Point Alpha and the Fulda Gap

We're feeling better about things, we found a good place for dinner. We split a delightful salad (white asparagus, radishes and strawberries in a light vinaigrette) and a tortellini dish last night. We'll probably have the same thing again tonight.

The country side between Frankfurt and Fulda is really pretty, very rural and green. It reminds me of Kentucky.

We have a voltage converter for the electric toothbrushes. It's unfortunate that we did not notice the converter is not formatted to accept a grounded plug, and the 3 plug current tap we're using is grounded. So, we'll be charging things one a a time here. Minor, very minor, last night we were too tired to remember how to plug the converter in to the outlet at all. That was pathetic, I am pleased that I did not blog that.

Us at dinner.

Taken along the highway on the way to Point Alpha.

Today we drove up to Point Alpha which was a cold war observation post manned by the US Army during the cold war. It was right on the Inner German Border between the towns of Rasdorf and Geisa overlooking the Fulda Gap. The Fulda Gap was one of the routes the Russian Army was likely to take should they have ever invaded West Germany. The mission of the soldiers stationed at Point Alpha was to observe and monitor East German and Russian activities along the border and provide early warning of an impending attack. It's a beautiful spot, hard to imagine what it must have been like to have been stationed there during the cold war wondering if the Russians would ever come pouring through the gap on their way to Frankfurt. Sections of the border fence and East German guard towers are preserved as well, monuments to the folly of communism and dictatorships trying to keep their people inside against their will. We wondered what it was like for the people of Geisa in what was then East Germany to look up the hill toward their neighbors in Rasdorf on the western side of the border knowing that they were free. The border strip has been turned into a nature preserve here in the Geisa-Rasdorf area and that is a far better use for it than its original purpose.

To the left, unlucky. To the right, lucky.

Geisa and the Fulda Gap.


Rasdorf.

Here Germany and Europe were reunited December 22, 1989 at 11:00 am.

It's a powerful place, thinking about people making a run for freedom across the "death zone" between the fences was just hard.

Tomorrow we're off to Berlin.