Travelling by train to underfloor passages and nuclear bunkers
Budget airlines have created a market for weekends away – and have helped make air travel one of the fastest-growing contributors to global warming. But travel by train and your carbon footprint is less murky – not to mention more romantic. Steel wheel swishing on steel rail; bustling, cosmopolitan stations; countryside flashing by – is there any better way to travel?
For a weekend of eco-friendly Second World War intrigue, finish work at 5pm Friday (earlier if you’re coming from further afield) and head to Waterloo for the 18:11 Eurostar to Brussels. Splurge on first class and you’ll be enjoying champagne and dinner while the budget airline mob are still munching limp sarnies on the train to Stansted. If you opt for standard class, just bring your own champagne!
Two and a quarter hours later you’re in Belgium. Grab some moules frites and a beer in the Grande Place (mine’s a Leffe Brun) before returning to Brussels Midi station for the bang-on-time 23:41 night express to Berlin. The budget-conscious can kip in a seat, but the couchettes (four or six bunks to a car) are worth the upgrade. However, for a little more, book a sleeping car – with air-con, hot showers and privacy, they are the most civilised way to travel.
Before you know it, a knock will announce breakfast – strong coffee, rolls and jam are served in the train’s restaurant. At 08.20 on Saturday morning you arrive in the heart of Berlin.
But don’t dally – board the 08:52 InterCity to Leipzig, then the leisurely 10:15 local, to rural Saxony. Switch to a bus at Grimma and, at 11:50, the castle walls – instantly recognisable from the TV show and game – will appear. You’ve arrived at Colditz.
Most Germans have never heard of Colditz – the country’s most infamous prisoner-of-war camp. It’s the sleepiest Saxon market town you could hope to find, with a refreshing absence of tour buses.
Every corner of the castle has a story to tell. Start in the German courtyard, where you can see the cellar doorway where Brit inmate Pat Reid hid before making a dash for the outside world. Through the next gateway are the German officers’ quarters, from which Neave and Luteyn emerged in homemade Nazi uniforms, stopping to exchange a few words of German, and walk out to freedom. In the chapel, look for the tunnels under the floor, remains of the unsuccessful French passage, started in the attics and dug down through the clocktower.
After touring the castle, head for the town museum. One room is dedicated to wartime Colditz, packed with incredible exhibits: a dummy rifle, carved from wood and painted to look like the real thing; fake German uniforms; forged cash and ID documents.
Spend the night in Colditz (the Pension am Albertberg is nice), then get up early to escape back to Berlin. Alternatively, chug back to Berlin on Saturday night for a livelier evening; the smart apartments at the Circus Hostel are recommended. Either way, spend Sunday exploring Germany’s revitalised capital – don’t miss the views from the glass dome of the Reichstag building, the Jewish Museum and the nuclear bunker under the Story of Berlin museum.
Sight-seeing done, hop on the 21:20 sleeper train, which pulls into Brussels at 06:09 Monday morning. A connecting Eurostar whisks you back to London for 08:26, eco-conscience clear and armed with your office’s best water-cooler conversation.
