Ich bin ein Berliner und Hamburger!

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So I arrived in Berlin. The first thing to impress me was the fleet of taxis waiting outside the airport - every one was a Mercedes. Sure, they’re made in Germany, but it’s not exactly what you expect. I still like London taxis best though. I reached my hotel and after a small nap I headed out for a quick look around my hotel. It seems the hotel was in the middle of a major shopping district, which has little appeal to me (especially with my already full suitcase!) I was a little surprised by a couple of the places - a Head shop (marijuana paraphernalia) and an Erotic Museum. It was like being in Amsterdam again! But I settled for a delicious dinner of bratwurst on a roll and headed back to my hotel for a good sleep.

I woke up in the morning and my cold had hit its stride. I felt like staying in bed all day but knew I couldn’t as I only had 2 days in Berlin and the next day I had a tour to Potsdam booked. First thing on the list though was laundry. As I’d been on tours for the last week and a half I had not had the chance to do any besides some hand-washing of socks and underwear before I left for Turkey. I asked the hotel how much for a bag of laundry and they gave me a piece of paper that required me to break down each piece of clothing with each averaging about 3 euros. I asked for a nearby Laundromat as previous experience showed me that was often cheaper. There was one nearby but for some reason she couldn’t do it until Monday. That was too late and when the hotel told me there were no others nearby I had to leave it with them. 66 euros later (yes, 66 euros for a bag of washing!) I had clean clothes again.

I also stocked up on cold & flu drugs, where I was pleasantly surprised by the free tissues that were thrown in, had some breakfast and then headed out to see Berlin. I hadn’t got to the end of the street when I began feeling very tired. It was going to be a long day.

My first target was the Brandenburg gate. Fortunately the path I had mapped out for myself took me past a few sights as well. Not far from my hotel was the Berlin zoo, home of the world-famous polar bear cub Knut. I did not go in though. After a bit of walking I found myself in some leafy avenues through the large park (Tiergarten) in the centre of Berlin. At a large roundabout I saw a very tall column with a gold statue on top - my book tells me it is called the Siegessaule and was built to commemorate Prussian military victories in the 19th century.

From there it was a rather long walk down a lovely wide street to the Brandenburg gate, one of the crossing points of the Berlin wall, although the gate itself is much older. Near there was a memorial to the victims who had died trying to cross the wall. I then walked on to the Reichstag, with the spectacular glass dome in the centre. The queue to go up inside the dome was huge so I gave it a miss.

I then headed to the Pergamonmuseum on the so-called Museumj Island, which houses many of the German “finds” in Turkey and Greece. Entry included one of those audio-guides, which really makes museums more informative - especially when things are labelled in another language. The highlight of the museum was in the first room: the altar from the Temple of Zeus from Pergamon. The audio guide gave a fascinating description of the relief that surrounded the altar which depicted the Greek gods and Heracles fighting the Giants.

Moving through the museum was fascinating, not least because I had visited many of the locations within the last couple of weeks. I was surprised to see that the altar was not the only large piece of architecture there. They had some large columns and parts of Greek temples as well. There were also many Greek and Roman statues. It was like being back at the sites I had been to in Greece and Turkey.

The next section was the Babylonian section which was mostly closed due to many of the items being used in a new exhibition, as far as I could work out. Fortunately the Ishtar Gate from Babylon was still viewable. It’s unbelievable how well they have done putting these huge things back together. The last section was on Islamic art and was a bit boring. The highlight was parts of an early Islamic palace. Being thoroughly exhausted at this point, I caught the train back to my hotel and had an early night.

The next morning I stayed in bed late and did very little (I did do my Istanbul blog entry though!) At 1 o’clock I headed out for another bratwurst (this is my sort of cuisine - sausages, rolls, sausages, chips and more sausages!) and my tour of Potsdam. The bus was a little late, but it seems I was the last to be picked up. During the drive to Potsdam an informative bit of background history was played for us, thankfully in both German and English.

In Potsdam we picked up our guide and she gave us a similar dual-commentary as we drove around the town. I missed parts though, as she did not seem to even take a breath when switching languages. But it was all very interesting. The English-like manor where some of the Potsdam conference was held was very nice. Also interesting was the so-called KGB town, where the residents were evicted for the commanders of the Red Army. The KGB headquarters have been refurbished and look quite pleasant today. The old jail still looks not so nice.

Next we headed onto Sanssouci Park. Sanssouci apparently means “without worries” and was the summer palace for the Prussian kings/electors/emperors where they could escape the matters of court to indulge in philosophy, literature, etc. The gardens are magnificent and both palaces are impressive from the outside. We only went into the old palace. Inside it was very nicely decorated and I started taking a couple of photos, only to be told off. Note to guide: Tell people this stuff before you head in. Overall it was pretty much what you would expect of a palace, and it would be impossible for me to describe it accurately. One out of place item was an original painting by Andy Warhol - he had copied a portrait of Frederick the Great. We then had a bit of a walk around the garden in front of the palace and headed back to the bus. The trip back to Berlin was uneventful and once again I had an early night.

The next morning I was feeling more human, which was fortunate as I had a train to catch. Being the worrier that I am, I arrived at the train station with plenty of time to spare. I went to buy some more tissues from the pharmacy at the train station, only to be given them for free. They, like the others I was given, seem to have advertisements for something on them so I guess that’s why they were free.

When the time arrived, I hopped on the train (all but one of my trips are in first class, which is nice) and we headed off for Hamburg. I enjoyed watching the countryside pass while I listened to my iPod and we soon had arrived. It was an hour and a half journey, but to be honest, I wanted it to go longer. It’s happened quite a lot on this holiday so far - I have enjoyed just sitting there watching the world go by and all of a sudden we arrive at our destination. My Scandinavian journeys are all longer, so we’ll see if I still feel the same way after them.

During the trip I did spend a few minutes looking at what there was to see in Hamburg. I quickly realised there was not a lot. The red-light district had no interest for me and most of the museums are closed on Mondays. Okay, I didn’t research this stop very well.

I took a taxi to my hotel, which is a bit out of the centre but I was amused to find that the Carat Hotel’s full name is the Gresham Carat Hotel. After checking in and so forth, I went and asked the receptionist what there was around the hotel. She seemed to not understand me, or so I thought, as she began telling me about things in the centre of town. I decided to head out and see for myself.

As it turns out, there really is nothing near the hotel. It did take a surprisingly long time to work that out though. I began walking along a major road with lots of port-type stuff. I saw a large group of cyclists, some type of club I presume, and figured they must be out here to see something. A large group of convertibles, again I assume it was a club of some kind, reinforced my belief. The place seemed abandoned, but I figured it was because it was a Sunday. Heading down towards the water I was enticed by the smell of something cooking. But, as it turned out, that was some guy cooking sausages in his van for him and his wife and there literally was nothing to see down there. I still have no idea what attracted all these people.

I walked back to the main road and continued on, sure that my persistence would pay off eventually. When it began to look like that was not the case, I walked over a bridge to the other side of the railway in order to (hopefully) swing back towards the hotel. I was rewarded by seeing houses and even found a tourist map “You-are-here” type thing. Heading into the populated area, it seems I had found the Turkish quarter of Hamburg. I stopped to have some food (a cheeseburger on Turkish bread) and discovered I had been walking for 2 hours! It didn’t feel like it though, which goes to show how used to walking I must be.

I then proceeded to head in the direction of where I figured my hotel was, and was rewarded to find that my sense of direction was bang on target. Arriving back at my hotel a mere 3 hours after leaving, I retired to my room where I watched some episodes of Rome as the TV has no English channels.

In the morning I resolved to walk into Hamburg. The previous day, the receptionist had said to me “Oh no, you can’t walk there” which is really becoming like a red flag to a bull for me. In truth, this was the longest walk so far - about an hour - but still, it was no big deal. Plus, it would help fill the day. The biggest problem was that the two maps I had did not join up, so I was once again forced to rely on my sense of direction. Once again, it saw me through.

Once I was in town and knew whereabouts I was, I headed for the first “sight”. Chile Haus is an interesting building that is kind of shaped like a boat. I then walked onto the medieval town which didn’t seem very medieval to me. There were some nice buildings and canals, but really, it paled in comparison to Amsterdam. After lunch I bought a ticket for a canal cruise. There were two on offer and I went for the next available one which also headed out to the Elbe. The cruise was pleasant, if a little crowded, and I took many photos. Judging by the reaction of everyone on board, the German commentary provided was quite funny. No English this time, however.

When that finished I caught a train back to the hotel and here I am. Tomorrow I have a train to catch to Copenhagen, so I need to get going reasonably early.

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Photos

An intersting sculpture
Just one of many in this square

The Berlin Goddess
Actual Goddess unkown.

A statue
Actually a Roman copy of a lost Greek statue - there were many of these as the originals were in bronze and probably melted down.