Results tagged “Monuments” from Europe Honeymoon 2008

OK this waking up at 6am thing is getting a little old...

Breakfast was quite crowded and we actually had to wait to get a table. But it was pretty good and it even had some very nice bacon so had quite a bit of that ;)

After breakfast we wandered out to head into town. We didn't really have any set plans, so we just wandered up to and over the Charles Bridge and drifted with the hoardes of other tourists up the hill to the palace/cathedral. By the time we were halfway up and had passed never-ending tourist stores and stalls, as well as being crowded by the other tourists, we were pretty much over Prague. We stopped at Starbucks so Stu could a coffee before trudging onward and upward. The palace wasn't hugely impressive, but the cathedral inside was very nice. Not as big as Köln obviously, but still very detailed. We didn't feel up to queuing up to go inside (or up the tower), so just started wandering down the hill again.

Prague Castle over Bridge of Legion (Most Legií) 

Vltava River and Charles Bridge (named for Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV) 

Prague Castle over the famous Charles Bridge 

Old Town Bridge Tower on the eastern end of the Charles Bridge.
I think the single extra tower on one corner makes the tower look
like it's *missing* something! 

Tourists and vendors on the Charles Bridge. Most of the traders were
selling art and photographs. 

Bridge tower on the western end of the Charles Bridge.
The taller, Late Gothic tower was erected in 1464 on
the orders of King George of Podebrady who wanted
a counterweight to the Old Town Bridge Tower. 

This McDonald's seemed strangely out of place in
such a pretty city as Prague 

Trudging up Ke Hradu. No real need for a map here, just follow the
hoards of tourists 

St. Nicholas Cathedral (Chram sv. Mikulase) and Prague from part
way up the hill 

Summer Archbishop's Palace or Summer Archiepiscopal Palace (Letný
arcibiskupský palác) - apparently was in the movie Amadeus 

Front of Saint Vitus's Cathedral (Katedrála svatého Víta). You can't get
the whole of the front of it in in one shot. 

Detail on the side of the cathedral 

Obelisk outside the cathedral in the castle grounds 

Saint Vitus's Cathedral 

I love this photo Stu took of us because it pretty much
summed up our mood with Prague at the time 

But we did put on a happy face :)

View towards the old town from the palace walls

At the bottom of the hill we stopped to have lunch at a "Bio Cafe" which was very nice, but very expensive for the amount of food we got. In fact all of Prague (or at least the touristy bits - I'm told once you get out of the tourist areas the prices drop considerably) is very expensive. Right up there with the other places we've been so far, maybe even more so.

Continued wandering into the old town area to the market place. Where we stopped to have a couple of beers while watching the world go by. At 3pm I went over to the Astronomic Clock because crowds had been gathering for twenty minutes and thought might see something interesting. Alas it was a massive anticlimax!  Oh well. Went back to finish my beer.

Charles Bridge and tower 

Tethered ballon over, and boats on, the Vltava River 

The Rudolfinum where we later saw a concert 

Cute trams 

Old Town Square 

Týn Cathedral and buildings in the Old Town Square 

Jan Hus Memorial. This dude was burned at the stake in 1415

Goltz-Kinsky Palace in the Old Town Square 

St. Nicholas Church (Kostel sv. Mikuláse) in the Old Town Square 

Relaxing with pilsners in the Old Town Square and watching the tourists 

Prague Astronomical Clock on the southern wall of
Old Town City Hall in the Old Town Square 

It's quite pretty, but the 3pm ringing was a
complete anticlimax

Kept on wandering and ended up back at the hotel to rest for a bit.

kostel sv. Kříže Menšího‎ 

If you can't get your family to get you one of these when they go to
Russia, you have to get one yourself in a former Eastern Bloc country.
This one has eleven nested dolls.

For dinner we went to the chinese restaurant next door to the hotel because the board out the front had some cheap prices and we only had 300k left in cash. Except when we got inside most of the mains were like 280k *each* :(  So that was a bit silly. In the end we found some cheap options but we couldn't afford drinks (just got some chinese tea) and they don't understand the concept of tap water in this country either :(

Then we wandered back into town to the Rudolfinum to see a performance of Smetena and Dvorak  It was brilliant!!  It was 900k each for unreserved seats so it was a little pricy for a one hour show. But the orchestra was amazing, a really good performance. I didn't know the music either, but Stu did and he enjoyed himself immensely.

Charles Bridge in the early evening 

Prague Metronome, erected in 1991, and stands on the plinth left vacant
by the destruction of an enormous monument to former Soviet leader
Joseph Stalin 

Prague Rudolfinum interior 

Prague Castle and Charles bridge by night

So that was our day in Prague. Maybe we should have gone on a tour. But we were kind of over the place before we even started which didn't really help :(  Next time we'll have to go to one of the less touristy cities...

I slept in til 7am today! Woot! Altho Stu woke up feeling nauseus which wasn't very pleasant for him :(

Went down for a big breakfast (also not included with the room tariff - talk about a tight-ass hotel...)

And then we hit the streets of Dresden for a general wander about the place. Was all very nice. Except I had to go to the loo after a while and got frustrated cause there aren't any toilets in Germany. There are so few that they could all be printed on the tourist map of the entire city!!! But even with the map I still couldn't find one :( After some more wandering we did eventually find one. Now Stu had told me that while you have to pay for toilets, they are clean and well kept. Well this is the first one that I lowered myself to pay for and it was crap!! It didn't even have a seat, just small plastic runners that only covered part of the cold metal bowl :( Not happy Jan!

I like to call this artwork "Ten Cranes" 

A variation on the Berlin stop/go lights - a girl! 

A variation on the Berlin stop/go lights - a girl! 

Excavations outside Kreuzkirche 

Kreuzkirche, showing the blackening from the firebombing during the war 

Frauenkirche. This church was almost completely demolished during the war, then rebuilt mostly from original stone and reopened in 2005 (Google Earth shows the whole thing surrounded in a construction building). We might have gone inside but there was some youth festival on and too many people making too much noise. 

Statue of Martin Luther outside Frauenkirche 

A piece of the original dome of the Frauenkirche 

The blackened part is one of the two larger sections of the church that
remained after the bombing. They rebuilt the church around it. 

Academy of Fine Arts 

Dome of the Academy of Fine Arts 

All we need now is Donatello to complete the set.. 

Augustusbrücke, on the site of the oldest bridge in Dresden 

Stallhof and Hofkirche 

This toilet was not worth 25c!! 

Semperoper (Opera House) 

Fountain and Zwinger Gardens

Courtyard of Zwinger Palace 

Zwinger Palace

Staatsschauspiel theatre

So continued wandering back to the hotel, checked out, and headed up to the station. Got our ticket in advance for Prague to Vienna so don't have to worry about that here. Now as I mentioned yesterday we were meant to have two middles on a table set of seats, but when we got on the people there had taken the two forward-facing seats, so I was all "sweet, I get a window" - backwards :) It's almost tradition now to be going backwards heh. We were even on the right side of the train to get a good view of the Elbe River as we travelled alongside it.

Training down (up) the Elbe River 

Part of the Bastei Bridge in the Bastei rocks near Oberrathen

Crossed the Czech border at some unknown point, stopping a bit inside the border for a staff change. But we never did get asked for our passports - how boring!! Was hoping to get another stamp in my passport heh.

Every time a small river joins a larger one, you get a cute little village.
In this case Hřensko, on the confluence of Kamenice and Labe (Elbe) rivers

Something broke half way through the trip on the Czech side of the border and we just sat there. For an hour :( The train got very hot and stuffy too :(  But we got moving eventually and arrived in Prague an hour late. But we didn't arrive in the station we thought we were going to arrive in, so had to figure out where we were and how to get to our hotel. Took us a while to figure it out, but made it in the end.

Bridges in Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic 

Hrad Střekov just south of Ústí nad Labem 

Locks near Lovosice 

Dancing House, nickname given to the Nationale-
Nederlanden building in Prague

The hotel is quite nice, free wireless and included breakfast, and our first bed with a single mattress - a king sized one at that! We can be newlyweds properly now ;)

King sized bed in our hotel

Went for a walk to Lehká Hlava (Clear Head) vegetarian restaurant, which was very good, we both enjoyed it.

Pilsner Urquell at Lehká Hlava 

Lehká Hlava (Clear Head). Many restaurants aren't
big on making themselves known in Europe 

Prague Castle over the Vltava River 

Stu at sunset

And then back here to use the internet and star gaze out our attic windows :)

Well it wouldn't be normal if I didn't wake up at 6am right..? Hrmm :)

Not that we got ready any earlier, in fact we had a very slow morning and didn't get out the door til after 11!

View from our apartment on Rheinsbergerstrasse

Our first stop was the remainder of the wall at Bernauer Strasse, and the viewing platform there. Was kicking myself that we didn't go up the Fernsehturm today, as the weather was perfect for it - not a cloud in the sky.  I could have gone back I suppose, but it would have been another 9 euro :/

New Chapel of Reconciliation, built on the location of the old church 

One of the three bells they recovered before demolishing the church 

Site of the Berlin Wall at Bernauerstrasse

Remnant of the Berlin Wall at Bernauerstrasse

Next we trained it to Potsdamer Platz to have a look at all the newish shops/buildings there. We stopped for lunch at a sushi place, which had an interesting variety of (mostly deep fried) dishes to choose from. Was very good, but they soured my mood about the place when they told me off for drinking from my bottle of tap water :(  Bumheads. You can't *get* tap water in this country, so it's all very frustrating :(

Potsdamer Platz 

Potsdamer Platz

Went up and had a look through the Sony store, then was going to look at the Lego place, but they wanted 14.50 *each* so decided to give that a miss. Lego is such a money-grabbing company, that it rates up there in evilness with Disney and eBay for how much I hate it (but can't escape).

Einstein at Legoland Berlin 

Potsdamer Platz station

So that was all very average, so went up to the Starbucks next to the Brandenburg Gate so Stu could get an iced coffee, then we walked down to the memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe. It was brilliant!  It's a few thousand concrete blocks stacked in a grid taking up a whole city block. The middle section dips down and the blocks there are quite tall so you can walk amongst it all. It's kind of maze-like, even though it's not a maze at all. And it's incredibly photogenic! Took lots of photos there.

Starbucks coffee and cake at the Brandenburg Gate 

Poppies at the Brandenburg Gate 

Horses and Carriages at the Brandenburg Gate 

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
The irony of this place is the company that produced the chemical that
makes the concrete graffiti-proof is the same company that made the
gas that killed the Jews during the war.... 

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe 

Stu in the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe 

Stu in the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

Reichstag over the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

Reichstag and Brandenburg Gate over the Memorial to the Murdered
Jews of Europe 

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

Hopped on a train over to Alexander Platz, stopping for a beer before going to the Media Markt there. It's kinda like the electronics section of Harvey Norman except like five times the size - in this case four stories of electronic goodness. They didn't have any Eee PC batteries (or any Eee PC stuff for that matter), but we did pick up an 8gb Sony usb memory stick for 25 euro. And Stu got a little micro SD-usb dongle for 8 euro.

Berliner Pilsner under the Fernsehturm 

World Clock under the Fernsehturm 

Stu next to the 69999 Euro TV

So then we wandered back to our apartment, but just as we were arriving, we got a call from the owner/manager asking why we hadn't left yet, and we were all "but we booked five nights".. But it turns out we only booked four, the last day being the checkout day.. Oops! :(  So we had like half an hour to not only pack up all our stuff, but also find another hotel at short notice.. Very stressful. But luckily Stu did find one, within walking distance even, so we plodded over, and it thankfully has interent, as we were planning on spending our last evening quietly doing research for our upcoming days of travel. Not that we really did that much, as it took us a while to calm down, and then we went out for dinner (to Der Imbiss again) and by the time we got back it was after 9:30.

Anyways, should have a bit of time in the morning...

What's the deal with me waking up early everyday?!?  Damn that "curse of the morning person". Another 6am wakeup. Altho took ages to wake up and even longer to get ready.

Hopped on a train out to Potsdam. We were originally going to walk to a couple of the closer palaces/castles and then leave again, but when we came out of the station we saw a sign that said bike hire and thought you know that's not such a silly idea. We'd be able to cover a lot more ground, our feet wouldn't end up hurting, and there's the nice fact you don't have to wear helmets in Germany, but it would make taking photos a bit more tedious. Anyways, so for 11 euro each we hired bikes and cycled all around Potsdam. And it was brilliant!!!  Such a good decision. We could have gotten a commentary on stuff if we'd taken a tour, but really all that info is available on the web if we want it, and we just enjoyed the fresh air and exercise. So we had a great time.. And only a bit sunburnt heh.

Altes Rathaus - Old Town Hall 

Nauener Tor 

Brandenburger Tor 

Schloss Sanssouci and gardens 

Statue in Schloss Sanssouci 

Terraces in front of Schloss Sanssouci 

Terraces in front of Schloss Sanssouci 

Chinese Teahouse 

New Palace - east building 

New Palace - west building 

New Palace - east building 

Orangerie Schloss 

Obelisk on Schopenhauerstrasse 

Cycling through Neuer Garten 

Schloss Cecilienhof - site of the Potsdam Conference in 1945 

Glienicker Brücke - site of several exchanges of spies during the Cold War 

Glienicker Brücke 

Pump House in Babelsberger Park and Glienicker Lake 

Glienicker Brücke over Glienicker Lake 

Babelsberg, Kleines Schloß

So then got the train back and got off again at Wannsee to go for a swim in one of the lakes. The water was very cold so we didn't stay in for long, but it was very refreshing. A great way to cool off after all the cycling. And there was a little kiosk there so we had beers on the beach - awesome! :)

Strandbad Wannsee entrance 

Shade houses at Wannsee

By this time it was very late, so we popped into the local supermarket to pick up some dinner, then back here to eat it and drink more beer.

Kaiser's Verbraucher Markt - where we did several grocery trips

Life is good :)

Woke up pretty early again but took our time getting ready. Caught the tram in to Friedrichstrasse and wandered down it to Checkpoint Charlie.

We missed a tram so Stu could enjoy this coffee 

Trams only continued to run in East Berlin 

East Berlin stop man (recently (2010) I've seen two
people wearing t-shirts with these dudes on them! 

East Berlin go man 

Die Welt balloon 

Checkpoint Charlie

It was actually late morning by this stage and I was tired and grumpy from not getting enough to eat at breakfast, and then not able to find a simple hot dog there (they seem to be everywhere else except for when you really want one). Anyway so got something to eat but decided not to go into the museum as it was 12.50 euro each and Stu had been before. So just walked around the info boards they had all around the street. There were the usual barrage of souvenir vendors, and also a lot selling Russian memorabilia. Kept wanting to buy a Russian doll but they're probably made in China so not much point. Now if only I knew someone going to Russia to get me a real one.......

Wall of passports in the entrance of the museum 

Checkpoint Charlie

Anyways. This Bosnian woman came around asking if anyone spoke English, but she turned out to be a beggar, so I gave her a couple of Euros (and Stu gave her some independently too). But get this. She asked *three frigging times* over the next half hour for money, and didn't comprehend "we gave you some earlier" and just kept following us asking and asking. Got incredibly pissed off at this, so when a different Bosnian woman come started begging I was all like "piss off" .. Not that I said that, and Stu even gave her some money. Sigh.

So that was all a bit stressful so we headed off towards the East Side Gallery, stopping first on the western side of the river and then walking across the Schlesisches Tor. Where we stopped again, this time at a cafe built on the old no-man's-land for some beer. Then walked up along the old wall.

The Spree River near Oberbaumbrücke 

Oberbaumbrücke 

Oberbaumbrücke 

Spree River and Fernsehturm from Oberbaumbrücke 

Astride the Berlin Wall and beginning of East Side Gallery

Enjoying a beer in no-man's land 

I love crack! Part of the Berlin Wall 

Famous graffitti on the East Side Gallery 

No-man's land at the East Side Gallery 

These dudes were in "Wings of Desire"

Hopped on a train to Alexanderplatz for our next tower mission - the Fernsehturm, or as Stu dubbed it, the Stalinist golf ball heh. Was a bit crowded, and the usual bunches of people completely oblivious to anyone but themselves, blocking signs I was trying to read etc. Bumheads. But hopefully got a lot of decent photos.

Mitte from the Fernsehturm 

Oberbaumbrücke and the Spree from the Fernsehturm 

Berlin Rathaus

After coming down we wandered down towards the river taking lots of photos as we went. Ended up near the Brandenburg Gate, where we jumped on a train, the changed to a tram to take us back to our neighborhood. We tried on the vegetarian restaurants - der Imbiss - whose logo was an upside-down maccas logo heh. And the staff were from Melbourne, Scotland and the USA!  Food was quite good there too.

Fernsehturm 

Fernsehturm 

Rathaus 

Neptune Fountain outside the Rathaus 

Berliner Dom (we should have gone in here!) 

Lustgarten - very pretty spot 

Schlossbrücke 

St. Hedwig's Cathedral (with a canvas picture covering the ever-present scaffolding) 

University Library. We found this by accident by drifting through an
archway at random

Unter den Linden station sign 

Der Imbiss

Went shopping on the way home. The supermarket had 500mL Bitburger beers for 75c each!!  I wanted to buy more than the two we did heh :)

Sleepie!!

Well my day began at 5:50 when Stu's phone buzzed. So of course I was instantly awake. And it was bright and sunny outside so I was all "let's go!!". Heh. So were out the door pretty early.

Wandered along the site of the Berlin wall at Bernauer Strasse and even got to see a chunk of it they've left up. But didn't get to go up the viewing platform as the building it was attached to didn't open until 10am.

Photo of the Reconciliation Church, that was sealed off in No Man's Land
until 1985 

Sadly the Church was demolished in 1985, just four
years before the wall came down :( 

Stu standing by one of the last remnants of the Berlin Wall at Bernauer Strasse

Hopped on a train into the city and when we came out saw the Brandenburg Gate!  

Brandenburg Gate! 

Brandenburg Gate 

Closeup of the chariot on the Brandenburg Gate

So took a bunch of photos of that, then went around to the Reichstag. It was about a 30 minute wait to get in, even at 9:00. They had their metal detectors turned up to full sensitivity, so the whole process of getting through security took forever because they had to hand-wand most everyone (somehow my belt buckle didn't set it off so I didn't get frisked heh). The info they had around the base of the dome was interesting. Came across a few rude Germans though that blocked the info boards. I was tempted to take photos of their behaviour because they showed no consideration whatsoever for anyone else, even when I was making it blatantly obvious that I couldn't see because of them. Bumheads. Then we wound our way up the dome, which is pretty impressive, but not really good for taking photos from.

Walking up to the Reichstag 

Entrance to the Reichstag 

Brandenburg Gate from the top of the Reichstag 

Glass dome on top of the Reichstag 

These mirrors reflect light into the interior of the building 

Double helix for getting to the top of the dome 

Glass panels in the roof of the building 

I can't help it, they were very photogenic 

The very top of the dome

After we came back down we meandered west through the Tiergarten, which was a very pleasant walk. Ended up at the Victory Column - another thing to climb! Altho this cost 2.50 each to do so. Back down again and a much more frustrating walk through the Tiergarten trying to find something Stu remembered from last time he was here. So we both ended up tired and frustrated, me more so. Took a while to get going again, after being in the Tiergarten for four hours :/

When we came out, the queue was well over an hour long 

Carillon in the Tiergarten 

The Berlin-Tiergarten 

The Victory Column

View back to the Reichstag, Fernsehturm and Brandenburg Gate from
the Victory Column 

Can you tell Stu was really excited about being dragged up another tower? :) 

The Berlin-Tiergarten

Took a train to where Stu stayed last time he was here, then had a look at the Kaiser-Wilhelm Memorial Church. The souvenir vendors are really out in force there!  Bought myself a post card that may or may not have a piece of the Berlin wall included heh.

We were amused by this "Erotik Museum" 

The Kaiser-Wilhelm Memorial Church 

They're restoring the mosaics on the interior of the church 

The Kaiser-Wilhelm Memorial Church

Then hopped on a bus to have a look at the Schloss Charlottenburg, the biggest palace in Berlin. Just walked around it, didn't go in. Then bussed it back again.

Schloss Charlottenburg 

Schloss Charlottenburg

Was getting late in the afternoon, so better lighting for the Victory Column and the Reichstag, and the back of the Brandenburg Gate.

The Victory Column 

Top of the Victory Column 

The Reichstag in the afternoon sun 

Brandenburg Gate - from the western side 

Fernsehturm through the Brandenburg Gate 

Dave-stalking continues with one of the "Bears of Berlin" (I never saw
the one he photographed)

Then headed for home. Very much exhausted. Didn't even get dinner. Just had the remains of last night's dinner.

Not sure how we're going to be able to deal with tomorrow...