Europe Trip 2011 #20: Auf Wiedersehen für heute Deutschland

Berlin is a really nice place and I'd be very happy to go back again, but earlier today, the time came to leave Berlin on a train to Praha [Prague]. The following pictures are from Berlin's main train station [the Hauptbahnhof] just before departure and one from the trip before the Czech border.

BTW - I had a good lunch on the train, and the waiter gave me an extra beer at what appeared to be a reduced price...? Nice :-)

Enjoy!

Europe Trip 2011 #19: Aquadom & Sealife Berlin

Left with some spare time on my last full day in Berlin, I decided to go to the Aquadom & Sealife Berlin. This is part of the same group that runs the London Aquarium, although I think that the Berlin version was a bit better - not only with the general displays, but also with the awesome 1,000,000 litre tank with an elevator running up the middle! Awesome :-)

Anyway, here are the pictures. Enjoy!

Europe Trip 2011 #18: The Zoo and Aquarium - 3

The aquarium part of the zoo was really interesting, although many of the exhibits were hard to photograph due to constant movement. One of the unexpected parts was a range of snakes, turtles and lizards etc in addition to fish, including some tuatara from New Zealand. No pictures of the tuatara, although they did seem to have sufficient house crickets wandering around for them to eat when needed :-)

Europe Trip 2011 #17: The Zoo and Aquarium - 2

Here are some more pictures from the Zoo. Some of these look like people I know [especially in the first 3 photos] :-) so feel free to nominate who they might be! ha ha ha

Take a look at the last photo - I just put this in to show one of the features of the zoo. Mostly, the fences are really low [except at least in the aviary and monkey enclosures where there are full cages], such that anyone could step over them, with separation between humans and animals by virtue of a deep moat/ gully. It's a nice way to remove many of the bars, but still keep the animals safe from the visitors :-)

Europe Trip 2011 #16: The Zoo and Aquarium - 1

Today's big trip was to Zoo-Berlin and associated aquarium which was a bit of fun. I was going to take a taxi [way to far for me to walk!], but the hotel reception suggestion I take the U-Bahn [subway/ underground rail]. It was to be a quick trip from a local u-bahn station to the station right by the zoo.

All good until I found out on the first train that the train would stop early due to track maintenance and that I needed to change to a different line, but it all worked out well. After the train trip, the entrance to the zoo was not obvious [I really should read the clear signs!], but I worked that out eventually, and spent some time looking around.

This and the next 2 posts have some of the photos I took.

Enjoy!

Europe Trip 2011 #15: Berliner Dom

In this third activity today, I visited the Berliner Dom [roughly, Berlin Cathedral]. This church happens to be right next to the DDR Museum and the Spree river tour dock, so not so much walking to get to it, but a lot of walking to get around it, with around 200 steps to get to the top public-accessible part [indicated in the first picture].

There's lots more to the church than the pictures I have put up, such as a mini-museum with a number of large [2-3 meters tall] models of this and other buildings, and the crypt with the resting places of various [presumably] famous leaders from the past several hundred years.

Enjoy the pictures - I'm off now to work out what I will do tomorrow :-)

Europe Trip 2011 #14: Cruise on the Spree river

Following my visit to the DDR Museum, I took the opportunity to take a 1 hour cruise on the Spree river. It was really nice, especially since there was to be a english language translation provided. just a pity that I didn't pick up the device that provided the english translation [I did see them on the way off the boat :-(]! Oh well, the scenery was good, and it was nice to have an hour to sit down and watch the views go by.

The photos are pretty much self explanatory, but have a good look at the 2nd and 3rd pictures - a worthwhile warning!

Europe Trip 2011 #13: The DDR Museum

The DDR Museum is a small, yet very interesting museum, dedicated to explaining what life was like in the old East Germany. It's not a "justification" at all, just an explanation. One thing that sets this place apart is that it is very hands on. Pretty much everything can be handled or changed in some way, including the old Trabant P 601 car which you can hop in and "drive". Cool!

There are lots of drawers and cupboards to be opened, things to watch and/ or listen to, and mock-ups of a Soviet-era East Berlin apartment and a Stasi interrogation room and cell. I managed to spend almost 2 hours here, which was quite good for such a small museum.

If you're ever in Berlin, this is well worth the visit! Most exhibits have both German and English text/ visual/ sound options. There's also a cafe/ restaurant attached serving East German food and a reasonable selection of local wines a beers :-)

Anyway, here's the pictures.

Europe Trip 2011 #12: Checkpoint Charlie and Museum

It's drizzling today with occasional rain, which is actually a big relief! The cloud and drizzle has kept the temperature down to 21 degrees as of about 2pm - almost 10 degrees cooler than previous days! Yay for rain! :-)

I had intended to take today fairly easy anyway as I had been rushing around a lot the past few days, and I'm supposed to be on holiday, and therefore taking it easy :-) Yeah right! Today I have been to Checkpoint Charlie and to the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. Checkpoint Charlie is around 5 minutes walk from my hotel, so very close and convenient.

It is a bit "fake" in a sense [for example, there used to be a huge checkpoint here with 8 or 10 lanes in and out], and the poeple in US uniforms are genuine, original German actors :-) However, it's a good place to visit, in fact, one of the "must see" attractions. Around the area there are large areas of fences with information in several languages about the historical significance and happenings not only at this location, but also other places where the wall stood.

Similarly in the museum there are large number of exhibits and information displays about many of the awful, and brave things that occurred while the wall was up. There are many stories of escapes, and attempted escapes, as well as displays of artefacts from the era, from both side of the wall. Moving and very interesting. I didn't get a lot of pictures from inside the museum itself - there were very few cameras out and I didn't want to be that tourist looking for pictures but not taking anything in.

Anyway, on to a few pictures. firstly, 2 pictures of the checkpoint.

Next is a piece of the wall. note the post next to it. It says DEUTCHE DEMOKRATISCHE REPUBLIK [German Democratic Republic]. Democratic? Yeah right :-(

Next up is the outside of the museum, followed by two photos from inside. Click on the one with the picture of Stalin - it shows what people think of him these days! The odd contraption that follows is a home made aircraft [looks like a weight-shift trike] which was used in a successful escape. The caption beside it read as follows:

The first self-built escape aircraft until now. Manufactured components were only a Trabant car motor tank and wheels, all other parts, even the propeller were self-made. 100km/ 4. Aug. 84

Last photo is a bit different. It was raining hard for a few minutes after I got out of the museum... so hard that it even [temporarily] got between me and a tasty rostbratworst sausage... My stomach won eventually though :-)