Berlin: What I Liked (Most)

As the train cruises from Germany into the Netherlands, I thought I’d do a quick post on the two things in Berlin that intrigued me the most – The German History Museum and the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.

The Germany History Museum covers nearly two thousand years of various groups of people who have lived in these lands over the centuries. As far as German history that I am actually interested in, particularly with respect to Berlin, most of that took place in the 20^th century, or the second half of the 19^th century at the latest. Apparently I’m not alone and the museum’s curators realize that because I would estimate that out of the two-thousand years of history, about half of the museum covered the period from around 1820 to the present.

What I most wanted to see before I went into the museum was how things like World War II, Nazis and the Holocaust would be portrayed in the country in which those atrocities either took place or had their genesis. The answer is pretty frankly. There was a significant wing dedicated to Hitler’s rise to power, the war and the murder of millions. There were various documents demonstrating early discrimination of jews and homosexuals in Nazi Germany, leading to a sculpture of the death camp at Auschwitz (if I remember correctly). I was glad to see that the issues were not swept under the rug, not that they really could have been, but it also left me with a deep sense of confusion of how this could have been the same place that I was visiting less than 70-years ago. As time passes, it becomes easier to think back to the time as something far back in history, doomed to black-and-white film and Time/Life books, but it in the big scheme of things, it really wasn’t that long ago at all.

Anyway, I really enjoyed the museum.

The other thing that intrigued me in Berlin was the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the church is about 60% of the size it was prior to a 1943 Allied bombing raid of Berlin. Rather than save what they could, tear down the building and rebuild, however, the “hollow tooth,” as people from Berlin refer to it, stands as a memorial, with a completely new church built right next to it.

I never got a straight answer though as to what exactly is being memorialized. Is it to memorialize the German dead of World War II? There were millions of them after all. Or is it a memorial to the severe destruction that war causes and a reminder as to why it should be avoided at all costs? Or is it just a sign of defiance to a world that kicked its ass? There’s probably an answer somewhere, but I don’t know what it is.

Anyway, I was really enjoyed the church.

Berlin: What I Did

I’m not exactly sure what I was expecting to find in Berlin. Aside from the Brandenburg Gate, currywurst and remnants of the Berlin Wall , there wasn’t anything in particular that I was hoping to see, though I had hoped that the more I examined the city, the more I would find that interested me.

Berlin surprised me with the degree to which I found myself mesmerized by various things that I found. In particular, off the top of my head, Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedachtnis Kirche and the Deutsches Historisches Museum. I’ll go into more detail on each of those in a future post. For this post, I’ll just highlight a little of what I did.

Because of the strategic positioning of my hotel, I decided to hit Berlin in two waves over the course of my two full days there. On the first day, I went towards the center of the city. My hotel was just a short walking distance to Potsdamer Platz, which is surrounded with skyscrapers (by European standards) by companies such as Sony and Mercedes. Turning left on Ebertstrasse takes you straight to the Brandenburg Gate.

If you’re familiar with Berlin at all, you’re familiar with the Brandenburg Gate, which was built in the late 18^th century. It’s long been the scene of celebrations of military conquests, and not just those of Germany. Napoleon marched through its gates. So did the Soviets. So did I, though I imagine it was much more dramatic when the others did it.

In the same neighborhood as the Brandenburg Gate is the Reichstag, which is the official seat of the German Parliament. It probably is best remembered for the 1933 Reichstag Fire, which helped bring the National Socialists into power, even though they likely were the ones who started the fire. One of the things that I found most intriguing about the building is that although it has had extensive renovations, parts of the façade are still riddled with bullet holes, courtesy of World War II.

Walking east from the Brandenburg Gate takes you down Unter den Linden, one of the most famous streets in Europe, not to mention the most famous in Berlin. Before I walked down the street, I had read that it was full of beautiful old buildings and beautiful scenery. The first kilometer or so, though, primarily all I saw were fast food joints and souvenir stores, and the only beautiful building I saw was the Russian Embassy. As I got further down the road, however, I saw what they people were talking about, as I approached the Dutch History Museum and the Berliner Dom. I spent a few hours in the Dutch History Museum, but like I said, that’s for another post. I didn’t enter the Berliner Dom, but I took pictures of the outside, which will have to do for now.

On the second day, I headed west. The first of the two places I wanted to visit Kurfurstendamm, which is a two-and-a-half mile street filled with shops, shops and more shops. A lot of shops. I walked the entire length, each way. In the middle, I stopped for my first currywurst.

(Detour: Currywurst probably deserves its own post, but I’ll talk about it now. I had heard for years that currywurst was a Berlin specialty and that only people from Berlin could appreciate it. What I’ve learned is that you can find it at least all over the German-speaking world – I saw it in Switzerland, Austria and other parts of Germany. Currywurst is a sausage, usually something in the neighborhood of a fried hot dog, drenched in this ketchupy-curry sauce and sprinkled with curry powder. I avoided eating it until I got to Berlin because I wanted the original currywurst. I wasn’t disappointed.)

Much more interesting to me than the shops of Kurfurstendamm, however, was what I found at one end of the street, my starting point. What is there is the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedachtnis-Kirch (Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church). Nicknamed “the hollow tooth,” the church once stood 370 feet tall and was one of the largest structures in Berlin. Following a 1943 bombing raid, the church became a severely damaged 206 ft ruin, but the Germans left it standing as a memorial to . . . something. A new church was erected next to the ruins and services are held in the new structure.

The last part of Berlin that I wanted to visit was Olympic Stadium. I’ve seen matches on television played at the Olympic Stadium, home of Hertha BSC. I’ve also seen old film of the Hindenburg flying overhead and Jesse Owens winning his four gold medals there. The stadium has changed significantly since the 1936 Olympics, including being partially covered in the last decade or so. Nevertheless, one could get the sense of how it would have looked when it was the Nazi’s pride-and-joy as they showed off their culture to the world. It was a very interesting trip.

Those are the highlights of my trip to Berlin. I’ll go a little deeper into a few of the items that I mentioned above, though I’m probably through talking about currywurst. Let’s hope so.

Botel Marina: A Review

And now my first botel review.

In Bratislava, I stayed in a botel, the Botel Marina, which was situated on the left dock of the Danube river in the shadow of the Bratislava Castle. On the surface, this sounds like a wonderful location. Actually, it would have been a wonderful location had I not had to haul my 100 pounds of crap from the end of the public transportation line (I have not been in a cab the entire time I’ve been in Europe) to the botel, which was a little bit of a hike. Also, location wise, while there were plenty of things within a fifteen-minute walk, there was NOTHING within a five-minute walk, so every time I left the botel, I had to make it count.

I got there about an hour-and-a-half before check-in, but the hotel let me check-in early, so I went straight to my room. Despite the fact that it had two twin beds, one of either side of the room, it may have been the smallest room I’ve stayed in during my trip, so far. Don’t even get me started on the bathroom. Let me just say that I could have taken a shower in the stall, urinated in the toilet and shaved in the mirror all at the same time. I’m not saying I did. I’m not saying I didn’t. I’m just saying.

Noise was also a problem because of the Rockin’ Slovakian Accountants. The botel does have an Indian restaurant and a bar. Those were in use by a party being held by PriceWaterhouseCoopers people who were drunk and kind of loud outside my porthole. Nevertheless, being accountants, they were done by 11 pm, so noise ceased to be a problem afterwards.

The hotel did have free wifi, which is always a big, big plus in my book. The television only had about eight channels and it was the first hotel I’ve been in here that didn’t have MTV. How the hell can I enjoy my trip if I don’t know who’s been eliminated from Rock of Love?!?!?!?

Two big problems. First, there was no free breakfast, which I’ve grown used to. I had to leave pretty early to catch my train, but a little food first would have been nice. Second, there were serious drainage issues with the shower. About halfway through, I noticed that the bathroom was flooding. I had to stop, let everything drain, and then go back to showering. It flooded again, but at least I was done. Now, you may be thinking – “but Sheldon, you were on a boat. You could have just opened the window and let it drain into the Danube.” Yes, the windows were too high.

The room was about $90/night. Not a bad price, I suppose, but it is Slovakia. I did love watching the Danube roll by from my bedroom window. I have to say, though, that though I did like the experience of staying on a boat, there were probably better options closer to civilization that I could have chosen. So it goes.

Prague: Passing Thoughts

And now, back to Praha. My last post hit most of the highlights of the trip, at least with respect to the famous landmarks. Now, I just want to throw out random comments, that may or may not have pictures to go along with them. (Who am I kidding? Some of them will have pretty pictures.)

I wanted to go to a football match while I was in Prague, but it was not to be. The two biggest clubs in the Czech-speaking world both play in Prague, Slavia Praha and Sparta Praha, and they were playing each other. As it turned out, however, the match was moved to Monday and I will be in Berlin by the time it is completed. There are two other football clubs in Prague, however, Bohemians and Bohemians 1905. They also played together on Sunday. I went to the stadium in hopes of seeing the match, but there is a lot of bad blood between the two clubs, resulting in a sold-out stadium and no way for me to get a ticket without paying more than I was willing to pay for two sub-par Czech clubs. So, no football for Sheldon.

At least, no live football for Sheldon. As I mentioned in an earlier post, there were numerous sports bars around my hotel and on Sunday there were a lot of great matches. In the early afternoon, I went to a place next to my hotel in which you could watch matches as well as bet on them to watch the match between Rangers and Celtic (Rangers won 2-1). The beer was 46 Koruna a piece (around $2.70), so that was my nourishment while I sat around with a bunch of Irish/Scottish/English folks watching the match. That had to be my Praha football experience.

I also got to see the end of the Chelsea/Liverpool match, but that’s a food story, not a football story. It was my last night in Prague and I realized that I had more Koruna than I knew what to do with. I decided to spend it at a place advertising “authentic” Czech food. (I chose the place, in part, because it was broadcasting the aforementioned match.) My appetizer was Czech Goulash Soup, which was really damned good. The broth was thick and it was similar to beef stew except the beef was ground instead of chunky. I also had something that called itself a Czech Three-Meat Special. Having been in central Europe for a few weeks now, I expected sausages. What I got was more similar to a pork/chicken/beef stir-fry. It was good, but not what I was expecting. That took me through most of my Koruna, so it also solved a problem in addition to satisfying my hunger.

Let’s see . . . what else. Okay, I told you previously that Prague was the most picturesque city I had been to since Paris. To highlight this, even the subway was picturesque. So much so that I took pictures. I loved the convex and concave alternating rows of multi-colored circles that were in the subways. I also road on the trams. Not nearly as picturesque, but I did love the way that they listed the next half dozen stops ahead of time.

I was walking of metro-ing all over the city for the three days that I was here and I didn’t have a chance to actually go into any of the museums or to spend a lot of time exploring the area, with the exception of the Jewish Quarter and Old Town. Both had wonderful mixes of old and new, with modern cafes taking up the bottom section of buildings that were hundreds of years old. It definitely is a city to which I would like to return.

Okay, that’s it for Prague for now. Currently on a train in Dresden, on my way to Berlin. Cheers.

Hotel Kolping - A Review

While I’m on the long train ride from Bratislava to Prague, I’m getting more hotel reviews in. Next up, Kolping in Vienna, Austria.

Kolping was a hotel of contrasts. It had some very good qualities and some rather poor qualities. Let’s start with the good.

The room I was in was much, much larger than any other room that I had stayed in up to this point in Europe. It had sort of a full-size bed, two twins pushed together, and also had a balcony. Let’s face it, the bathroom was almost the size of some of the rooms that I have stayed in here. The room also had a stove, a microwave and a refrigerator. That’s not even counting the balcony, which again was a first for me in Europe.

The hotel was also in a very good location. It was walking distance to the downtown shopping area as well as close to public transportation on a few lines of the metro. I eventually learned that unlike Paris, this was not always the case in Vienna, so having the easy transport close to the hotel was very beneficial. Also, there was a small grocery store just next door, which came in handy with a microwave and a refrigerator in my room.

Another plus was the free breakfast. There were tons of options – eggs, bread, cheese, ham, salami, cereals, yogurt, etc. And of course, Nutella because it wouldn’t be Europe without Nutella. Also, the dining room was ginormous, so there was always a place to sit and eat.

Now, the bad. The staff was only semi-friendly and not particularly helpful. Most importantly, there was no wifi or other internet connection. Free or otherwise. I like to keep in touch, so this was a major pain in the butt. Fortunately, there were a handful of places close by with free internet access – thank you McDonald’s.

Also, I could have foregone having the cleaning staff knocking on my door every five minutes beginning at 10:00 when I was trying to get over a hangover from going out the night before to watch (European) football with some German folks I met the night before. Eventually, I just had to leave, get some grease in my system (I had slept through the free breakfast) and return to get some more sleep.

Overall, it was not a bad hotel for the price – around $90/night, but it really needs to get some web access. I mean seriously folks. In Bratislava, I had free wifi on a boat, ON A BOAT FOR PETE’S SAKE. They really need to hook the place up. Otherwise, it was a pretty good experience – but like Vienna, generally, not all for which I had hoped.

Prague: Paris of Eastern Europe?

I think I’ll break Prague into two posts for obvious reasons. Those reasons may not be obvious to you, but that’s beside the point. I am currently sitting in a train that has been stuck in Bad Schandau for over an hour, meaning that I’m going to get to Berlin a little late. (Bad Schandau is not an opinion, it’s the name of the station.) Maybe I’ll get both posts in while I’m on the way to Berlin.

First off, let me say that the street sausages are not nearly as good in Prague as they were in Zurich or in Munich. They were gristly and not particularly tasty. It’s takes something for me to complain about a sausage, but so it goes.

Other than that, I really loved Prague. I’m sure I’ll rank the cities that I’m visiting when I finish, because I do things like that, but other than Paris and London, it’s pretty much been my favorite. Certainly, it’s the most picturesque city I’ve been to since I left Paris a few weeks ago. (Has it really been that long?)

I’ll get into the hotel in another post, but I stayed on a side-street just off of (Good King) Wenceslas Square. Along with some museums, hotels and other older buildings, its is also an area with tons of restaurants and shops and about four dozen McDonald’s. (I exaggerate, but they are freakin’ everywhere.) Also, within a 2 km radius of my hotel were four sports bars and three strip clubs. Needless to say, there were mostly men in my neighborhood.

Since I didn’t know too much about Prague, I trusted my guidebook to tell what I NEEDED to see. My first morning was spent hopping on the subway and heading in the direction of the Prague Castle and St. Vitus’s Cathedral. Like the Bratislava Castle, these sat atop a hill and gave great views of the city. The Prague Castle was much more impressive that the Bratislava Castle, but Prague was just impressive, generally. From there, I walked down to the Loreto, but not knowing much about it’s history, it was just a cool-looking building to me.

I also went to the Strahov Monastery, even though my guidebook didn’t tout it too highly as a place to go. My guidebook was misguided. The monastery was interesting, but more importantly – at least to me, if not the monks – was that the area provided some of the best views of a great city that I’ve ever seen. As I was walking down, I tried to soak in as much as I could because I knew that the pictures that I was taking would never do justice to the beauty. The fact that it was a picture-perfect day just added to the effect.

I also walked down to the Charles Bridge while I was in that part of town. I knew I needed to rub the brass relief on the statue of St. John of Nepomuk for good luck, so I did. The problem is that I don’t know if I used the correct hand. I remember Samantha Brown saying that it only worked if you used the correct hand, but I don’t remember which hand that was. It rained for the first time since I’ve been in Europe on my final night in Prague, so that might have been bad luck. Or good luck for the people there. Hell, I don’t know. I used the right hand, if not the correct hand, and that’s all I’m sure about.

I went to the Jewish Quarter because I wanted to visit the Old-New Synagogue and the Old Jewish Cemetery. Unfortunately, because of the timing of the trip, the only time I could have visited would have been during holidays that would have precluded me from making such a visit. It didn’t stop me from going, but it did stop me from touring. I did take a picture or two, however, for your viewing pleasure.

The Jewish Quarter is close to the Old Town Square, so I went there as well. Like other Old Town Squares that I’ve been to in Europe, it’s a square surrounded by old and/or impressive buildings, shops selling souvenirs and restaurants selling “authentic” “fill-in-the-ethnicity” food. There also was some entertainment, in the form of a ragtime band, and beer stands. It was the beer stands, selling relatively cheap Gambrinus beer, that made it special for me. Also, some of the food stands. I tried a food stand selling “potato pancakes,” but they were hash browns to me.

Okay. That’s it for this trip down the Prague road for now. More later.

Minotel Hauser (Munich): A Review

It’s time to work my way back and talk about some hotels, so I’ll do that now. The next on the list is the Minotel Hauser in Munich.

After the easy time I had getting to my hotel in Zurich, the Minotel Hauser was a little harder to locate, but that primarily was because the Munich train station was much more difficult to maneuver through. It’s separated into separate buildings. Once I found my way onto the U-Bahn (subway), however, the hotel was not that difficult, though I did have to switch trains to get there.

The hotel was in a little bit of a strange location. There were plenty of restaurants and bars and stuff around the hotel, but most of them seemed strangely empty much of the time. Granted, this was during Oktoberfest and most of the tourists were there, but I expected to see tourists everywhere else in Munich and that really wasn't the case, especially in the neighborhood I was in.

Check-in was easy and I was able to get straight to my room. Returning to the world of free wi-fi made me a happy puppy. The room, once again, was small but it wasn’t too bad and the bathroom was a little larger than I had gotten used to in Europe. I believe that the hotel had a lift, but I was on the second floor, so I didn’t have to use it.

As mentioned above, the hotel was close to public transportation, but also was close enough to Oktoberfest – about a 20-25 minute walk – that I walked there and back a few of the days that I was there. It also was very close to several restaurants as well as to a few grocery stores, so provisions could be picked up. Also, because of the mini-bar refrigerator, picked-up provisions could be stored for future use, in case you’re a squirrel or something.

The breakfast was free. More importantly, it was nice to be back in a culture that gave you meat for breakfast. (I hadn’t had this since London.) One problem with breakfast was that there was a limited dining area, so it wasn’t always easy to find a seat, but the selection of German breakfast items was impressive. I even go to try some blood sausage.

Money-wise, this is the most expensive hotel I’m staying in during my trip to Europe – around $210/night – but it being Oktoberfest, that was unavoidable. All-in-all, I was very happy with the hotel, just not particularly happy with the price. Also, it would have been nice is the neighborhood was a little livelier, but liveliness (is that a word?) was close enough, so that didn’t matter too much in the end.

Finally, check-out was as painless as check-in. The staff was very friendly and, overall, I had a very good experience at the hotel.