Cruise day: 160/163
Ports days: 88
Sea days: 72
Countries: 28
Continents: 5
Ports: 62In case you don't speak/read German, that title translates to, "We are Berliners", a take on John F. Kennedy's famous speech where he stated, "Ich bin ein Berliner" - "I am a Berliner". This was meant to express his support for Berlin and the German People. In some German circles, a Berliner is a type of jelly doughnut. Therefore, urban legend evolved that Kennedy misspoke and called himself a jelly doughnut. The story has been debunked multiple times, but it still sticks around. Therefore, we found it really humorous that this was the snack that was provided on our trip this morning.
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| Yup - a jelly doughnut |
We docked in Warnemünde, Germany. We visited here nearly two weeks ago on May 19. Our tour today was one of the marathon sessions into Berlin by train. Our specific excursion was an optional tour called Scenic Berlin by motorcoach & cruise. It combined a 2.5-hour train trip into Berlin with a scenic bus tour, a sightseeing cruise on the Spree river, lunch at a local German restaurant, more bus sightseeing, and a return 2.5-hour train ride. In all, it combined into a 12-hour day. After breakfast and gathering in the Star Theater at 8:30AM, we made the short walk to the train station for our scheduled 8:57AM departure. Of the nearly 400 passengers on the ship, somewhere north of 250 folks were taking excursions in Berlin and were all heading in on the same charter train. The predicted weather today included thunderstorms and rain, starting about the time we arrive in Berlin. Yea.
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| You can easily see the train from the starboard side of the ship - it is about a two-minute walk |
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| Viking charters the train - it's pretty awesome |
The trip in went smoothly and we arrived in Berlin a little after 11AM. We headed for our bus and started our tour.
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| Our first view coming out of the train station - Cube Berlin - and, as you can see, the weather forecast of rain missed by a mile |
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| Hauptbahnhof (Berlin Central Station) - where we arrived |
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| It is an impressive five-story building with two floors of tracks and three floors of offices and shopping |
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| The Reichstag - the seat for German Parlament |
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| The Reichstag |
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| Look at the sidewalk - see the double-line of bricks? That marks the location of the Berlin Wall. |
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| The Reichstag and the Spree River |
We arrived at our first stop, the Brandenburg Gate - a symbol that marks the unification of Berlin after the fall of the Berlin Wall. During the cold war period, the gate was not able to be used.
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| Walking through the Brandenburg Gate |
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| The Victory Column |
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| The Reichstag |
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| Germany's tallest structure - the Berlin TV Tower at 1,207.45-feet |
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| The U.S. Embassy |
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| There was a section of road that was blocked off to traffic - that is until two jet-black Audi sedans approached - a guard pressed a button and two of the columns disappeared into the road, the Audis rolled through, and the columns came back up - it all looked very secret agent-ish - bad guys drive black Audis, right? |
We boarded our bus and continued the tour.
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| St. Hedwig's Cathedral - the domed building |
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| Humbolt University |
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| The Opera House |
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| The Royal Palace - it was rebuilt in 2021 and is no longer used as a palace |
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| Berlin Cathedral consecrated in the 1400s - is the largest Lutheran church in Germany and has five pounds of gold plating |
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| The New Synagogue |
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| I have several photos of the Berlin Cathedral - I couldn't decide on which I like the best, so I just dropped them all in |
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| Another view of the Berlin TV Tower |
We exited our bus and headed for the boat portion of this tour. We got on the sun deck of one of Berlin's river tour boats and headed out for a short cruise on the Spree.
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| We passed under multiple bridges |
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| Town Hall |
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| The spires are St. Nicholas Church |
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| Locks connect parts of the river and are used for water management - we didn't go through the locks |
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| The underside of this bridge was designed to mimic the motion of waves |
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| Bode Museum |
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| If you look in the center of the steps, you can see where the wall used to be |
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| The Chancellery |
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| The top of the Victory Column |
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| Congress Hall - the endpoint of our cruise |
We boarded our waiting bus and headed to Hopfingerbräu am Brandenburger Tor - a restaurant located near the Brandenburg Gate.
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| The delicious meal was served family-style with sausages, meatballs, sauerkraut, and potatoes - and while we ate - the rain arrived - it poured, but who cares - we were inside and eating |
After lunch, we got on the bus and headed for Checkpoint Charlie - the most famous checkpoint to travel between east and west Berlin during the Cold War period. We dodged a few raindrops coming out of the restaurant, but the rain stopped before our stop.
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| The checkpoint building still sits in the middle of the road |
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| To commemorate the tank stand-off at Checkpoint Charlie on 27th October 1961 and in gratitude to Lt. General Lucius D. Clay, Berlin envoy of US President John F. Kennedy, for his resolute action in defending the freedom of Berlin. - October 2011 |
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| Because of the propagation of fast food eateries, locals joke that this is now "Snackpoint Charlie" |
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| A piece of the Berlin Wall sits nearby |
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| The wall was 101 miles long and ten feet high |
Back on the bus, we headed for our last stop at the Berlin Wall.
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| We passed this display of Trabants - East Germany's failed attempt at producing a car |
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| The traffic tower at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin was the first traffic light in Germany. It was designed with five sides in 1924. It handed the stop/start duties on the Potsdamer Platz which was at the time the busiest square in Europe. |
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| The zoo entrance |
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| Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church - bombed and will not be rebuilt as a reminder that war solves nothing |
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| The ceiling was amazing |
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| The organ is in a separate building - there are 20,000 individual stained glass windows in this building |
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| There are over 5,000 pipes in the organ - the organist was playing and it sounded amazing |
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| We saw bears all over the city - each one painted differently - it reminded us of the panda bears in Washington DC several years ago |
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| The city manhole covers were pretty intricate |
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| This is a Christmas store - of course, Arlona wanted to take a look |
We headed off for our final stop at the Berlin Wall
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| These poles show where the wall was - this is on the West German side - you can see the graffiti on the East German wall across the grass |
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| That middle area, or no man's land, was controlled by soldiers, and from the East German side, automatic-firing machine guns designed to discourage defection to the west |
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| This is the no man's land |
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| This wall commemorates East Berliners who perished trying to defect to the west |
We headed to the bus for the ride to the train station - we boarded our train at a different station than where we arrived in Berlin.
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| I'm not sure exactly what services this place provides |
Our ride back to the Viking Star was smooth and we arrived back at the ship just about 8:30PM. There was a brief period of rain followed by a fleeting rainbow that was impossible to capture but was fun to see. Of course, Viking had a fresh spread of German food set up for us in the World Cafe - several types of sausages, spaetzle, schnitzel, pretzels, suckling pig, German beers, and more.
As the sun bid us adieu, it put on a pretty awesome show.
We sailed from Warnemünde at about 10:30PM and are headed for a noon arrival in Århus, Denmark tomorrow. After that, Copenhagen and then home.
Is it acceptable to reveal the cost of this Berlin excursion? Thanks.
ReplyDeleteSure - it was $279 per person. The Iconic Berlin that was a bus/walk tour was $229. The included was Berlin on your own and included the train both ways - once into Berlin, as the name implies, you were on your own.
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