![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Berlin Easter 2006
Okay, so the trip to Berlin is over and we're back. I actually survived without accessing my emails for 7 days. It was tough, but I made it. *g*
For those who interested in the trip you can read the report and see the photos.
We were having extensive floor repair work done upstairs while were away so that meant that the Saturday before we left was spent packing our suitcases and emptying the boys' bedrooms and the study of furniture. The only place to put it all was in our bedroom! This also meant dismantling all the computers and moving them out of harms way. Funnily enough this all took a very long time and, coupled with the fact that we had to leave the house at 4:30 the next morning, Hugh and I didn't actually go to bed at all. We couldn't find our bed hidden behind various items of the kids' furniture anyway!
So off to the airport and we took off about 15 minutes late at 7:45 am. As always I am a nervous wreck during take off but I won't explain why for fear of scaring the living daylights out of nervous flyers! However, once the 'plane levelled out I was fine. We landed in Berlin Schonefeld airport on time and happily marched off to the railway station, kids and cases in tow. First hiccup of the day, no direct airport train service was running! We figured out where to change and bought some extraordinarily cheap tickets into the centre of Berlin. We found out later they were cheap because we'd bought the wrong tickets. Unfortunately, there was no English language option on the ticket machine or if there was, we couldn't find it. I don't speak any German beyond 'please' and 'thank you', and Alexander can count to 100 and that's about it!
Second hiccup, there was a race being run, or rather walked, and our apartment was on the other side of the race track. Several roads had been closed off so finding the apartment was a little more tricky than we'd expected it to be, but eventually we made it. The apartment was lovely, really beautiful, on the top floor of a building which was a stone's throw from the British Embassy and a very short walk from the famous Brandenburg Gate.
We had lunch in an Italian restaurant and then marched off to explore! The Holocaust Monument was right next door, so we crossed there, took some photos of the Brandenburg Gate and found the Sony Centre in Potsdamer Platz. We also saw the display of some of the remnants of the Berlin Wall just outside Potsdamer Platz station. Third hiccup, we then realised that the apartment lacked something essential in the kitchen area - teabags and milk! A quick visit to the information centre gave us the information we needed. The only supermarket open on a Sunday was back at the station where we had arrived, on the other side of the race track! Off we went, and fuelled by coffee and doughnuts, we finally managed to buy all the essentials we needed; teabags, milk and coke included! By the time we got back to the apartment I hadn't slept for 32 hours and I was shattered. I flopped onto one of the lovely soft beds and slept for a couple of hours. Dinner was in the Steak Restaurant across the road and then it was off to bed, for real this time.
My meeting on the Monday at the Hilton Hotel went very well and while I was there Hugh took the kids to the Classic car centre at Meilenwerk. We already knew that Hugh and I were eating there that evening as part of the conference I was attending so taking the kids there earlier in the day seemed like a good idea. The visit to Meilenwerk for dinner was preceded by a sightseeing tour of Berlin on an old-fashioned double decker bus. The tour took us past the Concert Hall, Brandenburg Gate and our apartment(!), the Palace, the TV Tower, the Red City Hall, KaDeWe and through West Berlin. Our evening was excellent and we felt quite guilty at leaving the boys back at the flat with sandwiches (but not for long)! As it turned out they had a great view of a superb fireworks display in the Tiergarten while we were out so they were perfectly happy with the situation!
Tuesday morning, all my work responsibilities were over and I was finally on holiday. The only problem was that I could hardly move. Two nights sleeping in a bed which was much softer than the one I was used to meant that my back was locked solid! Luckily a long hot bath resolved that problem. We went to visit the Reichstag once I dragged myself out of the bath and we queued up for an hour to get in. It started to rain a few minutes before the doors opened so we only got a little wet. By the time we had passed through security and ascended to the roof to visit the modern glass dome, there was a storm raging all around and lightning dancing off the tops of the neighbouring buildings. That was quite an experience! When we reached the top of the dome which is open to the sky, big hailstones were falling through and lying all around. The boys loved it!
In view of the weather, we decided to stay where we were and have lunch in the restaurant up there. It was a bit expensive but the food was excellent, the service superb and the toilets were the highlight of the boys' day! Why? Because apparently the urinals are fitted with goal posts to encourage the gentlemen to aim straight! Those with delicate sensibilities can look away now, for the rest of you (and I expect that's most of you!) click here to see a photo (not whilst in use I hasten to add!) You can thank Robert and the wonders of mobile phone technology for that one!
Click!
Our next port of call was the underground and our exploration of the U2 line! This time we managed to buy the correct tickets which were valid for three days and proved to be very useful. We took the train to Alexanderplatz and saw the TV Tower close up, the 24 hour World Clock, the Palace and the Sea Life Centre which went down very well with the boys. We also passed an internet café; there were a few tricky moments but I managed to keep walking! ;) A quick visit to the supermarket on the way home and then out for dinner in an Italian restaurant.
Wednesday was shopping day so it was back on the U2 to visit the KaDeWe (K-D-V). We saw the famed delicatessen which was full of the most fascinating things. We had lunch in the conservatory restaurant on the 7th floor and the boys decided that sushi and lobster were on their menu! Have they any idea how much lobster costs? Obviously not! I guess I should just be glad they didn't want the shark!
Back to the apartment and time to combine all four sets of photographs before going out for dinner in a typical German restaurant in Friedrichstrasse.
Thursday was our last full day of sight-seeing so we walked to Check Point Charlie and spent a couple of hours in the truly fascinating museum there. We also spent some time exploring the "Topography of Terror" which displays photographs and mini biographies of people who played a significant role in the Third Reich. A separate section is dedicated to prisoners many of whom vanished during that time. Our final port of call was meant to be the Egyptian Museum which was about 12 stops away on the underground line. Unfortunately, when we arrived we found that the building was being renovated and the museum had moved to an alternative location! It was too late in the day to travel there and still have time to visit the exhibits so we gave up on that idea and had coffee and cake instead!
One thing we noticed while travelling on the underground; the almost total lack of security of any sort. There are no ticket barriers or ticket collectors. Or if there were, we didn't meet any. To someone who travels daily on London Underground the idea of completely unmanned stations seems very different. I am so used to seeing several armed policemen in bulletproof vests, not to mention multitudes of London Transport staff at our stations, I had almost forgotten how life used to be.
Our final dinner was in the restaurant at the Opernpalais - or the Opera House. A lovely meal with really friendly staff in beautiful surroundings. When Robert asked Alexander if he could have the olives which arrived with his meal, the waitress disappeared and came back with two more sticks of olives for him to enjoy! I didn't like to tell her that Robert is the only one in our family who likes olives anyway, so it was pretty well guaranteed that he'd get them!
Friday was our last day and we spent the morning walking from Wilhelmstrasse to Alexanderplatz, and took photographs of some beautiful buildings along the way. We ascended the TV Tower and had lunch in the revolving restaurant 203m up in the air. Alexander had stuffed eggs and caviar for lunch. Burger King just isn't going to seem the same after this!
Overall, we had a very enjoyable six days and thanks to all my German internet friends who helped make it all so much better!
I've included another photo here just because I wanted to!
.
For those who interested in the trip you can read the report and see the photos.
We were having extensive floor repair work done upstairs while were away so that meant that the Saturday before we left was spent packing our suitcases and emptying the boys' bedrooms and the study of furniture. The only place to put it all was in our bedroom! This also meant dismantling all the computers and moving them out of harms way. Funnily enough this all took a very long time and, coupled with the fact that we had to leave the house at 4:30 the next morning, Hugh and I didn't actually go to bed at all. We couldn't find our bed hidden behind various items of the kids' furniture anyway!
So off to the airport and we took off about 15 minutes late at 7:45 am. As always I am a nervous wreck during take off but I won't explain why for fear of scaring the living daylights out of nervous flyers! However, once the 'plane levelled out I was fine. We landed in Berlin Schonefeld airport on time and happily marched off to the railway station, kids and cases in tow. First hiccup of the day, no direct airport train service was running! We figured out where to change and bought some extraordinarily cheap tickets into the centre of Berlin. We found out later they were cheap because we'd bought the wrong tickets. Unfortunately, there was no English language option on the ticket machine or if there was, we couldn't find it. I don't speak any German beyond 'please' and 'thank you', and Alexander can count to 100 and that's about it!
Second hiccup, there was a race being run, or rather walked, and our apartment was on the other side of the race track. Several roads had been closed off so finding the apartment was a little more tricky than we'd expected it to be, but eventually we made it. The apartment was lovely, really beautiful, on the top floor of a building which was a stone's throw from the British Embassy and a very short walk from the famous Brandenburg Gate.
We had lunch in an Italian restaurant and then marched off to explore! The Holocaust Monument was right next door, so we crossed there, took some photos of the Brandenburg Gate and found the Sony Centre in Potsdamer Platz. We also saw the display of some of the remnants of the Berlin Wall just outside Potsdamer Platz station. Third hiccup, we then realised that the apartment lacked something essential in the kitchen area - teabags and milk! A quick visit to the information centre gave us the information we needed. The only supermarket open on a Sunday was back at the station where we had arrived, on the other side of the race track! Off we went, and fuelled by coffee and doughnuts, we finally managed to buy all the essentials we needed; teabags, milk and coke included! By the time we got back to the apartment I hadn't slept for 32 hours and I was shattered. I flopped onto one of the lovely soft beds and slept for a couple of hours. Dinner was in the Steak Restaurant across the road and then it was off to bed, for real this time.
My meeting on the Monday at the Hilton Hotel went very well and while I was there Hugh took the kids to the Classic car centre at Meilenwerk. We already knew that Hugh and I were eating there that evening as part of the conference I was attending so taking the kids there earlier in the day seemed like a good idea. The visit to Meilenwerk for dinner was preceded by a sightseeing tour of Berlin on an old-fashioned double decker bus. The tour took us past the Concert Hall, Brandenburg Gate and our apartment(!), the Palace, the TV Tower, the Red City Hall, KaDeWe and through West Berlin. Our evening was excellent and we felt quite guilty at leaving the boys back at the flat with sandwiches (but not for long)! As it turned out they had a great view of a superb fireworks display in the Tiergarten while we were out so they were perfectly happy with the situation!
Tuesday morning, all my work responsibilities were over and I was finally on holiday. The only problem was that I could hardly move. Two nights sleeping in a bed which was much softer than the one I was used to meant that my back was locked solid! Luckily a long hot bath resolved that problem. We went to visit the Reichstag once I dragged myself out of the bath and we queued up for an hour to get in. It started to rain a few minutes before the doors opened so we only got a little wet. By the time we had passed through security and ascended to the roof to visit the modern glass dome, there was a storm raging all around and lightning dancing off the tops of the neighbouring buildings. That was quite an experience! When we reached the top of the dome which is open to the sky, big hailstones were falling through and lying all around. The boys loved it!
In view of the weather, we decided to stay where we were and have lunch in the restaurant up there. It was a bit expensive but the food was excellent, the service superb and the toilets were the highlight of the boys' day! Why? Because apparently the urinals are fitted with goal posts to encourage the gentlemen to aim straight! Those with delicate sensibilities can look away now, for the rest of you (and I expect that's most of you!) click here to see a photo (not whilst in use I hasten to add!) You can thank Robert and the wonders of mobile phone technology for that one!
Click!
Our next port of call was the underground and our exploration of the U2 line! This time we managed to buy the correct tickets which were valid for three days and proved to be very useful. We took the train to Alexanderplatz and saw the TV Tower close up, the 24 hour World Clock, the Palace and the Sea Life Centre which went down very well with the boys. We also passed an internet café; there were a few tricky moments but I managed to keep walking! ;) A quick visit to the supermarket on the way home and then out for dinner in an Italian restaurant.
Wednesday was shopping day so it was back on the U2 to visit the KaDeWe (K-D-V). We saw the famed delicatessen which was full of the most fascinating things. We had lunch in the conservatory restaurant on the 7th floor and the boys decided that sushi and lobster were on their menu! Have they any idea how much lobster costs? Obviously not! I guess I should just be glad they didn't want the shark!
Back to the apartment and time to combine all four sets of photographs before going out for dinner in a typical German restaurant in Friedrichstrasse.
Thursday was our last full day of sight-seeing so we walked to Check Point Charlie and spent a couple of hours in the truly fascinating museum there. We also spent some time exploring the "Topography of Terror" which displays photographs and mini biographies of people who played a significant role in the Third Reich. A separate section is dedicated to prisoners many of whom vanished during that time. Our final port of call was meant to be the Egyptian Museum which was about 12 stops away on the underground line. Unfortunately, when we arrived we found that the building was being renovated and the museum had moved to an alternative location! It was too late in the day to travel there and still have time to visit the exhibits so we gave up on that idea and had coffee and cake instead!
One thing we noticed while travelling on the underground; the almost total lack of security of any sort. There are no ticket barriers or ticket collectors. Or if there were, we didn't meet any. To someone who travels daily on London Underground the idea of completely unmanned stations seems very different. I am so used to seeing several armed policemen in bulletproof vests, not to mention multitudes of London Transport staff at our stations, I had almost forgotten how life used to be.
Our final dinner was in the restaurant at the Opernpalais - or the Opera House. A lovely meal with really friendly staff in beautiful surroundings. When Robert asked Alexander if he could have the olives which arrived with his meal, the waitress disappeared and came back with two more sticks of olives for him to enjoy! I didn't like to tell her that Robert is the only one in our family who likes olives anyway, so it was pretty well guaranteed that he'd get them!
Friday was our last day and we spent the morning walking from Wilhelmstrasse to Alexanderplatz, and took photographs of some beautiful buildings along the way. We ascended the TV Tower and had lunch in the revolving restaurant 203m up in the air. Alexander had stuffed eggs and caviar for lunch. Burger King just isn't going to seem the same after this!
Overall, we had a very enjoyable six days and thanks to all my German internet friends who helped make it all so much better!
I've included another photo here just because I wanted to!
.