11. Berlin...

Berlin was absolutely the top of my list and having been to Germany three times previously I was adamant that I was not missing Berlin again.  Dickey had been in his 20's and loved it as had many of our friends. It came highly recommended.While elements were awesome, and it is a very livable, yet historical city, ironically perhaps Berlin turned out to be my least favorite destination on our itinerary. Maybe the saga of our arrival dampened it, maybe it has simply changed over time.....

Leaving Prague via train we had a little hiccup with the original train we had booked on, not being accessible. We were allocated a later train and the staff in Prague phoned ahead to the Berlin main station, assuring us there would be assistance on the platform when we arrived. On the journey I had spoken with the conductor who strongly resembled Sergeant Schulz off Hogans Heroes. With a simple inquiry it seemed he spoke some English and we continue on our way, again enjoying a lovely a train ride. When we arrived in to Berlin many hours later, it fast became evident that there was no assistance personnel waiting for us and throwing our bags from the train, I ran up the platform to seek out 'Sergeant Schulz's' assistance. All he could reply with was a shrug of his shoulders and 'Nein', over and over. It seemed both his English and human decency had vanished! The stress wasn't simply how to get Dickey off the train, it was the fact that this was not the final destination and the train would be leaving in a matter of minutes. Thankfully two other passengers came to our assistance and we carried Dickey down off the train. In exasperation I ran back up to the conductor, who continued to shrug and say Nein and yelled at him, in English, that one day he would need help and know one would be there. Not my finest moment, but at least I held in all the other profanities that came to mind. Back to Dickey and our pile of bags I burst in to tears, while Dickey, true to form remained calm and collected while over my shoulder secretly watching one of our saviors give our 'Sergeant' a solid talking to, in German this time!




Unfortunately our intro in to Berlin continued to be less than ideal as we struggled with understanding the train networks, accessing the right tickets, the correct entrance to the platforms without using stairs (for obvious reasons), taking wrong turns, wrong train network, and getting on the wrong train! For anyone people watching in Alexander Platz that afternoon it would have been entertaining watching us go up and down the lifts, across the Platz, back again. All the while Dickey pushing his chair with one bag on his lap and me dragging our other two bags behind me, unsuccessfully trying to avoid bumping the backs of my legs as they bounced on the stones. After what felt like an age we made it to our hotel - The Titanic. All we could do was laugh and hope that this too wouldn't go under!

The hotel was great and the room fully accessible. We were grateful to collapse in to bed - our own beds and own doonas! Dickey was ecstatic with this idea and we have since adopted this European habit at home. Queen bed and 2 double doonas on top - hopefully a way of maintaining a happy relationship with me not always stealing his share of the doona!

We had given ourselves 5 full days in Berlin and it was great to not worry about rushing around every day. We had plenty of time to wander, explore and breathe it all in. We found so many areas that felt a bit more 'real Berlin' just by wandering off the tourist trail. We loved doing this all through our trip, while we of course still hit up all the main tourist attractions and sites. We also got ourselves on two walking tours. The first was not so great, so we chose a different company and off we went again the following day with Nicholai, the Bulgarian who was overflowing with facts, information and entertaining side stories about Berlin through the ages.
Getting around Berlin it was a good thing we were happy to take it slow and just walk/ roll our way around and see the sites. Many of the train stations were not accessible and we had a few funny journeys as we got on and off at various stations only to discover we had no way out! In terms of accessibility I'd say its 'semi-accessible', as long as you have access to the correct network map (we didn't until day 3!) with the wheelchair symbol on the stations you may have more luck than us. Also, be aware there is an 'S Bahn' and a 'U Bahn'. Somehow I failed to realise they were separate networks. Call it a stress induced blonde moment upon arrival!!

More cobblestones!

East Side Gallery

Self explanatory, hopefully!

On our list of see, enjoy, explore here are some of what we ticked off and many of our favorites...

'Poles apart Statue'

- Gendarmenmarkt - close to where we were  
   staying and a stunning area
- Alexander Platz
- TV tower - The cross on top when the sun
   hits it is said to be 'the pope's revenge' or 'a  
   plus for communism!'
- St Mary's Church - now rebuilt and a  
   Protestant Church
- Neptune in the Fountain
- The 'Poles apart Statue'
- The 'Neue Wache' and the memorial of the
   mother holding her dead son
- The University and the site of the 'burning of
   the books'
- Checkpoint Charlie
- The Topography of Terrors - confronting but
   a definite must see in terms of history
- The line of bricks marking where the Berlin
   wall once was
- Wilhelm Street - once housed the SS, SA &
   Gestapo buildings. Hilter's Bunker Site - in the apartment complex carpark
- Brandenburg gates, 'no-man's land'. Pariser Platz and the embassy's within.
- Reichstag building and its dome.
- Avenue of honour and the memorials
- Tiergarten - once hunting grounds, now a gorgeous big green park,    garden, lakes and the 'Biergarten'.
- The 10th floor 'Monkey Bar' overlooking the Zoo's Monkey
   enclosure - The best view was from the female toilets!
- The Ampleman store!
- Potsdamer Platz, the Lego museum and the Bears of Tolerance
   exhibition (United buddy bears)
- The Holocaust Memorial with its 2711 cement slabs.
- The East Side Gallery - an eclectic collection of graffiti and
   contrasts
- Volkspark Friedrichshain - The oldest park in Berlin it is made up
   of steep hills, all created when covering over WWII  bunkers and
   rubble from bombed out buildings.
- 'Prater Garten' - Berlins oldest Beer garden with 'Gemusekebab'
   over the road. The most amazing kebabs we have EVER eaten!
- Museum Island with its five museums surrounded by canals and
   so much history and side stories.... The Royal Palace, currently
   being rebuilt was turned in to a club in the 70's & 80's. The
   marble bowl outside on the lawn because it didn't fit between the
   columns and the site of Hitler's 'great' speeches once all cement
   slabs due to Hitlers hatred of grass, now lush and green and
   covered in people laying about on warm days!

Museum Island - the columns, marble bowl and grassy lawns

Overall Berlin is an incredible city and has achieved so much to rebuild what was destroyed. It is flat and mostly accessible. As far as we noticed all tourist venues were wheelchair accessible with plenty of signs, but they seemed to have forgotten the toilets - both accessible ones and for those of us with a habit of drinking litres of water a day. If you are active it is a great city to jog or cycle around and this seems to be one of the main modes of transport. It is equally accessible to site see by walking/ rolling which is definitely our preferred method. What disappointed us was the people. The locals just seem a bit over the tourists, which after so long with them getting in their way I can see their point. On the flip side, their industry is tourism and they are quite vocal about their current economic decline. Perhaps its worth the Berliners doing a re-think, and maybe taking a leaf out of the super-friendly and ever accommodating Bavarian's. Next stop Munich and the Wings for Life World Run!

Berlin... Sun 1/5 - Sat 7/5