I've been there once before, but it is many years ago. Sophie has been there 3 times.
The plan is that we drive down there, we will start Thursday afternoon and we have booked space on the ferry Gedser-Rostock.
To be continued when we arrived.
Berlin is a lovely city. There are many beautiful buildings, wonderful shopping, good transport facilities and nice just to wander around.
We arrived at the hotel at 2100 Thursday night. We had booked space at hotel Holiday Inn East. It's a really good hotel for the price. It lies quit a distance from the center, but the TRAMS leave just on your doorstep, so it's easy and fast to get into town. There is nothing in the hotel area, this is a pretty dreary area.
But as I said, it's easy to get into town. It's a really good idea to buy a day pass for the public transportation . The cards can be purchased at the hotel or in any kiosk. It costs 6.40 Euro. it applies to an entire day untill 0300 at night. Berlin center is pretty big and it's simply a must to take a bus or subway from place to place, if not, well then there is a pharmacy on almost every street corner, where you can buy the patch to your blisters .... Ha ha ....
Our first day was spent walking the city thin, we started to take tram nr 5 to Alexanderplatz, then we went around the city center. The Cathedral, on to Unter den Linden and down to the Brandenburg Gate. Here we rested a bit and looked at the diverse life that exists here. Horse trailers, bicycle taxis and young people entertained with street dance, very talented they were.
And now it was then the girls found out that they had done well to avail themselves to a day pass, but no, no, we're used to traveling, used to trudge around in every city and around the world. It has never been a major concern and it is so nice to walk. The weather was hot and we had sandals on, not walking shoes, so when we late in the afternoon sat at a nice cafe and took our sandals off, just to see what it was that hurt so bad, and oh yes, there were large blisters. Not good. They hurt.
I have at a couple of occasions had blisters on my hands when I've worked a little too hard in the garden but i dont remember having had any on my feet before, so it was somewhat of a surprise. Sofie said we had to prick a hole in them, but we had to wait until we were back at the hotel.
Now it was actually really hard ti walk, but we kept going anyway.
By 7 pm we took a tram from Alexanderplatz back to the hotel.
We poked a hole in the blisters, got a well needed bath and then took tram No. 13 to an area where there were many restaurants and lots of people. It was suppose to be a " in " place, accordance to the receptionist at the hotel, but it seemed like mostly a place for students. However, we found a nice restaurant and got good food. We bouth agreed that it was not a place for us. We took the tram 13 back to the hotel and crawled into bed, very tired.
One thing that surprised us a lot, was all the people who walked around with a bottle in hand, we saw it all the time on the street, at tram and trains. So many people went with either a beer or something stronger, especially in the eastern part of Berlin. The problem was not as big in the western part. We also saw many homeless and outrer, and many, should we call it "different" people. Most of Berlin is nice and clean, there are many bins with built-in ashtray, making sure that you can get rid of your garbage or cigarette butts. But in some areas you do see people who just lies asleep drunk on the street, or drugged by something stronger.
A very diverse city, i would have to say.
Saturday we were obviously wise enough to invest in a day ticket, which we had to, since we could barely walk.
We took the tram and u bahn to Hackescher Markt. Here you can go crasy shopping. There are plenty of shops of all sorts, and a market that sells everything your heart could want. My shopping gene was not so big, so I sat at a cafe with a cafe latte, while Sophie did the shopping.
Afterwards we walked down to Friedrichsbrücke where we hopped on a tourboat.
These boats are really nice, you sit comfortly, they serv food and beverages while sailing past one imposing building after another and of course you get a little information about the various buildings. 1 hour it lasted and cost 8 euros.
One of the things that are really nice in Berlin, are all the public places you can use, there are plenty of green spaces where you can throw yourself in the grass and sun beds along the rivers, so you can just sit there and enjoy the water and the many tourist boats gliding by. Also several bars on the squares have sunchairs you can use.
Late in the afternoon, we went back to the hotel to get ready to go out and eat.
We had decided to go back to Hackescher Markt to eat there. Tram No. 5 and 6 went right there, this way we could avoid walking to much.
We quickly found a Spanish restaurant and ordered some tapas. It was very good and we could see that it was a Spanish guy who owned the place.
After a good dinner we went home and went to bed.
Sunday we were going home, but the ferrry left at 1700 so we had some hours and decided to go and see Charlottenburg castle. We would take the car and then drive to the ferry afterwards.
Unfortunately it was a nightmare, we drove around for 2 hours. All roads were blocked, there was suppose to be a bycikle race in that part of town where Charlottenburg is, so it was impossible to get anywhere, we got stuck and eventually we decided to forget it and just get out of town.
We reached a ferry at. 1500 instead, got some food on the ferry and was fortunately home very quikly.
It was a good trip and one we will surely remember. As always when I travel with Sophie, we have a great time, agree on what we like and we never complain about the hustle we have to go through, at least not for long .......
Previous
Ingen kommentarer:
Send en kommentar