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

Adventures in Europe: Frankfurt, Germany

Yesterday morning I awoke in my castle and breakfasted in its basement.

Then I headed south along the highway between the Rhine and the hills, including two more hilltop castles. 

Terrorists had attacked Paris overnight, with well over a hundred people dead, so that was disconcerting, but did not seem to be having any serious impacts on the Frankfurt area.

I returned the car to the original Enterprise location.  Much to my relief, they did not notice the scratches/dent on the bumper, which had looked more and more minor by the day.  I had put just over 1600 kilometres on the car.

This time I simply rode the tram the whole way from Enterprise to the central train station, where I checked into my hotel.  The Frankfurt Hostel did not have a room, so I had booked a couple blocks away at the Hotel Carlton.  Roughly a block or two from the train station, the neighborhood around these accommodations is really sketchy.  I think it is officially Frankfurt's red light district, but as unsavoury as this aspect is, it is the blatant hard drug use on the sidewalks all around that disturbs me far more.  Nonetheless, my "favourite" Turkish restaurant is just down the street from the worst of it, and I went there for iskender, my favourite dish as a child in Turkey. Amazingly, it was as delicious as I remembered from the last time I ate it, twenty years ago.

I didn't do much that afternoon, except for shop for advent calendars for my little nieces.  It seemed almost every store had their own versions, so there were nearly countless options.

Everything seemed business as usual as I walked around, but in front of the "euro" monument there were a couple of undercover security guys, with the largest bulletproof vests I'd ever seen, and large guns.  

As dusk fell the train station was lit up in the French tricolour, and this attracted an awful lot of attention from passers-by.

Meanwhile, in front of my hotel, four or five or even six cop vehicles pulled up, shut down all but one lane, and began stopping cars as they were going through.

It looked like it might have been just a routine weekend check stop, but it crossed my mind that it might have been connected to Paris too, since police were conducting raids in Brussels and Munich, and maybe elsewhere, simultaneously.

I had a light dinner from the grocery store across the street, including some of the famous apple wine.

This morning after breakfast I packed up and caught the S-bahn to the airport for my Icelandair flight to Reykjavik.  This time as we landed there was still daylight, which allowed for a spectacular view of the island.  I did not have a window seat, but made sure to lean as far as I could to take in the view.  "Iceland" seemed a very apt name for the land I was seeing, but it was very beautiful.

It made me regret I that I had not booked one of the "free stopovers" Icelandair advertises.  Next time

Then again, once in the airport, the price of my grilled cheese sandwich, bottle of beer, and bottle of water (~$17) made me glad I had been traveling in the land of four euro donairs.

Adventures in Europe: Trier and Bacharach, Germany

From Luxembourg I headed southeast into Germany and the city of Trier.  I was unconvinced that I would want to stop in Trier, but I decided I would at least drive by the famous Roman gate known as Porta Nigra.

The gate was more impressive than I had expected, and then, voila, a street side parking spot was open just up the block, so I pulled in and parked as expertly as if I was driving an automatic.  I threw a few coins into the meter and wound it to give me 52.5 minutes (at 20 cents for 7.5 minutes).  I still assumed there would not be much I would want to see, a mistake I'm obviously making consistently pretty much everywhere I go.

I walked back down the block and snapped pictures of the gate, then pondered whether or not to pay 3 euros to go inside.

If I had more time, I certainly would have, but instead I walked down the pedestrian street towards the city square.

I bought myself my favourite German duo: coffee and pastry from a cafe for 3 euros.  I cannot get over how little this costs, and how enormous and fancy and delicious these pastries are.

Then I wandered into the cathedral, skeptical that Trier could possibly have a cathedral all that interesting.

Wrong again.

It dates back 1500+ years, and is enormous.

I threw 50 cents into the box and took a brochure guide.  Of course with only a few minutes left on my parking meter, I had to hurry, but I had time to see the cathedral's most famous relic, apparently some robe that Christ wore, which is now carefully preserved in an air conditioned chest.

I got back to the car and began my pastry, but it was too big to finish so I only ate half and put the rest in the back seat for later.

I continued eastward towards the Rhine and a little place called Bacharach.  Nestled between some incredible hills and the Rhine, the village is quite something.

Best of all it has an amazing castle above it, called Burg Stahleck, which is now a hostel, and where I have a room.

I got here in time to scamper around the castle and hike down to the village before dusk.

I thought Trail Inn was underrated, but Burg Stahleck is something else entirely.  It is one of the coolest places I have ever stayed, for sure.

Adventures in Europe: Aachen, Germany

This morning I woke up sometime before 7:00, fairly well rested, but already stressed about driving.

Two things worried me: one, of course, the fact that I was driving a manual car; and two, that I doubted the GPS would take me outside of Germany, meaning I would have to try to navigate through Europe and worry about stalling, etc.

I walked up the hill in the dark to the parking lot and turned on the GPS.  I punched in the address of my hostel in Belgium that I would be staying in tonight, and lo and behold the GPS brought it up without difficulty!  So that was a relief.  I decided I may as well take advantage of the quiet morning to go ahead and do some practicing, so I pulled out of the parking lot and did a spin further up the hill.  I don't think this practice helped me too much, but it ended up being a lovely way to watch the dawn break, with large dairy cows mooing at me, and the dew rising from the fields.  It was really surprisingly gorgeous.

I parked again, and walked back to the hostel.  The hostel lobby was WiFi equipped, but it cost 1.5 euro/hour.  I went ahead and paid for an hour, and watched YouTube videos on how to drive manual cars.  Most merely told me things I already knew, including "its harder than it looks," but I did learn how to use the emergency brake when starting out on a hill, which was something I don't remember ever learning, nor would I have tried it without the tip.

I watched these videos while eating breakfast at the breakfast buffet, which was once again plentiful, and even had kiwis.

Shortly after 9:00 I checked out and punched in the intersection in Aachen that had a park and ride lot.  I had planned to simply drive and park downtown Aachen, but now that I was driving stick this idea seemed less appealing.  The park and ride seemed a much less stressful option.

I drove the opposite way the GPS told me to, wanting to extend my time around the Eifel National Park and the hills above the Rur Lake.

It was an incredibly gorgeous morning, and in retrospect I should have spent more time driving around there and stopping at the many pull offs/lookouts. 

Around 9:30 I finally heeded the GPS lady's commands and headed northwest to Aachen.  For about half of this drive the road took me through little towns, which was pretty neat, and I was even able to relax and enjoy the drive.  I have come to very much appreciate roundabouts, which do not require me to come to a complete stop and risk stalling.

I got to the park and ride lot easily enough, and then got on a bus to take me into the city.

I got there sometime after 11:00, but sadly the cathedral, which is what I really wanted to see, didn't open to the public until 12:30, since there was a mass in progress (not that surprising, given that it was Sunday morning, but I hadn't thought of it).

Aachen was Charlgemagne's capital and he began building the cathedral, which is the oldest in northern Europe.

Before learning this, I had planned to pass by Aachen without stopping, but the cathedral drew me in.

I considered going into the cathedral's treasury, or Aachen's town hall, both of which appealed to me somewhat, but they both had entrance fees and I decided I'd rather sit beneath the cathedral and have coffee and eat a pastry.

At 12:20 or so I went to buy a ticket for the cathedral, but the man working said I only needed a ticket if I wanted a guided tour.  Since I had already talked to him an hour prior, and was pretty sure he told me I needed a 4 euro ticket, I was very surprised to learn I didn't.  He did tell me that the tower wasn't open, however, which was disappointing.

I went ahead and bought a 50 cent guide, and it in hand queued to go inside.  The massgoers filed out and the tourists filed in, and I was amazed!

The Cologne cathedral had been dark, even dank, and was almost depressing rather than uplifting.  The Aachen cathedral, in contrast, was full of gold and other colours, and art and carving, and was really a sight to behold.

The little guide pointed me to the highlights, including the shrine of Charlgemagne (where is bones are), and the chest holding relics, including some shroud of Mary.

Although the cathedral was stunning, I was also struck with how small it was, especially compared to the one in Cologne I had been in yesterday.  I do not know what how they would compare in terms of area, but I assume, the Aachen one is as small as a quarter of the Cologne cathedral's size (which granted is absolutely massive).

After leaving the Cathedral, I bought a donair before catching the bus back to the park and ride.