Campsites,Germany # 7of14

In Dresden we went sightseeing for a while, drove for a while, then found the very nice campground, at the south edge of town, near the road that continues to Prague. Just across the street, a new housing development was in various stages of completion. The outside house walls were made of about 12” thick cement blocks, clear up to the peak. Staircases were of steel, with cement steps. Everything is just built so strong, that it’s no wonder they expect it will last for hundreds of years.

Usually a campsite will be available in or near a sizable town, but in former East Germany, they had a different idea. Except for Dresden and Liepzig, the campsites we visited were located miles from town, usually in a woods and along a lake or river. These were very pleasant places for a campsite, with swimming, fishing, and boats for rent. East German Citizens were not permitted, or could not afford to travel to other countries, so in each campsite small “homes” appeared to be owned by individuals, and must have served as vacation homes for many years.

The campsite near Cottbus was a few miles outside the city, along a large lake. People were fishing, wind-surfing, and enjoying the outdoors. As happened a few other times, they were very happy to see that our RV was connected to electricity for the night, but they would accept no pay, no tip, no nothing. As we have been told before in this part of Germany, we were the first Americans ever, to spent a night in their campsite.

I talked to the young man who ran the Leipzig campground, and found he was leaving for Hamburg in a few days, because there were no good jobs available in this area. Leipzig’s campground was located inside the city limits, and we were surprised to see wives and children living in 30-feet-long, luxury trailers, pulled by large Mercedes automobiles. The men, from the Netherlands and Belgium, were selling Western European products to stores and factories. Some products they were selling would have been considered of low quality, for the price, in other parts of Europe.

We drove to Fussen, to a campsite on the Forggensee. We first stopped at a bakery in Fussen and bought some very delicious Turkish bread. Funny thing, we never saw this kind of bread when we were in Turkey, and we did look.