Munich Day 5 and Transit to Prague (7 August 2012)

Ralph here.  We woke up pretty early and took the subway to the Englischer Garten, a very large urban park on the east side of Munich.  It is the second-largest urban park in the world, right behind London’s Richmond Park and ahead of Central Park in New York.  It is not very wide – maybe a half-mile – but stretches for about four miles along the edge of the city.

En route to the Englischer Garten, we stopped at the Munich central train station’s Deutsche Bahn (German national railroad) information desk to print out our tickets to Prague.  I ordered them on the Internet but you have to have a printout of the ticket before you board (the tickets are sent as a PDF file in a confirmation email).  We haven’t been lugging a computer printer around with us, so I figured we could just go to the railroad’s information desk and they could print it for us.

No dice, when they looked up our confirmation code they had no record of us purchasing any tickets.  Obviously, I had, but it meant nothing to these heartless German bureaucrats.  It seemed appropriate that I faced Kafkaesque bureaucracy en route to Kafka’s home city, so we resolved to print out the tickets at an Internet café in the train station.  The Internet café wouldn’t open for another hour, so we continued onto the Englischer Garten and decided we would print out our tickets at the Internet café on our way back to the hotel.  Easy enough.

The Englischer Garten is pretty much one gigantic lawn with paths and trees through it, as well as a couple random monuments.  [We saw many cyclists and people walking their dogs.  We also so a few people on horseback.]  We stayed there for about a half hour, watching the early-morning bike commuters.  We headed back to the central station, printed out our tickets, and returned to the hotel to pack up.

When we arrived back at the central station to await our rail journey to Prague, I discovered that the word “BUS” printed on our tickets did not mean “Business class” but instead meant “you will ride a bus to Prague.”  Apparently, the German national railway also operates a bus line.  It was all for the best though; the bus was clean and comfortable and got us to Prague faster than any of the rail options – and far less expensive as well.  Plus we did not have to drive.  [The bus had a drive attendant to distribute snacks we paid for.  No one wanted any so her job seemed pretty easy.  More importantly, each set of seats had a power outlet so we were able to keep our electronics charged throughout the journey.]  Surprisingly both the people to our immediate left and immediately behind us on the bus were Minnesotans.

After five hours on the bus through the German and Czech countryside (think Wisconsin without the drought and with more metric system) the driver snaked us through the evening rush hour traffic into the center of Prague and dumped us unceremoniously at the main train station.  I had read on the Internet that it is one of the most architecturally impressive train stations in the world.  This is kind of a lie.  The atrium of the old Prague train station is impressive but has fallen into disrepair:

But the actual train station is beyond it and looks as indistinguishable as every modern train station or airport.  [It was kind of jarring to step down from the old station into the new, modern and very red station.]

Thankfully that bland conformity means that most signage being in English as well as Czech.  In fact, this is something I did not expect at all in Prague – nearly all signage, especially in tourist areas, is in English, even more so than we saw in Germany.  This is odd because British and American tourists seemed to be the minority of tourists.  Lynnae thinks there may be a resistance to German signage because of the German occupation during World War II (more in a future post).  Maybe it has to do with the close relationship the US has had with the Czech Republic since Czechoslovakia rejected Communism in 1989.  But who knows.  At any rate, it was very easy to get around Prague without knowing the local language.

Before leaving the train station we went to the “Bankomat” (ATM) and withdrew the local currency, the Czech crown – while part of the European Union, the Czech Republic does not use the Euro ($1 is approximately equal to 20 crowns).  The relatively simple exchange rate made it easier to do currency conversion in my head while looking at a bill or credit card slip, but it did feel like we were using Monopoly money.  I felt wealthy handing a 500-crown bill to a store clerk – then remembering it was $25.

The site for Prague was originally chosen because it was on a steep promontory jutting into the Vtalva River, which cuts through the middle of the current city.  While the location was suitable for building Prague Castle, it means that the entire city is on a slant leading down to the riverbank.  That also means that we were hauling our baggage uphill for a mile, trying to find the Clarion Hotel Prague City.  We eventually navigated our way through the heavily graffitied streets (Seriously – someone should call Sherlock Holmes, right now there is a loose Vandal in Bohemia).

After consulting Tripadvisor we ate dinner at Matylda’s, a Czech restaurant almost adjacent to the hotel.  The food was really good and restaurant prices in Prague are very cheap compared to the US (but not for fast food, surprisingly).  [“Really good” does not do justice to the wonderfully sumptuous food.  Ralph ordered a pizza that was in fact “really good.”  However, I ordered roast duck with red cabbage and dumplngs.  It was absolutely delicious.  My mouth is watering as I think about it and I’m not even hungry.  The roast duck was perfect, crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.  The dumplings were good and the red cabbage was the best I have ever eaten anywhere.  Plus, our meal including tip was under $25. Pretty unbeatable.]  Lynnae bought a 20-crown ice cream cone from the KFC (featuring the Kentucky Meal) on the corner, we walked in the immediate vicinity for a while and turned in.

Munich Day 4 – Dachau (6 August 2012)

Lynnae again.  We slept in again and had breakfast at the hotel.  We took the subway downtown and walked to Marienplatz.  We paid to go up in the tower.  The only option is via elevator.  It was very convenient and certainly easier than climbing the tower in Cologne.  They views were pretty good and tower was relatively empty as we were there just before the glockenspiel began playing.  The square was packed with tourists though.

Then we walked to the meeting point for our last Munich based tour – Dachau.  Dachau is a sizable town about 45 minutes from Munich by train.  Dachau concentration camp lies just outside of it.

Dachau is a unique concentration camp.  It was the first one utilized.  As such it primarily contained political dissidents and those who had been powerful in government before Hitler gained power.  It grew to contain members of all the groups that were incarcerated elsewhere.  Also because it was the first, all of the systems put in place were tried out at Dachau first.

We had a small group of nine people.  It was nice to be part of a smaller group.  We had decided to wait for this tour until Monday when it would probably have fewer people.  Jeff, the guide from Neuschwanstein Castle, was our guide.  He did an excellent job presenting information and was able to answer every question asked.

Work sets you free –this sign was over the entrance to many concentration camps

This building houses the false shower/gas chambers.  It was never used on a large scale although some experimentation may have been done with it.  You can see the gray slots for adding the toxin to the room inside.  This building also contained a crematorium that more than doubled the capacity of the old one.

The area immediately surrounding this building has been made into a cemetery.

This statue represents the men (Dachau was a men-only camp) who were imprisoned here.  Looking up, having hands in pockets, and feet spread apart were all punishable offences during roll call.

The barracks were torn down when the camp became a memorial site.  The outlines were left so returning victims and their family members could locate where they stayed.

Several memorials have been built at the back of the camp, Jewish, Catholic, Lutheran, and Russian Orthodox.

The space where roll call was held.

The message that survivors wanted visitors to take with them.

It was a very sobering experience.

It was raining as we left.  After a wait for the bus and another wait for our train we were a little damp by the time we reached Munich.  We took the subway back to our hotel, feeling like we were getting our money’s worth out of our unlimited day pass.  We dried off at our hotel and took the subway back downtown.

We went to Wirthaus Ayingers , directly across the street from the Hofbrauhaus.   No tables were available so we sat at the bar.  Our food was delicious, as was the beer of course.  [It is much less tourist-feeling as well, although they must get a lot of tourists as they had an English-language menu.]

We had hoped to see the Englischer Garten but it was still raining so instead we headed back out the hotel.

Munich Day 3 (5 August 2012)

Lynnae again – Ralph woke up early-ish and did a short run.  He reported that we was feeling much better.  We ate breakfast at the hotel and walked to Peace Methodist Church.  (We had tried to find an English speaking Lutheran Church but Munich is predominantly Catholic.)  Peace was an English speaking congregation that was largely made up of African immigrants.

The service was a little unusual because there was a baptism, so there was no sermon.  The baptism was very nice though.  One thing that was a little different but also nice was when the sponsors were called up, the pastor also called for “those who supported this family to come up” and about one-third of the church emptied the seats to stand at the front in support.

We were invited to stay for a potluck dinner afterwards, so we did.  The church was pretty friendly.

We went to the appointed meeting place for our next tour – also with Radius and met Steve, our guide.  This tour was smaller only eleven people.  It was a walking tour, Hitler and the Third Reich.  It was excellent.  Steve was very knowledgeable. He had studied WWII and what had immediately preceded it in England and had moved to Germany to get a feel for the German perspective.

He began with Hitler’s failed attempt to get into art school, his suicide attempt, his draft dodging move to Munich before WWI and a copy of a drawing Hitler had made to sell on the street to support himself.

We walked through Munich seeing places that were key while the Nazis were in power. 

(In the room with the door leading out to the balcony, the Munich Agreement was signed.)

This square was used for Nazi rallies.  It was near Hitler’s office and many other high officials.

Then we saw places crucial to their rise to power.

(Place were Hitler joined the Workers Party and officially entered politics.)

(Room in the Hofbrauhaus where Hitler announce the change of the Workers Party to the National Socialist Worker’s Party.)

(In this hotel café, the Gestapo was formed.)

Steve also covered how difficult is still is to talk about some of these things.  He used the street sign below as an example.  [Meisterstrasse (Meister Street) was named after Hans Meiser, a Protestant bishop during the Nazi regime, and while he protested the Nazi executions of physically and mentally disabled people, he did not oppose the Nazis and published a lot of anti-Semitic writings himself.  In 2007 the Munich government lined out his name on the street signs and renamed it Katharina-von-Bora-Strasse, after Martin Luther’s wife.  Of course, Luther himself became anti-Semitic later in his life, so who knows if it was the right decision.]

It was a fantastic tour.  We learned a lot more than can be conveyed here.  It was interesting and entertaining.

We decided to eat at the Hofbrauhaus.  Immediately after we arrived, it began pouring.  Instead of going in with the hordes of tourists, we went to the restaurant upstairs.  Unfortunately, this meant our menu was in German.  This also meant it was quieter.  Ralph wasn’t very hungry so we ordered the appetizer platter that had a little of everything and split it.  By the time we were done, it had stopped raining.  So we walked back to the hotel.

Munich Day 2 – Neuschwanstein Castle (4 August 2012)

Lynnae again – Ralph was finally starting to feel better, although he still didn’t feel well.  So by design, he stayed back, did laundry and rested while I ventured into the countryside to check out Neuschwanstein Castle, the inspiration for the castle in Disney’s Sleeping Beauty.

Ralph and I had decided while driving to Munich that we were going to book some tours while in Munich and see how we liked being guided around instead of seeing everything ourselves.  So I had booked our tours with Radius Tours, a tour company that had received great reviews online.

My first impression was not overwhelmingly favorable.  It was a Saturday, so probably one of their busier days of the week.  You could purchase the tours online but you had to check into the office to receive your ticket.   Only one person was working the desk.  They had three or four tours leaving at approximately the same time – mine was the last of these.  Because of this, the guides kept moving people up the check-in line so their tours wouldn’t be delayed.  As a result, my tour was slightly delayed.  It wouldn’t have been a big deal except we needed to catch a train.  We made the train, but because of the delay there were no seats available and not enough space for everybody to even stand together so we were spread out across the train standing as we began our two hour train journey.

I stuck pretty close to a cluster of people in the group.  I didn’t want to be forgotten or left because I was by myself.  I ended up standing with seven other people from our group of 29 and two scouts, one of whom was in a very bad mood.  After about an hour or so, most of us in our cluster were able to sit down but apparently the other groups of people were not so fortunate.  Our guide, Jeff, walked through the train periodically checking on us.  He normally gave background info during the train ride but under the circumstances it wasn’t possible.  Instead he passed around a pamphlet.  During this time, I got to know some of my companions.

We went from the train to a bus that conveyed us to the town of Füssen.  Our tour guide, Jeff dropped us off at a take-out restaurant (his buddy’s I think) while he went to pick up our tickets for the castle itself.  We had twenty minutes to get our food and eat.  I ended up sitting next to two Norwegians, a girl planning on going to Munich for University and her dad.  They were nice and very friendly.

We gathered together and walked to the lake.  We had great views of Hohenschwangau Castle.  The castle Ludwig II grew up in.  We made a couple of stops and Jeff told us about Ludwig’s childhood.  Basically it was very regimented, disciplined, and isolating and Ludwig did not like it. 

Hohenschwangau Castle

The lake.  That distant mountain is in Austria.

A few people opted to take a bus up to the castle instead of walking.  Jeff dropped them off at the bus, then led us up the very steep road to the castle.  I made it to the top in good time with a few others and we were afforded about 15 minutes to go the Marienbrücke (Marie’s Bridge) for photos.  This bridge was built by Ludwig’s father for his wife because of the great views of the valley.  Ludwig II had the wooden bridge rebuilt in steel.  The bridge has been unaltered since then.

The views from the bridge are below.

Unfortunately, those that had made their way more slowly up the climb did not feel compelled to stick with the timetable while on the bridge and we ended up waiting for the rest of our party over 15 minutes.

Views from front of Castle.

View from Castle courtyard of viewing bridge – replaced by Ludwig.

We walked up to the castle for our tour.  The tour of the castle is only 30 minutes long and only comprises those portions of the castle that were completed and furnished at Ludwig’s death.  Some people are disappointed by the interior.  I can’t imagine why.  Each room was very ornate and with its own unique theme.  The theme of the Castle is Wagner’s operas.  Each room represents a specific opera.  There was so much wood in Ludwig’s bedroom that it took 14 woodcarvers 4 years to complete it all. The strangest room was a hallway that looked like a cave.  Sorry but photos were not allowed inside the castle.  There are some good images if you do a google image search or Wikipedia has some decent photos too.

The castle was incredibly modern for its time.  It had hot and cold running water on all floors, flushing toilets and central heating.  These things and the relatively small room sizes actually made it seem livable.  Short tour, but interesting.  Our castle guide was very informative.  Of course, we did not have time to see the video about Ludwig that was playing.

Two girls did not show up at the appointed meeting time and place.  After waiting 10 minutes beyond what he said he would, Jeff went back through the castle in search of them.  No luck.  He hoped we would meet up with them at the bus stop in the town (our last meeting point – in case of separation) and we moved on.  We took the scenic route down to the town along the gorge.  Really everywhere around the town was so incredibly beautiful, you could take photos of everything.  Indeed, one girl in our group shared that she had taken over 700 photos by the afternoon.  Presumably she took even more before boarding the bus.

The viewing bridge from the ground.

This was our walkway for a portion of the journey.  Very sturdy.  I’m not sure if you can tell but there is a gap between the rock on the left and the walkway.

Jeff told us more about Ludwig’s political problems and his supposed madness.  The doctors who had declared him mad had never examined him.  He also told us about the uncertainties surrounding his death.  He was an excellent swimmer and he apparantly drowned with his doctor in very shallow water.  His family has refused to release the autopsy results. The castle was unfinished at his death. He’d only lived in his castle for 174 days.

Most of the information had been in the pamphlet he passed around but not everybody had seen it but I did feel like Jeff had additional information we just didn’t have time for.  Jeff did a good job within the limitations but it was a little disappointing.  However, the scenery and the castle itself was pretty phenomenal and it was worth it to not have to arrange any transportation and so forth.

We took the bus back to the train station, then two trains back to Munich.  (We did meet up with the two girls who had decided to ditch the tour.)  I took the subway towards the hotel, walked back and met up with Ralph.

We went out for supper.  They got our order wrong but the food was delicious so we overlooked the mistake.

We walked back to the hotel and turned in.

Munich Day 1 (3 August 2012)

Lynnae here – We slept in and resolved to have a light day as Ralph was still not feeling great.  We ate breakfast at the hotel and were impressed by how substantial it was.

We drove downtown to return the car.  After stopping by the tourist information office in the train station, we consulted our map and walked towards the river.  We happened to walk through Marienplatz [Ralph: the center square of Munich] at 11:50AM so we decided to hang around to watch the glockenspiel at noon.  Bells started pealing right around the expected time but the figures did not begin moving until about 12:05.  It was pretty cool but Ralph was unimpressed. [It is essentially a merry-go-round in a tower.]  It was more complex than I expected.  The first time the knights joust, they both miss although the second time the blue knight triumphs.

We got a smoothie to share as we walked on toward the Deutches Museum – the German Science and Technology Museum.  This museum was huge, over 40 exhibits and over 10,000square feet.  Immediately opposite the entrance were boats.  There were full scale full scale boats and lots of models, ranging from ancient to the cruise ships of the 2000s.  This was typical of the exhibits, for whatever topic it would begin at the dawn of time and cover all the advances between then and now – in some case it would include prototypes for the future.  We actually did not linger long in boats or aeronautics as they did not interest us, however they were visually astonishing.

About two-thirds of the museum had English on their placards in addition to German.  So that made most everything easy to understand.  Ralph enjoyed the Physics exhibit while the Pharmaceutical exhibit was probably my favorite, with genetics a close second.  Chemistry was under renovations.  We spent about five hours here – with only a short break for currywurst and fries – until the museum closed.  We could have easily spent more time as we didn’t even make it up to the fourth floor.  This was an amazing museum with only a few minor disappointments.

[It is true that most of the museum was in English- the most popular parts.  Unfortunately very little of the physics section was in English.  We didn’t have time to visit the mathematics or astronomy sections, but I bet they weren’t in English either.  Still a great museum.]

Photographic proof I generate more heat than Ralph – even when he’s slightly feverish.

Our light day wasn’t quite as light as we had intended but at least we had a lot of fun.  We started to walk back to the hotel, but decided instead to take the subway.  The subway was like the rest of Germany very clean and well lit, however it was a little confusing at first.  With the help of a friendly local we figured it out and were back to the hotel in less than 10 minutes.  Clearly we should have been using the subway sooner.

[It really surprised me that the Munich subway has no turnstiles, no ticket-checkers, nothing.  You can just walk on the subway and never buy a ticket from the ticket kiosk, if you really wanted to.  There are signs in the subway trains that tell you it’s a 40-euro (about $45) fine plus potential court charges if you are caught fare-jumping, but I never saw a transit cop anywhere so I don’t know if that is really enforced.  It must be a an interesting decision on how much enforcement is necessary to keep free riders to a minimum while still having no turnstiles.]

Berlin, Wittenberg, Nuremberg, Munich (2 August 2012)

Ralph again.  Anticipating a long day, we packed up and left Berlin early.  We had some difficulties getting out of the city.  First off, we drove onto the main beltway around Berlin right during rush hour, so we hit quite a bit of traffic on our way out of the city.  Secondly, we saw very few gas stations within Berlin and soon after we hit the traffic, the low-fuel indicator light came on.  [Gas is easy to find on the autobahn.  Rest stops have restaurants, fast food, bathrooms, convenience stores and gas stations.]  After sighting a “gas station this exit” sign, we went on a highly convoluted route to a truck stop where despite the store clerk’s inability to speak English and my inability to speak German, we managed to fill the tank, charge my credit card, and get back on the road.

Our first stop was about 15 miles off the Autobahn in Wittenberg, a place of great significance within Protestant Christianity as the site where Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the church, thus ensuring generations of Lutherans to visit on pilgrimage.  Wittenberg is a modern city of 50,000 people, but the historic district feels like Lutheran Epcot.  [Historical Wittenberg is much the same as it was.  I think the reason it didn’t feel “real” was because we didn’t really get a sense that people currently lived in the area.]

[This is also the place where Ralph experienced his very first pay toilet.]

We stopped into the information center, across from famous Castle Church, to get a map.  We came in to find a film crew working on we assumed to be a commercial.  While she seems happy and helpful pointing at the tourist handouts for an eager visitor, immediately after this take the blond woman sighed and hung her head low.

We went across the street and took photos like mad. 

[In Luther’s time, this was a Catholic church.  It has since become a Lutheran church, which is quite evident from the doors where the 95 Theses have been inscribed to the interior which is full of Lutheran symbolism and statuary.  It was very neat to be there.]

(location of the door where Luther nailed the Theses, with the Theses inscribed into the metal door.  Luther and Philip Melanchthon, both buried inside the church, are worshiping at the cross in the mural)

I had felt sick for a couple days so I stopped in the Lucas Cranach Apotheke (apotheke = drugstore) and bought some Ricola cough drops, which are cheaper than Halls here.  We then went to the City Church where Luther preached on Sundays and to the tiny chancel where he made his appeal to the pope.  [The organist was practicing while we were there.  He was quite good.]

 (Luther at the Last Supper, Luther preaching the risen Christ)

After lunch we said goodbye to Beatbox Brother Martin and continued on to Nuremburg.

Lynnae here now – Our goal was to spend a couple of hours in Nuremburg, just to see the Palace of Justice, where the Nuremburg Trials were held after WWII.  However, we had very bad luck.  We had made Wittenberg in good time despite our rocky start but then our luck changed.  We drove through several intense thunderstorms and some road construction.  (More praise for the Audi, it handled well on the wet roads and the automatic lights and wipers were awesome.)  Just when things were beginning to look up, traffic halted abruptly. 

We were completely stopped on the Autobahn.  After five minutes or so of no movement by any cars, we got out as did many others.  We couldn’t see what the problem was but obviously there was one.  So we relaxed for a while.  I sat down on the autobahn.  It felt very strange and unnatural. 

Fortunately we were only just past an exit (we were about level with where the road actually broke from the freeway), unfortunately we were in the left lane.  Due to the large spaces the Germans leave between cars, we were able to snake our way through and exit the freeway.  We were confident that we could drive a little ways, turn parallel to the freeway and the GPS would redirect us where we needed to go. 

Freedom!

It was great decision.  We could see traffic standing still for miles when we crossed the autobahn, with a only a slight detour before reentering the autobahn, we were on our way.  We’d only lost about 20-30 minutes.  We knew it’d be a gamble to try for Nuremburg but as it was on our way we decided to go for it.

Despite the plentiful gas station on the autobahn, when we needed one there were none to be found.  We were low on gas when we finally entered Nuremburg.  We parked and walked towards the Palace of Justice … only to discover that we were about 15 minutes too late.

We were concerned that if we went back to the car, we’d run out of gas while looking for a station.  So instead we continued down the street in search of a gas station or an internet café [so we could look up the nearest gas station].  Eventually we found a station, so we walked back to the car and drove there.   There was a mall with a grocery store across the street so I walked over to get some provisions.

The grocery store was really more like a Target but organized in a very confusing way.  For example the first few aisles were produce, the next few were beauty products, and the next couple were bread.  It took a little more wandering around then I was anticipating.  I was still done in pretty short order and walked back to the gas station.

Ralph informed me that he hadn’t been able to pump gas because we were not members of the organization that ran the station.  We couldn’t acquire a membership because it was closed.  However, a trucker had informed him that there was another station only a kilometer or so down the road.  Fortunately, the trucker was right.  We purchased our gas, marveled at a McGym next door to a McDonald’s and set off for Munich.

We arrived in Munich around 10pm in the worst rain we’d seen while traveling.  Very poor visibility.  We checked into the Hotel Orly, took our luggage up in the insanely tiny elevator, parked the car up the street and turned in for the night.

Berlin Day Two (1 August 2012)

Ralph here again.  We originally planned on only staying two nights in Berlin, then moving on.  But even after our long day in Berlin, we agreed there was more we wanted to see in the city and resolved to stay another full day.  The hotel was not able to accommodate us one more night so we moved a few blocks away to the Holiday Inn for the next night.  [Also a very nice hotel.]

Unfortunately, our decision to stay another day because “we just can’t get enough tourism!” was accompanied by a feeling that we were getting burned out on tourism.  So we decided to take an easier day.  [We ate lunch on the riverfront and enjoyed first (long overdue) German beers.]  We went to the DDR Museum, a museum that described life in the DDR (German Democratic Republic, or East Germany).  It was also a very dense museum, but thankfully much smaller than the Checkpoint Charlie Museum.  Summary of the DDR Museum: socialism does not work.  But it can be absurdly funny.

[The DDR Museum was kind of unique.  It was very hands-on.  Most of the information was under flaps and in drawers.  It was very family friendly in that regard.  There were many children all having a blast.  You could touch everything and touching was required to access a lot of the information.  There was also a trivia game that Ralph enjoyed although it was somewhat slow-moving.  The museum covered absurdities such as collective potty training for three year olds and how many of the people rebelliously went on nudist vacations despite the government’s attempts to stop it as well as the more serious sides of what could happen if you publicly objected to any policies.]

 [Ralph being interrogated.]

Central Berlin contains Museum Island, a small peninsula that contains three state museums and a lot of green space.  Both exhausted, we sat on the grass in front of one of the museums and decided against an aggressive tourism schedule for the rest of the day.  After ducking into a bakery for a quick recharging snack, we walked into the German history museum but did not get beyond the lobby – neither of us had our hearts in it so we decided to head back to the hotel to rest.  [On our way we stopped at the Central Memorial of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Victims of War and Tyranny.  This included those who opposed the totalitarian government after 1945.  Photo below.]

 We napped, bought our dinner from a Chinese fast-food restaurant at the nearby train station, and went to bed.

To conclude the post: the statuary of a failed ideology!

 I assume this is Lenin.  In the lobby of the German Museum

 

Marx and Engels (I think?).  In a small park

 

I hope this guy’s pet is not what it appears to be, which is a terrifyingly large rat

Berlin (Day 1, 31 July 2012)

Ralph here.  The drive to Berlin was pretty uneventful, and I learned (over and over) that Germans CANNOT GET ENOUGH of Adele.  It’s not that her songs were on heavy rotation; it’s more like the presence of her songs are the defining characteristic of German pop radio, with an occasional non-Adele song or commercial thrown in edgewise to make it an impure alloy.  I doubt that even the British like her this much, and she’s one of them. 

We located the hotel fairly easily – even though the GPS was chirping at us in German, it did what we needed it to do – and checked into the Weinmeister Hotel, located on a small side street in the central Mitte neighborhood of Berlin.  This hotel was described on the travel review sites as “modern,” and it did not disappoint in this matter.  We arrived at nearly 11pm and the reception/bar/restaurant megaroom was thumping with techno music as I received disapproving looks from the bartender, who may have been part of the Big Lebowski supporting cast.

Despite the deliberately antiauthoritarian look of the reception, the room was clean, affordable, and close to the attractions, even if it continued the same theme, sans techno music:

the eyes on the portrait follow you

[Ralph booked this hotel.  I was surprised when we walked in and my surprise continued as we went to our room.  The stairway wrapped around the glass elevator.  The walls had been painted white, then a group of local artists came and in a few hours painted whatever they wanted on the walls.  Our room was very modern and trendy.  More photos below.  Instead of a TV we had an Apple computer, the closet was built into the bed, most of the furniture was on wheels, it had a blacklight, and we had a rain shower and a complimentary box of spa products.  In response to my incredulous look (because this hotel seemed to epitomize many things Ralph dislikes) Ralph immediately responded, “What?!?  It got great reviews and was within our price range!”  I enjoyed the hotel and I think Ralph did too.]

We dropped our bags and went on an adventure through the Berlin streets to find a parking garage, eventually finding one a few blocks away at Alexanderplatz (Alexander Square).  [There is a parking garage next door to the hotel but it was full.]

Most of the major tourist sights in Berlin are packed within a mile of each other, so the next day we set out on foot for our whirlwind tour of the Berlin sights.  En route we learned an important fact about Berlin: while pedestrians and drivers are generally very conscientious of the rules of the road, cyclists – and we saw thousands of people biking everywhere, apparently for utilitarian reasons and not for exercise – do not care at all about traffic laws.  Or perhaps there are no traffic laws that apply to cyclists in Germany.  Either way, this two-wheeled menace exists to perpetually startle tourist pedestrians and prompt car-on-cyclist showdowns. [I recall no issues with cyclists.  I witnessed none of them breaking any traffic laws.]

After we realized that bikes would randomly appear all the time, walking in Berlin became easier.  We walked past Alexanderplatz, where a street fair was happening. 

[Tihis was very popular.  It had quite a line.]

About a mile and a half beyond Alexanderplatz, we saw the Brandenburg Gate, the only remaining gate to Berlin of the 18 that originally stood.  Many Nazi parades were held in the Pariserplatz (the plaza adjacent to it).  The Brandenburg Gate also served as a symbol of divided Germany during the Cold War, as it was a dividing point between West Germany and East Germany, and was the site of Ronald Reagan’s “Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate, tear down this wall” speech.  Now, heedless cyclists pass through it unhindered as weary tourists get their pictures taken with men dressed in poor-fitting East German replica military uniforms.

Nazi parade at Brandenburg gate

The American Embassy is adjacent to the Brandenburg Gate.  While a remote necessity, it’s always good to know where the Marine Security Guards are.

Many other embassies are clustered around the Brandenburg Gate, including the Russian Embassy just up the street (hammer-and-sickle designs still on the outside of the building, clearly built when the Soviets were occupying that sector of Berlin):

After picking up a city map at the information booth on the Pariserplatz, we saw the outside of the Reichstag (now called the Bundestag), the German parliament house whose burning in 1933 helped Hitler rise to power against the Communist party.  Unfortunately to get inside you have to reserve tickets days in advance and we had not done that, but I’m guessing the view is good from the glass dome.

We wandered a bit in an urban park, the Tiergarten, a rectangular wooded enclave within Berlin’s city center, then saw the above-ground portion of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.  It consists of a city block with a couple thousand concrete blocks, evenly spaced in a grid pattern.  The blocks range in height from just over a foot to about ten feet high, but the ground level is lower with the taller blocks so that from the edge of the memorial, the tops look approximately even with each other. 

There is a museum below-ground but we had some other places we wanted to see more so we ate bratwurst and currywurst (just a bratwurst sausage in a spicy sauce) at an adjacent restaurant.

One of the places Lynnae really wanted to go was the Topography of Terror.  This is an outdoor exhibit describing the rise of the Third Reich, the Holocaust, and the division of Germany and Berlin after the German surrender in World War II.  It is adjacent to the only remaining section of the Berlin Wall that is still in place:

Topography of Terror.  It is set into the earth a bit, the Berlin Wall section is visible in the background

We were there for probably two hours.  There was a lot to read and it was mentally exhausting.  [This exhibit was really good.  It only seemed like a lot in retrospect.]  So we decided to follow it up with another very dense museum, the Checkpoint Charlie Museum.  As we often saw in the most tourist-trafficked areas of Berlin, at the site of Checkpoint Charlie, the free-market economy defeated Marxism in ways I wished it hadn’t:

Take your picture with a real-life German guy playing an American soldier! Only 2 euro!

a replica on the street, the original sign is in the museum

The museum was interesting, it described the political maneuverings between the East  German and West German national governments, and went into a lot of detail about life in divided Berlin and the various ways East Germans escaped to West Berlin, or attempted to do so.  [This museum was really interesting.  It was also perhaps the densest museum I have ever been it.  The sheer volume of information was incredible.  Every room had information on the walls and at least one object on display in the middle.  It was also hot and crowded.  It was also much larger than we had anticipated.  Time and again we’d walk into a room that looked like it was the last one only to see a hallway with many other rooms.  We read and looked at all of the information in the first 7-10 rooms.  Numerous anecdotes were repeated but the majority was still new.  My favorite story was a group of 6 senior citizens who dug a tunnel from East to West Berlin for themselves and their wives.  They had wanted to help with a neighboring tunnel but were turned down because they were too old.  So they made their own.  The youngest man was in his sixties and the oldest in his eighties.  After that we started skimming a bit for the next ten rooms or so.  At the end there were rooms we only glanced in.  There was information everywhere!  Great museum but it was information overload.]

Having done the whirlwind tour of the German capital, we threw in the towel and returned to the hotel.

[We bought a Nutella/banana crepe not far from Checkpoint Charlie.  Ralph had never had Nutella.  He was unimpressed but ate a significant portion of it anyway.  I thought it was delicious.  We also stopped at an Italian restaurant and split a very satisfying pasta dish.   At the table next to us, an English speaking couple was on their first date.  I didn’t think there was going to be second date but Ralph was more hopeful.  After this we walked back to the hotel.  We were so exhausted we couldn’t figure out why we were so tired.  We felt like we hadn’t seen much and should fit more in tomorrow.]

Driving on the Autobahn: A Guide for Americans and other non-NASCAR Drivers (By Lynnae, because Ralph has no desire to ever drive on the Autobahn again)

Lynnae here – I don’t understand why people feel so apprehensive about driving on the autobahn (German freeways).  Ralph says it’s because it’s really fast and people drive like crazy, but he doesn’t like to drive anyway.  I loved driving on the autobahn.  Since I’ve driven on it for a total of greater than ten hours without any accidents or stress, naturally I consider myself an expert and would like to share some tips with you.  Hopefully, they will be helpful should you ever need to drive in Germany.

Some differences to be aware of:

1. Road signs do not include the cardinal directions for roads.  Instead they list a city or two that is in that direction.  For example, in the US you might drive on I35S knowing that it leads you towards Texas.  In Germany, it would be listed as I35 Dallas.
2. Multiple speed limits are posted.  This is because there are different limits at night and in the rain.  Be aware of which signs apply to you.  (Most signs are easily understood but it can’t hurt to brush up on them before venturing onto the autobahn.)
3. Keep in mind that the speedometer and speed limits are listed in kilometers per hour not miles per hour.  120 km/hour is only 74 mph.  So there’s no need to panic when you see the speed limit is 120.
4. The right lane is for driving and the left lanes are for passing.  Theoretically, this is also true in the US although many people do not drive this way.  This is the way Germans drive [plus, it’s illegal in Germany to be in the left lane without passing].  Understanding and implementing this is paramount to a successful driving experience in Germany.

Now that you know the basics, you are ready for the strategic portion of driving on the autobahn.  It is very dynamic driving and requires a lot of attention.

1. You cannot expect to maintain a consistent speed unless you are the slowest vehicle on the road.  (If you decide to do this, make sure you are in the rightmost lane.)
2. Expect that some, perhaps many, cars will be driving much faster than you.
3. When you move left to pass, make sure to look in your rearview mirror.  You want to check that the opening you are moving into extends far behind you.  Cars will come up behind you quickly and you don’t want to be surprised.  If the opening isn’t large enough wait for a bigger one.  If you wait long enough there will always be an opening.
4. If you feel comfortable, speed up once you’ve merged left into your passing lane.  Doing so will allow you to pass faster and get back into driving lane where you can slow down.
5. Anticipate the moves of the vehicles around you.  Doing so will reduce surprises and stress.  In the words of my grandfather, Warner Lange, “You need to drive every car on the road.”
   1. If a car is passing you and another car comes up behind it, be aware that the car may speed up to pass you and immediately slow down when merging in front of you.   Proactively slowing down will help everyone out.
   2. Try not to get stuck behind a slow moving vehicle.  It can be frustrating to be unable to move out from behind a slow moving vehicle.  If this happens to you, slowing down a little bit to create extra space in front of you will make it easier for you to accelerate into the next lane at a decent speed.  It can also be avoided completely by merging left before you are too close to the slow moving vehicle.
   3. Be aware of people merging into your lane.  Read the traffic around you.  It’s possible to predict with great accuracy the way people are going to merge.  If a car in the lane to right of you is quickly approaching the car in front of it, you may want to move left (if there is an opening) so the car will not be merging directly in front of you at a lower speed.  Always be aware of the traffic behind you and to your left and the traffic in front of you and to the right.
6. If at all possible, have a driving assistant.  It makes long drives more pleasant to have someone to help navigate, open things and hand them to you, and to converse with on long drives. [Because I wasn’t driving, I peered into a lot of other cars.  I didn’t see any drivers talking on the phone, shaving, eating lunch, etc.  They were just focused on driving way too fast.]

Summary:

German roads are great.  The signage is clear and abundant.  The speed limits when posted are reasonable.  The roads themselves are very well maintained.  Every now and again, there would be a sign for rough road.  This would mean the road had a slight dip or bump.  Usually I noticed no great difference.  All the roads were smooth and I haven’t seen a single pothole on the freeway.  The German drivers I shared the road with were very polite.  There was no tailgating of any kind.  They all left a lot of space and slowed down to posted limits in adverse weather conditions, at night and for road construction.

If you like to drive, it can be a lot of fun to drive on the autobahn.  Just relax, be aware and drive confidently.  It’s the same as driving in the US, except faster with better roads.

Cologne Cathedral (Cologne Day 3) – 30 July 2012

Ralph here again.  Monday we headed to the Cologne Cathedral again and were finally able to tour it.  It is very difficult to describe with words just how immense it is: in physical size, in intricate detail, in the volume of random religious artwork.  [It has the largest front of any cathedral in the world.  It towers over the surrounding buildings.]  The Cologne Cathedral is a result of 600 years of progressive building and as a result, it does not have the relative simplicity that I am used to seeing in church buildings.  [It was built according to the original design.  Work was stalled on several occasions.]  We both would sit down and discover a theme within the cathedral that was completely unnoticed before.  So instead of talking I’ll just give a lot of pictures:

[The stained glass in this location was broken in WWII and replaced with plain glass.  The stained glass above was put in in 2007.  The archbishop did not attend the unveliing as he had desired a more traditional design.]

[A floor mosiac]

restoration work is never finished

the golden shrine on the altar is supposed to hold the remains of the Magi.  I really doubt that the bones of Arabian mystics ended up in northern Germany via Italy, but who knows

another view of the Magi shrine

[One of the oldest large crucifixes.  It was commissioned in 960.]

Additionally, we walked up one of the towers, nearly to the top.  It was clearly not designed for tourists, as it is one very narrow stone spiral staircase going up 500 feet.  Additionally, it goes up in a clockwise manner so by walking on the right, as you are going up you have the narrow part of the stair.  Not good for claustrophobics.  Additionally, a rainstorm whipped up while we were walking up, meaning we were getting whipped with wind and rain when we arrived at the observation levels.  Quite a view from the belfry (about 2/3 of the way up) and the top, though:

[Another gothic cathedral only a block away.]

[Right in the middle of this photo is our hotel.]

[We toured the Cathedral Treasury.  It was mostly made up of chalices, bishops’ rings, crucifixes, ornate staffs as well as priestly vestments.  These are still in use during some Sundays.  Photos weren’t allowed so we have none.   The treasury used to be much more impressive but many of the riches had to be turned over when the chuch was secularized.  Then it was robbed in the 1970’s.  It still seemed substantial.  Additionally, you could see some remains of the Roman wall there.]

[We also went down into the crypt.  Other than the funky smell, it wasn’t that interesting.  Photo below.]

After we were done at the Cathedral, we had a 5-hour drive to Berlin ahead of us.  So we loaded into the rental car and hit the Autobahn for the long drive across northern Germany.