Days 107 - 109 (June 21 - 23, 2013): Berlin, Germany

The Quick Facts:

* Another quick trip from Dresden to Berlin
* Joined for the weekend by Carrie’s childhood friend Alissa and her husband Brian – Alissa and Carrie have been friends ever since, while at dance class, four-year-old Carrie informed Alissa that she “has a small face”
* There is a lot to see in Berlin – not only the sites relating to WWII and the Cold War, but also various neighborhoods and people that show a wide range of cultures, lifestyles, and socio-economic situations that make Berlin one of the most diverse cities we’ve been to on our trip
* Stayed at Guesthouse Sixmiles – a little pricey (but still a cheap option in expensive Berlin), it’s wonderfully located and very clean.  We would recommend if you need something like that in Berlin.

The Good:

* Friends!  We enjoyed having Carrie’s friend from home, if only so that Carrie finally had someone else to talk to!
* The Holocaust Memorial and Museum is an honest and moving preservation of the events surrounding the Nazi’s rise to power and their extermination campaign during World War II
* We took a tour of Street Art (which is plentiful in Berlin), some of which is really creative and well done
* The Pergamon museum contains the huge (and I mean huge, like 118 feet x 110 feet which includes a wrap-around 371 foot long sculptural frieze depicting the gigantomachy, or struggle of the gods and the giants) Pergamon Altar from ~160BC in Greece and the equally large Ishtar Gate from 600BC Babylon
* The Neues Museum contains the ultra-famous bust of Queen Nefertiti
* The Olympic Stadium, where Jesse Owens famously kicked butt in the track and field events in front of Hitler and his “master race” during the 1936 Olympics and where the 2006 World Cup was held

The Bad:

* There’s a lot of construction in the city, which does get in the way of seeing some of the sites, and requires the use of above-ground piping systems (the groundwater level in Berlin is quote high (like 2 meters below the surface) so most building sites get flooded pretty quickly) that for some reason are painted pink or purple

“Ich bin ein Berliner”, John F Kennedy famously proclaimed in 1963 Berlin to show US support for the city the USSR had divided with a wall two years earlier.  24 years later, in 1987, Ronald Reagan visited Berlin and called on Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.”  In November 1989, passage was once again allowed between east and west Berlin; eventually, the wall physically came down.  From then on, Berlin has worked to reclaim itself – to bring east and west together, to erase as best it can the stain of division left on the streets and the psyches of its people, to emerge once again as one of the most vibrant and diverse cities in the world.  Our stay here suggests they’ve made strides toward these goals, but still have work to do.

Our trip began with the Brandenburg Gate, where Reagan made his famous speech (JFK spoke at a site to the south of Brandenburg Gate).  Nearby is the Reichstag, Germany's parliament, which has an interesting clear ball behind it (you can only see the top in the pictures below) that requires booking weeks in advance if you want to get to the top).

 

 

We then went to the Holocaust Memorial, which is a series of 2,711 concrete slabs of varying height arranged in a grid.  At the center is a museum which contains a very honest portrayal of the Nazi’s rise to power, the scope of their genocide, and its effects.  It’s worth seeking out if you are ever in Berlin.

 

Nearby is the Bebel Platz, which is the square made famous by the Nazis for their book burning.  Today, a glass portion of the square gives way to a room with bare bookshelves to commemorate the event.

 

 

Eventually, we met up with Carrie’s friend Alissa (seen here…Hi Alissa!) and her husband Brian.

 

Our first activity together was to join a “free” walking tour to see the better street art the city has to offer.  Berlin is wonderfully diverse, with many layers, and it is known for its street art throughout the world.  The tour took us to some neighborhoods and places we wouldn’t have found on our own, which contained some seriously impressive works of street art:

 

 

 

Part of the tour, this is the longest stretch of the Berlin Wall remaining in the city, and has been appropriately decorated by the locals:

 

Not part of the tour, probably because it's just weird... 

We then hit up Checkpoint Charlie, the old gate between east and west Berlin made famous by a tank showdown between the US and USSR in 1961.  Today, the checkpoint is still there, replete with actors dressed in US military garb, for tourists to take pictures

 

The companion piece to Checkpoint Charlie is the Berlin Wall memorial, which is the only place that has all sections of the wall still remaining.  See, it wasn’t enough to have just a wall, to effectively close the border the Soviets needed a wall, an inner wall, vehicle barriers, lights, guard towers, and patrol paths.  The so-called “dead zone” had a width of 10-20 meters.   Here are pictures from a viewing point above, as well as on the ground (including me in front of the wall):

 

 

Today, other than some of the sections seen here, the wall is gone but its path preserved by a series of dual brick markers.

Here we see Alissa and Carrie recapturing the magic from their glory days on the playground…

 

We then checked out the Olympic Stadium, where the 1936 Summer Games were hosted by Adolf Hitler.  In the presence of Hitler’s “supreme” white beings, African-American Jesse Owens came to town to win four gold medals, the most of any Olympian that year. It’s a neat complex, which still has other sports venues such as the swimming and diving pools, and is one of the few Nazi-era buildings to have survived.

 

After the Stadium, Alissa and Brian had to leave to go back home to London.  To drown our sorrows, we went to Fassbender and Rausch, which claims to be the largest chocolate store in Europe.  It does have neat chocolate models of famous sites in Berlin, including the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag (see above for the real thing).

 

And then we went upstairs to have some chocolate and ice cream….seriously good!

 

Our day ended with a trip to the Pergamon and Neues museums (no pictures allowed), and dinner in Alexanderplatz which was illuminated by a very full moon (seen off in the distance between the buildings).

 

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Day 106 (June 20, 2013): Dresden, Germany

The Quick Facts:

* Made the relatively quick trip from Prague to Dresden
* The main sites include an impressive art museum with some of the world’s most famous works (Raphael’s Sistine Madonna and Vermeer’s Woman Reading a Letter By An Open Window among them), the Green Vault which contains a wonderful collection of jewels and other treasury items from the ruling Saxon king August the Strong (who made Dresden what it is), and a series of castles set up on the River Elbe that provide wonderful background scenery for a leisurely bike ride along the banks of the river
* Stayed at Lolli’s Homestay – a wonderfully run, and quirky, hostel right in the heart of Neustadt (where all of the bars and restaurants are).  We liked it, especially the location, free dinner on Wednesday nights, and the free bikes they offer (which is the best way to get around the city).

The Good:

* The so-called “Green Vault”, which houses the jewels and treasury items from the reign of August the Strong in the 18^th century, is eye-popping; most of the rooms are mirrored in some way to magnify the effect, but the collection of sapphires and diamonds and other precious stones are unlike anything I’ve seen and worth a look if you are in the area
* The art museum in the Zwinger is very good – not too big so it’s easy to get through in 1-2 hours, and there are five or six really famous paintings that you’ll be glad you saw in person
* The Frauenkirche, the main church in the heart of the old town square, is a triumph of the post-war, post-communist revival of the city: destroyed in the aerial bombings of 1945, the church was not rebuilt until the fall of the Iron Curtain, when the city decided to use many of the old stones.  The effect is a checkerboard appearance on the exterior.
* The bike riding – wonderful bike paths around the city, and a culture of bike riding which makes navigating the streets and sharing the space with cars extremely easy.

 

The Bad:

* Nothing really, we enjoyed Dresden a lot; the Neustadt area is where all of the action is, which is a lot of fun and very energetic, albeit if it has a 90s feel to it


We arrived in Dresden the night before to allow for a full day of sightseeing.  We set out on bikes and made our way from the Neustadt area to cross the river to the old town and where all the sites are.

 

 

As mentioned above, the Frauenkirche dominates the skyline and is a tribute to the determination of the people to regain their city's past in the wake of German reunification (note the aforementioned checkerboard pattern of the stones).

 

This is the only section of the old church that survived the aerial bombing campaign.

 

Moving on, we passed by what is claimed to be the largest mosaic in the world, made up of 23,000 tiles.  It shows the procession of Saxon kings, soldiers, noblemen from the 1100s through to the early 1900s.  Here is but a section of it:

 

We then headed over to the Zwinger grounds, which are impressive:

 

Our afternoon was spent on a bike ride, where we stopped at Lingner Castle for a drink before crossing the Blue Bridge (famous in these parts for being old) and getting really great views of the castles from the other side of the water:

And finally, I saw this mother and daughter on the bike ride and managed to get a picture.  Love.
 

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Days 103 - 105 (June 17 - 19, 2013): Prague, Czech Republic

The Quick Facts:

* Took the overnight train from Budapest to Prague
* Saw the main sites in Prague, including the New Town, Old Town, Jewish Quarter, and the Castle Area
* Stayed at Pension 15 – good for what is, it’s not in the center of town but they do provide clean rooms with nice showers and wifi; and, for about half of what we pay in other cities the price is more than right!

The Good:

* The Old Town Square is one of the most beautiful squares I have seen on this trip: teeming with life from both tourists and street performers, the square’s architecture and space are spectacular
* The Prague Castle area is quite nice, as is the Charles Bridge which connects the two parts of town over the Vitava River
* The beer is so cheap!  And, related, the town has a plethora of beer gardens which are very fun to enjoy an afternoon
* The architecture is wonderful – it’s an odd mix of Romanesque, Baroque, shappy communist, and modern, but somehow it all works and it’s lovely to look at.  A walk down just about any street offers this kind of variety, with the various small details or differences really showcasing the architects’ creativity.

The Bad:

* The people are a fairly grumpy lot.  And I don’t think it’s necessarily reserved just for the foreigners (like I experienced in Venice for example).  They respond to any request with raised eyebrows and a lengthy explanation of why they can’t do what you have asked them to do…before they turn around and do it anyway because what you’ve asked them to do is, you know, THEIR JOB!  In the end, they mean well, they just want you know that you are putting them out when you ask something of them.
* The food is nothing special, and forget trying to get a vegetable.  It’s just meat with meat and some more meat.  There may be a boiled potato involved, if you get the “health plate”.  The vegetarian option at most places is fried cheese.  Full stop.

We took what is probably our last overnight train trip from Budapest to Prague…here is the traditional picture of our sleeping cabin (which I have to say was quite nice, the best we’ve had on our trip):

 

Once we got to Prague at 6AM, we headed to our hostel at 7AM (reception hours start at 7AM) when we were told by the buy at reception “Check in is at 1PM; it is 7:20AM, so…..”  Thanks buddy, very helpful.  We know the drill, we want to drop off our bags!  And so it was with the Czech people for the next two days.

Our first stop was the Old Town Square, which includes a unique astronomical clock that puts on quite a show (for a 600 year old clock) every hour that includes a skeleton pulling on a string, the appearance of every apostle plus the big man himself (Jesus, not Clarence Clemons), and a golden goose squawking along with the bell chimes, the Tyn Church that has two spires of different sizes to symbolize Adam and Eve (the women really seemed to really like that idea), as well as a number of other classic medieval, gothic, and baroque buildings that make the square really awesome to be in:

 

After watching the clock, we hooked onto a free walking tour which took us through the old town, the new town (which is now the main shopping district of Prague), and the old Jewish Quarter (which once was where all the Jewish people were forced to live in a ghetto in the days of the fascists and communists).  What’s amazing, as I mentioned, is the many different styles of architecture that co-exist within the city, including the old medieval, Romanesque, and Baroque lumped in with communist blah crap and modern structures as well.

 

 

 

Prague Castle, found across the river in another section of Prague, is where the President lives and has a number of museums and churches.  Our first stop, however, was the Royal Gardens, which are beautiful in their own right and have very nice views of the city:

 

Next stop were the main gates to the palace complex, which are apparently quite the tourist attraction!

 

 

Behind the palace gates is St. Vitus’s cathedral, which to be honest is nothing that special:

 

After we went to the Old Royal Palace, which is where new Presidents of the Czech Republic are sworn in (in the main hall seen below) as well as a couple of other rooms which are pretty cool:

 

Then there is the Basilica of St. George, followed by the Golden Lane, which has these cute little (almost miniature) houses where tradesmen used to live, including Franz Kafka for a short while during World War I. 

After the palace, we walked across the famous Charles Bridge…which contains many statues along the way and was the sight of a saint being thrown off in the 1300s for making the king angry.

We then checked out a beer garden in a park, which was lovely because it was in a park, had panoramic views of the city, and was full of people (locals and tourists alike).  We even ate dinner there, here is Carrie coming back from the food stand with her chicken kebab (which, as she points out, is not a kebab but rather a shwarma…her Czech wasn’t quite good enough to convey this nuance to the people working the stand).

 

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