Heading to Berlin

 July 04  No Responses »
Jul 042012
 

Jason and I met up at SFO for our flight to Berlin via Frankfurt around noon on Wednesday the 4th. With two flights and a layover it took us about 14 hours to get to Berlin, which with the time change made it Thursday afternoon when we arrived.

Our plane from SFO to FRA

Pre-flight 747 cockpit tour

Angel Island and San Francisco

Angel Island and San Francisco

All the comix had sad endings.

I don’t like this icon

Approaching Frankfurt, apparently from outer space.

Berlin, Day 1

 Berlin, July 05  No Responses »
Jul 052012
 

Once in Berlin we had an educational taxi ride to the hotel. Our driver spoke great English and gave us a German language lesson. I learned some anatomy (finger -> finger, hand -> hand, arm -> arm, knee -> knie, elbow -> ellenbogen) and a few other important words (water -> wasser, beer-> bier). I think I’m ready.

Fact: We did not know it was Berlin Fashion Week when we chose when to take the trip. It is also true that we did not know our hotel was one of the hosting hotels for the event when we booked it. I don’t think this information would have caused us to change our plans.

We didn’t have a lot of energy for sightseeing the first day, so we took a short walk from our hotel to Brandenburg Gate, and then over to the Holocaust Memorial.

Not a very good picture of Brandenburg Gate. I don’t know those three dudes in front of it.

Self Portrait: Jason (right) and me (left) staring in awe at Brandenburg Gate.

The Holocaust Memorial was a very powerful way to begin our visit to Berlin. It is a multi-acre collection of undulating concrete slabs with a “place of information” underneath.

A small section of the almost 5 acres of the Holocaust Memorial

The exhibit underneath told the story of the Holocaust first in a linear manner, followed by rooms dedicated to individuals’ stories and the names of all known victims of the Holocaust. It would be impossible to tell the stories of the six million Jews who were affected by the Holocaust, but using the hand-written diaries and letters of dozens of individuals telling their first hand stories, contrasted with the cold impersonal concrete environment of the exhibits, helped to personalize the horrors of the Holocaust.

Visitors at the Holocaust Memorial

Exhausted, we found a good Indian restaurant on the way back to the hotel and enjoyed our first beirs, along with curry and lamb.

Ahh.

Thanks, Jason, but I think we’ll just use the picture I took.

Berlin, Day 2

 Berlin, July 06  No Responses »
Jul 062012
 

We might have tried to do a bit much our second day in Berlin. To recover from a day of sitting in planes we each started the day working out – I did a circuit in the hotel’s gym and Jason ran about six miles through Tiergarten. With renewed energy we headed out with a few recommended sites in mind and ended up walking 14 miles though the city. By the end of the day we were thrashed.

We started out walking west through Brandenburg Gate again, and then the length of Tiergarten (Berlin’s Central Park) to the shopping district of Kurfürstendamm. We were hoping to see some great examples of German design, but instead saw all the expensive international brands that seem to cluster in every city. Our ultimate destination was the 6th floor of KaDeWe. KaDeWe is a gigantic department store started in 1907, and the 6th floor is 10,000 square meters (about 2½ acres) dedicated to fine foods. It took us over half an hour just to walk the perimeter of meats, vegetables, fish and desserts before venturing into the center section of breads, coffee, chocolate, canned goods and a whole section for salt.

A few samples from KaDeWe’s 6th floor.

Famished and tired, we dined on currywurst, pretzels and beer at one of the stands in the meat section.

Lunch at KaDeWe.

Having learned that the scale of the map we had was a bit larger than it seemed, we decided to take the underground to our next destination rather than walking across the city again. It took us an embarrassingly long time and multiple tries to buy tickets, even with instructions in English.

We rose from the underground at Potsdammer Platz, heading for Checkpoint Charley. Along the way we came to the Museum fur Kommunikation which had been recommended by a friend, so we ducked in. It was a quiet day at the museum, we almost had it to ourselves. Germany has a fascinating history around communications technology, but the highlights here included an “exploded” stagecoach with all the parts hanging separately from the ceiling and a hanging frame in an exhibition about the Reconstruction of Bethlehem Church across the street. I know: “Not very techy of us,” but fun nonetheless.

Exploded stagecoach at Museum fur Kommunikation

Carl, with exhibit frame

Jason takes it to a whole other level

Checkpoint Charley was our next stop. We had heard great things about the museum there, but couldn’t get enthused to go inside – the area is packed with tourists paying 6€ to have their picture taken with American soldier actors across from a McDonalds. There was an interesting open air display across the street that did an excellent job explaining the significance of the site along with interesting stories of escape attempts.

Checkpoint Charley, now kind of like Hollywood and Vine.

Part of my vacation algorithm is to go to the top of things, which is a challenge in a city as flat as Berlin – until we spotted the balloon ride just down the block. Air Service Berlin operates a helium balloon that lifts a circular walkway to 150m over the city.

Balloon over Berin

Jason was hopeful the message on the balloon was not prophetic of the flight.

Nice view, with a mesh to keep you from jumping out.

Following the flight we walked across the street to the “Topographie des Terrors” where we visited the outdoor exhibition about Berlin from 1933 – 1945 and the rise and effect of the National Socialist Party. I never enjoyed history classes in school, mostly because I was pretty geeky, but partially because they seemed very dry. On of my reasons for wanting to visit Berlin was to learn in a tangible way about how someone like Hitler could rise to power and commit such atrocities with the support of what I assume were initially rational, feeling human beings. Exhibits like the Topography of Terrors, built on the site of the leadership of the SS, are perfect ways to learn this.

Topography of Terrors, view from above.

The exhibit was very helpful. We learned a lot about the linear history of the Party, but I was still left wondering why the Parliament effectively forfeited their power in 1933. Wikipedia has helped (“Enabling Act of 1933“) but I still have a lot to learn. I’m very embarrassed about my lack of knowledge – history class showed me the sequence of events, but what I really want to understand is the “why,” not the “when” and “where.” I feel that I’m getting closer to being able to ask the right questions for what I want to learn.

By this time we were physically beat and emotionally wounded. We managed to walk back to the hotel for some R&R.

Around 5:30 we regrouped for dinner. A friend had recommended a street food place called Mustafa’s. It was too far to walk, but with our newfound underground confidence we headed out. Despite a station closure which completely screwed up the trains, we managed to find our way to the best Donor Kabaps in Berlin. Seriously, if you ever get to Berlin you have to eat there. The line was long but only took about 15 minutes for us to work through. The guys inside spoke English well so we could customize our orders a bit (not surprising given that they are surrounded by hostels that seem to account for a lot of their business). Mustafa’s only has soda and water to drink, so the convenience store they are in front of does a booming business supplying beer to most of the diners.

The line at Mustafa’s

The. Best. Kabaps.

After dinner we rode back to Brandenburg Gate, walked down to Potsdamm Platz to see the glitz at night, had a drink and headed back to the hotel to crash.

Wait, that’s not beer!

These images, plus more:

Berlin, Day 3

 Berlin, July 07  No Responses »
Jul 072012
 

We were talking about health at breakfast and I mentioned that I take vitamins each morning.
Jason says, “What, Centrum Silver?”
I say, “Yeah.”
Awkward silence.

With that behind us, we headed over to the DDR Museum to see what life was like in the GDR for the typical citizen.

DDR Museum Entrance

The Museum isn’t very large, but it is dense with artifacts, models, audio and video from the 1950s through 1980s.

The TV Tower is nearby and we were hoping to ride up and catch the view from the top. There was a very long line, and the GDR era concrete architecture gave the whole place a very uncomfortable feeling, so we continued on, eventually wandering into Alexanderplatz. This giant plaza took us by surprise – it is a full city block in size and not much more that a concrete slab for pedestrians with the tram running through the middle. It is surrounded primarily with post-war residence and industrial buildings, with a newer shopping building near its center.

Alexanderplatz

Beyond Alexanderplatz

 


We had lunch nearby at a pizza shop. It was interesting watching tourists with luggage in tow come around the corner from the underground and see the area they had booked their hotel in for the first time. I got the impression that it wasn’t the part of Berlin that they had pictured in their minds.

Oh, and there was pizza, too.

Our last scheduled stop for the day was the Wall Documentation Center farther north. This area includes about a mile of park where the wall used to be. Set up throughout it are displays showing the evolution of the wall from a simple barrier “to keep West Germans out” to the full double wall DMZ zone designed to keep East Germans in. There were displays over sites like Tunnel 57, named for the number of people who escaped during a two day period before the authorities became aware and closed it down.

The park where the Wall used to stand. To the left was East Berlin, to the right was West Berlin.

The view from a tower at the Wall Documentation Center for a section of the zone that has been preserved. The sand would have been raked to expose footprints easily.

We had a great dinner at Sagrantino, an Italian restaurant near our hotel, and then walked over to the Gendarmenmarkt area where there was an open air concert going on. We didn’t buy tickets for the main seating area, but instead sat on steps nearby with hundreds of other people enjoying picnics and free opera.

Dinner.

My gelato and a view over the fence to the concert area.

A lonely tourist downing a beer and playing Angry Birds. Poor sot – this city has so much more to offer.

Prague – Day 1

 July 08, Prague  No Responses »
Jul 082012
 

Berlin was so much more than I had expected, even though we only saw and touched a very small part of it. The people were incredibly kind and they made it very easy for us to visit. The city itself has an amazing history dating back hundreds of years, and it wears all of that history openly. I learned a lot while I was there, and I’m leaving yearning to learn more.

But today we head to Prague.

On the train to Prague.

On the train to Prague.

The four hour trip from Berlin to Prague via train took us through Dresdin and then along the Elbe River through the small town of Pirna. This area is now on my list of places to visit in the future – the canyon that the Elbe has carved is stunning, and hosts loads of vacationers in kayaks and rafts, along with a parallel road that seemed to only host bicyclists.

Soon afterwards the train crossed into the Czech Republic and stopped briefly at the Decin train station. Neither Jason nor I speak German or Czech, but we felt we could fumble our way around the German language. The signage in Decin let us know that our experience in the Czech Republic was going to demand a lot more work from us.

We arrived in Prague, and after a rather nasty encounter with a local who tried to rip us off as soon as we exited the train, we found our way to the taxi stand and headed for our hotel. Our driver was great, and the hotel staff were excellent. Our immediate fears were assuaged and Prague became a friendly adventure.

We unpacked quickly and headed out in search of lunch. A small restaurant near our hotel offered up some authentic Czech food.

Goulash with Bohemian dumplings for Carl.

Meat and potatoes and something else for Jason. I win.

We walked over the Charles Bridge and circled through Old Town. Though it was packed with tourists, the city is stunning – it represents everything you think an old European city should look like. I’ve included a lot more pictures at the bottom of this post.

Entering the main Old Town square.

We had dinner at a Kampa, a restaurant on the river with a stunning view. The food was excellent – one of our top two meals so far. The view across the river during sunset was incredible. Prague has light like Venice – it seems warmer and softer than other cities and brings out amazing colors. The sunset we had was unique even for Prague: our waiter and the hostess both came over with their own cameras to capture it.

These giant clouds rolled in on the east horizon just to make the sunset that much more amazing.

Though their dessert menu looked great, we headed back over to Old Town for the best gelato in town at Zmrzlina Gelato, and then next door to Il trí ruzí (sorry, not spelled correctly, I don’t have two of the characters available) for some of their original beer and motorcycle racing on TV.

Another of their original brews.

Welcome to Prague!

More pictures:

Prague – Day 2

 July 09, Prague  No Responses »
Jul 092012
 

Jason: “I love it when we don’t screw things up.”

This was our first full day in Prague, so we started it out with a walk though the city’s primary attraction: the Prague Castle. Jason’s quote happened right after we managed to take the tram from near our hotel to the top of the hill by the entrance to the castle. The castle was founded in the 9th century, and its most memorable part, St. Vitus Cathedral, began construction in 1344 and was finally consecrated in 1929. We have both now adopted St. Vitus as our patron Saint – according to my guide book, “Vitus is a patron of actors, entertainers and dancers, and is said to protect against lightning, dog bites and oversleeping.” Sounds like everything I need!

Exterior of St. Vitus Cathedral. BTW, he’s our new patron Saint.

While in the castle we also toured the Toy Museum. It has an interesting collection of old toys, and one of the world’s largest collections of Barbie dolls. Of course we weren’t interested in that part; we wanted to see Lego and Action Figures.

After touring the castle we walked down the hill back to the hotel. Along the way we sidetracked though Valdštejnská (aka Wallenstein) Gardens and came across an ad hoc choral concert being given in the Senate courtyard by a group of kids on tour. We sat and listened to a couple songs before they took off for the rest of their tour. They had beautiful voices, and we were lucky to have been able to hear them perform – that’s our second incredible free outdoor concert so far.

A random concert we caught in the courtyard of the Senate.

After lunch at the hotel we toured some more on foot, visiting the John Lennon Wall where graffiti artists liberally paint tributes to Lennon and others. In fact, we caught this tagger in the act:

Grafitti artist tagging the John Lennon wall.

Prior to this trip Jason’s friend (and evidently the most awesome real estate agent in Boulder) Daryl connected us with Tijana – a friend of his who has lived in Prague for the past 14 years. Tijana came by the hotel around 6pm and took us on a walking tour of the city. We had a great time – she told us about the architecture of the city, stories behind the buildings and people, and educated us about what it’s really like living in this city.

Part of my vacation algorithm is to go to the top of things, so when she took us up the funicular railway to the base of the observation tower I was thrilled. Not one for heights, Tijana wasn’t that interested in going up the tower and Jason was ambivalent – so I bought my ticket and went up without them. “The Top of Things” paid off once again with panoramic view of the city (the top picture of this post).

Petrin Observation Tower

She then took us to a wonderful small local restaurant that we never could have found ourselves, and we eventually ended up in a beer garden along the river drinking and chatting. Thanks Tijana!

Dinner stop.

Dinner stop.

Jason, our friend and host Tijana, and me.

More pictures:

Prague – Day 3

 July 10, Prague  No Responses »
Jul 102012
 

The National Technical Museum

In a city that’s over 1,000 years old there are a lot of choices about how to explore its culture. Today we chose to focus on just the last 100 years or so and headed up to the National Technical Museum. The museum is primarily about transportation, with a few smaller rooms exploring other areas like photography. I wasn’t aware of the Czech’s long history building motorcycles and began to notice Czech-made Škoda cars in the streets of Prague afterwards.

Interior of the National Technical Museum.

Awesome

Awesome

We walked back through Prague’s largest park: Letenské sady. The small plaza in the middle of the park used to have a statue of Stalin in it – it has now become a skate park with the requisite graffiti. I was able to create an homage to the “Awesome” picture of Jason we took last year in Paris with this “Grrr” shot.

GRR! Graffiti on our walk back from the museum.

On our way to dinner that evening we went over to see the “Dancing House”, a building designed by Frank Gehry and Vlado Milunić. I’m always entertained by Gehry’s architecture, and this was another win.

The building affectionately known as “Dancing House.”

Jason made me do this, but now I’m pretty happy about it:

I think I nailed it.

Budvar?!? Jason had been preaching to me about how good Budweiser beer is. He meant, of course, the original Czech version of it not the stuff we make back home. Either he was right, or the Dancing House had distorted my brain (refer back to picture above). Full bodied and flavorful – who knew you could do that to a Bud?

Budvar! Authentic Czech Budweiser beer. It’s really good and tastes nothing like Bud back home.

Our final stop for the day was “Alcron,” one of only two Michelin star rated eateries in the Czech Republic. Alcron holds a number of surprises: it’s in the lobby of a Radisson Hotel; it has only seven tables; there are only four people working there; it’s affordable. Not surprising is the food and service are excellent. The menu is organized as a tasting menu with cold and hot selections and deserts and cheeses. You are encouraged to choose just a few dishes at a time and order more as you go; the final price simply is calculated by the number of courses you order. We did four courses plus dessert along with some very nice wines.

Painted dessert at Alcron. The chef prepares this on your table.

Tomorrow we head to Munich. Thanks Prague!

More pictures from the day:

Munich – Day 1

 July 11, Munich, Prague  No Responses »
Jul 112012
 

This seemed like a really short day. We spent a lot of it in transit, flying from Prague to Munich, getting settled into the hotel and taking a walk to get situated in a new city. Oh, and there was this beer garden…

Prague Airport

The flight from Prague to Munich is a little over an hour, but adding in transit time to and from the airport makes it take half a day.

While we were waiting at the gate in Prague the display over the gate changed to read “Go to Gate 12.” We were at Gate 12, so I was a bit confused. I asked the agent if we were in the right place and she said, “Ya. Go to here.” I felt much better.

After arriving in Munich we took a cab to the hotel and went for a walk to see some of the city before our rooms were ready. Our hotel is near the train station and Karlsplatz, which is the plaza at one end of a long shopping mall that ends at Marienplatz, the main city center. We elbowed our way through the throngs of tourists and, running out of energy, stopped for lunch at one of the outdoor cafes.

Marienplatz is one of the main market squares and packed with tourists.

We should know better than to eat in the middle of tourist madness like this.

Right now I’m thinking something like, “I’m pretty sure this was Jason’s idea.”

Jason hides in his beer.

After lunch we explored more of the city on foot and then convened back at the hotel to check in, unpack, and plan our next few days.

The first item of business was to visit an authentic biergarten, and the one with the highest recommendation from a friend was only a few blocks away. Augustiner-Keller Beirgarten lived up to our expectations. The outdoor tables can seat about 5,000 people, half in a full service area and half in self-service, all underneath a hundred chestnut trees.

Augustiner-Keller Biergarten seats 5,000, but was only about half full.

We opted for full service, ordered a mixed plate of wurst, a couple beers and a pretzel. Any one of those items was enough for a few people, but we carried on as if we knew what we were doing.

That’s really both of our beers. It just looks better this way.

This is really both of our second beers – I would never order two at once.

Jason: “Ocifer rolls off my tongue a lot easier than ocifer.” In his defense, he couldn’t say that right the next day either.

More pictures:

Munich – Day 2

 July 12, Munich  No Responses »
Jul 122012
 

Deutsches Museum.

Today was set aside exclusively for the Deutsches Museum – the largest science and technology museum in Europe. The museum has over 50 sections on eight floors, any one section could keep you occupied for hours. As an example, just in the Metals area they have lifesize dioramas of mines, scale models of ore refining plants, a waterwheel powered blacksmith shop, a teaching area with milling equipment, and a full scale display on casting aluminum block engines. Or how about examples of keys and locks from pre-1500’s to today? We expected the Power Machinery to be about electric drills (No! That’s in the machine tools exhibit!), but instead it was about animal and water powered early machines.

When the blacksmith needed more heat he yelled at his dog to run faster.

We probably spent most of our time in the Aeronautics and Astronautics sections. It was shocking to see a cross-section of a full A300 Airbus intermingled with the other aircraft, the wing stretched out over other displays. The slice included the fuselage, the wing, the engine and landing gear, all of which were also cut open to expose their inner workings.

Cutaway A300 Airbus – fuselage.

The Computers section included a Cray-1 (PDI’s nemesis machine from the mid-1980’s) and a Remington Rand UNIVAC which looked more like a trailer filled with vacuum tubes than a computer.

Early 1950’s UNIVAC computer – that’s the same Remington that made electric shavers.

Cray-1 Computer – the biggest threat to our business in 1984.

Looking at my Fitbit stats, and taking into account all other walking that day, I think we covered between 5 and 6 miles inside the museum.

We had dinner at the nearby Viktualienmarkt, a permanent outdoors farmer’s market where we wish we had eaten the first day.

DInner at Viktualienmarkt.

That evening I was inspired by the photography exhibit at the museum to create my own camera obscura in my hotel room to photograph my skyline view. At 7:30 pm the sun is still up, but low in the sky. I stripped the hotel room walls of hanging pictures, set up my camera on a tripod and closed the blackout curtains. I then held the curtains in a way to allow light through only about one square inch of window – my camera aperture. After a few tries I nailed the exposure (30 seconds, f4.0, ISO 100) and produced the picture below. The light from outside the room enters through the small gap and hits the opposite wall. Optics works in such a way that the image is inverted (Germany is in the northern hemisphere, so it isn’t upside down outside like New Zealand is). Pretty cool.

The view from my hotel room created as a camera obscura on the room walls.

Munich (and Innsbruck) – Day 3

 Innsbruck, July 13, Munich  No Responses »
Jul 132012
 

When we were planning this trip we had discussed the possibility of renting a car and driving up into the Alps for a day, but we never really committed to doing that until yesterday. We managed to find a rental car at the last minute – some sort of Opel car with suicide doors – and we were advised to avoid King Ludwig II’s two first castles as they would be insanely crowded this time of year. Instead we decided to go to Salzburg via Ludwig’s third castle on an island in Chiemsee.

The weather wasn’t fully cooperating, there was light rain along the way, but the Bavarian part of Germany and Austria is beautiful. We found the information center on Chiemsee and learned that the next ferry over to the island was only about 10 minutes later. We hadn’t done any real research about what we were doing, and after a 20 minute ride to the island learned that King Ludwig II’s final castle was a tribute to (really an exact copy of) the Palace of Versailles.

King Ludwig II’s Castle Herrenchiemsee – a clone of the Palace of Versailles.

We took the full tour of the castle, unfortunately no cameras were allowed. Ludwig ran out of (Bavaria’s) money and never finished it – the story goes that his crazy spending habits are what moved Bavaria from a monarchy to a democracy. The unfinished parts were just as interesting: seeing the bricks, mortar and beams that really hold the place together behind the marble was a unique experience. His dining room table was mounted on an elevator, so servants could set the table downstairs and crank it up into his dining room (a process that took half an hour). The entire castle had one bathroom, just for King Ludwig. It didn’t really matter, as he never invited guests over (and he only lived there for 10 days before he died).

We had lunch on the even smaller island of Fraueninsel before heading back to the car.

Waiting for our ride back to the mainland.

On the ferry back we could see A8 – the highway leading to Salzburg. It was absolutely stopped. We asked the person at the information desk and she told us that was traffic all the way into Salzburg and it would take hours to get there. Change in plans! Let’s go to Innsbruck!

Austrian and EU flags above Innsbruck.

Innsbruck hosted the Winter Olympics in 1964 and 1976; when we spotted the ski jump from the highway the car went into auto-pilot and took us straight there. It’s iconic. It’s the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. It’s also something we can go to the top of.

From atop the ski jump tower you can see all of Innsbruck and the ski runs on the Alps. At least that’s what I would have seen if I had turned around.

As we imagined how nuts you have to be to take a run down this thing, Jason noticed that from the skier’s view the first thing you see beyond the landing point is a cemetery.

Skier’s-eye view of the ski jump. Just beyond the landing area is a cemetery.

The ski jump from below, with photobomber.

From there we made our way into the old part of Innsbruck. We opted out of Tyrolian hats and “I ♥ Innsbruck” tee shirts but once again found a free outdoor concert, this time the local philharmonic rehearsing for a show that evening (complete with Bavarian horn).

Sitting in on rehearsal.

At dinner I ordered “Big Plate of grilled meat” which included an exploded sausage (see images below). I don’t want to dwell on that here, because dessert was more important. When I was in Italy with my family in 2007 we decided that coins in our pockets were “Gelato tokens,” a tradition that has stuck with me ever since.

Gelato tokens.

We stopped in the best looking gelato place in Innsbruck to redeem my tokens and the guy there was an artist. The cones he turned out were amazing works of frozen goodness. Go to Amorino’s. Ask for Steve. (Actually I don’t know his name.)

Gelato art.

After that we went home.

Full set of pictures (including menu and exploded sausage):

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