A young lad sat next to me and promptly fell asleep, I’m envious of people who can do that! He got woken by a guard who wanted to check his ticket and I noticed that he also had a global pass. There were many other people in the carriage who also showed the global pass ticket and I noticed the various bags and backpacks on the luggage racks:
His friend came to see him and I learned that I was incredibly fortunate to get a seat where I was as he had been standing for two hours. I chatted to them both for a few minutes and found that they were heading to Berlin on a loooong journey. I had had a look at going straight to Berlin but didn’t fancy the lengthy trip so offered the chap my seat when I got off at Hannover which was about an hour away. I carried on chatting to the chap next to me for a while and it turned out we were taking a similar pathway around Europe but he was intending to head down to Italy. He is in a large group of people but due to the busyness of the train, the group was scattered up and down the train. I got off at Hannover and again had a helpful man who offered to lift my bag off the train. Found an escalator, the correct platform, a coffee machine and a Twix and waited for my next train. Got on the third train of the day a little more confidently and arrived on time in LÏ‹neburg. Other than finding the name of this town in the Lonely Planet’s Europe on a Shoestring and it being cited as a ‘wobbly town’ I had no expectations. I alighted and found an Information Centre. It turned out that the hotel I had booked the day before was not actually in LÏ‹neburg but near Hannover. It is surprising how tiring travelling is and how weary I felt at that moment. I was so sure that the booking I had made the night before was in walking distance of the station but after the english speaking security guards pointed me in the right direction I trapsed towards accommodation hopefully to find an available room otherwise I would be heading to Celle near Hannover. I was composing my curt conversation with Expedia with each step I took towards to the hotel area but then decided that I needed to get some food in me before attempting to speak with them. I found a place called ‘Einzigartig’ which I have just discovered means ‘unique’. It had one room that was available which was horribly expensive but after contemplating more travelling I accepted it and went to my room. It was huge and had a bed much larger than the narrow one in Amsterdam, I could lie like a starfish at will – perfect! I wandered out to find a restaurant and acknowledged what a beautiful place LÏ‹neburg really was.
It was called the wobbly town as ’for centuries until 1980, LÏ‹neburg was a salt mining town, and as this ‘white gold’ was extracted from the earth, ground shifts and subsidence knocked many buildings sideways. Inadequate drying of the plaster in the now-swollen facades merely added to the assymetry.’[1] It was so pretty and I found a restaurant on the canal called Bergstrom. There was a piano playing and I was shown to a table overlooking the canal :
A lovely meal accompanied by the strains of Sinatra, Abba and the theme of Casablanca. I went to bed happier than when I’d arrived.
The next day I left my bag in the reception of the hotel and had a wander around the town. I visited St Nicholas’ church:
The main market street with St Johanniskirche, a 14th century church where the Spire leans 2.2m off true [2]
The interior of both churches was beautiful, the latter had ornate altars and chandeliers and a lovely feel in the five aisle church. I felt a little intrusive walking around and taking photos as many people were sat in the aisles in silence. There was an organ playing and the church smelled old, not musty just old wood and history. I didn’t manage to make it to the street where the buildings are wonky as my train to Berlin was leaving in an hour. I would recommend this picturesque town to experience the unusual architecture which reminded me of gingerbread houses, bikes all over the place albeit not as many as Amsterdam. The interior of the churches were beautiful and the people were helpful.
I needed to get two trains to Berlin:
15.03 LÏ‹neburg to Hamburg HBF IC2374
16.06 Hamburg HBF to Berlin ICE901
I found that I was shakey with nerves and excitement again, the kindness of strangers prevailed again as a gentleman helped me with my bag. Thank God for platform lifts in Germany as I needed to get down and across many platforms to get my train to Berlin. I saw a man with the MOST amazing waxed moustache, the ends were curled up and everything! I was most pleased to see the same man at Berlin but both times I failed to get a photo. Again, tired from the travelling and overwhelmed by the sheer size of Berlin station with lifts, escalators and stairs everywhere, I went on the hunt for an exit. I had arrived early evening but multiple clothes shops and restaurants were still open and I found a taxi and was taken to my four star hotel. Such decadence I know but it was cheaper than a private room in a hostel – honest.
Nice hotel, not a mint on my pillow but this instead.
I looked at my surroundings and found a huge bed, en suite bathroom, mini fridge – two free beers and two free waters a day (nice) tea and coffee making facilities, flat screen TV with free film channel and access to the news, which had been lacking in the past few days. I was here for three nights but needed some down time, I was intending to not do anything the next day. Nice meal at an Indian restaurant, wine, bed.
After spending the day watching an awful film, ‘Bunraku’, part dozing through ‘The Bang Bang Club’ and trying to avoid whilst mildly smirking at the bizarre ‘Bucky Larson: Born to be a star’ I wandered out to Alexanderplatz. The Lonely Planet had said it had been ‘developed as a 1960s communist showpiece’ which was today ‘an unusual hive of construction activity’ [3] plus it was nearby. I explained my lack of navigatory skills to a nice chap on Reception who promptly drew on my map the directions I needed to head towards. After joking that I hoped I didn’t get lost, he offered me the hotel card with the address and phone number on it…..
I got slightly rained upon but found Alexanderplatz.
I found the World Clock which I felt an incurable need to photograph in black and white…
These symbols all over the bridge which I guessed related back to the 1960s communism showpiece.
In the centre, the Platz, there were trams, a religious kareoke group with marionettes, two stalls selling rabbit fur hats, an impressive fountain which had too many children around the side to gain an adequate photo and the huge telecom tower which would remain my ‘head to’ place IF I got lost which was likely!I had a lovely meal then headed back into the rain. It was my intention to go on some kind of tour the next day and didn’t wish to wear my oversized condom/poncho from Amsterdam, I suddenly felt a little self concious in it, so invested in a bright yellow umberella for €3. The rain did not desist so I headed back to the hotel, got a small cheer by the man in Reception for getting back, found a leaflet on https://www.insidertour.com/tours.php/cat/27/id/40/title/Tourdetails, got some wine from the Reception bar and headed back to my room. The plan was in place for tomorrow, excellent.
Decided on the afternoon tour rather than the morning one after a bad night’s sleep. The tour was going to take four hours and I was going to see the major sights of Berlin. It mainly took place in East Berlin which was where my hotel was, with the exception of Checkpoint Charlie, some of the buildings looked very dour and featureless, evidence of a Communist regime which Mike, our Kiwi tour guide loved! He’d lived in Berlin for nine years with his wife, two young children and in-laws who had much preferred life before the wall came down. He was so knowledgeable , I mean yes, he may well have learned if off by heart ages ago but he was inspiring, enthusiastic and had enviable, boundless energy. We started at Hackesher Market and due to heavy rain stood under a train bridge to keep dry. Mike gave us a background of Germany, drawing on the pavement in chalk to define the east and west Berlin divide and gave us an overview of the history. We then walked to Museum Island under more cover and talked us through the museums. He showed us bullet holes in pillars, Berlin Cathedral and we saw a building housing a statue of a woman holding her dead son.
I have used a photo from the internet instead of my own as this captures the entire scene whereas my photos have soggy tour group people in them. We were given a few minutes to take in the scene after Mike told us that the statue was created by Käthe Kollwitz to memorialise the death of her own son in the First World War. The roof has a hole in it to allow sun, rain and snow to highlight the statue and demonstrate the somber state within the open building.
In front was written:
‘Den opfern von krieg und gewaltherrschaft’
Which translates as:
‘The sacrifice of war and violent domination’
The atmosphere in the building was one of sadness, reflection and remembrance.
The shelves (look closely) demonstrate the books that should be there: The presence of absence. That stayed with me for the rest of my holiday. If I hadn’t had been on this walking tour I would not have looked diagonally down at the glass square on the pavement.
Me with soggy shoes and trousers standing on the line of the Berlin Wall. This line along with a double cobble runs all through Berlin showing where the wall used to be.
Below is the memorial of the Nazi book burnings organised by pacifist students.
We saw the Stasi HQ, Hitler’s offices which now house a Chinese takeaway and a homosexual sauna – he would be so pleased! We stood on Hitler’s bunker and walked through a Jewish memorial which was only grey chunks of concrete, leaving it to each person to interpret its meaning:
It was a bit overwhelming and odd to be faced with and walk through these huge concrete blocks. There didn’t seem to be any sequence or pattern to the height but it felt quite humbling to walk through.
“The field consist of 2,711 monoliths that covers 13,000 square meters. Each Monolith is 7 ft 10 in (2.38 m) long 3 ft 1 in (.95 m) wide and the height varies from 8 in to 15 ft (.2 to 4.8 m) high.”
Although it is left to interpretation, there is a bit more information on the materials and artist: https://studioberlin.org/2012/?p=910
A part of the Berlin Wall that remains standing surrounded by a fence to prevent people stealing bits of it.
Sections of the Berlin Wall dotted around the city as a further reminder of the past.
‘History doesn’t repeat itself, but sometimes it rhymes’ Mark Twain, told to us by our amazing tour guide.
We walked along Unter den Linden, saw the Reichstag and ended up at Brandenburg Gate. My legs were weary after the four hour tour and I had listened to and taken in so much history. I’d studied the First and Second World War four years ago through the Open University and found it incredibly interesting, the best module I had done throughout my degree.This walking tour had reignited my interest in the subject and I asked for further reading which Mike Stack, the Tour Guide, had offered. He sent me a long reading list and recommended films regarding Berlin, Nazi history, Weimar history, Cold War matter which I am happy to share. Please get in contact via Dorset Eye.
Berlin was fantastic! The combination of East Berlin meets West Berlin and sometimes East clashing with West which resulted in buildings being torn down as neither side would decide or concede whose buildings were the best. As the communist society did not acknowledge the presence of a deity beautiful churches and other buildings were destroyed on a tit for tat basis. I’m sorry but I can’t think of an example. Mike had given us a lot of information by this point and my brain was saturated with history and new information. The result of which was an unusual combination of architecture around the city; incredibly old, dilapidated buildings which could do with updating/renovation, brand spanking new buildings which had sprung up since the wall came down in November 1989, pillars with evidence of bullet activity and memorials underfoot, underground and over ground. It was everywhere once you knew where to look, what you were looking at and at the right angle. I could quite easily bang on about this for much much longer but I won’t! The buildings would remain as they were for the time being as Berlin was poor but sexy, another quote from our tour guide. I had had an amazing afternoon; a four hour tour for €12 with a guide whose enthusiasm was inspiring and exciting on a very soggy day. I wandered towards my hotel stopping for an Apfel Strudel and a cup of tea on the way.
1 P. 547 Europe on a Shoestring, Lonely Planet
2 Ibid
3 P. 490 Europe on a Shoestring
Sarah Downes
