Hi All,
We had a plan...but it didn't work.
We headed out from Luxemburg towards Germany. The plan was just to get a ticket over the border then purchase a german rail pass and then head to Berlin. Got across the border and found that there was nowhere to purchase the rail ticket so had to go another hour along to the next large town where we purchased our 5 day (24hr) travel in 30 days german rail pass for both of us for 300 Euro (ouch). German rail travel is expensive so the pass should give us a good discount.
Actually should back track. It was a travel day of train changes with seconds to spare. Twice on the day we had train changes with theoretical 6 minutes changes between trains at stations. No problems you think. German precision. Right? Our first change we had 1 minute to race between trains. Second change the first train was 10 minutes late and luckily the train to Berlin was held but it was still a rush.
ICE trains. Yes. The need for speed. They are the fast trains on the german rail network. We travelled at 200km/h to get to Berlin central station at about 6pm. Think the journey was 4hrs.
Was an interesting travel day. We travelled along the moselle valley and river with vines right up the steep hills and so many tourist cruise boats. Even a few nice old castles along the way and plenty of classic german buildings. A pub with red window shutters and a stag head on the outside at one point.
We are staying at the Circus hostel in Berlin. Nice looking hostel. Missing the small more intimate hostels but this one is warm feeling even though it has hundreds of beds. Even has its own bar and nightclub downstairs and a lift! Remarkably the dorm that we are in has plenty of space and very modern. Too bad it doesn't snuffle the snorers in the room.
Good news. Found a super Kebab shop. So big you are full at about the half way point. Kababs for lunch and Dinner. I love it and Vanessa thinks maybe not another Kebab. Alcohol is cheap. 2 Euro for a bottle of German wine which tasted quite nice.
Next day. Spent our first day working on visas. Went to the Australia embassy for some advice about getting temporary documents while our passports are in Australia. He told us that it wasn't necessary as no one checks passports in Schengen EU. We have had plenty of passport checks when moving between Schengen EU countries so new that wasn't correct. The embassy was going to charge 18 Euro for certified copies of our passports. What? We got our certified document for free thankfully.
Decided to try again with the Chinese and Russian embassies before sending off our passports to Australia. Chinese told us they could only process European passports and then we went to the Russian consulate. It felt very Communist. Well my perception of communist. People standing around outside the consulate. There was a wooden door outside and a buzzer with people coming in and out one at a time. We had no idea and asked someone how things worked. She got us inside and after going through security we walked into a room full of waiting people on chairs around the walls and a stern looking man in Russian miliary uniform who gave us a couple of raffle tickets with number each. No more information. We stood and waited...and waited. I asked a woman who had arrived after us but was being served before us what was going on and she showed us to the correct counter. Apparently we were to give one of our tickets to the counter and then wait for our number to be called in german. Not good for us. We were next after her. I pushed my passport and documents under the security window to the unemotional russian behind who looked at the form then got a pen and put a big x across it and started to rip it. He wrote a web address on it and said 'this is an incorrect form' then handed it back to me. After that we knew we were out of our depth and left.
Back at the hostel we found that there was a free Robbie Williams concert. Apparently a secret concert and was starting at 4pm. Excellent. A welcome break from the visa work. Well the secret must have got out early as by the time we arrive there were thousands of people at the concert venue. Robbie Williams sang well but I can't see his star rising again. Still it was free and we found a spot where we could see the stage and more importantly it gave us a break.
We spent the rest of the afternoon ordering our visa service in Australia online.All sorted out and went to the post office only to find out that none of the staff spoke english. We ended up getting one of the staff members at the hostel to write on a piece of paper what we required and then returned. Success. Well almost. We certainly got our passports and visa documents mailed and we have a tracking document but realised we didn't certify the package when we returned to the hostel. To make it worse the express post is only 4-7 days to Australia. Express? Not. So our passports will take a long time to get to Austraia and the document is only tracked. Not exactly the plan...
Fingers crossed.
Next day. We took the free city tour of Berlin. Quite nice. It was very cold today and it took us by surprise so we were looked forward to getting back into warmth. A good warning for us as Russia will be a lot colder. We may have to rethink our clothing for Russia.
Bye,
David and Vanessa
