Berlin: Germany

Both JB and I had heard from many different people about what a great city Berlin is, but neither of us really knew what to expect.  We caught Busabout at 8am from Amsterdam, and expected to arrive in Berlin at about 5pm although it was the eve of a public holiday so traffic was rubbish, and we didn’t get in until about 7.30pm i.e after dark which always adds a degree of difficulty when navigating unfamiliar territory.  JB and I had again pre-booked accommodation about 4-5kms out of town in a place called Pankow, so we just made our way to the underground train station and jumped on the next service to Pankow thinking we’d manage from there.  We found the apparent street that the accommodation was supposed to be in, and although it looked very dark and very residential we trucked on.  Then we got the end of the street and no hotel.  So we accosted some locals who didn’t know of any hotels in the area, and after I’d asked the third person who couldn’t speak English JB and I looked at each other and thought ‘what the hell do we do now?’  It was about 10pm, the streets were practically empty, there wasn’t an internet cafe in sight and we couldn’t find our hotel, who were expecting us at 7pm.  I don’t believe in God but I swear some kind of divine intervention occurred because there we were standing on a street corner, laden with luggage and without a clue of what to do when a couple in their 30’s (husband and very pregnant wife) with grocery shopping in their hands looked at us and said “Do you need help?” in perfect English.  We explained our situation.  They both said it seemed odd to have a hotel in Pankow, so we asked if they knew of a closeby internet cafe and they offered to take us to their home and let us use theirs.  Now, if you’re reading this, you’re probably thinking that going to a complete strangers home at night in a foreign country is mad, but we had no idea what to do, and just had to trust this couple.  At their lovely, lovely apartment the husband went off and called our hotel and confirmed everything was okay, and then directed us to the same street name, but in the next suburb.  We found two other streets with the identical name within a 5km radius.  Welcome to Deutschland.  In the 10-15mins we spent with this friendly couple they told us they had also travelled.  The wife had spent time in Cambodia and India and the husband had bought a car in Sydney and driven up to Darwin, then sold the car with a one thousand dollar profit!  They were 17 & 18 when the Berlin wall came down and it was this that gave them freedom to leave their country and expose themselves to other cultures.  We didn’t even exchange names but if it hadn’t been for them directing us we would never have worked out the suburb difference.  Never.  So thanks to good samaritans who help out the travellers.  

Yesterday we spent the day orientating ourselves around Berlin city.  Our hotel has given us unlimited free public transport so we’re getting about.  Whilst Berlin is fantastic, it’s probably been the most difficult country in terms of English speaking so far.  (No doubt it’ll be worse in the Czech Republic.) We’re still not sure what yesterdays public holiday was for, but Alexander Platz (one of the main city squares) was celebrating with beer and bratwursts yesterday – we had no choice but to join in of course!  We met a fellow English speaker in “Doc”, who is from Illinois, USA.  He kept both JB and I entertained with stories of being in the USA military, his family, football, and he and JB hit it off, talking movies.  Doc’s sister also joined us and more laughs followed.

We’re off to do a guided walking tour later this arvo.  A few pics.

Museum overlooking Lustgarten

Dicky Knee

 

War memorial: 'Mother with dead son'

Hitlers renown 'book burning square'

Berliner Dom

So weather is much nicer here than in Amsterdam, food is interesting with meat served even for breakfast and we’re having a ball.  JB is LOVING the Bratwursts…

Amsterdam: Holland (The Netherlands)

When the guide on Busabout mentioned on the drive into Amsterdam that it rains approximately 270 days each year, we didn’t really give it a second thought.  There was a bit of drizzle on the way in, but it will clear, right?  Nup, no such thing. 

Our short stay in Amsterdam was not without hiccups.  The accommodation that we had pre-booked was offensive to say the least, so we checked out after one night and found the only place to stay within our budget was in a place called Osdorp, about 5-6kms from the city centre.  Fortunately it turned out to be lovely.  Considering it was blowing a gale outside were pleased to find comfortable and warm accommodation.  No water restrictions meant lovely long hot showers.  Because of the accommodation muck-up, it really only gave us one full day to spend out and about.  Amsterdam has some lovely buildings and great eateries (at Rembrandt Corner we ate possibly the best hamburgers of our lives) but also a really seedy and gritty feel about it.  A lot of the younger passengers on our bus loved it because they could smoke all the drugs they could find, but it wasn’t really our cup of tea.  We visited the Rijksmuseum and tried to get into Van Gogh Museum but it was closed on the one afternoon we turned up.  We spent a few hours at NEMO which is similar to Scienceworks, and kept dry. 

Amsterdam is littered with bikes.  People just tie them up to canalway railings and leave them there to rust.  It’s scrap metal heaven.  A few pics.

Smorgys (Amsterdam style)

Dam Square

Bikes, bikes, bikes...

 

We did the mandatory tourist walk through the red light district but didn’t really see much of interest there.  Just chicks in windows.  The bus guide did mention that the Amsterdam council was trying to close down a lot of the red light district due to one guy named ‘Fat Tony’ who has apparently been using his girls to launder money about the place.  JB and I did share a grin at the mention of ‘Fat Tony’…