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Its always a leap of faith when you book and pay for something on-line. The plane from Doha to Berlin was a A330 and the flight took around six hours. We arrived at Tegel airport about half an hour late. The plane did not arrive at an aerobridge so we went to the terminal by bus. The terminal building was rather old and reminiscent of an 1970's Australian regional airport and there were only three customs officials to process all the passengers.
Through customs and to baggage claim. We had checked our luggage through from Sydney and so waited with trepidation for our luggage to arrive, and it did. Rob and Tess came through about half an her later.
I'd booked a transfer online and the next challenge was to find the driver who would successfully take us to Rockstrasse 9 in Die Mitte. Success, he was waiting for us but the promised van that I booked turned out to be an E Class Mercedes. With four people and four large bags I wasn't sure that we would all fit, but we did. Our driver was a Turkish Berliner and drove with enthusiasm, which is a metaphor for "like a maniac". He delivered us in one piece to the apartment and then our next challenge: did the accommodation I booked through Airbnb really exist? For reasons that I won't go into here it took a while for us to connect with the landlord but we did in the end and our host took us up to the 21st floor and our home for the next four days.
The apartment looks north west over the city. From our lounge room we can see the New Synagogue of Berlin and we are within walking distance of the Museum island. From this vantage point we can see the planes landing at Tegel airport, about 20 kilometres away. After nearly 24 hours in the air we all needed to stretch our legs and explore the new neighbourhood so off we went to the Saturday markets at Hackescher Markt to explore the stalls and find the requirements of life: wine and chips. Duly found we retired to the apartment and I showered and enjoyed the feeling of clean clothes. There are some things in life that are small treasure that make me feel completely comfortable; one is cotton sheets dried in the sun and the other is a shower after a very long day.
We were all fading so decided that we should venture out and find dinner so Rob conferred with Trip Advisor for a local restaurant and found a nice little Thai place around the corner so we all walked around and enjoyed a very pleasant meal but by 8:00 we had all hit the wall and called it a night.
On Sunday morning we woke very rested and ready for the first full day in Berlin. Tess researched self-guided tours of Berlin so we headed on a walk that took us pass the Rathaus and up to Unten dem Linden where we found a Mercedes Benz concept store which both Greg and Rob said needed an inspection.
Then on to the Deutsches Historisches Museum which I thought would occupy us for about an hour but we ended up spending around four hours there in the process losing Rob and Tess only to be reunited at the end of our visit. The Museum provides a comprehensive review of Germant's past, from early history to modern times. It provides a detailed description of the Nazi era including a model of the Degenerate Art Exhibition which was organised Adolf Ziegler in 1937.
Greg wanted to visit open air antique market which we passed earlier so we parted with Rob and Tess and headed to the market. Antique markets, what joy. After visiting markets in Sydney, Paris, London, New York and now Berlin I have decided that there must be a place that clones people who populate markets. Everything they are selling is rare and special, but it actually isn't. We walked up and down the stalls and saw nothing of interest and decided that we should retire back to Die Mitte.
Many of the old buildings we passed are made of sandstone and show the unmistakable impact of small arms fire, as distinct from splinters from bombs. Its a reminder that just under 70 years ago that Berlin was a war zone. Greg described where he thought the Russians would have been when these holes were made. We saw many building which were peppered with low powered bullet impacts consistent with unaimed relatively small bullets from handheld machine guns. On the plinth of the monument to Frederich the Great, on Unten dem Linden, in a marble circle we saw bullet holes which we assumed were made by idle soldiers with little or no interest in said Frederich (obviously the sentence came form Greg ).
Back at the apartment Greg and I put our feet up for an hour before going out to reconnoiter a place for dinner. We came across a very hipster area with many interesting bars and restaurants and we discovered plaques in the footpath commemorating Jewish residents who had lived in the building and been murdered during the holocaust, another reminder of the brutal past of this beautiful city.
- comments
Mary Haunted Berlin? Hope the weather is lovely at least. Keep up the wonderful reports xxx Porters
L Carvalho Sounds like you are packing a lot in in such a short time.
Helen Fairlie Another wonderful report. Neues Museum is a must see. It had just reopened when we were last in Berlin. The building is absolutely fascinating with a fantastic Reno. Closed since WW11 The pre history - great. Nefertiti portrait gobsmackingly beautiful. X helen