Day 1 of our European Trip in the Summer of 2013

We officially started our trip in Philadelphia, PA at the airport.  In usual Uecker fashion we needed to redefine how a family trip should go.  Normally the family packs up the station wagon with half their belongings and maybe even the dog and heads out on a fun filled adventure- or in many instances a trip to hell with the kids.  We can’t really do the Griswold’s Vacations because we live on island and we don’t have kids yet but we can still take a family vacation the Uecker way.

Disclaimer: Parents and Family – this obviously wasn’t how our family vacations went.

What started this whole trip was Chinue’s residency.  She wanted to go to Paris.   Over dinner on June 21st, she informed me about the trip.  She bought a European phrasebook and trip planner.  Doesn't this sound like Chinue?  Once I knew where we were going the difficult planning came next.

We wanted to do the train tour of Europe and this will allow us to do some of that.  Logistics for such an event is a challenge.  We calculated the cost savings and the math in reference to getting a Eurail railpass or just buying each train ticket separately.   The Eurail was the way to go.

Funny store about that railpass.  We had to have it shipped to a friend’s place in Texas in order to be certain we received it on time.  They consider the railpass just like cash so if it is lost it could be extremely difficult to get reimbursed.  The pass was almost tossed as it looks like junk mail.  Fortunately it was found and we were able to use it.

Getting back our style we didn’t just book a flight to Europe from St Thomas.  Nope, we booked it from the states and book ended it with business travel.  Fun, right?  Chin went to Philly; and, I to Central Texas.  Our trips are usually quite tiring and this was no exception.  To get to Philly I was at the airport at 5:15 am.  I then had to fly to Chicago and then on to Philly where I got in just before 5.  Our plane left at 9pm Friday night and 8 hours later it touched down in Paris.  Another layover and 1.5 hours after that we found ourselves in Zurich.

We barely slept on the plane, which was a very bad thing.  Our plan was to sleep on the plane because it was an overnighter but unfortunately stupid Delta put us in the back of the plane with no reclining seats and no air conditioning.  It was a miserable experience.  Speaking of flight experiences I was quite pleased at the efficiency of Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris and of the Air France flight to Zurich.  Top notch!

In Zurich we found ourselves catching the train to Munich.  Originally we were going to go downtown grab a bite to eat and then go on to Munich.  The lady we got the tickets from suggested we take the train to the ferry and take the ferry and then we can still catch the train to Munich and get in at 8pm.  Great plan on paper!  Not so great plan when you have to figure out how the trains work.  We ended up taking the wrong train and had to go back to the airport.  Thanks to the eurail we didn’t have to spend any money on our screwup.  We got back in line for tickets and a new lady was able to find a train for us to hop on in order to catch the ferry AND make it to Munich earlier than our originally scheduled time.

This time around we had to go to the same platform but we waited for the correct train.  The train took us about an hour out of Zurich to a small area with a lake.  We got off the train and then had to figure out where to go.  It was confusing but we basically followed the crowd which led us to a car ferry about 100 meters away from the train station.

 

Side Note: I always preferred metric because it just makes sense.  I also like the 24 hour clocks with none of this “am” and “pm” stuff.  You know how hard it is to schedule a meeting with someone living outside the US?  It gets very confusing when they are 11-13 hour time changes and we have am and pm to worry about.

Back to the story: Anyways the ferry was nice.  The water was green and completely still and it was a little hazy.  Very warm and humid but not hot.  There was a gentle breeze that kept us cool.  The ferry had three levels with the first level being for the vehicles and the top level having a restaurant on it. 

We took the ferry to the other side of the lake and then caught 2 trains to Ulm, Germany.  Ulm was our transfer point to Munich however they didn’t make any announcements in English and our train ended up being cancelled.  On top of that we had to go to a different platform to catch an alternate train.  Again, we basically just followed the crowd.

Munich has a large train station but it was quite nice.  We made our way out of the train station and found a little coffee shop around the corner.  As naïve Americans we had no Euros and only credit cards and Dollars on us.  The coffee we ordered so we could get an internet code was comped by the nice lady because we couldn’t pay. We did get Euros the next day but she wasn’t working when we went back to the trrain station.  With our internet code we were able to book the Hilton for the night and then begin our 20 minute walk to Hofbrauhaus – a German Beirhall.

I had read that Munich was a very modern and cosmopolitan city I just had no idea how literal that statement is.  Like many European cities the main train station is near the center of the city.  It was only 2 or 3 blocks before we made it to their main area.  Just like other cities we have visited (Monterrey, Mexico and Birmingham, England come to mind) the main road is only walkable - no vehicles.  Lots of people out.  Many were dressed like typical Americans but there was still quite a few Lederhosen’s on men and women alike. The vibe and energy flowing through the place really lifted our tired bodies.  We got to walk pass many beautiful buildings including the Notre Dame Cathedral.  When we made it to the Hofbrauhaus it was an old fashion German celebration going on.  A polka band was playing in the middle of the building – did I mention the building was huge- people were singing, cheering, eating and chanting.  Near the end of the night even a few people were dancing to the music.  It was really hot in the place and we walked around for awhile.  They had seating outside but it was filled out.  We eventually found a place to sit where we then proceeded to order a beer and wine.  The food we chose were wieners with German potato salad.   Delicious!  It was served with some very tasty mustard and ofcourse no ketchup.  I am curious to know where the ketchup craze in Wisconsin started.  The Germans in Central Texas only use mustard as well.

After we finished up we took a 20 minute walk to our hotel.  We passed more beautiful buildings and many many bicyclists.  Bikes outnumber cars maybe 4-1?  It was amazing.  You know what else was amazing?  The lack of fat people.  The only fat people were the smokers.

I couldn’t understand the reviews for this Hilton but I chalk it up to naïve Americans.  The hotel was exceptional and definitely better than most Hilton hotels we have stayed at.  Shower and sleep time. Zzzzzzzzz.

Day 2 Munich to Berlin of our European Trip in the Summer of 2013

This leads us to Saturday July 20.  The very first thing we did was to sleep in.  We left the hotel at noon to walk back to the train station.   We didn’t have a lot of time to get back to the train station but we did have a few items on our to do list. We wanted to see Notre Dame Cathedral during the day and find a SIM card in order for us to make phone calls.  We basically struck out in both instances.  One, we didn’t get a chance to go inside the cathedral and 2^nd finding a SIM card that would allow us to use data in countries outside of Germany wasn’t possible.  At least that is what we were told. We settled on trying to find free hotspots.  Free in Europe doesn’t mean the same thing as free in the US.  Not only did we not find Notre Dame on the way back or find a SIM card but we also missed the train we wanted.  Fortunately there was another train we were able to take that arrived 30 minutes after our originally scheduled time.  This train took us through Nuremburg.

I took a pic of all the different beers on the trip

It was a good time on the train.  Relaxing and comfortable seats.  There was a bar in the next train to get drinks from.  Our little “train party” came to an abrupt halt in Berlin.  First, I forgot to download a map that showed us how to get to the hotel.  Second, I could have sworn we were leaving out of the front of the train station (Berlin Haptbahnhof HBF) and in fact we left out of the opposite end.  It may sound like a minor detail but it is kinda important when you walk 22 minutes in the exact opposite way you are suppose to be walking.

When we realized the area was starting to look a little ragged (graffiti, cracked sidewalks,  kids with mohawks, hostels) we figured we must have screwed up.  We started to walk back till we found a Subway (much better smelling than St. Thomas Subway shops) and was able to obtain some internet access.  They used the same internet company that I had used when we were in London 2 years ago.  My credentials still worked!  This is where we made the big discovery that we were walking the wrong direction. We punched in new directions that had us going back to the train station.  By the time we got back to the train station I think it was close to 8 at night.  The fun didn’t stop there.  Due to the lack of internet I had not pulled up the directions for the hotel before we left wifi range. The one silver lining in this is we had a friendly couple who saw us looking at a map and gave us their public transit passes because they were leaving town that night.  That saved us some money and stress as it was good for that night and all the next day.

The first lady we talked to about directions managed the Bahn (train) desk.  She wouldn’t help us.  (We had her again the next day and again she was a bitch to us. ) It took us at least another 20 minutes till we made our way to a tourist center in the train station that could give us directions.  We were told to catch a bus to a station Potsdamer Platz (sorta famous area).  That worked great.  Let me first say thank you to the person who pointed us in the right direction (I mean this with as heavy of sarcasm as possible.) The lady who pointed us in the right direction basically screwed up and gave us incomplete directions.   Upon reflection the next day it turns out she did a terrible job because the subway would have been much easier and less transfers. We had to wait for a bus outside the train station and then take that to another train station to catch another train, walk a half of mile, and then take that to a subway stop instead of 2 subway stops which the lady should have had us take.  The directions didn’t work so great.  The bus was the easy the part but then we made the same mistake as we did in Zurich.  We needed to catch a specific train to the next train stop.  We caught the first train on the track but while it was the right track it was the WRONG TRAIN. This particular train took us past our stop and then a very long distance from where we wanted to go.

Here is where it gets interesting.  First, the distance on the map to the hotel from the train station we were currently stuck at was pretty significant.  Second, it was quite dark outside when we looked out the train station. (less lights = poorer area)  Third, Berlin has an underground train system, regional trains, “S’ trains and a train that makes a big circle every hour.  No one explained this and it took us some time trying to decipher how their transit system works.  Much to our dismay we were having difficulty figuring out the next step.

We tried the circular train but discovered we were going the wrong direction so we went back to our previous station.  We could have gone the other way on the circle but that train stopped running for the night.  Eventually we walked outside were we found a bus terminal.  We spotted one of the train stations on the bus’s window that would get us closer to the hotel.  We took that bus and then caught 2 trains to get us closer to hotel.  After a 10 minute walk and around midnight we finally made it to the Intercontinental Hotel.  We ended up eating at the bar cause most everything was closed.  Chin was determined to get a drink at a “Berlin bar”.  Around 1:30 am we decided to go and find a “Berlin bar”.  One of the waitresses tried to give us directions but the bar was not were she said it was.  We ended up back at the hotel bar where we stayed till almost 3 am.

The immediate area of the hotel wasn’t full of eating establishments.  Damn you Google. 

 

Day 3 of Euro Trip of our European Trip in the Summer of 2013

We got to play tourists!  We started the day off by walking to the nearest underground station and catching the train to Checkpoint Charlie.  That was really cool.  They had pieces of the wall there a museum and a replication of the station as you can see in the pictures.  You will notice a theme throughout the trip, maybe 2 themes the first being we stayed away from museums and we wanted to hit the primary points and then move on.  The second theme would be our propensity to overcome challenges in the face of elevated stress or in shorter terms – getting lost.  I got another shot of Chin by the Berlin Wall. I really thought it would be taller.  The first picture was the night before at Potsdamer Platz where we got a shot at night.  Checkpoint Charlie had tons of tourists and ofcourse a starbucks.  In fact, there seems to be more starbucks than Mcdonald’s!  After battling the crowds we then made our way back to Postdamer Platz to grab some food.  We were fortunate almost the entire trip with a perfect day of weather (read: 90’s and sunny, we’re allergic to cold weather) so we ate outside.  The food was good.  I think we both had some variation of Italian food.  We relaxed a little while sitting outside before we made our way back to the train station (Berlin HBF) via the underground (1 transfer only!).  Going back to the train station the way we did is when we figured out the “Tourist Info” office should be renamed “Tourist Mis-info”.

 

The goal was to take the train from Berlin to Amsterdam before it got dark out.  While we didn’t miss our train we either had the wrong schedule or they cancelled the train.  It’s hard to say because we were not the only ones confused when it didn’t arrive.  We went back to our 2^nd favorite person who worked at the Bahn office and found another train leaving 2 hours later.  With our extra time we ventured back into Berlin via the underground.  Turns out the stop prior to HBF was for the Brandenburg Tor.  That’s that huge gate looking thing that has been around for forever.  However, we didn’t have enough time to visit it and proceeded to the train station.

We checked it out and took a bunch of pictures.  We walked around and tried to find the Holocaust Museum but wasn’t able to find it in our available time period. With this added attraction completed we headed back to the train station.

So what does one do while waiting at a train station?  Would you think that using the bathroom might be one of those things?  HELL NO.  We were in for a shock when we tried to use  the bathrooms.  They cost 1 Euro to use!  Needless to say our frugalness (or is it stubbornness?) decided to take those 2 Euros and buy some beers and wine for the train.  Chin was loving the wine bottles since they came with their own plastic glasses.  Our 6 hr trip turned into almost a 9 hr trip on the train.

Before I get to the train trip I want to mention a little bit about the Berlin HBF.  The train station has 4 levels making it either the first or second largest in Europe (Paris Nord might be busier but wasn’t as large).  With all that money why couldn’t they have added a “big board” to more than just one level?  This would be the board that is continuously updated with the arrivals and departures.  Since they had only 1 board that was viewable on 1 of the 4 levels it made it hard to figure out when a track was swapped or a train delayed.  They did a very poor job on their track signs as well.  Sometimes posting delays from 15 to 50 minutes only to have your train arrive minutes later.

The train trip itself wasn’t very eventful.  There was a several hour delay.  It seems to have come from a combination of things and it only got worse when got closer to the Netherlands.  We drank our dranks, ate some sandwiches and slept a little on the way.  There were some many backpackers on the train that we were unable to make it to the first class sections and ended up staying in 2^nd class.  It was close to midnight by the time we made it to Amsterdam.  Fortunately it was only a 10 minute walk to the hotel.  We checked in and called it a night.

Checkpoint Charlie

Walking towards Checkpoint Charlie

Checkpoint Charlie

The Berlin Wall

 

Potsdamer Platz

Postdamer Platz

Bradenhof Gate

 

Just a pic from the train

 

  

 

Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam

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