This is all part of my trip that started in Uzbekistan in May and carried on for another couple weeks with stops in Istanbul, Berlin, Prague, Vienna and Munich.

I have decided each European city is different enough that I would do a separate post for each.

We left Istanbul and headed to Berlin…….

June 8 Wed

Taxi came at 5:15AM.  Checked out and off we went.  Only 45 min to the airport at that time of day. Same cost back 350L or 20E.

No issues checking in  Lots of time to kill for our 8:10 flight so we grabbed coffee and pastries.

Lucky us…..upgraded again to the emerg exit row.  I guess I shouldn’t complain really.

Arrived in Frankfurt on time (10:15….got another hour back!).  No problems going thru customs/immigration other than the guy was a little confused initially thinking we were connecting with another flight and tried to send us elsewhere…..explained that we were staying in Germany/EU for 2 more weeks before heading home.  All was good and off we went.

Bought tickets for the SD8 or 9 into Frankfurt Main……in hindsight had we activated our Eurail Pass we could have save 4E!  Only a few minute ride so lots of time before our 1PM train to Berlin.

Had some issues trying to activate our pass so went to the ticket office where the lady couldn’t help us with that but she could book seats for us on the train (and extra 20E each to book seats).  We did figure it out finally.  I though I had activated both of our accounts but there was one more step that I missed….all trains have wifi so we would have gotten on anyway and hoped for the best (sometimes the wifi cuts out on the trains so we always took screen shots of our pass and seat selections, just in case we couldn’t open the app).  Will sort out the seat booking thing once we get to Berlin.

Good train ride…..just over 4 hours.  Mostly industrial until an hour or so out of Frankfurt, then nice countryside, small villages, farmland mostly wheat and corn.

Arrived in Berlin just after 5.  Taxi to the hotel 16E

Great hotel Maritime proArte. Good location just off Friedrichstrasse.  Close to Unter den Linden etc.  The hotel is much bigger than we thought….lots of tour groups, big conference centre. Nice room.  Some rather interesting eclectic art throughout the hotel!

Out to explore the area.  Very busy.  Lots of shops, close to the metro, some cafes…also part of the university (Humboldt?) is on Friedrichstrasse.  Lots of commercial buildings. Trying to decide where to go for dinner we found a nice little Italian place pretty much right under the tram line.  Was good…enjoyed having pasta!  40E…..60CDN….pretty sure we didn’t pay more than 10-15Cdn for our meals in Uzbek other than that first night in Tashkent.

Walked around for a bit after dinner but nothing too exciting right near the hotel.  Stopped for drinks and then back and too bed.  A very long day.

June 9 Thurs

Up pretty early.  Out in search of a café for breakfast….was surprised to not find a lot of cafes, let alone any that were open at 8.  Did find a Starbucks for tea/coffee and pastry. A bit cloudy this AM so brought umbrellas just in case. Warm though.

Museum Island is only a short walk down Inter den Linden.  Stopped briefly on the way at the Neue Wache which is a memorial to the victims of war and tyranny….was very interesting.   MI has 6 or 7 museums….you buy tickets separately for each one….and no umbrellas allowed! Mine was kind of hidden by the shawl I had tied around my bag so they didn’t see it.  We went to the Pergamon and Neues museums, both were excellent. 

Pergamon had lot of stuff from Turkey, including the agora gate and mosaic floors from Miletus…..some original parts (from 2ndC AD) that were excavated from the site but much was rebuilt/restored in Berlin in the early 1900’s. It suffered a lot of damage during WWII and was restored once again in the 1950’s.  Was fun to see the small tile collection from Samarkand as well as the Middle and Far East.  Also really enjoyed the ancient glass! So much more to see in the Pergamon but moved on to the Neues.

The Neues has the Nefertiti bust on display…..just beautiful.  No pictures allowed and the guards are right on you if they think you are trying to sneak one in!!  An absolutely fabulous collection of Egyptian artifacts.  And a super exhibition of Heinrich Schliemann and his excavations of Troy based on the Iliad and the Odyssey.

We spent almost 5 hours in the museums and could easily have spent longer. 

Came out to a very overcast sky.  Found a café across from the island for a great lunch.  I had the pea soup, which was more like a stew and v.v.g…..and had a couple of glasses of wine while we sat out the downpour that lasted for about an hour.

Once the rain had stopped we went to Alexandar Platz to see the Berliner Fernsehturm, the radio tower, the world clock (shows the time in approx 150 cities around the world)  and the Neptune Fountain…..very detailed front and back, kind of whimsical.  City hall across the way.  Kind of a neat area….lots of shops and cafes. 

The sun had come out and it was warm again!  Found a fun little place for coffee in an in/outdoor atrium sort of place.  Linds got her chocolate snowball things that she’d discovered on her trip to Norway.  Did a bit of shopping (ornaments, pens, postcard) and a stop a the Birkenstock store.  Quite a few different styles from the ones we see at home…..so I just had to get a pair.  Ones that I recognized seem to be about $10-20 cheaper even with the Euro exchange rate.

Back to the hotel for a bit of rest and to update my journal before I forgot all that we saw today.

Went to dinner at the place just next door (part of hotel maybe?), the Gaffel Haus Restaurant….was great.  Fun, very loud place and good food.  Linds had the schnitzel (v.g.) and I had the sausage, sauerkraut and fried potatoes (v.v.g).  Went for a little walk after dinner just past Friedrichstrasse and was surprised how quiet it was…..not a lot of people out and about. 

Great day!!

June 10 Fri

Up and out this morning around 9.  Found an open café for coffee and breakfast.

The app to book our seats would not work last night so we walked to the train station to get that done for tomorrow….figured it would be busy on a Saturday and wanted to make sure we had seats.

Really nice walk….big park where the Reichtag is.  Lots of construction going on in front of the building.  Walked towards the river (Spree), nice walkway along it…. great area.  A real mix of new and old buildings, some very modern, some cafes right down at the river.  Crossed the river to the train station.  Went to the ticket office and discovered that there were no 1^st class seats available…..that may have been the issue last night but nothing came up saying so.  Argh.  Oh well we booked seats in 2^nd class so we’d at least have them.  Busy, crazy place but a nice new modern station.  Didn’t notice it when we arrived!!

Walked down along the river to Tiergarten Park.  Very pretty, lots of big trees and little pathways.  Once off the main road it’s quite quiet and hard to believe you’re in the middle of a big city (kind of like being in Stanley Park at home). Was just a great walk.  The Carillon was interesting….a bell tower that has a huge organ in it as opposed to a bell!  There is a cultural centre for conferences and a theatre….very nice grounds, gardens, a tea house and beer garden.  Lots of little areas with statues but very few benches along the way to have a rest. 

Passed the Bellevue Palace, residence of the President (not the Chancellor) and down to Siegessaule, the Berlin Victory Column.  Lots of very interesting history around it.  There is a public washroom, which I had to use…..was prepared for the worst, but it was unbelievably clean (lots of TP, full soap dispensers, paper towels….and a dry floor!). Probably the cleanest one of the trip so far, which is amazing for a busy public washroom!!  Cute little café on one of the corners so we stopped and had sausages, which were euro wieners, really good potato salad and a glass of wine all for 10E!

Nice walk along Str 17 June.  A busy street but treelined with park on both sides, lots of statues and monuments (Bismarck).  The column is at one end and the Brandenburg Gate at the other.

Very crowded area around the Gate. Quite impressive, lots of information about it.  There was a board with the history of the gate…..all very interesting.  Plaques on the ground showing where the wall was.  One tidbit I thought was really interesting was the date Aug 13, 1961 which is referred to as “Barbed Wire Sunday”.  I knew why the wall had been built of course but never thought much about how and when it was built.  Always something new to learn!

The Reichtag is just down the street…walked over and all around the area.  All government buildings but no issues roaming around.  Inside is by tour only.

The afternoon was getting on so one last must see for me was the East Side Gallery.  Grabbed a taxi to get there (20E).  Definitely worth it.  That whole area is “up and coming” being gentrified with new apartments, restaurants, cafes etc.  The gallery is around a mile along and is the last remaining big of the original wall…..I think part of it was moved from another location but still original.  Many very interesting murals….some are really good and easy to see what was being conveyed, others not so much but fun to look at.  There are a couple of places right along the river, one is an old barge sort of thing, for coffee or drinks, another is a hostel.  But I think besides the murals, it was the bridge that was the highlight.  The Oberbaum Bridge (Oberbaumbruke) is a beautiful piece of Gothic architecture built in 1890’s to replace an ancient one from the 1600’s.  Double-decker –  trains on top, cars on the bottom.  After the wall went up it also served as part of it as a dividing line between East and West Berlin.  All the river was in East Berlin so many stories of people trying to swim across and sadly getting caught or drowning. 

Started walking back along the river, almost back to Alexanderplatz but very hot and tired so we grabbed a taxi.  Thought about visiting “checkpoint Charlie” but most people we talked to said it was not worth it….just a tourist thing now, not even in the original spot.

Had a rest and headed out to Treffpunkt Berlin for dinner….had a great write up.  Fun, busy place.  Only a few blocks from the hotel.  I had the “boiled dinner” which was pork knuckle, Linds had the schnitzel.  Both were really good but ridiculous amounts of food!

For a Friday night again, not many people out and about which surprises me.

The Romanian Embassy is across the street from the hotel….a rather ominous looking place with only one light on up on the top floor.

What a great day!  Wasn’t sure about Berlin the first day…..Linds called it a “hard” city…..which I thought described it pretty good….a working, down to business type place (which it is of course!).  But after today I think I quite like it.  We found the “pretty” parts of the city.  So much of it was destroyed during the war so there is a real mix of old, new-ish post war buildings and really modern (especially along the river near the train station).  The museums are great, the people very pleasant, good food and wine…and beer.

Off to Prague tomorrow!