A
year earlier Germany was not high up on my list of countries to visit
having previously been on two stopovers in Dusseldorf and Frankfurt.
However during the travels I did in 2012 I heard Berlin recommended as
the place to go more than a few times. I had also learned from the
February trip to Paris that winter in the capital cities does not mean
empty and quiet hostels.
The downside was it meant yet another trip to Heathrow via the London underground in both directions, this trip I was getting more than sick of doing by this point. It was a hectic journey having only an hour to get to the train station after getting home from work. I arrived at the hostel very late on Wednesday but the plan was to go straight bed and start afresh the next morning.
I almost ended up going out but the drunk Irishman who I was invited by suddenly vanished and didn’t come back for about 18 hours.
First full day I did the free (by tips) walking tour which covered a lot of the main sights in the city centre. This was a memorial which was a bit deceptive as the stone blocks are actually in a hollow and are fairly high. The Germans don’t hide from their countries past, I discovered on the tour that there are countless museums in the city. However I planned to stay outside unless it rained that weekend which it didn’t. The weather was great for November..........
Our guide did a good job of showing us the main sights and informed us that his favourite tour was for the next day at Potsdam which I went on. I went on a bit of a self explore in the early evening round the night markets and had a few beers in the hostel bar at night.
Potsdam was a very scenic place especially with the christmas markets.
I don’t think I have ate as many sausages and drank as much coffee in my life. We did a good mixture of sights in the town as well as out round the lake. It was a long day and by the time we got to the palace it was getting dark. It would have been better going an hour earlier but it was still a great day out.
On the final full day (Saturday) I did a self explore of the city. First stop was the observation deck recommended by the previous days tour guide.
The fog and the fact the tower is surrounded by woodland made it a bit of a poor view from the top. After seeing some less touristy markets early market I headed down to the wall.
Final stop was the Berlin wall, by this point in the afternoon three days of walking had caught up and I headed back for a well needed rest!!!!!!!! I felt that I had seen a lot over the three days but at the same time also felt I had only scratched the surface.
I spend the later part of Thursday, Friday and Saturday night in the hostel bar with the entertaining bar staff.
I had a good time and met some interesting people and to be fair it was a better social scene than a couple of the previous trips I had done earlier on in the year. However we didn’t venture any further than the hostel bar. The first night I simply assumed that nobody was going out by midnight so I went to sleep. People did go to a club but not until 2:am........
On the other 2 nights people were meant to be going out but never did. 2 Australians on Saturday night asked everyone to come out but then were both sleeping in the dorm room long before anyone else.
2 observations going back to England.........Firstly the transport was awful, British Airways was late in both directions. The London underground was very crowded compared to Berlin and I only got to my train with 5 minutes to spare!!!!! Second was the taste of the beer back home, after being in Germany it had a bit of a chemical taste to it.
The downside was it meant yet another trip to Heathrow via the London underground in both directions, this trip I was getting more than sick of doing by this point. It was a hectic journey having only an hour to get to the train station after getting home from work. I arrived at the hostel very late on Wednesday but the plan was to go straight bed and start afresh the next morning.
I almost ended up going out but the drunk Irishman who I was invited by suddenly vanished and didn’t come back for about 18 hours.
First full day I did the free (by tips) walking tour which covered a lot of the main sights in the city centre. This was a memorial which was a bit deceptive as the stone blocks are actually in a hollow and are fairly high. The Germans don’t hide from their countries past, I discovered on the tour that there are countless museums in the city. However I planned to stay outside unless it rained that weekend which it didn’t. The weather was great for November..........
Our guide did a good job of showing us the main sights and informed us that his favourite tour was for the next day at Potsdam which I went on. I went on a bit of a self explore in the early evening round the night markets and had a few beers in the hostel bar at night.
Potsdam was a very scenic place especially with the christmas markets.
I don’t think I have ate as many sausages and drank as much coffee in my life. We did a good mixture of sights in the town as well as out round the lake. It was a long day and by the time we got to the palace it was getting dark. It would have been better going an hour earlier but it was still a great day out.
On the final full day (Saturday) I did a self explore of the city. First stop was the observation deck recommended by the previous days tour guide.
The fog and the fact the tower is surrounded by woodland made it a bit of a poor view from the top. After seeing some less touristy markets early market I headed down to the wall.
Final stop was the Berlin wall, by this point in the afternoon three days of walking had caught up and I headed back for a well needed rest!!!!!!!! I felt that I had seen a lot over the three days but at the same time also felt I had only scratched the surface.
I spend the later part of Thursday, Friday and Saturday night in the hostel bar with the entertaining bar staff.
I had a good time and met some interesting people and to be fair it was a better social scene than a couple of the previous trips I had done earlier on in the year. However we didn’t venture any further than the hostel bar. The first night I simply assumed that nobody was going out by midnight so I went to sleep. People did go to a club but not until 2:am........
On the other 2 nights people were meant to be going out but never did. 2 Australians on Saturday night asked everyone to come out but then were both sleeping in the dorm room long before anyone else.
2 observations going back to England.........Firstly the transport was awful, British Airways was late in both directions. The London underground was very crowded compared to Berlin and I only got to my train with 5 minutes to spare!!!!! Second was the taste of the beer back home, after being in Germany it had a bit of a chemical taste to it.
No comments:
Post a Comment