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Published: June 14th 2010
The last week in the UK The last couple of weeks- after the party and the boxes were pretty frenetic. Visiting family and cleaning the flat featured heavily. We had a bit of bad news in the last few days when our container ship (which was supposed to be taking us from Singapore to Perth) was cancelled. We are pretty gutted about this because it means that we now wont be able to do the whole trip over land. On the bright side we have changed our plans and will now be spending some time in Kakadu national park (near Darwin) instead- as I write Luke is telling me that this is where lots of Crocodile Dundee was set! All this means that we will be travelling between Manchester and Sumatra over land and sea- technically between Walney Island and Sumatra if you include the trip to my gran’s last week.
We left the UK on Sunday the 6th of June and while we were sorry to say our goodbyes it is also a bit of a relief to finally be on the road. So far so good! All trains, ferries and buses have run on time.
Rotterdam We kicked off proceedings proper in Rotterdam on Monday the 7th of June; unfortunately it rained for most of the day and is now etched on our memories as Rotterdamp. True to our flashpacker aspirations we began our journey with the cheapest cabin we could get on the ferry and then a 5* hotel on arrival (it goes downhill fast from here folks!). The city was lovely, filled with canals, trees, art and cyclists. Our favorite thing was probably the cube houses which were both completely charming and odd! Unfortunately we didn’t get any pictures of the chess piece museum nearby but this was also both odd, and well, odd. Just as I opened the door to my inner geek (is it ever closed?) and began to explain to Luke what the Star Trek chess set looked like there it was. I don’t think that the owner gets many visitors and seemed keen to keep us. An awkward chat and a quick note in the guest book later- in which I also mentioned the Star Trek chess set *grimaces*- we edged towards the door.
After completing our four hour walking tour of the city began to wonder what
the local food was like. They only thing which we could see the Dutch consuming was booze. Finally we settled for the only truly international meal- pizza! What is Holland’s national dish?!
Berlin On Tuesday we travelled to Berlin (blimey European trains are nice) and the mercury started to rise. Our hostel (Heart of Gold) was lovely and had a Hitch Hikers Guide theme (not booked by me I might add)- John Harris I thought of you :-)
Over the next couple of days we hit all the major sights in Berlin, here are some of our favourites.
The Brandenburg Gate - I hadn’t realized how close it was to the wall and I like how unremarkable it is for the people of Berlin to walk or cycle through it now. I rambled on about ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ and always having a suitcase in Berlin, Luke smiled and nodded. Makes me want to watch ‘Good Bye Lenin’ all over again.
Holocaust memorial - the pillars are all different sizes and the floor uneven. Although you are never more than a few feet away from the street the columns (which are sort of coffin shaped) disrupt
your lines of sight and mean that you very quickly feel isolated from any other people in the memorial- our case dozens of school groups. And bloody difficult to photograph.
Reichstag - the German parliament meets here. Parts of the building were destroyed by a fire in 1933 (which Hitler used to his political advantage) and later by bombing in the war. The unified parliament now meets here and the glass dome was designed by the British architect Sir Norman Foster. Although the queue to go up to the dome was pretty ferocious it was worth the wait and I like the idea that its transparency is a nod to openness in politics.
East side museum - and of course the wall. I love the idea of turning the wall into a piece of art. What I liked most though were the stories about how people escaped from the GDR. Some inspirational, some tragic, one of our favourites is the guy who knew that it took 13 seconds to close the barriers and worked out that if he drove through at 60kph he would get across in 9 seconds. Which he duly did, in a truck full of
sand.
The Neue Museum - having spent the last two days trying to get Luke to talk about all the art we were seeing we detoured to the Neue Museum. I’d heard good things about the exhibition space in this brilliant Bauhaus building and did the hard sell on Luke. The guest exhibition took up the entire, open plan, top floor and comprised of a black and white carpet based on the artist’s Persian rug. In an ‘ironic’ gesture he had placed a giant chandelier in the centre of the room. I’m afraid to say that there was no defending this one, but at least I got a good laugh out of it! I walked around the permanent exhibition and Luke waited in the lobby.
Incidentally Luke, ever the cosmopolite, worked hard to embrace some elements of what he considered to be the German culture. Within just a day he was wearing socks and sandals and tucking into Currywurst. Of course all the Germans were wearing posh flip flops and eating pizza!
Onward to Copenhagen…
Copenhagen The journey to Copenhagen was as easy as ever, disrupted only by the excitement of having our train drive
onto a ferry for a 45 minute crossing. While I’m sure this is totally passé for any self respecting local this entertained both Luke and I no end.
With all this time on my hands I have come up with a new formula. It is sure to revolutionise the fields of mathematics, physics and climate change. My formula is:
1/EdM = P
Where dM= distance from Manchester (measured in km), P= precipitation (measured in litres) and E= Elizabeth (measured in me)
Sure enough the closer that we got to Manchester the worse the weather became. It seems fitting that this formula came into being at the same place as the international climate summit, Copenhagen Copenrainen. There were other similarities between my work and that of the summit- since neither had a measurable effect on the weather.
Fortunately our hotel was very close to the train station. It got great reviews on Trip Advisor and was indeed warm, safe and clean. Of course, much like the areas around UK train stations, it was right in the middle of the red light district. We didn’t know this when we booked and our first hint came when Luke
popped out to get some cash he came back commenting that the locals were ‘very friendly’. How we I laughed.
After some serious walking in Berlin we had decided to treat ourselves and spend all of Thursday’s budget on a nice dinner and a bottle of wine. Oh dear… Seriously expensive! We did indeed blow nearly a whole day’s budget but noodles and a sandwich which (while lovely) fell short of the feast we had imagined - the diet does indeed start tomorrow!
Undeterred we went to sleep determined that we would economise on Friday and planned a walking tour of the city. Thankfully our hotel included breakfast and, fuelled up, we waited for a gap in the rain… at 11.45 we left anyway. Making our way through the city we admired the town hall, the royal residence and the opera house, diligently photographing each item as if we were in an episode of CSI. Outside the royal residence we saw the boat the ‘Rising Sun’ which is a ferry masquerading as a super yacht- the second biggest in the world at nearly 500 feet long and owned by the billionaire boss of ‘Oracle’ (stats provided by Luke!).
Although it was miles from our hotel we wandered through the city and made our pilgrimage to Copenhagen’s best known landmark, the statue of Hans Christian Anderson’s ‘The Little Mermaid’.
Which is currently in China at the World Expo…
Recognising that this sculpture would be missed, the city decided to invite a Chinese artist to fill the space during the statue’s absence. Ok I thought, this could be good, try to be open minded I told myself. Until I realised that the (rubbish) LED screen at the edge of the water was it. In an attempt to ‘link the people of Rotterdam to the people of China’ (or some equally banal explanation) the artist set up a video link with the statue in China. From the screen I could see lots of people walking by the brown blob of the statue and taking pictures. As people in China pointed at the mermaid smiling it seemed as if they were pointing at us and laughing. Ha, ha, look at those mugs stood in the rain looking at a screen smaller than our telly, ha, ha, ha. On the whole, I think I agreed.
After the chandelier-rug fiasco
in Berlin, I am beginning to feel that the artistic establishment is working against my efforts to enthuse Luke with an appreciation of the medium.
On our way back through town the Danes appeared to have that Friday feeling and this combined with the start of the world cup meant that there was something of a carnival atmosphere on the streets. Unbelievably the sun was also shining.
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Andy
non-member comment
Rainy rainy rain rain
Oh dear. It seems that your European escapades are to be marred by rain and the lack of 'art' seems almost mocking. At least Copenhagen still looks beautiful in the rain.