Day 15 October 22nd Berlin to Braintree

The final day of our tour.  We met ready to board our coach at 0830 in the hotel reception.  We were soon at the station and had some time to buy snacks for the journey.  The train for Cologne left on time at 0949 and we were able to sit back and relax for four hours.  We were amongst out fellow tour participants and soon the chatter was flowing so that the time and distance slipped 

blurry blue overhead train at Wuppertal

past.  During this part we passed through Wuppertal which I had visited through work several times before moving to Scilly.  Wuppertal has an old overhead railway system which followed the river, this proved very interesting for some in our group and we tried to get photos.  I only managed a very blurry photo of a blue train held on the rails. We had a coffee and our snack and arrived in Cologne on time.

We had over an hour on Cologne station and we settled in 

model train system at Cologne

seats and read for much of the time.  There was a model train set up in one part of the station which was interesting.  We then got on the train to Brussells which left at 1543 (on time).  We sped 

ICE train taking us from Cologne

on and were there in good time to get on our Eurostar train at 1856.  As we went through the tunnel the clocks changed and we arrived at St Pancras at about 2000.  We hurriedly said goodbye as we wanted to catch a train at Liverpool Street at 2048.  The underground worked well and we made it in good time.  We took the train to Braintree and then a taxi to the Premier Inn where we are staying.  A total of 14½  hours travelling and we were pleased to arrive at our destination.  We had had a very good holiday with some excellent highlights.

We are going to spend several days in Essex seeing family and friends.  We will travel home on the Scillonian next Monday (28^th).

Day 14 October 21st Berlin



bombed church

Another warm, dry, sunny day for our 

new church!

organised tour of Berlin.  We had to be up, breakfasted and ready to start the tour by 0850.  The tour took us through the heart of the city and we were able to say familiar features and monuments.  We saw most places but it was disappointing that too many building projects and over zealous parking police meant that our excellent guide was not able to get us everywhere we wanted and so we only 

victory column (over Napoleon)

got a distant view of the 

Pregnant oyster!

Brandenburg Gate.  We saw the remains of a bombed church and the totally modern new replacement.  We saw the HQ of the CDU party with the building being called Angela’s steamboat.  Another building which I can’t remember the purpose of it was called the pregnant oyster.  The Reichstag Parliament building was impressive.

 



part of original wall

A lot of the city had been destroyed

wall artistry

 towards the end of the 2^nd World War but there were still many original or restored colonial/imperial buildings used as galleries and museums.  We saw a part of the Berlin wall which has been kept in tact and is now a useful canvas for street artists.  We also saw Checkpoint Charlie and went past some of the many open green spaces 

Cathedral

in the city.  Not being the financial 

ubiquitous Berlin bear

centre of Germany there were not many skyscrapers but there were lots of cranes and building sites – we were advised to come back in two years!   In the middle of this we had a coffee break and catch-up with others from the group.  An interesting but disrupted tour where we could not see all that we wanted.  We returned to the hotel, had a snack lunch and the afternoon for us was free.



Russian war memorial

This worked out fine for us as

With Michelle-Hannah at Brandenburg Gate

 we had arranged to meet Michelle-Hannah Martin who has lived and worked in Berlin for 8 years.   We had not seen her for some time and it was good to meet and begin our catch-up.  Michelle asked if there 

Holocaust Memorial

was anywhere else in Berlin we wanted to visit and

the fuhrer's bunker site

 we replied that we had not been able to see the Brandenburg Gate or the holocaust memorial because of road closures.  We walked through the Tiergarten (one of the large beautiful parks) and soon came to the road that led to the Brandenburg Gate.  We passed by the road barriers and passed the Russian war memorial which commemorated the sacrifice made by the Russian people and forces in the cause of freedom.  We paused for photos and carried on to the gate where we took more photos and walked round.  We then walked on to the poignant holocaust memorial site with its different sized blocks of concrete spread over a very wide area.  It represented the diversity and scale of the disaster.  After a good natter over a cup of tea Michelle-Hannah then took us to the site of Hitler’s underground bunker.  It is now a car park but there was a board giving the extent of the site and the degree of protection it offered. 

After this mini-tour, we made our way to Friedrichstrasse station where we looked to find somewhere to eat this evening.  We were very honoured because not only was today Michelle-Hannah’s birthday but also her boyfriend, Andrew, had just flown in from the US and we were to meet him for the first time.  We chose an Italian restaurant and Andrew arrived.  We enjoyed our meal in their company talking about past times and getting to know Andrew who was very nice.  After the meal they kindly offered to escort us back to the hotel, we resisted but they insisted and we took the tube to Potsdamer Platz and then walked the rest of the way.  We said our goodbyes and hoped it would not be so long before we met again.  We then went to our room and packed as far as we could before retiring for the night.

 

Day 13 October 20th Prague to Berlin



entrance hall to Prague station

Another early morning start as 

Nicholas Winton sculpture

we had to have packed, breakfasted, checked out and assembled as a group in the hotel by 0745.  We left our luggage in the hotel reception and went by coach to the railway station.  The entrance hall was impressive and once on the platform we found the sculpture of Sir Nicholas Winton 

station on our way

who helped rescue many Jewish children from the holocaust and arrange for their travel to Britain. We left on the 0832 train to Dresden for the comfortable

River Elbe

 two-hour journey, part of the journey was alongside the River Elbe which was picturesque and we also went through several 

River Elbe

stations.



Dresden from the coach





punting down the river 



 

 

We transferred to a coach in 

under a bridge

Dresden and had over an hour ride to Burg-Spreewald in the middle of the forest.  We had a peaceful punt along the river which was quite a contrast to the busy cities we had visited.  It was also a contrast to the last time we went punting when I fell in the River Cam in Cambridge!  

sheep along the river

We eventually arrived back at the jetty having seen a red squirrel drinking and a small herd of sheep grazing on the bank.   We had time to buy an ice cream each before reboarding the coach to continue the journey to Berlin.

We arrive about 1700, checked in, found our luggage which had come from Prague separately and settled into our very comfortable room.  We decided to go for walk along a nearby canal before getting something to eat in the hotel bar.  We telephoned our friends daughter, Michelle-Hannah, who lives and works in Berlin and arranged to meet up tomorrow afternoon.  We had settled in and had an early night as we had another early start tomorrow

Day 12 October 19th Prague

Zizkov TV Tower

Today was our day to choose our own

a baby climbing

destinations and how to get there.  It was another bright, sunny day and we decided to firstly go to the nearby, walking distance, Zizkov TV tower which has an observation deck 96 metres above ground.  We found the tower with only once getting lost – for us an achievement!  It gave a good all-round view of the city extending some miles with very little haze.  We could pick out the castle area and the Old Town Square which we visited yesterday as well as

The castle area

other landmarks.  The tower is called the babies tower as

Old Town Square

it has climbing babies sculpted onto it.  We had a coffee in the restaurant and then caught the lift back down.
There was a metro station nearby and we caught it Wenceslas Square, the scene of the Prague Spring

Wenceslas Square

demonstrations which eventually brought about the fall of the communist regime.  There were boards depicting the story of the confrontations and sacrifices made for the cause of freedom.  A significant story in our lifetimes which is clearly told by the people who experienced it.   Having read the boards, we wandered round the square which has changed significantly since then.  We now have McDonalds, KFC, Burger King and even M&S lining the perimeter.  We observed that capitalism does not bring unbridled benefits.  After wandering around we then headed for Old Town Square.
We had visited yesterday and decided that another

Old Town Square

period of time there would be beneficial especially if we could find somewhere nice to have lunch.  We looked around a bit and found a nice open- air restaurant on the square perimeter which offered us a table.  We enjoyed a good meal with ginger beers and soaked up the atmosphere.  It was much busier than yesterday because of the weekend but it had good vibes about it.  Eventually we dragged ourselves away and caught the underground back to the hotel.  Nearby was a shopping centre and so we called at a supermarket and patisserie to get supplies for this evening and our journey tomorrow.  We then had a quiet evening in our hotel room.    

Day 11 October 18th Prague



Part of the castle

Today we are due to have

St Vitus's Cathedral

 a full day tour of the Czech capital Prague, a city neither of us had visited before but of which we had had many good reports.  We were up early and ready for the coach departure time of 0830.  It was a beautiful, warm day 

The Golden Door

which remained dry and sunny all the time.  We had

part of the castle

 to be away early to beat the crowds at the castle/palace area which was a very popular destination. The coach made its way through some quite narrow streets until we were dropped as near 

St Vitus's Cathedral

to the castle as possible.  It was still quite a walk over cobbled streets but we were soon

multi-purpose hall

 admitted through security and into the castle complex.   We started at St Vitus’s Cathedral with its beautiful stained glass and tombs of saints, kings and emperors with their families.  We saw the inside of the golden door where coronation processions entered and then went outside to view it from there.  We then toured Vladislav Hall which was multifunctional - used for markets, jousting and coronations!  It was time now for a coffee break.



frescoed ceiling of convent

We then toured a very old 

Golden Lane

convent with a frescoed ceiling and further royal tombs.  Still within the castle walls but near the walls we walked the Golden Lane with its small cottages turned into souvenir/craft shops.  We were told it was called 

2002 flood level above head height

Golden Lane because at one time alchemists lived there.  At the end of these houses we descended out of the castle and down some quite steep steps to the settlement adjacent to the River Danube (which sometimes floods). It was time for lunch which we enjoyed at a nearby restaurant with some others of our party.



us on Charles Bridge

After lunch we wandered 

entrance to Charles Bridge

across the iconic Charles Bridge and its statues, watched the boats on the river and generally enjoyed the melee.  We then made our way to the Old Square where there were many buildings of age and character.  Included was 

Charles Bridge

the horological clock which had a special hourly chime 

Old Square buildings

including figures that represent the 12 apostles.  We decided to spend longer here than the tour and so wandered further and eventually caught the tube back to the hotel.  Plenty of good pictures – 

more of Old Square

too numerous to put on the blog. 

It was soon time to gather for our group’s evening meal together in the hotel and again we had the chance to get to know other members better.  Another very good day which provided some ideas on how to spend our free day tomorrow.

 

Day 10 October 17th Budapest to Prague



passing the Danube?

With a long journey ahead of us

autumn colours by the Danube?

 we were up early, showered, breakfasted and in the hotel lobby ready to depart by 0815.  Our guide was there to conduct us in the coach to Budapest Nyugati station (we had arrived at Budapest Keleti) and our train which left at 

village with church

0940.  We left on time but our seats were not as comfortable as the previous trains and there were problems with the air conditioning which intermittently failed.  Anyway we were reasonably comfortable and I was able to complete the previous two days blogs as we sped along.  It was a reasonable day and the countryside was mainly farmland with occasional glimpses of what we thought was the Danube.  One of the stations we stopped at was Bratislava which we had visited on our Rhine/Danube cruise holiday some years ago.  We had a picnic lunch because we had been warned that catering might not be good on this train.  The wifi was good and I was able to post the blogs. 



Prague station

We arrived in Prague a few 

impressive Prague station hall

minutes late at approx. 1620.  We disembarked and were met by our guide for this city who tried to urge us through the station to the exit and waiting coach.  The station was quite attractive with a marble pillared reception 

"lighthouse" at Prague station

hall and what looked like a lighthouse on the outside.  We were soon at our hotel and ensconced in what looked like a very comfortable room.  We dined together in the hotel that evening, getting to know more of our travel companions.