Amsterdam Day 2 / Bacharach Day 1
We woke up to the sunlight coming in our window overlooking the canal. And our alarm clock, but that's less romantic. We slept like rocks, we were SO exhausted from the previous day and lack of sleep on the night train.
Breakfast at the hotel was basic; cereal, toast, cold cuts and cheeses and soft boiled eggs. We walk just a few blocks to the Anne Frank house. It's early enough that there is no line, and we walk right in. The house is actually 3rd from the corner, but the museum and memorial take up the other 2 lots. It's a self guided tour through the house with quotes and anecdotes on the walls, TV monitors with excerpts of media footage, friends and family of the Franks. Walking through the house was quit interesting, but reading and seeing what had been done to the house to make the secret annex was incredible. There was a hinged bookcase built in front of the door leading to the secret annex. 8 people lived on 2 floors in the annex for 2 years. I didn't know, or didn't remember until today that there was a 2nd family in hiding with the Franks, as well as one other gentleman. It was evocative and at times emotional. The depth and scope of Anne's journaling are surprising to me, as she was only 13 when she started. The most heart wrenching part of this experience was hearing Otto Frank talk about Anne, and that while they had a very close relationship, it wasn't until he read her diary after her death that he knew and understood who his daughter truly was. And the "what happened to the 8 people in hiding" part was awful, because the sole survivor was Otto Frank, who survived Auschwitz, the most terrible of the concentration camps.
We walked from there to the train station, stopping for a canal side cappuccino. The train we wanted to catch leaves at 12:34, and we got to the train station at 12:15ish. We head to the counter to get our Eurail pass validated and learned, to our surprise, that it's tough to just show up and get on a train without a reservation, esp. on a Friday afternoon. Well, shit! Fortunately, some nice Dutch woman took pity on us and got us in a fast-track line. We made a reservation for €18 and made it to our train with ease, which is where I am writing this now.
First class train travel is way more comfortable than airplane travel. The seats are large and recline quite far, the foot rests are adjustable, the seats are leather. My only gripe is that we're sitting backward, but it's not bumpy enough to be bothersome. The train ride is actually quite lovely.
We change trains in Koln (pronounced like cologne) and again in Koblenz. Each train is operated by a different carrier. First the big intra-city trains, then the smaller city trains, then finally the little town connector trains. First class is great; comfy seats, leg room, tables, etc. The 30 min. stretch from Koblenz to Bacharach is dotted with castles along the way and vineyards on all of the steep slopes on either side of the Rhine. We try to follow along to the castles in the Rick Steves book, but there are so many that we get to the next castle before we're done reading about the current castle. After 4 or 5 castles, we stopped getting excited, as they are quite literally everywhere. It was a beautiful train ride.
We arrive in Bacharach (make a really throaty sound for each "ch") at 5:00. You can walk from one end of town to the other in 10 minutes, so it takes us no time to find our Hotel Kranenturm, which means Crane Tower. Our hotel is in the old tower that was part of the city wall, and the crane tower was used to lift barrels of wine/beer from/to the train. We are on the river (aka train) side, so the tracks are directly outside our window. Triple pane windows and complementary earplugs should do the trick. The building is old, like 1400s old. Medieval glass windows are put together by soldering flattened glass discs together, as that was as far as Medieval glass technology was at the time. Big wooden spiral staircases and creaky floors. We set our bags down and head out to walk the town.
Following the path in our travel guide, we walk a,long the main street, up through a vineyard and to one of the old town wall towers. From here we can see the entire town, the Protestant and Catholic churches, the castle-now-hostel, and the old Cathedral ruins, as well as the Rhine River and vineyards. The view is breathtaking, the kinds of sights you imagine Princesses dream of in fairy tales.
We're back into town within the hour and decide on dinner at our hotel, as it's recommended for Kurt's sauerbraten, which Clint has. I have venison with spatzle and lingonberry jam. Both are to die for, and so is our apfelstreudel. We chat with a couple from San Francisco all throughout dinner. At 9:00, the restaurant is closed, so we head out to find a bar.
Two American couples we ran into earlier (because one was wearing a MIZZOU sweatshirt and was uber surprised to learn that I was born in Columbia) said that the streets were dead and wished us good luck finding any place open. This is just a sleepy town, so I wasn't too worried. We ended up at an Irish Pub of all places. Clint had a Kilkenny while I had a federweiss, which translates to feather wine. This is white whine made from grapes picked only 2 weeks ago. It was cloudy and had some sediment, but fruity, sweet, crisp and delicious. Apparently it's only available for about 4 weeks and only in the Rhein region of Germany. Germans eat it with zwiebelkuchen ("z-vee-bel koo-ken" onion cake), and Marcus, the pub owner, brought us a few bites to try. It has a pastry-like bottom with onions and bacon and creamy sauce on top. Sweet, but the kind of sweetness you get from cooking onions, and a little savory from the bacon. So delicious and went perfectly with the federweiss.
And now it's bedtime. Having a day to slow down a bit has made us realize how fast we have been going, and it's catching up with us now. The next few days will be leisurely, that's for certain.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Day 6 - Amsterdam
Amsterdam Day 1
Well, we "woke up" on the night train. "Woke up" deserves to be in air quotes (at least in my head as I type this), as I didn't actually sleep, therefore making it impossible to wake up. Our "beds" on the train are actually seat cushions rotated to make beds. There were 6 beds in our compartment, but only 4 people. We paid extra for this. We are kind people, weren't concerned with being the first on the train and rushing to our cabin as some of the other passengers were. What this meant was that by the time we found our car, the bottom beds were already claimed and their inhabitants already tucked in for the night. We have to hoist our baggage over our heads, quietly, then climb the "ladder" up to our top bunks, leaving the mid-level bunks open. This ladder is thin, rickety, steep as hell, and it's 1:00 in the morning, so my energy and coordination are at the bottom of my list of present attributes. And I'm wearing a dress. Good thing I am also wearing leggings, because graceful or delicate are not a words I would use to describe my ascent.
OK, so we're up top. A pillow, flat sheet stitched into a sleeping bag type of arrangement, and a blanket are folded on the bed. So I'm hot from the climb, tired as all hell, cranky and sitting upright with about 2" of headroom, AND I have to make my own bed? This sucks.
Let's cut to the chase. Sleeping on a train is miserable. In my head it was much more glamorous, like in White Christmas where the sisters are huddled in their compartments giggling, and they all walk to the food car where sandwiches and buttermilk are waiting. Nope. It's noisy, like really noisy, and wobbly. I lay wide awake through 2 full stops, which was at least 2 hours. For the rest of the night, I doze a few minutes at a time. Clint slept much better than I, but it still was not a good night's sleep.
Our cabin mates depart in Koln at about 6:30, so we have the cabin to ourselves for a bit.
We arrive at Amsterdam Central at about 10:30. We get a locker for our luggage and beat feet looking for food. After 2 failed attempts at cafes that serve only coffee until 11:00, we find a place that has food, as it's now 11:02. Toast and scrambled eggs with cappuccino and fresh OJ, then we're ready to start our day. Our server here was friendly and funny, at least to us. He could probably tell we were hungry, as when we walked in, we stared blankly at the menu for several seconds until he said "You want eggs and toast? And coffee, to make you feel good?" He knew exactly what we needed.
The cappuccino was great, and the OJ even better. But the powdered scrambled eggs (served with ketchup packets) were gross, but we were so hungry we wolfed them down anyway.
We lazily wander until we find our hotel, a tiny 14 room place on the Single (sin-jl) canal. Bruno welcomes us and hands us our key. A real key, made from metal, that gets inserted into a lock on the door. Not an electronic key like modern hotels. Our room is on the top floor. Now in Amsterdam, property is taxed based on how many meters of street front they have, so most facades are very narrow. So to get more living space, they build deep and tall. Our hotel is maybe 3 metres wide, but there are 3 homes in Amsterdam that are only 1 metre wide, and we saw one of them. Anyway, because of the narrowness, there isn't a lot of space for a staircase. So we climb up the steepest, narrowest, most hazardous staircase of our lives; 4 flights. Gasping, we reach our room, go inside, and collapse on the bed immediately. This time not because we're tired, but because the room is so small, the only way to close the door behind you is to get on the bed and out of the way. The whole room, including WC is probably 10" x 8". Seriously tiny. When we come back later, we're upgraded to a different room, not bigger, but on the front side of the hotel so we have a lovely view of the canals. Still up the 4 flights of traditional Amsterdam stairs, however.
We consult our Rick Steves book and head in the direction of a bike tour. Unlike the tour of Berlin yesterday, this was much more haphazard, chaotic and halfway crazy. But we all survived somehow. In Amsterdam, 40% of the population commutes by bike. We saw the world's largest bike parking lot with over 4,000 bikes, we rode over the smallest bridge, called the Three Herring bridge, because that's how wide it is, rode to Dam Square, saw some old canal houses, learned some Amsterdam history, rode through Vondelpark, stopped for beer and apple pie at a biergarten, and finally, ended with a ride through the Red Light district. More on that later. It was cold and it rained, but we had sufficient clothes and jackets so it wasn't too bad. All in all, a good tour, 3 hours of info and a decent orientation to the city. It was hard to tell what direction we were going at any given time, though, because the canals form a U shape, so they can't really be used as a reference point. Note; there are 364 canals in Amsterdam, which apparently is more than in Venice.
So you can't go to Amsterdam and not talk about the coffeeshops. If you want a cup of coffee, go to a coffeeshop or a cafe. However, if you want a coffee and a joint, go to a coffeeshop. Cafes serve coffee and pastries, while coffeeshops sell coffee and weed. Apparently, you walk in and are presented with a menu, the different strengths and attributes of the different marijuana they offer. Pre-rolled joints for about €2.50 - €14 if you want to forget who you are and act like Jason Bourne. We did not partake aside from the contact high we got just walking down the street. The aroma is unmistakable and it was coming from every direction. By people riding past on their bikes, people at coffeeshops sitting outside or in an open window with a joint and a beer. Head shops everywhere. There are many seed shops also where you buy the seeds to grow your own. Soft drugs are legal and they are everywhere. EVERYWHERE!
This evening, after a dinner of fast-food felafel sandwich (that we had to ask for withOUT ketchup), we meet with Kimberly, an American ExPat who gives tours of the Red Light district. She explains the different quarters where you can shop by preference, such as the African quarter, Eastern European quarter, and Blue Light quarter (lady boys, trannies, whatever you want to call the she-males) quarters. The girls are in windowed doors. If you want a girl, you tap her window and she will either open it for you or not. When you see the door close and curtains drawn, you know she's busy. For €50, you get the basic "suck and a fuck." Some of the girls have all kinds of "toys" hanging from the walls, maybe suggesting that they offer different specialties. Men stand on the streets advertising their peep shows and live sex shows, boutiques selling every kind of sex accessory you can think of, and many more that you can't. There are many bars and it's crowded with people, many of them coming and going from the girls' windows. There is a shop with the world's most expensive vibrator at €12.000, as it's solid gold. You can imagine that a solid gold vibrato for only €12.000 isn't very big. There is an entire store dedicated to vibrators that you connect to your iPhone. They even look sleek and modern like they were designed by Steve Jobs. I can only imagine the advertising campaign: "Want an orgasm? There's an app for that." Apparently it's a lot of fun to find a bar with a view of a couple windows and time the customer's visits and the girls' popularity. The "basic" €50 experience is capped at 15 min, but according to our guide, they rarely last that long.
Exhausted, we walk back through the Red Light district just for fun once more (oh yeah, and I got winked at and had a door opened to me) and crash back at our tiny hotel for the night.
Well, we "woke up" on the night train. "Woke up" deserves to be in air quotes (at least in my head as I type this), as I didn't actually sleep, therefore making it impossible to wake up. Our "beds" on the train are actually seat cushions rotated to make beds. There were 6 beds in our compartment, but only 4 people. We paid extra for this. We are kind people, weren't concerned with being the first on the train and rushing to our cabin as some of the other passengers were. What this meant was that by the time we found our car, the bottom beds were already claimed and their inhabitants already tucked in for the night. We have to hoist our baggage over our heads, quietly, then climb the "ladder" up to our top bunks, leaving the mid-level bunks open. This ladder is thin, rickety, steep as hell, and it's 1:00 in the morning, so my energy and coordination are at the bottom of my list of present attributes. And I'm wearing a dress. Good thing I am also wearing leggings, because graceful or delicate are not a words I would use to describe my ascent.
OK, so we're up top. A pillow, flat sheet stitched into a sleeping bag type of arrangement, and a blanket are folded on the bed. So I'm hot from the climb, tired as all hell, cranky and sitting upright with about 2" of headroom, AND I have to make my own bed? This sucks.
Let's cut to the chase. Sleeping on a train is miserable. In my head it was much more glamorous, like in White Christmas where the sisters are huddled in their compartments giggling, and they all walk to the food car where sandwiches and buttermilk are waiting. Nope. It's noisy, like really noisy, and wobbly. I lay wide awake through 2 full stops, which was at least 2 hours. For the rest of the night, I doze a few minutes at a time. Clint slept much better than I, but it still was not a good night's sleep.
Our cabin mates depart in Koln at about 6:30, so we have the cabin to ourselves for a bit.
We arrive at Amsterdam Central at about 10:30. We get a locker for our luggage and beat feet looking for food. After 2 failed attempts at cafes that serve only coffee until 11:00, we find a place that has food, as it's now 11:02. Toast and scrambled eggs with cappuccino and fresh OJ, then we're ready to start our day. Our server here was friendly and funny, at least to us. He could probably tell we were hungry, as when we walked in, we stared blankly at the menu for several seconds until he said "You want eggs and toast? And coffee, to make you feel good?" He knew exactly what we needed.
The cappuccino was great, and the OJ even better. But the powdered scrambled eggs (served with ketchup packets) were gross, but we were so hungry we wolfed them down anyway.
We lazily wander until we find our hotel, a tiny 14 room place on the Single (sin-jl) canal. Bruno welcomes us and hands us our key. A real key, made from metal, that gets inserted into a lock on the door. Not an electronic key like modern hotels. Our room is on the top floor. Now in Amsterdam, property is taxed based on how many meters of street front they have, so most facades are very narrow. So to get more living space, they build deep and tall. Our hotel is maybe 3 metres wide, but there are 3 homes in Amsterdam that are only 1 metre wide, and we saw one of them. Anyway, because of the narrowness, there isn't a lot of space for a staircase. So we climb up the steepest, narrowest, most hazardous staircase of our lives; 4 flights. Gasping, we reach our room, go inside, and collapse on the bed immediately. This time not because we're tired, but because the room is so small, the only way to close the door behind you is to get on the bed and out of the way. The whole room, including WC is probably 10" x 8". Seriously tiny. When we come back later, we're upgraded to a different room, not bigger, but on the front side of the hotel so we have a lovely view of the canals. Still up the 4 flights of traditional Amsterdam stairs, however.
We consult our Rick Steves book and head in the direction of a bike tour. Unlike the tour of Berlin yesterday, this was much more haphazard, chaotic and halfway crazy. But we all survived somehow. In Amsterdam, 40% of the population commutes by bike. We saw the world's largest bike parking lot with over 4,000 bikes, we rode over the smallest bridge, called the Three Herring bridge, because that's how wide it is, rode to Dam Square, saw some old canal houses, learned some Amsterdam history, rode through Vondelpark, stopped for beer and apple pie at a biergarten, and finally, ended with a ride through the Red Light district. More on that later. It was cold and it rained, but we had sufficient clothes and jackets so it wasn't too bad. All in all, a good tour, 3 hours of info and a decent orientation to the city. It was hard to tell what direction we were going at any given time, though, because the canals form a U shape, so they can't really be used as a reference point. Note; there are 364 canals in Amsterdam, which apparently is more than in Venice.
So you can't go to Amsterdam and not talk about the coffeeshops. If you want a cup of coffee, go to a coffeeshop or a cafe. However, if you want a coffee and a joint, go to a coffeeshop. Cafes serve coffee and pastries, while coffeeshops sell coffee and weed. Apparently, you walk in and are presented with a menu, the different strengths and attributes of the different marijuana they offer. Pre-rolled joints for about €2.50 - €14 if you want to forget who you are and act like Jason Bourne. We did not partake aside from the contact high we got just walking down the street. The aroma is unmistakable and it was coming from every direction. By people riding past on their bikes, people at coffeeshops sitting outside or in an open window with a joint and a beer. Head shops everywhere. There are many seed shops also where you buy the seeds to grow your own. Soft drugs are legal and they are everywhere. EVERYWHERE!
This evening, after a dinner of fast-food felafel sandwich (that we had to ask for withOUT ketchup), we meet with Kimberly, an American ExPat who gives tours of the Red Light district. She explains the different quarters where you can shop by preference, such as the African quarter, Eastern European quarter, and Blue Light quarter (lady boys, trannies, whatever you want to call the she-males) quarters. The girls are in windowed doors. If you want a girl, you tap her window and she will either open it for you or not. When you see the door close and curtains drawn, you know she's busy. For €50, you get the basic "suck and a fuck." Some of the girls have all kinds of "toys" hanging from the walls, maybe suggesting that they offer different specialties. Men stand on the streets advertising their peep shows and live sex shows, boutiques selling every kind of sex accessory you can think of, and many more that you can't. There are many bars and it's crowded with people, many of them coming and going from the girls' windows. There is a shop with the world's most expensive vibrator at €12.000, as it's solid gold. You can imagine that a solid gold vibrato for only €12.000 isn't very big. There is an entire store dedicated to vibrators that you connect to your iPhone. They even look sleek and modern like they were designed by Steve Jobs. I can only imagine the advertising campaign: "Want an orgasm? There's an app for that." Apparently it's a lot of fun to find a bar with a view of a couple windows and time the customer's visits and the girls' popularity. The "basic" €50 experience is capped at 15 min, but according to our guide, they rarely last that long.
Exhausted, we walk back through the Red Light district just for fun once more (oh yeah, and I got winked at and had a door opened to me) and crash back at our tiny hotel for the night.
Day 5 - Berlin
Berlin Day 5
First things first, Clint is feeling better today. Not 100%, but good enough that we got out and about today. Last breakfast buffet at the hotel before checkout. We walked to the train station at Alxanderplatz (das bahnhof) and deposited our packs into a locker for the day. €6 for the big locker for 24 hours. Not bad!
So we head off to Fat Tire City Bike Tours (name, font and cruiser bike logo exactly the same as Fat Tire amber ale from New Belgium, apparently on purpose) for our much anticipated bike tour of Potsdam Gartens and Palais. We arrive and are "greeted" with a grunt, as our tour left at 10:00 and not 10:30 as I had thought. Shit, we're now really pissed off. We were REALLY looking forward to that, especially because yesterday had been a wasted day with Clint getting food poisoning. So we take 5 min. to be angry, then we decide to transfer our tour to the All In One city bike tour. We'll see a lot of what we saw on our walking tour, only this time by bike. At least we're out doing something fun.
Were in a group of about 20, and I volunteer to be the "bum babe," someone to bring up the rear and make sure nobody gets left behind. We get our cruiser bikes, mine named "Hamburg" and Clint's named "Al Green." They were all named places, celebrities, rock bands, etc. Our guide Kevin is from Pennsylvania. So anyhow, most of the same sights as the walking tour we took before. The weather was cold but clear and sunny today, so it was nice to be moving on the bikes, although we were anything but quick. The highlight of the bike tour was cruising through the Tiergarten, and hanging out at the biergarten. We biked through much of the Tiergarten, which used to be the King's hunting grounds. By hunting, it is meant that the King was too busy to hunt, so he gathered the animals in the Tiergarten (translates to animal garden) so he could then shoot them.
But it was beautiful, shady, cold, windy, and thoroughly enjoyable.
We then went to an outdoor biergarten, which might be redundant, as I think biergarten implies that it it out doors. For lunch we had a Flammkuchen Alsace (in the Alsacian style, from Alsace, as is Alsace Lorraine, which means with onions and bacon) and a dark bier. Delicious. And while sitting there, we were joined by a couple of our age from Puyallup; small world. And then we're back on our bikes through the city and back to Alexanderplatz to end the tour. As a "thank you" for being the "bum babe," I get a souvenir piece of the Berlin wall. Um, yay?
After the tour (now almost 4:00), we head to the Neus Museum on Museuminsel. There they have the bust of Nefertiti and the statue of Helios. Both were impressive and well worth the visit. Other than those two items, the most interesting part of the museum was the old Roman antiquities; coins, sarcophagi, armor. Lots of antiquities here, but most were, to us, boring.
Now we're having coffee outside by the river, freezing. I have goosebumps and frozen fingers typing this. It's about 60° F. I'm wearing a 3/4 sleeve dress and leggings, Clint is in pants and a golf shirt. Burrrr. Is it worth €6 to get our packs out of the locker to retrieve our jackets? Time will tell. We have 6 hours until our night train to Amsterdam. Until then, let's eat dinner, get warm, and figure out the train system to get us to the Hoptbahnhof.
OK, we've had our dinner at a Spanish tapas restaurant. Our most expensive dinner yet, ringing in at €56, which is about $73. This was for 2 x 1/2 liters of wine, 3 items from the tapas menu (of which the pork medallion with figs in a rosemary balsamic reduction was by far the best) and flan. All in all, a great meal and nicer than what we expected to find a block away from the train station (the smaller Alexanderplatz station, not our big DeutscheBahn station for the big passenger trains. More like an inner-city transit center.)
So we hopped an S-Bahn, which I'm not sure is different from the U-Bahn that we have been taking. Maybe U-Bahn is like U-boat and goes underground, while the S-Bahn maybe is for surface? No idea. Anyway, we're now at the Hoptbahnhof waiting for our train to Amsterdam, which leaves at 12:32 am. That is 2:02 from now. No Wi-Fi, so Clint's reading and I'll soon likely do the same.
The Hoptbahnhof is nice, like the airport. On one of our tours, we heard that some 300,000 people travel through here each day. The bathrooms (WC) cost €1, and they have an attendant so they're always clean and nice. It's like a shopping mall once you're inside with all kinds of shops selling souvenirs, clothing, fast food, bakeries and noodle houses (Asian food is huge here; it was tough not to wander into a Thai or Pho restaurant). There are probably 6 or 7 floors and trains leaving from 5-6 platforms per floor. North-South trains on the lower floors, East-West trains upstairs. And each train going in both directions to add to the confusion. So not only did we need to figure out which platform/floor we need, we also had to figure out which side of the track to get on the train. We have an assigned car and assigned seats in an assigned cabin. Oh boy. Way more complicated than the airport. Maybe that's just because we're unpracticed Americaners.
First things first, Clint is feeling better today. Not 100%, but good enough that we got out and about today. Last breakfast buffet at the hotel before checkout. We walked to the train station at Alxanderplatz (das bahnhof) and deposited our packs into a locker for the day. €6 for the big locker for 24 hours. Not bad!
So we head off to Fat Tire City Bike Tours (name, font and cruiser bike logo exactly the same as Fat Tire amber ale from New Belgium, apparently on purpose) for our much anticipated bike tour of Potsdam Gartens and Palais. We arrive and are "greeted" with a grunt, as our tour left at 10:00 and not 10:30 as I had thought. Shit, we're now really pissed off. We were REALLY looking forward to that, especially because yesterday had been a wasted day with Clint getting food poisoning. So we take 5 min. to be angry, then we decide to transfer our tour to the All In One city bike tour. We'll see a lot of what we saw on our walking tour, only this time by bike. At least we're out doing something fun.
Were in a group of about 20, and I volunteer to be the "bum babe," someone to bring up the rear and make sure nobody gets left behind. We get our cruiser bikes, mine named "Hamburg" and Clint's named "Al Green." They were all named places, celebrities, rock bands, etc. Our guide Kevin is from Pennsylvania. So anyhow, most of the same sights as the walking tour we took before. The weather was cold but clear and sunny today, so it was nice to be moving on the bikes, although we were anything but quick. The highlight of the bike tour was cruising through the Tiergarten, and hanging out at the biergarten. We biked through much of the Tiergarten, which used to be the King's hunting grounds. By hunting, it is meant that the King was too busy to hunt, so he gathered the animals in the Tiergarten (translates to animal garden) so he could then shoot them.
But it was beautiful, shady, cold, windy, and thoroughly enjoyable.
We then went to an outdoor biergarten, which might be redundant, as I think biergarten implies that it it out doors. For lunch we had a Flammkuchen Alsace (in the Alsacian style, from Alsace, as is Alsace Lorraine, which means with onions and bacon) and a dark bier. Delicious. And while sitting there, we were joined by a couple of our age from Puyallup; small world. And then we're back on our bikes through the city and back to Alexanderplatz to end the tour. As a "thank you" for being the "bum babe," I get a souvenir piece of the Berlin wall. Um, yay?
After the tour (now almost 4:00), we head to the Neus Museum on Museuminsel. There they have the bust of Nefertiti and the statue of Helios. Both were impressive and well worth the visit. Other than those two items, the most interesting part of the museum was the old Roman antiquities; coins, sarcophagi, armor. Lots of antiquities here, but most were, to us, boring.
Now we're having coffee outside by the river, freezing. I have goosebumps and frozen fingers typing this. It's about 60° F. I'm wearing a 3/4 sleeve dress and leggings, Clint is in pants and a golf shirt. Burrrr. Is it worth €6 to get our packs out of the locker to retrieve our jackets? Time will tell. We have 6 hours until our night train to Amsterdam. Until then, let's eat dinner, get warm, and figure out the train system to get us to the Hoptbahnhof.
OK, we've had our dinner at a Spanish tapas restaurant. Our most expensive dinner yet, ringing in at €56, which is about $73. This was for 2 x 1/2 liters of wine, 3 items from the tapas menu (of which the pork medallion with figs in a rosemary balsamic reduction was by far the best) and flan. All in all, a great meal and nicer than what we expected to find a block away from the train station (the smaller Alexanderplatz station, not our big DeutscheBahn station for the big passenger trains. More like an inner-city transit center.)
So we hopped an S-Bahn, which I'm not sure is different from the U-Bahn that we have been taking. Maybe U-Bahn is like U-boat and goes underground, while the S-Bahn maybe is for surface? No idea. Anyway, we're now at the Hoptbahnhof waiting for our train to Amsterdam, which leaves at 12:32 am. That is 2:02 from now. No Wi-Fi, so Clint's reading and I'll soon likely do the same.
The Hoptbahnhof is nice, like the airport. On one of our tours, we heard that some 300,000 people travel through here each day. The bathrooms (WC) cost €1, and they have an attendant so they're always clean and nice. It's like a shopping mall once you're inside with all kinds of shops selling souvenirs, clothing, fast food, bakeries and noodle houses (Asian food is huge here; it was tough not to wander into a Thai or Pho restaurant). There are probably 6 or 7 floors and trains leaving from 5-6 platforms per floor. North-South trains on the lower floors, East-West trains upstairs. And each train going in both directions to add to the confusion. So not only did we need to figure out which platform/floor we need, we also had to figure out which side of the track to get on the train. We have an assigned car and assigned seats in an assigned cabin. Oh boy. Way more complicated than the airport. Maybe that's just because we're unpracticed Americaners.
Day 4 - Berlin
Berlin Day 4
Last night Clint caught a bug of some sort, so we had an adventure at the pharmacy this morning. We spent the day in the hotel room, save for a failed attempt to get to Museuminsel. We took the train to Alexanderrplatz and made our transfer, but half way through the walk to the museums, it was clear that Clint needed rest. He was green and walking funny, so we got him back to the hotel ASAP.
I went out a couple times to get bottled water (Berlin water tastes really gross), OJ and some bread for Clint. Other than that, it's been a day inside watching the movies that we smartly downloaded to our tablets before we left.
Tomorrow is a busy day, with hotel check-out, a biking tour of Potsdam's gartens and palais and our night train to Amsterdam. Here's hoping Clint feels better soon, or tomorrow will be really miserable.
Last night Clint caught a bug of some sort, so we had an adventure at the pharmacy this morning. We spent the day in the hotel room, save for a failed attempt to get to Museuminsel. We took the train to Alexanderrplatz and made our transfer, but half way through the walk to the museums, it was clear that Clint needed rest. He was green and walking funny, so we got him back to the hotel ASAP.
I went out a couple times to get bottled water (Berlin water tastes really gross), OJ and some bread for Clint. Other than that, it's been a day inside watching the movies that we smartly downloaded to our tablets before we left.
Tomorrow is a busy day, with hotel check-out, a biking tour of Potsdam's gartens and palais and our night train to Amsterdam. Here's hoping Clint feels better soon, or tomorrow will be really miserable.
Day 3 - Berlin
Berlin Day 3
I am writing this from on a boat. It's 12:30 and our tour leaves in 15 minutes. We have beer and sparkling white wine sitting in front of us, and it is a gloriously sunny, albeit a touch cool day.
We had a late start this morning. No alarm set so it was 10:30 by the time we finished breakfast. We left with the plan to visit the museums of Museuminsel. We walked to our destination only to discover that all but 1 of the museums are closed on Mondays. So we called an audible and decided to take the Spree River cruise instead. We walked in what we thought was the right direction, but we ended up walking in a complete circle around the island to find our cruise that was leaving from where were standing 30 minutes prior. So here we are. A bus load of middle aged passengers just descended on our boat, so this will be an interesting ride.
OK, the boat tour was nice. We wanted to do less walking today, so we took the train to the West side of Berlin in what seemed to be the heart of the business center. We had a roadside currywurst, which was strange and good, then walked to Kaiser Wilhelm's Memorial Church (also known as Kaiser Wilhelm's broken tooth). This is a magnificent church that was all but flattened during WWII, only the tower remains. The mosaics inside were incredible but the visit overall was quite underwhelming. The outside of the tower was surrounded by scaffolding, as they are restoring the building. Only the broken tower peak was visible.
In the fashion of the day, we ended up walking in a large victory lap (aka circle because we were lost) trying to find our way to the Tiergarten. Finally found it, and the stretch we started on paralleled the zoo, so we saw emus and ostriches, gazelle, wombats and a few other creatures. There were naked sunbathers in the garten. Berlin has a "free body culture" so people just hang out naked. It's pretty admirable.
The walk through the Tiergarten was beautiful; it's like Berlin's Central Park. Lakes and streams, bike paths and walking trails, lots of trees and also open green spaces. We were so tired of walking, though, but we missed our chance to rent a bike from the DB bike rental vending machines. Yes, that's right. They have solar powered bike rental vending machines. Pay a few euros and you get a bike. Ride it around a bit and deposit it at another vending station. Pretty awesome! And Berlin is flat, so biking ain't tough. But the traffic "laws" (or lack-thereof) would probably get us killed. Oh how we wanted a bike the last half of the day. But alas we walked our way to Potsdamerplats and found the Panoramapunkt, which is a building that, on the 24th floor has a viewing deck to get a 360° view of Berlin. There was city as far as you could see. I couldn't help but wonder if Berlin isn't just a lot of cities and suburbs strung together. I couldn't see any break in the building-dotted skyline.
Afterward we stopped for a cappuccino and baked treat, which was just enough energy to help us navigate (walk in circles) through the DB station to get our trains back "home." We stopped in a Bio Market for wine and chocolate and are having that as a pre-dinner snack and muscle relaxer, as we're both feeling pretty beat.
We had dinner at a traditional Berliner pub for dinner. Beers and "Berliner Platte fur zwei." Included currywurst, meatballs, gherkins, prosciutto, brie, and salat (lettuce, tomato and cucumber all spread neatly across the plate). Served with a side of bread and olive oil & balsamic vinegar. More than enough food for us hungry travelers. Had a few strange brews then headed in for the night. Finishing our Riesling and chocolate before bedtime. Tomorrow; Museuminsel take 2.
I am writing this from on a boat. It's 12:30 and our tour leaves in 15 minutes. We have beer and sparkling white wine sitting in front of us, and it is a gloriously sunny, albeit a touch cool day.
We had a late start this morning. No alarm set so it was 10:30 by the time we finished breakfast. We left with the plan to visit the museums of Museuminsel. We walked to our destination only to discover that all but 1 of the museums are closed on Mondays. So we called an audible and decided to take the Spree River cruise instead. We walked in what we thought was the right direction, but we ended up walking in a complete circle around the island to find our cruise that was leaving from where were standing 30 minutes prior. So here we are. A bus load of middle aged passengers just descended on our boat, so this will be an interesting ride.
OK, the boat tour was nice. We wanted to do less walking today, so we took the train to the West side of Berlin in what seemed to be the heart of the business center. We had a roadside currywurst, which was strange and good, then walked to Kaiser Wilhelm's Memorial Church (also known as Kaiser Wilhelm's broken tooth). This is a magnificent church that was all but flattened during WWII, only the tower remains. The mosaics inside were incredible but the visit overall was quite underwhelming. The outside of the tower was surrounded by scaffolding, as they are restoring the building. Only the broken tower peak was visible.
In the fashion of the day, we ended up walking in a large victory lap (aka circle because we were lost) trying to find our way to the Tiergarten. Finally found it, and the stretch we started on paralleled the zoo, so we saw emus and ostriches, gazelle, wombats and a few other creatures. There were naked sunbathers in the garten. Berlin has a "free body culture" so people just hang out naked. It's pretty admirable.
The walk through the Tiergarten was beautiful; it's like Berlin's Central Park. Lakes and streams, bike paths and walking trails, lots of trees and also open green spaces. We were so tired of walking, though, but we missed our chance to rent a bike from the DB bike rental vending machines. Yes, that's right. They have solar powered bike rental vending machines. Pay a few euros and you get a bike. Ride it around a bit and deposit it at another vending station. Pretty awesome! And Berlin is flat, so biking ain't tough. But the traffic "laws" (or lack-thereof) would probably get us killed. Oh how we wanted a bike the last half of the day. But alas we walked our way to Potsdamerplats and found the Panoramapunkt, which is a building that, on the 24th floor has a viewing deck to get a 360° view of Berlin. There was city as far as you could see. I couldn't help but wonder if Berlin isn't just a lot of cities and suburbs strung together. I couldn't see any break in the building-dotted skyline.
Afterward we stopped for a cappuccino and baked treat, which was just enough energy to help us navigate (walk in circles) through the DB station to get our trains back "home." We stopped in a Bio Market for wine and chocolate and are having that as a pre-dinner snack and muscle relaxer, as we're both feeling pretty beat.
We had dinner at a traditional Berliner pub for dinner. Beers and "Berliner Platte fur zwei." Included currywurst, meatballs, gherkins, prosciutto, brie, and salat (lettuce, tomato and cucumber all spread neatly across the plate). Served with a side of bread and olive oil & balsamic vinegar. More than enough food for us hungry travelers. Had a few strange brews then headed in for the night. Finishing our Riesling and chocolate before bedtime. Tomorrow; Museuminsel take 2.
Day 2 - Berlin
Berlin Day 2
We woke up @ 6:45, which was just right. By the time we showered and went downstairs for breakfast it was 8:30. The breakfast buffet had yogurts and fruit, several muesli to choose from, and a basket of soft boiled eggs wrapped in a linen. There were several breads to choose from, just slice as much as you want. Cheeses and cold cuts and tomatoes and cucumbers. I had a thick slice of grainy bread with sunflower seeds with brie and a cold cut that looked like it had meaty bits throughout like head cheese. Also had a bowl of yogurt with fresh fruit and prunes. Delish.
We walked to Mauer Park where they have the biggest flea market I've ever seen. It was very gypsy-ish. Booths selling used clothes, junk of the best sorts like old cameras, bike parts, toys made from computer parts. And the food; I wish we hadn't eaten at the hotel because all the old mamas and grannies mixing up all kinds of who-knows-what looked and smelled amazing. Donner kebabs, Turkish food, Lebanese, Asian, pastries, poppy seed cakes, sandwiches of every shape and sort filled with anything under the sun. Man, it all looked amazing.
We hung out in the park next to the market for a few minutes. People were running their dogs, making fires in the sand and drinking, playing guitars and just hanging out. Not a classy place, but not a trashy place either.
We then walked back along the old wall. We saw the wall memorial and many historical sites along the way. There are info stations along the wall with audio recordings and plaques to read. We read about Tunnel 57 and the Church that was blown up. Clint wanted to take pictures but I couldn't bring myself to smile. It's not really a happy place, but a place for reflection and thinking.
In the afternoon, went on the Brewer's Walking Tour. OK, there was no beer, so let's just get that out of the way. It's just the name of the company. Sad, but it was still great. Our guide Espin took us throughout the city and showed us the highlights. To name a few, we crossed the Spree River, saw Museum Island, Checkpoint Charlie, Humboldt University, Topography of Terror and a standing section of the Berlin Wall. At Checkpoint Charlie we had a break, so we enjoyed our first Donner Kebab then had a cappuccino with Espin. Then we walked past the Ministry of the Air force which was completely untouched throughout WWII (which is remarkable because most of Berlin got hit with at least some fire). It is enormous and remarkable. We walked past the site of Hitler's ridiculously large office (which is now a Chinese restaurant) and onto Hitler's place of death (which is now a car park). This was actually an underground bunker, so there's nothing to see; just a sign post stating what is beneath the pavement. In contrast, we then walked to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe which is a very impressive site. More on that later. (Google it; it's evocative.) We saw the block that contains Embassies for USA and many European countries, then on to the finale, the Brandenburg Tor. The gate was crowded with tourists, so we'll venture back there in the morning when we can get some better photos.
We finally started heading back to the hotel, and are now enjoying bread with sour cream and chives an a Berliner Pilsner (Clint) and a Radeburger (Shannon). Our legs and feet our beat, so this break is quite welcome.
Cultural note: yesterday we felt very awkward communicating with the locals. Our very limited German intimidated us, and we felt really awkward every time we said "Danke shoen ." Today we are more comfortable and say it with ease, as well as "Gutentag." Yesterday we felt like tourists, and it was an awkward feeling, but today we know we're tourists and are OK with it and not worrying about fitting in. Being a tourist isn't a bad thing, so I'm glad we're accepting that fact and not being shy about asking if people speak English. They all do.
OK, so now it's dinner time. And here, dinnertime is 8:00. We check out our guidebook and decide on a place that has traditional German tapas. We walk 15 minutes up the street to Die Schule (die shoo-luh). By the time we get there, it's 8:45 and the place is dead; only 1 other couple. But we make ourselves comfy outside and dine all fresco. We start with 0,5L of a German red wine; light and on the sweet side, the kind of wine you could drink all night long. We order a "classic" flammkuchen (German style thin crust pizza with onions and bacon) and 6 different tapas; schnitzel, fried Camembert with cranberry sauce, grilled sausage with mashed potatoes, German meatball with sauerkraut, pork knuckle and potato pancake. All together it is the perfect amount of food. The flammkuchen was by far the best. The knuckle was pretty great; like a strange ham. Everything else was good, but nothing else noteworthy. Taken together, it was fantastic. Clint said that the dinner as a whole was better than the sum of its parts. Agreed. Topped it off with a chocolate souffle served with lemon-thyme sorbet another 0,5L wine and call it a night.
Walked back to the hotel, about 15 minutes or so. It has cooled down this evening which should make for a comfortable night.
Weather note: the morning was crisp and cool, but by about 10:00 or so, we were donning our sunglasses and leaving out jackets. It was bright and sunny today, about 70+ degrees. We both got a light sun burn on our noses but nothing bad. This afternoon was perfectly pleasant for walking about. Altogether a thoroughly enjoyable day.
We woke up @ 6:45, which was just right. By the time we showered and went downstairs for breakfast it was 8:30. The breakfast buffet had yogurts and fruit, several muesli to choose from, and a basket of soft boiled eggs wrapped in a linen. There were several breads to choose from, just slice as much as you want. Cheeses and cold cuts and tomatoes and cucumbers. I had a thick slice of grainy bread with sunflower seeds with brie and a cold cut that looked like it had meaty bits throughout like head cheese. Also had a bowl of yogurt with fresh fruit and prunes. Delish.
We walked to Mauer Park where they have the biggest flea market I've ever seen. It was very gypsy-ish. Booths selling used clothes, junk of the best sorts like old cameras, bike parts, toys made from computer parts. And the food; I wish we hadn't eaten at the hotel because all the old mamas and grannies mixing up all kinds of who-knows-what looked and smelled amazing. Donner kebabs, Turkish food, Lebanese, Asian, pastries, poppy seed cakes, sandwiches of every shape and sort filled with anything under the sun. Man, it all looked amazing.
We hung out in the park next to the market for a few minutes. People were running their dogs, making fires in the sand and drinking, playing guitars and just hanging out. Not a classy place, but not a trashy place either.
We then walked back along the old wall. We saw the wall memorial and many historical sites along the way. There are info stations along the wall with audio recordings and plaques to read. We read about Tunnel 57 and the Church that was blown up. Clint wanted to take pictures but I couldn't bring myself to smile. It's not really a happy place, but a place for reflection and thinking.
In the afternoon, went on the Brewer's Walking Tour. OK, there was no beer, so let's just get that out of the way. It's just the name of the company. Sad, but it was still great. Our guide Espin took us throughout the city and showed us the highlights. To name a few, we crossed the Spree River, saw Museum Island, Checkpoint Charlie, Humboldt University, Topography of Terror and a standing section of the Berlin Wall. At Checkpoint Charlie we had a break, so we enjoyed our first Donner Kebab then had a cappuccino with Espin. Then we walked past the Ministry of the Air force which was completely untouched throughout WWII (which is remarkable because most of Berlin got hit with at least some fire). It is enormous and remarkable. We walked past the site of Hitler's ridiculously large office (which is now a Chinese restaurant) and onto Hitler's place of death (which is now a car park). This was actually an underground bunker, so there's nothing to see; just a sign post stating what is beneath the pavement. In contrast, we then walked to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe which is a very impressive site. More on that later. (Google it; it's evocative.) We saw the block that contains Embassies for USA and many European countries, then on to the finale, the Brandenburg Tor. The gate was crowded with tourists, so we'll venture back there in the morning when we can get some better photos.
We finally started heading back to the hotel, and are now enjoying bread with sour cream and chives an a Berliner Pilsner (Clint) and a Radeburger (Shannon). Our legs and feet our beat, so this break is quite welcome.
Cultural note: yesterday we felt very awkward communicating with the locals. Our very limited German intimidated us, and we felt really awkward every time we said "Danke shoen ." Today we are more comfortable and say it with ease, as well as "Gutentag." Yesterday we felt like tourists, and it was an awkward feeling, but today we know we're tourists and are OK with it and not worrying about fitting in. Being a tourist isn't a bad thing, so I'm glad we're accepting that fact and not being shy about asking if people speak English. They all do.
OK, so now it's dinner time. And here, dinnertime is 8:00. We check out our guidebook and decide on a place that has traditional German tapas. We walk 15 minutes up the street to Die Schule (die shoo-luh). By the time we get there, it's 8:45 and the place is dead; only 1 other couple. But we make ourselves comfy outside and dine all fresco. We start with 0,5L of a German red wine; light and on the sweet side, the kind of wine you could drink all night long. We order a "classic" flammkuchen (German style thin crust pizza with onions and bacon) and 6 different tapas; schnitzel, fried Camembert with cranberry sauce, grilled sausage with mashed potatoes, German meatball with sauerkraut, pork knuckle and potato pancake. All together it is the perfect amount of food. The flammkuchen was by far the best. The knuckle was pretty great; like a strange ham. Everything else was good, but nothing else noteworthy. Taken together, it was fantastic. Clint said that the dinner as a whole was better than the sum of its parts. Agreed. Topped it off with a chocolate souffle served with lemon-thyme sorbet another 0,5L wine and call it a night.
Walked back to the hotel, about 15 minutes or so. It has cooled down this evening which should make for a comfortable night.
Weather note: the morning was crisp and cool, but by about 10:00 or so, we were donning our sunglasses and leaving out jackets. It was bright and sunny today, about 70+ degrees. We both got a light sun burn on our noses but nothing bad. This afternoon was perfectly pleasant for walking about. Altogether a thoroughly enjoyable day.
Saturday, October 6, 2012
Day 1 - Berlin
Berlin Day 1
After working our way through the airport customs and security gates, we consult our guide books and learn that, in order to reach our hotel, we need to hop a bus to the train station. Being that this is my first time in Germany, I'm a little lost and nervous, but paired with Clint, we have the confidence and wherewithal to get things figured out. We buy or AB ticket from the vending machine, hop the bus and we're on our way.
We get to the train station, which is surprisingly easy to navigate. We easily find our train, grab a seat, stash our bags in the overhead racks, and wobble our way into downtown Berlin.
We arrive at Rosenthalerplatz, exit the train station, and our hotel is RIGHT on the corner. We're on the 4th floor on the inside, overlooking the dining patio. Outside our room window we have a perfect view of the TV tower. It's not that exciting to look at architecturally, but at least it's a view of something neat.
We get recommendations from the front desk for a place to eat. We have appetizers and beers at a Russian restaurant called Gorki Park that was just a few blocks away. We sat outside on the sidewalk, and saw lots of smokers, people riding bikes wearing high heels and NO HELMETS on the sidewalk, people walking by just holding bottles of beers and wine, some open. I guess it's OK to drink on the streets here?
After consulting our guidebooks, we have dinner at a place called Pratergarten, which is just several more blocks up the street. This felt like what I imagine a traditional German style food hall would be like. Heavy wooden tables, loud atmosphere, and people talking all throughout the room. We ordered Pilsner mixed with Sprite, called a Radler. On the drink menu were several variations of Pilsner mixed with different sodas. It was weird, and I won't be ordering one again. So then we ordered grosse blackbiers, which were much better.
Our hotel is very modern and basic, minimalist. Two twin beds pushed together with lime green vinyl headboards on a pumpkin orange wall. A bathroom with clear shower doors and tile floors. Perfect view of the TV tower in downtown Berlin. Two small sitting chairs and a coffee table at the foot of the bed. TV mounted on the wall. We both want to watch some German TV while we're here.
For dinner, we shared our meals of a half a roasted duck with red cabbage (Clint's favorite) and potato dumplings, which are kind of like a cross between potato pudding and jello, quite odd, really. We also ate lamb with a pumpkin puree and green beans. OMG, everything was so delicious and we absolutely cleaned our plates!
There was a French speaking couple next to us, we took their picture and they ours. The whole restaurant had a very friendly atmosphere. We had a nice walk back to the hotel. We stopped for gelato on the way from a hole-in-the-wall storefront. Cafe mocha crunch; a little dish of it for 90 cents. The perfect sweet ending to our day. Went to bed about 10 and slept right through to 6:45. We were bushed!
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