I'm in Munich now. My computer is having difficulty with the hostel's wireless again, so I'm writing this now and will post it when I get the chance.
It's hard to believe I'm most of the way through my trip to Germany. I have tomorrow here in Munich, and then I leave for Austria on Monday. Wow. Anyway.
Day two of Berlin was spent partly doing things and partly trying to get places. Though it was not so much that I got lost as that I underestimated how long it would take me to get places. The first thing I did was go to Schloss Charlottenburg (Charlottenburg Palace, named after the first queen of Prussia, Sophie Charlotte), which is at the end of what would have been a very pretty drive had it not been raining and muddy and full of puddles. I explored the palace for a few hours, which I think is actually the first stately home I've been to in Europe. Well, I've been to castles, but most of them have been in some sort of ruin. Charlottenburg did get bombed during WWII, but they've recreated the rooms that had been destroyed.
Charlottenburg is also apparently known for its gardens. I did spend some time there, but it was raining, and I would have gotten more pictures, but my camera was about full up. So after I was done at Charlottenburg, I went back to my hostel to dump pictures from my camera to my computer. By then it was mid-afternoon, so I decided to take one of those bus city sightseeing tours, so that I could decide what I most wanted to see the next day and to see something of what I did not have time to go see ordinarily.
I enjoyed the bus tour. Outside the Jewish Museum is the most random statue ever, of Superman plummeting towards the ground...and his head getting splattered. I went back later to take a picture of it, because that was a big-time eyebrow-raise. Also, somewhere along the river Spree is this stretch of Wall that's left over, that people have painted on, and now it's the longest open-air art gallery in Europe.
On Wednesday I went to the Reichstag, their parliament building. In the middle of it there's this dome where you can climb to the top and have a great panorama of the city, and it's free to the public, so I decided to do that. It was quite a long queue, though, and the guy behind me was wearing a shirt making a Nazi joke. I didn't say anything, but I was inwardly raising an eyebrow and thinking, wow, that's in such good taste. Seriously, wearing a shirt making a Nazi joke in Berlin? To the parliament building? Probably the only worse place to wear such a shirt would be Poland. At least once we got into the building the guards made him cover it up. And it was a nice view of the city, but it would have been nicer had the sky not been so cloudy.
After the Reichstag I had a bratwurst for lunch on Alexanderplatz, then went to Checkpoint Charlie.
I found myself...surprisingly emotional. I mean, I was barely two when the Wall opened, so it's not like that had such personal relevence. But I don't think I ever really appreciated how important the World Wars and their aftermath were until I got to Europe. The World Wars are such a part of the national consciousness of both Britain and Germany, and I knew a lot of objective facts about them, but being here really brings it home, I guess.
The Brandenburg Gate, which I saw my first day in Berlin? Big-time national symbol? Was in the middle of the border no-man's-land when the Wall was up. This hugely important symbol was shut away where no one could get to it. I walked through it like it was nothing, but thirty years ago I couldn't have done that. It's amazing to be there and really realize that.
Checkpoint Charlie had so many details of people's escape attempts from the GDR, and along the Tiergarten were crosses with the names of people who died trying to cross the Wall. I saw so much, and found myself feeling so much as well.
Anyway. After Checkpoint Charlie I went for a boat tour along the Spree, which I enjoyed. It was very scenic, and had lots of information. Apparently Berlin has more water and bridges than Amsterdam, Venice, and Paris combined. I never would have guessed.
That was basically it for Berlin, and that evening I took the train to Hamburg. The first thing I learned about taking trains in Europe is that while I don't technically need seat reservations with a Eurail pass for most of my trips, they are a good thing to have. At least then I will be able to go to my seat and not need to find a non-reserved one, with my bag blocking the aisle and many people (including train staff) not speaking English. And plain seat reservations, as opposed to tickets, do not cost very much (around five euro or so, from what I've seen), so I think that will make things easier.
I did get into Hamburg fine, and met Maddy at the station. It was almost ten at that point and I was getting tired, so we just went back to her place, talked to her landlady for a bit, figured out what we wanted to do the next day, and went to bed.
I only had one day in Hamburg, but it was enough, even though apparently Hamburg is the second biggest city in Germany. We went to the archeology museum, which was interesting, though only in German, so I mostly just looked at cool things and knew nothing about them. We stopped by the planetarium because I thought a shop in a German planetarium would be a nice place to get something for Linda, but they had a measley shop, so we left soon. Then we had lunch and went to the ethnography museum.
Museums in Germany have given me a new appreciation for London museums, because most of London's are free. I miss that. It was a big incentive to actually go to them. But since I've been getting burned out on museums, having to actually pay for them is an excuse not to go. :p Of course, I have been to the ones I've been most interested in, but I definitely miss the free ones in London.
After the ethnography museum, we went to the lakes, where I ended up taking a two-hour-or-so nap in the sun. I don't seem to have burned, but though it was nice, I don't want to make a habit of that. And I definitely need to get some sunscreen before I go to Nice, and preferably before I go to Venice.
Maddy and I took the night train from Hamburg to Munich, which was not as bad as I'd been dreading. I remember I couldn't really sleep at all on the flight to London, and I only reserved a reclining seat on the train because that was cheaper. I managed to sleep fairly well on it, though. Enough so that even though I woke up at 5:30 this morning and it's 8:30 at night, I'm still showing no signs of crashing. It was quite cold, though. What I think I'm going to do is get a beach towel before my next night train (Vienna to Venice). A beach towel can do triple duty as beach towel (for Nice), regular towel (because I've been renting from hostels), and blanket. Now I just need to find where to get one. I might try to get to a department store tomorrow.
We got into Munich at about eight this morning, dropped some stuff off at the hostel, then wandered to Marienplatz, Munich's central area. Marienplatz has this building that looks like it's an old church or small castle, but is actually the town hall, and was only built in 1908, just built to evoke that sense of actual age. From there we walked up to the Munich Residence, which is where the rulers of Bavaria lived until 1918. That was pretty cool, though extremely big and I got a bit lost more than once.
We went for lunch at the Viktualienmarkt, aka the food market. Very impressive place, rather reminiscent of a Renaissance Faire. It has that same press of people, many of them drinking and carrying beer around, with so many different stalls selling both food and crafts, and just a general faire-type feel. I had German beer in Munich and thoroughly enjoyed it, both because it was as good as I'd expected, and just for the experience of drinking German beer in Munich. I may not be able to be here for Oktoberfest, but at least I have that.
After lunch we checked into our hostel. Hostels like this are a lesson in booking far enough in advance, because all I could find for both nights was a 40-bed dorm. That's not that bad, but the bathroom doesn't have very good showers (just a row of stalls with curtains covering them), so while I think it's doable, it's definitely not ideal. It also does not have a very comfortable lounge area in the lobby, very few power outlets, and is currently having internet issues. Sigh.
This afternoon we took a three-hour walking tour of Munich. I mostly enjoyed it, and learned a lot, but at the moment don't want to talk a lot about it because my feet and legs are still hurting. XD Maybe next time I post I'll have a bit more detail, because it really was very interesting.
Munich is currently going crazy because of football. There were so many people on the street today, singing and drinking and preparing themselves for the match going on right now, which is apparently the final for some big European cup and Munich is one of the teams (Milan is the other). So though the hostel people called someone to do something about the internet, they don't think he'll come because he's probably busy watching the game.
Tomorrow we're going to Dachau. This is not really something to be excited about, but I am glad I'm doing it. I wouldn't feel right about leaving Germany without having seen a concentration camp. I expect tomorrow to be a fairly depressing day, though, and not just because it's my last day in Germany.
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