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            Trip Report yk's Trip Report: Best and Wurst of Berlin/Dresden in 1 week - Fall 2009

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            Hello all,

            This will be yet another one of my long-winded, detailed trip report. I hope some of you will find this helpful and informative.

            Background
            Who?
            DH & I, both in our mid-30s.

            Our Interests?
            Art, esp paintings (range from Old Masters paintings to contemporary art); architecture; classical music & opera; history

            Our Travel Style?
            Budget-minded but not on a strict budget; meaning that we don’t spend $ on taxis or 3* Michelin meals or 5* hotels, but we won’t scrimp on admission fees or opera tickets.

            When & Why?
            8 days during last week of Sept – first week of October

            This has become our tradition – an annual Fall trip to Europe. It began in the Fall of 2005 when we went to Venice for our honeymoon. In 2006, we went to Vienna. 2007 – Paris/Loire Valley. 2008 – Paris/Loire Valley/Belgium

            Why Berlin?
            I was in Berlin once before, in 2003 with my parents. I wasn’t even interested in going then, but my dad really wanted to go because he was last in Berlin in 1961 just before the Wall went up. He wanted to see what it has become. On that 2003 visit, I was intrigued by this city – by its complicated yet fascinating history. We were there for about 4 days and that was not enough, so I have been longing to return. In fact, most of the places we visited in Berlin this time are *new* to me! Neither one of us has been to Dresden.

            Our Itinerary at a Glance:
            4.5 days in Berlin; 1 overnight in Dresden
            20 museums/galleries
            3 operas
            1 GTG

            Pre-trip Bookings
            We bought our plane tickets about 2 months before our trip. AA had an Europe sale in early July. We probably could have gotten a better price if we jumped on it sooner. But we still bought them for a reasonable price of $750pp r/t from Boston; with connection at London Heathrow. After I bought our tickets, I was checking ticket prices weekly for another few weeks and never saw the fares as low as the one we got.

            From the very beginning, I have decided on renting an apartment for a week in Berlin, and taking a side-trip to Dresden. Fodorite sandy_b has posted a positive review on a Berlin apartment, which we rented. I’d much rather rent places with reviews here from regular posters, than random places recommended on TripAdvisor.

            After the apartment issue was settled, I bought our DB train tickets online r/t to Dresden. By buying them in advance, we paid €89 instead of €144 . The only downside is these tickets are non-refundable and non-changeable. But since our itinerary is set, we are fine with these conditions. I booked one night at the Dresden Ibis near the train station for a prepaid rate of 59 euros; vs 79 euros at regular rate. Again, since our schedule is set in stone, pre-paying is not an issue for us.

            I bought tickets to 2 operas in Berlin (Staatsoper Unter den Linden and Komische Oper), and Dresden’s Historic Green Vault tickets. Our Dresden Fodorite Ingo was kind enough to buy opera tickets at Dresden’s SemperOper for us in advance (the cheaper seats are not available online).

            I made 2 dinner reservations: one at the restaurant at Reichstag Dome; another one in Dresden after the opera.

            One gallery we visited required advance booking – Sammlung Hoffman.

            Trip Planning Resources
            My resources are:
            1) Trip Reports here – esp recent ones by Pegontheroad and danon; and older ones by noe847 and caroline_edinburgh. I also need to thank sandy_b for her help.
            2) 2009 Lonely Planet Berlin
            3) 2005 Art/Shop/Eat Berlin by Blue Guides – I LOVE the Blue Guides series, but unfortunately they have not issued an updated one for Berlin
            4) 2009 Fodors Top 25 Berlin – this is the only Berlin guidebook offered by Fodors. It is too brief for my taste, but has a decent, laminated map which I used a lot
            5) Websites for all the attractions we were going to visit. I note down opening days and hours of the museums and galleries so that we can maximize our limited time

            Preparation
            Books - Since the trip was planned 2 months ago, I had time to read numerous spy and detective novels set in Berlin, by John LeCarre, David Downing, and the Berlin Noir Trilogy by Philip Kerr.

            Movies/Documentaries – We watched Dresden the movie; made by a German TV station in 2005. http://www.amazon.com/Dresden-Felicitas-Woll/dp/B000YKT4BW It is a love story set during the eve of the fire-bombing of Dresden by Allied planes in Feb 1945. I definitely recommend this movie.

            We also watched a PBS documentary on the Berlin AirLift of 1948-49. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/airlift/

            Another excellent movie we saw a few months ago, was the Academy Award-winning The Lives of Others, about the Stasi spying on East Germans. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405094/

            On the comic side, I saw One, Two, Three, a 1961 comedy starring James Cagney as the COO of Coca-Cola in West Berlin during the Cold War. His life turned upside down when his boss’s daughter arrived and decided to marry an East German communist in secret. It has lots of laughs making fun of the stereotypes of Russians, East Germans, and Americans. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One,_Two,_Three

            We also watched DVDs of the 3 operas we were going to see on this trip, in order to brush up on the music and synopsis.

            Housekeeping
            Which sightseeing pass to get?
            There are several tourist passes available. The Berlin Welcome Card and the Berlin CityTourCard are somewhat similar. Both include free transportation. One offers free museum entrances, the other offers discounted admission. Both are worth considering if you’re in Berlin for just a few days.
            http://www.visitberlin.de/welcomecard/index.php?lang=en
            http://www.citytourcard.com/english/berlin/starting-page.html

            We needed a 7-day transport pass (see below), so for the museum segment, we bought the 3-day museum pass (called "SchauLUST-MuseenBERLIN") for 19 euro each. It is dated for the day you buy it, and it’s valid for 3 consecutive days. It covers over 70 museums, definitely more than you can see in 3 days! We used it to get into 12 different museums, so it comes out to about 1,50 euro per museum! This is a very good deal, even if you only go to 3 museums in 3 days. For example, the Pergamon Museum admission alone is 10 euro.
            http://www.visitberlin.de/english/berlin-infos/e_bi_infomaterial_museumspass.php

            Getting around
            Since we were in Berlin for a week, we each bought a 7-day zone A/B pass for 26,20 per person. http://www.bvg.de/index.php/en/17183/name/Weekly/article/77395.html We definitely got our money’s worth as we must have rode on public transit half a dozen times each day. We traveled on S-Bahns, U-Bahns, buses, and trams. The BVG transit map that comes with the pass was a life-saver. It not only has the S/U Bahn routes, but also tram and bus lines superimposed on the map. It lets us use buses and trams a lot more on this trip, so that we can sightsee and rest our feet at the same time. Another super-useful website is the BVG journey planner. http://www.fahrinfo-berlin.de/Fahrinfo/bin/query.bin/en?ld=0.1& Every night, I used it to plan out our transit routes for the following day.

            Overall, I was a bit disappointed with the transit system in Berlin. Perhaps it is still plagued by the S-Bahn fiasco during the summer months, but I’d say that 1/3 of the trips we traveled, took much longer than the BVG journey planner had predicted. I was also surprised that the S-Bahn Ring trains (S41 & S42) run only once every 10 minutes. Or that the U-Bahn runs every 9 minutes at night. Perhaps I was spoiled by Vienna’s transit system (my last trip), which really runs perfectly and efficiently.

            Berlin’s transit mostly runs on a honor system. You buy your ticket and validate it. You don’t need to swipe it to get on trams, there are no turnstiles at stations. During our week, we came across a spot-check once on a U2 train. The checker was disguised in street clothes. He just boarded our train car, said something in German, showed his ID, and checked everyone’s tickets. I don’t know what the fine is for riding without a valid ticket, but it seems like everybody abides the rule.

            Weather
            We had terrible weather for the most part. I was expecting 50s-60sF and some sun. Instead, we had overcast skies and rain showers every day. Temps were more like low 50s; dipping down to 40s at night. I was fairly miserable between the dampness and the cold gusty wind from the Baltic Sea. We saw the sun no more than 5-6 hours total during our entire week there.

            I'm going to break for now. Next up is our apartment.

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