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Favorite Pictures Torgau Saxony, Germany

The Elbe River Meadows at Torgau are a giant flood plane for one of Germany's largest Rivers.

In spring, the river is half a mile wide and - as one can see at the flood marker above - about 20 feet deeper than now.

But at the end of the summer in 2007, it was just a small, tame river and the perfect place for a picnic on our way back home to Potsdam.

That, of course, was not the only reason to stop here. We were - yet again - walking on historic grounds. On April 25, 1945, one of the most decisive moments of World War II happened right here at the post of a blown-up bridge: The first meeting of American and Russian troops, then allies in the war against Nazi-Germany.

The soldiers of the 69th US-Infanterie-Division had been fighting their way 800 miles from the beaches of Normandy through France, Holland and western Germany - the soldiers of the 58th Soviet Guard-Division traveled even further. Many of them started out in Stalingrad and fought their way 2,200 miles through Russia, Ukraine, Poland and Eastern Germany. Battle-weary soldiers both, they had been fighting German troops for two years, but arriving here, there was no more enemy between them.

xRussian and American Soldiers in Torgau

A Russian-built monument marks the spot. It is topped with the flags of the United States and the Soviet Union. Throughout the Cold War, this was probably the only spot in the entire Communist Block showing an American flag. And today, this might just be the last remaining spot in the Western World showing a Soviet Flag.

And yes, like in any self-respecting German town, there was yet another castle. But we skipped this one.

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