Singapore and onward
Jun 17–19 in Singapore ⋅ 🌧 30 °C
We broke our journey with a stopover in Singapore, and began our trip with a botanical twist, starting at the Singapore Botanic Gardens, one of only three such gardens to hold World Heritage status.
It was great to enjoy the warm weather and see something away from the usual Singapore sights.
We wandered along happily, at one point dodging a rather large goanna-like creature, to the Orchid Garden. Having previously seen orchids in hot houses around the world, it was a pleasant surprise to see them outside in a beautifully designed and tended setting.
Thence it was on to London via a somewhat delayed flight, and a slight surprise to find the weather even warmer than Singapore.
So, to enhance our vitamin D, we carried on with the UNESCO-listed garden theme with a trip to Kew. We also carried on the flying theme, with a constant steam of aircraft passing above on the flight path to Heathrow.
Unlike Singapore, for which the entry price is nominal, here they sting you for about twenty-five pounds each to wander around and get sweaty.
It was very good, the glass buildings oozing history as well as luxuriant vegetation, as we covered as much ground as our jet-lagged minds and legs would allow.
The tree top walk was another highlight, a circular walkway twenty-odd metres above the ground.Read more
London
Jun 19–22 in England ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C
Recovered from the flight and our botanic gardens overload, we kicked off in London with a visit to Windsor.
Along with quite a few others, we caught the train to Windsor and Eton Central Station and walked the hundred-or-so metres to the castle entrance.
The mood was quite festive, with people spilling out of cafes and even a band playing. We thought it might have been the Band of the Grenadier Guards or something, but it turned out they were from… North Dakota.
Once inside, and having the obligatory snap with some guy’s vintage Rolls Royce, we donned our audio guides and toured the very swish Royal Apartments. The audio guide content was excellent, but unfortunately didn’t run in the same sequence as the tour; that was okay, as the relevant item number for the guide of displayed in every room - but right near the exit, so you sort of found out about what you had just seen on a time delay.
As we proceeded from room to room, the crowds mysteriously began to thin out: the changing of the guard was taking place. So we duly joined the others and took a blurry picture of some bearskins behind a sea of mobile phones thrust majestically skyward.
The other highlight of a great day at Windsor was Queen Mary’s Dolls House. Sadly, there are no photos, but any dolls house with running water and electricity, miniature books you can read and miniature records you can actually play has got to be worth a look.
The following day found us initially at Borough Market, where we wandered past all sorts of yummy and exotic comestibles.
Then it was down to the Thames for a walk down to and across the Tower Bridge and a visit to the Tower of London.
It was very hot, and twenty minutes of queueing in the sun to have a look, with a hundred other people, at the Crown Jewels was a bit wearing. They are pretty impressive, though.
We also quite enjoyed the White Tower and a walk along the Battlements, before heading back for some all-important liquid refreshments.
That was about it for a short visit to London; we are next heading north to Moreton-in-Marsh and some time in the Cotswolds.Read more
The Cotswolds
Jun 22–25 in England ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C
Wow, this is a beautiful area, even in the thirty-plus heat we have experienced since arriving.
We’ve navigated the length and breadth of this designated Area of Natural Beauty by every manner of road from manic freeways to single-lane goat tracks.
The motor car is by far the preferred means of travel here, and it is lucky many of these villages have a historic market square that they can fill up with cars, to allow the tourists to have their cream teas and check out the boutiques. They would actually look nicer as pedestrian plazas, but that’s just an opinion.
A few highlights.
Castle Combe, probably the jewel in the Cotswolds crown. We visited early, before the crowds, and found a very quiet but stunningly beautiful place. The bridge over the By Brook has featured in so many pictorials it is now retired on the royalties.
Stow-on-the-Wold (gee, these hyphenated names are annoying to type) was also very nice, the Yew Tree Door of St Edward’s Church very photogenic and possibly inspirational for JRR Tolkien. Besides, you could see it from the pub next door where we had a fantastic dinner with our friends Ron and Kim.
Chipping Campden. Hardly a hidden gem, but a bit more unpretentious than some of the others; the National Trust-owned Market Hall and the nearby Town Hall look wonderful.
Bibury is famous, mainly, for Arlington Row, an isolated row of National Trust-owned cottages that attract - or at least they did when we were there - hundreds of visitors each summer day. Even, so, it was well worth a look.
We also visited Burford, Broadway (sort of the Berry of the Cotswolds) and Sudely Castle, which had magnificent gardens and a great story to tell, from Catherine Parr - last wife of Henry VIII and buried at the castle - to the inevitable rise of the death duties spectre and the opening of the doors to mere (but cashed up) commoners like us.
Oh, and we visited Blockley. Well known as the filming location for the Father Brown series, we popped in to have a look at the Church of St Peter and St Paul where it all happens. But we couldn’t… because they were filming Father Brown and there was no access permitted.Read more
Blenheim Palace and Oxford
Jun 25–27 in Belgium ⋅ ☀️ 35 °C
We returned the car - with its blessed, wonderful air conditioning - and made our sweaty way to Woodstock, where, at the start of the 18th century, after winning numerous battles in the War of Spanish Succession (in particular, the Battle of Blenheim), John Churchill was appointed Duke of Marlborough and given some land and money to build the modest residence that occupies the site today - Blenheim Palace.
About 170 years later, Jennie, Lady Randolph Churchill was visiting her in-laws when she felt a twinge; some short time later young Winston emerged on to the scene. Whether he was smoking a cigar at the time is a matter for conjecture.
The Festival of Blenheim begins, we were told, on 27 June and features artists such as Katy Perry and Michael Buble. This explained the army of workers and their vehicles swarming over the courtyard in the centre of the palace known as the Great Court, installing a stage, sound equipment and about seven thousand seats. It was a pity, really, as dumping a portable arena into the middle of a stately home kind of spoiled the ambience a bit.
The building, though, is magnificent, although the roof is being replaced and it is covered in scaffolding and there is a fake ceiling in the entrance hall.
We looked at the palace rooms, the formal gardens, the downstairs and numerous pieces of Winston (with an “i”) memorabilia, and enjoyed them all. The scale and grandeur of the place was astounding, and we barely touched on a skerrick of the whole thing.
The following day we went to Oxford.
Christ Church College was founded in 1525, when Thomas Wolsey threw the monks out of St Frideswide’s Priory and built a fancy college on the land.
It is indeed a beautiful set of buildings, surrounded on one side by bucolic English countryside and the other by a brace of other university colleges. The history of the place seems to ooze out everywhere.
We were quite taken with the Great Hall, seemingly inspirational for some Hogwarts scenes in the Harry Potter films, and the Tom Quad, with its Christopher Wren-designed tower.
It was also the end of Trinity Term for the students. There were many wandering around in their sub fusc outfits of white shirt and black trousers or skirt, having finished their exams. A white carnation indicated finishing a first exam, a pink an intermediate and a red a final exam. There were no doubt to be a lot of busy pubs that afternoon.
We also climbed the 127 stairs up the tower of the University Church of St Mary the Virgin. The view, once we negotiated the steep and uneven spiral staircase, and the sometimes very squeezy passing of people going in the other direction, was stunning.
We were adjacent to the beautiful Radcliffe Camera, and had a marvellous view of all the sights of Oxford.
This is the end of our time in England for this trip, next up we have a few days in Brussels.Read more
Brussels
Jun 27–29 in Belgium ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C
We started mainland Europe with a day briefly exploring Brussels, which was an exciting but, to be honest, quite a dirty city. It was great also to meet up with our long-time friends and travelling companions Steve and Kim for the next few destinations.
Brussels wouldn’t be the destination it is without a few arcades full of touristy Belgian chocolate shops, and we started off with a walk through the elegant Galeries Royale St Hubert.
The Grand Place, next up, was spectacular, surrounded on all sides by public buildings and guild-houses all dating from the late 1690’s. We wandered down in the morning, when it was cool and uncrowded, before continuing our walk.
This took us up the Mont des Arts, a beautifully-designed complex of gardens and public buildings climbing up its sloping site. Here, solely for our entertainment, of course, a fun run was taking place, the runners spurred on by a female drumming group. The views back down the hill were fantastic.
We saw the attractive 15th-century Church of Our Lady of Victories at the Sablon, and the neat and perfectly-groomed, neo-renaissance Place du Petit Sablon opposite, before finishing up at a viewpoint next to the scaffolded-up Palais de Justice.
Back down the hill, we pushed through the crowds at That Statue, probably even more unaccountably famous than the Little Mermaid, before a quick look at the Grand Place again and a few snaps of the beautiful St Michael and St Gudula Cathedral dedicated to the patron saints of Brussels.
It was a busy day, if only a brief look at Brussels, and we finished off with a nice Italian meal before going home to pack up again.
Next stop Koblenz.Read more
Koblenz
Jun 29–Jul 2 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C
After a tough day negotiating the German railway system, with delays and enormous crowds, it was a very pleasant surprise to land in Koblenz.
We took a walk along the river to Deutsches Eck - literally “German Point” - sited at the confluence of the Rhine and Moselle Rivers and with a huge, triumphal equestrian statue of Kaiser Wilhelm I at its centre.
Next to this, it being Germany, was the Konigsbacher Biergarten. It was five-thirty and hot, so the weary travellers slaked their thirst (several times, in fact) and dined on pizzas amongst a growing and excited crowd waiting to watch Germany play in the FIFA World Cup.
Unfortunately, the excited crowd were soon to be disappointed, as their team lost.
The following day we took a walk past several attractive buildings along the Rhine, to the spot where you can see the 1794 Electoral Palace, when it’s not covered with scaffolding and hessian and looking like a building site.
Then we went to the fortress. Ehrenbreitstein commands the top of the rocky hill opposite the junction of the two rivers and is quite enormous. The most recent structure was completed in 1828, and never used defensively; it has done time as a refugee camp, and housing, and is now a museum, war memorial and overall interesting place to wander around.
The following day was a pearler.
On a beautiful, sunny day, we caught the train south to Rudesheim am Rhein, from where we caught a cable car - Seilbahn Rudesheim - high above acres of grape vines to a viewpoint above and around a bend in the river. Stunning, simply stunning!
Then, looking away from the river, you are confronted by the towering 38-metre Neiderwald Monument, a massive work in stone and bronze topped by a rather stern-looking, 12-metre tall Germania. It was completed in 1883 to commemorate the unification of Germany.
Back in Rudesheim, after our very peaceful return on the Seilbahn, we took a look at Drosselgasse, an extremely narrow street lined with wine bars/restaurants and souvenir shops.
Then it was onto the 1913-built PS Goethe, for our return downstream to Koblenz.
Sitting outside on the deck, drinks and snacks in hand, weather beautiful and a continuing passing parade of castles and villages going by on both sides of the river - it just doesn’t get much better!
We passed the Lorely Rock, the legendary spot where the sirens lured sailors to their doom, but our fearless crew resisted the temptation and we passed safely. Or maybe it was the bunch of tax accountants having a long, happy dinner on the cruise, all wearing sailor hats, that got us through safely.
Still amazed at the wonders and scenery of Koblenz and the Rhine, we are now leaving for a new adventure in Heidelberg.Read more
Heidelberg
Jul 2–5 in Germany ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C
We transferred from one scenic riverfront location to another, from the Rhine to the Neckar, stopping a few nights in Heidelberg’s pretty and bustling old town.
The Bergbahn, a funicular railway, runs up the hill behind the city, past Heidelberg Castle. A sleek, modern rail car whisks you up to Molkenkur, a station beyond the castle, where you transfer to a vintage-looking rail car based on the original 1907 design. This one then creaks and groans in vintage fashion up to Konigstuhl, 567 metres above the town and with views seemingly to Luxembourg, so high is it.
The castle was destroyed by the French in the late 1600’s, and has only been partially rebuilt; the ruins are great to stroll around.
We saw some other attractions there as well: the Museum of German Pharmacy, with an endless array of potions, pills and poisons displayed in magnificent, vintage cabinets, and the Big Wine Barrel.
The Big Wine Barrel is surely the equal of any of Australia’s big things. Built in 1751 from 130 oak trees, it has a capacity of around 55,000 4-litre Berri Estates casks.
It was in Heidelberg, too that we parted with Steve and Kim, after another fabulous week holidaying together; hopefully there will be many more to come.
The 1788 Old Bridge - Alte Brucke - is a beautiful focal point for the town and swarms for much of the day and night with happy people and their cameras. It’s also a great excuse for a party: the Old Bridge Festival took place while we were there, with bands, beer and sausages on bread.
The atmosphere was terrific and it was so close to our hotel we could watch and listen from our window. There was a marching band with some very unusual brass instruments and quite fancy duds, and a very entertaining (probably even more so if we understood what they were saying) group that played everything from Eric Clapton to Boney M to Midnight Oil.
We also hiked up a lot of steep and uneven cobblestones to the Philosopher’s Walk - Philosophenweg - a path on the far side of the river formerly used by the academics of the town to do their thinking. The views were spectacular, when our heart rates returned to normal.
Later in the day, after some more music and bratwurst, we found a competing festival in the Universitatsplatz, this one Filipino. Line dancing to Achy Breaky Heart - what bliss!
Then, in the evening, outside our hotel were “ The Shades of Soul”, triggering all those wonderful memories of Donna Summer and Hot Chocolate and endless other atrocities from the 70’s.
Anyway, enough of this high culture. Next off, we are on our way to Fussen, to look into the creations of Mad King Ludwig II.Read more
Fussen
Jul 5–8 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C
Fussen is the nearest large town to Hohenschwangau, where the future King Ludwig II grew up, and Neuschwanstein, the palace he built that nearly bankrupted Bavaria and helped bring about his downfall.
But more on that later; Fussen has some other attractions as well.
We stayed out of town a little, in Bad Faulenbach, ten minutes walk but miles from the bustle of Fussen. In a most peaceful, scenic location, and full of robust bicycling and hiking Germans, the Aktiv Hotel Schweiger was terrific, if a bit strange. It is certainly the only hotel we have stayed in that has an in-house dialysis centre.
Nearby was the Lechfall, an attractive, 18th-century weir over which the River Lech tumbles some twelve metres into the Lechschlucht Gorge. The water had a wonderful pale blue, limestone-cloudy look to it.
Near the gorge also is a monument to King Maximilian II, Ludwig’s dad and generally well-liked monarch.
We enjoyed Fussen’s old town and its two star attractions, the Hohes Schloss (High Castle), where, around 1500, someone had the clever money-saving idea to paint the details around the windows on to the walls and St Mangs Basilica, dating from 1726 and with a truly splendid interior.
The following day we caught the bus out to Hohenschwangau, site of the former royal residences and now a core piece of Bavarian tourism.
It has all the attributes. Scenic castles in lofty, romantic settings, an easy path to a bridge - the Marienbrucke - from which picture-postcard photos can be obtained and a gorgeously scenic lake - the Alpsee - for relaxing.
The sight of Neuschwanstein jutting out from its mountain foundations is truly stunning; it’s hard to imagine how it could be made to look any more photogenic.
The interior is fascinating. A throne room in the Byzantine style, a bedroom in the Gothic style, Wagnerian references everywhere, it was an interesting look at the masterwork of Ludwig, who was maybe not mad but certainly very unusual.
Hohenschwangau was different, and not overly architecturally pleasing. However, as the home where Ludwig was raised and lived as monarch, it held other items of interest. The walls are painted extensively with works of art, and it was in one of the rooms that Ludwig signed a letter that contributed significantly to the formation of Germany as we know it today.
Slightly castled out, we are moving on to our next stop, Munich.Read more
Munich
Jul 8–11 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C
It was quite a change arriving in a big city, especially one where the Hauptbahnhof is one gigantic construction site and the cyclists outnumber and outpace the cars. Woe betide the pedestrian who strays into the bike lane!
Of course, Munich is famous for Oktoberfest, an annual excuse for people to drink 7.4 million litres of beer. It being July, we were a tad early, but we were interested to find a connection between this annual piss-up and the Bavarian Kings we had seen so much of.
Apparently, the original Oktoberfest was held to celebrate the wedding of Crown Prince Ludwig to Princess Therese in 1810. The area where it takes place - Theresienwiese (Therese’s Meadow) - is named for her.
We got into the real swing of it with a visit to the Munich Residence. A long visit, that is - there are 130 rooms to look at. Too many to document, but the grotto of sea shells and the 66-metres long Antiquarium, with frescoes and busts galore were among the highlights.
After a look at Marienplatz, with the Neues Rathaus (1874 and neo-Gothic in style, so not really very new), we went to a couple of churches.
Frauenkirche is the Roman Catholic Cathedral, consecrated in 1494, enormous yet with quite an austere, if towering, interior.
Contrast this with the Asamkirche, built privately by the Asam brothers in 1746. Of modest dimensions outside, the interior is an absolute feast for the senses, a stunning mass of Baroque features topped by a ceiling painted by Cosmas Asam.
We also visited the Nymphenburg Palace, summer home to the Bavarian kings.
This was a bit more hyped-up, with timed entry and such, and lots of tour groups. However, we didn’t enjoy it as much; it was crowded and rooms weren’t as interesting.
What we did enjoy, though, were the gardens and the four small palaces (outhouses??) scattered amongst them.
The Magdalenenklause (1729) was built to look like a ruin (which it does), and contains an eccentric shell grotto/chapel.
The Pagodenburg (1719) had Chinese influences everywhere, the Badenburg (1721) was a bathing pavilion and the Amalienburg (1739) a rococo-styled hunting lodge with flourishes and swirls everywhere.
We enjoyed our location and the excellent Munich trams; if only they would finish the railway station it would have been perfect.
Anyway, our next stop is Nuremberg, which we are looking forward to very much.Read more
Nuremberg
Jul 11–14 in Germany ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C
The German railways traditionally run like clockwork. The only problem, though, is no one has wound them for some time. They are working hard to fix things, but the number of trains we saw or experienced running an hour-plus late was huge.
Therefore, we were glad to be done with Munich Hbf, which is in the midst of a huge refurbishment, with construction noise droning on and on and masses of confused and unhappy people trying to find their trains.
Nuremberg Hbf, on the other hand was relatively calm, as we left it for our walk to the Altstadt.
It was a fabulous place.
The walk from the station took us over the attractive River Pegnitz, crossed by bridges all through the city, then up to the Hauptmarkt and Schoner Brunnen, a restored replica of a magnificent, gold 14th-century Gothic-styled fountain.
People were out everywhere for the evening. In the shade of the city walls, near the castle, they were sitting on the cobblestones drinking beers bought from a souvenir shop; when we walked back after dinner they were still at it, but lying on the cobblestones.
The following day we visited the castle, begun in 1227 and part-time residence to a series of Holy Roman Emperors. The gardens were spectacular, as were the views back down over the old town.
For a change from the old stuff, we took a look at Ehekarussel, a fountain built in 1981 to conceal a subway ventilation shaft. It depicts “The Marriage Merry-go-round”, but not in a very positive way; suffice to say public opinion remains divided.
Then, a break from all the pretty stuff - we visited the Documentation Centre, Nazi Party Rally Grounds, located in the bowels of the unfinished Congress Hall, a part of the planned rally grounds complex.
The story of the Nuremberg Rallies and the rise of the Nazis was told in excruciating detail, from the slave labour camps at the quarries where thousands died to supply materials for the building of the rally grounds, to the ingenious use of propaganda and the media to seduce people into believing the lies they were told, to the disenfranchisement and ultimate dehumanisation of whole groups of people.
If ever there was a solid argument for a strong and independent fourth estate, it can be found here.
Finally, we braved the trains again for a trip to Bamberg, a UNESCO-listed city on the Regnitz River, with an interesting town hall built in 1461 on an artificial island in the river, allegedly reclaimed by the citizens in protest at not being granted land by the bishop.
The fast-flowing river is present all through the town, not least in the area known as Little Venice, with 15-century fishermen’s houses lining the river. Not sure about the Venice reference, really, but the whole old town is great to wander around.
We are moving on again, next to Dresden for a few days.Read more
Dresden
Jul 14–16 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C
We’ve just spent a day and a bit in Dresden, and all of it within about two square kilometres, so much is there to see here.
Dresden was a home base of the thousand-year Wettin dynasty and the seat of the Electors and, later, Kings, of Saxony. In particular, under Elector Augustus II the Strong in the early 1700’s, it grew into a city full of Baroque splendour. Augustus was kept busy in other ways, too, apparently fathering 360 children.
Then, in February 1945, it all came tumbling down, as Allied bombing, and the ensuing firestorm, flattened most of it. 25,000 people died.
The effort involved in turning Dresden from rubble back to the incredibly beautiful city it is must have been stupendous and never-ending. These are some of the bits we saw.
The Furstenzug commemorates 800 years of those Wettins, with a 102-metre wall depicting 35 of them, all on 23,000 porcelain tiles.
The Dresden Zwinger, a palatial garden lined on all sides with pavilions topped by an ample supply of bare-bottomed cherubs, was fabulous in the fine early morning. Very popular with tourists groups, too, it must be said.
The Royal Palace was excellent, too, as the superlatives run out. We visited the royal quarters, which were quite good, then went to the Old Green Vault.
With treasures of every conceivable description, starting with amber, then the rather distasteful ivory, then carved ostrich eggs, nautilus shells and rock crystal, and gems of every colour and size set into all manner of objects, each room in the complex was a feast for the senses.
It was a feast for someone else, too, in 2019, when a whole lot of it was stolen. To date, only about 70 per cent of the missing items have been recovered.
Bruhl’s Terrace, a pathway high above the shore of the River Elbe and dating originally from 1547, is a fantastic place to promenade in the evening before dinner, for which there are about a thousand options within the two square kilometres.
There were more delights: the Opera House, two historic churches (the Cathedral St Trinitatis - connected by bridge to the Royal Palace for use by the Elector - and the Frauenkirche - begun in 1726, flattened in 1945, re-consecrated in 2005) and platzes aplenty for eating and drinking. There was even a festival in the Neumarkt each evening we were there.
We barely touched the sides of this beautiful city, but we must move on, as Berlin is calling. We just hope the trains are running on time.Read more
Berlin
Jul 16–20 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
If you are looking for a city with a mix of beauty and a bit of grit, old and new history and lots of humanity, Berlin is a standout.
Our visit started with the obvious, a walk down Unter den Linden towards the Brandenburg Gate, topped by Victoria, Goddess of Victory, wielding her Iron Cross. To be honest, it was a little smaller in scale than we had expected.
Through the gate and across the road was the Reichstag - the parliament building —completed in 1894. It is a most impressive building indeed, unusable by either the east or west during the Cold War, then redesigned by Sir Norman Foster for use by the newly-reunited nation.
Then, a glimpse into the humanity. In the nearby park lies a monument to the murdered Sinta and Roma people - the “gypsies”. Hundreds of thousands of them were killed, and some of the stories were truly horrific. A children’s clinic where experiments were carried out and the child then euthanised - beyond belief.
We also saw the Memorial to the Murdered Jews, a more abstract installation of 2,711 concrete stelae over an undulating 1.9 hectare site. It was a bit haunting, but we couldn’t say we “got it”.
Checkpoint Charlie is probably the brashest tourist attraction in town, with competing museums all around and no shortage of queues for a photo. It was fun to stand astride the former border, one leg West German, the other East.
Then there was Museum Island, on the river, with the quite magnificent Berlin Cathedral to one side, and no less than seven museums housed in incredible classical buildings.
The one we saw, however, wasn’t one of them. On the other side of the river, built into the concrete embankment (and therefore not beautiful) was the DDR Museum.
The DDR Museum was concerned with life in East Berlin, with all the tribulations of living in a police state with a sagging economy. There was a Trabant, a replica East Berlin “new” apartment and a huge number of stories with associated memorabilia.
Unfortunately, though, it was also a great example of how to turn a fascinating subject and quality exhibits into a crappy museum. It was packed, and every time you opened one of the many interactive drawers or cupboards you risked hitting someone on the arse or worse. A much better idea, given the crowds, would be an audio guide for everyone, and exhibits fenced off further back, so that everyone got a look.
Staying with the DDR theme, we had a look at Tranenpalast, the former processing centre for visitors from West Berlin, attached to Friedrichstrasse Railway Station. Translated as “Palace of Tears” in reference to the number of wrenching farewells that took place nearby, it contained some very poignant stories of families and lovers parted, and the officious cruelty of the guards.
Interestingly, when it was no longer in use, the guards didn’t join in the elation - in the East German economy, they were just worried about losing their jobs.
Finally, we visited the Berlin Wall Memorial, near a preserved piece of wall on Bernaurstrasse. This was excellent, too, with a memorial for the 140 people who died at the wall, archaeological exhibits and a viewing platform high up across the street overlooking a reproduction of the wall and the no man’s land behind it.
It was all very moving, and that is probably what made Berlin seem so special. It’s certainly not just a typical, elegant European city; the relatively recent, terrible history, and the great way it has been preserved and memorialised, make it quite unique.
Sadly, we are now leaving, heading for Hamburg.Read more
Potsdam
July 18 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C
For a break from Berlin’s assault on the senses, we took a local train to Potsdam and visited the Sansouci Palace and Park, constructed in the 1700’s by King Frederick the Great.
In the peaceful, cool early morning, we came first to the New Palace and took some pictures of the outside. Then we realised that the building we were looking at wasn’t the New Palace at all - the New Palace was opposite and covered in scaffolding from head to toe.
Inside was a celebration of rococo swirls, in the form of all sorts of plants and animals, with gilt paint everywhere you couldn’t fit a painting or beautiful piece of furniture.
Any palace worth its salt, it seems, must have a grotto, and the New Palace’s one reached new heights of artistry, with shells designed into every conceivable pattern. Unfortunately, though, Frederick insisted the ceiling be unsupported, a fine idea until you install a 90-ton marble floor in the room upstairs - it took three attempts over the years to stabilise the floor.
There are a number of other palaces and pavilions in the park. We looked in at the Chinese House, following the European fad for all things oriental, although since the figures outside were sculpted using local models, they all looked strangely European, and then the Orangery Palace. At the end of the war, a Russian soldier scratched some words and the year “1945” into one of the wall paintings; it is here to this day.
Sansouci Palace itself, built in 1847 as a getaway for the king, is much smaller than the new palace, and is positioned at the top of a hill of vines, making it a photogenic location, except that the rise of the hill obscures the bottom half of the building. It does, however, look down on beautifully laid out gardens.
Frederick’s rococo predilections really show here, too, with ornate embellishments everywhere. In a different vein, especially, was the Yellow Room, floor to ceiling with all sorts of painted animal and plant embellishments.
There was a whole lot more to see, but we ran out of time; the rest will have to wait for another time.Read more
Hamburg
Jul 20–24 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C
En route to Hamburg, at the tiny town of Friesack, our train broke down.
The train was too high for the low platform in this small station, so about a thousand people had to be helped down off the train to stand in the rain and wait for a replacement.
Then the crowd made their way up and down an overbridge to the replacement train (hauling their luggage, of course) and boarded it with the help of the constantly calm and helpful train staff. Astoundingly, throughout the whole process everyone was calm, smiling and helping each other - or maybe they’re used to their two-hour journey taking four and a half.
Anyway, Hamburg.
We wanted to look at the Speicherstadt, the WorldHeritage warehouse district where, between 1893 and 1927 timber-pile-founded warehouses were built to line the canals, and a cruise seemed like a good way to do it.
Imagine our pleasant surprise, then, when we ended up on a cruise of the container port on the other side of the river. For those interested in gross tonnages and container-movements-per-hour it would have been great; for normal members of the human race, not so much. Anyway, it was our fault for getting on the wrong boat.
We visited the viewing platform of the Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg’s handsome opera house, for some great pictures of the city, before finally enjoying Speicherstadt from solid ground.
That evening, for something different, we visited Miniatur Wunderland.
Well, we’ve never seen anything like it. Stretching over two floors and a part of another building, the world’s biggest train set absolutely defies description.
Not so much the size of the project, it was the attention to detail that was astounding. From the traffic jams around the airport to the naked couple in a sunflower field that a teenage boy was eager to point out to us, it was just downright clever.
Deservedly popular, and open nineteen hours a day, it was also crowded but not packed. It was always possible to make a little way along and find a spot in the front row.
Away from the docks, Binnenalster (The “Inner Lake”j, with a water jet in its centre and still more boat rides on offer, is nearby to the Rathaus Markt, with the town hall itself looking imposing on one side. It seemed quite affluent; there weren’t many exclusive designer brands missing from the nearby streets.
We also went to the Alter Elbetunnel, a car (well, originally horse and cart) and pedestrian tunnel completed in 1911 and running under the Elbe to the shipyards and docks to the south. Accessed by giant lifts, it probably wasn’t the most efficient vehicle tunnel in the world, but is certainly one of the most elegant.
Our time in Germany is now almost ended, one more footprint will finish this saga.Read more
Lubeck and Helsinki
Jul 24–25 in Finland ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C
Before we left Germany, we took a day trip to Lubeck, another Hanseatic Port on the east coast of the country.
It was a very attractive town, entered from the railway station through the impressive Holsten Gate, a fortification befitting Lubeck’s trading wealth and status. It was also very busy, with crowds around all the points of interest and an abundance of walking tours.
We took a look at Marktplatz, with the rear of the Rathaus to one side and the Marienkirche to another, then went off grid slightly and strolled around some quiet, picturesque side streets.
After a while, we came to the Hospital of the Holy Spirit, one of the oldest social institutions in the world and dating from 1286.
Accommodating up to 170 sick or needy people, and only closed in 1970, it seemed a little inhumane. People were housed in very tiny wooden chambers constructed within the hall, or nave, of the building. The expectation around care for the sick and elderly has clearly changed over the past 740 years!
The Burgtor, the 1444 northern city gate, was quite impressive, and nearby was a viewpoint over the river and to a rather unpicturesque industrial area on the other side.
The Burgkloster - Castle Monastery - was also adjacent, a complex that developed on the site of the founding of Lubeck as Germany’s first Baltic harbour town. In 1229 it became a Dominican monastery dedicated to St Mary Magdalen, a statue of whom stands in the grounds.
Pleasingly, the trains ran on time all day.
Then we found ourselves in Helsinki for a single day.
We revisited some of the sights, on a day when the city was loaded with cruise passengers. It proved again to be a picturesque, easy place to visit.
And that was the end of our European holiday. It was a fascinating trip, once we got used to the cyclists, the cigarettes, the sirens and all those other little things that make a holiday fun.
If only they could make the trains run on time.Read more
TravelerGreat reading, catching up in reverse of your trip. Always such fabulous photos you post. Happy travels. xx