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 2nd 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 |
 |
| Add caption |
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”. 
No comments:
Post a Comment