Visiting what’s left of the Berlin Wall. Without the barbed wire, attack dogs, and guards with an easy trigger finger . . . .
The famous “Checkpoint Charlie”. Is anybody else bothered by the fact that German’s are dressing up like American servicemen and posing for photos?
What a way to start the day – with a tour of a WW2 civilian bomb shelter. Berliner Unterwelten (run by the Berlin Underworld Association), offers tours of this often forgotten part of Berlin’s past. We took tour #1, “Dark Worlds” and were led by our cute Israeli guide Ca’nan, through a maze of underground rooms, walls of phosphorescent paint, and displays of artifacts and weaponry from the era.
Eighty percent of central Berlin was destroyed during the war and 40% of the entire city. The wall went up in 1966, and we happened to be there on “Unification Day” when they celebrate East and West Berlin being back together. Because it was a major holiday, stores were closed and there were massive street fairs as well as smaller celebrations.
Because the Underworld tour was at a subway station, cabs were plentiful when we were finished. Of course you could take the subway, but it was too beautiful a day to spend any more time underground.
We had the cab drop us at Adenauer Platz and walked down Kurfurstendamm, with its closed high-end stores, and enjoyed a nice lunch at the outdoor café, Redeksheimer.
Then we walked until we reached a stop for the Hop-On bus, which we took to Checkpoint Charlie for what used to be the entrance to the American part of Berlin. Now a sort of seedy looking area.
No visit to Berlin would feel complete if we didn’t see and touch a part of the original Berlin Wall, and that was next up on our agenda. We had been tipped off by our Berlin Underground guide about the Legend of Hitler’s Bunker and its central location. A sign/exhibit titled “Mythos und Geschichtszeugis Fuhrerbunker” is all that remains to explain the history of Hilter’s final resting place in his specially built bunker with walls almost 13’ thick. Today, the area is a parking lot. Once again, kudos to the Berlin Underground group for doing the research and placing the marker of this significant historical location.
We then made our way towards the Holocaust Memorial, just one block south of the Brandenburg Gate and near the US Embassy. Even though this sobering memorial covers 4.7 acres, visitors might pass right by without noticing it or understanding what it symbolizes. Designed by an American architect, it features 2,711 gray concrete slabs (stelae), all the same casket-like size, but varying in height from 8” to 15’. The site also has an undulating base and much symbolism; the effect is disturbing on many levels. What disturbed me most, however, was the lack of appropriate signage and the hundreds of laughing people swarming over the area as an extension of the local Unification celebrations. BTW – the official name is “A Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe”. No mention of the Holocaust or Germany’s role in those murders; there has been much controversy.
After a pretty exhausting day, we stuck close to home for another typical German beer and dinner (Bavarian, this time) at Augstiner am Gendarmenmarkt.
Important Info: The Berlin Underworld tours are daily, but are not offered as often in English. There is generally an 11AM tour, and some days more tours are scheduled. You can check their website for details, although it is a bit confusing. I’ve included a map with the photos to help clarify the location. Other tours include: one of Hitler’s fortresses built to protect the city; “Subways and Bunkers of the Cold War”; “Under the Berlin Wall”, stories of those who tunneled to freedom. http://berliner-unterwelten.de
Pointing the way to the ticket office.
Subway entrance for the start of the “Dark Worlds” bunker tour with Berliner Unterwelten. Down the hall and then some stairs and through a large, bolted metal doorway it’s a different world. We weren’t allowed to take pictures, so my description above will have to suffice.
Map of Berliner Unterwelten tours. This place can be hard to find and you have to get your tickets in person, cash only. It’s about a 20 minute taxi ride from the center of town (or you could take the subway). The experience is worth the effort.
The Berlin Hauptbahnhof (Train Station), where we arrived from Hamburg, after a nice 90 minute trip. Be sure to get off at the right Berlin station – HBF!
We were only in Berlin minutes before we’d found a famous Chocolate Café! Fassbender & Rausch, Chocolatiers am Gendarmenmarkt is the largest Chocolaterie in the world. Their café is located on the second floor over the shop (featuring 300 different types of treats). We decided to skip the chocolate infused dishes and go directly to dessert, feasting on chocolate with cherries and cherry ice cream, as well as dark chocolate fondue and fruit.
Dark chocolate and cherries, yum! Enjoyed at the chocolate cafe at Fassbender & Rausch the world’s largest Chocolaterie.
The efficient, 90-minute train ride from Hamburg, got us in town comfortably, gliding into the new glass and steel, multi-level central train station.
Much of our day was spent touring some of the city’s highlights and taking an interesting boat trip on the Spree River. You can easily pick-up a ticket for one extra attraction with the purchase of the Hop-on bus tour. As is most cities today, there are a number of companies operating these bus tours, and they seem pretty equitable. We also opted to pay four additional Euros for the two-day pass. It’s an easy and convenient way to get around and orient yourself to a new city.
Unlike Hamburg with its tree-line streets, Berlin has bigger buildings and lots of parks. Some of the parks date back to imperial hunting days and others to areas bombed during the war. We saw grand government buildings, new and restored, as well as embassies, the Siegessaule Victory Column, churches and beautiful residential and shopping areas. This city is home to a multitude of different neighborhoods and cultures; it begs to be classified as a European capital rather than merely German.
We wrung out every ounce of daylight before grabbing a cab back to our hotel on Charlottenstrasse, and just a few steps away from Berlin’s Gendarmenmarkt, a beautiful square in an area with lots of shops and restaurants.
For dinner we ate typically German fare at nearby Lutter & Wegner, where we had goulash & sauerbraten (winner of the German Sauerbraten Championship) and really delicious warm apple strudel with vanilla ice cream.
For chocoholics: www.fassbender-rausch.de
An enjoyable river cruise on the Spree; trips last about an hour.
Of course, at the center of it all, is the trains. They are running everywhere around you – but you never seem to see the same train twice.
I counted 78 monitors in the impressive Control Center.
The Miniatur Wunderland is a lot more than model trains, anything you imagine can probably be found within this massive display – but more on that in a moment.
My husband is crazy about model trains. He has meticulously restored and maintained, vintage Lionel trains running around our study and on display. Even though he favors the larger O gauge, popular when he was a kid in the 50’s, he loves any well-done train exhibit.
Since opening in 2001, the Miniatur Wunderland attraction has constantly grown. Current displays (in HO scale), are inspired by scenes from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Scandinavia and the USA. The newest feature is a working model airport; Italy can be seen under construction.
To get an idea of the massive scope of this attraction, let’s review a few facts we learned on our “Behind the Scenes” tour with Marius, our knowledgeable guide:
Miniatur Wunderland Fun Facts
- 950 trains
- 14,450 train cars (wagons as they say in Europe)
- More than 8 miles of track
- 3,050 switches
- 335,000 lights
- 3728 miles of cable
- Longest train is a 47’ coal train in the USA section, with 66 cars and 5 engines
Four times every hour, each display changes to dusk for about a minute, then night for about three, and sunrise for another minute. Interactive buttons trigger all kinds of surprise actions (just in case you don’t have enough to watch). Along with all the kids, my favorite had to be the Swiss chocolate factory that wraps a small Lindt chocolate and drops it into the hand of each chocoholic visitor.
One of the big crowd-pleasers is the airport, where 40 different planes pull up to terminals, take-off and land. Video monitors, just like those in a real airport, display flight schedules and video of planes. Planes are all types and sizes and include occasional appearances of an emergency landing of the Space Shuttle and a comical flying bee.
In Scandinavia they use real water to maneuver large shipping vessels and passenger lines and even feature a beach with a rising and falling tide. Throughout the displays visitors will find countless surprises and hidden visual treats. Every employee of the attraction is encouraged to submit creative ideas for inclusion. You can tell they have fun – you find yourself constantly smiling when you spot things like a couple of nuns sitting on a bridge, an office worker zipping around the office in their rolling chair, torch-lit skiers coming down a slope, the Coke polar bear, or a couple having “fun”.
A great place to visit if you like trains, or any type of models; the kids and their adults, were all having so much fun. It truly is an incredible engineering, electrical and technological wonder. My only criticism is the gift shop – a very odd collection of not-so-great “stuff”, they are surly missing a huge opportunity. In the past couple of years, we had viewed a number of You Tube videos about the attraction and, I am happy to report, the actual experience exceeded all my husband’s expectations.
Tips: Go early or late to miss the big crowds, if you travel as far as we did, take the Behind the Scenes Tour – it was well worth the $15 fee. If you want the tour, book it in advance, unless you speak German, or it may not be available. They do have senior discounts and you can buy your admission tickets (regular 12 Euros), ahead of time, on-line. www.miniatur-wunderland.de
There is More to Hamburg than Toy Trains
Hamburg is Germany’s second largest city and is filled with tree-lined streets and green spaces. It is biker-friendly, runner and walker-friendly and a very pleasant place to visit. Anchored by the centrally located lake (Alster) and the Elbe River, Hamburg is a port city whose residents seem to be embracing their waterfronts. We are staying by the lake and it seems to be busy every minute, and this is during the week. We’ve watched sailboats, crew teams, kayakers and paddle boarders everywhere.
The Hop-On bus tour is a great option and can get you around key areas. There seems to be a good public transport system – but it is also a great city for walking. If time, you can get out on the lake and/or river for a water tour.
Small bistros, cafes and bars dot the lake-front. We had a lovely dinner at the charming Kajute. No English version of the menu, but we figured it out. In fact, you won’t find as much in English here, but everyone is eager to please and help. We also find this city refreshingly less formal that some other German cities we have visited in the past.
There are dozens of hidden surprises tucked into the detailed displays at Miniatur Wunderland. I’d like to know exactly how many adventuresome couples there actually are . . . but here is one, up high on a roof-top. Others were, under trees, along riverbanks, seen through apartment and office windows, and cavorting in a field of sunflowers. We even saw a threesome, and I don’t mean golfing. I’ve rated this couple PG to show here. Not all the hidden treasures are sexual. We also spotted a giraffe being loaded on a plane, a penguin family, a corpse in a river, and more. But we missed the crocodile and dinosaur . . .
See that cute little tuxedo kitty in the tree? The Fire Department comes to the rescue!
One of the 150 interactive buttons, triggers a response to a church fire. Others play music, start a SWAT team shootout, a knight’s jousting tournament and turns lights on for a sneak peek into an apartment building, and much more.
Along the shore of the beautiful Alster Lake, right in the middle of this very green city.
For my pirate girlfriends – just had to post this flag, seen along the Alster lake-shore, at one of the many small marina/bistros.
“Yankee Spirit” enjoys a little marsh grass. You can see one of the many local oyster beds in the foreground.
Wild Ponies!
I seem to have always known about the wild ponies of Chincoteague Island. I’m not sure how I first learned about the ponies . . . maybe the stories of my good friend who has visited the area for more than 40 years, or because of the famous book and movie about pony “Misty”. In any case, who can ignore the allure of wild ponies. The herd stays in the news due to its annual swim across the water to the historic town of Chincoteague, where the foals are sold at auction each July. But this island is so much more than just the ponies.
On our first night here we visited the Assateague National Seashore to view the beautiful sunset. Only a few people were around and dozens of Plovers were having a feast while running in and out of the incoming tide. Then it was our turn to feast. Our friends had asked what seafood we liked best and given us a list; I selected a few items but had no idea we were going to experience them all! We had plump, delicious local Chincoteague oysters; fried clams and learned how to properly devour blue crabs. Then my friend made incredible soft-shelled crabs and poached flounder – all amazing.
The next morning we joined Captain Dan for his 3-hour wild pony boat tour around the entire island. A local with generations of family history, he provided a wealth of knowledge and perspective about local ecology, wildlife and what the future might hold for this area. His pontoon boat is limited to 6 passengers and was very comfortable on this gorgeous, sunny, bug-free day. We saw lots of ponies as well as an eagle and a small pod of dolphins – a grand slam in terms of wildlife sightings.
Later in the day we visited the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge and made a stop at one of the two visitor’s centers, where we viewed a beautifully filmed mini-documentary about the wild ponies that live in Virginia and nearby Maryland. The Refuge is a great spot for biking, hiking, and bird watching. The Visitor Centers offer a brochure featuring a check-list for the 324 different birds seen in the area. There are a number of short hiking trails, the longest being the 3.2 mile Wildlife Loop dedicated to bikers and hikers from opening at dawn til 3 PM, when cars can drive the Loop; the entire park closes at sunset. The short .25 mile hike to the Assateague Lighthouse is a must. Check the times the lighthouse is open for climbing to the top; this day we were the last group up at 2:30. There is a ranger and a small gift shop at the base and a docent at the top to offer information and historical facts.
BTW, the Chincoteague downtown area is small, just off the waterfront, with cute shops and restaurants. Bill’s was a great choice for another exceptional dinner.
Useful links: CaptainDansTours.com www.fws.gov/northeast/chinco
“Golden Moose” one of the 150 famous Chincoteague ponies.
Built just after the civil War, the Assateague Lighthouse still provides a beacon for boaters in the surrounding 20 miles of waters. Seven landing with 25 steps each for a total of 175 take you up about 10-11 stories to a height of 142′.
Sunset on the Assateague Island National Seashore.
Beautiful sunset and con trails from the nearby military bases.
On the shore, in Virginia.
