I am a Jelly Donut! (Or our long weekend in Berlin trip report)
May 11th, 2008, 06:02 AM
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I am a Jelly Donut! (Or our long weekend in Berlin trip report)
A 7am flight had seemed like a good idea when we booked it a few months prior, but when the alarm went off at 3am on Saturday morning, it didn't look quite so hot. In a daze, we got ready and did our final packing before the cab arrived at 4am to take us out to Heathrow airport terminal 5 (thinking ahead, we only brought carry-on). Traffic at 4am turned out to be pretty much non-existent and we made it in possibly record time, leaving us an extra half hour to sit at the airport and try not to fall asleep.
After an uneventful (and short, for me, I managed to sleep for all but 10 minutes) flight into Tegel airport in Berlin, we hit an ATM to get some much needed cash so that we could take a cab to our hotel. As might be expected, we hit our first snag, somewhat unsurprisingly involving British banks. After having no problems using our debit cards in The Netherlands, Ireland, Italy, the Channel Islands, and Belgium, Natwest decided that Germany was too high a threat and suspended our cards. Fortunately, Canadian banks have a much more relaxed attitude and we managed to get a bit of cash out of our trusty old TD account. (it all got sorted out after discussing the problem in detail with an Irish woman who worked in the Natwest Fraud department while in the cab).
Despite having only been in the country for about 30 minutes, and only having walked from the plane to the taxi ranks, Jamie was already working on the mother, father, and second cousin of all blisters. She'd somewhat recklessly decided to only bring her brand-new (and significantly un-broken-in) shoes with her, despite my recommendation that she bring her old runners just in case. One day she'll finally realize that I'm ALWAYS right and problems like this will cease to occur.
The cab driver took us on what I suspect was the scenic route to our hotel on Leipziger Strasse just off the Gendarmenmarkt (the street names didn't get any easier the longer we were in Berlin) and we checked in and dropped off the bags. The room wasn't overly luxurious, but had everything we needed including the fantastic location and extraordinarily reasonable rates.
We decided that a quick wander was in order before our planned walking tour of the city later that afternoon, so we headed over to the leafy Unter-Den-Linden (which means, creatively, Under the Lindens) to start exploring. We walked all the way down to the Brandenburg Gate, stopping only briefly for a lunch that turned out to be a culinary version of Roulette - the menu was entirely in German, and didn't include anything that we even came close to recognizing - we picked randomly from what I suspect turned out to be the vegetarian section but made out fairly well.
After Brandenburg, we spent a bit of time walking through the slightly odd and extremely controversial Holocaust Memorial (more than 2700 concrete pillars in a large square) before walking all the way across town to meet up with the tour group.
The tour was excellent - only twelve euros for a 4-1/2 hour guided walk around the city which showed us all the major sites - the Museum Island, the square where the infamous Nazi book-burning happened in the 30's, the remains of the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, Hitler's Bunker, and much more. Our guide had actually grown up in East Germany before the Wall came down - she was nine and remembers watching it live. It was odd talking to someone who had lived so differently than someone from the West - she was the first in her school to have a barbie doll (her uncle smuggled it through the border), and remembers her mother being interviewed by the police because it came out that she'd been watching episodes of "Dallas", which apparently wasn't approved of.
Unfortunately, by the time the tour finished, Jamie's blisters had become more than bad, achieving what I would charitably call epic proportions. We stopped very briefly at the hotel to change her bandages and then walked the short distance back to the Gendarmenmarkt for our dinner reservations at Refugium.
The lack of sleep along with all the walking caught up with us during the cheese course (of course there was a cheese course - all meals must have a cheese course when on vacation on the continent) and it was all we could do not to fall asleep. We decided to somewhat lamely call it a night and crashed out embarrassingly early.
After an uneventful (and short, for me, I managed to sleep for all but 10 minutes) flight into Tegel airport in Berlin, we hit an ATM to get some much needed cash so that we could take a cab to our hotel. As might be expected, we hit our first snag, somewhat unsurprisingly involving British banks. After having no problems using our debit cards in The Netherlands, Ireland, Italy, the Channel Islands, and Belgium, Natwest decided that Germany was too high a threat and suspended our cards. Fortunately, Canadian banks have a much more relaxed attitude and we managed to get a bit of cash out of our trusty old TD account. (it all got sorted out after discussing the problem in detail with an Irish woman who worked in the Natwest Fraud department while in the cab).
Despite having only been in the country for about 30 minutes, and only having walked from the plane to the taxi ranks, Jamie was already working on the mother, father, and second cousin of all blisters. She'd somewhat recklessly decided to only bring her brand-new (and significantly un-broken-in) shoes with her, despite my recommendation that she bring her old runners just in case. One day she'll finally realize that I'm ALWAYS right and problems like this will cease to occur.
The cab driver took us on what I suspect was the scenic route to our hotel on Leipziger Strasse just off the Gendarmenmarkt (the street names didn't get any easier the longer we were in Berlin) and we checked in and dropped off the bags. The room wasn't overly luxurious, but had everything we needed including the fantastic location and extraordinarily reasonable rates.
We decided that a quick wander was in order before our planned walking tour of the city later that afternoon, so we headed over to the leafy Unter-Den-Linden (which means, creatively, Under the Lindens) to start exploring. We walked all the way down to the Brandenburg Gate, stopping only briefly for a lunch that turned out to be a culinary version of Roulette - the menu was entirely in German, and didn't include anything that we even came close to recognizing - we picked randomly from what I suspect turned out to be the vegetarian section but made out fairly well.
After Brandenburg, we spent a bit of time walking through the slightly odd and extremely controversial Holocaust Memorial (more than 2700 concrete pillars in a large square) before walking all the way across town to meet up with the tour group.
The tour was excellent - only twelve euros for a 4-1/2 hour guided walk around the city which showed us all the major sites - the Museum Island, the square where the infamous Nazi book-burning happened in the 30's, the remains of the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, Hitler's Bunker, and much more. Our guide had actually grown up in East Germany before the Wall came down - she was nine and remembers watching it live. It was odd talking to someone who had lived so differently than someone from the West - she was the first in her school to have a barbie doll (her uncle smuggled it through the border), and remembers her mother being interviewed by the police because it came out that she'd been watching episodes of "Dallas", which apparently wasn't approved of.
Unfortunately, by the time the tour finished, Jamie's blisters had become more than bad, achieving what I would charitably call epic proportions. We stopped very briefly at the hotel to change her bandages and then walked the short distance back to the Gendarmenmarkt for our dinner reservations at Refugium.
The lack of sleep along with all the walking caught up with us during the cheese course (of course there was a cheese course - all meals must have a cheese course when on vacation on the continent) and it was all we could do not to fall asleep. We decided to somewhat lamely call it a night and crashed out embarrassingly early.
May 11th, 2008, 06:03 AM
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Oops...my hubby wrote this report...thats why it looks like I am refering to myself in 3rd person hahahaha...
We managed to sleep in a bit by the standards of the previous morning, but it was still early by Berliner standards as it turned out. We hit the streets at about 9am and were pretty much the only people around - hardly any cars and fewer people. We walked back over the same market square as the previous day to catch yet another walking tour, this one a bit more subdued that the sights of Berlin.
We caught the train with the tour group and went to Oranienburg, location of the Sachenshausen concentration camp. Our tour guide this time was an American from Seattle but was living in Berlin who had done her undergrad in Holocaust studies (I had no idea that was even an option). I can't say it was exciting or really enjoyable, but it was interesting and I'm glad we went. It's shocking, even after 60 years, to see a place where people were so unbelievably cruel to others simply because of religion, race, or political and sexual orientation.
Unlike the previous day, there was hardly a cloud in the sky and Jamie and I managed to get fairly good sun burns - after 6 months of rain in London, it hadn't dawned on either of us that it wouldn't be the same in Germany and neither of us had thought to bring sunscreen. Fortunately Jamie had folded down the heels of her new shoes so her blisters didn't get any worse, because quite frankly I couldn't have handled any more whinging (actually, she hardly complained about it at all. I would've been milking it for all it was worth if I'd had blisters like that...).
After the train ride back into Berlin, we quickly found a very cool little bar called "Newtons" that featured extremely comfortable outdoor couches, big cushions, and warm blankets for when the temperature started to drop in the evening. You may be surprised to learn that we spent quite a while there enjoying some tasty beverages and watching odd Berliners wander around (yes, Berliners are odd, there's no denying it).
Dinner was quite a ways into East Berlin at a little restaurant called Geugelhoff - famous because of it's fantastically friendly atmosphere and excellent food - apparently even the Clinton's ate there when they were in Berlin. The place lived up to its reputation and the food was great, and the wine was even better.
After dinner we took a taxi back to the hotel to pick up our cameras and the tripod, and set out to take some night shots of the Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate. We got the requisite shots, but by this time we were both fairly well knackered and Jamie's feet were pretty sore so we decided to head back to the hotel and crash out.
We managed to sleep in a bit by the standards of the previous morning, but it was still early by Berliner standards as it turned out. We hit the streets at about 9am and were pretty much the only people around - hardly any cars and fewer people. We walked back over the same market square as the previous day to catch yet another walking tour, this one a bit more subdued that the sights of Berlin.
We caught the train with the tour group and went to Oranienburg, location of the Sachenshausen concentration camp. Our tour guide this time was an American from Seattle but was living in Berlin who had done her undergrad in Holocaust studies (I had no idea that was even an option). I can't say it was exciting or really enjoyable, but it was interesting and I'm glad we went. It's shocking, even after 60 years, to see a place where people were so unbelievably cruel to others simply because of religion, race, or political and sexual orientation.
Unlike the previous day, there was hardly a cloud in the sky and Jamie and I managed to get fairly good sun burns - after 6 months of rain in London, it hadn't dawned on either of us that it wouldn't be the same in Germany and neither of us had thought to bring sunscreen. Fortunately Jamie had folded down the heels of her new shoes so her blisters didn't get any worse, because quite frankly I couldn't have handled any more whinging (actually, she hardly complained about it at all. I would've been milking it for all it was worth if I'd had blisters like that...).
After the train ride back into Berlin, we quickly found a very cool little bar called "Newtons" that featured extremely comfortable outdoor couches, big cushions, and warm blankets for when the temperature started to drop in the evening. You may be surprised to learn that we spent quite a while there enjoying some tasty beverages and watching odd Berliners wander around (yes, Berliners are odd, there's no denying it).
Dinner was quite a ways into East Berlin at a little restaurant called Geugelhoff - famous because of it's fantastically friendly atmosphere and excellent food - apparently even the Clinton's ate there when they were in Berlin. The place lived up to its reputation and the food was great, and the wine was even better.
After dinner we took a taxi back to the hotel to pick up our cameras and the tripod, and set out to take some night shots of the Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate. We got the requisite shots, but by this time we were both fairly well knackered and Jamie's feet were pretty sore so we decided to head back to the hotel and crash out.
May 11th, 2008, 06:03 AM
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Having thus far spend pretty much all of our time in East Berlin, we'd scheduled Monday to be our West Berlin and Tiergarten exploration day. We took the U-Bahn (their version of the Tube) into the Tiergarten and walked up to the Siegessaule (the huge monument in the centre of the park), and then over to Kufurstendamm Strasse to see the famous west Berlin street and the memorial Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedashtnis-Kirche which has been left as a ruin after being bombed out in WWII. Despite the fantastic names, we didn't actually enjoy West Berlin all that much - it seemed very modern, very touristy and busy, and could have been the high street pretty much anywhere in London. We gave up and took the U-Bahn back to our favourite market square in East Berlin to enjoy a final afternoon relaxing at a cafe, perhaps having a few tasty beverages while we were at it.
Several pints of beer and a bottle of wine later, we were ready to head back to the airport for our flight home. We made our way (admittedly somewhat unsteadily) back to the hotel to pick up our bags. A quick cab ride and we were back at Tegel airport, and then a quick flight back to dear old Blighty. Long weekend breaks are never long enough.
(A note on the title of this post - JFK famously said "Ich bin ein Berliner" during a speech in Berlin. Ein Berliner, in most of Germany, is a jelly-filled donut, so to most Germans what he actually said was "I am a jelly-filled donut." Fortuantely, in Berlin, that donut isn't called a Berliner so they understood what he was *trying* to say.)
Several pints of beer and a bottle of wine later, we were ready to head back to the airport for our flight home. We made our way (admittedly somewhat unsteadily) back to the hotel to pick up our bags. A quick cab ride and we were back at Tegel airport, and then a quick flight back to dear old Blighty. Long weekend breaks are never long enough.
(A note on the title of this post - JFK famously said "Ich bin ein Berliner" during a speech in Berlin. Ein Berliner, in most of Germany, is a jelly-filled donut, so to most Germans what he actually said was "I am a jelly-filled donut." Fortuantely, in Berlin, that donut isn't called a Berliner so they understood what he was *trying* to say.)
May 11th, 2008, 06:04 AM
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Here's a link to the hotel we stayed in: http://www.cityhotel-am-gendarmenmarkt.de/
May 11th, 2008, 06:17 AM
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Oh of course! We used Berlin Walks for both tours and were very happy. The guides were fantastic and very knowledgable. Here's their website (we did Tour 1 and 3)
http://www.berlinwalks.de/
http://www.berlinwalks.de/
May 11th, 2008, 08:42 AM
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Instead of a walking tour we took a bike tour of Berlin with Fat Tire Bike Tours. It is a lot of fun and easier on the feet! http://www.fattirebiketoursberlin.com/
May 11th, 2008, 09:01 AM
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Nice report, thanks! 
>mother being interviewed by the police because it came out that she'd been watching episodes of "Dallas"
Just don't believe "everything" you're being told. ;-)
>mother being interviewed by the police because it came out that she'd been watching episodes of "Dallas"
Just don't believe "everything" you're being told. ;-)
May 11th, 2008, 12:33 PM
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Thanks for the report. We are going to Berlin this summer, so the information you provided will be helpful as we plan. I'm not normally a person who does organized tours, but you've now got me thinking that one of the walking tours, or perhaps the bike tour mentioned above, might make for a nice afternoon. Danke!
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