4th August: Berlin III

It was our last day in Berlin and so we decided to go and take a look at the Anne Frank Museum. We wandered down a little alley way and up a couple of flights of stairs. The exhibition was very good and it showed the holocaust side of things in a very dignified way. One side of the room was filled with information, memorabilia and photographs of the Frank family, and the other side was filled with the same about events in Germany at the time. It was an interesting wander, we found ourselves reading absolutely everything. Anne’s diary is also on display, having been leant from the museum in Amsterdam. There was also a modern part to the exhibition in which teenagers and children discussed their feelings on the war (and on all wars for that matter) and what they thought they would do if confronted with racism and bullying today. I liked this part as it put things into a modern context, and showed us that so many things in the world today are not too far removed from the start of the holocaust. I know that’s a bold statement, but things grow from small movements, divide and conquer is the way of all troublemakers… ok, I’ll get off my high horse, you can all make your own decisions on this topic.

We wandered around a little more, came across a market and a little café where we had a cuppa. We caught a taxi back to Steve’s van/bus and then he drove us back to the airport. It was fabulous being able to spend a few days with him, he comes to visit us all the time, and I like that we got to see a bit of Germany through his eyes (and with his translations!). So, danke schon Steve fur das grosse sher gut uhrs im deine Deutschland! (Yes, my highschool German teacher would be rolling around laughing at me by now, but it’s the thought that counts, right?)

Check out all of our Berlin photos here, which includes some very cool 'wall' art.

3rd August: Berlin II

Day two and we partook of the hostel’s breakfast. Hmm, processed meat and cheese on a breadroll. Needless to say, the tea was nice. We had decided on a river cruise and an open tour bus trip, and so we headed off to where the cruise was meant to start from. The taxi dropped us at a place along the Spree River – and this section had a large part of the wall still intact. They had commissioned artists to paint scenes all along it, on the eastern side, and the art work was both good as well as illuminating. Funnily enough, maybe even ironically, the western side of the wall was just filled with graffiti – mainly things like “Skip was here, Jan 2011” or “Washington rocks!”. After asking lost of people where the cruise began, we discovered that Germans were both not good at map making or giving out the competition’s details.  So we crossed the road and joined the double decker bus tour instead.

We drove around all of the main sites in Berlin and had the option to hop on and off the bus as much as we wanted to. We jumped off at the Brandenberg Gate to have a look and a walk around. It was quite eerie to be standing there in front of the gate to be honest. I think back to all of my history lessons where I have seen photos and video of German troops marching through the gate. It was pretty easy to picture actually. There were people dressed in German army uniforms, ready to have their photo taken with you for a small price, and there was also a bear, Charlie Chaplin, and Darth Vader even made an appearance. In keeping with modernity, there was a Starbucks, right there in prime position.

We wandered from the gate towards the Reichstag Building. It was an imposing building, that’s probably the best way to describe it. I am not sure if it is because of the history of the building or not, but it was imposing to stand and look at.

A little lunch, and then back on the bus to see some more. Our next stop was Checkpoint Charlie. It’s Charlie, because it’s the 3^rd checkpoint (alpha, bravo, charlie etc). We approached from the Eastern side and it is surrounded by displays about the wall, the war, the protests, and the deconstruction of the wall. It also has a lot of information about people who tried to cross the border. So it was a little depressing, but very educational and well worth taking the time to read. Where the wall was, there is a double stone path placed into the ground. I found myself looking for it a lot of the time, and was always wondering if I was on the east or the west side of things. It quite literally cut the city in two though, with this building on one side, and that building on the other. I am sure infrastructure has changed a lot since it came down, but streets would have just ended at the wall at many places, I am certain.

While we were on the bus, they spent a lot of time pointing out railway stations. The Bahnhof Potsdamer Platz was one of these places. When we were at Checkpoint Charlie, I read about how the underground trains had to bypass certain stations as they were in the east (or vise versa) and so I think they are really proud that the subway system now runs the way it was intended to. You can read more about that here.

We were treated to a special song by the tour guide as well – a German song about swimming in summer, or something to that effect. I could see Steve and Mark cringing, but I thought it was pretty cool. He was obviously very proud and pleased to share the song with us. I have it on video for anyone who may like to see/hear it. We jumped off at the Berliner Dom/Berlin Museum after that and had a quick look around. The Cathedral wanted a €10.00 entry, so we passed on that and had a look at the museum instead. It didn’t last too long though as we were all tired and ready for happy hour.

We found a very cool restaurant close to the hostel and had some more authentic food. I had beef with something, Mark had pork with something! Very descriptive aren’t I? Let me see, Mark had pork, but its not pork like we know pork. It’s a dark meat and tastes very different. He had sauerkraut and knődels with it. My beef had some stuff in a bowl that was like a very thick sauce. It had cabbage and onion in it, but I am not too sure what else. The beef was divine though and just fell apart on my fork. We left there and went into a little wine bar to have a bottle of good red to finish off the night. I have decided that I love Europe for its fabulous red wine (and food, and sites, and, and, and….).

2nd August: Berlin I

We arrived in Berlin after a quick 90 minute flight from gay Paris. Steve was there waiting for us and after our hellos, we sat down to have a cuppa and a catch up. Steve is an old friend from Sydney, and we worked out we’ve known each other for just over twenty years now. He moved over to Germany about seven years ago after doing the old “met-a-girl-and-fell-in-love” thing. They now have a gorgeous little girl who loves our fairies, and so we love her too!

We jumped in his van, and took a drive out onto the Autobahn – can’t go to Germany without trying out that 160(odd)km per hour ride! It is just so well organized. Three to four lanes, and everyone seems to move out of everyone else’s way. All very polite. The forests we passed were lovely as well – all regenerated as it seems to be a country well versed in recycling and environmental friendliness.

Steve had booked us into a pension in the old GDR section of Berlin (the east) and once we got all settled in, we went in search of some food. A Vietnamese restaurant down the road sufficed, and it was a little strange having Steve translate a Vietnamese food menu from German into English. We walked down to the local Lidl (Aldi) and got some water and a few other little things, and marveled over the price of non-luxury essentials. Well, the 1 litre bottle of water was only 0.27 euro (so, maybe 0.35AUD). And, like most of Europe, alcohol was available in the supermarket, well, its available at the corner store and the news agency as well!

Next thing we knew, it was happy hour (YAY) and the little Italian restaurant had $5.00euro cocktails. Very multicultural is Berlin; Vietnamese, Italian, Mexican, Thai, Turkish and German restaurants all around each other. The Italian place did good cocktails though, I must admit. We left there for a German place up the road, and, surprise, it was Schnitzel-tag (Schnitzel night). We each ordered a schnitzel with sides of veges and fried potatoes, oh, and another cocktail! The schnitzels were huge, almost the size of two of my hands, and they were very, very yummy. It’s mushroom time in Germany, and so we had mushroom sauce with the schnitzels. I will add here how totally impressed with my German the waiter was. Well, impressed with my attempt at least.

We made our way back to the hotel, and sat down to a photo exchange over a few glasses of red – a good first night in Germany I would say!

1st August - Up the Eiffel Tower

We joined the queues today to catch the lift up the Eiffel Tower. I don’t do heights well, so this was a big thing for me! The queue took about an hour and a half, but we finally got to the front. We jumped into the lift, right at the back so that I wasn’t at the glass front or sides, I was freaked out enough. Mark was telling me that the tower was no higher than the Q1 building, which I have been to the top of, but part of me thinks he was just making that up. Anyway, we got to ‘Level 2’ which is the main observation deck. I knew about then that regardless of anything, I would not be going up any higher. (Mark decided not to as well, mainly because the wait was another 90 minutes at least – so he says he will go up on our next Paris visit).

The views really were amazing, and I’ll say it again, Paris is a beautiful city. Being so high up, looking out, you could see the fabulous way it is all laid out. Parklands, boulevards, wide streets – all leading up to spectacular buildings. We spent about an hour up there, taking photos from every direction.

We decided to go and take a closer look at the Champs-Elysee and the Arc de Triomphe, so we grabbed a taxi. It dropped us about two thirds along the Champs-Elysee, and we found a very cool little Hagen-Dass café – there are no words to describe the amazing desserts on offer! Over 100 flavours of ice-creams, all combined into incredible sundaes and parfaits. We settled on a chocolate and strawberry crepe number, and consumed more sugar than we probably should in a month. It was very yummy though, and much better than my banana and chocolate one the day before.

We wandered up the Champs-Elysee, and into the Louis Vuitton store with all the beautiful people. Needless to say, I did not exit with any Vuitton luggage! A bit further along, we came to the Arc de Triomphe. It’s really an amazing structure, stuck in the middle of a big roundabout. We wandered around it, took photos of all the amazing sculptures and then sat down against the cool rock for a little break.

We found a bus stop nearby and caught a bus all the way down the Champs-Elysee (it is VERY long) to the Place de la Concorde. This is the most incredibly large ‘roundabout’ I have ever seen. It is at least one Brisbane block wide (ok, maybe I exaggerate a little, but not by much!)  We took a look at the fountain, and the obelisk, and then across the concourse to the Jardin des Tuileries, which is the large parklands that lead down to the Louvre. We hung out there for a bit, and then headed back to the hotel to pack up and get ready to fly to Berlin the next day.

We wandered around the backstreets a little looking for dinner, and came across a lovely little boulangerie (bakery). I grabbed an éclair de chocolat, simply because I had obviously not had enough chocolate on our trip so far! They had this strange machine, and I had to put my money into that to pay the woman behind the counter. Like putting money into a car park machine, I put it in one coin at a time.  Turns out, that’s not the way to do it in Paris! The woman laughed and said something, a few others in the store laughed and commented too, but I have no clue – so I just laughed to and said ‘merci’ a few times. It was worth it – the éclair was yummy! How can I describe French pastry, or chocolate – it’s so creamy, not one bit of grittiness or undissolved sugar, it’s amazingly smooth, almost like melted chocolate. It’s not overbearing, you don’t feel chocolated out, so its sweet, but far from sickly sweet.

We found a little restaurant in amongst a dozen others that looked very local and authentic. It’s always fun when you can’t read the menu. We had this fish thing for entrée, it was some sort of pickled herring, and it was just divine. It was all about the little herbs and bits and pieces that went with it that made it so amazing. The herring was cold, it had tiny onions and tiny warmed potatoes with it, and some sort of mustard seed as well. It was just so very yummy! I had the beouf (beef) which was rib steak on the bone and it had potatoes that had been fried up in onion and garlic. Mark had the fish, which had some sort of creamy lemony sort of sauce with it. His potatoes weren’t as good as mine though. We finished up with chocolate mousse (for him) and crème caramel for me. The desserts were as good as the entrées. It was a fabulous last meal in Paris.

We have both decided we love Paris and will definitely be back. The food was just unbelievable. From the bread, through to the chocolate, it was all just amazingly good. Delicate and a fabulous mix of flavours. We found the people to be lovely as well, very different to the French tourists we ran into in London. They were more than happy to help us out with different words and explanations or directions. From waitresses to bus drivers, they were all really lovely, we didn’t come across anyone who was painful at all.

We’re off to Berlin tomorrow to spend a couple of days with an old friend from Sydney, but we will definitely be back in Paris, hopefully sooner rather than later!

Our last day in Paris photos are here.

31st July – Notre Dame, Montmartre & Illuminations Tour

It’s my 45^th birthday, and it’s been the best birthday ever! We wandered down the street to a little café (don’t stay at the Novatel, it’s a 20 minute walk to the nearest café or train station) and had a lovely omelette for brekkie. Next was our first experience with French trains, and we ended up at Notre Dame after a quick platform change and then a little bus trip. What an amazing Cathedral; absolutely gorgeous with the most fabulous stained glass windows. We were there for just over an hour I think, and sat down at one point to take it all in.

We stopped at a little café outside and had a nibble – and I got a yummy banana and chocolate crepe – hey, it’s France, I needed chocolate and crepe!

We jumped back on a train and headed to Montmartre to have a look around and also to go up to the chapel of Sacré Cœur. We wandered up this narrow street, up the hill, and onto a little park. We sat there for a while (so that I could breathe again) and just admired the buildings. Paris has these fabulous four and five story apartment buildings, made of a very pale (almost white) block. They all have lovely French doors (uhm… obviously) and little ironwork balconies. Most of the windows have flower boxes with bright red flowers in them – it all creates a lovely scene to gaze up at.

We continued climbing and came across the first plaza leading up to the Sacré Cœur. We must have taken the scenic route as there really weren’t many people where we were, until we turned the corner. All of a sudden, there were hundreds of people! The view was just incredible – I am pretty certain this is the only real hill in Paris, and every tourist (who wasn’t at the Eiffel Tower) was at Sacré Cœur. Well, it was a spectacular day, and a Sunday as well, so church was on for all the good people of Paris.

There was a street performer – a guy with a soccer ball, who did a balancing act on one of the pillars. It made for a great backdrop! We wandered into the church and mass was on – with beautiful singing by the nuns. So we sat down for a while to just take it all in. The stone of the church was lovely and cool, so I spent some time leaning up against it. I leant against stone that was built in 1873 – very cool indeed!

Here is the website for the basilica: http://www.sacre-coeur-montmartre.com/us/index.html

We took a cable car back down the hill to the district of Montmartre. This area is well known for all of the artists who live (and have lived) there. This was Toulouse-Lautrec’s favoured spot, so I thought it fitting to buy a bag with one of his designs on it! (Chat Noir). It was a busy place, tourists and tourist-aimed shops everywhere, and big signs warning about pick-pockets everywhere. It was definitely lively though, and so we decided to drop into a little pub for a cool-down drink.

Next, we walked along the Rochechouart Boulevarde to have a look at the Moulin Rouge. This is like the King’s Cross of Paris – sex shops, sex supermarkets, and even a sex museum! We saw a couple of the ladies walking and working… and saw one too many drug addict begging or shaping up to someone. So it was a rather quick look at the Moulin Rouge afterall. It was smaller than I thought, and not as glamourous, but I would put that down to it being broad daylight, where we could see all the seedy without the glitz.

We went back to the motel for a little rest before dinner and a night tour. All of the fancy restaurants are closed on a Sunday night in Paris (boo) so we decided on an “illuminations” tour instead. I had always heard that Paris should be seen at night, and it has confirmed even more for me, that this is the most beautiful city in the world. We went past all of the landmarks, and the word ‘illuminations’ is the right one – they were all lit in a spectacular way. It gave the city a ‘look at me’ characteristic that isn’t there during the day – although during the day it’s there, just a very different sort of ‘look at me’. The tour went for 90 minutes, and the highlight was of course the Eiffel Tower. It is spectacularly lit at night, and every so often, they set a light show off on it. Little lights, like Christmas tree lights, flicker on and off, like they are dancing all over the tower (excited little lights to say the least). The photos don’t show how good that looked, but when I figure out how to upload videos, you’ll get a good idea!

Click here to see the photos from my birthday in Paris!

30th July – London to Paris

We caught the train from London to Paris – it was so fast it was amazing. I thought most of the journey we would be in a tunnel, but the tunnel part only lasted about 40 minutes at the most. Just like that, we were in a different country! We caught a taxi from the railway station to our hotel, and he took us on the scenic route – not quite by request, and we didn’t really figure that out until we did a little night tour of Paris (more on that later).

From zis point forward, you must read zis blog with an outrageous French accent… jus pretend you are Pepe LePew talking….

Our hotel is down the road from the Eiffel Tower, about a 20 minute walk. So we high tailed it down there. It’s beautiful, in fact the whole of Paris is beautiful. But the Eiffel Tower is amazing! Photos do not do it justice, and you really MUST see it at some stage in your life (I am certain).  I am pretty sure I took at least 300 photos of it. It is bigger than you think, both taller, and wider – at least bigger than I thought and I thought it was pretty humungous. There were people everywhere, but I kind of expected that. (Are you keeping up with ze outrageous French accent?). We wandered under it a few times, took photos from this angle, and that angle (zis and zat) and then headed over to the Plaza du Trocadéro with their lovely fountains. I should add here, Paris is laid out beautifully in that everything frames everything – you look down this row of fountains to see the Eiffel Tower, and then down the grassy avenue past the Eiffel Tower to just more amazing buildings. This is the most beautiful city in the world.

We sat down looking at the fountains for a while, enjoying the fabulous summer day Paris put on for us. Then we got pretty bloody hot so we went and bought an ice cream (glacé) and wandered up to the buildings which lead down to the fountains which lead down to the Tower which leads down to the grassy bit…. Seriously, how many photos can one girl take in a day!

All over the place are guys selling little replicas of the Tower – I think you can get six or seven of them for a couple of Euros. They sell the same replicas in the souvenir shops for 6€ & 7€ each. These guys are everywhere, and I mean they all stand only a couple of feet from each other. As we were wandering down, all of a sudden they all grabbed their stuff (made easy due to ‘handles’ on the edge of the sheets they lay it all out on, which they just pull and it becomes like a drawstring bag) and took off running. We looked around, and there was a guy walking down the street with a cap on that said ‘POLICE’. All afternoon, we watched them quickly pull up their stuff as the real police wandered down the street. They would be up and off in five seconds flat, and back just as fast again once the police had passed.

Well, I am a little tired from typing with this outrageous French accent, so more to follow later!

You can look at ze photographs 'ere though!

29th July – London

Mark says, “The V&A Museum – we decided to spend a couple of hours in the V&A Museum before meeting up with Heidi in the early afternoon. We really didn’t know what to expect and were quite simply astounded at the museum and its contents. The size of some items combined the minute detail of their designs, particularly the replica of Trajan’s column from Rome, was startling. Michelle got to see Charles I chair and I got to see a Bernini sculpture. It was a short visit, too short, and is a must see next time we visit London”.

He says everything much shorter and sweeter than I do! We left the museum to meet up with my friend Heidi. Heidi and I started our club ‘Swoon’ together in Second Life around four years ago, so this meeting was a long time coming. We were both beside ourselves with excitement! We met up in Camden Town – which is an interesting place in itself! Full of punks and hippies and some bizarre people. We went to a little pub and had some champagne – seemed like a fitting thing to do, and spent a couple of hours just chatting. It was just fabulous being with her – in the flesh – and its something I will always remember. It was a great visit to say the least. Love ya Minnie!

That night, we were lucky enough to go and see ‘Wicked’ at the Apollo Theatre. Jamie had bought tickets for me for my birthday and so Mark got lucky as well. It was a great performance, we both really enjoyed it – it was, well, wicked really! A fabulous last day in London all in all. I will say though, we would both really like to come back and spend a week or two in London itself (and yes, my Liverpudlian friend Anne, I hear you already, a week or two in the north of England as well!). There were so many fabulous things to see and do in London, especially the museums, which you could easily spend a day or two in just one of them alone. So, we’ve done the palaces – next time it’s the (north and) the museums!

Have a look at our 'last day in London photos' here.