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qSorry! They WILL come! The text provides necessary "scaffolding", and I needed to get that in place before I start adorning it. The photos take a lot of time to prepare, too, in many cases. Sorry! Patience!
Before I return to the narrative, I will sketch some points about the overall "picture". Then back to where we were at the end of the last page, boarding a train in Prague, to go to Berlin.
In some ways, it was a funny old trip, overall...
Amsterdam/ Hague: "Just" Billy Elliot and the Rijksmuseum in the original plan. A few "extras" worked in, but those alone put the stop into the plan. Had been there before. Once... or is it twice?
Prague: First time there. Carefully planned. Lots in the programme.
Berlin: Almost no pre-planning done! I have been there many times, and at many significant times in its history. I knew the ropes, and "planning time" ran out. (Story of my poorly organized life!)... but I was "winging it" with the significant time I had available to me. I did pre-book one of the big events of the trip: Tannhäuser at the Berlin Oper, on what was meant to be my last night, a (very!) "grand finale" to what was planned as a great trip, and turned out to be one.
Previous visits: About 1983- cold war still well frozen. Through Checkpoint Charlie in December, when it wasn't just the weather that was cold and hostile. Machine guns. People dying trying to emmigrate. The whole Cold War thing. (Happily no deaths in the time we were visiting the city.)
Then I went for the weekend, just as The Wall came down, November 1989. An amazing experience.
Come 1999, and I had not, in years of thinking about it, been able to come up with a suitable celebration of the transition from the 1900s to the 21st century... and then a news item reminded me that Germany was celebrating the tenth anniversary of the wonderful events of 1989 in November, very nearly at the 19xx/20xx watershed, and I said to myself: "This is IT! This will be my Millenium celebration."
I call them my "before/ during and after" trips. AND I went "just touristing" another time with a good friend who indulged my belief that it is a great tourist destination... particualarly for those of us who remember the Cold War.
So... Amsterdam/ Hague was a limited agenda; Prague took a bit of not unpleasant work to optimize; but Berlin was "just" a visit to an old friend... the details of which I will get to shortly.
Just before that, though I will make the following observation. Oddly enough, I didn't spend a lot of time in the part of Berlin I knew well from prior visits. The heart of Berlin, before 1945-89 was mostly in the East. And that heart is beating well again, and I spent a lot of time in the part that wasn't so accessible on earlier trips. (Although I had been in the East on first and third trips.)
Splendid trip, in comfort, with little hassle at termini, by train- Prague to Berlin..
Arrived Berlin Haupt Bahnhof 15:40 after a very pleasant journey.
That trainstation is almost reason enough to visit Berlin. very21st century!
Went out to my hotel. Along the way... or was it on the way back? Visited Potsdammer Platz... is is significant (more later), and was en route.
Back into the town after checking in. Visited Brandenburg Gate, another of my "traditions".
Oh dear. Very slow start today. Had a little bit of a struggle to get brain and body "in gear". The "plans" for Berlin, unlike Prague and Amsterdam, were somewhat... fuzzy? ("Non-existent" doesn't sound good, does it.) I knew there were several things I wanted to do. Many things I COULD do... but actually just Getting Going, somewhere, with something, anything, just didn't happen quickly.
Eventually (9:10) got myself out the door, launched towards the area just north of the Bundestag, where I had taken photos of a significant bridge and other things on previous trips... in previous eras. I had those photos with me, and was, in part, on a mission, to take updated photos from where I'd taken photos previously.
That went well. Interesting, and in some cases emotional, to see places "now", which I knew from "then". There will be a major sub-page on this subject. For now, suffice it to say that much of the morning was spent on visiting spots on the photograph trail. From photo timestamps, it seems I left my hotel about 10am, and was still doing photos of previously photographed places until at least 12:30. Of course, while doing this, I visited some places which were good tourist spots in their own right.
Afternoon/ evening of 30th: TO COME!
1:45-about 5- Revisited the still excellent Berlin Zoo... and got lucky with feeding times. Ironically, the whole visit was very like one I made on a previous trip!
Nice meal, of the sort I like when touristing, in evening, at sensible hour: 5:40. "Early" for general purposes, but Just Right for this stage of trip. Not far from Kurfustendam... Italian at Lietzenburger and Bliebtreu Strasse... or whatever the plural of "strasse" may be!
Nice end to a full... but not over-full... day near the end of a ditto trip.
qTo Do
qToDo... Whole day! More "old sites" photography, including I also spent quite a bit of time at the excellent museum which has arisen, quite informal, at the site of Checkpoint Charlie. There are some tasteless idiots at the checkpoint, milking the tourists, and the spot isn't, my view, really adequately dealt with... but don't let that put you off the museum, which is excellent.
Did a little better this day, after the "slow brain" day the day before. Out of hotel at 9:20.
11:30- 12:45 Bode Museum... sculpture, mostly, in an amazing "space".
2:45-4:35: The excellent Science Museum
Day ended with Tannhäuser, at Deutsche Oper. Nice meal nearby beforehand, opera itself: 6pm... I'd thought to myself, "Oh good, not very late, but a treat on my last night"... and ended 10:10. There were two half hour intervals, and facilites at the opera house for light meals during them! I may not have the fortitude for Wagner... but I very much enjoyed this, my first taste, of what is a passion for many, not least Endeavour Morse, of course. My trip notes report bed at 11:50.... Opera house and hotel were on opposite sides of town, but I'm still a little pressed to explain where 1:40 went. Packing, maybe?
1:05-2:40 Berlin's Cathedral... more or less "by accident"! Had intended going to a museum, which I did, too, but when I passed the Dom, en route to musuem, decided to "pop in"... and it expanded to a trip up to the top of the dome. And the exit was through the crypt. Well worth the visit, even if I hadn't realized or planned it!
2:50-3:30- Whirlwind tour of Neues Museum. Deserved more, but that's what I had.
Back to hotel, grab bags, board taxi.
En route to airport... passed church- in former East, I believe- where I sang during Cold War visit.
qStuff to do to this page. Had a good visit to Berlin's Science Museum. Off to airport, (Schenefeld) easy taxi ride.
Normal check-in, etc... but monitors worrying. Extraordinary fog had descended on wide swaths of the UK, throwing air travel into disarray. Not only were there fewer landing slots for UK bound aircraft, and they were going to flights inbound from the US, but aircraft weren't in every case getting out of the UK, to, say, bring holiday makers back from Berlin.
Went into "Ah, the joys of travel" Zen shutdown. About the normal time, after some alarming and confused announcements, my flight was boarded... others were not having as much luck. Not expeditiously, but boarded. And then we sat there for about three hours. I think it was about 9pm that we had an announcement... "This flight had been cancelled." And not much more than that. We were returned to the terminal and abandoned.
Well.... you can stand in lines and fight and struggle, or you can just accept the situation. I managed to be philosophical. Reclaimed my checked bag. Booked a room at the airport hotel... wasn't terribly expensive, thank you Holiday Inn for not "taking advantage". Booked a new flight on the hotel's "for guests" computer... again, not scalped. Had a very nice room. Had a snack in the bar... got there with 5 minutes to spare. Went to bed. Not particularly exhaused. The Zen mode helped.
The flight I'd got myself on was for 12:30. Quiet morning in a nice hotel room working on some computer files I'd brought with me for just such moments... there hadn't been many! Left heading to the airport a bit too long, had a few frantic moments there, due to tight timings, just dumb!... but... my second attempt to get back to the UK also in jeopardy. The bad weather had persisted. This was now getting a bit old. But, in the end, not much delayed, we got off. Whew.
Taxi was indeed waiting to collect me at Gatwick. It had not been possible to nail that down reliably, without another phone call to the UK, and phone calls weren't easy, as I won't have a "fancy", "modern" cell phone... and the monthly fees. And the train would have been a viable alternative. But to find my regular taxi service waiting for me at Gatwick was a very welcome surprize!
Home without incident. At my home in late afternoon. Bite to eat. Quite without meaning to, I chose the next episode of a thriller I've been watching, "Homeland"... and episode mostly based in modern day Berlin. It was very odd "still being in Berlin", when I thought I'd returned from my holiday! Numerous instances of knowing the place being used as the setting for a scene.
And finally, before too late: Bed!!
That was late Monday. Friday (6 November), barely unpacked, I was off to London for an overnight because a "once a year" big book fair had chosen that weekend to happen this year. I write this particular paragraph on Monday afternoon, 9 November. Billy, The Hague, is no more... boo hoo... and I am getting back into the swing of "normal life".
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It was a great trip, with lots of good memories collected, sights seen, "stuff" experienced.
Given the hassles of air travel, I am increasingly attracted to using trains. Prague to Berlin promised to be an enjoyable ride, and so it was. The tracks ran along the Elbe for most of the jouney. Smetana (WP article) (and Prague's) beloved Vltava feeds into the Elbe not far to the Northeast of Prague.
The large structure on the spur seemed more a major "farmstead" than fortress. But Wikipedia tells me that it is in fact a castle, after all... Strekov Castle (The second photo on that page may see familiar to you!)
(From the "small world" department: Strekov was acquired by the Lobkowicz family in 1563... I nearly went to a concert in the Lobkowicz Palace, edge of Hrd.. castle, and DID go to Tannhäuser, which, "it is said", was inspired by a visit by Wagner to Strekov!)
"Old fashioned" carriages, with "compartments", as seen in the Harry Potter films... but in tip top condition. Old style, not old stock.
Not only are conditions much more pleasant en route, but if you take you door- to- door times, it has to be a pretty long flight before you save time overall.
That may look like a simple enough photo. To the right: The "ingredients", three photos. (I've "messed with" the exposure and two edges of two, so you can tell one from the other.) Took about 5 hours work... but as I created the image, I also recorded the steps, to give myself the basis of a little tutorial for the web. The irony of it all is that I chose to do that photo this morning because I thought I could get another image into the trip report without spending a lot of time on it.
To return to the main index, you can probably just close this tab (or window)... if you came here from my Netherlands/ Czech Republic/ Germany trip's main index page. If not, just click on that link.
I have done a "menu" for you of links to reports with photos on trips to other destinations. (It will open in a new window or tab.)
If you find yourself wanting to use a photo on this site, please see my page about using web-published material which is copyright TK Boyd. If you want to contact me, here's my eddress, or you can use the contact form. (Email best, as the contact form is often abused, and I don't read all messages arriving that way.) Corrections to bad information on the pages very welcome... don't be shy!
Page WILL BE been tested for compliance with INDUSTRY (not MS-only) standards, using the free, publicly accessible validator at validator.w3.org. Mostly passes. There were two "unknown attributes" in Google Translate and Google+ button code. Sigh.