The Whirlwind Tours

Europe » Germany
September 13th 2012

Published: September 13th 2012

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Kane

The Wall

remant of the Soviet wall separating East and West Berlin near the Topographie of Terror exhibit

B & B - - - (Berlin & Budapest) the whirlwind tours

The Berlin Whirlwind

Turned out the night train from Paris to Berlin didn’t have a dining car so it was combo meals of beer, chipsies, and peanuts for the group. Fortunately, just before arriving in Berlin about 8:30AM we were provided with a light continental breakfast of cereal, bread, cheeses, jams, juice, milk and coffee. Sufficient for the start of our day as we arrived in Berlin’s new main rail station, Berlin Hpf. The station has only been open for a year or two and is a sight itself with trains arriving and departing on two levels separated by two levels of shopping, one between each track level.

The railway information services told us how we could get to our hotel by taking a train and making two transfers. The local tourist information service said why not take the direct bus that stops in front of the railway station and would take us within a block of our hotel? Bet you can guess our choice.

The Hotel Augustinenhof, part of the Albrechtshof Hotels group (www.albrechtshof-hotels.com) had been booked on-line.

Checkpoint Charlie

Remnant of a divided city

One never really knows what they will find in reality compared to the internet description. As we were booking in someone asked if we would have three rooms on the same floor, and someone else asked about the quality of the free Wi-Fi service. The registration clerk was most accommodating. We would all be on the same floor, and it would be the fourth floor where the Wi-Fi was best. The rooms turned out to be pretty good too, suites for all of us. What a nice bonus upgrade with no price increase.

Our early book in at the hotel had our luggage put in storage as obviously the rooms were not ready and then it was off on a whirlwind tour of Berlin as we were to depart about 36 hours later at 8:00PM the next evening. As we were walking about it was obvious, like it had been in Paris, that the dire economic news we hear so much about was not affecting either France or Germany. The skylines were adorned with construction cranes no matter which way you looked and at ground level, and below, the major infrastructure works were evident.

We were in the

Schwarzwaldstuben

Boiled pork, cabbage, potatoes = delicious

old East Berlin part of Berlin and Check-point Charlie and “the Wall” were not far from the hotel and easily found. At Check-point Charlie a commemorative display has developed in an ad-hoc manner and a more permanent “official” display is being developed. The ad-hoc display though is very good and describes and displays the hardships the Allied Forces division of Berlin at the end of WW II created. We left Check-point Charlie and made our way to another memorial, the “Topographie of Terror”. This is a historical display of Germany from the early 1900’s to current times and shows how the German people came under the control of one dictator through the elimination of groups and individuals who expressed any opposition to the Third Reich until there was no one left to oppose, or fear trampled opposition. The display shows how difficult the period after the war from 1945 to 1955 must have been for the German people with their cities reduced to piles of rubble which they cleared and recycled by hand.

As we wandered further through old East Berlin one can see the neglect during the period of Soviet occupation which no doubt motivated many to attempt

Berlin Street sign

Is this sort of like WTF ?

to escape to the West. After seeing the earlier two displays the streets and buildings of old East Berlin seemed to have a totally different, depressing atmosphere than the reconstructed area around our hotel.

When in Germany. . . . ., as the saying goes, so we were looking to sample some truly “German” food, not the Currywurst available on every block. What a culinary abomination that is! A sausage, similar to a European wiener found in any delicatessen, drowning in ketchup, with some curry powder sprinkled on top. Maybe it’s good if ketchup is a culinary sauce extraordinaire to you.

At the Schwarzwaldstuben Restaurant http://www.tripadvisor.ca/Restaurant_Review-g187323-d1027068-Reviews-Schwarzwaldstuben-Berlin.html ) we found traditional German fare. Sausage, boiled pork, potatoes, sauerkraut, dumplings and deserts to satisfy any German hunger. And delicious it was too, with real traditional servings of the national beverage. (None of the .33 L size glasses here ! )

On our last day, after checking out, our luggage went back into storage and we went back “on the street”. The highlight of today may have been visiting the Jewish Synagogue. It seemed unusual that a building so important to a group so hated by the Third Reich had

Oldl Soviet Housing

Woulldn't your want to "escape" from this ?

survived but apparently even Reich needed office space and since the building was no longer available for religious uses it was suitable for office space. There was an interesting display titled “ The Yellow Card “, and the display was really the story of the mistreatment and trafficking of women in prostitution throughout Europe and North and South America from the early 1800’s. Having worked in the Prostitution / Pornography section of a Vice Unit it was interesting to see that things haven’t changed. Women are still forced into prostitution to survive and pimps are still leaches lying to and trading women.

The Budapest Whirlwind

We took another Night Train from Berlin to Budapest and arrived at Keleti station about 8:30AM Friday morning. It was not quite the same experience as the first train. Sleeping accommodations were a little more compact and not the same amenities but we got here. Keleti Station is an old building and we were expecting a cab to be waiting so from out rail car we walked down the platform and out the front door under a huge window with a large clock on it and we were outside. Lots of people and

Hotel Augustinehof

A great stay

traffic but no taxi waiting for us. There seemed to be a complete lack of taxis, there didn’t seem to be a taxi stand either, and the roadway didn’t offer much in the way of stopping or parking opportunities. Maybe there is another main entrance ? So we went looking and found a taxi stand, half a dozen taxies, but no driver holding a sign waiting for us, and we were now about 10 minutes past the arranged meeting time. Was the taxi late or had he been and gone? We called the owner of the apartment we had rented to let him know it seemed our arrival might be a little later than planned and learned from him the taxi driver had been waiting and had just called him to say he had left. Turns out that this old rail station has THREE main entrances !

We took the next available taxi that could carry 5 passengers and we left Keleti for the apartment where the owner was waiting to meet us. It was fortunate for us, and less so for the driver, that the owner was waiting for us. Seemed we hadn’t been taken on a “tour”

Hungarian Parliament Buildings

The photo is still a 1000 words short

but the driver had not taken the most direct route and the fare he wanted was unacceptable to the apartment owner who won the fare discussion and save us a few thousand Hungarian Forints. Trading at $1 Cdn = approximately 225 Forints, we found the Hungarian currency awkward because everything seemed to cost thousands and the exchange rate didn’t seem to lend itself to a quick mental conversion. Since we didn’t yet have Hungarian currency we ended up paying a little over 2800 Forints, or about 10 Euros which the apartment owner said was a more than generous tip.

Csaba Bah, the apartment owner is very friendly, hospitable, and proud of his property. The apartment is on two levels of the 4^th floor of one of Budapest’s old buildings on the ‘Pest’ side of the Danube which was only a block away. A large living room takes up half the first level and a full kitchen and dining area are in the second half. The two bedrooms are on the second level and one of them has been portioned to provide two private sleeping areas. The bedrooms are huge and the portioning of one was perfect for our group.

Budapest

'Pest' from the Castle

( http://www.flipkey.com/frontdesk/view/46955/csaba+ban/ )

After settling in somewhat it was out and about exploring. Like most European cities the building architecture and detailing is awesome. Most of the older buildings in Budapest seem to be limited to 4 or 5 floors and the decorative detailing seems unique to every building. On our first “walkabout” we found an entrance to the underground Metro system only about 2 blocks from our apartment. It may be an older transportation system but this nearby station seemed like a very new shiny marble and stainless steel transit stop. We are fortunate that the Danube is also only about two short blocks from us so we could walk the banks of the Danube, (which is not blue), admiring the skyline, watching people and the river cruise boats. On Saturday after a day of walking about and admiring the buildings we were walking down one street about 5:00PM on our way back to the apartment we stopped to read the sidewalk menu of a small closed restaurant, the Hungarikum Bisztro, (www.hungarikumbisztro.hu) . The menu, in Hungarian was not extensive but by our translation efforts seemed to offer very traditional Hungarian foods. A taste of the countries we

Budapest Market

Fresh picked this morning

are visiting is part of the adventure and as we were studying the menu the owner, Pusztai Timea, arrived to open for evening meals. Her enthusiastic description of the menu convinced us and we reserved a table for later dinner. There is soon to be an English version of the menu on the website.

The food was delicious and by ordering a number of appetizer plates shared among us we were able to sample just about everything on the menu instead of just the main entrees that were ordered. The girls have been referring to Trip Advisor to help locate “better” restaurants to eat at but because the Bistro is new, (open only 6 weeks) it apparently had not yet been discovered and rated. It will soon be rated highly. The food was delicious and the taste said it was definitely prepared with the freshest ingredients. Not only delicious and fresh you could tell the food was “crafted” and served by persons who cared and were committed. I was fortunate to meet the two young chefs a day later and despite language differences their dedication to the preparation of superlative meals was loud and clear. They also worked in

Budapest Market Meats

All sorts of sausages and smoked meats

the cleanest kitchen I have seen, definitely another good sign. After dinner it was a stroll along the banks of the Danube towards the Hungarian Parliament buildings. They are lit up magnificently at night and the parliament buildings in London are nothing by comparison, which unfortunately make our Canadian parliament buildings look like the storage shed out back. They are truly an awesome sight !

Sunday, our last full day in Budapest, started with breakfast at the Farger Kave, another neighborhood restaurant. It was a beautiful sunny morning for breakfast on the patio with the sounds of music drifting from the adjacent park. Leaving the restaurant we passed the studios of MTV, a national television service, in a building that was far too much for a mere TV studio. I hope their production efforts come at least close to the grandeur and beauty of the building they are housed in. Further along we came across a large open air public yoga session which must have had nearly 100 persons stretching and contorting themselves. While one couple of our group went off to meet other friends from Canada for lunch the remaining 3 musketeers visited St. Stephen’s Basilica, the Opera

Hungarian National Museum

Another architectural sight

House, and a market before crossing a bridge from ‘Pest’ to ‘Buda’ where we took the funicular to ‘the Castle’. A very interesting historic timeline is displayed from Mongol times, through a couple World Wars to current times. This castle has seen a lot and there is a great view from here to ‘Pest’ including those awesome parliament buildings. ‘Buda’ is the hilly side, ‘Pest’ the flat side and combined Budapest is a wonderful and beautiful city.

Monday morning and a few quick tasks before catching the metro to the train station as we head off to Zagreb, Croatia. It’s difficult to describe Budapest; hopefully the photos prove that a picture is worth a thousand words. Even so, a photograph never seems to capture what the eye sees.

Additional photos below

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