Tag Archives: german occupation

Thursday 7th June 2018 – THE GOOD NEWS …

… is that my blood count has gone up from 9.4 to 9.8 and that my protein loss has declined from 1.42 to 1.08 (which is still however a long way from the ideal of a maximum of 0.15)

The bad news though is that the improvement isn’t rapid enough. If you remember last year, it shot up to 13.0 and they signed me off for two months. This time though, they won’t sign me off and the monthly treatments will be continuing.

This means unfortunately that there will be no trip to Canada this year so how dismayed am I? I was looking forward to a nice long break away in Labrador and some other places too, but I can rule all of that out now.

And not only that, the 2kgs weight that I lost over the last couple of months have come back. And I don’t understand that either because regular readers of this rubbish will recall that I’m not eating anything like as much as I used to and I’m keeping up with all of the exercise that I can.

Despite everything that I said about being exhausted, that long crashing-out yesterday evening didn’t do me any good at all. My usual stand-by of watching a film on the laptop didn’t work – in fact I ended up seeing two from start to finish and it didn’t have the slightest effect.

And then I had a really bad night with several attacks of cramp, and even a trip down the corridor at 03:15 and it’s been a long, longtime since that has happened.

But it wasn’t so bad to prevent me going on a nocturnal ramble. And it was another one that might put you off your supper or something. I was up on a hill with someone looking down on atypical suburban street scene, and we were watching a man delivering parcels in one of these big brown UPS vans. He would arrive near his destination, switch off the engine and before the van shuddered to a halt he would leap out, deliver a parcel and leap back in, switching on the engine so that whatever momentum was left in the vehicle would fire it up again. I admired his style and I suggested that I ought to recruit him to drive one of my taxis. But suddenly he was called away elsewhere so he leapt out of his van, having forgotten to switch it off. The van collided with two vehicles and did them some serious harm before coming to a halt. The two drivers were, as you might expect, extremely annoyed by this and with their badly damaged cars, proceeded to ram this van and to reduce that to rubble too. A pedestrian had been knocked over in the initial collision and, thinking that he was the van driver (there was no-one else at the scene) they proceeded to beat him to a pulp. We called the attention of the van driver, now a long way from the scene, to what was going on but he either didn’t hear us or didn’t want to hear us, and was well away. I reckoned that maybe I wouldn’t want him to work for me after all.

We had the usual morning performance and then a shower and change of clothes. And outside as I was leaving the building I was once again assailed by the hotel cat who wanted to be picked up again.

I’d hardly gone 50 yards when the heavens opened and I was drenched. Luckily I had my rain jacket but I was still soaked to the skin nevertheless.

And a poor little kid about 5 years old was scootering through the streets with her mum when she encountered a metal grating where her scooter slid and she had a very heavy and uncomfortable fall. Poor little kid!

But the rain soon cleared up and the rest of the walk was quite pleasant.

st pieters campus leuven belgium june juin 2018But there are big changes afoot in the city.

This is the St Pieters Campus of the hospital and it’s here where I stayed when I first came to Leuven. It’s hardly used these days despite hos modern it looks, and all of the signs plastered around it seem to indicate that it’s going to be demolished and a kind of art gallery and public park are to be built on the site.

‘What a waste of a good modern building” was my immediate thought but it is something of an eyesore and the plans that they have seem to be quite exciting, especially as they intend to uncover a culverted arm of the River Dilje.

But we’ve seen all of these projects on paper before, and finding the funds to carry out the architect’s intentions isn’t as easy as drawing up the plans.

road sign brusselsestraat leuven belgium june juin 2018And regular readers of this rubbish will recall four weeks ago I published a photo of this spot in the Brusselsestraat in my “Only In Belgium” series of photos.

And it’s clear that my blog is being very widely read these days, especially by the local council, because they have now put up the correct road sign, showing the road narrowing on the right.

I’ll have to find something else to complain about now, won’t I?

bad parking leuven belgium june juin 2018Like parking for example.

Pathetic parking features regularly on these pages but only regular readers of this rubbish will recall that it all originated in Belgium when I was there in early 2013

So it’s only correct that I post yet another example, once more in Belgium.

I was really early at Castle Anthrax. So much so that I was all plugged in, wired up and sat in my comfortable seat a good 15 minutes before my appointment was even due. You wouldn’t have service like that in the UK under the NHS.

And I was there until about 15:30 before they threw me out. Back in four weeks.

Having picked up my medication I walked back to my little room, going via the Loving Hut (where SHOCK HORROR they have run out of vegan sausages) and Kruidvat for some gelatine-free sweets.

sculpted relief august 1914 leuven belgium june juin 2018Coming back from town I came a different way and this sculpted relief on the side of a house here caught my eye.

Leuven was invaded by the Germans in August 1914 and in their well-publicised policy of “frightfulness” they set out to wipe out the city.

The library, that had tens of thousands of books going back 1500 years was burnt to the ground and dozens of acres of the city were destroyed.

This sculpted relief is a symbol of that period. And what is astonishing about it is that it managed to escape the attention of the Germans who came here again in May 1940 and burnt down the library again.

As I have said before … "and you’ll say again" – ed … it’s very easy for people to criticise what they consider to be a lack of resolution against the invaders, but they didn’t have to suffer what the invaded people had to suffer.

And don’t forget that the British abandoned the Channel Islands to the Nazis and didn’t dare invade the islands to reoccupy them until after the War was over.

For tea tonight I encountered the world’s only Italian restaurant that doesn’t have any pasta. Instead I had to have a pizza. Just as well I’d been for cheese at the Loving Hut.

So now another early night. I’m off for a day out tomorrow so I need to be on form.

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Sunday 25th December 2016 – SMAKELIJK!

Having worked to death the Crewe Bus Station toilets “Merry Christmas to all our readers” thing continuously over the past few years, we’ll talk about something else this year.

roast potatoes boiled carrots chicory leeks brussels sprouts onions seitan gravy christmas dinner leuven belgium december decembre 2016Like my Christmas dinner for example. Roast potatoes, boiled potatoes, carrots, chicory, leeks, seitan slices, onions, gravy and, of course, brussels sprouts. No Christmas meal is complete without them of course – properly cooked and not at all into a mush like most people cook them.

And it was absolutely delicious too, even if I had forgotten to add the garlic.

There was supposed to be Christmas pudding and soya custard for afters, but Alison had bought me a vegan chocolate Santa, and so that went down instead, washed down by a can of that alcohol-free raspberry beer.

Last night, we had the party at 05:00 but with my headphones on, I managed to avoid the worst of it. And it only lasted about half an hour anyway before boyfriend was escorted to the door.

And I was on my travels too. In some kind of Dragnet circumstance with two people, nominally police officers, but chauffeurs at where I worked. We had to go somewhere and we were told that we were to avoid a certain street which had now been converted into a dead end. So we set off, with me driving in an early 1950s Ford-type of sedan coloured a duck-egg blue and pale yellow. And sure enough, I missed the turning and ended up just where I’d been told where not to go. With two of us at the front and one at the rear, we picked up the car (which was now shaped like a canoe) and man-handled it through a tone-lined pond onto the main road. There, I pulled a bunch of weeds out of a garden there and was immediately confronted by the owner of the property who hadn’t wanted me to do that.

christmas lights grote markt leuven belgium december decembre 2016And so while you admire the rest of last night’s photographs, I can tell you that I was alone an breakfast, where there was nothing special arranged for the tenants.

And then down here, I unwrapped my Christmas presents.

Alison’s chocolate Santa I’ve already mentioned. But me, I bought myself a new laptop.

christmas lights grote markt leuven belgium december decembre 2016Actually, I bought it last year but what with one thing and another, I hadn’t opened it.

It’s another Acer, but a larger one with a numeric keypad and DVD player, and twice as much RAM as before.

You know that this one is not very good – it’s the slowest machine that I’ve ever used. It’s very lightweight and very economical, but the lack of speed was really getting on my nerves.

christmas lights grote markt leuven belgium december decembre 2016Transferring the files over is taking ages though. Not because it’s taking so much time (although it is) but I’m taking the opportunity to tidy up all of the directories while I’m about it.

It might be finished by tomorrow – who knows – and then I’ll have to start to clean up the storage issues that I have. I can save tons of space if I organise myself properly.

christmas lights grote markt leuven belgium december decembre 2016While I was making my butties at lunchtime (that’s a nice loaf that I have bought) I made the acquaintance of one of my housemates.

She’s a woman from Montreal, the Henri Bourassa area of the city, and so we had quite a lengthy chat (in French) about this and that. It was nice o remind myself of the city, seeing as how I’n not sure if i’ll ever be making it back there.

christmas lights grote markt leuven belgium december decembre 2016This afternoon I carried on with the new laptop and had a nice chat with Liz and her family on the laptop. Strawberry Moose joined in the discussion too, telling Dylan and Robyn how much he was looking forward to meeting up later next year.

And then, I went off to make my delicious tea.

Before I go off to bed for an early night, let me just tell you a little about something that I discovered last night.

Leuven is a really beautiful medieval Flemish city as you have probably seen, but 103 years ago, it was even more beautiful.

All of that changed in August 1914 when the Germans arrived, and in accordance with their policy of “Frightfulness” they set fire to the city centre, even burning the contents of the library that contained many of the oldest books in Europe.

And then in May 1940, they burnt it down again.

Many people, including, unfortunately, some of my acquaintances, criticise the French and the Belgian civilians for what they consider to be a “lack of resolution” in confronting the German Army

Leaving aside the fact that at least they were here, unlike the British Army that ran away across the Channel at Dunkirk, and the lack of resolution shown in the German occupied British territories such as the Channel Islands, where the civilian population sat it out with a German occupying force for 10 months after the War had passed them by, the British civilians never had to confront the issues that the French and Belgian citizens had to confront.

We’ve seen in the past the gravestones of civilians who died during both wars – gravestones marked “shot” or “executed” or “decapitated”. No British or American civilian ever had to confront that kind of treatment.

memorial plaque grote markt leuven belgium december decembre 2016Here in the Grote Markt in Leuven is this plaque with a list of names carved thereupon. 16 names, all civilians who were deliberately killed by the Germans in August 1914 as they were setting fire to the buildings of the Square.

This is the kind of thing that you find all over Belgium and France. Never mind being casual, haphazard victims of a bombing campaign or artillery duel, these civilians were simply purposefully murdered while going about their normal day-to-day duties and was a risk that every citizen in Occupied Europe had to run.

There was no escape.

Anyway, on that note, I’m off to do my washing up and then I’m off to bed. Will I have a good night tonight?

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Tuesday 12th May 2015 – I KNEW …

german writing on shop zatec czech republic may 2015… that if I looked hard enough, I would be able to find some evidence of the previous occupants that had not been ethnically cleansed from the city of Zatec.

There were in fact a couple, some easier to find and easier to see than others, and here’s the most obvious one

czech televisison filming in zatec czech republic may 2015I strongly suspect that the German writing on the walls over these shops may not be the original.

It seems that once again I’ve stumbled upon a film crew – this one from Czech Television and a corner of the town has been cordoned off while they film some kind of costule drama here. They’ve picked a nice part of the town to do it in because it is relatively unspoilt down at this end.

derelict part of zatec czech republic may 2015that’s more than can be said about this part of the city.

I mentioned yesterday that the Economic miracle hasn’t penetrated as far as here yet, and there are parts of Zatec that look very sad indeed. Several buildings at this end of the city look as if they were abandoned during the ethnic cleansing of the region and never taken over by new inhabitants

city gate walls zatec czech republic may 2015The city is quite historic however, dating back to at least 1004 when the first mention of it was made.

It sits on a hill, on a promontory overlooking the river valley, and was walled and fortified. There are some of the fortificiations still remaining, as well as a couple of the city gates.

There are also a great number of Comecon-styled blocks of flats, but we’ll gloss over those.

tesco zatec czech republic may 2015Here’s a surprise though. As well as the usual German discount supermarkets we have a British supermarket chain operating in the Czech Republic and with a branch at Zatec too.

I went in there to buy my bread and fruit for the day and ws surprised to be asked for my club card. I wonder what she would have said had I produced it.

church prestice czech republic may 2015The drive down south was beautiful through some lovely scenery and picturesque towns and villages.

This is the town church in the town of Prestice and it’s just one example of the hundreds of photos that I could have taken had I had the time.

liaz soviet era lorry czech republic may 2015I saw several Soviet-era lorries too. Most of them were on the road so I couldn’t photograph them.

This one, which I think is a LIAZ, was conveniently parked up in a field while I was stopped at some roadworks, of which there were plenty along my route.

No old Tatra cars though, and that was disappointing.

sudeten alps czech republic may 2015Here’s my lunch stop, at Jeseni in the Sudeten Alps. And you can see why the Sudeten Alps were vital to the defence of Czechoslovakia – it’s not possible to move a squadron of tanks, never mind a division, through here in any kind of order.

It’s no wonder that the Nazis stirred up the Sudeten Germans to such an extent, in order to have a fifth column making a “peaceful” takeover of the region, but it beats me why, knowing that their country was doomed from the start, why the Czechs didn’t make a fight of it.

A guarantee from France and Britain of the security of the rump of Czechoslovakia was totally worthless and I’m sure that the Czechs realised that.

city gate tittmoning germany may 2015Here I am in tonight’s stop – the town of Tittmoning in southern Bavaria.

In fact you can’t get much more south than this because if you turn left and go down to the bottom of the slope you arrive at the Salz River and across there on the other side is Austria, and I shall be wetting my feet in Austria later in the day tomorrow.

beautiful houses tittmoning germany may 2015Tittmoning is a beautiful little walled town with a huge and impressive central square, but it also has something or a sinister reputation.

There’s a castle here too just like at Colditz, and just as in Colditz, it was a prison camp in World War II. But not for the military (well, there were some soldiers here at very first) but for civilians – British civilians in fact because although not many people know this, part of the United Kingdom fell into German hands during World War II and many British civilians were mistreated during the war.

Tittmoning was the home for 5 years for British male civilians from the Channel Islands who were considered unsuitable to remain in their homes during the German occupation, and was in fact a halfway house to Buchenwald, where several did indeed end up as the war progressed.

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