The First two days in Berlin

It is hot! And we are bused out. Using the 48hr hopon hopoff bus ticket to the max we have seen the sights and discovered how bad the traffic is. Sometimes the traffic in Berlin resembles that of Rome. The major sights have been looked at and now have to investigated.

One of these will not be the Brandenburg Gate, the Iconic symbol of Berlin. In its wisdom the City decided that the area should become a place to celebrate the Football World Cup victory by Germany - "How's that going for yer Fritz?" and erected large screens in the Park on the West side which severely disturbed the Tourists views and traffic circulation.

A trip to "Checkpoint Charlie" (CPC) was a definite yes but when was the question. On the bus two stops were very close - the moving 'Typography of Terror" - a chronological replay of Hitler's seizure of power in 1933, sited at a section of the Wall, and CPC. We alit at the wall and the panels, studied them and I was struck by the parallels between modern times and 1933 and then we walked past the Trabant Museum, where a collection of the DDR iconic motor car was assembled and then on to CPC.

At CPC there is a recreation of the actual Guard Station as well as two people dressed as sentries. It costs 3 euros for a picture. Doreen had one taken. The hat blew off in the next shot because it was so windy. At this time we were so engrossed in getting a snack - it had to be a 'currywurst' and it was, that we forgot to enter the CPC Museum. So the second day's  order of business was a trip to the CPC Museum. Must say it is not worth the price of admission; 14 euros. But a 'must-see'. There are very few real artifacts in the Museum but the panels told a powerful story.

Food and prices here are cheaper than Scandinavia but still are what we would call usual 'eurozone' high, but we expected that and are pleasantly surprised when we find "bargains". Last night was one of those. Fred, our travelling companion, googled to find Asian food. The "Saigon and More" came back as a hit. Fantastic food at half the normal price. The owner, a Turkish resident of 47 years, and his Mexican wife produce 'msg free' food and an unusual ambience - definitely a five fork performance.


As part of the bus ticket there was a boat ride - one hour on the River Spree aboard a double decker cruiser. We never ventured upstairs and just relaxed and cruised - a great break from the sun and bustle. Back to the real world I had to buy a replacement camera, mine has really under-performed and finally yesterday the electronics failed and died. In the Europa Centre, a huge shopping mall was an electronic heaven - Saturn. Found what I wanted and now just have to make it work.

So reflections on Berlin - food good, weather hot, traffic intense

A Copenhagen roundup

So what did we do yesterday? Walked a lot, visited the Christianborg Palace, the Round Tower and strolled the shopping areas - that was the good. The bad was waiting for a while at a nonexistent bus stop. The'Red Bus' company failed to tell us that stop #21 had been re-routed. Walked to #8 and sat  on the bus to come back to #1 and the short walk to the hotel.

Places visited:

Christianborg Palace (wikilink) was a cool place in temperature and temperament, the King doesn't live here any more but uses the place for formal banquets and meetings. The Prime Minister's office is in the old Royal Apartments. The Royals live in the Amelianborg Palace. This complex has a few parts, some we could not get into - the Stables and the Chapel. We did visit the Palace rooms, the Kitchen and the Ruins. The ruins were impressive just for the engineering needed to display them. The Palace has been destroyed, burnt out and rebuilt at least six times since the first one built by King Absalon in the 1100s.

The Round Tower (wikilink) was once an observatory built in 1637. The distinguishing feature is the path to the top. No stairs just a ramp, to accommodate horses that would haul heavy astronomical equipment to the top and books to the Library, located halfway up.

Wednesday was a travel day, as noted before one of the hopon hopoff bus routes actually went out to the airport, after a stop at the aquarium. So that saved a trip to the train station and other waiting arounds. The Copenhagen airport, like all of the European airports have the screening and security  divided into Schengen Treaty country lines and others. That means once you have cleared security you can travel most countries in Europe without passport controls. So only the scanning procedure to undergo. CPH is a big long box - people on top and ramps underneath and to occupy the minds of the traveller's and get us to spend big bucks in the stores that line the building.

One hour flight and we are landing in Berlin: there was a 300 metre walk from the Terminal building to the train station. We had bought our tickets inside the Terminal and all we had to do was to find the right platform and stamp our tickets. This done we settled down to a one our train ride through the City of Berlin. A wonderful and relaxing way to get to the hotel. We did get turned around in the second Ubahn station but didn't lose much time. Met up with our friend Fred, who is going to be in the same hotel for the same time we are here and went for dinner. Not many happy German faces here tonight - the Germans had just been eliminated from the World Cup.

Note, it should be noted that a day ago the normal lens on my camera failed (there is a factory recall on it) so the piccies may be not be as comprehensive as much as i would like them to be. I have to use my telefoto lens and that creates problems for normal shots.

A full day in Copenhgen

Not much difference in style when it's a full day in CPH as opposed to half a day - same stuff twice as much.

First thing - the hopon hopoff bus; this SOP for any new City. The problem is choosing the company. Most places have at least two and each is different in routes and pricing. We settled for the bus that has three routes and the cheapest price. A 24hr pass, with a boat ride, has two extra days, so you really get three days and the kicker is that one of the routes goes to the airport. Money saved again!

So where did we go and what did we see. Twenty-three stops took us all over downtown and included a boat ride. The bus ride was ninety minutes and hit all the spots that one would go back to - the Castle, the National Museum and if you really wanted to brave the crowds hit up the "Little Mermaid".

"Little Mermaid" a rear view

This icon of CPH is on the list of every tour in the Country, consequently the traffic and crowds are horrendous. We passed on seeing it from the bus but the boat ride took us to the spot. The pic on the left is a rear view and the one on the right shows the crowds jostling to get on the rock in front of the statue to pose. Perhaps tomorrow we will try to get a pic with the icon if we feel like braving the crowds.

After the bus trip we walked to the boat through the Town Hall Square, entering the Town Hall for a looky-loo, and along a kilometre of a shopping street called 'Strogat", the Danes have a funny habit of naming the streets in pieces, it is not uncommon for a long street to have many name - makes mapreading tricky.

The same route was followed on the way back and again a 'coffee-stop' was needed ($21cdn) to buy two muffins and two coffees. If you want to get acclimatised to European prices do all of you coffee breaks at Starbucks!

Half a day in Copenhagen

Arriving in Copenhagen was easy - go to the automatic ticket machine, buy with a credit card and follow the instructions in English. As there are no reservations on the train it is hit and miss in getting a seat. Having downloaded the offline map for Google Maps finding the hotel was a snap.

Off to find lunch we explored, the neighbourhood was like a lot of area around the main train station - dodgy. A homeless shelter showed up on the map two hundred yards away.

But cafes were open and we had coffee and a beer and a cheese plate - very good.

Off to find lunch we explored, the neighbourhood was like a lot of area around the main train station - dodgy. A homeless shelter showed up on the map two hundred yards away.

Back to the hotel and the day was still young! Studying the map it was seen that the world-famous Tivoli Gardens was only three blocks away - a no-brainer. Paying our $25 to get in we meandered around , watched amateur acrobats and yoga people.

Looked in a few stores, studied prices and marveled at the parkland and flowers. Ogled the rides and admired the courage of the riders, especially the ones in the video. A parade honouring the 175th Anniversary of the Gardens was scheduled to start at 6pm. We stayed to watch, a bunch of people dressed in impressive costumes followed a drummer and then danced for a while.

Tomorrow the hopon hopoff bus and the sights

Where are all the Swedes?

Today is the Saturday of the long weekend that is the Swedish National Holiday - Midsummer. Almost all the stores were closed today and the sight we wanted to see was too. But of course nobody knows this until you arrive and find the place closed. so it was that our walk to the Malmo Museum - Castle was in vain.

But the walk was not in vain entirely as we did see the largest park in Town with its meandering canals and a full size windmill.
Again tons of public art, which is nice but makes one wonder just what the budget is for this stuff and if the population really supports it.

Malmo is really compact and although the population is big - the third largest City in Sweden one wonders just where the neighborhoods are. Most of the downtown buildings are six storeys high and large - a lot of people live there, but there are few coffee shops and neighbourhood stores - the stuff that make neighbourhoods, so what do these people do in their spare time?

Anyway as we came back to the place we started it was time to get on the boat. This trip is an hour long ride around the canal that circles the downtown. As boat trips go this one was better than most, small, informative and not boring. One of the sights we did see was a number of small boats that can be rented to laze  on the river.

After all this back to the library in the hotel as they supply free coffee all day. We really would recommend this hotel it is one of the best we have stayed in over the years. Then came the big decision of the day - as frequent readers can guess it was -  where to eat tonight! Walking the back way we setout, we hadn't hit 10,000 steps yet,  and there was a church that looked interesting from the boat to see. Hitting the steps we came back to the place where the restaurants hung out. Problem was that it was before the opening hour of 4pm and most were closed because of the holiday. We ended up at theYello Mello I had the Swedish meatballs, on mashed potatoes and Doreen had the salmon. Both fantastic and average Swedish price. Finished it off with a couple of cheesecake takeaways (we had wine in the room) and we are now good until the included breakfast in the morning.

Must mention the breakfast. This one is the best we have had in all of our European visits - selection, quality and comfort. The breakfast room was built in 1307 and definitely deserves a mention for atmosphere - A1.

So off to Copenhagen tomorrow morning.

A walkaround Malmo Sweden

Hiding out in the magnificent library of the hotel: because it was really raining, we decided to wait before venturing outside. Not knowing where to go and realising that the weather might not cooperate, it was finally decided to head off to the insides of the largest Mall in Town. Not wanting to buy but just comparison shop. I must confess to a major error that I committed in the last post. When talking about prices I used the Danish Kroner as the baseline. Fortunately, for us, the Swedish Kroner is worth less against the Dollar than the Danish one. We are saving money already!!

Reaching the Mall we were not surprised by anything new. The prices were acceptable, the finish and quality of stores was good and the occupancy rate was about 90% - very good.

Town Hall

King Gustav

Anyway back to the morning walk, passing through one of the Squares, we passed the Town Hall and the Statue of one of the King Gustavs. Walking to the Mall we crossed over one of the many bridges that cross the canal. This one was decorated with public art - a string of bronzed shoes and boots. There must have been a story behind that. The one and a half mile walk to the Mall was on a closed street that has been pedestrianised. With the population of Malmo living in the five storey buildings that line the streets of the Downtown one can appreciate the fact that people who live downtown don't need cars - just bicycles. The weather had taken a real turn while we were  in the Mall - a sudden rain storm, which led us to have an extended coffee break. Finally the weather turned and we set out, in bright sunshine, to find the Folkets Park. The site of the Municipal Midsummer Festival. The origins can be read here - the Wikipedia explanation. The Swedish ritual is explained here.

Back to the hotel the next job was to decide here to eat. This event had been complicated by the holidays - Midsummer. It seems that the hospitality industry does not want to cash in  I guess the cooks want to have a day off too. With half of the selected places shut we didn't have much of a choice. So we settled for  sport bar in the Central Station. This building deserves a shout-out, the repurposing has been truly wonderful.

Tomorrow the weather will cooperate and we will explore the older part of the Town and maybe take in a boat ride.

We have arrived

Malmo - Thursday

The Mayfair Hotel was found after landing in Copenhagen, buying  train tickets for Malmo, finding the train, and getting off on the wrong side of the station and having to ask for directions. Anyway the Mayfair Hotel is a building steeped  in history. The edifice is over seven hundred years old and has been used for many different roles, but the main building is still working as a restaurant and community hall.

"You will be eating breakfast tomorrow down the stairs in the original part of the building." Words spoken by the amiable and friendly Ann, the receptionist. We can hardly wait to see what is behind the dungeon door!

We did venture outside for a bite to eat. Wow the prices are high. A burger and coffee at TGIF cost us 218 Swedish kroner, at approximately five kroners to the Dollar, that was forty-seven dollars (for two) - just for lunch. I guess we will be loading up at the free breakfast and do the 'two meal a day plan' from now on.

The weather was OK - just. Fifteen degrees but no rain. We have landed at the right time to enjoy Swedish culture. The "Midsummer" Festival is the main cultural event after Christmas. I guess after having a long Winter, little Spring no wonder Summer is a Festival. Celebrated on the Friday of the week nearest to the Solstice, it falls tomorrow. There will be a local Festival in one of the big parks, a couple of miles away. The bonus this year is that the place shuts down on Saturday, to celebrate and that's when Sweden plays Germany in the World Cup. The Festival site also has big screens to carry the event. Methinks it will be bedlam in the park on Saturday.

Didn't take the camera today on our walk so the pics will be up tomorrow.

Hmmm this does not look good either!

A shooting in peaceful Sweden, and we are scheduled to land in 36 hrs. More seasoned travellers would be freaking but we can take it in stride. Apparently shots were fired in the City Square of Malmo, read about it here.

Peaceful Malmo will be just that but it is a good bet that an increased police presence will be seen for a few weeks. Just another sight for the tourists.

Now the weather is not cooperating

Well this does not look good - three days of rain to start the trip. And the wind from the North Sea to boot! This has the other traveller - the love of my life paniced. "What will we wear", "I don't want to take a raincoat".

I guess we will manage - just don't ride the open topped buses and we should be OK. Don't wear open-toed sandals and we will get by.

Two days to go - getting a bang out of City cards

Museum/Transit cards:
This is the Berlin Museum Pass. Just one of many ways that tourists can get a bang for their bucks. It is one of three that offer most of the same thing - cheap or free entries to museums and sights. Some cards have free transit attached and they all offer something. The problem is that not all the museums are on one card, not all transit is on one card so tourists have to really check as to which card suits them best. 

The rule of thumb is that if you are doing more than three museums in your trip you can save. We have investigated and for our purposes the Berlin transit card will work, after we have used up our two days on the hoho bus, and then probably pay for the individual museums we want to enter. The one wrinkle is that despite the claim that you can 'skip the line' the most popular museums are 'time-dated'. Even if you have a 'skip the line' you still have to go to the box office to get a ticket with a time on it. Museums do this to stagger the number of people in the museum at any one time.

Each place we are going to, Malmo excepted, has a City card. A combination of transit and museums it is a job in itself to go through all of them. The savvy tourists will make themselves aware of them and then obtain them at the hotel they stay at or the local cornerstore.

Two days to go - planning the buses

Planning the buses:
As in all trips the first thing we do is to take the 'hoho' bus, usually on a two day ticket. This provides an easy way to travel the City and to see what is in the City that we may want to go back too. So the first day is riding and the second is visiting. The big problem is that not all bus companies are equal. Some have a boat trip added, some have different routes but you can bet they all have the same prices. 

The planning for these trips is to make a decision whether you buy the ticket before you go or just turn up at a stop and deal with the huckster (usually a student on commission). We have done it both ways, the convenient way - sometimes, is to buy before you go. But the drawback there is that the place to exchange the ticket voucher may not be at the bus stop you want to use. "Go to the main office" is the instruction. Losing time and energy finding that place. So much energy is expended pre-trip using google earth and google to determine the best company and the best price.

Three days to go

OK folks, we have been here before - the planning stage. This trip is the same as the last trip - a 'carry-on' exercise. Small suitcases means one thing, a female panic about packing! Without buying new suitcases, well at least one as mine is an older case and weighs 7lbs empty the travelling becomes one of "how many days are are there going to be before we hit a laundry?" Only being allowed 22lbs deciding on which clothes to pack becomes a major exercise based on an unknown - European weather.