Memories of travels in Eastern Europe, where it was always 1948
The previous post saw us boarding the Relief Ost-West Express at Rzepin and heading for Berlin.
Day 8 Thursday 26th April 1984
Such was the degree of long-distance international train travel in those days that the "Relief Ost West Express" was required to provide extra capacity for the "Ost West Express" itself. The Ost West Express proper ran from Moscow to Ostend, where it connected with the ferry to Dover and a train on to London (a separate portion ran to Paris). It left Moscow at 21.15 in the evening of Day 1 and through passengers would arrive in London Victoria at 20.18 on day 3. The "Relief" also left Moscow at 21.15 and so appears to have been combined with the Ost West as far as the Russia/Poland border at Brest, after which it ran in front of it as far as Koln (Cologne). There is still a through train between Moscow and Paris and still a connection to London by Eurostar although it runs just once a week and now goes under the name of the "Transeuropean Express". A passenger leaving Moscow at 18.17 on Tuesday evening would arrive in Paris at 09.40 on Thursday and be in London St. Pancras for 12.47 about four and a half hours faster than 35 years ago.
We had two borders to cross before reaching West Berlin (or "Westberlin" as the DDR authorities dismissively termed it). I don't remember much about the first, at Frankfurt an der Oder, except that I was worried that the Polish border guards might want us to account for any Polish currency we had obtained and make sure that we weren't illegally exporting it. This would have been a problem as we had no official receipts, but I can only presume they didn't bother.
International trains crossing the DDR/West Berlin border were subject to lengthy delays whilst the train was searched for illegal border-crossers and for other formalities. Our train was due to take almost an hour from arrival at Berlin Ost (the DDR station) to arrival at Berlin Zoo, the first station in the west. We thought it would be quicker to leave the train at Ost and then take a local S-Bahn to the border staton at Friedrichstrasse, a policy that was slightly undermined by our being so intrigued by the 1930s-style rolling stock that we managed to watch it leave without us!
It was still the best policy though, as late evening was obviously not a peak time for border crossing at Friedrichstrasse and the diary records that it took as just 13 minutes "despite a queue". Even so it was 23.40 by the time we were checking in at our hotel.
During the planning stage, Mark had realised that we would be getting to West Berlin late in the evening and had taken the precaution of booking a hotel. This wasn't as straightforward in the pre-internet age as it is now, but I'll let Mark tell the story in his own words:
Having spent a week seeing eastern Europe from the inside we thought we'd go and have a look back at it from the west.
We also rode out on a bus to the suburb of Spandau, where at the time Rudolf Hess was still incarcerated in the prison. Hess, Hitler's deputy, had flown to Scotland in 1941 in an attempt to make peace with the UK where he was arrested and had been in custody ever since.
The diary records that the evening was spent "on another pub crawl" and we eventually left the city at 23.50 "after a mad dash to the station" to catch another long-distance international train, the "North West Express" to the Hook of Holland where we boarded the "Zeeland" for the voyage back to Harwich. (I've recorded the name of the ship as "Zeeland" but it's more likely it was a vessel of the "Zeeland Steamship Company", which ran the route jointly with Sealink)
Neither of us remember much about the journey back, but I do recall the scene at Parkeston Quay station (Now "Harwich International"). In those days the ferry from the Hook was met not just by trains to London, where they arrived at Liverpool Street station, but also by a cross-country train to Liverpool itself where the station is known as "Lime Street". These two trains stood side by side at Harwich with the only indication of which was which was being a sign identifying them respectively as heading for "Liverpool Street" and "Liverpool L Street"!
Mark and I and another mate, Bob, visited the DDR and Poland again in 1985 and Mark and I went in 1986. I went again in 1988 with another friend, Hugh and although Mark was by now too much of a family man to accompany us he did offer to do all the planning and admin! Even in 1988 there was very little, if any, indication that the whole edifice of socialist Europe would be crashing down in just over 12 months time. I went back once or twice in the early 90s, but even by then things had changed so much and so quickly. I do, however, remember a conversation with a fellow drinker in a late night snack-bar in Magdeburg (something that just didn't exist in 1984) and asking him what the changes had meant for him. He said that on the whole things were better and certainly not having the Stasi on your back all the time was good, but on the other hand his formerly secure job-for-life had vanished and he was now unemployed.
Such was the degree of long-distance international train travel in those days that the "Relief Ost West Express" was required to provide extra capacity for the "Ost West Express" itself. The Ost West Express proper ran from Moscow to Ostend, where it connected with the ferry to Dover and a train on to London (a separate portion ran to Paris). It left Moscow at 21.15 in the evening of Day 1 and through passengers would arrive in London Victoria at 20.18 on day 3. The "Relief" also left Moscow at 21.15 and so appears to have been combined with the Ost West as far as the Russia/Poland border at Brest, after which it ran in front of it as far as Koln (Cologne). There is still a through train between Moscow and Paris and still a connection to London by Eurostar although it runs just once a week and now goes under the name of the "Transeuropean Express". A passenger leaving Moscow at 18.17 on Tuesday evening would arrive in Paris at 09.40 on Thursday and be in London St. Pancras for 12.47 about four and a half hours faster than 35 years ago.
Crossing Borders
We had two borders to cross before reaching West Berlin (or "Westberlin" as the DDR authorities dismissively termed it). I don't remember much about the first, at Frankfurt an der Oder, except that I was worried that the Polish border guards might want us to account for any Polish currency we had obtained and make sure that we weren't illegally exporting it. This would have been a problem as we had no official receipts, but I can only presume they didn't bother.
International trains crossing the DDR/West Berlin border were subject to lengthy delays whilst the train was searched for illegal border-crossers and for other formalities. Our train was due to take almost an hour from arrival at Berlin Ost (the DDR station) to arrival at Berlin Zoo, the first station in the west. We thought it would be quicker to leave the train at Ost and then take a local S-Bahn to the border staton at Friedrichstrasse, a policy that was slightly undermined by our being so intrigued by the 1930s-style rolling stock that we managed to watch it leave without us!
It was still the best policy though, as late evening was obviously not a peak time for border crossing at Friedrichstrasse and the diary records that it took as just 13 minutes "despite a queue". Even so it was 23.40 by the time we were checking in at our hotel.
During the planning stage, Mark had realised that we would be getting to West Berlin late in the evening and had taken the precaution of booking a hotel. This wasn't as straightforward in the pre-internet age as it is now, but I'll let Mark tell the story in his own words:
We had a full 24-hours in Berlin where, once we had resurfaced, we spent the day exploring the city by train and bus.At an early stage in the planning I'd realised we would arrive in Westberlin quite late on a Saturday (actually Wednesday, JD) night, possibly too late to find somewhere to stay. So I went to a West German travel agency in London to book a hotel. The flamboyant young clerk, who'd obviously been to Berlin a few times, chose his favourite hotel "near all the best clubs". It's a measure of my naivety that it never occurred to me he'd assume that two young men spending aSaturdayWednesday night together in Berlin wouldn't be there to grice the public transport! It was only when we entered the room that it finally dawned on me. We spent about 3 minutes trying to separate the double bed before giving up and heading out to the bars....After a few days in Poland the decadent nightlife of Berlin seemed very loud and garish with everyone showing-off and the beer was no longer 2p a pint. We eventually headed back to the hotel but stopped-in at a locals' bar for a final beer. I looked at my watch: it was 03:15.
Having spent a week seeing eastern Europe from the inside we thought we'd go and have a look back at it from the west.
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| A section of the infamous Berlin Wall from the western side |
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| Checkpoint Charlie. An international border in the middle of a city. |
The diary records that the evening was spent "on another pub crawl" and we eventually left the city at 23.50 "after a mad dash to the station" to catch another long-distance international train, the "North West Express" to the Hook of Holland where we boarded the "Zeeland" for the voyage back to Harwich. (I've recorded the name of the ship as "Zeeland" but it's more likely it was a vessel of the "Zeeland Steamship Company", which ran the route jointly with Sealink)
Neither of us remember much about the journey back, but I do recall the scene at Parkeston Quay station (Now "Harwich International"). In those days the ferry from the Hook was met not just by trains to London, where they arrived at Liverpool Street station, but also by a cross-country train to Liverpool itself where the station is known as "Lime Street". These two trains stood side by side at Harwich with the only indication of which was which was being a sign identifying them respectively as heading for "Liverpool Street" and "Liverpool L Street"!
Mark and I and another mate, Bob, visited the DDR and Poland again in 1985 and Mark and I went in 1986. I went again in 1988 with another friend, Hugh and although Mark was by now too much of a family man to accompany us he did offer to do all the planning and admin! Even in 1988 there was very little, if any, indication that the whole edifice of socialist Europe would be crashing down in just over 12 months time. I went back once or twice in the early 90s, but even by then things had changed so much and so quickly. I do, however, remember a conversation with a fellow drinker in a late night snack-bar in Magdeburg (something that just didn't exist in 1984) and asking him what the changes had meant for him. He said that on the whole things were better and certainly not having the Stasi on your back all the time was good, but on the other hand his formerly secure job-for-life had vanished and he was now unemployed.
2 comments:
German Hotels !
On a plane-spotting trip to Frankfurt in the late 1980's my spotting mate Roger and I booked a hotel "Der Deutches House" in the middle of Frankfurt by visiting the German Tourist Agency in Piccadilly London.
When we got there, we were somewhat tired and didn't give it much thought when we were asked to confirm we wanted the room "all one night" (!)
Next morning, a knock on the door, and a lovely German lass in full fancy dress (!) deposited a tray of breakfasts, wonderful heavy breads and sausage, etc - delicious. It was only as we checked out, we realised the hotel had another function!!! (As recommended by the German Tourist Agency!!!)
Dave K
I don't think 'Westberlin' was derogatory. Germans often string several words together, such as the railway town of 'Kornwestheim' near Stuttgart. It is in the Korn river valley or 'Tal' (and the next town is called 'Korntal'). Kornwestheim is twinned with Eastleigh and not only has an 'Eastleighstrasse' but also a red phone box and letter box. If you go there you can travel behind the 'Feuerige Elias', an oil-fired steam loco pulling short-wheelbase carriages, during the summer season (lockdowns permitting).
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