Berlin. It not going to be Europes best city because lets face it, they started the war. But it has potential to be Europes most modern and efficient city. It probably already is.
The main train station is a multi level shopping mall with connections to just about everything except a plane. Although I’m sure the bus/trains connect there too! I did have an issue finding an ATM though. But the Welcome to Berlin card is a great deal. I’m not a real “city tourist card” person. Yeah they usually include free public transport. The Berlin card is the first one that makes sense on public transport only. Everywhere else you paid a premium to get discounts into places. If you worked out how many places you’d need to go to to make the savings back, often it was a lot. Budapest I just bought a book of 10 tickets. Prague, the 3 day transport pass. Dubrovniks was a rort.
So far for my 22 euro card I’ve caught around 6 or 7 public transport services and saved 3 euros on admission. I’m probably effectively travelling for free from now on!!!
After finding my way to the Generator hostel, which greatly surprised me. Prague was bad for the hostel i was in. This one is ok. The bathroom comes straight from a Formule 1 hotel, but its my own. In Prague it was shared showers, with no changing area for the showers, noisy bedrooms and the list goes on.
Good to see Canberra gets a mention
So I went into Berlin for a few hours tonight. I went to Brandenberg gate and Alexanderplatz. Also caught a quick ride to visit Curry 36. A sort of fast food place. You goto the window and order your currywurst. They give you a plate with what you ordered and there are some bar tables nearby to stand next to and eat your order. the currywurst was excellent. I’ve since found out they are everywhere and the 10 minute underground ride each way wasn’t required.
I was going to visit the Berlin wall, but was distracted by something I’d heard about and maybe seen on getaway, but completely forgot about. No this isn’tmy childhood dream, thats tomorrow. I visited most probably one of the worlds largest model railways AND airports. It was huge, I’m not even sureif I saw everything, so much detail from amusement parks, to the zoo, a concert, roadworks, police chases, plus the array of trains, buses and trams running around. I thought the trainset I had as a kid was huge. This is gigantic. In another room they have a model airport, where the planes take off and land (on perspex ramps!!!).
A small part of the huge model railway!
It also had the feel of a garage setup, the workshop was off to one side, the main control centre was a bank of TV monitors and computers, also just next to the model. The expansion is in progress and you can see partly completed models.
So for those interested visit Loxx miniature railway in the Alexxshopping centre in Alexanderplatz.
Thats it for today. I’m tired and while I can’t waittosee the rest of Berlin, I can’t waitto get home either.