Bikes, Beer and Berlin

It was time for us to leave the English speaking world temporarily and find out what the Europe fuss was all about.

We arrived in Amsterdam after an overnight flight from Boston, via Dublin, a little tired but excited about the adventures that lay ahead. First thing was to put on some warmer clothes as it was about 10deg cooler in The Netherlands than Boston. We had arrived about 1pm and so made our way to the hotel. This turned out to be easy due to a user friendly public transport system. As we had an overnight flight where we lost 6 hours we had a rest/nap/watching the Tour de France in Dutch before heading out.  We headed into the main part of Amsterdam and had a look around. The city is a network of Canals and roads. It was/is amazing.

Amsterdam Canal

 

Amsterdam City Living

We wandered down Damstrak (main road) and through the Red Light District before going to get some frittes for dinner (fries with a mayo type of sauce). Following this we found a small bar to sit and have a few beers, got an eyeful of the window girls and watched the revellers go by.

Start of Amsterdam's Red Light District

Our ssecond day in Amsterdam we woke up a bit late due to jet lag and we headed back into the city centre.

When we got in there we decided to rent bikes and follow the route of a site seeing tour. Firstly we went to Centraal station, the main station, and then onto Nemo (science centre) where you could get good views of Amsterdam from the roof. We then biked around past a big old hotel and on to a windmill. Further on we found the Dapper street market and had a look around there. Back on the bikes we made our way around to Heineken Brewery.

Biking in Amsterdam

 

Erin in Amsterdam

 

Heineken Brewery

The Heineken brewery had a tour that took us about 2.5 hours and covered history, how they brew beer, some interactive games and tastings. After having a look at the gift shop we got back on the bikes and made our way back to the bike store, stopping a few times on the way to take photos.  After we dropped our bikes off we walked back to an area we had been earlier to find some dinner and to visit the Icebar. The Icebar was -10C and we got our beers in a glass made of ice. We had to wear these coat things and gloves. Following this we went to the Magnum Ice-cream place where they made custom Magnum's. After we had immensely enjoyed our ice-cream we headed back out to the hotel.

At the Ice Bar

 

Magnum

For our last day in Amsterdam we went to see the Anne Frank House to look at the house, the diary that she wrote her story in and the infamous Justin Beiber comment in the visitor’s book. Following this we went to a Pancake bakery for lunch before going to Vondelpark. Vondelpark was a big city park where you could walk, cycle or just chill out on the lawn.

Anne Frank House

Vondelpark

 

A bit later we made our way to the bus terminal in order to get the overnight bus to Berlin, Germany.

Following a long overnight bus trip with one of the finalists from ‘Angriest Bus Driver in the World’ competition, we arrived in Berlin at 7.30am and found our way into the city centre. After dropping off our bags and picking up some tourist brochures we decided to go wandering.

Loosely following a site seeing bus tour route we wandered down to the main area looking at the buildings as we went by. As we were so tired, it was hot and we had a few days in Berlin we didn't really go into anywhere, just looked around, before heading to our hotel.  Unfortunately much
closer to the Polish border than Berlin than we had originally hoped and an hour later we arrived.

 

 

Our first stop on our first full day in Berlin was to the East Side Gallery, which was a section of The Wall that had been painted/graffitied on during the cold war era. We walked along here and then made our way to Alexanderplatz, mall area. After a brief look around here, including the world clock, we then made our way to the famous Checkpoint Charlie. Checkpoint Charlie was a gate in the wall which allowed access between East and West Berlin. It was the only checkpoint in the middle of Berlin and was the main one that the Allied Forces (USA, UK, France) used.

 

 

 

After reading all about this we made our way to the Holocaust memorial but instead came across another section of the wall as well as the Topographie of Terror. The Topographie of Terror outlined Hitler and the Nazi's rise to power in 1933-1934. This had some terrifying stories about what the Nazi's did in order to get into power. Suitably shocked and shaken we made our way to the Holocaust memorial. Because it was late we decided not to do the information centre but had a look around the grey "steales".

 

 

To lighten things up a bit we went to the Ritter Sport Chocolate store and had a look at how the chocolate is made. Of course we were required to buy and taste chocolate after the little tour. We found a place to have some dinner, Schnitzels and Beer, before heading back out to the hotel.

On Friday we got up and went to check out the Holocaust memorial we missed the day before and read about the horrifying events of the Genocide of the Jews in Germany.

Following this we had currywurst (a curried sausage) for lunch before going to the Berlin Museum. The museum showed the history of Berlin from the 1200s through to today, including the World War I and II and The Berlin Wall.

We then decided we needed a break from all the heavy stuff and went for a walk through Tiergarten to a shopping area. Coming back from this brought us round to Potsdamer Platz where there was a lookout on one of the buildings. We went up and got some good photos of Berlin and read about the history of Potsdamer Platz. Following this we found some dinner before going back out to the hotel.

 

Our final full day in Berlin had us heading to the Reichstag building (Parliament) which we could go into and look at the dome in the building. Normally you need to make an appointment but we were lucky and a group had cancelled so we could go in straight away. After a brief elevator ride we were at the roof terrace and we climbed the dome. It gave some really good views of Berlin.

Following this we had some lunch and then walked toward the Berliner Dom. The Berliner Dom is the Berlin cathedral and therefore a massive church. We had a look around the church and the dome. We could walk around the dome, on the outside, and have some more good views of Berlin.

After this we relaxed for a bit in Lustgarten before going to find some beer at Alexanderplatz. We found a craft brewery, Brauhaus Mitte, where we tried a few of their beers.

The Sunday was a travel day to Munich so we packed up and went into the Hauptbahnhof (central station).  We arrived in Munich about 9pm and found our way to the hotel.

Munich

We woke up early and after breakfast headed into Munich. At the hotel we had found a brochure for a hop on/hop off bus tour so we set about walking that tour. First we returned to the Munich Hauptbahnhof and started from there. On our improvised walking tour we went past Konigsplatz, Odeonsplatz, English Gardens, Isartor, and Stachus to name a few of the sites.
 

One of the highlights was a river at English Gardens where people surf which we watched for a while. During our walk we also found an open air market, Viktualienmarkt, which had food, beer vendors and lots of trestle tables. We had lunch here, Bratwurst and beer, and consequently ended up back here for dinner.

Before dinner however we walked through the Main Street onto Marienplatz which had the city hall with a big glockenspiel. Nearby was St. Peters Church which had a tower we could climb that had good views of the city. Following this we went to Hofbrauhaus, a massive beer hall, for a (large) beer and then made our way back to the market for dinner and more beer.

On our second day in Munich we headed to the infamous Dachau Concentration Camp. This was the first camp to be set up for political prisoners during the Nazi Reign. It is also where the Concentration Camp model for all the other camps was established and where all the SS guards were trained.

We had access to the whole camp, which they have rebuilt since it has undergone other uses since the war. We first had a look through the museum, which was very extensive, covering the Nazi's rise to power and the time at Dachau Concentration Camp. This took us 3 hours. After this we had a look around the grounds where they had the bunker (prison) and they had reconstructed one of the barracks. They still had all the foundations for the other barracks there. They also had some chapels for different religions. We then made our way to the crematorium.   Although the museum was very detailed on the evil that had occurred at the prison, it was the crematorium that really hit home the pain and suffering that occurred at the camp. It is difficult to explain in words how horrible it was to walk through those buildings that were designed for extermination of humans.

Following all of this we went back into Munich to catch up with an old friend of Marty’s (Aaron Callegari and his wife, Sarah) for dinner at the Hofbrauhaus.

We decided that on the Wednesday we would have a day enjoying the Sun and Beer of Munich. So after running a few errands in the morning and seeing the Glockenspiel in Marienplatz we headed to Englisher Gartens. English Gardens is a huge park not far from the main part of Munich. There were heaps of people around. English Gardens is also known for being a nudist area, so lots of ‘naturists’. We had organised food for a picnic with some beers so we sat at the park, by a river, for the afternoon reading, eating and drinking beer.

About mid arvo we then went around to a Beirgarten, Seehaus, on a lake, for more beers and dinner into the evening to celebrate our last night in Germany.