wall right through the middle. The middle was a stream and there are touching photos from before all this of ordinary people chatting by the stream. We saw a short film about it, looked round the exhibition and the section of wall and fence and watch towers that the village people decided to leave as a museum. Before this, we also saw where a mill by the boundary had been destroyed.
Then back to our Gasthaus. Next day, to Czechia.
Coming back to last time's missing information, in Eisenach after the excellent Bach museum - really recommended - we went to the Wartburg castle which was what a castle was from a l,ong time ago and is up a very steep hill. Pushed our bikes up and enjoyed the descent! Finally, we ran into an excvellent cheese shop and there we also discovered Thuringian wine. Next day, we took a trainsto where we had left EV13 and continued along it. We were still in the Werra valley, and this took us to a museum about the potash mining there. There are two quite enormous waste heaps of white mine spoil that are growing, but that leach out ordinary salt that then pollutes the river. We went via the town of Vacha, notable for its "friendship bridge" which was about anything but friendship at the time of the border - the bridge was closed off. The town is one of those charming places with lovely old timber houses etc. And it seems dead; in the large Markt there are hardly any shops and we got our lunch in a supermarket cafe; it was reminiscent of communist times. Back on the route, and now up a tributary valley, the Ulster Valley. This took us to Point Alpha, an American base during the cold war, on top of a hill and driectly facing the border fence. They said the soldiers of both sides could see each other's eyeballs. It now poured with rain. We got on as fast as we could, back into the valley and on to our B&B further on, just beyond Hilders.
From Hof, along the Saale Radweg, by the river Saale and back the way we had come a few months ago. We got to Joditz and had a drink and cake in the same place, and then to Hirschberg where we rejoined to Iron Curtain Trail, EV13. A very steep hill out of Hirschberg and to the Gasthaus pre-booked. We met George, Tom's brother, here. The next day to Modlareuth village, about 1.8 km on. Thisd village had arioginally been in two Lander, Bavaria and Thuringia. So when the "inpenetrable" border was built, they contructed a Berlin-style wall right through the middle. The middle was a stream and there are touching photos from before all this of ordinary people chatting by the stream. We saw a short film about it, looked round the exhibition and the section of wall and fence and watch towers that the village people decided to leave as a museum. Before this, we also saw where a mill by the boundary had been destroyed.
Then back to our Gasthaus. Next day, to Czechia.
Coming back to last time's missing information, in Eisenach after the excellent Bach museum - really recommended - we went to the Wartburg castle which was what a castle was from a l,ong time ago and is up a very steep hill. Pushed our bikes up and enjoyed the descent! Finally, we ran into an excvellent cheese shop and there we also discovered Thuringian wine. Next day, we took a trainsto where we had left EV13 and continued along it. We were still in the Werra valley, and this took us to a museum about the potash mining there. There are two quite enormous waste heaps of white mine spoil that are growing, but that leach out ordinary salt that then pollutes the river. We went via the town of Vacha, notable for its "friendship bridge" which was about anything but friendship at the time of the border - the bridge was closed off. The town is one of those charming places with lovely old timber houses etc. And it seems dead; in the large Markt there are hardly any shops and we got our lunch in a supermarket cafe; it was reminiscent of communist times. Back on the route, and now up a tributary valley, the Ulster Valley. This took us to Point Alpha, an American base during the cold war, on top of a hill and driectly facing the border fence. They said the soldiers of both sides could see each other's eyeballs. It now poured with rain. We got on as fast as we could, back into the valley and on to our B&B further on, just beyond Hilders.
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