Ever northward!

After breakfast at Andersen’s and the acquisition of a tasty packed lunch for the long journey to Stockholm, 

Andersen's packed lunch

we made our way to the station across the road, not quite sure how this leg was going to pan out. When we booked this train in January, we were advised that there was a suspension of the Schengen agreement on free movement across the border between Denmark and Sweden, and rather than take the train direct from Copenhagen and Stockholm, we should catch a train to Malmo, just across the Bridge in Sweden for border checks and pick up the Stockholm train at Malmo. However, we were a bit surprised to find that the train we were due to pick up at Malmo (all the European trains are numbered so it’s easy to track them, particularly where you are moving over borders) was leaving from Copenhagen. We enquired and were told we needed to catch a train to Copenhagen Airport, change for Malmo and pick up our booked train there. This seemed a bit crazy, but we were checked by the Danish police at Copenhagen Airport station and then the Swedish police came onto the train at Malmo. Our anticipated experience of crossing the Oresund Crossing was less than overwhelming, partly because it was raining and visibility was poor, and also because the train line runs on a level below the road, so you can’t see very much, as you can see from the photo:

View from the Bridge, with Malmo on the horizon

Our train from Malmo to Stockholm was an inter-city express, very comfortable and with a decent buffet if we got hungry or thirsty during our 5 hour journey. The scenery was lovely, hills, pine forests and crystal clear lakes, up there with the journeys through the Alps and through Tuscany. When you see the amount of trees growing up here it’s not surprising that the Swedes like their wood! Ikea needn’t worry about running out of materials for all that furniture it churns out!

I went down to the buffet for chocolate and coffee and found the steward very friendly and helpful, and like most Scandinavians we’ve met so far, totally proficient in English. She advised me on which chocolate bars she sells most of, and told me to keep our disposable cups and come back for free coffee refills if we wanted another drink later - very welcoming.

We arrived in Stockholm about 4.30 to a sunny and beautiful Stockholm. It’s bright blue Baltic setting, cinnamon-coloured buildings and spires showed it off to advantage and it felt warm in the sun. We made the 15 minute walk to our floating hotel - a yacht moored at the edge of Lake Malaren, called the Malardrottningen, which is quite a mouthful, I know, which has 61 cabin bedrooms, a restaurant and bar. It was apparently given to the Woolworth’s heiress, Barbara Hutton for her 18th birthday by her father. However, she decided she didn’t want/need it after a few years and sold it to the British Navy. It was eventually rescued from scrap by a Swedish consortium and reinvented as a floating hotel. 

Our cosy cabin - I had the top bunk

The yacht

On boarding, we were told by one of the staff, quite sharply, not to go into the Men’s Toilet just off the reception area (I really hadn’t thought it would be my first port of call!) because someone was in there and I assume the lock wasn’t working. While we were checking in, the member of staff shouted to the occupant of aforesaid toilet, to ask if he was ok. We heard the distant voice of an American man, clearly in a stage of vomitousness, saying that in fact, he wasn’t. The rather hard woman protecting his privacy shouted to him that he should go outside and get some air to make him feel better. Once we’d done all the official stuff at the reception desk, we didn’t hang around to find out his fate, but I did unpack my supply of Stugeron which I’d brought with me specially to cope with the eventuality that I might be seasick on the boat; this early and, actually, only encounter with seasickness, did slightly worry me, but in fact, it was fine and just having the Stugeron on the bathroom shelf was sufficient - placebo effect, I expect.

We got out into the streets of Stockholm’s old town, less than a 10 minute walk away, as quickly as possible to enjoy what was left of the sun, when we knew it would feel a lot colder. The old town is beautiful, full of elegant and comely old buildings 

Lovely evening in Stockholm

Evening in old town

and very high-class small shops, mainly selling artisan arts and crafts, antiques with a few souvenir shops. I particularly enjoyed viewing the beautiful glassware, the yarns and hand knits in pure wools dyed with natural colours and the paintings. The royal palace was at the top and we watched the royal guards in their blue and white uniforms standing in the sentry boxes and occasionally marching a few steps - probably to keep themselves warm, I imagine. The old town also has plenty of restaurants as befits a tourist trap, from the ubiquitous pizza and pasta places, to the Buffalo Grill to lovely local eateries. Once we got over the shock of how much it was going to cost us to eat, and we’d come to grips with the fact that the Swedish kronor is around 12 to the pound while the Danish kroner is 10 to the pound, we started to look closely at menus and prices. Many which looked very inviting had menus outside but didn’t quote any prices so we steered clear of them to avoid the embarrassment of sitting down and finding the price of the food would choke us. We did, more by accident and intuition than by sound management, find a very small restaurant with an interesting local menu and prices that were just about within budget, and my tiny hands were frozen by this time, as it had got dark and pretty damn cold. When we got in it looked full and we weren’t hopeful, but the lovely woman, who we found co-owned it with her husband, who was the chef, indicated there was one table for two at the back, right in front of a radiator and with squashy cushions - bliss! The food was local and really tasty; I had fried herrings, which were delicious with a crispy skin and accompanied by mash, lingonberries (quite bitter and similar to cranberries, they serve them in the Ikea restaurants and sell them in jars in the shop), a dill and sour cream dressing and vinegar-infused raw onion rings. My husband had Swedish meatballs with lingonberries and dill potatoes, then apple crumble with custard. I passed on the pudding as they were advertising liqueur coffees and I thought a shot of brandy and cream with my coffee would reach the parts apple crumble wouldn’t reach and keep me warm for the walk back to our floating cabin, which it did.

The breakfast on board the boat was good and of course, an opportunity to stock up and minimise our spending on food in the expensive Stockholm. Again, we were lucky weatherwise, as rain was forecast for later but the first part of the day was fine with some sun. Our first port of call was the beautiful City Hall, which is as much like our local council offices as fillet of beef is like a big Mac. It is a relatively modern building, with the work starting in 1911, but it was very carefully designed and brings together the Italian renaissance style (so reminiscent of the buildings in Florence) with Swedish baroque and national realism (you might guess we had a guided tour or I wouldn’t have known any of this!). 

City Hall; the courtyard

City Hall; the Blue Hall

The result is a stunning building with some fabulous rooms, including the Blue Hall which isn’t blue, and is a beautiful room in marble and is where the Nobel prizes (apart from the Peace price which is awarded in Oslo) are conferred and the banquet is held; the Council 

Chamber,

The ceiling of the Council Chamber

which has the most amazing wooden ceiling, which reflects the beams of the Viking long boats; and the climax is the Gold Hall, which is made of tiny tiles of real gold sandwiched between layers of glass in a mosaic and reflects the national mythology of Sweden and specifically of Stockholm. 

City Hall: the Gold Hall

This is where the Nobel Prize ceremony dancing takes place after the banquet. There is a tower which is open to the public but only from May till September so we missed that opportunity. It seems as though the Spring/Summer season up here is very short, but the people aren’t gloomy at all, very upbeat and outgoing, in fact, and so many of them are stunningly beautiful!

We went for a meandering walk, following our noses and looking for interesting things, and after a coffee in a tiny Espresso Bar, where we chatted to the friendly Italian proprietor about our trip (he was Roman, so wanted to hear about that) we found the amazing food market, quite by accident. It is a covered market that only sells food of every kind, and has some of the best restaurants in Stockholm. We spent half an hour just walking through and looking at some of the dishes that weren’t familiar to us, particularly those based on fish - I intend to try recreating some of these when I get home. The overwhelming smell was of dill, which is everywhere.

As we left the market, the skies had darkened and the rain came, quite a heavy shower, and we stumbled upon as sign for the Medieval Museum, which is free!  And inside, and warm, and actually a well designed and informative space. It was certainly aimed at helping students and school children to appreciate what life was like for the people of their city in the middle ages and there was quite a lot on how people were punished (not always with kindness!) and a group of school children were being give a gruesome insight into some of that. It was still raining when we came out and considered going into the Nobel Museum, but that wasn’t free so we decided to spend the 200 kronor (about £16.50) saved by not going in on coffee and cakes and found a very busy cafe which did everything in extra-large portions only, apart from the small cake my husband chose. I opted for apple strudel and when I got the place it was one and a half slices, warmed up with custard and grated chocolate! The latte I ordered came in a soup bowl so all of that was worth the sacrifice of the Nobel Museum (maybe another time). 

A large snack

We had dinner (a few hours later, thankfully) on the boat and had a table by the window overlooking the gorgeous lake as the sun set. 

Early sunset on lake when we sat down for dinner

At the end of dinner

It looked all set for a “red sky at night, shepherd’s delight,” situation but obviously the shepherds here are fond of pouring rain, so we sadly said Goodbye to lovely Stockholm not looking its best. This is definitely somewhere I would come again as we only scratched the surface, but you need to come with plenty of money as nothing comes cheap, apart from household items, which go for a good price, even by UK standards.

We had a pleasant 3 hour journey north up to a little coastal town called Sundsvall, which is a main rail junction and where we will begin our last train journey across the width of Scandinavia to Norway, and specifically to the ancient capital, Trondheim, on the north sea coast. I made good use of the time to sort out my photos, all of which have now been downloaded onto my laptop, and added onto the posts on Salzburg illustrating our trip to Hallstatt and also onto Bamberg post. 

There’s not much to say about Sundsvall really; we arrived about 2pm, booked into the nice, quite luxurious, Quality Hotel and walked into town. Two hours, a coffee and mini muffin each later, we’d done it all. 

Sundsvall: the main square

It looks like a town which comes into life in winter, as it does skiing, and in summer, when it’s warm enough for the beach, but at the moment it is dead. We found only the one coffee shop open, and it was too cold to loiter so after that we went back to the warmth of the Quality. Dinner there was really excellent, and we weren’t rushed at all over our Char with lemon and parmesan risotto and chocolate fondant with raspberries (for me) and fillet of beef and a plate of mixed desserts for my husband, and made an evening of it. The restaurant and bar were full and there was plenty of atmosphere.

So we are now ready to leave Sweden for Norway and our last stop. Feeling quite unexpectedly sad but at the same time looking forward to home and the people who matter.

Stockholm: vibrant and spontaneous 

In Stockholm, we stayed at the Malardrottningen Hotel and Restaurant

Restaurant tips: the Stockholms Gastabud in the old town at Osterlanggatan 7, 111 31 Stockholm, provides very good food and value for money. Note that they don't take bookings but you just turn up and take your chance.

All weathers in Copenhagen

The train from Hamburg to Fredericia, over the Danish border, was packed and there was total confusion as all the seats were marked as reserved. Reservations weren’t compulsory on the train and once it became clear that most people didn’t have reservations, we grabbed seats and settled down for the journey. The landscape between Hamburg and all the way to Copenhagen was pretty uninspiring, so was a good opportunity to draft the next blog post relating to our experiences in Hamburg and to read and nap. Our passports were checked at the border by Danish police, and this is the first time since we left home that we’ve been asked to show our passports on a train. One person was taken off the train, we assume because they didn’t have papers. At Fredericia we changed onto the Copenhagen train. It stopped once, at a place called Odense, which we later found out was the birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen, and we did pass over a couple of scenic bridges.

Arrival into Copenhagen was pretty underwhelming; as the train pulled into the station it all looked dull and dowdy, and the walk from the station to our hotel, Wake Up Copenhagen, more of the same. The dark grey clouds and lack of sunshine didn’t help to lift the atmosphere.

Our hotel room was minimalist, to say the least. I think I’d been expecting something a bit more refined than what we got, as it wasn't one of our cheapest hotels, but compared to lots of others in Copenhagen it wasn’t as expensive as it had seemed when we booked it from home. The check-in was cursory and brusque, and we were told that a second duvet, pillow and towels were in the drawer under the bed; this was just as well as what we had was a double bed, pushed right up to the wall under the window, with one single duvet and one very small pillow, and one bath towel and hand towel in the bathroom. Almost all the places we’ve stayed have provided a double or king-size bed with separate single duvets, so we are used to that now, but it was odd to have only one single duvet and have to make up the rest ourselves. The wardrobe was a rail with 4 hangers, so good job I wasn’t travelling with a wardrobe of grand clothes. The bathroom was a small capsule in the room with frosted glass walls, but nice and clean, and the room was lovely and warm with under-floor heating. 

We beat a hasty retreat to start exploring our new host city and were pleased to find the sun had come out and the blue sky immediately made things look more interesting and welcoming. Our first impressions weren’t far out on the neighbourhood around our hotel and the station, but we walked into the main street then turned off it again and found ourselves in a much more charming and inviting environment. We hadn't eaten or drunk anything other than water since breakfast, some 7 hours earlier as we’d assumed we’d be able to pick up snack stuff either on the trains or at the interim station, but there were no on-board refreshments and we didn’t have any time at Fredericia as our connection was already in the station.

We found an italian restaurant, Il Ponte, that looked nice and not too expensive, and delivered a tasty and filling meal. However, it was Saturday night and they were busy with people dropping in without reservations, same as we had, so they didn’t hang around with the service and we were soon out. Of course, we had to go into a bar called the Bastard Cafe, which was an odd place. 

How could we not go in?

From what we could gather it was the home to a music collective and we went into one of the bars and had a drink and listened to a couple of young bands practising. My husband told the first one that their sound was reminiscent of Pink Floyd and they were pleased by that as they were Pink Floyd fans - they looked as though they had an average age of 17, so that was surprising. We then moved on to a bar called, invitingly, The Summer of Love 1977, which was more sophisticated and had a drink or two before the half hour walk back to the hotel. It was noteworthy that the sun was still out at around 9pm and when we made our way home around 10.30ish (dirty stopouts!) there was a full moon and it was totally dark.

The big shock came the following morning when I woke up and saw it was fully light, looked at my watch and it was 5am! Of course, it hadn’t occurred to us that the days here this time of year just keep getting longer, but it felt a bit odd!

We had two full days in Copenhagen and it really grew on us as we got to know it better. It has a wonderful setting 

The harbour

The canals

occupying coastal islands looking out onto the Baltic Sea and over to Sweden, and there are lots of bars and places to eat, as well as sights to visit. People in shops are helpful and friendly but there is no pressure put on you to buy, they seem genuinely to want to provide a service, but only if it’s what you want. We saw the parliament buildings which are a part of the royal palace and which were the background for the TV series, Borgen, and the city hall, which was a key building in the first series of The Killing. Then from the top of the tower in the royal palace, in which we were taken up via The King’s Lift, we could see the Oresund crossing, aka The Bridge, across which Saga and Martin travelled between Malmo in Sweden and Copenhagen to collaborate on their murder case.

Oresund crossing (The Bridge) in background

We found a fantastic bakery/cafe called Andersen’s directly opposite the railway station and had breakfast there twice and bought a picnic for the train journey to Stockholm - highly recommended.

On our second day, we set off on our explorations fairly early as rain was forecast for later. What we actually got was a violent hail shower while we were in the Rosenborg Park, 

Spring hail shower

After the storm

so we made for the botanic gardens, which had “Palm Houses,” marked on our city map and which turned out to be big greenhouses which had the temperature and humidity of the Amazon rain forest, and plants to match, 

Keeping warm in the greenhouses

so we hung around in there for a while and when we emerged into the real world, the sun had come out and things had warmed up again.

Botanical Gardens

We had one funny moment at the restaurant where we had dinner that evening. We found a restaurant and the waitress was, untypically from our experience in Copenhagen, fairly uncommunicative. We ordered our food then had a careful look at the wine list so see whether or not our budget would stretch to a bottle or we should just go for one glass each (deprivation indeed!). The cheapest red was a Bardolino so we asked for a bottle of that only to be told that the wine list she'd given us was an old one and the Bardolino was now off. We had a look at the current, rather limited, list and ordered the cheapest which was a Portuguese wine, that's all we could understand; we were a bit taken aback when she asked us, "Are you sure you want a whole bottle?" Well yes, we did, but we were rather surprised when the wine came in a decanter, when everyone else had normal bottles. We then started to panic that we'd ordered some expensive port and it did taste very nice and quite robust. However, being us, we drank it anyway and enjoyed it, and I had a fit of the giggles speculating that this might cost us "an arm and a leg!". When the bill came, in fact, it was the same price as the Bardolino and our only explanation for the decanter was that it was cheap wine out of a box or bag, but it did taste very nice.

One place that my husband had read about on the listings for Copenhagen was a pub/eaterie called War Pigs (a Black Sabbath track, so I’m told) and he was keen for us to go. This wasn’t the easiest place to find but when we did it was worth the search. It’s a large space with food served to you on trays, e.g. pulled pork or brisket of beef, by the quarter, half or full pound, with sides like homemade coleslaw, potato salad, pickles, 

Pigging out at War Pigs

and a real ale bar selling over 20 real ales, and playing wall to wall rock and punk music. So we managed to pass a good couple of hours there very pleasantly.

Copenhagen: fun and laid back

We stayed at the Wake Up Copenhagen, Carsten Niebuhrs, which is fairly central but is quite basic and minimalist in the extreme. However, it’s also reasonably priced, hence the “no frills” approach, I suppose.

Restaurants: there are so many decent restaurants and bars once you move out slightly out of the city centre. We had some good meals, although nothing in Copenhagen is cheap by British standards, but I would recommend War Pigs; well worth the walk out of the centre of the city.

Sightseeing tip: We were underwhelmed by the statue of the Little Mermaid, but of course we had to go and do a selfie like everyone else there - these selfies make me long for the days when we used the self-timers on our more primitive cameras, set up the camera on a wall, pushed the button and ran into the frame before the picture took! However, we did like the statue of Hans Christian Anderson which was much closer to our hotel and who was at least a real person!

Hans Christian Andersen himself!

Practical tip: my new thermal vest got its first outing and came into its own when the sun wasn't around!

A taste of Hamburg

First of all, the good news is that my photos have miraculously started to download onto my laptop, so I can start to add some pictures over the next few days to recent postings for anyone who would like to take a look at the Salzburg post onwards.

We added the northern seaport city of Hamburg to our itinerary on the advice on a German colleague and friend, who when I asked for a recommendation on which German city to visit, she unhesitatingly went for Hamburg; in addition, it fitted in nicely with our plan to end up in Trondheim in Norway, somewhere a bit off the tourist beaten track and which appealed to our sense of adventure as a finishing point for our trip.

The journey from Berlin was a welcome opportunity to sit in comfort and give our lower bodies a rest from walking. The hi-speed (ICE) train wasn't busy and we were able to stretch out our legs, read, write, nap as we journeyed westwards across a pleasant but unremarkable green landscape. It actually took less than 2 hours, which was a pity, as I’d have been quite happy to stay aboard and continue for longer, but unfortunately Hamburg was the terminus.

Our first impression of the city wasn’t that positive; we came out of the busy station which was bustling with all kinds of people and tried to make sense of the map we’d printed out to help us make the transfer from station to hotel, as we’ve done for all our destinations. Of course, in real life, the street names aren’t always that obvious and we took a wrong turning and walked too far away from the station and found ourselves in what wasn’t the most salubrious of areas. We passed a couple of shops which were displaying photos showing, what my husband described in our family parlance as “somewhere to park your bike.” In my mind I was already deciding to ditch the hotel we’d paid for and find somewhere a bit more “suitable.” However, once we found our way, the Hotel Terminus was actually right opposite the station and not as far into the dodgy area as we’d thought and we rang the bell and were admitted to the reception, where we were given a warm welcome and a pretty nice and very clean room and bathroom, with breakfast included, which turned out to be basic but a good start to the day ahead.

The male receptionist was very friendly and keen to use his proficient English (probably because my German was so abysmal) and showed me a notebook in which he writes down new English words he comes across with their meaning. He told me he watches lots of English language films and TV, and his favourite personality is Gordon Ramsey, because he is so passionate about his cooking. I warned him to be careful of using some of Gordon’s favourite words with his customers!

So, it was only lunchtime and time to head off for sightseeing and some coffee and cake, which seems to have crept into our daily routine without our realising. That will have to stop when we get to Scandinavia as from what we’ve heard about the cost of everything there we might be paying the equivalent of around £15 each for coffee and cake, so all the more reason to indulge here in Germany.

Once we crossed the road behind the station we were smack bang in the middle of the main shopping area, with smart and stylish shops, and some impressive old buildings, such as the Rathaus (town hall) and old churches. 

Hamburg Rathaus

The overall impression is one of affluence and very good taste. Our walking helped us to build our awareness of the shape of the city and brought us to a lovely lakeside area surrounded by stately buildings, around which many people were strolling and cycling, and we had a walk and sat in the warm sun watching the swans, ducks and cormorants that live in and around the lake. We ended the day with a walk down to the mighty river Elbe, looking out onto the harbour and the working docks across the river, deciding we would spend our full day exploring that area further. It reminded me of the view from the Liver Building in Liverpool, looking out over the Mersey. We found a decent restaurant on our way back to the hotel and I opted for the spargel (asparagus) menu which is in season here and has been promoted all across Germany throughout our time in Germany and Austria. I had the thick white asparagus with black forest ham, boiled potatoes and melted butter - simple but tasty, while my husband went for fish. 

After breakfast on our full day in Hamburg we came across a large demonstration of public sector workers. We asked one of the supporters what it was about and they told us it was to protest against the low wage settlement they’d agreed some time ago with the government and which they now want to review, as many workers in local government, health, public transport, etc are struggling to make ends meet. Sounds familiar! 

Demonstration of public sector workers

We made good use of our Rough Guide in planning out our day and as advised, bought an all-day ferry ticket for only 6 euros each, and caught a ferry to Finkenwerder across the river. 

Ferry across the Elbe

We got off at Docklands and climbed up to the roof of a large building that turned out to be the Business School for the Nordakademie and provided fantastic views of the whole area, 

View back to Hamburg from top of Nordakademie building 

then caught the next ferry across to Finkenwerder and got off there as well.  Although it wasn’t the nicest place, it did have a lovely bakery/coffee shop with very low prices, so we took advantage of that to fill up at lunchtime.

Once back over in Hamburg we walked round the Hafen City (Docklands) area, which as with Canary Wharf is filled with interesting buildings and redeveloped warehouses, but many seem to be unoccupied,which suggests that rents are probably high and out of the reach of many people. The highest profile building in the area is the new state of the art concert hall, the Elbphilharmonie.  However, we heard from the locals that the projected costs have doubled from the original estimates and there are questions over the funding. Similarly, our tourist map identified an area marked as a site for the 2024 Olympics. When we asked a local person about that, they told us that there had been plans to bid to host the 2024 Olympics in Hamburg but there had been a lot of local opposition and they’d had a vote which had given it the thumbs down.

One visit worth mentioning is the Miniature Wonderland in Hafen City, which is really fun and excellent value for money - it’s 2 big warehouse floors of huge train sets, an airport, representations of a number of countries and the city of Hamburg itself, which includes a representation of the new concert hall and which looks amazing,

Model of completed Elbphilarmonie, currently under construction, at Miniature Wonderland

all made of tiny figures and model vehicles and buildings. It was the tiny details that made it so captivating, such as a bouncy castle with tiny figures of children bouncing up and down, and a bungee jumper diving from a crane. Great for kids of all ages, and kids at heart.

Hamburg: ebullient and friendly

We stayed at the Hotel Terminus, Hamburg, which isn’t in the best of areas but is ideally situated for access to the main station and is good value for money and very clean and comfortable with an adequate “complimentary" breakfast, i.e. it’s included in the b&b price.

Restaurants: there are plenty of good restaurants and bars. We had a nice meal and excellent and friendly service at Das Kontor at Deichstrasse 32, Hamburg.

Sightseeing tip: Miniature Wonderland is in Hafen City, Hamburg

The experience that is Berlin

Travel is said to broaden the mind and, for me, our four days in Berlin have certainly had that effect. It has been an exciting, surprising and sobering experience and there is so to say which makes it the most challenging post I’ve written so far. Alongside that, I am continuing to experience difficulties with moving my photos across from phone/camera to laptop and the quality of the internet service we can access varies from place to place. The service at our hotel in Berlin was extremely poor, while here in Hamburg, where I am writing this, it is excellent. 

Berlin is a city that has never really attracted me, perhaps because of its grim history and my impression of it as a grey and austere city. Our daughter spent time there when she was interrailing three years ago and my elder son was there last summer, and they both urged us to include it in our itinerary as they both really enjoyed their time there and felt that we would too.

They were right, we did; Berlin is a real experience and unlike any other European city I’ve visited. We arrived there to fantastic weather yet again, blue skies and sunshine, with real heat in the sun, so my expectation that it would be a cold and dreary place was challenged from the start. Our journey from Bamberg on Sunday involved 3 trains and 2 changes, but no delays or long waits. The last phase of the journey was on a high speed train from Stuttgart, and we shared a compartment with a couple from Stuttgart who were travelling to Berlin to visit their son. They saw our inter-rail tickets during the ticket check and in conversation (mostly in English, I’m ashamed to say) expressed the view that Berlin is a very special place and well worth visiting.

We checked into our hotel, the Berlin Inter-City, which is literally a 2 minute walk from the stunning new Berlin Hauptbahnhof. Fans of “Homeland” might remember it as the setting for the climax of the last episode of the last series when Carrie chased her prey down lots of escalators and into the lowest level of this 5 or 6 level glass building.

Berlin Hauptbahnhof

Inside Berlin Hauptbahnhof

We wasted no time in dumping our luggage and heading off to start our sightseeing, and after a short walk, perhaps 5 minutes, we were in the Tiergarten at the memorial to the Russian troops killed in the second World War and reading all the information and photographs, and this was just the start of it. Everywhere you go history hits you between the eyes and everything is described and explained. There are information boards everywhere around the city centre, with the text in both German and English, and in some instances in French, Russian, Polish and other languages. There is information relating not only to the rise of the Third Reich, World War II, the division of the city between the allied powers and the erection of the Wall (although as you would expect these are the major topics) but also to World War I, Bismarck (all the swotting up on his foreign policy from 1870 for my History O’ level over 40 years ago started to come back to me!) and Napoleon’s conquest of Berlin.

Brandenburg Gate

We did divide our time quite well, in hindsight, because of our 4 full days plus Sunday afternoon and evening, we spent most of the time in the city centre covering all the history, but we also spent one full day, Monday, in Potsdam and a large part of Wednesday in Schonberg, a suburb to the south of the city centre.

Potsdam was an amazing place, a beautiful old town

Potsdam town centre

which included a delightful Dutch quarter

Potsdam Dutch quarter

which had housed workers brought from Holland by Frederick the Great of Prussia to build his palaces, of which there are 4 or 5. These extravagant building occupy a huge area of parkland which is gorgeous, full of beautiful trees and flowers and the sound of birdsong, and has UNESCO World Heritage status.

Palaces at Potsdam

Again, we were fortunate to have fabulous tee-shirt weather and enjoyed some time sitting in the sun, relaxing. We caught the train to Potsdam and decided to make a detour by tram and bus on the way back via the Glienicke Bridge.

Sign at Glienicke Bridge

Glienicke Bridge

Wannsee from the Glienicke Bridge

For anyone who has seen the film “Bridge of Spies”, this was the bridge which was chosen by the Russians for the exchange of the Russian spy, Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance) for the US spy Gary Powers. As Potsdam was in the former East Germany, we walked across the bridge from the East to catch a bus in the West to take us back to our railway station.

I wanted to discover a bit more about the stylish side of Berlin, something which I felt was missing from the city centre, for all kinds of reasons. Our guide book recommended Schonberg and we enjoyed having coffee and cake in a cafe in a green and pleasant square, with no history to read about; visiting the gay village; checking out a farmers’ market and passing by the apartment that David Bowie shared with Iggy Pop back in the 70’s. The shops were cooler and the restaurants more diverse and cheaper, so much so, that we went back in the evening for a good curry in an indian restaurant.

Apart from that, we walked, we looked and we read about huge moments in history and tried to make sense of things that just don’t. We walked along the route of the wall through the centre of the city, including a rather cheesy Checkpoint Charlie; we spent a morning in the Museum of German History and an afternoon (not the same day) in the Museum of the Topographie des Terroirs, which analysed how the nazis used terror to build and maintain their power base; we saw the Holocaust memorial and I made a brief visit to the centre underneath which provides context, but brief felt like enough; we walked up and round the wonderful Reichstag dome, designed by Sir Norman Foster, which is poetry in glass and steel; had a laugh when my husband and I, at different times in the same cafe, both managed to use the wrong toilets - if they are going to use pictures to differentiate then at least make it clear which gender they are supposed to portray; we got used to seeing blankets laid out on the backs of the chairs outside cafes so customers can sit outside even when it’s really too cold!

We had lunch in the revolving TV tower restaurant and looked down on the city from above, which provided shape and perspective. My lunch there was kind of east meets west, as I ordered something called a Flammekuchen, which I thought was going to be a quiche, but turned out to be a thin,flaky pizza base, half of it topped with onion, pieces of bacon and grated cheese and the other half with pieces of apple, raisins and cinnamon. I ate it in two separate pieces, having the savoury bit first then saving the sweet half for pudding (but I had pudding as well, of course!) but the bits where they met were interesting and actually combined better than I’d imagined they would.

I didn’t find Berlin beautiful or elegant, but it was certainly special in a very unique way; it’s full of energy and seems to have a burning need to set out and to describe what can’t be explained. I came away ready to move on to our next stop, Hamburg, but haunted by the single question, “How could that happen?”

I was saddened to learn on our last night, by way of a friend’s Facebook posting, that the comedian and writer, Victoria Wood, had sadly died. Her self-deprecating, compassionate and and perceptive humour, particularly on the subject of northern women of around my age (she was only about 18 months older than me) is the perfect antidote to the pomposity and bullying of the nazis.

Berlin: historic and energetic

We stayed at the InterCity, Berlin, which was a predictably comfortable and well appointed chain hotel right next to the station. With breakfast at 17 euros each, we never got to try it as there were plenty of far cheaper alternatives nearby. 

Food tip: unless you like frankfurter sausages covered in ketchup sprinkled with curry powder avoid the curry wurst, the Berlin speciality. My husband had it and didn’t enjoy it - I didn’t even try it as I can’t stand ketchup (with or without curry powder) or frankfurters.

Sightseeing tip: many of the visits we made were free, including access to the Reichstag dome, which we would highly recommend. However, you have to register in advance and be allocated a time to visit. We’d tried twice and not been allocated, however, my husband went onto the website to register at 7.30am and was successful that time, so we think if you get in early, it increases your chances.

Beer and Pasta in Bamberg

I was initially unable to download my photos of Bamberg from my phone to my laptop, but thanks to some stronger internet connections since then, I am have now been able to add some photos in below, and to other posts.

We left Salzburg on a cloudy day but the view of the surrounding Alps was the best we’ve had throughout our entire trip. The mountains stood out blue and distinct, looking almost like a painted backdrop, rather than the real thing.

View of Alps from Bavaria

We kept the mountains with us until we were well past Munich. Once beyond there, the landscape became flat and pretty dull, not helped by the torrential rain hitting the windows of the train. However, after we’d changed trains at Nuremberg, the scene through the window became easier on the eye and the rain stopped and we saw our old friend, the sun, albeit in a  more diluted form than we’d become accustomed to.

One thing I’ve really struggled with has been mentally making the shift from the Italian language to German, which might say something about my inner feelings about leaving behind the lovely weather we were lucky enough to enjoy in Italy and which is already beginning to feel far behind. In terms of language it’s rather ridiculous as I have no Italian apart from what I’ve learned through holiday travel and some transfer across from a reasonable working knowledge of French and a little Spanish, whereas I do have A’ Level German (that’s over 40 years ago, mind you!) and did manage to use it reasonably well when we were in Vienna in 2014. At the moment, despite preparing myself for each encounter in shops, bars & restaurants by internally rehearsing “Guten Morgen” and all the rest of the greetings, as soon as I get past that bit of the conversation I’m saying “Si” rather than “Ja,” and then totally floundering, I must say that most of the Austrian and German people I’ve met have been extremely patient, either coming back to me in flawless English or like the waitress in the cafe this morning, helped me with the German words I can’t retrieve with good natured patience. 

We reached the historic town of Bamberg around 2pm and the apartment we’d booked was a very short walk from the station. We’d been in touch with the reception team a couple of days previously to provide our ETA so we were surprised when we got there to find it all locked up and no-one about. A phonecall to the number on the email informed us that someone was on the way but was stuck in a traffic jam, so to go and find a cafe and return in half an hour. We discovered a couple of minutes away an unusual coffee shop with lots of signs ending in exclamation marks written on blackboards outside that we couldn’t understand, but once inside we found a nice atmosphere, lots of pretty things for sale and very good coffee and cakes, served to us by a friendly young woman.

On returning to the apartments, our host had arrived and we dealt with the formalities quickly, including receiving a complimentary bottle of Bamberg beer each, of which more later. We were given the choice of two empty apartments, both of which were modern, comfortable and well equipped, and we chose the biggest one overlooking the main street. I have to say that the bed in the apartment was probably the most comfortable we’ve had so far on this trip although most have been pretty good.

We wasted no time in taking the 10 minute walk from the apartment to Bamberg’s old town. This involves crossing a bridge over the right arm of the river Regnitz, walking through the town centre which is on an island, then a bridge from the island across to the old town of Bamberg. This is a UNESCO world heritage sight and it is a very beautiful and traditional fairy tale Bavarian town. 

Saint Kunigunda

Grey clouds over Bamberg

Lock in the old town

The old town hall

The shop window of a lacemaker

My husband likened it to the town in the film “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” where the children are running away from the town’s sinister Child Catcher and there was a statue of a figure in the old town centre that looked like he could have been a Child Catcher!

There are apparently 11 breweries in the town itself and a very large number of bars, bierkellers, etc and the whole of Germany seemed to be in Bamberg for the weekend, drinking the puzzling range of beers, often accompanied by little glasses of schnapps, in vast quantities. What is surprising is that we didn’t see anyone falling around drunk or making fools of themselves (present company excepted maybe!). The most famous beer of Bamberg is called Rauchbier, or smoked beer. It is made of barley that has been smoked before it’s added to the mash, and tastes like a bitter beer which has had a smoked sausage dipped into it. It’s not unpleasant, but slightly bizarre to our taste. I am not a beer drinker myself so left that side of things to my husband, who has been known to partake of ale now and again. I was able to tell him that dunkel is dark and hell is light, so that helped a bit in differentiating between the different beers, although we got it very wrong on one occasion when he ended up with a bucketful of lager shandy! Lost in translation, obviously! I stuck with wine and tried the local Frankish offerings, mainly white, which were pleasant and the prices were reasonable for both the wine and the beer.

Well, you have to try it

So while we were happy with our accommodation, the beauty of the sights of the town, the beer and the wine, there was one area that didn’t quite work for us, and that’s the all-important area of the food. We like to think that we are quite broad-minded about what we will try, e.g. tripe, nettle pasta, horse stew in Italy; fondue and raclette in Switzerland; Subway sandwich in Austria (well it was a first for me!) but I’m afraid we couldn’t come to terms with the food in Bamberg. All of the bierkellers were cooking and serving the hearty local Frankish cooking and most of the drinkers were enthusiastically tucking into white sausages, pork in every form, massive potato dumplings the size of tennis balls(and looked to be of a similar consistency), sauerkraut and vegetables that tin my husband’s words, “had had the arse boiled out of them,” so the overwhelming smell was of potatoes that had been boiled to a pulp, not really our cup of tea. Writing this, it seems obvious that there is a link between the large-scale drinking, the hearty eating and the exemplary behaviour of the local imbibers as opposed to two amateurs from the UK. We did manage to find something we could both eat but let’s just say that it wasn’t our favourite meal of the trip so far.

Our second, and full, day was grey and we decided to take advantage of not having to rush around as much as we have been doing. We strolled into the town centre and found a very busy bakery/cafe for breakfast, seating ourselves on the only seats at a large table. When some of the seats were freed up, we were joined by a young child accompanied by her Grandparents, clearly out for a Saturday morning of grandparental treats. What she was given to eat was a large bread roll, inside which was what looked like a thick slice of gingerbread, which I thought was a bit odd. However, we realised that it was a 1 inch thick slab of pate or liver sausage balanced between the two halves of the bread. Yum! I was pleased, for her sake that she managed to eat less than a quarter of it and the grandparents had to finish it between them - quite an ordeal! She was then given an apple strudel which hopefully cleansed her palate of the rich meaty treat and she polished off most of that without any help from her elders. 

The rain fell heavily from lunchtime until around 4pm, when the sun came out so we spent the early part of the day working our way around bars (but drinking very slowly this time!) with a couple of coffee stops interspersed, then went further up into the old town to see the cathedral, a beautiful old Abbey and some lovely medieval buildings.

In the grounds of Michaelsberg Abbey

Sunshine after the rain

The town towards dusk

By this time, we were feeling rather hungry but we decided to take the easy way out and headed for an Italian restaurant, which was very crowded, so that must say something, and opted for spaghetti with meatballs for me, pizza for Pete and a glass of house merlot each, before walking back to the apartment to FaceTime my Mum on her 86th birthday, including joining in the cutting of the yummy cake(shame FaceTime doesn’t also enable Tastetime) and Happy Birthday singing, and catching up with other members of the family.

We are now exactly halfway through our trip and next stop is Berlin, so lots to see and do there.

Bamberg: picturesque and hearty

We stayed at the Morello Apartments in Bamberg, which were very comfortable and would be great if you wanted to stay for longer than a couple of nights as you could self-cater. The bed was even comfier than at the Ramada in Salzburg

Food tip: we were there for Friday and Saturday, so during the week might be different, but the bierkellers on both nights were packed and getting a table was a challenge. Many people had pre-booked, so I would advise that making a reservation would be wise. Even in the Italian restaurant we could only have the table for 1.5 hours as it was booked for later on.