Riding the Train to Prague

We woke up early this morning to catch the train from Berlin to Prague. Today is my BIRTHDAY and what better way to start my day on a train right out from the Harry Potter series!

Just like on the Hogwarts Express, there are enclosed compartments seating around 6 people. Every 30 minutes or so, there’s a vendor with a trolley selling different snacks and sweets for whoever has the spare change.

Annalisa amused about the train!

The view of the German countryside from the moving train

One of the many stops to Prague

It took nearly 3 hours to reach Prague, but the train ride was so lulling and scenic, the time just quickly passed!

Spending the Afternoon at Charlottenburg Palace

After walking for nearly an hour, Annalisa and I finally reached Charlottenburg Palace! This is the largest standing royal palace in Berlin and is a gorgeous place to visit! The neighborhood is accessible from the metro and is about a 20-minute ride from the East side of the city. I would definitely recommend eating lunch before visiting the Palace, since from my own experience and reviews on Tripadvisor, there is not much good food for nearly a 15-minute walk radius around the area.

“We’ll never be royals!”

The front courtyard to the Palace

The museum and parts of the Palace are open to the public for a small fee, but much of the palace is still undergoing reconstruction and restoration. Annalisa and I did not go inside, but from outside, it looks exactly like the Von Trapp home in The Sound of Music (just WAY more posh). The building and grounds were heavily damaged in WWII, yet today, the exteriors look as regal as it did in its prime!

The Royal Gardens

Although we did not have blue skies, the gardens still looked unbelievably beautiful. My photos definitely do not do the experience justice!

Annalisa at the side entrance to the Palace grounds

I just LOVE the many tree-lined paths on these grounds!

The view of the back of the Palace facing the river

Royal gardens in the French style

Annalisa and Yours Truly in front of the Charlottenburg Palace

Steps leading to the river where I could only imagine the scene in The Sound of Music where the children are coming back from their day of shenanigans with Fraulein Maria!

Walking Around the Palace Grounds

The grounds are enormous and is complete with lakes, bridges, parks, gardens, and small buildings. In a place like this, I fantasize wearing a beautiful gown, waving a lace fan while listening to quartets playing in the background while walking around the place. This entire experience definitely satisfies my childhood dream of being a princess!

The view of the Palace from one of the many bridges.

Some of the many white flowers in the gardens!

The mausoleum holding the remains of many generations of the royal family. You have to pay to enter the building, but from my brief glance from outside, the interiors are gorgeous!

Boulevard of pine trees!

The Charlottenburg Palace is not Versailles, but since I have never been, Charlottenburg is the most beautiful place I have ever visited! The grounds are vast and extremely pleasant and beautiful and I am glad we spent the entire afternoon here!

Walking Through Berlin’s Many Street Markets

On our way to visit Charlottenburg, Annalisa and I passed by at least three street markets. It seems that Saturdays are big days for vendors to sell their art, antiques, fashion, and food to wandering locals and tourists, which made for great detours on our walk across Berlin!

This is the Berlin Art Market that goes along the river near Museum Island

I was so tempted to buy myself a pair of opera glasses!

I thoroughly enjoyed these markets! These stalls were fun, diverse, and affordable! If I brought an extra suitcase, I could have easily filled it up with adorable trinkets and chinaware! Anyways, off to Charlottenburg!

Our Last Night Adventure in Berlin!

Tonight was Sarah’s last night in Berlin so we decided to make it count! We did not have our bikes this time around, but we did make it around the city on foot.

Berlin TV Tower at night.

Sarah and Annalisa in front of the cathedral

Visting the Typography of Terror Museum

In addition to the Holocaust Memorial, visiting the Topography of Terror Museum is an important part of understanding the events of WWII. This museum is located on the razed grounds that once housed the buildings of the Nazi regime and was the power center of Hitler’s rule. Today, the museum is a history exhibit and library.

Berlin Wall Memorial

The Berlin Wall ran past this site and a portion of it remains standing, despite its damaged state.

Topography of Terror Museum Exhibits

These exhibits are free to the public and covers information starting from the beginning of WWII. Overall, I thought that the exhibits were well executed and did not leave any one group or country out from the historical narrative, especially women, gypsies, other ethnic minorities, and homosexuals. I appreciate that a country so heavily involved with one of history’s largest atrocities took responsibility to report historical events in an open and honest manner and made it so easy for the public to access these sites around the city.

My favorite photo from the exhibit

The one man out of many not saluting

Visiting the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin

On Sarah’s last day in Berlin, it was a must for us to visit the Holocaust Memorial near the Brandenburger Tor. Built in the early 2000’s, architect Peter Eisenman won a competition to design the Holocaust Memorial that covers nearly a city block. The memorial is comprised of large slabs of stone placed on a downward sloping ground that radiates towards the center of the space. Everything about this memorial is meant to be disorienting and visiting this memorial is really quite an experience in itself.

In searching for the instability inherent in an apparently stable system, the design begins from a rigid grid structure composed of some 2,700 concrete pillars, or stelae, each 95 centimeters wide and 2.375 meters long, with heights varying from zero to 4 meters. The pillars are spaced 95 centimeters apart to allow for only individual passage through the grid. In addition, while the difference between the ground plane and the top plane of the pillars may appear to be random and arbitrary, a matter of pure expression, this is not the case. Each plane is determined by the intersections of the voids in the pillar grid and the gridlines of the larger site context of Berlin. In effect, a slippage occurs in the grid structure, causing indeterminate spaces to develop within the seemingly rigid order of the monument. These spaces condense, narrow, and deepen to provide a multilayered experience from any point in the gridded field. The agitation of the field shatters any notions of absolute axiality and instead reveals an omni-directional reality. The illusion of order and security in the internal grid and the frame of the street grid are thus destroyed.

– Official website

In this context, the monument attempts to present a new idea of memory as distinct from nostalgia. We propose that the time of the monument, its duration, is different from the time of human experience and understanding. The traditional monument is understood by its symbolic imagery, by what it represents. It is not understood in time, but in an instant in space; it is seen and understood simultaneously. Even in traditional architectures such as labyrinths and mazes, there is a space-time continuum between experience and knowing; one has a goal to work one’s way in or out.

– Official website

In this monument there is no goal, no end, no working one’s way in or out. The duration of an individual’s experience of it grants no further understanding, since understanding is impossible. The time of the monument, its duration from top surface to ground, is disjoined from the time of experience. In this context, there is no nostalgia, no memory of the past, only the living memory of the individual experience. Here, we can only know the past through its manifestation in the present.

– Official website

This is a very quiet space and it is eery how quickly people disappear walking through the memorial. Sarah, Annalisa, and I could turn a corner and separately hide behind different slabs without having the person know which direction we went. I guess that might be the point of the design of this memorial.

Midnight Bike Ride Through Berlin!

Since we had the Flat Tire bikes for 24-hours, we decided to take our bikes out for a spin again! The streets were virtually empty and it was simply gorgeous!

Brandenburger Tor at night!

It is a little hard taking photos at night. It is even harder when riding a bike and moving too fast for exposure time. But at least got a few shots!

A Little Photo Fun!

This is basically a summary of all of the fun shenanigans we had that night! We rode past Museum Island, Brandenburger Tor, and through Tiergarten Park to other illuminated parts of the city. I would highly recommend seeing the city at night! Not only is the city gorgeous, the Fat Tire bikes are equipped with pedal-generated night lights for cars to spot us on the road so safety is not a problem.

Taking a Mini Ice Cream Break

When I mean mini… it’s mini! Only in Europe will you see you actually get your money’s worth of ice cream. Only in the US will you get more than what you actually want, even need.

1 Euro scoop of pistachio ice cream on a waffle cone. YUM

Sometimes it just takes ordering ice cream to understand some of the eating differences between Europeans and Americans. This size scoop is pretty standard in many cities I have been to so far and after finishing the cone, I did not feel any the desire to want more than I just had. Just goes to show how American portion sizes can be so unhealthy.

Visiting the Berlin Wall Memorial

After a nice picnic lunch, we hopped back on our bikes and went all the way across the city to visit the Berlin Wall.

“Each flower for one dead of 136”

A Little History of the Berlin Wall

There are many portions of the Berlin Wall still intact around the city, but one of the most historically significant parts of the Wall is along Bernauer Straße.

Map of the Berlin Wall

On Bernauer Strasse the border ran directly in front of the buildings situated on the East Berlin side of the street. After barriers were erected, many residents living in these border buildings spontaneously decided to flee. Some slid down a rope from their apartment or jumped into rescue nets that the West Berlin fire department held ready. Some people were seriously injured while doing so. The first fatalities caused by the border regime also occurred on this street. The buildings were evacuated a few weeks after the Wall was erected. The remaining residents were forced to resettle elsewhere and the windows and doors of the buildings were bricked up… Bernauer Strasse is also a place to learn about how the division was peacefully overcome. On the night of November 10, 1989, the first segments of the Wall were knocked down between Bernauer Strasse and Eberswalder Strasse to create a new crossing between East and West Berlin. The official demolition of the border fortifications began in June 1990 at the corner of Bernauer Strasse and Ackerstrasse. Today the Berlin Wall Memorial is located at this historical site.

– Berlin Wall Memorial website

Different Style of the Walls

The Mural Style Art on the East Side of the Wall

The Graffiti Style Art on the West Side of the Wall

Picnic Lunch at the Base of the Victory Column

After a long bike ride around the city, lunch was long overdue. We decided to stop by a grocery store and buy some food for a lovely picnic somewhere near the Tiergarten Park. When Annalisa saw the Victory Column, we knew we had to eat there!

Our amazing view of the boulevard towards the Brandenburger Tor from the steps of the Victory Column!

Lunch on a Budget

To save some money, we bought ingredients to make sandwiches. In total, all of this food cost around €5 and split between 3 people, that makes lunch around €1.70 per person! Not bad!

Our picnic spread of bread, salami, cheese, mayo, Pringles, chocolate cookies, and paprika chips!

Salami and Cheese Sandwich, which is surprisingly delicious!

Yours truly and Annalisa. As you can tell, I was really hungry!

The bike ride worked up my appetite and it was so relaxing to spend a leisurely lunch in a beautiful setting with great food and company!