Day #5 Synopsis – Travel Day so we need to be ready before we crash on Monday night. Once again… it’ll be passports, boarding passes, security checks… hurry up and wait for much of the day. A pretty late arrival in Berlin, where, unlike London, we’ll head directly to accommodations. Not wasting the evening though… with the main attraction being the DDR Museum with exhibits that walk you through the heart of life in East Berlin and Ms Lumsden’s IB History course. We’ll fit other things in and around this, but DDR is the focus. Of note… a stop at the grocer near our accommodation may be a solid idea before bedtime! Mid trip here…
It’s a considerable commute to Stansted, so we were on the move fairly early to both get ready for check-out and sort the navigation to the airport. Happily, all lined up nicely and after two subway lines and a train we found ourselves entering the departures area. Security screening queues were lengthy, but kept moving, and all bags through except mine! Machine required a looksie at my undersized toothpaste tube. When I asked if there was something I should have done differently, the response was the machine required that it be tested. 🤷♂️ Anyway, once inside we relaxed (that’s what the departure sign said to do 😂) and everyone went about readying for flight. All in, London proved an excellent visit and we did not leave much off the table in regard to itinerary items.
Today’s flight, courtesy of RyanAir, had us departing around 1:00 PM for Berlin and the second leg of our journey. We proceeded to our Gate when posted, but some pretty serious stick handling moved us from Gate 44, to 47 and then 46. We left the ground at about 1:25… approximately 35 minutes late. Once airborne we met cloudy skies, except for a couple of brief breaks over the Channel and above Amsterdam. Pretty cool… Josie’s Grandparents are from Holland and it created just another little “tie” to the trip for her. I suspect our pilot pushed fairly hard as we had made up about 20 minutes in the air.
Ms Lumsden navigated entry to Berlin and did a bang up job! After scoring and validating some 24 hr tix at the station, we boarded the S-Bahn S9 at Terminal 1-2 and rode that pony all the way to Alexanderplatz. Comfortable, quiet and economical (although obviously longer than a straight up airport transfer). At Alexanderplatz we stored bags and were quickly in front of the Berlin Fernsehturm (TV Tower). Alexanderplatz, and seemingly much of the city centre, was readied for Euro2024 Football fans (of which Germany had positioned itself in the semi-finals). Under cloudy skies we entered Berlin Innenstadt Park – and viewed St. Marienkirche, the Marx / Engels Monument and Neptunbrunner Fountain. Great views of Berlin Tower behind, and the Berliner Dome Cathedral in front. We popped out on the River Spree and wandered into our destination, the DDR Museum.
We’d last visited the DDR Museum in 2012… and although several things had changed (movement of artefacts within the space) the collection was basically the same. Lots to see and do in this hands on space! Drawers and cupboards to open, recordings to listen to, period rooms and furniture to touch and sit in… essentially something to learn at every turn. From the East German Trabant (filled with testosterone laden boys) to the East German household areas, the museum enlightens a period from not so long ago. Once again, great spot to visit!
Post museum we crashed a fast food joint for a snack, and then headed north on the U2 line for our accommodations. Entirely user friendly, we easily zipped up the several stops to our “new” neighborhood and quickly located our digs for the last couple of nights of the stay. The neighborhood, with a gritty Bohemian sort of vibe, looks as though it’s going to suit us perfectly, and the nooks and crannies of our second floor accommodation are both comfortable and entertaining. Another Ms Lumsden HGTV house hunting adventure gone right 👍!
From here on the evening consisted of “settling in”. FaceTime with home, exploring the kitschy corners of our apartment rental, bombing about our adopted community and, one of our favorite activities to do while abroad, grocery shopping! We visited an “Edeka” and saw new grocery items / labels in German everywhere… Great haul there! An adventurous second trip, with Ms Lumsden and I out and about on a water run, saw some getting lost, a card that didn’t work (we left cash at home), several near misses at the bank machines, street-side “Fussball” on TV’s outside pubs, and a late to bed!
Excellent read Chris! I could feel your relief when you boarded the airplane from gate 46!!
East Berlin has such history. It was one of my favourite places to visit in 2015. Thanks for the update!
It’s always nice to make the flight ✈️ !!! Puts another set of events in place. We just had a wonderful day in Berlin… very relaxed pace with the afternoon attraction/information provided through a walking tour. Will start turning our focus on the journey home this time tomorrow… 😔. Thnx as always for travelling with us Eileen.
I was looking forward to this part of the trip as it’s an unexplored spot for us. We’ve done Munich but not Berlin. Before I even read this page, I knew I’d have to start on Berlin ‘to do’ note in my travel folder. The first thing I noticed was that your home in Berlin was near a grocery store. Another Lumsden travel hack. Stay close to food and transit. I find I even Google the grocery store near our accommodations so that I can look at the flyer for the week. I admit, I love wandering through European grocery stores… just to see what they sell, how they sell it and how prices compare. I guess I get it from watching my Dad managing one of the Hinchey’s supermarkets in New Waterford. Well… the DDR Museum sounds like a must do. Nothing like a ‘hands on’ learning experience. And another ULC airline. It’s amazing how cheap they can do it. I remember reading that RyanAir had applied to be permitted to have 10-20 standing room only spots on their planes a few years back. Nice to see that get shut down with the increase in turbulence in the skies these days.
Yepper… wi-fi, grocery store, and metro and we’re off to the races. Berlin is just plain everywhere… hard to look for unifying themes or concretes. It’s old, it’s new… it’s fast, it’s slow, it’s expensive, it’s economical… really hard to pin down except to say that we were so happy to visit again. It’s a 20th Century historian’s Mecca… WWI, WWII, Cold War… events that played out right here. Perhaps though… our off the beaten track visits during this trip were the most informative. I need to do that with London as well!!! I’m not sure how some of these airlines are solvent, as our Berlin tix were very economical! That’s being said… maybe we are just being regularly overcharged in North America!