Blogs from Berlin, Berlin, Germany, Europe - page 2

Arriving at BER we were stuck at the back of a massive queue with all the other Brits. I’d left a scarf on the plane and returning to retrieve it meant we were one of the last to join the queue too. Salt was rubbed into the Brexshit wounds when a member of staff shouted, “anyone with Resident passes or EU citizens?” as they could go to the fast automated EU line, but we were stuck with the rest of the world in the painfully slow, non automated dickhead queue. We gazed longingly at the empty auto passport scanners with the info screens rotating videos on how to use them, that meant you didn’t have to talk to officials. There were only three passport desks open as I guess they’re set up for EU citizens in ... read more

Otin hotellin runsaan aamupalan, vaikka siitä piti maksaa erikseen. Ei huvittanut lähteä kokeilemaan aamiaista muualle. Oli sadepäivä, ja lähdin liikkeelle drymax-takilla. Metrolla Osloer Strasselle ja sieltä ratikalla itään ja sieltä jatkoin DDR-museolle. Museoon oli jonoa ja siellä oli sen verran väkeä että päätin pitää sisällä maskia. Mitä uutta opin DDR:stä? Sodan jälkeen DDR oli ollut kehittynyt teollisuusmaa, ja se pystyi myymään tuotteitaan maailmanmarkkinoille. Mutta sosialismin aikana tuotanto ei kehittynyt, esimerkiksi Trabant ei juurikaan muuttunut 30 vuodessa, ja vientimarkkinat kuihtuivat vähitellen. Näin kaupungilla kaksikin mielenosoitusta - niiden takia oli muuten bussiliikenne katkaistu Unter den Linden -kadulla. Yksi mielenosoitus vastusti Venäjään kohdistuvia pakotteita ja toinen Iranin hallintoa. Ajoin S-junalla Kudammille ja sieltä 2-kerrosbussilla hotellille. Pie... read more

Up early on Sunday morning taxi to Main Station Prague and boarded our train at around 8.15 for a 8.29a.m. departure, all went well until about an hour and a half into our journey, at a small town called Decin, still in the Czech Republic, an announcement came over to get off the train as this train could not go any further because of breakdown. Staff on train knew little except there was a problem, "no one can take this train, or else someone could die", Oh OK! Luckily we had ran into a relieving Manager from our apartments Uniting Age Well the day before at the Palace in Prague and they were also on this train going to Berlin, he spoke German and the station person could speak a little German too, nothing was forthcoming ... read more

Day seventeen. Today was an up and out kind of day. We are our very Austrian breakfast in our very Austrian hotel (and had to wake up a very teenaged Seth who's response was to pull the cover over his head when we said we had to go for breakfast!) The journey was surprisingly good given that it took eight hours. The stops we made were at the best ever services with a fly past of five helicopters just for us (maybe) and a couple of others and by five we'd made it to Leipzig to meet our friends for tea. This hotel felt a tad eastern block but was comfy and the room had the biggest shower known to man. An actual room size shower (Ash danced in it) that we could have got teen ... read more

Am Sonntag musste ich leider etwas früher aufstehen, da um 10:30 mein Zug ab Berlin Hauptbahnhof nach München terminiert war. Als ich aber nach dem Läuten des Handyweckers meine Emails checkte, sah ich schon die Nachricht, dass sich dieser verspätete. Ich stand trotzdem auf und nahm ein kurzes Frühstück mit Schoko-Croissants und Sekt zu mir. Wenn ich so lange Fahrten habe, trinke ich etwas weniger Kaffee, um nicht so oft oder überhaupt nicht während der Fahrt auf die Toilette zu müssen. Als ich später aber am Hauptbahnhof ankam, sah ich schon die Mitteilung, dass sich meine Abfahrt über 60 oder 70 Minuten verspätet. Immerhin hatte ich auf dem Bahnsteig aber einen Sitzplatz, so dass es nicht ganz so schlimm war. Als wir dann endlich losfuhren wurde uns gesagt, dass wir über Halle statt über Leipzig fahren. ... read more