Bohemian Highlights
Travel Day and Day One – 12/13 June 2009
I decided to leave a day early for my tour because flights out of Newfoundland can be hit or miss with fog, and I didn’t want to risk missing my connection in Toronto. It also gave me a day to deal with jet lag. In 2009, there were no flights to Europe from Newfoundland, so to travel east, I had to go three hours west first.
The flights to Toronto and Frankfurt went without a hitch. My luggage was checked right through to Berlin. My connection in Frankfurt was very tight – less than an hour – so, I expected to miss it. My flight was fifteen minutes late and I had to walk halfway to Berlin to get to the Lufthansa gate.
That was when I figured out why wheeled carry-on bags had become so popular.
I had to pass through passport control and go through security again in order to get to the gate. All that compounded the delay, and I missed the flight. It didn’t help that the passport control officer had handed my passport back to me and said it was invalid.
So, I stood there, looked at my brand spanking new passport and asked him what was wrong. He just shrugged and said it was not valid. I had to ask three times before he finally pointed to the signature line. I had not signed it (but if you’re familiar with the old Canadian passports, you’d know the place for the signature was hidden near the crease. The new version moved it to a more visible spot).
I found my original gate and was relieved to see it was still manned. The Lufthansa attendant was actually waiting for me with a boarding pass for the next flight that left a half hour later.
Needless to say, I learned that one should always have at least two hours between flights – especially ones that involved major hubs like Frankfurt.
Especially Frankfurt. It was undergoing renovation when I went through it, and I followed the other passengers leaving my plane figuring that they knew where they were going. At one point, we went through tunnels with steam and water pipes above our heads. We got to a point where you wanted to stop and ask others if that was the right way.
It was, and I have to add, I absolutely loved the “Express Moving Sidewalk from Hell.”
Since I missed the flight, it meant my transfer was left waiting. He wasn’t happy. Actually, he was downright grumpy. Usually, the airline wouldn’t tell him what flight I was on, but they did and he waited. He told me I could have called him and showed me a phone number on the voucher. I had no idea the number was there.
For that matter, I had no idea how to use a German phone and how many of the numbers to dial.
And quite frankly, with so little time, I doubt I would have found a phone.
I gave him a nice tip to make up for the extra cost in parking he had to dish out. Later, I found out that the tip was the cost of a cab ride to the hotel, so I paid for the trip twice over.
Another lesson learned. I’ll never pay for a transfer in a major western city again. They are exorbitantly expensive compared to a cab from the airport.
I arrived at the Berlin Hilton at after ten and the check-in took only a few minutes. Staff were very helpful and all spoke English. My room was on the second floor and had an inside view of the rest of the hotel.
The room contained a bed, tea kettle, iron with board and a safe. The flat screen TV had about a dozen English language stations but half were news stations. The fridge was well stocked, but beware! It automatically charged for anything you took out of it, so look, don’t touch!
Internet was 10 Euro for an hour (used over a twenty-four hour period) and easy to set up with a wireless computer. The hotel also had a business centre.
Since I had managed a bit of sleep on the flight from Toronto, I decided to skip a nap and go exploring. Later experience would prove that that was the right decision. Battling jet lag means getting out into the sun so that the light can help your body adapt.
I walked to a lot of spots that we would visit on the first full day of the tour, but it was nice to check them out at an easy pace.
I found a Subway restaurant on Behrenstrass just a few blocks from the hotel then continued on to the Brandenburg gate, the Holocaust Memorial (photo below), Hitler’s Bunker (or should I say, Hitler’s Parking Lot), the Jewish Museum, Checkpoint Charlie, The Sony Centre and saw some remnants of the Wall.
The one location that I didn’t expect to do on the tour was the Jewish Museum.
It was an interesting visit. It covered all Jewish history, not just the Holocaust. The architecture of the building was amazing. I didn’t have enough time to do the whole museum (they offered tape tours) but I saw most of it, including the leaning columns. It was a good place to visit if you have an interest in Jewish history and one would need at least a half a day to see it properly.
I walked to all locations, so good walking shoes/sneakers were a must. After the Sony Centre, my feet had had enough, so I took a bicycle taxi back to the hotel for 10 Euro.
The terrain was quite flat so the city was a cyclist’s dream. There were bicycle lanes everywhere so watch out for them because some cyclists move much too fast. Even if you think you’re standing on a sidewalk waiting to cross a street, look down to make sure you’re not standing in the middle of a bicycle lane. If you are, and you want to learn a few expletives in German, just stay there and they’ll be happy to teach you.
Assuming they don’t knock you down.
Other things I noticed. The city was very clean and the people were very fit (probably because they all cycle everywhere). Strangely enough, I found that few wore sunglasses or hats.
After all that fresh air, walking and work to avoid cyclists, I was spent. Jet lag finally caught up to me by nine and I was out like a light.
Go to Day Two
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