On September 13^th this year Shirley & I went on a coach holiday to Germany with Grand UK Holidays for 8 days.

On our first day we travelled down through France into Belgium to our first Hotel the N.H Airport Hotel in Brussels. This was a very plush place and from our room you could see all the aircraft landing and taking off but it was so well insulated, without a sound.

On the Sunday we travelled from Belgium across the heart of Germany to arrive in the old East Germany at a lovely town named Merseburg which was to be our base for the next five days.

The Monday was spent exploring the town which had a river, a Castle and a beautifull old Cathedral in a walled square. Outside the town were two lakes, and a lot of very well kept parks. The shopping centre was quite modern as most of it had been rebuilt and we found out that the residents were very fond of ice cream as it was not available when it was under the Russians, and there were three ice cream parlours in the main street.We questioned why most of the older houses had new roofs, and we were told that no money had been spent, and due to shortage of money, no maintenance had been done for years. Many of the roads are potholed and cobbled but each town is now connected by excellent modern roads, all built in 10 years since the wall came down.

The next day we travelled to Radebeul Ost for shopping and sight seeing, after lunch we went on a narrow gauge railway to a town called Radeburg, this was very enjoyable and it was about an hour, it passed old Castles, some very old historic buildings and farms.

The main source of electricity was open cast mining, it has now been replaced with wind turbines. These dot the landscape in clusters near towns and villages. You soon get used to seeing them and they blend into the countryside, no dirt or pylons.

Another day we went to Dresden, this is the city that was controversially bombed to destruction in February 1945.It is being rebuilt and restored, the famous palaces and museums have numerous treasures. We never got as far as the new Dresden as we were so fascinated by the old part, We would really recommend anyone to go there, that was Shirleys highlight of the holiday.

On the way back to the Hotel we stopped off at the Meissen china factory, this was quite an interesting place, beautifully displayed china but prices were an arm and leg.

The highlight of my holiday was a tour to the valley of Castles, along the valley of the Zwickauer Mulde river, past the Castle of Rochlitz to the town of Perig and on to historic Glauchau where two castles are separated by a moat. After this we made our way to the town of Colditz where as most of you know it is where the Germans held difficult prisoners in the war. We had a full guided tour of the Castle and saw where prisoners of war, like Douglas Bader and Airie Neeve were held. There is also a Museum (which I could have spent all day in). In this Museum they have a replica of the glider that escape plans were made for, but it was never used as the Americans came and liberated the Castle a few weeks before the planned escape. I fulfilled my boyhood ambition that day, as I have always said I would visit the Castle after reading the book,"The Colditz Story"

During the holiday we travelled through Leipzig which is again a lovely City and I have never seen so many trams and tracks in one place. In the main square the coach we were in got mixed up with the trams. Our driver was aged 23 and came from Barnsley, he sounded like George Formby, his comments were hilarious. He was an excellent driver and soon got us back on track

The people in East Germany were very friendly, they are not used to seeing English coaches so often they pointed and waved to us, they speak very little English but we got by.

On the way home we stopped at Genk in the N.H. Genk Hotel on the banks of a beautiful lake. Next day we travelled home after a enjoyable and interesting holiday.

Tony & Shirley Wingham.

Tony and Shirley Wingham.