By the time you read this story my time on the Internet may have run out. There is so much to tell for just one week. We started in Singapore a week ago with a cooking course at Raffles. We then spent 3 days going back over our old memories and places in Singapore including visiting friends at the Australian International School. There are only 3 teachers left now, and one of them is the Art teacher. The rain and food hasn't changed much in Singapore, only the buildings and shopping centres. The lifestyle hasn't changed much either and we think we wouldn't be keen to go back there. We enjoyed the Singapore eye and even some friends at a restaurant we used to frequent remembered us.
After a long flight to Frankfurt, we travelled by the efficient Deutscher Bahn ICE up to Berlin. This was a highlight for Paul as we got up to 253 kilometres an hour! Our hotel in Berlin is beautiful and we have enjoyed our rooftop view and the lovely breakfast at the hotel. My father always fondly remembers his German breakfasts and he was pleased to hear that they are still up to scratch.
We have had a full 4 days of sightseeing. We didn't anticipate that it was a long weekend in Germany & Europe due to May Day so the city has been packed with tourists and school groups. Paul is keen to get his photo with them. We met an Australian who lived in Berlin on the station last Thursday who warned us of riots in Berlin on Friday. That really impressed us but it has been perfectly safe.
We started our journey with a tour up the Reichstag (again we took my parents advice and turned up early and got a great view with out the queue). We then went to the Holocaust Memorial (of which there are photos in the gallery) that is very moving. There are a lot of significant stories in the centre and you could get lost in the emotions. Positively we moved on to the new Potzdam Place. We were in Berlin 10 years ago, this was only a construction area. We were amazed at the change and commercial buildings now in East Berlin; it is as though everything has moved from the West to the East. The stores are very open and gleaming, it is infact, becoming a lot like Singapore. However, there are some beautiful old buildings that have been restored since the war and there are some lovely restaurants and cafes tucked away where you can sit and enjoy the sun. After visiting the ubiquitous East Berlin TV tower on Alexanderplatz, along with all the 'bored' school students, we went on a walk of the old Jewish quarter which has been also restored. It is now a very popular place to live in Berlin for young families. There are some signficant memorials to the Jewish community in this area and a new synagogue.
Friday; we visited the story of Berlin, an interactive multimedia site with its own nuclear bunker. So safe is this bunker I got a call on my mobile phone from a friend in the middle of the tour. The brochure, as Paul points out states: "One city, one history, one exhibition and one nuclear bomb shelter"! It seems that in Berlin, they are still unsure about the threat of war.
We then toured on a boat seeing the sites of Berlin by water including the new parliamentary area and the island filled with museums. We continued down Unter Der Linden until we typically found the Gendernmarket area, the most exclusive area in Berlin; or shall we say, Kathryn found it. It is a very pretty area. We found a restaurant, that we returned to the following day, that served the traditional 'Currywurst' (Curry sausage; for Paul) and Veuve Clinquot champagne (For Kathryn) what a great combination, if not unusual.
Saturday saw us take a bike tour of the wall history of Old Berlin. We followed the route of the wall and stopped for many stories along the way. We visited a control tour that has been purchased by an East German as a museum. We think he still runs it as a control tour. However, his brother had been the first person to be killed by border guards after the wall went up.
That afternoon we continued to the Hamburger Hof.(Contemporary Art museum) where Paul experienced that art can be sound related and not just visual. Appart from some found object pieces by Joseph Beuys, the main gallery had a sound installation from a Canadian artist called the 'Death of Crows'. If you are not into art you would think this a joke, if you are, it was fantastic! Paul has learnt a lot about contemporary art over the last 10 years, including when to hold his mirth in various exhibitions.
What is amusing is to see 'Beach Bars' along the river. People lay in deck chairs, sunbaking as though they are at the beach. To an Australian this is highly amusing.
Today we have walked and walked; through Tiertengarten along Unter Der Linden to the Museum Island where we finished in the Pergamon museum. This classical history museum has some immense reconstructed temples and gates from Greece and the Islamic period. It is amazing that this all survived both wars and the Cold war unscathed.
Tomorrow we are off to Zurich. We are enjoying the time away from work. This has been the most I have had to write in some time. I will have to continue to keep up my practise. We have enjoyed the food, trying to learn parts of the language and how to explain that we are not English but Australian. We have learnt that Asparagus is in season and you are offered it at every restaurant and that a pigs knuckle 'cooked' is actually 'boiled'. Also that Berliner beer is not the best beer in Germany and that Berliner donuts are not easy to find.
Until our next update.
Kathryn & Paul
