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Published: March 4th 2012
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Berlin…………..another year on! Berlin Schonefeld was busier, but we are not talking Heathrow. The locals are all still called Jack Wolfskin and the transport got off to a good start this time with the first Airport Express into the city not being cancelled. We were a Kleingruppe this time ……………15.50 Euros for an all day ticket in ABC…… the ticket system looked familiar, although pressing the English flag button always helps.
The first port of call was the Hertha BSC ticketshop near Zoogarten. Borussia Dortmund were Saturday’s visitors and tickets had been selling like hot cakes. The previous high crowd was only just over 62,000, so there was plenty of capacity to go around was the confident stance. Alas not, there were precisely 22 left ….. yes 22 tickets out of 74,400! And they were mostly single seats at 59 Euros. The Premier League had come to town and sadly brought it’s pricing structure. We declined and headed for the hotel. There was always Plan B. Plan B was check whether Tennis Borussia were going ahead with their game in the Berlin Oberliga at 1930 hours. Postponed – the world of permafrost had descended on Berlin ……… or at least
so the regional FA had decided. We opted for a walk around the key sights near Potsdamer Platz, Brandenberg Gate and the Reichstag. We let a Vietnamese man take care of the catering arrangements back near the hotel. There was some concern that fish head soup might feature on the menu, but the New York version of Vietnamese cuisine has cornered the market on that on.
Plan C for Saturday was Dynamo Berlin at the Sport Forum. It didn’t actually feel that cold, but the game had been called off on the Friday. There was bad theme developing. We could go to the Olympiastadion and try and tout some of the cheaper tickets or Potsdam was calling. Potsdam won hands down and we headed to the U Bahn to link on to an S Bahn. The doors were firmly locked at Buffalostrasse as it became known with a small notice proclaiming …………..we’re on strike or German words to that effect.
Where had all this German efficiency disappeared to ………. postponed football matches and tube strikes ……….. The hotel assured us that the S Bahn was still operational and only U Bahn and BVG buses were out of action,
which was just as well for the Potsdam plan as 24 kilometres was a bit much even for the most enthusiastic walking member of the group. It’s just round this next corner............
The S Bahn ran to plan and 35 minutes later, we were in downtown Potsdam. Potsdam was in the old East Germany and retains it’s share of functional high rise flats, but is now on the list of desirable suburbs in the outer city to call home. The building site continues at a pace crossing the river into the town centre and the new Brandenburg State Parliament is rising amongst what remains of Old Potsdam. A mini visitor centre is conveniently on hand to inform you of what the final vision will look like. We proceeded to secure an expensive coffee in the Dutch quarter, which does a good job of making you feel that you are in a bit of Amsterdam without canals. While the town centre of Potsdam is as aesthetically pleasing as ever, the main action centres around the parks and palaces. The Potsdam Konferenz, scene of the carving up the conquered German territory in late July and early August 1945 was held at
the Cecilienhof Palace just to the north east of the centre. The ice fishing was in full swing on the lake near the Palace, so the postponement of football was a reasonable shout. The Cecilienhoff is really a big country house, designed for Crown Prince Wilhelm Hohenzollern just before World War 1 and was chosen as the venue mainly because of it’s security. Stalin, Truman and Churchill were accompanied this time by Clement Atlee as the outcome of the UK General Election was in the balance. The main outcomes saw the arrangements for the post war German economy being agreed and the shifting of it’s eastern borders westwards in favour of Poland. Stalin meanwhile was busy reinforcing the socialist ideology in the states under Russian occupation. East Germany was we knew it eventually rose from the ashes. We took a tour round the key parts of the Palace – the rest is either a hotel or off limits – a competitive 6 Euros with English headset thrown in.
After some serious leg work, a tram and a refueling stop in the town centre, we emerged by the Potsdam version of the Brandenberg Gate. The big park to the west
of the centre is a mini Versailles – palaces abound in the former royal playground with the main focus being on the Schloss Sansoucci, aptly named as the Palace of No Worries. The worries clearly came later. We got the bus back to the train station, before the protests on walking further got too loud and the S Bahn back to Berlin. The Topography of Terror filled in another hour, before we discovered the strikers had given up for the day and the U Bahn was available for the last leg back to what would become drinking headquarters. The 1.60 Euros for a large bottle of Berliner Kindl was very acceptable and we let our Turkish hosts take care of the catering arrangements.
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