When Vanda was a kid they had a board game “Escape from Colditz” so we had to go. It was, of course, an infamous prison of war camp in WW2 for officers and important prisoners and the only German high security POW camp. Under the Geneva Convention officers were not to be put to work and were allowed their own uniforms etc. Under these conditions the officers made a kind of “sport” out of schemes to escape. There was a sporting rivalry between the nations to escape the most. The British had the most attempts at 112 but not the most success. The castle is a huge complex that dominates the town. We were two of only 8 visitors that were there that afternoon and we had a private tour from a guide with a Yorkshire accent, he had grown up in the UK before marrying a German. The various attempts at escape were ingenious and at times almost pantomime. They made dummies that were taken to role call so that it looked like everyone was present. Two prisoners hid within the castle for a month so that the guards thought they had escaped, then the two replaced prisoners that had really escaped. The French very nearly tunnelled out under the chapel from the wine cellar. And, most spectacularly, the British built a glider in a secret roof space that would have taken two escapees, it was never used as they were liberated. A great visit, really interesting and fun.

Next we drove on to the Bavarian National Forest on the Czech border. Here we did a couple of half day hikes in the forest, one had large enclosures with the animals that should be in the forest. It had a slight zooish feel but the enclosures were big enough for the animals to stay out of sight if they wished. We were lucky enough to see lynx, as well as deer, otters, pine martens and even the brown bear showed himself.

In the very south west of Germany the Alps form a beautiful area where the Nazis built their second administrative centre and the mountain retreat now known as the Eagles Nest. While the Eagles Nest is famous for Hitler and the Nazis and Americans and English flock there, it is run as a view point and restaurant. It is government policy that the Nazi connection is not promoted and neonazi pilgrimage is prevented. The bus ride up to mountain is a bit hairy but the views are fantastic.

The weather has been excellent with warm, clear, dry days. But it gets dark by 7:30 pm and it’s starting to feel like autumn. Whilst we have found that English is not as widely spoken as it was in Scandinavia, we have found people to be very friendly, which has been a pleasant surprise. On the roads though, it’s a different matter, and the autobahns can be a bit scary, with lots of trucks in the slow lane and the ubiquitous fast black German cars in the fast lane! The B roads are good roads, but we’ve been caught out a few times as when they do roadworks they close the whole road (& Sally satnav gets confused and sends us round in circles!) - it’s been interesting!

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