Olomouc, Czech Republic

It's a long drive to Olomouc from Berlin so I stopped for a day in Vrchlabi in the beautiful national park area in the north of Czech Republic. The last hour or so of the journey was steep climbs, tight bends and rapid decents through thick forested hills which did little to help a fully loaded van on very low fuel.

After 45 minutes without seeing any sign of civilisation (save for the occasional lost-looking orienteerer soon to be devoured by vultures) and with the fuel warning light flashing rapidly I was starting to worry. Eventually my prayers were answered after finding a cluster of five, yes five, petrol stations in the middle of nowhere. At last I could enjoy the scenery without the panic which was firmly setting in.

When I reached the campsite, Euro-Air-Camping, it immediately trumped my previous favorite site in Warsaw. The campsite has it's own big swimming pool, bowling alley and, wait for it, airstrip! I was planning to cook when I arrived but after seeing the menu, decided to go for the not-so-local delicasy of kangaroo steak. Delicious, filling, unusual, and under £5. That's all the boxes ticked.

I turns out that once you get outside Prague, prices tend to be half what they are in the touristy capital.

In the morning I set off for Olomouc. On arrival I was directed to the university campus where you can (apparently) normally stay for free during the summer months - except this summer as all the buildings are being renovated. Damn. Instead I wild-camped as the nearest campsite is over 20 miles away and took my daily wash in the river - initially a refreshing change but the novelty soon wears off.

Unfortunately my second bike of the trip, and only a month old, was stolen in the night from a well lit area where it was securely locked up with two hefty chains. If I felt naive and partly to blame that I could have locked my first bike up better, I had no such qualms this time, only anger and the feeling that I had been wronged in a big way. All that remained at the scene was a tiny piece of plastic casing. Lesson learned... the hard way.

 Master Lock my arse

As for the place itself, it is actually a great little Czech city with the Art Nouveau style of Riga and the dash of colour of Prague. The lack of tourists means that it has this nice slow pace of life which is a change from the bustling larger cities I have been spending time in recently - and the whole town is (thankfully) easily accessable by foot.
 

The city is centred around two squares (the larger Horni Nam and smaller Dolni Nam) and each is a wide expanse filled with cobbles, statues and water fountains. The main square features the Town Hall and Astronomical Clock Tower in the centre. The clock has it's biggest display at noon and gathers quite a crowd for what is actually a supremely dull show.

In the evening of the first night there was a brass band playing various showtunes outside the Town Hall and they did a truly bizzare big-band rendition of Old MacDonald entirely in Czech. The only english words were "Old MacDonald" and "Ee-Ay Ee-Ay Oh" and it was truly a crazy thing of beauty. Also in the square is a fountain with a man cuddling a dolphin. I didn't ask why.

North of the centre is St Moritz Cathedral which, although it doesn't look much from the outside, has a double-helix staircase leading up the belltower and giving a great view of the city from the roof platform. Heading east from here eventually brings you to the bigger and more impressive St Wenceslas Cathedral. The building is imposing and grand in equal measure both inside and out. There is a crypt below the floor filled with various cups and goblets (a la Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade) and under that is the crypt of the crypt with the tombs of some of the country's bestest bishops.

In the evening I visited a bar right near to where the van was parked up. It is an old aeroplane in the middle of the street which now serves beer from a bar while you sit in the authentic plane seats which are now arranged in groups of 4 around little tables. The cockpit is now a tiny dancefloor and they are even showing Terminator 2 on the old-school in-flight monitors. A really cool little spot to spend the evening.

On my last day, I went to visit the Olomouc Museum Of Art. It was way better than I was expecting with an impressive display of work from Polish sculpter Magdelena Abakanowicz. Her gauze torso sculptures are based on her upbringing of war and depressing Soviet domination. There is also plenty of local art with an exhibition of the work of local photographer Jaroslav Vavra. I then headed to St Michael's Church which looks very new and uninspiring on the outside but inside is full of detailed painted ceilings, gold leaf and glass domes.

The main city park is a big strip of grass and trees to the south-west. After heading there for a bite to eat and rest some weary legs, I watched an orchestra playing in the park bandstand to a crowd of old folks who were baking in the summer sun.

Later, I drank away the evening in Moritz, one of the city's best little bars with their own light and dark brewed beers. Make mine a pint of the dark stuff please. They have a cool beer garden which overlooks the Theresian Gate (the last remaining of 5 original city gates) and it was a fine way to round off a truly wonderful little place despite such an crappy start. Bring on Brno.

Berlin, Germany

Okay Berlin, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to do what Cologne, Hamburg and the rest of Germany has so far failed to do... inspire me.

I drove north from Prague to Hotel And City Camping on the west side of Berlin, the closest I could find to the city centre but also near to the flightpath for the airport. The campsite is located on the point where the River Spree diverges so it's surrounded by water on 3 sides and the cycle path to the city centre (a hefty 15km each way) simply follows the river in.

I have been pleasantly shocked and surprised about how modern and cosmopolitan the city is. A mix of grand old buildings and new modern architecture dominates the city centre on a huge scale and they seem to sit along side each other perfectly. There are also huge areas of parks and grass such as the Tiergarten (in the mould of Central Park in New York) while the needle-like TV Tower rises above everything else in the city by a mile. My preconceptions of the city were that it would be efficient but rather monotone, not vibrant and engaging. This is not what I had expected from Berlin at all.

The first day, I headed into the centre to see what was going on and get my bearings. The river area in the centre has been developed a lot and just to the south is the Brandenburger Gate, the focal point of the city and formerly the main crossing point through the Berlin Wall. The Quadriga statue on top originally faced west but it was stolen by Napoleon and after it was returned it was mounted to face east instead. The structure looks great both in the day and when lit up at night.

Just north of the gate is the Reichstag building, the German parliament, which now features a huge glass dome on the top with a viewing platform and spiral walkway. Outside is the start to the Tiergarten - a vast expanse of public park. Unfortunately the dome was closed all week for cleaning but it requires booking in advance to see it anyway. To the south is a huge square featuring a maze of 2711 concrete blocks of varying heights, like a big 3D graphics equaliser. This is the the Jewish Memorial for the second world war and now a sort of stepping-stones challenge to young and old alike.

As you head east from the Brandenburger Gate you reach the University which is on the site where the first major burning of books took place. Under the pavement outside is a symbolic row of empty bookshelves which can be viewed through the pavement above. Also on this street is the Guggenheim, which is currently featuring video based art installations. Francis Alys' "When Faith Moves Mountains" is a political piece about protests againt the corrupt Peruvian government where 500 volunteers literally did move a mountain (or huge sand dune) outside Lima by about 10cm with nothing but shovels.

As you continue along the street, you get to the fantastic "Museum Island" on the river's edge. Here, the huge Berlin Cathedral, National Gallery, Altes Museum and Pergamon buildings are situated with lots of ongoing building work to develop the area further. The Pergamon Museum is particulalry special as the chambers do not just hold exhibits but become exhibits themselves as huge excavated towns and buildings are rebuilt here to walk through. I have not seen another musuem like it.

West of the Brandenburger Gate is the Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt (the former Congress Hall and nicknamed the "Pregnant Oyster") and in the middle of the Tiergarten is the Siegessaule Monument, a huge column topped with a golden angel. As it was getting dark, I took a trip to Prater Beer Garden, it is a great little place and hugely popular with the locals. They have served their own specialist beers for nearly 200 years and you can sit outside under the lights on a big area of picnic benches. My tip is the Weihenstephan wheat beer.

There is a big square near the centre which houses one of Berlins most recognisable structures, the Fernsehturm TV Tower. Getting to the top is pricey and comes with a long wait but the views from the top of the 368m tower are superb as it dwarfs everything else by comparison. Opposite the tower on the square is the red brick Town Hall building.

One place that I was looking forward to in Berlin was the so-called "Checkpoint Charlie". This was the point on the edge of the American occupied area with the iconic sign "You are now leaving the American Sector" and there is now a museum based here. When I got to the place, it was over-run with swarms of rather loud and abusive American tourists having photos taken with a mock-up guard post in the middle of the road while the traffic either side tried to avoid them blindly stepping out into the road.

Opposite the packed museum were a McDonalds, Starbucks and New-Yorker which were doing equally good trade. I decided that this was one place I didn't want to hang around for very long and left quite quickly in frustration.

The biggest preserved section of the Berlin Wall itself is now the East Side Gallery which runs alongside the road with sections of different artwork and graffiti on it. Famous panels include the kiss between Soviet leader Brezhnev and GDR leader Honecker as well as the Trabant car crashing through the wall. The distinctive pedestrian crossing lights, different on each side of the wall, have since become a symbol for the city.

I decided to visit the Bauhaus Archive while in the city, as this art and design school started a great modernist design movement at the start of the 20th century but the museum itself is rather small and dissapointing. By contrast, the Body Worlds exhibition ("Korperwelten" in German) was in town and it is nothing short of spectacular. Dr Gunther Von Hagen's show is based around real human bodies which have been preserved through "plastination" and dissected to show the inner workings of bones muscles and organs in a mix of science and art.

The Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedachtniskirche is normally a recognisable feature on the Berlin skyline. This ruined church has been left as it was after being bombed by the Brittish in the second world war as a constant reminder to German leaders (not to start fights you can't finish?). It is currently having structural repairs made though, so all there is to see is a big scaffolding frame around the building.

Further east in the Charlottenburg region is the Charlottenburg Palace. This huge palace is spectacular enough from the front but is even more impressive from the royal gardens at the back. A mixture of trees, lakes, preened gardens and pathways make this a great place to wander around (for free) and there are plenty of joggers taking advantage of the scenery.

On my last evening in Berlin, there was a French-style Fete taking place at the Brandenburger Gate. There was Marianne Cornil (a French lady playing the accordian), followed by the Women's World Cup semi-final, before a mental gypsy-style ska band from Lyon called Babylon Circus finished the night.

There was also a drumming Brazillian samba band complete with dancers (called Ethnik 97?) wandering around who did the most bizzare samba version of "Ghostbusters". There were also loads of food and drink stalls (but €6 for a beer!) and Sebastian Vettel's championship winning F1 car.

I had the urge to go for a dip in the lake on the way home so took an impromptu swim. The water was surprisingly warm and clean and there was also a middle-aged German couple enjoying the lake too. It was only from a distance as they got out that I realised they were completely in the buff! They asked if I would like to join them for a beer but I politely declined and stayed in the water.

It was a good and rather strange night to round off a great city in style.

Mission accomplished Berlin.