A FROME man has spent six weeks cycling 800 miles along the former Soviet ‘Iron Curtain’ border through Europe as he learnt more about the recent history of the continent.
66-year-old Mike Grenville set off from Frome in September and travelled from Berlin to Bratislava to see for himself what remains of the former border between the Soviet Union and Western Europe, 25 years after the end of the Cold War.
Mike said, “I had never undertaken a long journey like this before and I wanted to challenge myself. While the Iron Curtain has physically melted away, its mark is still there on the land and in our minds, so I also wanted the journey to be a spiritual journey.
“It didn’t feel like a holiday and was quite hard work physically. While I enjoyed many parts of it, I found travelling along what was once a death zone and reading memorials to people who had been killed trying to cross the border quite exhausting.
“My favourite place was probably cycling near the German/Czech/Austrian border in the Šumava Forest alongside some of the 90km Schwarzenberg Floating Canal – built in the 18th century to transport timber; it was once called the eighth wonder of the world.”
Mike first explored the traces of the Berlin Wall around the city, then began his cycle on the German Polish border, and travelled south following the former east/west German border.
He said, “Much of the remains have been erased but here and there the marks on the landscape can still be seen, such as gaps in a line of trees, a memorial to someone who died trying to find a way across, and now and again a watchtower still left standing.”
His journey ended in the capital of Slovakia, Bratislava, in the peace garden instigated by former leader of Czechoslovakia, Alexander Dubcek, at the foot of a Soviet war memorial above the town.
Earlier this year Mike published the First World War diary of his great-uncle Rene Besnard, a stretcher bearer in the French army. The book is on sale at Hunting Raven bookshop or the independent market on Sunday 6th November, in both the original French and translated English.
Kept in the family until now, the daily diary entitled ‘Survived To Tell The Tale’ has entries every day from the end of 1914 to early 1917 when Rene was discharged. The book is also being published with daily updates online on www.survivedtotellthetale.com and on Facebook and Twitter.
