Europe 2019
Miscellaneous Berlin
I thought I would just finish up with the Berlin pics in one post before moving on to our next stop.
Berlin was the first stop on the cruise portion of our trip. Those who are geographically astute will notice that Berlin isn't exactly a port city. It's about a three hour bus or train trip to get there from Warnemunde where we ported. I actually went back and forth on even going to Berlin at all because it's a full day! We decided to book a group tour - the only time on our entire trip that we did so.
I booked a full day guided tour of Berlin through an outside company and we got really lucky. I heard stories when we returned to the ship about packed buses with no AC from some of our shipmates. We had a semi-filled bus that was quite comfortable. In fact, we had the entire back of the bus to ourselves.
 |
 |
| Beginning of the bus ride.... |
 |
| ....30 minutes into the bus ride. |
The bus stopped for a break each way so it wasn't that bad.
When we got to Berlin we picked up our guide and then stopped at this palace. It was planned as a restroom break. Our guide showed everyone where the toilets were and gave us about 20 minutes to stretch our legs. This was great for Sam - I chased her around this open area for a while. Incidentally, as our guide put it: "There's no such thing as a free toilet in Germany". Be prepared to pay to go into a toilet just about anywhere. I didn't go here, but Nel said our guide showed everyone how to beat the fee.
The rest of the day our bus driver would just sort of drop us off places, we'd walk and see things for a while, and then the bus would pick us up somewhere and take us someplace else. You can tell they aren't new to this.
One stop that I was kind of interested to see was Checkpoint Charlie. It was a disappointment really. It's a replica of the checkpoint as it was in the 60's, which would be okay, but it's in the middle of a busy street of a crowded area full of tourists and flanked by McDonald's and KFC.
We stopped, got the obligatory picture, hit up one of the many gift shops, and then got out. Our guide had turned us loose here for a while but I was done so I found him around the corner having a drink and I joined him. He was a British ex-pat who had been a former war photographer. He did a great job on our tour giving us a lot of information without it being just facts and figures.
One thing we didn't have time to visit was this museum dedicated to the Trabant. I would have loved to stop in.
Another stop everyone was looking forward to was visiting a still-standing section of the Berlin Wall. The site is underwhelming to be honest, but there are all sorts of interesting museums and things around here that we just didn't have time to visit on this trip.
Our guide gave us a lot of really interesting history on Berlin at this point which I appreciated.
As I mentioned in a previous post, I was fascinated by the "dotted line" all over the city that indicates the previous position of the wall. Sometimes it's in a somber location and marked....
....sometimes it's just in the middle of the street.
I'm not sure I would recommend Berlin as a can't miss city to visit. It's very large - land size and population wise. It's not particularly pretty or clean either. I think it would be better if you had a few days and were on your own so you could pick and choose what you wanted to see. I'm glad we went so I could knock it off my list, but if I were on another cruise I would explore the port area instead of heading back to Berlin.
The only time we ever had to wait in line to get back on the ship was in Berlin, and that's because everyone did what we did and we all got back about the same time. We actually got lucky and just beat the rush getting back. Buses poured in right behind us and the line got shockingly long. This was of great concern to Samantha as she was in danger of missing "Pirate Night" at Splash Academy.
No worries - she made it.
No comments:
Post a Comment