Berlin day 9 - Trip day 16

Well, today was our 2nd bonus day in Berlin, and it will be our last full day here. We are scheduled to fly home tomorrow morning.

Last night we looked at a brochure here in the apartment that lists all of the museums here in Berlin. We figured we would do one more museum today and then do a little shopping, go back to the apartment and eat dinner, and then pack. Since we have already been to all of the major museums that we are interested in, we decided to go to DDR museum. This is a small museum that features a history of what is was like to live in the Soviet controlled East Berlin. It is full of original artifacts and even one of the Trabi cars that you can sit in and take pictures. Everything is hands on so you can touch and feel many of the items. There is even a fully stocked kitchen that you can rumble through the cabinets. It really is a very fascinating museum to see what life was like in the DDR.

The Trabant (Trabi) was THE car in the DDR. Almost 2 million were made. They were tiny with an engine to match. (2 stroke, 594 ccm, and a whopping 26 HP). There was such a long waiting line for a new car, that used cars sold for more than a new one. The citizens loved these cars because it gave them mobility. When repairs had to done, spare parts were very difficult to come by. Owners took good care of their cars and kept them for a very long time.

Pat's going for the border! Too bad her top speed is only 100 KM/HR (60 MPH). ;-) Get the hell outta my way!

I love these pedestrian street signs! They are still in use all over the city. We see them every single day we are walking around Berlin. Of course, only the green or red are lit at any one time.

Would you like some coffee????

After the museum we went back to the Galeria Kaufhof and did a little shopping. We came across the view below on the way and had to stop and take the picture.

Pat got some nice German leather shoes at a great price and I got some  German/Italian Bugatti shoes. It was nice to get some nice shoes made in Germany and Italy and not from China. It is so hard to find any shoes in the USA that are not made in China.

So back to the apartment and we finished off with a traditional meal of white brats, kraut and beer. No better way to finish off a trip to Germany. :-)

Signing off as we need to pack and get to bed.

Tchuss!

Berlin day 8 - Now why did I have those 2 scotches?

Now why did I have those 2 scotches for lunch ?????? They were there!

We had a nice day and slept in, and woke up around 9:00. We had toast with ham, salami and cheese for breakfast and headed out to the Gendarmenmarkt to see the shops and make a stop in some of them. This area according to Rick Steve is the 5th Avenue area of Berlin. The weather was off and on with sun, and breezy. We walked around the Platz and did some window shopping, Mark then decided that the Galeria Kaufhof looked really good compared to the Euro 280 jeans and das kleid (the dress) at Euro 1325. So, we plan to put in some shopping time tomorrow at the Galeria!!!!!! I got some great shots of him trying to get away from those price tags!

We did stop in at Fassbender und Rausch, one of Europe's oldest and largest chocolate shops. They had a huge bear made of chocolate, and also the Brandenburger Tor. To top it off, even a volcano with chocolate lava (in honor of the recent eruption...???) constantly oozing lava. I made off with a box of candies and I believe that we will stop back in to pick up some more Marzipan as it is just fantastic here, not like we get in the US.

Next stop, the DDR Tower. Mark and I always enjoy a trip to the bar there (the food is notoriously bad) and the bartender(s) have always spoken good English so.......liquid lunch ensued while happy hour was going on.. We walked around and took some pictures, even of the building we are staying in.

The East German building we are living in right now is the white building behind the Park Inn building that is running left to right. You can see a cluster of buildings that all look alike. Our apartment windows look out to the pink building, which is across a busy street, also with tram lines. We watch the people in the old Soviet building and we feel like we are in a German movie, like "The lives of others". You should see that movie if you have not seen it yet. It also kind of feels like the Alfred Hitchcock / Jimmy Stewart / Grace Kelly / Raymond Burr movie, "Rear Window". Another awesome movie.

Here are a few shots of Berlin from the tower. 

The New Jewish Synagogue in the center of picture above.

Main Berlin Train Station

 The Bundestag

The Berlin Cathedral (Berliner Dom) on Museum Island.

We then left and found a nice little restaurant "Oliv" and had quiche and some cappuccinos. The food was very good and the place had an upscale bohemian atmosphere and we really enjoyed it. We walked back to the apartment after that....and a nickerchen (nap) snuck up on me.Weather forecasts have it warmer tomorrow and even better over the weekend. Springtime is going to arrive as we are leaving!

Well, it's dinner time and have to feed Mark as he gets grouchy if he's hungry. Leftovers tonight and of course even better tonight than last night.  I'm going to try to be in bed before 12 midnight, so...Gutta Nacht!

Berlin day 7 - Trip day 14

Today we moved into another apartment owned by the same owner. He is giving us a 50% discount due to the circumstances regarding airspace closure over Europe due to the volcano ash. Very generous so we took him up on the offer. The apartment we were in was already rented out to someone else that was coming in by train.

So this morning we packed up and Stefan called us a taxi and took us over to the other apartment. He even paid for the taxi. We were unpacked and all settled by noon. The apartment is in a real Soviet East Berlin apartment building, in one of the mid-rise buildings that the DDR used to parade their military down the street to show the world how well everything was here in East Berlin. We have taken pictures because it is a very unusual building. It is strong, and the rooms are quiet, but it is so plain, so functional and no adornments. In the entryway and hallways there is nothing on the walls, other than the paint. A view down the hallway looks like something out of a movie. The apartment itself has been remodeled and it is very nice. The building reminds us of two movies, "Good-bye Lenin" and "The Lives of Others". Both very good movies and if you have not seen them, it's time to take a look. The apartment is very warm and functional, and has VERY hot water!!!

The next three pictures are the building we are in. The doors with slits on the top are storage rooms, not apartment doors.

Below are views from our room. The buildings across the street look just like the building we are in.

We have TV in this apartment, but it is all over the air, and digital like in the USA. Unfortunately, without cable, we only get the local broadcast channels, all in German. :-(        :-)
But it is very interesting to watch. And you understand more than you think you would. Mark has done very well with his few German language skills this trip, I'm so proud of him!

We took a walk to the grocery store and bought food and some beer (Augustinerbrau Munchen - Lagerbier Hell - Helles Vollbier - 5.2% alcohol). The clerk fell out over the AMEX card, like he had never seen one! The beer Mark bought was the one we had in Munich with Joseph and Gabrielle. This is the beer that Joseph drinks himself. Then we took a walk over to Alexander Platz and the DDR TV tower. We are now very close to the tower. After browsing around the multi-story Galleria department store we headed back to the apartment to make dinner. Tonight, spaghetti with onions, garlic, bell pepper, cucumber, black olives, and sun dried tomatoes.

The airports are now all open today, and we have even seen several planes coming in for a landing to Berlin's Tegel airport. Yeah! Things are looking good for Saturday.

The first plane we have seen in the sky since last Thursday, 6 days ago!

The weather has been very strange here today. Sun, rain, wind, sun, rain, sun, wind, SNOW, sun, and now partly cloudy. We will take rain all day if it helps to clear the ash even more from the skies. :-)

SNOW!

Berlin days 5 & 6 - Trip days 12 & 13 - Touring Berlins Under den Linden

This blog is actually for today, Tuesday 4/20 and yesterday, 4/19/2010. We just never got around to writing the blog last night due to quality beer consumption :-).

The focus for the last two days has been following the volcano issue and trying to get us a flight home. Nerve racking.... The news reports yesterday were saying that they expected 50 to 60 percent of the flights to happen across Europe on Tuesday. According to our travel plans we were supposed to fly from Berlin to Frankfurt on Air Berlin on Tuesday and spend the night there at the Sheraton Center at the Frankfurt airport. Then in the morning of Wednesday 4/21 we were to take Delta flight 15 from Frankfurt to Atlanta. Well, they kept saying on the news that the flights in Germany were all going to be regional and no international flights were expected. So we were cautious about going to Frankfurt and getting stuck there. Sure enough, that is exactly what would have happened. The Air Berlin regional flight to Frankfurt went through, but Delta has now canceled tomorrow morning's flight into Atlanta. Had we gone into Frankfurt, we would now be stuck there with no apartment and no flight. We had spoken with Delta and they did not think the international flights were going to happen. So we decided to stay in Berlin and not get onto the Air Berlin flight.

That was Pat's call to stay in Berlin, and that was such a great decision!

Delta is making ticket changes with no fee due to the volcano issue, so we were able to change our Frankfurt to Atlanta ticket into a Berlin to Atlanta ticket. So we now have reservations for this Saturday, 4/24, from Berlin, through JFK, then to Atlanta. We would rather not be going through JFK, but that is the only choice when flying from Berlin. Delta does not fly Berlin to Atlanta non-stop. Hopefully by Saturday all flights will be caught up and back to normal.

In other news... Yesterday we did manage to get out of the apartment for a little while and we went back to the hub of Berlin. We strolled around the Brandenberg Gate, the Reichstag, the Jewish memorial, etc. All of theses sites are in the same area, and it is fascinating to just stroll around. We even sat on the steps of the Reichstag and rested and people watched.

Oh - Mark did a good deed yesterday. We had taken the new subway train from the Reichstag back to the Berlin Main Hauptbahnhof and we were making our way to the S Bahn trains. We walked by a couple about our age and Mark heard the man say "I don't know, I don't even know where the hell we are". We went back to them and offered to help them find their way. They were from Seattle, and he was using a 10 year old map from a library book. Well, the new HBF in Berlin was rebuilt and opened in 2006. So the map he was using did not even have the correct stations on it. It was no wonder he was confused. (We always make a point to go to a TI center and get updated maps anytime we go to a city.) We found out where they were going, and we were actually going in the same direction, but a little farther down the line. So we took them through the HBF (which is a very large, multi-floor facility) to the correct platform for the S Bahn train that we needed to catch. We got them off on the correct stop and wished them luck in finding their hotel. That made us feel pretty good to help them out like that. Perhaps we should give tours????

Today we pretty much did nothing but relax and try to get over the stress of the volcano situation. We did take a stroll to the laundromat and did some laundry. The owner of our apartment has offered to put us into an unbooked apartment for half price. That is such a fantastic offer that we took him up on it. So it looks like we will be changing apartments tomorrow, but we will be able to stay there until our flight on Saturday. Also, IF the person from Switzerland does not show up that is supposed to take the apartment we are currently in, then we can stay right where we are. That would be ideal.

It rained this evening here in Berlin for a short time, we hope that this is a good sign...something to clear away the ash. Conflicting reports of ash and dust clouds, so we wait to see what will happen. We miss our dogs terribly and can't wait to see them. Ric has been so good to them they are going to be spoiled when we get home. Next time they are going to have to come with us!

Jewish Memorial

Pat with the Brandenberg Tor and Reichstag behind her. The building on the right is the new US Embassy.

The brand new U55 subway that has 3 stops (Main Train Station or Hauptbahnoff, Reichstag, and Brandenburger Tor). This line was in construction when we were here two years ago. It really is handy and cuts down on walking)

The park next to our apartment.

View from our balcony at night. The picture does not really depict the beauty. It is such a beautiful view in person.

Berlin day 4 - Trip day 11 - Trip to WWII air raid shelter bunker

Today we had only one item on our agenda. We went to Berlin Unterwelten tours for a tour of one of the Berlin WWII air raid shelter bunkers. We took a tour through them two years ago and we went through one of the flak towers that defended the city of Berlin. Those were monstrous concrete towers with anti-aircraft guns on the roof, and they doubled as air raid shelters for 10,000 or more civilians.

The Berlin Unterwelten society has grown over the years, and they are now an acknowledged organization and they have made numerous discoveries and documented numerous sites in the Berlin underworld.

Maybe you have seen the movie 'Downfall'. It is a German movie about the last days in the Fuhrer's bunker in WWII. We have this movie and we have watched it several times. Well, the Berlin Unterwelten society were consultants to the producers of the movie!

Today we went to one of the air raid shelters that was actually built beneath one of the U-Bahn stations. This was a very fascinating tour. They have documented the events very well, and there are rooms of actual artifacts on display.

One item I found particularly interesting was an item that was discovered in the Fuhrer's driver's bunker. It was an authentic Enigma machine, that had been smashed to make it unusable by the enemy. I immediately knew what it was. And it was so neat to actually see one of these famous encryption devices in person. I have read about them and seen pictures, but this was the real thing!

We spent the rest of the day sitting on our balcony and looking over the park and having some good beer and wine. Tomorrow we will see what has developed with the volcano issue.

We miss our dogs and hope to get home soon, although it is really beautiful here. The sun has been shining and there is not a cloud in the sky. Quite warm today at 67 degrees......and due to be a bit cooler in the days coming. Hopefully the high pressure will go away and flights will resume by the end of the week.......

Berlin day 3 - Trip day 10

This blog is for Saturday, 4/17/2010. We had two items on our agenda for today, the East Side Gallery and the Soviet War Memorial and Cemetery at Treptower Park.

The East Side Gallery is a remaining section of the Berlin Wall that is now used as an art gallery. In fact, it is protected by the police, and anyone caught damaging the wall will be prosecuted. The Gallery runs for about a half mile along the river front in south east Berlin. Depending on where you are starting from, it takes a few subway train changes to get there, but it is worth the trip. Here are some select pictures that we took. We will post the rest in our Facebook photo album later.

A French group were there and they were very friendly. He jumped into the picture with Pat :-)
His wife took the picture below for us.

The cars above are the East German car (Trabant, or Trabi for short). It was the most common car in East Germany. We have seen many on the road here. We have seen these two traveling around in a pack, advertising their agency.

After the Gallery we headed to the Soviet War Memorial at Treptower Park. Pat's dad visited this site back in the late '50's or early 60's and he told us how impressive it was. It turns out the memorial at Treptower is the largest Soviet memorial outside the Soviet Union. Over 7,000 of the 20,000 Soviet soldiers that died in the battle taking the city of Berlin are buried here. There is another large Soviet memorial in the Berlin Tiergarden, which we visited two years ago, that contains another 2,000 soviets soldiers. The Treptower memorial is in a park, and it about 1 kilometer from the metro station. So it is a nice walk to get there, following the signs.

The main statue in the park is an approximately 30 foot tall bronze statue, on top of a pedestal, which is on top of a raised hill, of a Russian soldier holding a child, with his sword lowered to the ground. (Like they carried swords...) And one of his feet is stepping on a crushed swastika. It is a pretty dramatic statue, but we think hardly the reality. As the Soviet troops were as ruthless in revenge to the Germans as the Germans were to the rest of Europe. Nonetheless, it is a great statue.

Plaques at the memorial entrance give a lot of detailed history of the memorial. There have been numerous ceremonies here with heads of state from Russia and Germany in attendance. In addition, a fact that I thought was very interesting, is that Germany has now accepted total responsibility for the maintenance and upkeep of the Soviet memorials in Berlin. This is no small thing. The Treptower memorial needed total renovation in the early 2000's after 55 years of weather exposure.

Notice the DDR TV Tower in the background in the picture above. No matter where you go in Berlin, the DDR tower is your compass.

After we got back to the apartment and rested up for a while from all the walking, we decided to go and find a nice Italian restaurant that we visited two years ago. We walked about five block and it was right where we remembered it to be. We had a very nice Italian dinner with a bottle of Chianti, and some after dinner cordials and headed back to the apartment. What a nice day...