Beers, Birthdays, and Bar Crawls: Weekend in Berlin

Weekend 10: October 17^th – October 19^th 2014

Friday, October 17^th

                Stevie took a vacation day to fully enjoy her birthday weekend! Woo hoo! So Friday morning, Rachel met us by the river and we took a taxi to the airport. We got into Berlin pretty early so we left our stuff at the hostel then went shopping! A mall was really close to the hostel and it was a chilly day so we (Stevie and Rachel) decided to buy cute warm accessories! Stevie got herself a nice made-in-Germany warm scarf. After that we got a quick pretzel snack and headed back to the hostel for a free walking tour.

                The tour guide was a nice Romanian guy – currently a research assistant at the local university for ecology of political science or something like that working on his PHD. In a former life he studied at Berkeley and worked as a ‘carnie’ around the east coast of the US. We were his first stop on the walking tour so we had to try and find another hostel to get more people. It took us awhile… Finally we made it and joined up with 18 other people and headed into Berlin. Our first stop was walking by the “new” synagogue. It’s a really pretty Moorish styled building that was saved from “Kristallnacht” because a police officer allowed the fire brigade to extinguish a fire after disbanding a Nazi mob.

                The next stop was Brandenburger Tor – the most ‘souvenir’ shot of all Berlin. This gate was built as a sign of peace by the King of Prussia in 1788. Apparently Napoleon rode through the middle arch of the gate as a sign of rebellion to the King of Prussia (only the King was allowed through the middle). Berlin and Paris never got along real well. The gate is located on ‘Pariser Platz’ or Paris Plaza and was named as such for the anti-Napoleon Allies occupation of Paris in 1814. The tour guide also pointed out the silent memorial to the Berlin wall: 2 rows of bricks in the streets where the wall once stood.

                The next place we saw was the Holocaust memorial: 2,711 slabs of concrete in the same direction, but of varying sizes and slightly angled, looking like graves of varying height. The memorial was very impressive. As you walked between the various slabs of concrete towards the center, the ground dipped and the slabs made you feel smaller and smaller. It was like a giant maze and you could have run into anyone at any corner.

                After some reflection while walking through the memorial, we saw the location of Hitler’s bunker where he and his bride committed suicide then were lit on fire. This was not well marked at all (it was a parking lot with one small sign). The Germans know how bad the holocaust was and our tour guide told us here that there are certain phrases in German that are against the law (relating to the holocaust) that will get you in jail faster than murdering someone.

                After seeing the old bunker location we moseyed over to the only Nazi architecture building that Hitler successfully accomplished while in power. It housed the ministry of aviation 1933-1945. It was nice, but had a prison like feel to it with a lot of small windows and gray stone. Today it’s the national treasury building. The tour guide told us that these big monuments (treasury building, Brandenburger Tor, etc.) were not blow to complete pieces because pilots used them in WWII as references to where they were to drop their bombs.

                After the treasury, we stopped by the “Topography of Terror”; a monumental piece of the Berlin wall showing the story of the invasion of Poland and how it “rose from its ashes”. 1933-1945 this location was the headquarters of the Gestapo and the SS (Schutztaffel), or the paramilitary of Hitler. It was a very humbling piece of the Wall.

                After that, we made our way to “Checkpoint Charlie”; one of the three checkpoints into West Berlin when the city was split in half. Pretty touristy with food shacks and sign boards, but still pretty neat to see a living piece of history.

                After Charlie (and grabbing some currywurst) we went to see the twin cathedrals of Berlin. There was a French built cathedral that mirrored a German cathedral in the same plaza as each other. The French Cathedral was built in 1705 by the Huguenot community who were persecuted in France seeking refuge in protestant Berlin. The German cathedral was built directly across from the French and mirrors its architecture. It was built in 1708, and then added a dome in 1785 which was destroyed in a fire in 1945. When they rebuilt the dome – they built it 7 meters taller than the French cathedral.  In this Gendarmenmarkt plaza is also the Konzerthaus (concert house)  - home of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra.  

                After the cathedrals we walked past the Bebelplatz of Humboldt University where 20,000 volumes of books were burned in the Nazi book burning of 1933. There is an empty shelf room that you can see under the plaza to show people how much knowledge was lost from the burning.

                Then we walked over to the Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral) to take in its architecture and see the old palace for the King of Prussia getting rebuilt to the original design.

                Finally (after this 5 hours of walking), the tour was over. It really was a great tour and didn’t seem like we walked all afternoon. We went back to the hostel to check in and have a happy hour cocktail in the lounge then headed next door to the Hofbräu München of Berlin where we enjoyed some HUGE portioned Bavarian (southern German) food with a few pints of fresh beer and live music. This place was hoppin’ on a Friday night! People were dressed up in their Oktoberfest/traditional German costumes and partying the night away with friends and family. All the tables were long picnic tables so you got to make friends while you ate. There was also a band there playing what sounded like was traditional German music because everyone kept chanting bar songs or cheers. It was a really fun and traditional dinner.

                In hopes of trying to make it to midnight for Stevie’s birthday, we went up to the lounge of the hostel for some cheap drinks. It was here where the bartender lit up some shots of sambuca for us. That was quite the experience (see the pictures!). Then, it was bedtime – we almost made it to midnight, but not quite.

Saturday, October 18^th

                Happy birthday Stevie! J! We slept in a little bit then headed out for some pastries for breakfast then we were on our way! First stop of the day, wandering along the river while searching for the Eastside Gallery. We stumbled upon a really cool statue of St. George and the Dragon while we walked along the pretty riverside. Finally we made it to the gallery. This 1.3 km part of the Berlin wall houses really neat graffiti and art work reflecting on the times of the Wall.

                After walking along the wall, we took the train into the city a little bit then walked past the Jewish Museum. We didn't go in, but the outside was very cold and modern with the Star of David on the side of the steel walls. There were very little windows and the aerial view looks very bleak too – an exploding Star of David.

                Then we made our way back to Checkpoint Charlie for some pictures with the “American” soldiers. We walked inside the fence of the small history museum devoted to the checkpoint then got some lunch across the street.

                After that we went up in a ‘hot air balloon’ to see Berlin! It was just a helium balloon with a cable connected to the ground. We went up 150 meters and got to see most of Berlin. It was kind of a hazy day, but we still saw everything that we walked on the tour the day before (A LOT OF WALKING).

                When we got down from the balloon we headed towards the Reichstagsgebäude or the Parliament building of Berlin. It’s a neat old building with now a glass dome where people can go up it and walk around it. Unfortunately we didn't know we needed tickets a day in advance so we just looked at the building and moved on because we just saw Berlin from the balloon.

                We then walked back to the hostel to get ready to party!!! Stevie had a nice google hangout with her family then we all got ready to go out. Rachel found a nice pub crawl online so we meet up with 120 other young adults to go celebrate the birthday! We made our way to four different bars which had specials for our group. We met a nice group of girls from University of Dallas who were studying in Rome and stuck with them most of the night. We also met some nice Israeli boys who managed to get half the bar to sing happy birthday to Stevie at 3 of the 4 bars (twice at one bar – thanks Rachel). The whole group got on a metro then made their way over to the other side of East Berlin to get free entrance into the Matrix club. It was a pretty neat club considering it was built under the tram/metro railway close to the very pretty Oberbaum Bridge. After the 7 hour crawl/clubbing celebration, it was time to call the birthday festivities to an end.

               

Sunday, October 19^th

                Sunday morning we (Stevie and Stuart) got up to go to mass in the Berliner Dom cathedral. However, we found out quickly (with the entrance of a female priest) that this was not a Catholic cathedral. We stayed for the service though. This service included 4 or 5 small readings, lots of singing, a sermon from what seemed like the female bishop from a tall fancy enclosed podium that looked like an egg, a communion service, and a really nice pieced played on the huge organ.

                After that we went back to the hostel to pick up Rachel and made our way to the Mauerpark flea market. This place was huge! Rows and rows of jewelry, bags, stuff, and more old stuff. The center had a lot of food stands where we got some fresh juice, fresh cut potato chips on a stick, and some lunch. We stayed there exploring for a couple hours then headed back to the hostel to get our stuff. It was time to leave Berlin L.

Overall, it was a very fun, sobering, un-sobering, long weekend!

Up next: Paris for this weekend and Madrid for the next!!! (<Stevie can’t wait to show Stuart Madrid J)

Gros bisous (big kisses),

Stevie and Stuart

Castles, Beer, and Bratwursts! Our weekend in Stuttgart, Germany.

Weekend 9: October 10^th – October 12^th 2014

Friday, October 10^th

                Stevie took a half day at work so we were able to meet up with Ed and Carol in Stuttgart Germany Friday night. It was about a 4 hour high speed train ride from Paris over to Stuttgart with 2 other stops along the way. We got in a little late then took the commuter train over to the hotel

                For dinner, the hotel worker suggested we go to the Brauhaus of Schönbuch in Böblingen to kick off our Oktoberfest weekend in Stuttgart! We got some very large beers and typical pork sausage dinners. Stevie had a lentil and weiner meal called linsen and spätzle while Stuart got the schnitzel. The brauhaus was so hoppin’ that we had to sit outside, but it was still nice out and fun to be in the beer house atmosphere. Since the brewery was 20 feet behind the brew house restaurant, the beer tasted very fresh and the bar had a HUGE tap (we’re talking like 1 foot in diameter pipe header here!). There were also a lot of big old copper kettles used for brewing.

 

Saturday, October 11^th

                We got up at a decent time and had a fantastic breakfast at the hotel. We then jumped on the commuter train with about half of Germany dressed in their lederhosen and dirndl dress all ready for Oktoberfest. It’s actually the second largest beef festival in the world and it’s called Cannstatter Volksfest in Stuttgart. We stopped one stop after the beer festival to see the Mercedes museum.

                The museum was really cool and actually a history museum as well as a car museum. The building was arranged in the peace sign Mercedes logo so there were three sections of the museum. You started on the top (7^th) floor and worked your way down a spiral along the three different sections of each floor. As you went down to the next floor there were pictures of newspaper articles and big moments in history that guided you into the next era of car stuff that was about to come. The favorite section of the museum for Stevie was probably the top and oldest section that told the history of Karl Benz. Benz is known as the inventor who first patented the flat engine and is generally regarded as the inventor of the first automobile powered by an internal combustion engine. There were a lot of his first models of engines and transportation devices. Since he made engines for a lot of stuff, the Mercedes logo is made of three pieces for engines for land, air, and water.  Stuart really enjoyed how the museum paralleled the evolution of the automobile with the history of the world.

                After the museum, we made our way over to the beer festival! It was pretty much a HUGE carnival. There were five or six huge beer halls  with carnival rides and German carny-food such as pretzels (bretzels), bizarre valentines type gingerbread cookies where you could get different sayings iced on them, roasted candied nuts, and of course, bratwursts and all sorts of sausage/hot dog stuff! We stopped at a beer tent for some local beer and a bratwurst/hot dog thing in a large roll for lunch. After that we explored this very oddly placed flea market that accompanied the festival as well as got some candied nuts.

                After we had enough of the drunken costumed festival, we made our way into central Stuttgart. We found the “Old Palace” or Altes Schloss, home of the newly renovated castle and Landesmuseum Württemberg. This old castle has parts from the 10^th century. The ‘state’ that Stuttgart is the capital of in Germany is called Wurttemberg, so the museum tells the history of the region starting from the stone ages! The museum was filled with artifacts such as weapons, jewelry, and pottery from various time periods throughout the region. There was also a glass exhibit from 4 centuries, a clock collection, and the crypt that holds Queen Olga, King Karl, their niece Wera, her husband Duke Wilhelm Eugen and their son Carl Eugen buried under the Palace Church.

                After the museum we all shared a nice bottle of red wine while we observed the people passing by on their shopping rounds. We sat in the town’s main shopping area square (Schlossplatz) that was lined by “the new castle” (Neues Schloss) where Duke Carl Eugen von Wuerttemberg lived during the winters.

                We made our way back to the town the hotel was in and has a nice Italian dinner as we were all sausage-ed and beer-ed out then had a nice sleep to get ready for the next day!

 

Sunday, October 12^th

                We got up and had breakfast then made our way in the rental car to Liechtenstein Castle, just about an hour or so drive from Stuttgart. Inspired by the book “Lichtenstein”, Count Wilhelm of Wurttemberg built the castle based on the castle in the book in 1840. We were able to get our own private tour of the castle where we saw his hunting/drinking room, chapel, and great ballroom. The castle has a great view of the cities in the surrounding valley. This castle was Wilhelm’s summer home and the castle still belongs to his descendants. There are a lot of interesting myths surrounding this castle and the various shot marks and broken statues in the castle. There’s also a champagne glass as tall as Wilhelm given to him by his bride on their wedding day. Champagne was his favorite drink and three bottles of it could fit in the glass!

                We were able to walk around the “gardens” or surrounding fields of the castle as well as see the church, smaller chapel and little armory in the castle’s property. It sure was spooky with the all the fog in the valley surrounding the castle in the morning.

                After that castle, we made our way to an older, more ruined castle of Hohenneuffen after a minor detour on the way up the hill. The drive between these two castles was gorgeous! Germany is so green and was starting to change colors for the fall. There are a lot of rolling hills and trees in the area making it look similar to Brown County Indiana.

                Once we finally got up the large hill to the castle, we had a great panoramic view of the little neighborhood/cities below. The castle was built before 1140 and it eventually became a military stronghold. But people don’t come to this hill to see the castle, they come to eat and see the falcon show! There’s a restaurant and a hot dog and fry stand in the castle ruins as well as a small company that puts on a falcon show three times a day on the side of the castle. People also bring picnics and just sunbathe or lay around the castle’s green areas enjoying the local billy goats and view.

                We got some lunch up on the castle (hot dogs and something that Stevie can’t pronounce but it was like processed meat and herbs in a potato pasta wrap that looked like ravioli sitting in French onion soup). We also got some local apples from a guy selling them on the way down from the castle. They were pretty good, and he was very nice to let us know which apples not to pick because they had “würmen”.

                We made our way back to Stuttgart where Ed and Carol dropped us off at the train station in time to grab a snack for the train and head back to Paris. Overall it was a very fun, eventful yet relaxing weekend with family!

Up next weekend: Stevie’s birthday in Berlin!!!! One of the best night life cities in Europe J

Plein de baisers (lots of kisses),

Stevie and Stuart

Pot, Prostitutes, and Pancakes: Our weekend in Amsterdam

Weekend 8: October 4^th – October 5^th 2014

Saturday, October 4^th

                We got an early train and made our way to Amsterdam! Once we got in, we stored our luggage and got a map, woo! Amsterdam is pretty small actually, so it was really easy to just walk around the city with the canals as your guide.

                Our first stop off the train was a quick stroll through the center of town and then over to the Anne Frank House. MAJOR TIP NUMBER 1 FOR AMSTERDAM TRAVEL: Don’t go to the Anne Frank House on the very day of Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year for Judaism. So, as it was the holiest day of the year for Jews, the Anne Frank House was closed. This was pretty much the only day of the year that the house was closed, and we picked this weekend to go to Amsterdam….

                After a failed attempt at the museum we wandered around the city and got a nice little Dutch lunch of half a sausage and mini pancakes (poffertjes). We sat through a free organ concert (<this was somewhat of a struggle for us) at the Westerkerk church (one of the first purposefully built Protestant churches in the Netherlands and is still the largest Protestant church there). Rembrandt was buried there.

                After that it was time to stroll the canals en route to the Bloemenmarkt – the world’s only floating flower market, founded in 1862- or so Wiki tells us. It was pretty neat, but mostly sold tulip bulbs – go figure. We decided to head down to the huge street market on Albert Cuypstraat. On our way to the market we saw the Heineken brewery. At the market we bought some nice fresh smoothies and waffles while perusing the unique and not so unique goods along the street. Too bad we were all full on chocolate covered waffles to get the traditional Dutch raw/pickled herring sandwich.

                After the market it was time to head to the museum area of town. We saw the newly renovated Rijksmuseum as well as the Van Gogh museum. The “I Amsterdam” letters were outside of the museums as well as a nice park to have a picnic. We saw some interesting street performing break dancers around the “I Amsterdam” letters.

                After taking a small break outside the museums we walked around the large Vondelpark (similar to a Central Park) and did some people watching. There was a wedding reception, some girls barbecuing shrimp in a bucket, and a whole bunch of other people smoking who knows what (but really I think we all know what they were smoking….).

                We took a nice little canal tour back to the central train station and saw the Anne Frank House and some other neat canal tour-y things. There were a lot of cute little house boats docked along the canals and we even got into a little traffic jam at a “4 way stop” in a canal.

                After getting off at the central station we walked around that area of town. We saw the sailor café inside the tower of Schreierstoren or “Weeper’s Tower” where women would say goodbye to their sailors back in the good ole 1500s. It is said that Henry Hudson set sail from this tower. The café inside the tower is called the VOC café or Dutch for East India Company because sailors went to the “East Indies” from here. Unfortunately the café was closed for a private event when we wanted to get some real sailor’s genever (gin).

                After our wanderings we finally found a quaint little restaurant for dinner. In order to digest, we took a very interesting stroll through the Red Light District. There is definitely a NIGHT and DAY difference in this part of town. Being right in the CENTER of old town Amsterdam, the Red Light District was super crowded and literally glowing red from the red tube lights lining the windows of the brothels (<that’s probably not a politically correct term anymore). To be quite honest, we were a little surprised at first to see women standing in their lingerie in the windows waiting for their next customers. The Red Light District also has “coffee shops” that are very clearly marked that they sell more than coffee (ex. Reefer Café, Green Day Café, High Time Café, The Grass Hopper Coffee Shop). Sorry, no pictures from experience, you’ll have to see it for yourself. We didn’t feel comfortable at all really in this historic neighborhood of Amsterdam after dark. We were done after a quick stroll through the center of town, so then it was off to the hotel.

 Saturday, October 5^th

                Sunday morning we got up for mass and headed to the Basilica of St. Nicholas. Unfortunately we didn’t get any pictures because it was mass time, but it was a dark church inside (painted stone) with the story of St. Nicholas just under the stained glass windows lining the main corridor of the church.

                After mass, it really was time to see the Anne Frank House. Due to Yom Kippur, there were twice as many people in line. We waited for 2 and a half hours as the house is small and the museum filters people through it. We waited in the (freezing) line outside and around the corner. As we waiting we chatted with the older Australian couple behind us. The museum was pretty worth it though. Although the secret back house (annex) was kept barren due to Anne’s father, Otto’s request, the walk through the back house was very humbling. 8 people had lived in secrecy in the back house of Anne’s father’s company’s warehouse for almost two years. After walking through the house, the museum had a lot of Anne’s diaries on display and quotes and pictures along the walls. Unfortunately the front of the house was getting renovated, but we got a picture from the back. I don’t think it was the “back house” or annex, but it gives you the feel of what the front of the jam warehouse would look like.

                After the museum we got some huge pancakes and Dutch pea and sausage soup then made our way to the “Cheese Museum”. The museum was really just a cheese store that had a lot of free samples, but it was pretty good. Amsterdam cheese is a lot less pungent then French cheese. The museum had a lot of gouda on display.

                After our little cheese tour we wandered away the last couple hours of the day by walking to the NEMO Science Center museum as well as the “Scheepvaartmuseum” or Shipyard museum. That was pretty cool because they had a replica three masted “Amsterdam” ship of a Dutch East India Company ship from 1749. We also saw a nice windmill from the Shipyard museum area. That about wraps it up for our weekend in Amsterdam.

The agenda for next weekend: Stuttgart Germany with Ed and Carol for Mercedes and Octoberfest (Cannstatter Volksfest – the world’s second largest beer festival).

A très bientôt (see you very soon),

Stevie and Stuart