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Day 5: Arrive in Berlin and First Campsite

We slept in until 9:00 am the next morning and cooked breakfast in the van. We were on the road by 10:30 am and were eager to check into the campsite, take a shower and hit the town for lunch before settling in for the night. Right away we could tell that it wasn’t going to work out the way we expected. I knew I couldn’t follow the directions from the GPS, so I tried to follow the directions in the book “Traveler’s Guide to European Camping” by Mike and Terry Church to DCC Camp Gatow outside of Berlin; however, I failed to notice that the directions called out for taking the A10 or “ring road” going west. Later, we decided to follow the ring road around the city after we realized our mistake but it took us almost an hour and a half to make our way around the city. We finally manage to get off the A10 and find Gatower Strasse, where the campsite is located. We followed the wrong camping sing and ended up in a narrow dirt road near the water and followed the sign to several run down “campsites” where resident trailers were used as vacation getaways by locals. We drove to the end of the road but saw no signs for Camp Gatow. We asked directions from two fellows coming out of a small pub and they said we needed to go back the way we came and turn right into a shady-looking campsite with a few trailers in a gravel lot and that that was camp Gatow. The place didn’t look very nice and I could feel Brenda’s “what have you gotten me into” stare burning into the right side of my face; however, I couldn’t find any registration building and could not figure out why they would recommend this place in a book primarily targeted towards tourist.

While looking for the non-existent registration building, I arrived at another dirt road behind a row of small vacation cottages where a man was doing some yard work. We asked for directions again but this time the man seemed to indicate that camp Gatow was closed, apparently for good. We decided to turn around and look for the next campground on the list, which appeared to be nearby. We got out on the main road and less than a mile from the place we’d turned is none other than DCC Camp Gatow, a modern clean facility right off the main road. We arrived just as the attendant was on his was to close the gate for the lunch break (1:00 pm to 3:00 pm). At first, I couldn’t understand why he was closing the gate but later the friendly English-speaking attendant explained everything to me. Those who may be reading this in preparation for a campervan trip of their own and are following Mike and Terry’s book should make note of the fact that you should not follow the first camping sign which takes you off the main road like I did and that camp Gatow is closed from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm and then at 9:00 pm for the night. You can come in and out through a small gate if you are registered but cannot drive out after 9:00 pm.

Soon we had showered in the clean facilities and were on our way to Berlin to look for some lunch (more like dinner by this time). In a tour like this, the first day in a new city is always somewhat disorienting and Berlin was certainly no exception. By the time you have gotten used to the way things work in one city, it is time to move on to the next one. Each new city has a different set of challenges that must be overcome. In Berlin it was the buses. We have taken trains and subways many times in cities here and in American but had never been to a place were buses were such an important part of the mass transit system. It is said that there isn’t a place in the city that cannot be reached by bus and I believe it. In fact there was a bus station within mere feet of DCC Camp Gatow even though it was in a fairly wooded area in the outskirts of the city. We were told to take bus X34 since that was the express bus into the main train station from where we could go anywhere or obtain any number of services.

We managed to get on the bus and buy tickets from the driver. The bus dropped us off at the main train station after a false stop were everybody got up and then the bus started moving again almost knocking us all to the ground. The train station was overwhelming to say the least. The Haupbanhof or main station in Frankfurt had been somewhat orderly and sedate but the “Zoologischer Garten Banhof” in Berlin was just was, well, a zoo. We struggled to find our way against the tide of humanity through the grimy halls of the station. We ate a place called Nordsea, which is chain we had seen in Frankfurt that sells fish sandwiches as well as fish and ships. Brenda decided to play it safe and ate fish and ships while I took a bold leap and ordered something called a Bismarck baguette that seemed to be raw fish sushi style with onions, pickles and a sauce on French bread. I know many of you are wondering: “what was he thinking?” But the thing was unlike anything I’d ever seen with the gleaming silver fish sticking out of the French bread and I just had to try it. It wasn’t half bad actually but not something I think I’ll be having again soon.

Next, we set about the business of finding the tourist office so we could get information in English about the transit system and an Internet café so we could communicate. This will most likely be part of our routine in every new city we visit. We asked around and they told us we needed to go the Europa Center a few blocks from the station. We stepped back out into the street still hesitant and disoriented and found there were blue sign that directed us to the Europa Center and other attractions. We followed the signs and soon arrived at a square where the imposing central tower of bombed out church stood. We tried to get inside but it was closed. Next door we went into a large cylindrical structure draped in black canvas as it was being rebuilt and found that it was an actual church that was still in operation. As it turns out, the old church was never rebuilt after WWII as a reminder of the devastation and the modern building next door now serves as the church. Oddly enough the new church was covered in advertisements as it was being rebuilt.

Out in the square, there were street performers and kids playing inside the fountain. The feel of Berlin so far was much different than Frankfurt, a lot grimier and more disorganized. The Europa Center was a big mall. We had trouble finding the entrance to the tourist information office and, when we did, we bought an English city map for 1 euro but would still managed to get lost frequently while we were there. There was an Internet café there but it looked more like a place where immigrants from Africa and the Middle East come to make international calls with many small booths of yellow plywood. There were wireless hot spots all over the place but none of the ones I could connect to allowed me to log on. We began walking towards what we thought was the college but arrived at a ritzy shopping area instead. We continued to stroll down the street looking at the windows and arrived at a Dunkin Doughnuts with an Internet Café on the second floor. We logged on and Brenda started chatting online with people back home; however, we could not upload files even though there was a USB port in the front of every computer. Perhaps they disabled the ports after people started uploading viruses and doing all sorts of other mischief.

Finding our way back wasn’t as easy as we’d thought. We had failed to notice that the express bus stopped running at 8:00 pm and could not figure out the diagrams to tell us which buses we needed to take instead. On top of that we knew that the campsite was in Gatow but there were several different stations with the name Gatow in them and we could not remember which one we left from. (Not that it mattered since the station where we needed to get off on the way back wasn’t the same one.) We could have taken a taxi but decided to give the bus a chance. We looked at the chart for a while trying to decipher it when Brenda had the inspired idea of asking a bus driver from one of the passing busses. I wasn’t too hot on the idea since I didn’t want to get cursed out in German by a bus driver eager to stay on schedule but decided to let her give it a try. Well, the bus drivers were incredibly accommodating. The first driver told us the number of the bus to wait for and to tell the driver where we wanted to go. The driver on that bus made sure we knew where we needed to get off and which bus we needed to take for the final leg. The driver on the last bus kept us from getting off on the wrong stop. To add to our humiliation at not knowing which stop we needed to get off on, half the bus got off at our same station and most of the people that got off were staying at our same campsite. We were quite embarrassed but by our last day there we could follow the bus routes like nobody’s business.

On our second day in Berlin we woke up early since we had an ambitious schedule of sightseeing to complete. It took us a while to get breakfast ready, wash up and get to the bus station. We have opted for preparing simple meals such as hardboiled eggs with bread, coffee and juice for breakfast and ham, turkey and cheese sandwiches for lunch and dinner, to simplify cleanup. We found this great juice called “multi-vitamin nectar” that we first had for breakfast at the hotel in Frankfurt and have it almost every day for breakfast. It is tasty and, if the name is any indication, it should be good for us too. In addition to cooking, we’ll normally have one meal at a café or restaurant per day when we are out sightseeing. This has allowed us to normally keep to around 50 euros per day between the two of us on average, which is not to bad since most TV shows that feature budget travel, such as Rachel Ray’s “Fifty Dollars a Day” or “Five Takes Europe”, budget that same amount per person. Of course, our budget does not include lodging since we sleep in the van and the rental is already paid up for the month. Most of the meals we’ve had over here have been less that 20 euros for the two of us and most have been excellent with few exceptions. We’ve found that when we eat where the locals eat and stay away from cafes near main attractions, the food is both very good and extremely cheap.

By the time we arrived at the city center it was almost 9:00 am. We needed to get cash so we could buy a day ticket valid for all the city’s transit systems or tageskarte. The tageskarte can be bought from machines or bus drivers; however, we didn’t remember to get cash the night before so we only had enough money for two full-fare tickets from the campsite to downtown, so we ended up spending a little bit extra; however, the day pass was still the best deal even if we had to pay one full fare in order to buy it. Armed with a map of the transit system and the knowledge to read it, we took the 100 bus from the main train station, which takes the scenic route through the Tiergarten, Berlin’s central park. From the bus we saw the Siegessaule, the 70 meter column that commemorates the king of Prussia’s defeat of the French in 1870. The bus was crammed with tourist headed for the Reichstag, which is the current seat of the German senate or Bundestag and where a fire was used by Hitler as an excuse to seize power before World War II. This time I made a point of finding out the exact stop we needed to take beforehand and we arrived at the correct place. A long line was already forming in the steps of the Reichstag. We stood in line not sure what it was for but we soon found out that there was a glass dome on the roof that offered spectacular views of the city but that we needed to go through security first.

We only stood in line for an hour but it seemed longer. By the time we were getting ready to go inside, the line was much longer so it was worthwhile to get up early and do the Reichstag first. Once inside we were herded into a room that was basically a funnel for people so that the precise number of visitors were allowed in and steered towards security at regular intervals. After a few claustrophobic minutes, we were in line to go through security. The guards were quite thorough. There was a female and a male guard and they would pat people down if the metal detector went off. Once we went through security we were guided into a large elevator, which seemed to climb forever. In the roof, the view was nothing short of stunning. There were great views of the Platz der Republik as well as the bell tower built to mark the city’s 750th anniversary, the Swiss embassy, the House of Word Cultures as well as many of the other city landmarks. The dome was also impressive, although the view was obstructed by the dome’s metal framework. Inside the dome was an exhibit of the building’s history. It was amazing to see how the building had been destroyed by fire and completely rebuilt. It was also interesting that a sham parliament under the Nazis never sat in the Reichstag, thus the building is also a symbol of the restoration of democracy after the war.

Next we visited the Brandenburg Tor next door, which is the only one of the city’s doors that remains. Atop the door there’s a sculpture that was taken to France by Napoleon when he marched into Berlin and later brought back to Germany when Napoleon was defeated in the 1800s. We strolled down the 17 Juni Strasse, a street styled after the wide Parisian boulevards. The street was named after a famous worker revolt in East Berlin during the communist rule, which we would learn more about later at the Checkpoint Charlie museum. In the plaza in front of the gate, a street performer posed as statue all painted white with a wreath of roses by her feet. (A little creepy, if you ask me.) Nearby an old military truck painted white was parked as an advertisement of a museum dedicated to the victims of communist repression. The interior of the truck was laid out as a mobile prison with several incredibly cramped cells inside. The attraction’s guardians were so insistent in pulling people by the arm to get them to step inside the truck that they might as well be reminders of communist repression themselves.

We began walking towards the only remaining military checkpoint along what once was the Berlin wall as well as two of the few the remaining sections of the wall. Along the way we felt hungry and sat down at a Chinese restaurant on one of the side streets away from the gate. The food was very good and the place looked very fancy but the prices were quite reasonable. The Chinese hostess did not speak any English but they had an English menu, as did many of the restaurants we encountered and the waiter’s English was very good. This was a shame since I wanted to practice some of the new phrases I have learned from my German phrasebook. The waiter later told me that some of expressions in the book were not commonly used anymore. I suspected as much since I didn’t hear people using many of the expressions on the book. Another word of advice to would be European travelers: always ask if service is included in the bill and, if it’s not and you are paying by credit card, specify the tip amount to be placed on the card before the waiter goes to scan the card since it is not possible to add in a tip afterwards as is commonly done in America.

After lunch, we managed to find Checkpoint Charlie, which is a major tourist magnet. The guard post has been restored to the way it looked just after WWII and a young man and woman in period military uniforms stood guard and posed for pictures with visitors for a charge. The whole thing was just a little too Walt Disney World for me. The entire area around the checkpoint had been completely renovated and the lone relic looked somewhat out of context. In fact, throughout our visit to the nearby museum dedicated to the history of the wall, I would feel somewhat disconnected from the events surrounding the wall. The artifacts and exhibits in the museum explained the events that led up to the formation of the wall and showed the lengths to which people would go to in order to escape to the West; however, without the places where these events took place, I felt like I was looking at everything through a TV screen. It wasn’t until I saw the remaining portions of the wall that I would get a real sense of the history of the wall and what it represented. The wall sections, some cracked and broken with rusted rebar showing through the holes, some covered in graffiti, some covered in murals, were just what I needed to get some perspective.

We headed towards Potsdamer Platz that was originally built as a place to quickly assemble and mobilize troops. Today it is a thriving commercial center with the imposing Sony Center nearby, a huge mall with several theaters, shops and restaurants. The mall is open on one side but topped by a glass dome and bordered by tall glass buildings on the other three sides. There is a fountain in the center and cafes all around as well as a giant screen that shows advertisements along with the latest music videos. When we arrived for the first time, a video by our compatriot Ricky Martin was playing on the big screen featuring the rapper Fat Joe. We had brought along our laptop in hopes of finding a T-mobile hot spot where we could buy enough time to upload photos and updates to the Blog. We were pleasantly surprised when we fired up the computer and discovered that the Sony Center has free wireless Internet all over the building. We sat down in front of the big screen to chat online, check email and post our updates and a group of teenagers parked themselves next to us. They were speaking a language unknown to us (which didn’t sound like German either) but they immediately recognized Ricky Martin and Fat Joe. Thus far, in every city we’ve visited, we’ve seen how popular culture can sometimes form a common bond linking disparate cultures especially among young people.

After the Sony Center we were absolutely exhausted so we began the long trek back to the campsite. Luckily, we would manage to catch the last express bus back to Gatow, which meant that we only had to change buses once from the Sony Center to the campsite. Still today we had trouble recognizing the correct stop and almost got out of the bus one stop too early. Luckily, we realized our mistake before getting off and someone else climbed down at that stop, sparing us the embarrassment of having to announce that we had pushed the Stop button mistakenly. Tomorrow we would finally know which was our stop, but then it was time to move on to Prague.

Day 6: Last Day in Berlin

After the previous day’s sightseeing marathon, we didn’t get out of bed until after 9:00 am. We had planned on driving towards the border between Germany and the Czech Republic later that day and then stopping at a rest stop for the night but first there were a few more sights we wanted to see in Berlin. Checkout at the campsite was at 11:00 am so we asked if we could park at a small parking lot next to the registration office while we were in the city. Once again, we boarded the X34 express bus and headed for the city. We wanted to see the Egyptian Museum of Berlin, which is famed worldwide for its collection of rare artifacts. I looked at the map that we had purchased from the tourist information desk and determined that the Egyptian collection was part of the Museum of Pre and Early History, which is located in Charlottenburg Palace.

From the main station we took bus number 145, which would take us to a part of town we hadn’t been in before. We stepped off the bus at the indicated stop and before us stood an enormous open yard backed by the palace with its ornate black and gold fence. We had no idea that the palace was so large or so beautiful. We strolled towards the west end of the palace, where the museum is located, and took in the site. The weather was gorgeous and it was a perfect day for a walk. When we finally arrived at the wing that housed the museum, we must have walked half a mile but it didn’t matter. We were too busy admiring the architecture and the grandeur of the place. We passed through the gate into another smaller courtyard with two grand statues and a small café near the entrance to the museum.

Inside the museum, we admired the intricacy of some pieces from an ancient civilization that flourished in the island of Cyprus and which predated the Romans. There were also other rooms with artifacts from the early Bronze Age up to the beginning of the middle ages. Everything was so well preserved that it was a wonder that it so incredibly old. In a room dedicated to the Stone Age, a nice lady showed us how an ancient loom was used to make weaves using hemp. We were so enthralled by all the other exhibits that we almost forgot about the Egyptian exhibit that we came to see. Realizing that time was running out, we asked about the Egyptian Museum and were told that it was closed for repairs. There was another Egyptian exhibit but it was all the way across town and we would not make it before closing. We were disappointed about missing the Egyptian exhibition but the objects in the other exhibitions somewhat made up for it. We were able to film and photograph many of the objects and learned a lot about the pre and early history of Europe as well as the development of Western civilization.

We are reading a book about the history of Europe; however, our progress has been slow since we are usually either too tired or preoccupied with shores around the camper or navigation and planning to do much reading. We haven’t even watched the movies that we brought with us for the most part. Any trip to Europe requires the traveler to be fit enough to walk quite a bit. The historical town centers are fairly concentrated; however, over here, unlike most places in America where one drives everywhere, 1 km is considered a fairly short walk. When one is taking public transportation into the city center from the outskirts instead of just being dropped off in the town center by a tour bus (as most tourist are), walks of 2 km or more may be needed to get where you are going. That’s probably why you hardly see any overweight people in European cities even though they are not obsessed with diets as we are. In fact, we have noticed that we have lost some weight over here even with the required pastry fix every afternoon and even sometimes having dessert at night. Don’t get me wrong. I wouldn’t trade this mode of travel for anything. Even with the long walks and the getting lost this is a great way to see Europe. (God knows I can use the exercise.)

We ran next door to the palace and were told that we still had time to see one of the exhibitions before closing time and that we could peek at the garden from the windows in the second floor. (Sorry but no pictures were allowed inside the palace.) The variety of the artwork that once adorned the palace was incredible as well as the grand décor of the rooms. We were amazed at how elaborate the place settings at the table were and the great number of different china sets that the royal family once owned. The tableware and the art must have been meant to showcase how cultured and well traveled the owners were as they were adorned with motifs from around the world including Chinese, Japanese and Indian inspired decorations. It was a shame that most of the rooms were devoid of furniture and that the pieces (except for the banquet table setting) were not being showcased in the manner in which they would have been used in the nineteenth century; however, even the rooms by themselves were grand with their solid wood floors, candelabra and intricate crown moldings. One room in particular, overlooking the fabulous garden from a series of large windows arranged in a semicircle, reminded us of the ballroom from Disney’s “The Beauty and the Beast”.

Berlin was so exciting that we almost had a hard time leaving. We wanted to take advantage once more of the free Internet at the Sony Center, so we went back there before going to pick up the car. We were tired and hungry so we started looking around for a place to have dinner. There must have been half a dozen cafes around the fountain at the center but we looked around a bit anyway to try to find the best place. In the basement there were several shops and some small restaurants including a sushi place and Falafel stand. I wanted to try the Falafel since I had read that Berlin was a great place for it but, as happens with many cafes and sandwich shops in Europe, you had to eat standing up on a tall table. We were tired and wanted to sit down while we ate.

We should have eaten at the Falafel and sat down around the fountain while we surfed the web, but instead we sat at a restaurant by the fountain since the prices seemed reasonable. This would prove to be the only bad meal of the trip so far (and one of the priciest). The place was a theme restaurant such as those that are common in the US. This one pretended to be Australian like Outback Steakhouse and it’s menu featured dishes including Kangaroo steaks and burgers and some Pan Asian dishes. The only difference between this restaurant and those back home is that, in the ones back home, the food is at least edible. Not that those places are much better. I am still amazed how on Sundays every theme or family restaurant back home is packed. I don’t understand why people are willing to pay $10 or more per plate for mediocre mass-produced food. I would gladly trade in half those restaurants for a few sandwich shops that make things from scratch, standing room only or not.

By the time we were ready to head back, we had to hurry to catch the express bus. We were also concerned that they would close the gate at the campsite for the night and that we would be trapped there until the morning. Brenda really wanted to take a shower before leaving since we didn’t know if we would find a rest stop with clean showers that night. I didn’t know if they would let us use the facilities since we had already checked out. Anyway, I doubted we would make it back in time since we arrived at the station as one express bus was leaving and had to wait for the next one. As it turned out, there were no screw-ups this time. We made it back in time and we were even able to take a quick shower before leaving.

Our escape from Berlin was aided by the fact that Viki finally seemed to be working. Well, she was working somewhat. She would give directions as long as we stayed on the route that had been downloaded from the computer. If we deviated at all, she would freak out again and would not be able to give directions anymore. This is exactly what happened when we took a wrong turn and went off-course. Luckily, after a quick U-turn, we were back in route and I was able to reset the route and we had directions from Berlin right to our campsite in Prague on an island of the Vltava River. In good time too, since I don’t think I could have found the place by myself while at the same time fending off the crazy Czech traffic.

Next Page: 05 – Prague, Czech Republic