mauld

I'm going to Berlin later this month for 2 days, and as something different, I thought I'd take the 1 hr train ride to Frankfurt(Oder) then cross over the bridge to Stubice, Poland. (I'm of partial Polish heritage, and wanted to 'set foot' in Poland without making it a long trip). I thought this could be done within an afternoon. Any thoughts, or other suggestions would be appreciated.

Ben Haines

Dear Ms Auld,<BR><BR>Yes: you could fit a visit into an afternoon. The reference library of a city near you may have the Thomas Cook European Timetable. Table 839 says trains leave Berlin Zoo at 31 and 59 minutes past each hour and take 89 minutes to Frankfurt. They leave Friedrichstrasse, Alexanderplatz and Berlin Ost a little later. I am not sure what you do after that: to keep the trip short you may need to taxi to the frontier, then walk over. Or you could hire a bicycle at Friedrichstrasse station, take it on the train to Frankfurt, and cycle to Poland. Some connecting trains do leave eastbound, but they reach Kunowice, not Stubice. An example is in table 1001: Berlin Zoo 1314, Frankfurt 1443 to 1458, Kunowice 1510, total trip 2 hours.<BR><BR>A line I use sometimes to connect with the cheap Polish sleeper to Warsaw is Berlin Zoo, Berlin Lichtenberg, Kostrzyn. Typical times are Zoo 1300 Lichtenberg 1325 to 1335, Kostrzyn 1452, total trip 2 hours. Kostrzyn is an unremarkable Polish town: it has a small museum of ecology and one hotel.<BR><BR>Please write again if I can help further.<BR><BR>Ben Haines, London<BR><BR><BR>

David

Was with a friend in March '99 who collects foreign monies. We had a car and parked in Frankfurt (Oder) to walk across to Slubice and purchase coins. <BR><BR>As far as visiting the town, I was glad we did it but it wasn't anything special. It seemed to be a little town on the "wrong side of the tracks" of Frankfurt (Oder). We walked around for about an hour. Looked into a small church that wasn't much then walked out.<BR><BR>As we had a car I can't comment on the train part. <BR><BR>As an aside I'm wondering about the spelling of Stubice/Slubice. www.viamichelin.com brings it up with Slubice in the search, but on the map it looks like a "t" as the second letter. www.google.com brings up the city spelled with an "l" as the second letter with instances of having a small slash through the letter. Maybe it's something about the Polish alphabet? My point for this is you might use both spellings to do searches on the web.

Daniel

A "L" with a slash across is a Polish letter between L and M. It´s pronunced as an English W.

David

Thanks!<BR><BR>Is it kinda pronounced "swo-beece" then?

Dave

If all you want to to is set foot in PL, then go to Slubice or Kostrzyn, but I would actually recommend Szczeczin (sp?) or Stettin in German for a quick 2 hr train ride from Berlin. It is a large city, and has some history, and there is probably a lot more to do/see than in Slubice. <BR>Incidentally, the famous Russian Empress Catherine the Great was a German princess from Szczeczin/Stettin.

Daniel

I agree that Szczecin is probably more interesting than Slubice (pronounced swo-beetseh, I think). Walesa and the city of Wroclaw have this same strange "L" ("W" is just "V"). <BR>If you want a bit of Poland, you could try Posznan, three hours by EuroCity train from Berlin. Lots of Soviet style buildings, but the market square is very beautiful.

WillTravel

Has anyone done this trip recently? How does passport control work going into Poland as a pedestrian over the bridge?
I'm considering this as a daytrip from Berlin.

logos999

Yes, I did the trip two weeks ago. I took the S-Bahn to Erkner and the train to Frankfurt from there. Passport control was simple and fast, however Frankfurt is a highly frustrating place, not much left of it's history only few people (It was a Sunday) and many &quot;Plattenbauten&quot; most of the old buildings have never been rebuilt after the war. There are better places to go! Slubice on the polish side is a very small place. The usual open air market, but not nearly as &quot;run down&quot; as Frankfurt. The trip was interesting and I'm planning to see more of Poland (esp. eastern Prussia) in the near future.

WillTravel

Logos, so are you saying it is faster, better, or cheaper to take the S-Bahn from Berlin to Erkner, and then take a train from there, rather than take a train from Ostbahnhof?

Does Erkner have any merit as a place to visit?

Is there any border Polish town that would be better to visit from Berlin?

logos999

&gt;better, or cheaper to take the S-Bahn from Berlin to Erkner
No, I was already at Karlshorst where I stayed for the night. No need to visit Erkner . I was in Guben/Gubin to and crossed the border there. Even more remote. On the western side of town you could see some of the centre being rebuilt quite nicely!, an industrial building was 50% demolished and downtown repaved. Lot's of action during the week, I assume . The have a beautiful old railway station, far oversized and a little out of town. Actually on my way to the border I saw several young boneheads. One removed his T-Shirt &quot;to show me&quot; the large eagle he had tatooed all over his breast. It was a single incident, but I wouldn't want to walk around that town at night if I'd had long hair and a dark skin colour! Police are there, so I didn't worry. On the other side of the river, they even had a MickeyD . Prices are at about 60% of what I'd paid in Munich for food, and the shops were open that Sunday. Next time I'll go further away from the border, it was just to see how it is &quot;over there&quot;. To be fair, Leipzig downtown was totally differnt and not as &quot;remote&quot; as those places. I don't think the future looks to bright for Brandenburg, if I was to invest money in the &quot;new L&auml;nder&quot;, it surely wouldn't be there!

Bird

Gorlitz would be a better town to visit, but further away from Berlin.

logos999

Having been to G&ouml;rlitz two weeks ago, this is the place I would go. Don't waste any time in Frankfurt/Oder. G&ouml;rlitz is FAR! more beautiful. I didn't expect this, after having been to Brandenburg. The place has a future and should be on the UNESCO list too.