Since Trier is located in the far western corner of Germany, on the border to Luxembourg, we figured we needed to make our way to Poland via Berlin, which was a loooonnngggg and expensive train ride from Trier. Luckily, even before the Internet and insanely high gas prices, German universities had a pretty decent carpool announcement bulletin board system. On the few days Bob and I made it up to the university, we'd scout out the available rides to eastern Germany. I had some really good friends near Halle, whom I wanted to visit on the way to Berlin and Bob had been with me on a visit there eariler in the year. So we really only needed a ride that far. Sure enough, we found a girl who was driving to Gotha on the very day we wanted to leave Trier. I forget the cost, but it was a nominal amount of money. I can't even remember the girl's name, but she was very cool, as I find most folks to be who grew up in the old East Germany. Such folks had little else to look forward to in those days, so they developed quite a sense of humor, the one thing the Communist government could not deny them.
We had a painless ride to the former East Germany and our driver let us off somewhere near Erfurt, where we started hitchiking. If I remember correctly, it took us two rides and a few miles of walking along the train tracks to make it to Naumburg, which was the next semi-major train station on the way to my friends' village. I called and they came to get us. Of course, we were treated to a fine homecooked meal and lots of great beer and conversation. As much as I always enjoy visiting Helmut and Ilse and their extended family, Bob and I wanted to get to Berlin the next day. Helmut and Ilse had relatives in Berlin (whom I knew well too) who were away on vacation and had told Helmut and Ilse to offer us their apartment for a few nights. Now things were starting to shape up. Klaus and Helma lived in a tiny flat in Schoeneweide, a neighborhood in the southeastern corner of the old East Berlin. I had been there before and was pretty sure I could find it again. So Bob and I got on the ratty bus to Halle, hopped the train to Berlin and then the S-Bahn to Berlin-Schoeneweide.
We spent two days in Berlin checking out the few areas I had not yet seen. Bob and I went to Sansoucci and then to Potsdam to see the site of the famous conference at Cecilienhof. I promise I will scan those photos someday and post them here. Anxious to get to Poland, which was less than an hour away by train, the next day we set out for Frankfurt/Oder, the last town in Germany. Once we got there, we were amazed to see a Burger King in the small train station, so far from the rest of Germany's cities. Figuring this might be the last "good" meal we'd get for a while, we decided to indulge in some American junk food before beginning the real adventure. Then we hopped in a taxi for the short ride to the bridge over the Oder River, which is the border. What a thrill it was to walk across that bridge. At the other end lay Slubice, Poland and real adventure.
We immediately changed over about $100, which got us almost more Polish Zloty than we could stuff in our pockets. And then we started walking with our thumbs out. This was a Sunday and, from the looks of it, church had just let out. There were a lot of cars on the road and it didn't take us more than about 10 minutes to get a ride. The driver spoke some German and told us he could take us as far as Poznan, about 150 km. inland. We were thrilled. Of course, he first had to make some stops, which Bob and I didn't mind. We hit a flea market and a roadside food stand. Our driver let us out at a train track crossing and pointed north, telling us to walk that way. Hmmmm. This was not what we'd expected when he said he could take us to Poznan. Our final destination (on this leg of the trip) was Malbork, site of the Marienburg, the world's largest castle. Malbork is in a part of Poland that used to be part of Germany, so we figured it would not be too hard to find German speakers there to help us. Our driver told us the trains in Poland run north, south, east and west and not diagonally at all. He said to get to Malbork, we needed to first get a train to Kutno from Poznan. After a walking along the tracks for less than an hour, we made it to the Poznan train station and quickly got a dirt cheap train to Kutno. Once in Kutno we had to wait a few hours for an overnight train to Malbork. Kutno has almost less than nothing. It was terrible, ratty, dirty, run down and, as with most European towns on a Sunday evening, not much was open. We did get some food in the train station, but it looked a few years behind even still-primative eastern Germany. There was nothing else to do but wait. And so we found an isolated bus stop and stretched out for a nap on the benches, keeping our bags' straps around one arm.
We made it to Malbork early the next morning and found a cheap hotel pretty quickly too. If you've done any traveling in eastern Europe while it was still communist, you know how things there look and smell. This hotel had definitely not been renovated or at all modernized. In fact, in our room was a painting of a Soviet fighter jet shooting down an American one. Ah, true art. But we didn't mind a little old propaganda for a whopping $8 per night. We then set off to find the awesome Marienburg Castle. And it did not disappoint.
I'd first heard about this castle from my dear friend Katrin, whose father was born there and escaped just before the Russians arrived on their drive to Berlin in 1945. In fact, her father had a stone from the castle on their mantlepiece, which I noticed on my first visit to their house years earlier. Once I got a look at a coffee table book on the place, I knew I had to go there.
Check that one off the list and so it was time to head to Warsaw.
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