Two places visited today. The first one was quite exciting as it was my first trip into Eastern Europe. So, I visited Poland, crossing a long-spanning bridge into the East. This was the first big border crossing I’ve seen – just a few years ago these would have been guarded, with passport and vehicle checks in abundance as this was the edge of the EU. Since expansion, it’s just there to remind people what used to be.

On the Polish side, where there is a town, I got some Zloty (no Euro here, folks) out of the cash machine and got something to drink and a souvenir to take home. Lots of cheap tobacco shops. For the Germans, it must be the equivalent of our booze cruises to Calais.

By the way, I have to walk to the Eastern European countries because my hire car can’t go there.

So, with this bit of the ‘wider Europe’ trip over, and having noticed the difference in facilities and the age of the buildings between the two sides, I drove back to Berlin and had time to look at three main things, an exhibition of the history of Berlin, the war and the wall; Checkpoint Charlie, the former main crossing point between East and West Berlin and a large section of preserved wall.

I had time to stop by the wall and really think about what it must have been like. Imagine a high concrete wall running through the middle of London. No matter how far you go along the wall, you are trapped and can’t get to or even see the other side. It’s so hard to really conceive such a situation. But it was there, from 1961 to 1990. Thankfully for the last 18 years you can now travel freely around the city!

After this I drove two-thirds of the way down through Germany to Nuremburg. This was planned as a stop-off point, so I had a quick look round when I arrived mid-evening (not much to see though) and then back to the hotel again.

KM TRAVELLED TODAY:438 km TOTAL: 2439 km