Adventures in Europe: Berlin, Germany

Diana and I are on our way back to Amsterdam (by train) to fly home tomorrow morning, but we had a great late afternoon and evening in Berlin yesterday.

Yesterday morning, Diana took the train into Berlin from Brandenburg, while I set out by bike. She then took the train to Potsdam with a rental electric bike and we rode from there into Berlin together, ending at the Brandenburg Gate. It was pretty cool to ride through! 

After dropping bags at the hotel and showering, we jumped on a boat tour to see Berlin by water. This was Diana's suggestion and it was a great idea, especially because after a lot of cycling sitting comfortably on a boat while seeing the sites was exactly what I wanted to do.

For 23 euro you get an hour long tour and I found it impressive how much you get to see.

The Reichstag: 

The Chancellery:

Cube Berlin:

Central Station:

The TV tower:

Berlin's old Rathaus:

Berlin Cathedral:

Bode-Museum:

After the river tour we were keen to see the Berlin Wall Memorial so we rode the S-Bahn to Nordbahnhof. Nordbahnhof was a ghost station when it was in East Berlin, and the concourse is basically a mini-museum and we toured it for a few minutes. 

Just outside of the station is the memorial, with a portion of the wall preserved. 

The monument in the photo below memorializes the at least 136 people who died trying to get over the wall or in some cases who were not trying to get over the wall but were mistakenly thought to be.

The memorial is really powerful and well done and both Diana I found it very interesting.

From the memorial we walked back towards the river along Friedrichstadt. The 2025 DFB-Pokal final is today, and for the first time in its history Arminia Bielefeld will be competing. Bielefeld is not a big city, but they sure managed to fill Berlin with blue jerseys and cheering and energy, and the bars along the river were packed. It seemed like quite the party! 

The Arminia fans kept us from dining along the river, but around the corner we found a nice Iberian restaurant and enjoyed dinner there. 

All in all it was a very quick visit to Berlin, but we sure enjoyed it, and I have no doubt we will be back some day. 

Adventures in Europe: Hook of Holland, the Netherlands to Berlin, Germany

I have spent the last week cycling from the Hook of Holland to Berlin. I am blogging about the cycling at my cycling blog (https://cyclingedmontonian.blogspot.ca/), but here are some photos of places I stayed along the way, mostly with my wife Diana who joined me in Europe on May 18.

On Saturday I stayed in Amersfoort, the Netherlands . . .

. . . and on Sunday in Almelo, the Netherlands (where Diana joined me).

On Monday I crossed into Germany . . .

. . . and spent the night in Osnabruck, Germany.

Tuesday we stayed in Hannover, Germany; 

Wednesday in Helmstedt, Germany;

and Thursday in Brandenburg, Germany.

Finally, on Friday, into Berlin, with Diana joining me on her own rented bike from Potsdam to the Brandenburg Gate.

Adventures in Europe: Amsterdam, the Netherlands

From Kazakhstan I flew to Amsterdam via Istanbul on Friday, leaving the Almaty airport after sunrise . . .

. . . and reaching my hotel in Amsterdam before sunset.

I am not heading home just yet; instead, I will spend the next week cycling to Berlin. So, I last night I did laundry and shopped for some cycling provisions in the neighbourhood around my hotel. After a many hours on airplanes and in airports the walk in the fresh, cool air was wonderful.

This morning I headed out, walking a few blocks in the quiet Saturday morning towards the bus stop to take me into downtown Amsterdam.

Once downtown, I ate breakfast at a cafe by a canal (that is supposed to be funny, because as far as I can tell ALL of downtown Amsterdam is by a canal) . . .

. . . and at 9:00 when Frederic Rent a Bike opened . . .

. . . I picked up my rental bike (and stashed my backpack) to start out on my next adventure.

Adventures in Asia: Apples in Almaty, Kazakhstan

The story about Almaty's name is that it is derived from the Kazakh word for "apple." In fact, there seems some doubt about the veracity of this story, but nonetheless at least some folks in Almaty have embraced the "apple" identity, and one manifestation of this is in public art!

Adventures in Asia: Ile-Alatau National Park, Kazakhstan

Almaty is on the doorstep of an incredible mountain range, and the Ile-Alatau National Park is actually technically within the city limits. You can see the snow-capped mountains right from downtown.

A municipal bus takes you from downtown up into the park and it is easy to get to several trailheads. So, today I decided to hike up to Kok Jailau.

At breakfast my credit card declined, and I found out it has a daily maximum number of transactions. Good to know. I was short of cash now, and realized my daily limit would reset at 9:00 Almaty time (midnight in Toronto), so I waited a bit until then, then tested the card by placing a delivery order for groceries. This worked well, and voila, a picnic:

Once packed up, I caught the bus and rode upwards and out of the city. The trailhead is a short walk up a side road from the bus stop.

Here is the really impressive sign at the trailhead. The trail can take you right to the top of Kumbel peak, but my goal was Kok Jailau, a meadow at 2,230 metres above sea level, or a climb of about 600 metres over about 5 kilometres. I started out just before 10:30.

Just like the trailhead, the trail is well-signed.

It is also very steep, at least at first, but well maintained, with stairs in the steepest places.

It was a truly glorious day for a hike and the scenery was spectacular. 

At some spots you could see Almaty way down below.

At noon I reached Kok Jailau, where things really open up into a large, undulating meadow.

I climbed up a few minutes more to where there is a waterfall next to the meadow, and sat in the peaceful shade here to eat my lunch.

After lunch I descended a little and then climb to an outlook, where you could look down on Almaty easily. In some ways it is actually too high to get a good view of the city!

After a pleasant forty-five minutes, I began descending the way I had come.

It took me an hour to get back down. The stairs are even more helpful in descending than they are for climbing. This photo gives a sense of how steep certain sections are!

Shortly after 14:00 I was at the bus stop . . .

. . . and by 15:00 back in the centre of Almaty. Unfortunately I began feeling very poor on the bus ride, and I assumed I was suffering from dehydration and heat stroke because it was a hot day. I rehydrated well at a cafe, but began feeling worse so returned to my hotel room. For the next two hours I went between the bed and the bathroom; obviously, something I had eaten did NOT sit well, and I began to suspect the carrots I had bought and eaten during my hike. I think I probably inadequately washed them and perhaps a fertilizer or pesticide was not making my insides happy. It was a miserable couple of hours, but surprisingly I bounced back extraordinarily well around 18:00 and decided I felt well enough to go back out. There was not much left inside me anymore, anyway! Having so enjoyed the Arasan baths last night, I headed there again . . .

. . . and then had a nice final dinner in Kazakhstan. I was hungry now, but I tried to keep it light and healthy. 

Very early tomorrow morning I will be flying to Amsterdam and closing out my adventure across Central Asia. Roughly, this was my overland route over the last ten days--Ashgabat to Khiva all by car and Khiva to Almaty all by train.