2 Bad Schandau to Dresden

Bad Schandau: A short walk before breakfast into the town square and the delights of a camp statue: a river creature depicted doing something questionable with a young boy. The church looks benignly on, having already given this charming scene its benediction.

(Mike, Dave, Ian, respectively a former fishmonger, airline pilot, chauffer and wannabe artist thought it would be nice to cycle up the the Elbe. Or is it down the river Elbe?  These five days are the first part of a project that is planned for the next couple of years, powered by Kalkhoff electric bikes.)

By 9 o’clock we were on the cycle path. We had hired excellent bikes, with a modicum of electric help to make the going good!

We passed through hay fields, wild flower lanes. Across the river were mountainous outcrops and small villages. These scenes that set the rhythm for our day. On one occasion there was the sounds of children’s’ cries from the forest, reminding me we are not far from Austria.  We took a coffee stop at 11:05 and only two hours later we collide with the perfect place for a lunch of wurst and kartoffelsalat.

In the afternoon the river broadens as we are close to Dresden. On the east bank there are grand villas, some are architectural flights of fancy in the Von Trapp style. Each villa is south facing explaining the deep tans of wealthy Germans.  

Once Dresden is clearly visible the chaps stop to allow me to paddle in the river. This is a delicious and symbolic experience.

We arrive in Dresden, in good time for Tour Guide Mike to show us the nice bits, including the remarkably reconstructed cathedral.

Poor Dresden, as I draw the cathedral Mike goes off to buy me the post card of Dresden at the end of the War. This votive offering remains in the back of my book now.

1 Berlin to Bad Schandau

Berlin

We landed in Berlin mid morning and in a jiffy were in the city centre. It was a short march to the Brandenburg Gate and a shorter march still to the Café LeonsArt and my first currywurst* of the trip.  

Afterwards a stroll back to the Berlin Hauptbahnhof to catch the train to Bad Schandau on the River Elbe.

Train carriage was incredibly hot, the two ladies in the carriage perspired more than we. However the train ran parallel to the Elbe so the journey served as a bit of a primer. 

Hotel excellent, likewise the Wiener Schnitzel as our main course, consumed as we looked out across the evening river. 

Bad Schandau

Later Mike and I made a short walk before turning in. We fell into conversation with a  elderly couple released from the large and long cruise boat moored upstream from the hotel. She confessed not knowing from whence they came or where they were headed. 

ELBE 101

The Elbe is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (Czech Republic), then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, 110 km (68 mi) north- west of Hamburg. Its total length is 1,094 kilometres (680 miles).

*currywurst is a fast food dish of German origin consisting of steamed, then fried pork sausage whole or less often cut into slices and seasoned with curry ketchup, a sauce based on spiced ketchup.

The Isle of Sheppey

This land on the north Kent coast is a reciprocal of the wonderful flat lands of south Essex; Canvey Island, Southend-on-Sea. It was a natural destination for Trevor and I to visit in our ‘Travels with my architect’ series’.

It was a grey morning as we crossed over the bridge and onto the island.The main town, Sheerness, once a naval base as important as Portsmouth, is now kiss-me-quick and blessed with some exceptionally friendly people. 

For breakfast we’d recommend Casey’s Café and the ‘big breakfast’, which comes with good advice on what to see on Sheppey and how to get there.

The start point for a visit

Moments away in Blue Town there is the largest open-air store of garden statuary and garden ornaments in England. People come to Whelan’s from across the country to buy Buddha’s, bird baths, Greek gods, Chinese emperors.  I bought a goddess and Trevor brought a crocodile.

All sorts of pieces for the garden

We explored Sheppey with its view across to Essex and the rest of north Kent: Fields and marshes and farms. Curlews cry from the small estuaries that are part of the flat landscape.  Today’s Sheppey was historically known as the “Isles of Sheppey” which were Sheppey itself, the Isle of Harty and the Isle of Elmley. 

Over time the channels between the isles have silted up to make one continuous island.

 

Harty Church

We called in on the pretty church at Harty before heading back into Kent proper. The church has been here for over 900 years. There is much to admire inside and the Victorian restoration was not overwrought.

 “Alas I shall have to console myself with memories of the Church in its splendid isolation, with sea birds wheeling by and the Thames so wide as to be open sea.

Wrote John Betjeman after his visit to Harty Church.