Leaving Berlin, we caught a night train. Interesting experience. We had the top two of six bunks in a small 'couchette'. It's surprisingly easy to sleep despite the rocking and people getting on and off at anonymous stations during the night.
The Swiss Riviera is stunning, with brilliant blue Lake Geneva backed by steep mountains. It was too cold to swim in the lake but we walked around it for awhile and caught the train to nearby Montreux too, where Freddy Mercury apparently spent quite a few years. Charlie Chaplin lived in Vevey for a long time, so we visited his grave there.
We concluded that this area was perfect if you're retired, female and wealthy, looking for a lush resort town to spend your grandkids' inheritance. It was a little too expensive and resort-like for us but we were blessed to see such amazing beauty before our very own eyes, even for just one day.
Friday 2 September 2011
Berlin
Adrian hadn't been to Berlin, but he'd heard me talk about it for the last three years :) There's something captivating about a city boiling over with history, so much of it horrific, but with a determined will to move on and present a new face. But perhaps in fear of being seen to mask their dark history, they put it on display for the world to see. The result is a bizarre mix of old and new.
So you see tourists swarming around the remaining pieces of the Berlin Wall, 'beach' bars with pumping techno music, fences plastered with black and white images of the Wall and Death Strip, touristy Checkpoint Charlie and souvenir shops selling 'pieces of the Wall', Cold War symbols like the TV tower with its giant disco ball, a huge expanse of concrete blocks serving as a memorial to the Jews killed in WW2, and perhaps most amazing: an invisible line between East and West Berlin, where the wall once stood. Here the typical grey concrete apartment buildings of the East stop abruptly, and the less uniform buildings of the West begin.
We took an Insider walking tour led by an amazingly knowledgeable Czech/German/Swedish/Scottish guide. We spent our days seeing the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Hackescher Markt, Alexander Platz, the Pergamon Museum and the East Side Gallery. We ate currywurst and Adrian sampled the best (?) beers in the world. I got to use my German. And then we climbed on a night train bound for Switzerland and said a sad goodbye to Berlin.
So you see tourists swarming around the remaining pieces of the Berlin Wall, 'beach' bars with pumping techno music, fences plastered with black and white images of the Wall and Death Strip, touristy Checkpoint Charlie and souvenir shops selling 'pieces of the Wall', Cold War symbols like the TV tower with its giant disco ball, a huge expanse of concrete blocks serving as a memorial to the Jews killed in WW2, and perhaps most amazing: an invisible line between East and West Berlin, where the wall once stood. Here the typical grey concrete apartment buildings of the East stop abruptly, and the less uniform buildings of the West begin.
We took an Insider walking tour led by an amazingly knowledgeable Czech/German/Swedish/Scottish guide. We spent our days seeing the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Hackescher Markt, Alexander Platz, the Pergamon Museum and the East Side Gallery. We ate currywurst and Adrian sampled the best (?) beers in the world. I got to use my German. And then we climbed on a night train bound for Switzerland and said a sad goodbye to Berlin.
Europe - Beginning with Denmark
It was my second visit to Denmark and Adrian's first. When I was 12 I found a penfriend on penpal.net (remember that?) called Ditte. We wrote letters for many years, only stopping with the advent of Facebook! We met when I visited DK in '08. I was excited to be seeing her again, and her boyfriend Jacob, who visited us in Hobart a couple of years ago when he was on exchange in Australia.
The flight from New York to Frankfurt exhausted us, and then there was the connection to Copenhagen, then a train across the bridge to Sweden and overland to Ystad, where we caught a ferry to Bornholm, the island where Ditte and Jacob grew up. Tired. The sea was rough, which when compounded with sleep deprivation meant we were dying to get there, see our friends, and sleep. When we got off the ferry in Rønne, strong gusts of wind nearly blew us over and sideways rain slammed into our faces, waking us up nicely :)
Bornholm is a small Danish island in the Baltic sea, only about 600km2. Rønne is the main town, full of cobblestone streets and tiny conjoined houses, in terracotta and yellow and white. We spent a full day driving around the island, seeing beautiful white sand beaches, ruins on clifftops, medieval round churches, viking graves, gorgeous seaside towns and the work of local craftspeople. I loved the colourful Baltic sea glass.
We returned to Copenhagen for a couple of nights and spent a day cycling around in the rain, seeing the sights. Ditte and Jacob cooked us delicious Danish food. They were awesome tour guides and hosts, so proud of the gorgeous windswept island that they grew up on, and the beautiful city where they now live. We could see why.
The flight from New York to Frankfurt exhausted us, and then there was the connection to Copenhagen, then a train across the bridge to Sweden and overland to Ystad, where we caught a ferry to Bornholm, the island where Ditte and Jacob grew up. Tired. The sea was rough, which when compounded with sleep deprivation meant we were dying to get there, see our friends, and sleep. When we got off the ferry in Rønne, strong gusts of wind nearly blew us over and sideways rain slammed into our faces, waking us up nicely :)
Bornholm is a small Danish island in the Baltic sea, only about 600km2. Rønne is the main town, full of cobblestone streets and tiny conjoined houses, in terracotta and yellow and white. We spent a full day driving around the island, seeing beautiful white sand beaches, ruins on clifftops, medieval round churches, viking graves, gorgeous seaside towns and the work of local craftspeople. I loved the colourful Baltic sea glass.
We returned to Copenhagen for a couple of nights and spent a day cycling around in the rain, seeing the sights. Ditte and Jacob cooked us delicious Danish food. They were awesome tour guides and hosts, so proud of the gorgeous windswept island that they grew up on, and the beautiful city where they now live. We could see why.
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