26th Sept - Hung over in Berlin
Thanks to everyone for my birthday emails, cards and phone calls. It's been a slow start to the day of my birthday as we had some fun in Berlin last night, completely unplanned which made me feel a little seedy this morning.
A quick recap of the last few days. We travelled through the western and central parts of Germany by car, stopping in Erfurt, Meissen and Potsdam (just outside Berlin) as well as passing through several other much smaller towns to peek at their shops, antiquities etc.
Meissen walkway & Rathaus
We were quite surprised by the amount of Roman ruins and the importance of certain parts of Germany to the Roman empire (years and years ago of course). Along the way we would drive for anywhere between 150 & 500 kms (a ridiculously long day, not recommended), struggle to locate the entry to the city by following 'Zentrum' (centre) or 'rathaus' (town hall) to find the Information centre and scope out possible accomodation and then walk around that place for 2-3 hours in the afternoon, before collapsing in the hotel / pensione/ B&B for an hour before dinner.
I had another go at driving which was much more sedate (as we went off the Autobahns to an old inland highway) which had so many little towns on it where you have to slow to 50kms/hr for about 100 metres that you can't really get up to more than 85 kms/h elsewhere before you hit another village / town! Mark's feeling much better about my driving now, although isn't going to completely hand over the reins.
Erfurt and Meissen were particularly lovely towns and luckily we decided to skip Leipzig and go straight onto Meissen (head of porcelain in Germany) as they had their big festival for the year (Wine Fest) starting on Friday night, which was when we should have been there and would have had no hope for a bed.
We then overnighted in Potsdam in our first pensione (b & b) which was of course owned by a very nice but very strange couple.
Potsdam pensione
Potsdam architecture circa 1950 vs 1840
Food has been an interesting issue as well as Germany is PORK heaven and I don't eat pork, bacon, ham etc. Surprisingly not much Chicken is consumed and so it's been mainly steak, beef or turkey (which feels very strange and sort of Chrismassy US thing). I thought I'd try some fish one night and found out I'd ordered smoked/ salted uncooked fish of some kind, so that night I just ate potatoes and salad. Ah well, it's getting a little better.
We arrived in Berlin on Saturday late morning and as usual it was fairly stressful entering the city, but we got there. Found the apartment we're staying in and managed to get a free park out the front which is great, as bascially the car will stay there for the next 2 weeks. We've been warned by everyone not to bother using the car in Berlin itself as driving is bad, parking is difficult and expensive. Plus the German public transport system is meant to be fantastic (will discover more later today).
We are staying in Friedrichshain which is sort of a mix between St. Kilda, Brunswick, Fitzroy and Collingwood. There's lots of great grafitti on the building (quite artistic), second-hand markets (where I bought a small backpack) and informal cafes, bars and galleries. We wondered around doing house stuff like shopping and washing clothes and then had a quite night in.
Our Berlin bedroom
A local East Berlin apartment building
Yesterday, was our first full day in Berlin and we explored the markets and then walked for 45 mins to Alexanderplatz/ Hackescher Markt to meet up with a Berlin Walking tour. which would last 4 hours! http://www.berlinwalks.com/ It was about 22 degrees and lovely. We had a fun group of about 16-20 people from all over and the best tour guide that we've had ever (Fabian). The tour actually went longer (nearkly 5 hrs) and when we suggested a drink afterwards (this was by now 7.30pm, 3 Americans, us and Fabian went to a pizza bar and then onto a really weird but Melbourne-style bar and had some shorts & other drinks to celebrate my birthday. It was a really great time, although perhaps a bit too much recent German history and economic policy discussions as one of the Americans was fascinated about the Nazi period and its implications on Germany today and whether USA is approaching similar issues. (I won't extend that line of comment any further).
Anyway, I'll sign off now, We've been having trouble uploading pictures but will rectify that ASAP. Bye, Tam
A quick recap of the last few days. We travelled through the western and central parts of Germany by car, stopping in Erfurt, Meissen and Potsdam (just outside Berlin) as well as passing through several other much smaller towns to peek at their shops, antiquities etc.
Meissen walkway & Rathaus
We were quite surprised by the amount of Roman ruins and the importance of certain parts of Germany to the Roman empire (years and years ago of course). Along the way we would drive for anywhere between 150 & 500 kms (a ridiculously long day, not recommended), struggle to locate the entry to the city by following 'Zentrum' (centre) or 'rathaus' (town hall) to find the Information centre and scope out possible accomodation and then walk around that place for 2-3 hours in the afternoon, before collapsing in the hotel / pensione/ B&B for an hour before dinner.
I had another go at driving which was much more sedate (as we went off the Autobahns to an old inland highway) which had so many little towns on it where you have to slow to 50kms/hr for about 100 metres that you can't really get up to more than 85 kms/h elsewhere before you hit another village / town! Mark's feeling much better about my driving now, although isn't going to completely hand over the reins.
Erfurt and Meissen were particularly lovely towns and luckily we decided to skip Leipzig and go straight onto Meissen (head of porcelain in Germany) as they had their big festival for the year (Wine Fest) starting on Friday night, which was when we should have been there and would have had no hope for a bed.
We then overnighted in Potsdam in our first pensione (b & b) which was of course owned by a very nice but very strange couple.
Potsdam pensione
Potsdam architecture circa 1950 vs 1840
Food has been an interesting issue as well as Germany is PORK heaven and I don't eat pork, bacon, ham etc. Surprisingly not much Chicken is consumed and so it's been mainly steak, beef or turkey (which feels very strange and sort of Chrismassy US thing). I thought I'd try some fish one night and found out I'd ordered smoked/ salted uncooked fish of some kind, so that night I just ate potatoes and salad. Ah well, it's getting a little better.
We arrived in Berlin on Saturday late morning and as usual it was fairly stressful entering the city, but we got there. Found the apartment we're staying in and managed to get a free park out the front which is great, as bascially the car will stay there for the next 2 weeks. We've been warned by everyone not to bother using the car in Berlin itself as driving is bad, parking is difficult and expensive. Plus the German public transport system is meant to be fantastic (will discover more later today).
We are staying in Friedrichshain which is sort of a mix between St. Kilda, Brunswick, Fitzroy and Collingwood. There's lots of great grafitti on the building (quite artistic), second-hand markets (where I bought a small backpack) and informal cafes, bars and galleries. We wondered around doing house stuff like shopping and washing clothes and then had a quite night in.
Our Berlin bedroom
A local East Berlin apartment building
Yesterday, was our first full day in Berlin and we explored the markets and then walked for 45 mins to Alexanderplatz/ Hackescher Markt to meet up with a Berlin Walking tour. which would last 4 hours! http://www.berlinwalks.com/ It was about 22 degrees and lovely. We had a fun group of about 16-20 people from all over and the best tour guide that we've had ever (Fabian). The tour actually went longer (nearkly 5 hrs) and when we suggested a drink afterwards (this was by now 7.30pm, 3 Americans, us and Fabian went to a pizza bar and then onto a really weird but Melbourne-style bar and had some shorts & other drinks to celebrate my birthday. It was a really great time, although perhaps a bit too much recent German history and economic policy discussions as one of the Americans was fascinated about the Nazi period and its implications on Germany today and whether USA is approaching similar issues. (I won't extend that line of comment any further).
Anyway, I'll sign off now, We've been having trouble uploading pictures but will rectify that ASAP. Bye, Tam
posted by Most Liveable at 7:20 PM
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