Prague
The wall
Brandenburg Gate
Our 6.25am flight meant a very early start in Wembley. After our over night stay at the airport on the last trip that was not an option, so we got up at 3.30am with a car booked to drive us to Stansted. Bryce blames this for the first of 2 mishaps with the camera. In the darkness at the airport drop off zone neither of us saw the camera left in the boot, luckily after checking in straight away we realised we were missing something. With a quick call to the transfer company, a wait in the cold and 20 quid the camera was back in safe hands. All good and we were off to Berlin!
We caught the S Bahn (train) to the hotel located in the former East, dumped our bags and headed for the middle of the city. Straight to Alexanderplatz a main square in Berlin, where people were abseiling forwards down the tallest modern building in the city. We quickly sussed out the local food stalls. Bryce recalled some high school German to ask the locals what they were eating. The reply… Currywurst (chopped up sausage with curry sauce and dipping bread) which remained the staple food for the next few days. Refuelled we headed for the Brandenburg Gate. To get there we walked along the main street Unter Den Linden, the road which Hitler chopped the Linden trees down in order for the crowds to admire him and his troops as they held fire lit night marches. Along the way we stopped at markets and souvenir shops. At the end of the road was the Gate that survived the devastation of the Bombing of Berlin. We walked from the former East through the Gate to the former west to face the Reichstag (parliament) off to the side. We were amazed and impressed to be in this place with such a potent history and it was only the beginning. It was now mid afternoon and the weather had started to turn for the worst so we headed for Einstein’s, a café we had noticed on the walk. Once inside we felt like we had gone back in time to the 1930’s. Caitlin had the best ever hot chocolate, tip if you go to Berlin make the effort to come here. Back to the hotel by 6pm to check in and meet our Contiki group. In the hotel lobby we could pick who some of the Contiki travellers would be…. An Akubra and Wallabies jumper just a small hint. After a slight hitch with us being assigned separate rooms we headed for the tour run down with our group. Our tour manger Dom was extremely friendly as was the driver Eelco. After filling out some paper work and signing up for some extra activities we grabbed our bags and made it to our room to freshen up for dinner. We met some very nice people on our tour at dinner and got the latest sport and political news from home.
Day 2 we were up at a more reasonable time to catch the big blue bus for a quick tour of Berlin on the way to the East Side Gallery, or to us a section of the Berlin wall still standing (Luckily we had the camera even though we left it in the hotel restaurant and fortunately someone had handed it into hotel reception overnight. The art work was interesting and to look from one side to the other it was clear to see the difference between East and West. Then it was off to experience an even darker side to Germany’s history at Sachsenhausen concentration camp just outside Berlin. This camp was slightly different to Auschwitz in that it was a work camp (rather than an outright death camp) holding political prisoners and Russian soldiers, along with the Jewish and Gypsies. Yet it was still a place where unimaginable torture and contempt for human life took place. We were frozen in our warmest clothes in Autumn but this was nothing as the prisoners who once lived here were clothed in thin pyjamas in the middle of winter. Puts things in perspective. It was then we headed back to Berlin for an afternoon exploring on our own. We met up with the group again for a German dinner and a night bar. Drinking Schnapps in the street and smoking shish as in the Turkish themed bar. The second bar was like an East Berlin underground club used as a cover for smuggling people to the West. Our final day in Berlin started with a walking tour with an English guide who reminded us of Michael Palin. He was excellent, taking us to places like the Holocaust monument, burning of the books location, Hitler’s bunker (now a car park), another section of the Wall, Check Point Charlie and past one of the only Nazi built buildings still standing that was the offices of the Luftwaffe (only minus the swastika ) . Along the way we got a history lesson on WWII, the cold war and heard about escape attempts by East Germans, some successful some not. The rest of the day was spent in the Check Point Charlie museum followed by a beer hall (Best beer was Heffavasen). Berlin is a place we could definitely go back to.
With Berlin finished we were off to Prague, a place Caitlin had wanted to visit for a long time. On the way to Prague we stopped in Dresden for lunch. As with Berlin the city was virtually destroyed in the final stages of the war with much criticised massive bombing campaigns, aimed at breaking the German people’s moral than specific military locations. Apparently the fires in the city were so hot that the oxygen was sucked out of the air and the flames sucked people into the burning buildings. All the war stories we have heard over the last few trips through Europe have really been fascinating but so tragic, its alleged 50 million people died in WWII.
Arriving in Prague late in the day we went on a walking tour of the city at night. The group then headed for a bar while we went to find a pub that was showing the Arsenal v Sparta Prague match being played at home. We think every Pom in Prague was in the pub watching the Champions League matches. 7-0 to the Arsenal!!!!! So it was a good night. The following day we had a Czech guide take us to Hrdrcay Castle and on a more extensive city tour. It was fun just to listen to him speak, great accent. We then took a boat cruise on the river and drank far too much so had to walk it off in the afternoon. We took ourselves to the spot where Mission Impossible 1 was filmed (the beginning of the movie where all the agents are killed and the car blows up). We walked to the highest point in the city where Michael Jackson once erected a massive statue of himself when he was performing in Prague, when the Russians occupied Prague after the war till the early 90’s a massive statue of Stalin stood in the same spot, as you can imagine neither statues went down to well with the locals. The view was impressive but not spectacular. Prague is a very picturesque place but it is also very commercial, it’s a more touristy city than we had imagined. Comparing cities is wrong but I guess we thought it would be more like Brugge. The night before Bryce’s birthday we ate at a great restaurant with a string band playing and all traditional Czech meals. We ate duck, beef goulash and potato dumplings. Before the meal we drank a medicine tasting traditional drink that is supposed to basically erode the existing food in your stomach so you can fit more in. Would come in handy on Christmas day. On his birthday we had a nice day walking the streets and a relaxing dinner in a restaurant near the banks of the river backing onto the Charles Bridge, a good way to finish our trip before heading home the next day.
COMING SOON….
SPAIN AT CHRISTMAS
PARIS FOR THE NEW YEAR
FEBRUARY IN TURKEY
We caught the S Bahn (train) to the hotel located in the former East, dumped our bags and headed for the middle of the city. Straight to Alexanderplatz a main square in Berlin, where people were abseiling forwards down the tallest modern building in the city. We quickly sussed out the local food stalls. Bryce recalled some high school German to ask the locals what they were eating. The reply… Currywurst (chopped up sausage with curry sauce and dipping bread) which remained the staple food for the next few days. Refuelled we headed for the Brandenburg Gate. To get there we walked along the main street Unter Den Linden, the road which Hitler chopped the Linden trees down in order for the crowds to admire him and his troops as they held fire lit night marches. Along the way we stopped at markets and souvenir shops. At the end of the road was the Gate that survived the devastation of the Bombing of Berlin. We walked from the former East through the Gate to the former west to face the Reichstag (parliament) off to the side. We were amazed and impressed to be in this place with such a potent history and it was only the beginning. It was now mid afternoon and the weather had started to turn for the worst so we headed for Einstein’s, a café we had noticed on the walk. Once inside we felt like we had gone back in time to the 1930’s. Caitlin had the best ever hot chocolate, tip if you go to Berlin make the effort to come here. Back to the hotel by 6pm to check in and meet our Contiki group. In the hotel lobby we could pick who some of the Contiki travellers would be…. An Akubra and Wallabies jumper just a small hint. After a slight hitch with us being assigned separate rooms we headed for the tour run down with our group. Our tour manger Dom was extremely friendly as was the driver Eelco. After filling out some paper work and signing up for some extra activities we grabbed our bags and made it to our room to freshen up for dinner. We met some very nice people on our tour at dinner and got the latest sport and political news from home.
Day 2 we were up at a more reasonable time to catch the big blue bus for a quick tour of Berlin on the way to the East Side Gallery, or to us a section of the Berlin wall still standing (Luckily we had the camera even though we left it in the hotel restaurant and fortunately someone had handed it into hotel reception overnight. The art work was interesting and to look from one side to the other it was clear to see the difference between East and West. Then it was off to experience an even darker side to Germany’s history at Sachsenhausen concentration camp just outside Berlin. This camp was slightly different to Auschwitz in that it was a work camp (rather than an outright death camp) holding political prisoners and Russian soldiers, along with the Jewish and Gypsies. Yet it was still a place where unimaginable torture and contempt for human life took place. We were frozen in our warmest clothes in Autumn but this was nothing as the prisoners who once lived here were clothed in thin pyjamas in the middle of winter. Puts things in perspective. It was then we headed back to Berlin for an afternoon exploring on our own. We met up with the group again for a German dinner and a night bar. Drinking Schnapps in the street and smoking shish as in the Turkish themed bar. The second bar was like an East Berlin underground club used as a cover for smuggling people to the West. Our final day in Berlin started with a walking tour with an English guide who reminded us of Michael Palin. He was excellent, taking us to places like the Holocaust monument, burning of the books location, Hitler’s bunker (now a car park), another section of the Wall, Check Point Charlie and past one of the only Nazi built buildings still standing that was the offices of the Luftwaffe (only minus the swastika ) . Along the way we got a history lesson on WWII, the cold war and heard about escape attempts by East Germans, some successful some not. The rest of the day was spent in the Check Point Charlie museum followed by a beer hall (Best beer was Heffavasen). Berlin is a place we could definitely go back to.
With Berlin finished we were off to Prague, a place Caitlin had wanted to visit for a long time. On the way to Prague we stopped in Dresden for lunch. As with Berlin the city was virtually destroyed in the final stages of the war with much criticised massive bombing campaigns, aimed at breaking the German people’s moral than specific military locations. Apparently the fires in the city were so hot that the oxygen was sucked out of the air and the flames sucked people into the burning buildings. All the war stories we have heard over the last few trips through Europe have really been fascinating but so tragic, its alleged 50 million people died in WWII.
Arriving in Prague late in the day we went on a walking tour of the city at night. The group then headed for a bar while we went to find a pub that was showing the Arsenal v Sparta Prague match being played at home. We think every Pom in Prague was in the pub watching the Champions League matches. 7-0 to the Arsenal!!!!! So it was a good night. The following day we had a Czech guide take us to Hrdrcay Castle and on a more extensive city tour. It was fun just to listen to him speak, great accent. We then took a boat cruise on the river and drank far too much so had to walk it off in the afternoon. We took ourselves to the spot where Mission Impossible 1 was filmed (the beginning of the movie where all the agents are killed and the car blows up). We walked to the highest point in the city where Michael Jackson once erected a massive statue of himself when he was performing in Prague, when the Russians occupied Prague after the war till the early 90’s a massive statue of Stalin stood in the same spot, as you can imagine neither statues went down to well with the locals. The view was impressive but not spectacular. Prague is a very picturesque place but it is also very commercial, it’s a more touristy city than we had imagined. Comparing cities is wrong but I guess we thought it would be more like Brugge. The night before Bryce’s birthday we ate at a great restaurant with a string band playing and all traditional Czech meals. We ate duck, beef goulash and potato dumplings. Before the meal we drank a medicine tasting traditional drink that is supposed to basically erode the existing food in your stomach so you can fit more in. Would come in handy on Christmas day. On his birthday we had a nice day walking the streets and a relaxing dinner in a restaurant near the banks of the river backing onto the Charles Bridge, a good way to finish our trip before heading home the next day.
COMING SOON….
SPAIN AT CHRISTMAS
PARIS FOR THE NEW YEAR
FEBRUARY IN TURKEY
