Blogs from Berlin, Germany, Europe - page 5

John was again up early and decided to take a crack at changing some tickets at the main station, Berlin Hauptbahnhof. He took the local S train two stops and found he was way too early for any service other than a ticket machine. But it was fun to look at all the people up at 6AM going hither and yon on what turns out to be a national holiday, Ascension Day. In Germany it is also “Men’s Day” which was described in the local literature as: “Ascension Day in Germany is also Father’s Day, or Men’s Day as it’s called in some places, and the traditional way that Germans like to honour dear old Dad is with good old beer, and lots of it.” But we did not discover the rationale for celebrating until late ... read more

We checked into our hotel, a 3-star named Alexander Plaza, centrally located for our current foray. After a shower and a light light lunch near the hotel it was off to the Pergamon Museum, only two blocks away. Museum Island is surrounded by the Spree River and has four museums and the city’s main church, Berlin Dom. Today it was a two hour visit to the Pergamon with its exquisite collection of ancient Persian, Greek and Islamic pieces. The first thing you see is the immense gates of fabled Babylon. They are over 40 plus feet high with beautiful blue bricks and carvings of animals. Then we walked into the three-tiered ancient Greek Market Gate from Miletus near Ephesus in Turkey. We were in awe, especially when we had visited Miletus and it 25,000 person theatre. ... read more

Noc nahovno, vobec som sa nevyspal. V berline pristavame o nieco skorej. Po vystupeni mi tegel letisko pripada ako druhotriedne dedinske letisko. Singapur letisko je fakt uplna parada. Bus nas odvaza k imigracke. Na pasovke ubermenschen idu k automatickym branam. Vlozit pas, sken tvare a uz som na europskej pode. Ziadna securit kontrola, tak clovek mohol preniest kopu chlastu a cigariet. Podla znacenia idem smer bus. V automate kupeny listko ab (dalo sa platit i kartou ale chcel som sa zbavit minci) Naskakujem na txl bus co ide okolo hauptbahnof. Dnu som si ako jediny cvakam listok. ( No este jeden si cvakal) Niektory ludia si kupovali listok u vodica. Ani nie po polhodine vyskakujem na zel.stanici. Tu mix narodnosti. Pesi idem nazad do supermarketu aldi. Kupa pizza kuskov a konecne vody. Kurvy nemecke maju zalohovane ... read more

This group is very different from those I have joined in the past. There are 16 of us , and seven are older than I! My room mate is a woman from Victoria born on December 25 , 1950, and a retired teacher ...practically a twin !! I tnink we will work out okay . Not to sure about the retired orthosurgeon and KENNY suporter from Calgary . The other Canadians are from Winnipeg , Saskatoon and Ottawa. 4 of the group are from Australia and 3 from New Zealand. Our guide seems to be a very nice young man . 30years old and originally from Turkey . He has been working with G for 6 years and is now one of their trainers . He takes pride in his work . He studied history and ... read more

Morning Three: Berlin Just enough time to walk to the Jüdisches Museum before heading to Schönefeld Airport. We have planned a route that zig zags past various sites but the ‘cold and the fret’ (Richard Scott) is full in our faces so we default to the shortest pathway possible. We visited the museum, famous for its angular design, when it had just opened in 1997. It still feels like nothing is truly vertical or perpendicular. It is the building that you are visiting and understanding more than its exhibits. The only entrance is through a old baroque building then via a staircase that descends to the main space. Three axes present an uphill struggle for the visitor. One to Exile, one to Holocaust and the last to Continuation. You ascend each of the pathways but their ... read more