Day 13 - TXL-AMS

The day began with me wishing we could stay in our junior suite forever, followed by the usual shower, then breakfast, then the horrid realisation that I’d had an allergic reaction to the shower gel. I was miserable.

So I itched (and scratched) as we were driven to Berlin Tegel airport, where mayhem and polizei greeted us.

The taxi driver was able to get us to Terminal D, where our KLM flight would be taking off from. We checked in and went through security, wondering what was going on – curiosity and anxiety peaked when evacuation orders came for Terminal B. Worried, I checked online (using Google Translate). Turns out someone had left their suitcase behind in Terminal B, sparking bomb concerns.

I once again had to remove the troublesome Uggboots for security. My shirt, which reads “I can’t adult today”, bemused one of the security guards who asked his colleague for a translation.

Bored, I Instragrammed last night's tea

We boarded the plane on time (despite them moving the gate twice – we got there in the end) and all seemed well. But no – the number of people on the plane did not match how many had swiped their boarding passes.

So we sat there, bored, while they tried to figure it out.

Much to our confusion, the stewardess asked us all if we were going to Amsterdam. Yes? But two passengers were listening to their headphones instead…so it was a while before the mystery was solved.

Then it was discovered that these two passengers had scanned their tickets in a neighbouring queue before going down the wrong tube to the wrong plane. They should have been heading for Paris! I am not sure how they managed that – even though the gates and tubes were side by side, ours was beside the wall!

So, at last, 30 minutes late, we departed for Amsterdam.

The flight went well. Some snack food. And we only landed 15 minutes late! I always feel ill when pilots make up time on flights. This was no exception. Happily, everyone could make their connecting flights.

We found a taxi (after some confusion) and he was very chatty as well as aggressive on the roads – but he had to be. Cyclists seem to be the dominant species in Amsterdam. The road near our destination, however, was choked with pedestrians. Our agitated taxi driver took us as close as he could to our hotel (we later discovered a closer taxi rank), which left us slogging through the Saturday evening crowds, wielding suitcases instead of a more persuasive bumper.

Happily, we located our 3-star hotel easily enough (though my arm was sore from wrestling with 18kg of luggage). It’s not a terrible place to stay – unlike the streets outside, which assaulted me with noise, bodies and confusion.

We sought sanctuary from the rabble in an Argentinian BBQ joint. Seated by the front window, I felt safe and happy there, away from the chaos of Amsterdam. To me, it seems worse than New York City. Well, it is Saturday…and Amsterdam is quite popular for a weekend visit.

Many old couples and families came into the restaurant, seeking sanctuary along with us. I had duck, but it was so charred its provenance was unidentifiable.

Checked out the supermarket we found and then retired to our small room and its HDMI-capable television set.

Sailor Moon formed our entertainment and somehow I could not bring myself to write this entry on its appropriate day.

Day 12 - Berlin

I met J in Sydney during NaNoWriMo in 2015. I had hoped to meet her in Hamburg this trip, but she obtained an internship in Munich after we’d made bookings. So alas, we cancelled our Hamburg plans and added two extra nights to Berlin. Oh well, I thought, we’d see each other another time.

J had other ideas.

Though I implored her that I wasn’t worth the effort, she said “yes you are!” and booked an overnight bus to Berlin for 25 euro.

She arrived at 5am. We staggered out of the hotel at 8:23am and met her at the McDonald’s that I could see from our hotel window. We began with an enthusiastic hug!

The Husband in tow, J and I headed for a nearby café to catch up over hot chocolates. She insisted on paying! But we would repay the favour later. The café’s chairs made me feel like a child.

After 9am, J took me to a nearby shop, advertising its great notebooks. Sadly it had changed a bit, but J found a book and I some ribbon (purple with white polka dots).

Onto Museum Island! Alas, the Neues (New) Museum was still closed and the queue for tickets kept on multiplying. We sat on some steps, among columns riddled with bullet holes from WWII, soaking up the sun. I took a few photos and a few seconds of GoPro footage.

Eventually, we gave up and decided to go for a walk.

Berlin doing its best to show off

After we crossed back over from the island, at the Bode (Boat) Museum, we sat beneath our hotel for much-desired ice cream. An earlier search had proved futile – in a park with archaeological “lumps and bumps”. The park originally contained buildings that became ruins in WWII.

Lunch was obtained at Peter Pane, a burger place which had wonderful décor. Wooden curves arched above us, low-lying lantern-esque lights lit the scene and faux trees added some greenery to the cosy space. The food was good too. I had a mojito (before midday!) and it made me warm and chatty.

J and I spoke of NaNoWrimo, the importance of hashtags in social media and J’s love of Top Deck Cadbury chocolate. I must send her some!

It took an age to get the bill (The Husband settled it, despite J’s protests), though I hardly minded the wait, given how far I’d come to see my writing pal. We bade each other farewell outside the hotel.

I’ve spent my time since reading Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl (it saddened me so much when I read it as a child), in preparation for our visit to the hideout in 2 days!

Day 11 - Berlin

Today I achieved a childhood dream.

Let me explain. G, my father’s friend, had an artefact in his living room that I loved as a child – a piece of the Berlin Wall. I was enamoured with it and feared that I would never go to Berlin myself. My parents couldn’t afford it and obviously I would never be able to afford it either.

Through my childhood, imagery of the wall coming down was constantly replaced on television (usually during those “we’re there when the news happens!” reels). I was a few months old when it happened. As a child, I couldn’t imagine why people would let such a wall divide them, but I also remember the sense of wonder I felt that people could come together and reached for freedom as one unified force.

So with this in mind, we went back to Checkpoint Charlie this morning, hoping to avoid the crowds (I’d rung Mum already and she’d sounded a wee bit envious).

The sign is a recreation, its original in a nearby museum, but it did bring to mind the opening sequence of The Living Daylights, starring Timothy Dalton as James Bond – how unchangeable the situation must have appeared in 1987.

Naww but it looks so cute

It wasn’t all that fascinating, if I’m honest. But I did pop into the nearby tourist shop.

And my God, they had pieces of the wall for sale. They looked exactly like the one G had in his living room. They were accompanied by certificates of authenticity and sure, it’s hard to tell the origin of every wall souvenir and some of the real ones have been painted post-collapse – but that’s not exactly the point.

I selected a large purple piece (a smaller one for Cazy) and bought it, finally achieving the impossible dream.

We returned to Brandenburg Gate for better photos, but alas the tourists were already out in droves at 10:40am. We enjoyed our second visit there regardless and went back to Checkpoint Charlie.

Towering over tourists

Our destination: KFC! It provided a free WC and food – the chips here are more like fries, ugh. But The Husband wanted to eat KFC at the same time as his brother, as it is his brother’s birthday. My brother-in-law was having it for dinner in Sydney.

We crossed back over into East Berlin, passing a group of bright orange-clad monks taking photos of each other (they had actually been on the same flight as us from Stockholm).

It’s so easy to walk around Berlin as it is so flat. But I was done. We stopped by a supermarket and now we’re happily ensconced at the hotel.

Day 10 - Berlin

We started the day with breakfast – Nutella, pancakes and mini doughnuts made their way onto my plate. I noticed that the breakfast buffet had a half-empty bottle of champagne with 6 flutes beside it. I was baffled, though The Husband wasn’t – this is Germany, after all.

We headed out at 10am. Destination: Hackescher Markt station. Here we would meet up with our guide, Jonathan (the tour company boasts on their website that they were the first to offer English tours of the city). Jonathan announced that it was his birthday and received well wishes. Then he remarked that we Sydney-siders would be cold, but there I was, the only person stripped down to my shirt – we told him that Finland had been colder.

Jonathan took us to a nearby park and gave us a rundown on Berlin’s history. I had vaguely heard of these things over the years in school. Suddenly, however, Prussia made sense; suddenly I understood the background of The Living Daylights; suddenly it all felt very real instead of facts on a page.

Cooler than it looks ;)

Berlin is no longer divided, but the city is still shaped by its past. The famous TV Tower was built during the Cold War by East Berlin and Jonathan says it was as much an antenna as it was a show of power, easily visible from West Berlin.

Buildings in Berlin vary greatly in style – elegant buildings from the 19^th century, brutalist 1960s structures, cold Nazi buildings, modern glass works of art. It’s quite a mix.

Jonathan was very friendly and genuinely nice. He took us over a bridge to Museum Island, which is crammed with museums and stonework studded with bullet holes from WWII. They kept the holes as a reminder – much is kept in Berlin from that era for the same reason.

History must not be allowed to repeat itself.

Riddled with history

After pointing out the apartment belonging to Angela Merkel (Chancellor of Germany and “the most powerful woman in the world”), Jonathan led us to a courtyard where we had a great view of the TV Tower and Berlin Cathedral, which is built in the Catholic style despite servicing Protestant worshippers. Some ruler or another decided that they wanted it to resemble St Peter’s Basilica, so the old cathedral was razed to make way for something new.

We stopped by Neue Wache, a memorial dedicated to victims of war (well…now, at least – who it’s dedicated to has changed depending on propaganda). It is currently fenced off so an entry ramp can be built. Inside is a statue of a mother cradling her dead son. It’s moving, though I had to peer at it through bars.

Quite a lot of Berlin seems to be under construction or having a facelift at. the moment. It detracts from the experience, but not by much.

Jonathan showed us an elite university where only your marks will get you in. It’s only 300 euro a year to attend! I wish we had something like that (paying admin fees only) in Australia, because I would have done the correct degree to start with.

We explored the exteriors of some nice buildings and then admired a memorial to the book burning that occurred on May 10, 1933. It’s located in Babelplatz, outside a university, and has the rather evocative title of “The Empty Library”. The memorial is marked by a window in the ground which allows you to look into an inaccessible room below that holds empty shelves, supposedly enough to hold all the books that were burned.

This made quite the impact on us. To be able to see what was lost…

We then made our way to Gendermenmarkt, which was a lovely square – from what we could see of it. We couldn’t enter it as emergency services and cameras were milling about. We discovered later that they were filming a German action movie there.

Onto Checkpoint Charlie! Except it was flooded with tourists. We hung back during our tour “break”, using the WC (and paying 50 cents for the privilege – I went in twice, but the attendant let me in for free the second time, presumably because he felt bad for me and my tiny bladder).

A photos sans tourists!

Jonathan returned after 20 minutes and told us that Checkpoint Charlie would have stretched quite a bit further down, not just this small section. It once fed into the US sector in West Berlin, so we were amused to see American fast-food joints on that side of the road.

Jonathan pointed out some colourful pipes, saying they were laid down to aid the removal of groundwater from construction sites, since Berlin is atop a swamp, and then painted to look pretty – pink, purple, yellow and so on.

Next we visited a remaining section of the infamous Berlin Wall. It looked thin and small, almost insignificant, and appeared quite dirty. People took selfies, smiled, crowding their way along the wall, which was quite at odds with the past – for we were in No Man’s Land.

The Husband had observed that the wall looked easy to climb. But Jonathan showed us a diagram of what lay in No Man’s Land: spikes, barbed wire and watch towers. All so that East Berliners did not leave for greener pastures in the West. No one likes to lose the key workers that can hold up their economy, after all.

The wall was completely dwarfed by a massive Nazi-era building across the road. My God, it was the coldest, most depressing structure I’ve ever seen in my life. I half expected Indiana Jones to sneak out one of the doors. This is the Detlev-Rohwedder-Haus (Detlev Rohwedder House), built in the 1930s when it became its life as the House of Ministries. It now houses the German Finance Ministry, having escaped damage in WWII. Jonathan says its continued use is due to Germany’s “don’t forget the past” mindset.

He then showed us a mural on the building, completed in the 1950s to show an ideal socialist depiction of life, but it was here that an uprising took place in 1953. Now a photo from that day runs in front of the mural, blown up to match its length – this is supposed to show the socialist reality.

What a behemoth of a building, with so much history beneath its large shadow.

Well, I'm intimidated

Jonathan took us to where Hitler’s bunker had been in 1945. Hitler had holed up there, waiting for the end, marrying Eva Braun before both of them took cyanide. His body was dragged out and set alight. Here, in what is now a carpark in a residential area (no glorifying this spot, thanks), he died. His jawbone was taken to verify his identity.

Jonathan was adamant that Hitler definitely did die then and there, conspiracy theorists be damned. A nearby Modern History teacher from Australia (we are everywhere!) stopped Jonathan to ask about the tour and then pointed out the corner where Hitler’s body was hung.

The Soviets destroyed the bunker, as well as other landmarks of Nazi Germany. I think this was a very good idea.

It was fitting that our next stop was the Holocaust Memorial, where you are not allowed to smoke or stand on any of the stone slabs. This memorial reminded me of a cemetery – all those stones. They were uneven, stoic grey and grew in height as we descended into the memorial, until they towered over us. Anonymous, insurmountable, mournful witnesses.

They made me think of the stolen and destroyed tombstones in Jewish cemeteries during the Nazi era. Names of the dead – lost. The dead – so numerous that there were not enough gravestones.

The Husband’s interpretation of the memorial was a bit different. He saw the stones as obstacles to the Jewish people. The stones grew in height and number until they could no longer be overcome. Obstacles that dominated and destroyed lives.

We emerged from that city of stones, a little unsettled.

Thought-provoking and eerie

Jonathan said that there is no one interpretation of the memorial. As we walked away, it was impossible not to stand on the stones that were only squares set into the pavement.

At last, at long last, we were at Brandenburg Gate. An awing sight! Once, armies marched through it – Napoleon, then Hitler. Well, why not? It’s a pretty impressive gate!

Bricks marked out a line nearby in the road, showing us where the wall had been. The gate lay alone and unused during the Cold War era, directly in No Man’s Land.

A popular destination – the Starbucks has a massive queue!

Jonathan bade us farewell. We tipped him – it was his birthday, after all, and he was superb!

The Husband and I enjoyed bagels, then went back to the hotel rest. I accidentally ended up napping, though this didn’t cause us to be late to the TV Tower. It looks like a shiny disco ball on a stick!

The view from below!

Security demanded we keep our jackets on, which was weird. And then said jackets had to be hung up in a public (very public) coatroom while we were in the restaurant a whole floor above it – anxiety alert, right? Oddly, I was okay.

Well, I did have a cup of tea. Maybe that’s what made me so calm.

Dinner was nice, if pricey. We had the best views in Berlin – a 360-degree cityscape was spread before us as the restaurant gently rotated its way around the tower. One side of the city was particularly nice to look at (or maybe I just have a soft spot for Brandenburg Gate!). I left the GoPro running, so I’m excited to see the footage later.

We ate, left, found the gift shop and bought wares. Much fun! Then back to hotel. Oh, we also popped out briefly to a supermarket.

Day 9 - HEL-TXL

We began the day staring out the window, at the blowing snow outside the hotel, wondering if our flight would still take off or be delayed. But we could hear other planes leaving the tarmac and The Husband seemed sure that things would go smoothly – and they did.

By 2:05pm, when our flight was scheduled to leave, there was not a speck of the white stuff to be seen. I managed to find a matcha latte (!!!) at the airport for 6 euro. I think they used a decent powder, judging by the price and taste.

The flight was short, so Business class was non-existent. The turbulence was the only thing that didn’t make me feel like throwing up. It would have been quicker to fly direct to Germany, but we used a booking agent who secured cheaper tickets this way. I think I’d prefer paying the extra to go faster, to be honest.

We stopped over in Sweden’s major airport in Stockholm with only euro in our wallets and no SEK. I was the first to notice the different currency on the price tags. Still, I managed to use my credit card.

Another short flight (80 minutes to the previous 60 minutes), another bout of fighting nausea, then we were on the tarmac in Berlin.

First, two buses had to show up and take us the terminal, then we were smooshed through a narrow entrance so an Inspector Rex-like sniffer dog could check us out…and then the waiting began. It took over 40 minutes for the belt to even start moving. Our bags showed up, allowing us to head off to our hotel. The Husband credits the ease of his conversation with the taxi driver to my meticulous, printed itinerary which has hotel addresses in large text (in the local language as well).

So! It was easily figured out where we needed to go, everything was going great – until we arrived at the hotel. We were first asked to wait – and wait we did, in lobby chairs. Then came the offer of a free drink. Hmm.

The service manager came out (his name is David) and admitted that the hotel had overbooked! It was due to some sort of system error, but that didn’t change the facts. There was no room at the inn.

“This is not okay,” I moaned.

So we sat down for a free dinner while David rang around the nearby hotels. He got us a place at a five-star hotel for one night only. Sigh, okay. We kept eating. Then – miracle of miracles! – someone had checked out early. From a junior suite! We were delighted. David wanted to send something alcoholic to our room as an apology, but we’re not big drinkers. He did agree to our request for Coke Zero.

So up we went, us with suitcases and David with a champagne bucket filled with ice and 4 glass bottles of Coke Zero, surrounded by small lollies!

An acceptable apology

What an evening! We watched Resident Evil on Netflix (through the TV with an HDMI cable) and just generally enjoyed ourselves.

All thanks to David’s tireless efforts.