I'm writing this at the end of a very long day. We were up at 7:00 a.m. German time, went to the airport, flew 8.5 hours to Detroit, went through customs and such, waited around for a few hours, got on another plane, and landed in Philly at 6:30 p.m. (11:30 p.m. German time). Not much to report from this last day of travel, other than that I had to spend an hour canceling cards and ordering new ones, then settled in to watch some of my TiVo backlog only to learn that my cable had been out since the day after I left. A call to Comcast fixed that, but here I am 3 hours after arriving at my apartment, and I still have to unpack.
Speaking of unpacking, I have to say that Germany was really fun. Skyscrapers and sausage, museums and trains, beds on the ceiling and beds under the floor... My dad was an awesome travel companion as always, and maybe on our next trip I'll let him post as well. Auf wiedersehen!
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Day 5: Leaving Berlin
One last hotel breakfast at Propeller Island City Lodge, then we continued the tradition we started in Amsterdam: going our separate ways for a few hours the morning before we leave. As in Amsterdam, I went shopping while my dad went in search of photo opportunities. This time his search led him to the German version of Home Depot. isn't that a snapshot of the two of us? I’m looking at books and sportswear while he’s looking at tools.
We met back at the hotel at 11:15 a.m. and checked out. Then, on our last S-Bahn journey in Berlin, I had my pocket picked. Lovely. Oh well. Our train to Frankfurt didn’t leave until 4:30 p.m., so we had to kill about 4 hours at the train station. We found a nice little spot in the food court area and camped out for a while. 4 more hours were killed on the train, for me partly by grading papers. At the Frankfurt train station, we grabbed some quick dinner, then took our penultimate S-Bahn ride of our trip to the Niederrad station. A short walk later, we checked into our hotel for the night, and my dad is currently watching a German show about the tsunami.
That reminds me—the weather for the trip has been about as good as we could hope. There were a few showers this morning, and the brief downpour yesterday while we ate dinner, but otherwise it was clear and in the 50s pretty much the whole time.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Day 4: Berlin
The day started with the usual hotel breakfast, then off to stand in line for the Reichstag. A few years ago, they put this glass dome with a Guggenheim-style spiraling walkway on top of the old government building. You have to wait in a long line and go through security, but it was worth it for the view and the pictures.
Pumped up by the experience, we decided to walk to our next destination, the Pergamonmuseum on Museumsinsel (an island full of museums). Wow. If you like ancient cultures, you'll die for this place. They've partially reconstructed the Greek temple of Pergamon, with a ridiculously huge and intricate frieze depicting the battle between the gods and giants. They also have the Ishtar Gate from Babylon and hundreds of other stunning pieces. We spent a long time in this museum.
Upon leaving, my dad got his daily wurst, and we walked to the Alexanderplatz area, where we admired the Berliner Dom (a cathedral), the TV Tower (tallest thing in Berlin--think space needle), and other related sights.
After yet another quick S-Bahn trip, we were at the Hamburger Bahnhof/Museum fur Gegenwart, a former train station turned into a modern art museum with a vast collection of Warhols, Lichtensteins, and so on. The space is gorgeous, with that arched train shed feel in the main hall, and the pieces on display were quite nice.
One more S-Bahn ride took us to the Neue Nationalgalerie, another modern art museum (and you wondered why I came here). The building itself was designed by Mies van der Rohe, and houses a horde of early- to mid-20th century modern art. I was happy to see works by some of my favorites--Brancusi, Mondrian, Barnett Newman--and discovered new appreciation for a few others.
Famished by this point of our day of museums, we walked to Potsdamerplatz and had dinner at an Australian restaurant. I relished my fish and chips with malt vinegar and a splash of lime, while my dad feasted on ribs and wings, and we both had "fruity pancakes with ice cream" for dessert. Nice.
Before heading to the hotel for the night, we stopped by the Galeries Lafayette, a schmancy French department store with some interesting architecture, but they pretty much only had high fashion stuff, so after a few pictures, we were off. Now we're back in our upside-down room, footsore and full of fruity pancakes. Lessons from today: museums hate tripods, don't mess with Greek deities, and Germans like Andy Warhol.
Pumped up by the experience, we decided to walk to our next destination, the Pergamonmuseum on Museumsinsel (an island full of museums). Wow. If you like ancient cultures, you'll die for this place. They've partially reconstructed the Greek temple of Pergamon, with a ridiculously huge and intricate frieze depicting the battle between the gods and giants. They also have the Ishtar Gate from Babylon and hundreds of other stunning pieces. We spent a long time in this museum.
Upon leaving, my dad got his daily wurst, and we walked to the Alexanderplatz area, where we admired the Berliner Dom (a cathedral), the TV Tower (tallest thing in Berlin--think space needle), and other related sights.
After yet another quick S-Bahn trip, we were at the Hamburger Bahnhof/Museum fur Gegenwart, a former train station turned into a modern art museum with a vast collection of Warhols, Lichtensteins, and so on. The space is gorgeous, with that arched train shed feel in the main hall, and the pieces on display were quite nice.
One more S-Bahn ride took us to the Neue Nationalgalerie, another modern art museum (and you wondered why I came here). The building itself was designed by Mies van der Rohe, and houses a horde of early- to mid-20th century modern art. I was happy to see works by some of my favorites--Brancusi, Mondrian, Barnett Newman--and discovered new appreciation for a few others.
Famished by this point of our day of museums, we walked to Potsdamerplatz and had dinner at an Australian restaurant. I relished my fish and chips with malt vinegar and a splash of lime, while my dad feasted on ribs and wings, and we both had "fruity pancakes with ice cream" for dessert. Nice.
Before heading to the hotel for the night, we stopped by the Galeries Lafayette, a schmancy French department store with some interesting architecture, but they pretty much only had high fashion stuff, so after a few pictures, we were off. Now we're back in our upside-down room, footsore and full of fruity pancakes. Lessons from today: museums hate tripods, don't mess with Greek deities, and Germans like Andy Warhol.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Day 3: Berlin
It's quite an experience being awoken by the alarm clock, looking up at the ceiling, and seeing a floor. With a chair on it. The night was uneventful, other than my having to turn off the "ocean noise" atmosphere creator because one of those noises turned out to be the sound of someone ominously walking over wet pebbles toward the listener. Not restful.
After a nice breakfast in our hotel (why don't I ever eat Nutella at home?), we hopped a train to the zoo. It is very nicely laid out, smack in the middle of city life and all--like an ideal version of the Philadelphia Zoo. Lots of good exhibits, especially the trained sea lion show and the aquarium's specialty in jellyfish. According to one placard, "Jellyfish are super organisms," and they seem to believe that, because they have a lot of jellyfish.
Having seen everything in the zoo, we walked by the Kaiser Wilhelm Church, left in a damaged state from Allied bombing as a reminder of the cost of war, and entered KaDeWe, mainland Europe's largest department store. It's quite impressive, especially the 6th floor, which is entirely devoted to gourmet food. I bought some fancy chocolate and we ate at a little Asian food station. I also indulged my new travel habit of buying a copy of Ulysses in the native language of the place I'm visiting. Only disappointment at KaDeWe: the large game selection did not include Blokus.
From there we took a few trains to Unter den Linden, took some pictures of the Brandenburg Gate like good little tourists, then walked to the Holocaust Memorial. My favorite memorial ever. It consists of hundreds of plain concrete columns of varying height that stand on undulating ground. As you walk the lanes between them, you see nothing but concrete columns in every direction, seeming to change size as you go. The idea is to emphasize the banality of evil, and it worked for me. Very powerful, even though my dad as chastened by a security guard for standing on one of the columns to get a good photo.
Next was Potsdamer Platz, a conglomeration of modern architecture in what used to be a dead zone thanks to the Berlin Wall. All I can say is that it looks like what people in the 1950s thought the future would look like, which is satisfying for a modernist like me. After a quick stop at the city library, we headed for a historical exhibit on the former site of SS headquarters. We learned all about the horrors of Nazism, and got to see a stretch of the Wall in its original location. Speaking of the wall, we then went to Checkpoint Charlie, looked at it, and moved on.
We went back to the Unter den Linden area to try to get into the glass dome on the Reichstag, but the line was long and unmoving, and there would have been no daylight by the time we got up there, so we ditched it until tomorrow. Instead, we went to the main train station and walked around its impressive multiple levels of shops, then got my dad his daily sausage (currywurst today) and dragged ourselves back to the hotel. Coming tomorrow: the Reichstag, museums, and more...
After a nice breakfast in our hotel (why don't I ever eat Nutella at home?), we hopped a train to the zoo. It is very nicely laid out, smack in the middle of city life and all--like an ideal version of the Philadelphia Zoo. Lots of good exhibits, especially the trained sea lion show and the aquarium's specialty in jellyfish. According to one placard, "Jellyfish are super organisms," and they seem to believe that, because they have a lot of jellyfish.
Having seen everything in the zoo, we walked by the Kaiser Wilhelm Church, left in a damaged state from Allied bombing as a reminder of the cost of war, and entered KaDeWe, mainland Europe's largest department store. It's quite impressive, especially the 6th floor, which is entirely devoted to gourmet food. I bought some fancy chocolate and we ate at a little Asian food station. I also indulged my new travel habit of buying a copy of Ulysses in the native language of the place I'm visiting. Only disappointment at KaDeWe: the large game selection did not include Blokus.
From there we took a few trains to Unter den Linden, took some pictures of the Brandenburg Gate like good little tourists, then walked to the Holocaust Memorial. My favorite memorial ever. It consists of hundreds of plain concrete columns of varying height that stand on undulating ground. As you walk the lanes between them, you see nothing but concrete columns in every direction, seeming to change size as you go. The idea is to emphasize the banality of evil, and it worked for me. Very powerful, even though my dad as chastened by a security guard for standing on one of the columns to get a good photo.
Next was Potsdamer Platz, a conglomeration of modern architecture in what used to be a dead zone thanks to the Berlin Wall. All I can say is that it looks like what people in the 1950s thought the future would look like, which is satisfying for a modernist like me. After a quick stop at the city library, we headed for a historical exhibit on the former site of SS headquarters. We learned all about the horrors of Nazism, and got to see a stretch of the Wall in its original location. Speaking of the wall, we then went to Checkpoint Charlie, looked at it, and moved on.
We went back to the Unter den Linden area to try to get into the glass dome on the Reichstag, but the line was long and unmoving, and there would have been no daylight by the time we got up there, so we ditched it until tomorrow. Instead, we went to the main train station and walked around its impressive multiple levels of shops, then got my dad his daily sausage (currywurst today) and dragged ourselves back to the hotel. Coming tomorrow: the Reichstag, museums, and more...
Day 2: Frankfurt, Weimar, Buchenwald, Berlin
I woke up Dad at 6:30 a.m. and we went down to the breakfast buffet, which was quite nice: crepes, croissants, potatoes, bacon, yogurt, fruit, etc. We checked out and made one final shuttle trip to the airport, then took the S-Bahn to Frankfurt’s main train station. Took a Deutsche Bahn train to Weimar, which is a cute sleepy little town. Got to see lots of German scenery on the way there. Walked around Weimar a bit to kill time until bus to Buchenwald.
After a short bus trip, we arrived at the Buchenwald Memorial and bought a video/audio tour—an interactive guide using a PDA. First we saw the railway station built to bring in prisoners, then walked to the Belltower/GDR Memorial—a grand memorial with huge stone monuments, circular walls surrounding mass grave pits, a series of pillars representing the countries of people killed at the camp, and a giant tower, all with a terrific view of the surrounding countryside. We walked back down to the main camp area, and visited several interesting sights, including the camp gate (featuring the motto “Jedem Das Seine” [“to each his own,” or more sinisterly, “everyone gets what’s coming to him”]), the crematorium, and even the remains of a zoo built by the SS right next to the camp fence. Overall, it was a couple of hours that both shook and reconfirmed my belief in the potential of humans.
Another bus trip later, and we were back on the train, this time to Berlin and our first night in the upside-down room. We arrived in Berlin by 7:30 p.m. and were immediately impressed by the huge and buzzing train station. After taking a little time to get our bearings, we got train passes (though a train drivers’ strike is supposed to start tonight at midnight, with uncertain effects on our ability to get around) and took a quick S-Bahn train to Charlottenburg station. A few minutes walk (the first part of which passed through what seems to be the erotic store area of the city) brought us to our hotel. It seems we were expected at 4 p.m., and got a lecture from the guy who let us in. But now we’re here in our upside-down room, which is pretty much as we pictured it: carpet floor tiles, a bed, a lamp, a table, and a few chairs on the ceiling, with the floor seemingly bare. Opening trapdoors reveals beds and seating areas with side- and underlighting. What I didn’t expect was the “atmosphere creator,” a device with six different sound channels, from a trance-music-style insistent beat to cricket noises. The bathroom was also a surprise, with lots of exposed fixtures and no enclosure for the shower—just a heavy plastic sheet hanging from the ceiling and a drain in the middle of the room. I, of course, like the industrial feel, and sleeping below floor level is quite the experience...
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Day 1: PHL to DTW to FRA
Our trip started with an uneventful flight from Philly to Detroit, where we had about two hours to eat lunch and ride on the tram that runs from one end of Detroit's oddly linear airport to the other. Then we boarded our flight for Frankfurt, and a few movies (_Margot at the Wedding_ for me, _No Country for Old Men_ for my dad) and not much sleep later we landed in Germany.
We took a taxi to our hotel, checked in, and watched a little of a bizzare German kids' show with a guy in a really impressive dragon costume before we settled in for a quick nap. Our first point of tourism was the zoo, so we took a shuttle to the airport, then a train to the center of Frankfurt. The city offers a surprisingly natural-seeming blend of modern skyscrapers and medieval buildings. And the zoo was a pleasant surprise as well. The nocturnal animal house, the penguin exhibit, and the monkeys in particular were impressive (though any zoo monkey experience now seems disappointing after interacting with the primates at Apenheul on our Amsterdam trip last year).
Upon leaving the zoo, we walked into the heart of town and came across a massive protest, with a throng of mostly young people dressed all in black. After being unable to determine what they were protesting, we set off in search of food. My dad ordered a curried bratwurst sandwich with mustard, which he very much enjoyed (I have a nice photo of his first bite that I'll post later). Oh, that reminds me. The whole town pretty much smells like sausage. It's probably because there are people selling sausages every hundred yards, including guys with portable grills slung over their shoulders (another pic to be posted later). And as my dad ate his sausage, the protest march caught up with us and we found out they were anti-fur animal activists. Pretty funny, ja?
Next we hit the wedge-shaped Museum of Modern Art, which had some unique architectural and curational elements, as well as a nice pop art section. By this point we were starting to drag--especially me, since I managed to get sick pretty much when we left. We stopped at a Mercedes Benz dealership/cafe (really) and got some juice and panna cotta (we ordered one and the friendly waiter gave us a second for free), then walked down to the Main River for some picturesque views. After a brief stop to look at Goethe's birthplace, it was back to the train-airport-shuttle-hotel route.
We got back to the hotel by 5:30, and both fell asleep by 6:15. In fact, my dad's still sleeping (at 3:15 a.m., 9 hours later), but the earache I'm developing thanks to this cold woke me up at 2:30, so I'm here typing in the hotel lobby. Hopefully I'll get a few more hours of sleep on the train from Frankfurt to Weimar tomorrow. All in all, our impressions of Frankfurt are: the zoo is cool, there are lots of H&M stores--3 on the same street within a few blocks!--the people seem happy to live there, medieval architecture can coexist with glass and steel buildings, and everything smells like sausage.
I'll probably post again tonight with stories about the work camps at Buchenwald and our arrival in Berlin. Until then, tschüss!
We took a taxi to our hotel, checked in, and watched a little of a bizzare German kids' show with a guy in a really impressive dragon costume before we settled in for a quick nap. Our first point of tourism was the zoo, so we took a shuttle to the airport, then a train to the center of Frankfurt. The city offers a surprisingly natural-seeming blend of modern skyscrapers and medieval buildings. And the zoo was a pleasant surprise as well. The nocturnal animal house, the penguin exhibit, and the monkeys in particular were impressive (though any zoo monkey experience now seems disappointing after interacting with the primates at Apenheul on our Amsterdam trip last year).
Upon leaving the zoo, we walked into the heart of town and came across a massive protest, with a throng of mostly young people dressed all in black. After being unable to determine what they were protesting, we set off in search of food. My dad ordered a curried bratwurst sandwich with mustard, which he very much enjoyed (I have a nice photo of his first bite that I'll post later). Oh, that reminds me. The whole town pretty much smells like sausage. It's probably because there are people selling sausages every hundred yards, including guys with portable grills slung over their shoulders (another pic to be posted later). And as my dad ate his sausage, the protest march caught up with us and we found out they were anti-fur animal activists. Pretty funny, ja?
Next we hit the wedge-shaped Museum of Modern Art, which had some unique architectural and curational elements, as well as a nice pop art section. By this point we were starting to drag--especially me, since I managed to get sick pretty much when we left. We stopped at a Mercedes Benz dealership/cafe (really) and got some juice and panna cotta (we ordered one and the friendly waiter gave us a second for free), then walked down to the Main River for some picturesque views. After a brief stop to look at Goethe's birthplace, it was back to the train-airport-shuttle-hotel route.
We got back to the hotel by 5:30, and both fell asleep by 6:15. In fact, my dad's still sleeping (at 3:15 a.m., 9 hours later), but the earache I'm developing thanks to this cold woke me up at 2:30, so I'm here typing in the hotel lobby. Hopefully I'll get a few more hours of sleep on the train from Frankfurt to Weimar tomorrow. All in all, our impressions of Frankfurt are: the zoo is cool, there are lots of H&M stores--3 on the same street within a few blocks!--the people seem happy to live there, medieval architecture can coexist with glass and steel buildings, and everything smells like sausage.
I'll probably post again tonight with stories about the work camps at Buchenwald and our arrival in Berlin. Until then, tschüss!
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Itinerary
3/7/08
Depart Philadelphia at 12:43 p.m.
Arrive in Detroit at 2:36 p.m.
Depart Detroit at 5:05 p.m.
3/8/08
Arrive in Frankfurt at 7:20 a.m.
Check in at Hotel Mercure Frankfurt Airport
Tour Frankfurt (zoo, museums, etc.)
3/9/08
Train to Weimar
Bus to Buchenwald to tour camp
Train to Berlin
Check in at Propeller Island City Lodge (link goes to the specific room we've booked, but check out all of them)
3/10--3/12
Tour Berlin (museums, zoo, shopping, etc.)
Train to Frankfurt (3/12 p.m. sometime)
Check in at hotel? (We might take an overnight train instead)
3/13
Depart Frankfurt at 10:20 a.m.
Arrive in Detroit at 2:35 p.m.
Depart Detroit at 5:07 p.m.
Arrive in Philadelphia at 6:57 p.m.
Depart Philadelphia at 12:43 p.m.
Arrive in Detroit at 2:36 p.m.
Depart Detroit at 5:05 p.m.
3/8/08
Arrive in Frankfurt at 7:20 a.m.
Check in at Hotel Mercure Frankfurt Airport
Tour Frankfurt (zoo, museums, etc.)
3/9/08
Train to Weimar
Bus to Buchenwald to tour camp
Train to Berlin
Check in at Propeller Island City Lodge (link goes to the specific room we've booked, but check out all of them)
3/10--3/12
Tour Berlin (museums, zoo, shopping, etc.)
Train to Frankfurt (3/12 p.m. sometime)
Check in at hotel? (We might take an overnight train instead)
3/13
Depart Frankfurt at 10:20 a.m.
Arrive in Detroit at 2:35 p.m.
Depart Detroit at 5:07 p.m.
Arrive in Philadelphia at 6:57 p.m.
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