Sunday, 07.09.2003

In the afternoon, some of us walked along the river- first came across the memorial stone  at the place where on the 25.04.1945 a US patrol crossed the river to meet Sowjet soldiers (the famous picture of the two armies meeting was taken a few days later in Thorgau, a bit further up the river Elbe). Joe Polowsky, one of the American soldiers, wrote in his report:" Never again can this be allowed to happen. All people should reconcile. We devote our life to friendship between our two nations- that never again such horror come to pass." This then was engraved into the stone.

Then, following the river, we trotted along a century-old trade route, the "via regia". Principally, it connected the two capitals Paris and Kiev, but since over the years it developed into an extended network of roads, in effect one was able to travel from the most western part of Europe, Lisbon, to the most eastern region, Nowgorod.

And in the evening ? Remember the rabbit breeder's Party ? After walking through the night to Jakobsthal to get to it we then decided not to go into the Party tent. Instead, we went home again, just to find out that the local pub was already closed. Luckily, we met up with EEro, who had been kidnapped by local bikers and he was forced to drink beer for free. Oh well, for the rest of us, there was always the crate of beer and the menthol cigarettes, the sitting outside and the talk to come back to. (Click on pictures to enlarge them).

 Pictures taken from www.kreinitz.de