Week 9 Berlin to Frankfurt and back to Calgary

Another short week to wrap up this trip. On Sunday we packed and sorted out our receipts for the VAT refund desk. Air Canada has recently introduced a surcharge on "extra" checked luggage (more than one piece each) on it's international flights. We decided against trying to cram too much stuff into one bag each and just pay the stupid fee. It will add up to $100 CDN for the two of us.

After packing up we decided to take the S-Bahn over to SavignyPlatz where we had previously discovered a most excellent pizza place right beside the S-Bahn station. As an added bonus they have an enclosed outside seating area. This is a bonus because, in Germany, the law is no smoking inside or within enclosed outside areas of restaurants (or so one of the guys there had told us on our first visit when we said we would sit inside to avoid cigarette smoke). The enclosed area was very nice and smoke free. Outside along the sidewalk is another matter...people are free to smoke there since it is not enclosed.

We decided to bust out of our pizza habit of normally having the favorite "ham and pineapple" and ordered a "salmon with fresh cream" pizza. This place made only very thin crust pizza in only one size which is about right for two people. What a pleasant surprise! The taste of this pizza was simply incredible. Bite sized chunks of salmon with dollops of fresh cream. Mouths are watering again already.

Our apartment landlord had agreed to arrange a taxi for us for 8:00 am Monday morning. We got up a bit early, got ready and finished packing and at about 7:45 moved our luggage outside. The taxi arrived at about 7:55. Love it!

Fairly uneventful train ride to Frankfurt, although we did end up sitting on a siding for a while at one point with an explanation provided in German with the rest of us left guessing. It must have been for some silly reason though as the delay caused the fellow across the aisle from us to get very frustrated to the point where we thought he might blow a gasket. Luckily he survived but sure got off the train in a hurry when we arrived in Frankfurt. We hoped that if he had an important meeting or something that he was able to get there in enough time. The train route from Berlin to Frankfurt went through some lush forest areas and lots of green as well as through some hillier and even mountainous areas as we travelled through some substantially long tunnels.

Not a great hotel in Frankfurt but in a great location which meant we didn't have to walk very far to get to the main Frankfurt shopping district, the Zeil. The hotel was probably about a 3 star at best but when there is a fair or trade show on in Frankfurt (which there always seems to be) the hotels fill up well in advance and at very high prices. The room we had in Frankfurt was maybe of Motel 6 quality and cost us 320 euro (nearly $500 CDN) for two nights. Compare that with the 850 euro we paid for our nice one bedroom apartment in Berlin for 19 nights. On the positive side, the hotel rate did include breakfast and it was quite good.

Anyway, did some shopping in Frankfurt where Kris found some additions to her wardrobe. Tuesday evening we went to a place near the hotel for a "flammenkuchen" and a couple of glasses of wine. A flammenkuchen is like a very very thin crust pizza. We decided to follow up on our recent finding in Berlin and ordered a "salmon and onion" flammenkuchen but told them to go light on the onions (they tend to overload on them). This flavor was absolutely delicious, so much so that we decided to try another one. This time we chose "turkey, mushroom and onion" (again light on the onion). After ordering, Brian commented that he hoped the mushrooms were not whole with Kris replying that she rather hoped the turkey was not whole... had a good laugh... and the sliced turkey and sliced mushrooms on the flammenkuchen was just an excellent combination.

We like to arrive at the airport early in case of unexpected issues (always a consideration with Air Canada) and maybe even more so these days what with the Iceland volcano causing disruption in northern Europe. So we called a taxi and arrived at the Frankfurt airport about 4 hours early. We went directly to the Air Canada checkin where we were surprised when we got through pretty quick and then off to the VAT refund counter.

NOTE... If you have items in your checked luggage for which you want to claim a VAT refund then do not let the airline folks take your luggage at check in. You must take your checked in luggage to the VAT counter. The customs folks there have the right to check your luggage to make sure you are taking the goods out of the country. After they approve (ie stamp) your VAT refund papers you leave off your luggage with them for delivery to the airline then go to the actual refund counter. The other thing to note is to keep your receipts for your carry on purchases separate because they must be processed after you go through security. Same procedure. The other thing is to be organized. We have been through this process in Frankfurt a few times now and know that if you are organized it makes their job easier and they tend to just stamp away on your receipts and off you go with your refund. Easy-peasy... we saw some folks who apparently were not organized and the customs guys went through their luggage demanding to see each item for each receipt. That's a hassle you definitely do not need!

Anyway, we ended up with over 200 euro refunded to us and we were through the process in a matter of minutes. Then it was simply a matter of grabbing a coffee and waiting for the flight. The flight from Frankfurt to Calgary is normally just over 9 hours but (we think) because of the volcanic ash over Iceland, the flight path changed with the result being about 10.5 hours. Flying east to west the flight follows the sun so we were in bright daylight the entire way making it harder to sleep, especially if you find it hard to sleep on a plane anyway. We arrived in Calgary at about 6:00 pm which for our body's Berlin time was about 2:00 am, so we were quite flagged by the time we got home.

However, home we are now and this trip is done.

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Back to Week 8

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Week 8 Berlin

This week started with our introduction to the Bundesliga (football/soccer in Germany). The Berlin team, Hertha BSC, hosted FC Augsburg in the season finale game. The standings were already set with these two teams finishing in first and second place respectively, in the 2nd division Bundesliga, so both are to be promoted to the 1st division next year. That being the case, this was not much more than a "bragging rights" game and was hard for us to tell if the game skill and tactics were played to their full potential. That aside, it was a whack of fun being in a sold out Olympiastadion where the announced attendance was 77,166 and all of them, yes, even us, were cheering loudly from start to finish.

On the way to the stadium on the S-bahn the train cars were totally crammed with people supporting both teams.  The cars were so full, I think even the Japanese train crammers would have been impressed.  The supporters were singing their team songs back and forth - all very friendly and quite amusing.  We pulled into one station and there was a very heavy police presence and the platform was overflowing with more fans.  At this point there is no more room on the car so only a few people can get on.  That station must have been a transfer point from other transit lines because the next station we came to had only one lonely man standing on the platform.  Picture a loud, beery, singing train car full of people decked out in their team colours and on the platform one tiny, tidy little old man in a tidy homburg, with a tidy little coat and a tidy little suitcase.  The entire train car burst out laughing - it was such a contrast. There was no room for Mr Bean.

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The game was close with the home side coming out on top 2-1. Afterwards there was great celebration...

When we bought the tickets the fellow at the Hertha shop indicated that they were 'partially obstructed view'.  I think he was referring to the barrier around the field that cut off our view of the ground level immediately in front of us .... but in fact the view was more obstructed by the huge Hertha fan who sat in front of Kris.  And I do mean huge fan.  This guy had an immense bushy head of hair, he must have been at least 6'9" tall (a really big guy) and he was wearing a poncho made out of what appeared to be a Hertha sofa blanket.  I am not making this up; he was quite a sight. 

The trip home from the match was not without adventure.  We didn't stay to see all the medals being handed out at the end of the game as the attendance was so high, we wanted to get a small head start on the train home.  Germans are very orderly, albeit enthusiastic people, and they can drink more beer at a soccer match than you would think humanly possible.  So we get on the train to come home and it is a bit crowded, we have to stand but (thankfully) we are not crammed in like sardines and we get about a quarter of the way into the car and are standing in the aisle.  There is an area for bicycles and a older couple are sitting there with their bikes.  Two young guys get on, I would say they were maybe 16 and 20-ish?  At any rate, we aren't more than 100 yards out of the station when the younger of these guys begins to upchuck beer all over the place.  His friend grabs the back of his neck and has the poor guy pushed over double so the fellow's head is practically level with his knees so he mainly hits his own feet and vicinity.  Brian leans over and opens the window (all the train windows have little sign politely indicating that you must not throw your beer bottles out the window!) and a few seconds later the guy starts to get sick again.  Same routine, his friend is trying to make sure he doesn\t hit anyone else.  Then his friend asks if anyone has a tissue or kleenex, the older lady with the bicycle hands him the tiniest kleenex I have ever seen and he placed it onto the ocean of used beer and begins to try to direct it all toward the train door.  At the next stop he pushes as much of it out the door as possible, and he drags his poor suffering friend off the train.  Then Brian says, look out, the rest is flowing this way .... so we wandered down to the other end of the train car.  Thank God the boy had not had currywurst for lunch.

Later we checked out a local stop (just down from our apartment) for one of the Spree River cruise companies as we have decided that would be a fun way to see parts of the city from a different angle. While looking at the schedule an older gentleman was walking by and we asked if he spoke English... "just a little..." he replied, so we asked if he could help us interpret what the sign was saying with regards to the different cruise options. Turns out he spoke pretty darn good English and engaged us in a conversation about our stay in Berlin, making many excellent suggestions as to what we might consider doing.

While chatting he asked if we had come across any "stumbling blocks". We confessed that we did not know what he meant so he explained what they are and the history behind them. In a nutshell, these Stolperstein or "stumbling blocks" are small memorials, about 4 inches square, placed in the sidewalk outside apartment buildings where people were taken away by the Nazis. The idea is that people stumble upon them and can know that this happened right here, maybe in the building they live in. It turns out there is a pair of them outside the apartment building next to where we are staying. Here is a photo of them showing the couple who was taken...

These are very powerful memorials and a daily reminder:

• Here lived Max Mannheim; born 1866; deported Aug 25, 1942 to Theresienstadt (concentration camp) where he died Sep 28, 1942.
• Here lived Frida Mannheim, nee Heimann; born 1883; deported Aug 25, 1942 to Theresienstadt where she died Jan 30, 1944.

We had planned to do a river cruise on Monday but the weather turned a tad inclement. We wanted to do a cruise where we could sit up top in the open for better viewing rather than being huddled inside, so we decided at the last minute to skip the cruise this day. Instead we took the S-bahn over to Savignyplatz where we cruised boutique shops and had a very nice lunch. During the day we came across a TI (tourist info) where we decided to buy a 3-day museum pass and would do a couple of museums each day Tues, Wed, and Thurs then, weather permitting, do the river cruise on Friday.

We looked through the brochure showing most if not all the museums of note. Clearly there were going to have to be some left for next time. We decided to limit ourselves to 2 per day with a target limit of about 2 hours in each.

Tuesday we chose the Pergamonmuseum and Alte Nationagalerie museums.

The Pergamon Museum almost defies description.  Remember at the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark where the Germans are depicted as trying to box up all of antiquity and ship it home?  From the looks of this museum they did a pretty darned fine job.  The scale of the artifacts makes you ask "how the dickens did they get all this home?".  The Pergamon Altar would probably cover the better part of a basketball court.  The Ishtar gate is, well, a city gate!  It isn't really possible to do more than to stand there and gape at the things, they are so totally over the top.

Leaving the Pergamonmuseum, we noticed a Rathskellar restaurant across the street. Sweet... not too far to get some lunch and close to our second choice museum for the day. Unfortunately there was a tour bus group in there and the place was full but we decided to just wait rather than wander off in search of something which may or may not end up being close by. Ended up having a very nice lunch. Then on to the Alte Nationalgalerie... but wait, as we passed the new Neues Museum, Kris noticed a sign indicating that you had to get a time slot entrance ticket (this is because the Nefertiti is widly popular). Kris also observed that there was currently no lineup at the door, so we quickly went next door to the Alte Nationalgalerie, where we could get a timeslot ticket) and were issued an entrance ticket for "right now". So off we went with a change of plans. Neues Museum instead of Alte Nationalgalerie for today.

Even if the Neues Museum were empty, it would be worth seeing.  The building is another example of the miracle that has transformed Berlin since German reunification.   The building had been bombed in WW2 and left standing to the elements until the early 1990's.  There was a competition and a British architect was chosen.  As with the lovely church in Hannover, this restoration put the structure back in place, but did not attempt to restore the interior.  The room where the Nefertiti is displayed is an octagonal shaped room with dark green walls; the patches and re-plastered areas of the wall are quite apparent.  The green walls give a lovely contrast to the skin tones of the bust and the chipped plaster on the walls is very compatible with the chips in the old girl, the one place in the museum where photos are not permitted...

Wednesday we chose the Kunstgewerbemuseum (Museum of Decorative Arts) and the Kupferstichkabinett (Museum of Prints and Drawings). Both of these are in the Kulturforum at Potsdamer Platz so easy to get to and close together.

The Decorative Arts Museum should have been wonderful, but it was so hot and although the things were beautiful the displays were un-inspsired. And Brian got chewed on by a guard because he opened a drawer on one of the cabinets "This is a musem" we were informed.  To which Kris muttered ' a hot boring musem'.  Actually, the drawer did contain interesting stuff!  why they didn't have a few of the drawers open to begin with is something only the curator will ever know.  As ho-hum as the exhibit was, there were interspersed couturier pieces which Kris enjoyed and then ..... a display on dress-forms!   Kris is one of the few people on earth who find this interesting; so the museum was redeemed in her eyes.

Leaving the Kunstgewerbemuseum, we spotted an outdoor eatery as part of the Kulturforum complex. Again, how convenient was that, and they had quite good food to boot. It's a cafeteria style with a board above that supposedly tells what they have available to serve... but everybody just looks at what is available and points to what they want. The guy behind us kept looking up at the board and asking for something but the guy serving just kept saying to him in his best english "...don't look up there, look down here, this is what we have today!"

After eating we headed for the Kupferstichkabinett only to find that none of the 500,000 prints and 110,000 drawings they advertise as having, are actually on display. Sometimes they have special exhibits but otherwise you have to know what you want to see and the person in the study room can retrieve it (or a copy of it) for you. Since there was no special exhibit on when we arrived, this was a rather short museum visit.

The Kulturforum complex houses another museum that was an alternate on our list so we ended up going to the Gemaldegalerie (Old Master Paintings) instead.

It is quite fitting that the word Gem is in the name of this gallery. Again, it is a newly renovated space, although sort of confusing in its layout.  What is wrong with linear progressions people?  why do we have to wander like Moses for 40 years to get from one end of the collection to the other?  But the collection is superb!  Two exquisite Vermeers, many Rembrants (including the Man with the Golden Helmet) and Botticelli madonna.

Thursday we chose the Judisches Museum (Jewish Museum) and the Gedenkstatte Berliner Mauer (Berlin Wall Memorial).

The Jewish Musem is a very striking structure and the focus of the collection is on Jewish life in Germany through the ages.  The holocaust is not the central theme, although it is not possible to discuss Jewish history without this topic in the back of one's mind - there are areas in the building dedicated to contemplation and remembrance.  The collection itself is a great tribute to the richness that Jews brought to German culture and learning and the emphasis is truly on the life aspect - home life, school life, role of women, business life, etc. There was also a special exhibit entitled Fallen Leaves which represented the lost people...you can walk on it and it makes a sound like walking on metal leaves...

The museums Thursday were definitely far apart. We opted for a nice lunch in the Jewish Museum before beginning the trek to the northern part of the city. We took the U-bahn up to Friedrichstrasse Bahnof then the S-bahn north to the Nordbanof station. The Nordbanof station is interesting because it is part museum. There is an exhibit there showing how this station (and others) were turned into ghost stations when the wall went up. This underground station is on a line that went from West Berlin through East Berlin to West Berlin again. The trains were allowed to run but could not stop at these ghost stations. The exhibit shows how some folks escaped to West Berlin via the tunnels before the stations were bricked up. The wall memorial along BernauerStrasse is still being worked on but is very interesting. They have kept part of the wall along with it's "death strip" and watch tower to illustrate what it was like. They have removed all the barbed wire etc but you still get the idea. Throughout he memorial, which stretches a couple of blocks along BernauerStrasse, there are numerous individual stone memorials marking the places where people died trying to escape over the wall. There is new visitor information center where they show short documentary films. Just up the street from the visitor center is the Documentation Center where there is a very interesting permanent exhibit "Berlin, 13 August 1961", the day the wall went up.

That marked the end of our 3 day museum pass. Very well worth buying the pass. There are so many museums in Berlin it almost makes your head spin.

Friday we had hoped to do the river cruise thing again, but the weather forecast was for rain all day. Poop... maybe we would have to save this for another time as well. So we took it easy in the morning and decided that Friday would be a stroll around shopping in the rain kind of day. When we left the apartment the sky started to clear but it was too late to catch the morning cruise so off we went. Well, the weather forecast was a tad off... it got clearer as the day went on. Later in the afternoon, as we were on our way back to the apartment, Kris commented that maybe we could catch a late afternoon cruise. There turned out to be one almost right away, so we had a quick coffee at a corner bakery/coffee place and hoped on board for the 2 hour roundtrip down the Spree River. It was wonderful blue sky by this time so sitting out on the top deck of the cruise ship gave a fabulous view. It was late Friday afternoon and there were folks by the hundreds/thousands out enjoying themselves along the river pathway restaurants and parks, mostly taking in the sun and the odd brew. We commented about how this was so cool and also about the total lack of anything like it in Calgary. Yes, we have the bike paths along the river but how many places are there where you can sit at an outdoor cafe along the river and just sit and enjoy, never mind the "not allowed to have a beer in public places" law?

Saturday we went off in search of the best model train store in Germany, so they say, and if it isn't then there are some other might fine ones out there! Brian, the potential budding model train enthusiast decided to buy a car or two depicting German beer companies. The guy in the store was very helpful and explained differences in German vs American engines and car couplings. Kris spotted a car for a famous beer company so we picked that and another car that was on sale but will have to change the couplers when we get home in order to hook up with the small CPR train set we bought late last year. Having worked on contract at CPR for a number of years, it seemed prudent to start with a model of their train.

The area where the model train store was is a quaint little residential plaza with a beautiful garden. On the plaza was a flea market where one of the stalls was selling vegetables. It is "spargel" season here and this guy, in his Spargelmobile, must have had the cream of the crop. There was a lineup about 20 people long and there were empty spargel boxes flying out of the back of his truck... Kris muttered to ourselves.. "...people, it's just asparagus, you can get it anywhere...". White spargel is a delicacy here. In restaurants we often see menu items such as "Spargel und Salzkartoffeln mit Butter" (White Asparagus with boiled potato and butter)... now there's an all white dish for you. On a side note, one evening we stopped at a nearby eatery for a glass of wine and sat next to a couple of people from Dallas Texas and chatted with them. She was having her plate of "Spargel und Salzkartoffeln mit Butter" for the 3rd night in a row!

We went and walked around the Charlottenburg shopping area a bit before taking the S-bahn over to the Tiergarten where we had noticed another very large flea market set up. We wandered around there for a bit, marvelling at the collections of stuff of all varieties. There was no place to eat around there so we jumped back on the S-bahn and went over to the Friedrichstrasse area for a nice pub lunch along the river. We both passed on the house special... you guessed it... spargel!

Saturday night was the German Football DFB Cup championship game and it was played in Berlin at the Olympiastadion. We looked at getting tickets but they were selling in the 300+ euro range so screw that. We can watch it on tv. Anyway, all day Saturday there were hordes of Schalke and Duisburg (the two teams in the cup final) fans on the trains and wandering around town. Everywhere we went there was much singing, hollering and of course, being Germany, beer consumption. There were also hordes of riot police ready to hop into action if need be. On the way home about 4:00 pm, we were on the train with some Schalke fans who were entertaning the train passengers with their team song. We spoke with one guy and asked what time the game started. It didn't start until 8:00 pm so they still had a good 4 hours of partying to get under their belts. He said they had been drinking beer so far but hadn't got into the vodka yet!

We ended up watching the game on tv, however it was a bit of a blow out. Schalke grabbed a quick lead and never looked back.. final score 5-0, hardly what you'd expect for a national championship but it happens sometimes.

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Back to Week 7

On to Week 9

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Week 7 Berlin

There is much to see and do in Berlin... but how to get around...

There are 3 transit zones, for the greater Berlin area, but we figured we'd spend most time in the inner two zones. If we decided to beyond once or twice then it would be cheaper to just buy single ride tickets for those occasions.

Looking at the cost of single tickets @ 2 trips per day (19*2*2.30) = 87.40 each = 174.80 euro for both of us for 19 days.

There are a variety of different daily, weekly and monthly passes. At the far end of the scale for us was a "10 AM Monthly pass" which is designed for folks who will not be traveling during the morning rush hours. That's fine for us as we usually take it slow in the mornings and can easily wander around the neighborhood for a bit, if need be, before getting on the transit. Anyway, for our 19 day stay in Berlin, we chose this monthly pass for the two inner zones (AB). The website quoted the cost at 53.20 euro each but when we went to the local station we discovered the cost was only 38 euro each for a total of 76 euro for the two of us... giving us essentially unlimited (except for the 10:00 am rule) transit for our entire stay... a savings of over 100 euro even if we only rode the transit twice daily... note, we normally will ride 4 or 5 times a day as it's cool to just get off and on at different places as we roam around the city, so a fairly substantial savings.

Enough about transit fares...

To finish off last week we took the S-Bahn over to Savignyplatz where we strolled down some side streets with very nice boutique type stores. This area led us to the very popular Charlottenburg shopping area along Kurfurstendamm, or Ku'damm as it is locally known,  where we no sooner turned a corner that we ran into a small store whose name we recognized...

We walked along the Ku'damm looking in a variety of stores, stopping for coffee and lunch and ending at the humongous department store KaDeWe before calling it a day. Very nice, relaxing day.

One day, after a bit of a walk through part of the huge Tiergarten, we took a bus over to the Brandenburg Gate area. We were a bit disappointed when we found that to go up to the sightseeing glass dome of the Reichstag requires making an online reservation at least 3 days in advance. Later looking at the website, the process looked to be a bit of a hassle so we decided, for now, to skip that particular tourist attraction. Maybe we'll reconsider but there are lots of things to see in Berlin. One particularly moving display they have outside the Reichstag is a Memorial to the 96 Reichstag members of the opposition parties killed by the Nazis...

Leaving the Reichstag we walked over to and through the Brandenburg Gate.

After lunch, We walked along Under den Linden to Friedrichstrasse then down past (and into) the large department store Galleries Lafayette, to where Checkpoint Charlie was as a crossover point between East and West Berlin.

There are some great wall murals depicting life as it was with the wall in place, showing the resistance, terror, hardship, and tension of the Cold War. Friedrichstrasse is an excellent strolling streets, lots of shops, boutiques, high end stores, etc.

Potsdamer Platz is home to the Panoramapunkt office tower with it's high sky view over the city. This place claims to have the fastest elevator in Europe. Don't have other big Euro-elevators to really compare it to, but boy was it fast and smooth. Great views across the city from the rooftop Terrace, Later we had a nice lunch in the Sony center across the plaza. Walking up towards Brandenburg Gate we stopped at another moving place, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.

After having gone up the Panoramapunkt, I, Brian, decided that another visit to the Alexanderplatz and the nearby Fernsehturm tower was in order. Kris gave it a miss while I went over to get a ticket expecting to have to wait awhile before getting in. Turns out I was able to get in right away although I did have to sneak a bit because my ticket number was one more than the last one allowed at that time slot (I was supposed to wait another half hour)... the first guard got distracted as I walked by so I thought for sure I was in. The second checkpoint is the bag check where buddy does a cursory glance into your bag and decides if you can take it up with you... but it was the third checkpoint that got me... the electronic one where you scan your ticket and the gate either opens or it doesn't.  I scanned my ticket and of course it failed. I innocently asked the guard there if there was something wrong expecting to be turfed out on my ear... she politely looked at my ticket, gave me a new one and said "go ahead, use this, I'll scan yours later"... sweet. Anyway, the views were great. A clear day and 360 degree view over Berlin. Everything on the ground looked tiny with lots of people scurrying around looking like ants. Man, is Berlin and the country around it every flat.

This is what Alexanderplatz itself looks like from way up there.

Tuesday we took the train to Hannover and back. It was a 2 hour ride each way. The train reached speeds over 250 km/h. The purpose of this trip was to visit the War Cemetery outside of Hannover, where an uncle is buried.

The War Cemetery is very easy to get to from the Hannover Hauptbanoff (main train station). As you exit the station onto the large plaza, head over to the right (at about 2:00 o'clock) where you will see a tram stop. This is a stop for the number 10 Ahlem tram. There is a ticket machine at the stop. It gives change. There is a continuously updated ETA board which shows when the next trams will arrive. Jump on the 10 Ahlem tram and ride it to the end of the line which, coincidentally, is at Ahlem. Exit the station and cross over Heisterbergallee (this is the road running parallel to the train tracks), walk past the Esso station (it will be on your left) and continue along the sidewalk for maybe one km. Nice easy walk in the country. You will see the cemetery across the road to your right. There are actually two cemeteries. The larger one, which you come to first is the British Military Cemetery. The War Cemetery abuts it to the left. Wander down until you are in front of the Stone of Remembrance looking up the hill at the Cross of Sacrifice to get your bearings. The grave reference you have might need a bit of de-cyphering, but after a bit of looking around and trying to make some deductions, here's how ours worked using this of the cemetery taken from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website...(right click to enlarge and open in a new tab or window)

Grave reference for our uncle as found on the cemetery website: "COLL.Grave 16, G. 10-14"

• On the map locate graves in group 16, it is the third group to the right of the Cross of Sacrifice at the top of the hill.
• On the headstone on the end of each row is a group and row number reference. The first row in group 16 is row A. Just go up the rows until you get to row G.
• Start counting the headstones. Between 10 and 14 we found our uncle's headstone. His was the 13th.

We visited for awhile, noticing how beautiful the cemetery is kept. Very respectful. Afterwards we took the tram back into Hannover and strolled around the city center before boarding a late afternoon train back to Berlin.

Much of Hannover was bombed during the war, so a great deal of what you see (even historic looking buildings) are in all likelihood reconstructions.  We wandered into the Marktkirsch which I would consider to be the most beautiful church we have seen thus far.  The entire structure has been reconstructed using the original red bricks, they have a new (very graceful looking) pipe organ and have re-installed some of the original stained glass windows that were salvaged.  There has been no effort to reproduce the interior decoration of the original church, just the original structure.  What you see in the pure architectural form, very spare and unornamented with the stained glass sections suspended in the clear glass windows. 

Wednesday was our introduction to the famous Berlin Currywurst. Taking a cue from our Frommer's Berlin Day by Day guide book, we headed for the "legendary" Curry 36 take out joint which, as they claim on their website serves up "die beste curry aus Berlin". We joined the lunch hour lineup, each ordered a couple of currywurst sausages, stood shoulder to shoulder with other munchers and actually quite enjoyed this new found fast food item. Later when we related this to an older Berliner gentleman he slowly shook his head and said there are two rules... no MacDonalds and no Currywurst... we all had a good laugh.

Wednesday was also the first "museum" day we have done in Berlin. First we went to the Museum at Checkpoint Charlie. This place is quite expensive (26 euro for the two of us) and not particularly worth it. It is a bit of a disorganized group of rooms, very hot, stuffy and very crowded. There were some interesting parts/stories and displays showing ingenious methods used to escape to the west, but the owner's have definitely expanded the "scope" of Checkpoint Charlie with exhibits/displays having little if anything to do with the place or the era. Due to the heat and crowd we left after doing a relatively quick go through. Maybe another time when it is not so hot and crowded we would have another go at it and possibly change our minds as to it's value for money.

A block away was a museum of a different kind. We entered the Currywurst Museum and had a most enjoyable experience. First of all, air conditioned and very few people. This museum is just a lot of fun. It has interactive displays showing the history of currywurst and other fast food modern convenience phenomena. The folks there were very friendly and they have an excellent little gift shop. Oh, yeah, entrance fee included a free cup of their own version of currywurst. Arguably, to a currywurst newbie, it was every bit as good, if not better, than Curry 36.

Two museums a day is pretty well about it so after that we wandered along Friedrichstrasse until we got to the S-bahn station and caught the train back to our apartment.

Thursday was "Zoo day" as we had heard and read that the Berlin Zoo is a pretty good one.

All in all they have many excellent animal enclosures giving the critters a fairly natural environment, albeit never seeming to be as large as would be optimal. We didn't see the entire zoo but there are a few critters, especially in the cat family, which appeared to be still kept in old style relatively small cages. This is a beautiful park and is a very informative and excellent zoo. There were a number of relatively newborn/young animals which we had the opportunity to see, including an elephant, an orangutan and a couple of lion cubs.

Afterwards we strolled over to the nearby Ku'damm before heading home. After a brief respite in the apartment we went out for a glass of wine only to encounter the hardest rain we've had so far on the trip. Just up the street from our apartment is a Flammenkuchen place so we decided to duck in there for a bite and some vino. Very nice.

We still had one extra travel day to use on our Eurail Pass so we decided to head off to Dresden for the day on Friday. It is a little over 2 hours on the train with some pretty good scenery along the way. We planned it so we would have around 4 hours or so to wander around the old town part of Dresden. After arriving, we stopped at the TI for info on the tram schedule etc (it is walkable to old town but only on better knees and feet than we have). We had an excellent lunch then decided to just do the Old Masters Gallery and New Masters Gallery museums for our time in Dresden.

After Italy, we thought it would not be possible to see galleries which have collections equal to the Uffizi, for example.  The AlteMeister Gallery in Dresden is reputed to be the finest painting gallery in Europe.  And it is. Brian sort of gave me a questioning look when we discovered that our one day Dresden pass did not, in fact, include admission to the gallery and we had to pay 12 euro each to go in.  I had already decided that this was one of the things I wanted to see, so in we went.  We had only limited time, so we did a "highlights only" sprint through the gallery - but if we ever come back to the area again, I would come to Dresden to spend a day in this gallery.  They have one of my favourite paintings (Vermeer's Young lady with a Message ) and also have a great many Rembrandt's as well as the Rafael's Madonna that has the two cute cherubs at the bottom.  Our Dresden day pass did include a reduced admission to the Neue Meister Gallery, and again we only had a chance to sprint through.  They have a wonderful collection of Degas, Monet, Gauguin, Van Gough, Picasso - really would be worth coming back to another time.

As we finished with the New Masters Gallery it was time to head back to the station for our return trip to Berlin. Our conclusion from this short visit is that Dresden is definitely a place with return trip potential. Needs at least a few days to have a good look at.

To end the week on Saturday we decided to just chill in one of the city neighborhoods. We chose the Hackescher Markt area where we spent about 4 hours just walking around the busy streets, stopping for a coffee and pastry in a very popular little sidewalk coffee place, and just basically checking out numerous stores. We came away with some clothing items and some especially nice beads which Kris put together for a pretty necklace.

Saturday evening we walked down along the river and stopped at the Patio, a restaurant/bar on a boat on the Spree river. It started to rain so we had to go inside where it was sort of neat to sit in a glass covered room with the rain hammering down. It took a half litre of wine sipped slowly for the rain to stop at which point we called it a day... and a week. 

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Back to Week 6

On to Week 8

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Week 6 Munich to Berlin

Our stay in Munich was very restful. Taking full advantage of the very quiet apartment with it's excellent location (vis-a-vis transit) we continued to get lots of rest as we did local day trips to different parts of the city. In the evening we became regulars at a local bar and got to know several of the folks there, both staff and customers.

The transit system in Munich is really great. It is a total honor system. On the buses there is a sign behind the driver's seat which proclaims, in essence, that "... if you get caught riding without paying then they have to (by law) add 40 euro to the price of your ticket plus you will be prosecuted which would likely mean more cost to you... so do yourself and us a big favor to avoid all the hassle - buy a ticket".

TIP.. The easiest way to travel on public transit is to buy a pass covering the longest period you can make use of. Then just stick it in your wallet and travel as much as you want without worrying about paying each trip. With just about any pass if all you do is go somewhere and come back each day (ie 2 rides per day) you will pretty well be at least even with the pass so any extra rides are bonus.... and you will tend to do more jump on and off. The partner pass tickets are the best with discounts and a family of up to 5 people can travel on the one pass. Even for the 2 of us, a partner ticket was a saver. The Munich tram system is great and is all above ground so is good for sightseeing whereas the U-Bahn and S-Bahn are mostly underground, especially in the center so they are good for faster trip requirements.

One day we took a tram out to the Nymphenburg Palace which is a beautiful place right in the city.

The grounds are fabulous and lilac trees were in full bloom for a very nice smell in the air. On the grounds, in a wooded area, is an old hunting lodge which Rick Steves says is one of the best Rococo buildings in Europe. What exactly is Rococo Brian innocently asks, only to find out in spades...

The palace grounds were a great place to wander around in for a couple of hours.

Another day we took the U-Bahn up to Odeonplatz to have a wander around the Hofgarden and the Munich Residenz. The garden is very large and a heavily used recreation area for bicycling and walking. Very nice.

The Residenz grounds have been turned into a largish museum which Rick Steves warned that it is a one way street through all the rooms... all 90 of them. About half way through we spotted a sign that said "short tour" vs another that said "long tour" and decided we had seen enough. Basically the same kind of thing room after room... here's where so and so slept; here's where so and so slept... etc etc... which does get a bit tedious once you get past the real collections.

On the other hand the Cuvillie Theatre is spectacular...

...and one of the neatest rebuilding feature of the whole place is that reconstruction did not rebuild exterior columns etc, they were just painted on and look fabulous. From a distance it can be hard to tell that they are just painted.

For lunch a couple of days we ventured to the renowned Hofbauhaus where we enjoyed good lunches in a beer hall atmosphere with some locals totally into the attention they get from tourists...

All in all Munich was an excellent stay. Ten days was more than enough time to leisurely see the main sights and more. Munich is a real bicycle city and it was neat to see how easily the car, bike and pedestrian traffic integrated. The bike paths along the river looked very enjoyable. In a time with better knees and feet we may well have rented bikes for our stay here.

On our last day we decided to just get on the tram and go to a different area of the city, so we looked in the guidebook and found the address for a recommended fancy shoe store in an area called Schwabing (now known to us as Shopping).  We wandered around for a while looking in the cool little shops - lots of independent shops selling unique things, bead shops, etc.  Kris found a shop called Kandis and Kandismann which had clothing designed in Munich and manufactured in Germany.  Very high quality (like Vince the Sham-wow guy says ' the Germans make great stuff' ) and not like anything we get at home so it was determined that space could be made in the suitcase for an item or two.

Mid week we took a 5 hour ICE train to Berlin. At times it felt like a bit of a milk run but the train did get up into the 200 kph range quite often. Scenery is pretty cool out of Bavaria but further north Germany seems as flat as the Canadian prairies. The scenery as we got closer to Berlin started to reflect more of an industrial nature... but still lots and lots of green land.

We were met at our apartment by the owners. Nice people. Many explanations and even helped us find where we might be able to purchase tickets to the upcoming Hertha BSC football game. Hertha BSC is Berlin's team in the Bundesliga. This year Hertha will capture first place in the 2nd division so will be promoted to the first division next year. Fans here are pretty excited about that. We did manage to get tickets to the game (now a sell out) so it should be fun to be in that stadium. Game is not for another week though.

Anyway, the apartment is nice and in a great location. Quiet, near transit and near the river where there are a number of eateries and places to sit out in the evening.

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Back to Week 5

On to Week 7

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Week 3, 4 and 5 Rome to Florence to Munich

Well, we've been a tad tardy at keeping up with out weekly posts. After much time delay we decided to bunch together three weeks as we have been somewhat "laid low" what with Kris's knee and foot and Brian catching a wicked cold (or something)... read on for more info...

Week 3 began much the same... do at least one interesting thing each day.

Sunday we decided to take advantage of the "no vehicles" day on the Appian Way. Apparently, as with most other things in Italy, "no vehicles" or "area pedonale" rules are only there to deter the really unambitious. Just outside the old city walls, where the "no vehicles" rule started, it was not particularly pleasant to try to walk along the very narrow road with tall walls on each side with numerous vehicles whizzing by at regular intervals.

We went as far as the Catacombs of San Callisto. I, Brian, went into the catacombs while Kris and Marian wandered around outside and found interesting subjects to draw and paint. Upon emergence from the catacombs I described the experience..."... well there's 8 euro and 45 minutes of my life I won't get back". It is pretty cool to see what was done there but being in a crowd of 50 or more people crushed into very small spaces waiting for the previous crowd to move on then basically being tramped through about a half kilometer of very narrow tunnels with old burial cavities carved out on each side was not all that exciting... I couldn't help but start to hum to myself "...bring out your dead, bring out your dead...". It was, I'll admit, interesting to see the spot where Santa Cecilia was buried after being martyred, but all in all...

Anyway, been there, done that. I think if you were an ardent student of the subject and doing research it would be way cool.

The area around the catacombs was very beautiful parkland with a pedestrian walkway which was almost, but not quite, devoid of vehicles. We only had to step to the side a couple of times over a several hundred meter stroll.

After leaving the catacombs we grabbed a bite to eat at the Porto San Sebastian gate of the old wall then jumped a bus back as far as the Baths of Caracalla which happened to be free to enter (since it was Sunday and part of the national cultural week). That is quite an amazing place. It must have been absolutely spectacular in it's day.

Later that day we ran afoul of what appeared to be another meaningless rule. We stopped at a sidewalk winebar to sit outside and enjoy the weather. The cafe was on a street corner and the street side on which we were sitting was quite windy. There were no empty tables around the corner but there was a largish open spot so we took matters into our own hands and moved our table and chairs around the corner. Well, didn't that just set off a lot of hand waving gestures and shouting from the cafe staff about how this is not possible, it is illegal and the policia will have problems. Nothing is allowed to be placed in this spot. We argued that there had been a table in that very spot the previous afternoon but that got us nowhere so back around to the windy side we went. About 5 minutes later a guy drives his car half way up onto the sidewalk taking up part of the "illegal space where nothing is allowed to be placed" as well as blocking the sidewalk itself, gets out and buggers of down the sidewalk. A couple of minutes later three of Rome's finest walk by and have to step out onto the street to get around the car. They kept walking without taking notice. HAH...some problem. We had a good laugh ... aaaah Italy... ya gotta love it.

Monday was more of a metropolitan day. We took a morning metro ride to Piazza Barberini where we started a stroll down Via del Tritone, looking in a variety of shops and ending at Via del Corso where we stopped for a coffee rest in the Galleria Alberto Sordi. After that we continued on towards the Pantheon which is a place you never get tired of even if there are throngs of people about.

We were there around noon and the place teemed with school and tour groups. Just off the piazza on Via del Seminario is another of our favorites La Sagrestia Ristorante Pizzeria where we had a fabulous lunch. After lunch we joined the crowd going into the Pantheon where it was really cool to see the sun beam streaming in through the oculus and hitting high on the opposite wall...

Just behind the Pantheon is the beautiful Santa Maria sopra Minerva church with it's Bernini elephant sculpture with obelisk in it's piazza...

... and just behind the church is a great artist supply store where we bought more supplies for our budding careers...

By that time it was getting a bit late so we passed on one last palazzo and headed for the bus stop on Piazza Venezia where we waited patiently for about a half hour before our bus came by on which we headed home for a rest followed by a bit of a walk out, sit at a sidewalk winebar, dinner at home and that's it...

Tuesday was our final pre-scheduled tour. It was called the "Rome Market Walk" and covered several square blocks in Testaccio including the massive old slaughter house (now like a fairground), the old marketplace with it's stalls of all types where we sampled a variety of food items...

...and several of our guide's favorite local little stores. A butcher store she took us into has been in that one family for 9 generations. A pasta maker store was really neat as we were taken into the back to watch two older guys making a variety of pasta types. They were keen to have their pictures taken with one of us and also pleased to show us bags of flour from Manitoba after Kris told them we were from Canada and asked if they did use flour from Canada.

Probably the coolest store was a deli (Volpetti) on Via Marmorata where they provided us with several most delicious samples which prompted us to return to the store after the tour and make some purchases. After the tour we wandered along Via Marmorata (the main drag through Testaccio), sat for a most fancy cafelatte...

... then Marian went off to catch a bus home while we walked over the river into Trastevere for a look around and a Kris purchase of a nice little denim jacket at the Oviesse store. Very stylish ....zipper pull fell of during the first wearing ;-0 .Then to home to call it a day.

Wednesday we decided it was time to visit the museum on the Capitoline hill. Jumping on the #81 bus we were there in no time at all. Walking up Michaelangelo's famous steps we found ourselves on the Piazza Campidoglio looking at the great statue of Marcus Aurelius. The Capitoline Museums are simply not to be missed. The collection of fabulous sculptures is mind boggling to say the least and you can get a cool view over the Forum grounds from the Tabularium.

After becoming a bit "museumed out" we walked up the back steps to the nearby Santa Maria in Aracoeli church which is just another one of those must see churches. We had to wait about 40 minutes for the church doors to open so sat on the steps and pulled out our drawing books to see what we could conjure up in the form of recognizable renderings. Good, fun way to spend the extra time waiting, otherwise we would likely have just called it a day right then and there.

Turns out that Wednesday was basically it for the week. I, Brian picked up a head and chest cold that laid me low for the rest of the week. I think the Rome authorities might have sent divers into the Tiber river to see if they could find what must have been a wayward harbor seal (or whatever type of seal they might have in this part of the world) because, yes, I was barking that long and that loud day and night. Kris said she thought there might also have been moose stirring in the Palatine hill since I was also making many very loud snorting noises that could have attracted them.

Leaving me to waste away in bed, Kris and Marian went out on mini adventures in the local area.

This theme unfortunately continued for the rest of our time in Rome. I was able to get out and about but that just meant there was a lot of mobile hacking and coughing and having to stop for many sit down rests.

As week 4 started and the Rome portion of our trip was ending we salvaged what energy we had left to see the museums on the Palatine hill (these are about the best ones yet) as well as two churches Santa Maria della Vittoria with it's Bernini masterpiece the Ecstasy of St Teresa and Santa Maria Maggiore wherein lies Bernini himself.

Mid week it was time for Marian to head home and us to head to Florence. We had decided to stay in Florence for 2 nights then take the night train to Munich on the third night. We arrived in Florence late morning and our hotel room was not going to be available for a few hours so we decided to get in some of the shopping we had planned to do. Frankly both of us felt like total crap as we walked across downtown Florence to our personal favorite, the School of Leather located behind the Santa Croce church. Arriving there was a bit of a cheer up and we felt even better after Kris ordered a new handbag which will be custom made and sent home to arrive sometime around the time we get home. After that we went back to the hotel where our room was ready and our bags had already been taken up to the room. How nice was that! We both laid down and fell into the deepest sleep for several hours. How nice it was to be in a totally quiet room after the apartment in Rome which, although being a very nice apartment, was probably one of the noisiest places we have ever stayed, including our travels in India... and believe me, most places in India were noisy!!!!

Later we wandered up around the Duomo. The crowds and lineups to get into the Duomo were incredible. An interesting crowd is always the one around the doors of the bapistry. These doors are beautiful but are not the real ones, they are only replicas...

The real ones are in the Duomo museum situated right behind the Duomo where we have never seen a lineup to get in. Every time we have been in the Duomo museum there have been virtually no other people there....and... they let you take pics of the real/original doors which you can see closeup. 

We had reserved the hotel room for only two nights with the anticipation that we would just wander and enjoy Florence the whole of the 3rd day before catching the night train to Munich. However since we were both somewhat under the weather, we asked the hotel if we could check out really really late or even just pay for the 3rd night as we thought it would be good to have a place we could crash for a few hours mid day. Unfortunately, being Easter weekend, the hotel was fully booked but the staff said they would try to arrange something. Later that evening when we returned they informed us that they could give us a small room and would not charge us the full fee if we left by 8:00 pm.... this was fine with us as our train was at 10:00 pm anyway.

Day two in Florence was a tour trip out to the Prada outlet and The Mall (outlets for numerous other big names). For me, it was mostly a rest day in the country while Kris did most of the shopping coming away with a very nice small Prada handbag.

After two nights of great sleeps in Florence we were feeling much better for our last day of wandering in Florence (although still somewhat slowly). The main morning activity was going to our second favorite leather shop, Infinity which is a small family owned place not far from the main tourist area. There we each picked up a new leather bag... duh...what else would you expect?

We spent most of the afternoon resting in the hotel room (and very glad to have been able to get it too). This room was on the top floor and had a fabulous view of the top of the Duomo.

When we made our night train reservation from Florence to Munich we did it as far in advance as we could. Doing so, enabled us to snare a double compartment with it's own bathroom including shower.

TIP... there was no extra charge for this. It appears that there are a few of these compartments on each train and the early bird gets the worm.

Having our own bathroom turned out to be a real blessing as, to add insult to other injuries, Kris picked up a mild case of food poisoning, likely in our last meal in Florence. Having the bathroom right there saved her from to having to haul herself down the corridor to a public bathroom at the end of the train car...numerous times... in the night.

We arrived in Munich in the early hours (6:30 am) with our rented apartment not being available until 9:30. The Munich train station has numerous food outlets and we were able to grab a Starbuck's coffee at 7:00 and followed that with a bit of breakfast at another restaurant. After that it was a bit of sit and wait. We took a taxi to the apartment and the owner was waiting there for us. It was nice to be able to take possession that early in the day as nobody had stayed there the night before.

It turns out we arrived in Munich on Easter Sunday and being a very Catholic area everything was closed both Sunday and Monday... well not all restaurants at least so we did survive with a nice little bar just down the street from our apartment. Talking advantage of the very slow days we got lots of sleep and began to feel much better. The rest of week 5 was just low key in Munich. We bought a couple of week transit passes so that we didn't have to worry about fishing out change every time we boarded a bus, tram or subway car. The public transit system in Munich is very good. We found the trams the best as they were all on street level so you got a good view of the surrounding areas.

We saw some of the sights in central Munich including Marienplatz, the Viktualienmarkt and the pedestrian walkway from there all the way past Karlsplatz to the main train station. We took in a couple of the major beer houses where we had great lunches. We tried to get tickets to a FC Bayern Munich football game but they are all sold out and the secondary market demands a heavy price so we opted to watch the game with the crowd at the local bar. We did decide to go look at the stadium though and although it is a bit of a hike from the closest U-Bahn (subway) stop, it is a beautiful thing to behold...

One day we decided to use one of the extra days we had on our Eurail pass and went to Salzburg Austria for the day. Very nice tourist town which reminded us a lot of Banff just west of Calgary where we live in Canada.
Later that day after we had returned to Munich we were in the little bar down the street from our apartment. We told the bartender that we had been to Salzburg for the day and he said... " do you know what the best thing about Salzburg is?"... hmmm.. not sure so we said "no what?" where upon he replied "... getting back on the train to come back to Munich!!!"... ha ha ha.  I guess every city has a similar joke about one of it's neighbouring cities.

All in all, the first week in Munich was very restful and we both improved in health and outlook considerably.

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Back to Week 2

On to Week 6

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