The way I see Germany.

Now, how ordinary is this picture, a bike parked in front of a church. Well this is not just any church. It is a church in Wittenberg. Know what I mean ? Of course now you remember it, right ? The door ! This very door !!! Yes, you are correct this is Martin Luther's door, the one he nailed the theses on. This little door brought forth the reformation, the split in the Catholic Church. The town built this statue for Martin Luther. The town is not very touristy even so they are trying to call in tourists. A nice town with lots of history if you are interested in Church history.


A typical small village in the Masuren. I forgot if this is on the Polish side or on the German side.
Does it really matter any longer what we call each country? I am glad that we are on the way to be just earth people, rather than Europeans, Americans or Asians or whatever.
The V2 Rocket was developed here. The Birthplace of Space Exploration ? Or was it just thought of as a destructive weapon ?
This is the old main building, from the air it looked liked an ordinary building, nothing special was going on from the air, right ? But..... these buildings were actually bunkers, see the concrete behind the bricks? The scientists and the V2 program were protected from air raids.

This is the guy who actually made all this new thinking possible.


This is the old factory in Peenemünde,I learned it will be fixed up to be a tourist destination. Of course, Peenemünde already is, but all one can see now is a museum.


Boy do I remember this wall. When I was a youth I visited Berlin a few times when the wall was up. Now its a monument. A relic of a divided Germany.
The graffity was on the wall on the Western side from day one. It really is so difficult to understand that East Germany built this wall. And yet.....
I saw a wall in San Diego, CA seperating Mexico from the U.S.
A wall is a wall, right ? Of course I understand why the San Diego wall was built, but I have a thing against walls. A 'No-man' Zone seemed a better solution to me like between North and South Korea. I guess I hate wall !

Or is it now ? Israel just built a wall to seperate itself from Palestine. The Chinese had the Great Wall to keep the Manchu out. Nothing new with walls, I guess.


What house was that ? There were so many German families that had their coat of arms. With my name like Muellers ( German for Miller ) we do not have a coat of arms.
We were just ordinary. A picture from the past ? Today with email and hyperspeed a mailbox with flowers? Notice the window panes in the background? The glass is made to bubble out, you can look out of the room but you can not look in. No curtains needed.

I did not stay in Poland long enough, a great Country.

This was on the side of a MIG aeroplane parked in some field outside a small village. What does a MIG do here ?

The area I rode through was the former German area once called the 'Masuren" and lots of people ( the older ones ) still speak German. The whole area I rode through had a very neat and wonderful old charm. It has been Poland now for over 50 years and still, some of it reminded me of Germany. I met people ( younger ones ) that came from Germany to look the area over and to look at some villages their parents were born in. It was very emotional and I did not stay long enough. I heard stories of war fugitives, bombings, hunger and starvation, etc. For me, while the area is beautiful and charming, it had some sad connotations, too.
I rode past the 'Wolfschanze' ( located in Rastenburg (Ketrzyn), East Prussia (now Poland), 200 km north of Warsaw ) but did not stop to look at it close. The town near the Wolfschanze gave me the creeps, a town out of a Nazi movie.
Poland was too emotional for me, I will have to go back. My mothers maiden name was Wladislawa Idzkowiak, maybe you will understand from the name alone.




Some roads turned out to be very old and they are slippery when wet. Be careful when you can not see around the corner like on this road. Cars and trucks are parked right in the bend.
Of course some roads are mud roads like this one. I remember one road being very sandy and full of powder sand. I did not stop to take a picture, I was too scared to stop.

"Die Marienburg" Headquarter of the" Die Deutschen Ritter ". Having been educated in Germany this is it for me. Poland rebuilt this castle from photographs only since all plans were lost during World War II, but because the buildings were behind the 'wall' I could not visit the castle then. I have to go back to Poland to do the castle justice. The Poles did a superb job fixing it up.

"Kreuzritter" is the German word for those guys. Riders of the Cross ? The costume seemed authentic.

Looking at this I can imagine how much work it must have been to make just one cup by hand. Today they are considered trinkets but then, way back, it was the norm to drink out of wooden cups.
Good costumes and it could almost set you back a 1000 years. I am glad I live in today's society, life then was not what it seems. Just imagine a life without dentists. Ouch !




A schematic drawing how this all works. Boats are pulled over land using water pumps and rail road tracks and frames for the boats to rest on. The whole operation is amazing to watch.
In order to move from one lake to the other, and to move from one canal to the other, the boats are lifted out of one lake and then brought by rail road to the next, upper, or lower lake.
The whole system runs on water pumps installed around 1860 to 1870. Amazing that this system still works.
As you can see it works. Right now it's used for tourists but in its heyday it was used to transport coal and grain and whatever up and down the rivers and canals. Amazing stuff.

Norway at the end of the Northern World

Watch out for Reindeer in Norway. They are all over the roads in the Northern part. Should you hit one, you will have to pay a huge fee to the owner. It's almost always your fault, they will say, even inside a tunnel.
Yes, yes and again yes, these animals are inside dark tunnels. Your headlighs might not catch them. Be careful inside the tunnels inside the Polar Circle. Remember.... I warned you !
Since Norway is very mountainous, on the level of Switzerland, if not more, it has lots of tunnels. Be very, very careful inside those tunnels. The tunnels contain reindeer. Yes, inside the tunnels are reindeer. The animals love the cool or cold air on hot days and walk through the tunnels too cool off or just lay down right on the road inside the tunnel. The tunnels are not very well lit, some are not lit at all, so it's dark inside. Be careful, very careful inside Norway's tunnels.
The roads in Norway are in great shape but can be very lonely. It's not always easy to find help when needed. I loved this peaceful wandering around Norway. It is very tranquil.
After a day of rain and cold rain to boot I took one of those huts. They are like garden sheds but they have bunk beds, a stove and are dry. I needed all of this to dry out and warm up. A tent is great but sometimes a hut us just fine, too. The cost is about $ 50 a night.

The law in Norway is that you can camp anyplace you want as long as it is about 500 feet away from any building. So you can camp on rest areas, playgrounds, woods, meadows, anyplace you want. People do it all the time and you will find lots of camping going on all along the roads. It's cheap and works great.
If you are hungry you can find dried fish like this all along the roads in the Northern part of Norway. The fish tastes wonderful, all natural and it will sure fill you. Of course, you have to like fish.

The Norwegians built this monument this far North with these coins marking the ?
I could never figure out what these coins mean. Maybe someone who reads this knows.
The lady and the child must be a woman waiting for her husband to return ?
I just don't know.
70 Degrees North plus 10 Minutes and 21 Seconds. No grass grows here, no bush. Just some lichen which are very low growing kind of mosses.



A very lonely spot way up North. I was the only tent around, even so some cars were parked near by. The sun really did not set. This is Midnight in August. The winds were fierce, I thought the wind would blow the tent away. I slept a little but with one eye open just in case. Did I mention it was cold, too?