1st - 3rd Apr 2024
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| Berliner Fernsehturm (Television Mast) On the morning of the second day in Berlin we were herded onto a bus with a local guide (Peter) who was armed with a microphone and taken on a long trip around town. He, like the other guides, was very knowledgeable and talked a lot. Too much in fact. The trouble with these bus tours is that before you have had time to take in one 'sight' you were on your way to the next. One becomes somewhat disorientated. I try to combine this, including some hastily taken photos through the bus window, with other places I later visited solo on foot.   Right: Just to the north side of it is the Reichstag which houses the Bundestag, the German Parliament. The modernistic glass dome on top was designed by the British architect Norman Foster and is illuminated at night. You can visit by appointment, but we didn't.  Left: We passed the Bellevue Palace, the official residence of the German President, Herr Steinmeier, we were told. No, I had never heard of him before either. He must have a lot of spare bedrooms?  Then, in the Tiergarten, the Victory Monument featuring Victoria again. Known colloquially as 'The Chick on a Stick'. The bus tour continued around the city and we passed several other 'important' buildings and sights but I became completely lost and failed to get many photos through the bus window.  Interestingly, parts of the old Berlin Wall have been left standing as they prove popular with tourists. Indeed several parts have been reconstructed with this in mind. Some have attracted elaborate and colourful graffiti. I'm not sure what was original. Left: This bit features the iconic 'kiss' between Brezhnev and Eric Honecker in 1979.  Right: A close up of 'the kiss'. It was painted from a photo taken at the time. I suspect many jocular and irreverent comments were made about this.  Left: Another bit of artistic graffiti on the Wall. This is on Mühlenstrasse.  Back to the hotel and I spent part of the rest of that day and much of the next wandering around the city. Most of the shops were still closed due to Easter. That evening we were taken for another 'communal' supper at a nearby Vietnamese restaurant called 'Phở Bò' (it translates as 'beef noodle soup'). Right: The food was decent and properly Vietnamese plus more scintillating conversation.  I mentioned in the previous 'blog' my dangerous bedside light fixture. I've found the photo I took of it. The bloodstains have been removed. Forewarned is forearmed!  The weather had turned wet and drizzly. I took the Metro to a recommended and famous 'beer garden', the Prater Biergarten, to the north of the centre. It has an interesting history and is/was a notorious venue for political and artistic 'gatherings'. When I eventually found it, it was surrounded by building work and 'gerschlossen'! It was still drizzling so wouldn't have been much fun anyway. Right: Not my photo! The biergarten when open.  Left: Further wanderings took me to a museum with a roof terrace overlooking another reconstructed part of the Wall (looking into the East sector). It shows the original layout of the inner and outer (main) walls with a guard tower overlooking the 'death zone' in between. As mentioned, there are several bits of this wall still standing for the benefit of tourists. As with all the other countries once under the thumb of the communist Soviets, there are several museums dedicated to this period. They are very popular!.......with quite interesting descriptions of attempts, some successful some fatal, by East Berliners trying to get across, or tunnel underneath.   I couldn't resist buying this tiny 'original' piece of Wall. What interested me was the graffiti displayed on the photo behind it. Why on earth was Geoff Boycott's name scrawled on the wall?! (for foreigners reading this, Geoff Boycott was, he's still alive I think, a well known English cricketer from Yorkshire). There is still a booming trade in souvenir shops for these bits of 'original wall'. I expect they make them around the back.  Nearby Checkpoint Charlie I came across a novel tourist attraction. It involved self-drive convoys in old Trabant cars! These cars were made in East Germany and somewhat basic, to say the least. They were nicknamed 'a sparking plug with a roof'. In those days there was a waiting list on average of about 13 years, sometimes 18 years, between ordering and getting one. They have now become something of a collectors' item. Anyway, here you are given a 'trabby' equipped with headphones for directions and instructions and join a convoy of eight others, presumably with a guide leader, for a 2 hour (or 4 hour) drive around the city. It sounds fun, if rather expensive (80 Euros for the 2 hour drive). Fortunately I arrived after they had finished for the day.  Left: A line-up of 'trabbies' waiting for customers.  Right: Just to get you familiar there is a 'high-tech' simulator to let you practice changing gear (I think they only have three, two forward and one reverse).  Left: I was wondering if it was for sale. I would cut a dash driving one of these around in my home town.   No visit, for me, to any city would be complete without finding an 'Oirish Bear'. My 'Google' told me that there are 12 Irish Bars in Berlin. I went to the nearest, which happened to be Murphy's Irish Pub in Zimmerstrasse near Checkpoint Charlie (left). Yes, I managed to drink a pint of Guinness.  On my way back to the hotel I went through an underpass where I nearly stumbled over this. He (or she) was obviously relaxing after a spot of light refreshment. I'm sure I have missed a few other places of interest and will add on later if I remember them. However, that will have to do from Stadt Berlin. We all assembled under the orders of our fuhrer the next morning for the bus to the Hauptbahnhof and train home. It, the train, was delayed. We then routed through Hannover and Bielefeld to connect with another at Cologne. This also was delayed and as such we missed the planned Eurostar connection in Brussels. I was told that the German rail system (Deutsche Bahn) is now even more unreliable than the British railways. That takes some doing! John, the tour manager, somehow got us booked onto a later departure. Also, one of our group, a silly old bat, got lost in the station at Brussels which caused a bit of a drama. As such, the Eurostar train arrived 2 hours later than planned at St Pancras (London) at 10.30pm which meant a problem for me as I had now missed the last train home. OK, at extravagant cost I found a nearby dosshouse to spend the night. So that was it, my 'escorted' tour via Nuremberg, Vienna, Prague and Berlin. I have to admit it was very efficiently organised and we were 'well escorted' and no complaints. However I think, on balance, I rather prefer the chaos and uncertainty of travelling solo.  I nearly forgot. A photo taken of our 'group' at Berlin Hbf. I have my own nicknames for most of them.....but not diplomatic to publish those here! |
Sehr interestink und unterhaltsam!
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