Day 24 - Colditz Castle

Colditz castle was first mentioned in 11th century, boasted the largest zoo in Europe in the 16th, was reconstructed in Renaissance style later in 16th century, when Carnac the Younger was artist in residence, was extended lavishly in 18th with extensive parkland, used as a workhouse in the early 19th, then a mental institution, then an internment and torture centre for communists, Jews and intellectuals during the 1930s before becoming a POW camp for Allied officers during WW2. This is why Mr C wanted to visit as he read the Pat Reid escape stories when a boy and then we watched the 1970s TV series. The ingenuity of the escape committee was incredible and had been well documented. Indeed a secret radio hiding place was only discovered by builders in 1993. Each officer had an orderly (servant), a prisoner from the lower ranks. These men were not included in escape plans - the penalty for trying to escape for them was death whereas captured escapees of the officer class were sent back to Colditz. It was a high security place holding the prisoners who were considered troublesome by other camps (Douglas Bader) or else they were relatives of nobility such as Giles Romilly, a communist related to Churchill and brother of Edmund who eloped with Jessica Mitford. Two nephews of the King were interned. A high profile escapee was Airey Neave who became a Tory MP and was murdered by the IRA.

It was an good visit made more interesting by having interactive tablets giving further facts, and an exhibition of memorabilia showing how the prisoners faked guns with cardboard, had dyes for making fake German uniforms, means of making passports and other essentials to enhance their escape prospects. It was a good 2.5 hours for €10 each.

After a sandwich in the car park in 32 degrees we set off on the 5 hour drive to our next P4N at Alfeld. Some of the way was motorway, some on undulating country roads and the last 30 miles or so on roads winding through deciduous woods. The rain started about an hour before we reached our destination, with the temperature dropping to a more pleasant level. We are in a car park, quiet apart from church clocks striking and the rain spattering on the roof.

219 miles