Gym's Ramblings: Gym's Germane German Stuff: September, 2021

Final Post from the 2021 Baltic Vacation (sorry it took so long)

Two important German cities were explored by our intrepid hero and his dear companion on their trip to northern Europe. They visited Berlin and Hamburg which are the two largest cities by area, in Germany. Berlin was toured in the early part of the trip, August 30, 2021 and then after leaving Sweden, they flew to Hamburg and spent 2 nights in Hamburg, on September 11 and 12, 2022. After 48 hours in Hamburg, they hopped on a train and made their way down to Frankfurt, to fly home.

Berlin

Even though Berlin was visited early in the trip, the author wanted to lump all the German stuff together, so he stuck it in here. Let's just say it makes sense to the author.

Berlin is the the capital and Germany's largest city. It was a long haul getting there from the Baltic coast. A 3-hour bus ride was required, from where the ship that was parked in Warnemunde. You could probably do it in 2.5 hours in a BMW but a bus has to use the slow lane. Notwithstanding the time involved, it is a very scenic drive. You cruise through beautiful, rolling green hills that are about half covered in pine forest and the rest in productive looking farmland. This greenery extends all the way down to Berlin. Even once you enter inside the city limits, it is hard to tell you are there because the autobahn comes in along a green belt and you don't see the urban sprawl.

The days are getting shorter as you get into the fall and although our travelers had more than 12 hours of daylight on August 30, they would use up half the day in a bus going to and from Berlin. It really only left them about six hours to see a few of the numerous points of interest in this great city and have a bit of free time. Was it worth it? Absolutely! Gym and Mrs. Gym saw some of the sights that should be on everyone's bucket list. These points of interest included beautiful monuments, historic buildings, remnant's of Hitler's Berlin and what was left of the Berlin Wall (see the pictures below).

During their free time, Gym and Mrs. Gym got to rub shoulders with Berliners and try some currywurst. Currywurst? Yes, don't knock it until you've tried it. It's a german sausage, smothered with a tomato based sauce that is heavily spiced with curry and served with fries. There are dozens of currywurst places in Berlin. It is very popular and served in restaurants and street-side kiosks everywhere.

Berlin was not the dark and foreboding place that Gym had thought it would be. The darker expectations of the city were developed from the history films of WW2 and the Cold War that Gym had formed his expectations upon. In reality and in spite of visiting the capital on a grey day, the city proved to be a warm and inviting. There were many wide boulevards, numerous parks and lots of friendly blonde people everywhere.

Hamburg

It was two weeks since the Berlin tour and following the time spent in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Sweden, it was time to conclude the tour with a visit to Hamburg. In the early morning of September 11, 2021, our intrepid travelers left their hotel in Stockholm. They crossed the lane and entered Stockholm Central Station where they found the gate for the Arlanda Express. It was easy to find this train. It's bright yellow and since it originates from Central Station with several trains leaving every hour, an idling train is always there. The Arlanda Express was fast, reaching speeds of up to 200 k/hr. It covered 36 kilometers in 20 minutes, making one short stop before reaching the airport. Mrs. Gym doesn't really like trains but she handled the trip well. Gym sat quietly pondering about the identity of the man who first thought of putting wheels on suitcases and what his IQ must have been.

Following the Arlanda Express train ride, they had flown down from Stockholm and settled into the Westin Hamburg. The Westin is located in the Hafencity district, on Grasbrook island. The 244-room hotel, is in the eastern end of the Elbphilharmonie building. The "Elphi" as it is known, is a truly unique landmark which anchors the redevelopment of the old Hamburg dockyards. The building has at its base, an old brick warehouse and it is crowned by a massive glass depiction of the cross-section of a wave pool. It sounds unreal but that's what it looks like. Inside this building is a state-of-the-art concert hall that seats almost 3000 people in three venues. The concert venues are in the middle of the building and the western end of the structure also contain 45 luxury apartments. The Elphi was a perfect base-camp to explore the historic parts of Hamburg. Everything was a short walk from the hotel. Gym and his dear wife also had a terrific view of the old city and the Elbe River from their spacious corner-room, near the top of the building.

Tragically, Gym and Mrs. Gym were visiting the home of Oktoberfest but it had been cancelled due to the pandemic. And as usual, with limited time in Hamburg, they were only able to scratch the surface of this great city. They did however get a good feel for Hafencity and checked out most of the historic city centre in the Altstadt district. The highlights were the bombed out remains of St. Nicholas Church in Altstadt and the Miniature Museum in Hafencity. It was a fun couple of days for our hero and his bride.

Frankfurt

The last day in Hamburg was a bit of a panic. It was time to say goodbye to the Elphi and that beautiful view, check out and hail a cab for the short ride to the Hamburg Hauptbahnhof. It was intended to have plenty of time to find the gate and board their train at a leisurely pace. This did not happen the way it was planned, as our neophyte train-travelers got to the gate in time but ended up getting on the wrong end of the train. Their first class cabin seats were ten cars away. Mrs. Gym made a beeline for the other end, apologizing to every singe fellow traveler as she blew through ten cars in record time. Gym followed up picking his way through the narrow aisles at a slightly less frenetic pace. It was all good though, after that bit of a workout, they found their seats and Gym relaxed in anticipation of a fun ride on the ICE train to Frankfurt.

As the train progressed across Germany both Gym and his dear companion started to enjoy the scenery. The countryside was a procession of hilly, forested backdrops punctuated by story-book villages and towns in white walls and red roofs. Each town had a central church spire and sometimes there was a castle on a hill, adjacent to the town.

Then, just before Frankfurt, Gym discovered that there were two Frankfurt stops and their tickets were good only to Frankfurt Central, when they needed to get to the Frankfurt International Airport. With some trepidation, he explained this shortcoming to Mrs. Gym. Until this point, no one else had spoken a word of English except for our two pilgrims. Everyone had been yakking away in German on their cell phones. But when Gym explained the ticketing problem to his dear wife, the lady next to them said in clear, unaccented english; "Don't worry, there is no conductor between the two stops, just stay on the train and carry on to the airport". So Gym and his dear wife did as they were instructed. However, they rode to that final stop with that little drop of sweat that forms on the back of your neck when you are doing something that you are not supposed to be doing.

They would spend the last night in Europe at the Frankfurt Sheraton Airport. This would be their second layover at the Sheraton. It is no Four Seasons but it proved just dandy for a night.

In the morning it was an early checkout out for Gym and Mrs. Gym. They breakfasted and walked across the skyway to the terminal. Mrs. Gym always likes to arrive hours early for everything. This time it saved their bacon. Our travelers had not anticipated the fact that they needed a negative Covid test to board Air Canada and return home. Was there enough time? Maybe, but just barely but it was tight. There was a convenient testing agency where our intrepid couple could get a PCR test for the ridiculous rate of several hundred euros. That agency guaranteed that the results would be available within 2 hours and they still had 2 1/2 to spare. When our travelers made it to the front of the line though and finally got tested, it was just two hours until their flight left. Air Canada was nice enough to check the luggage and give out boarding passes but if the results didn't come in time, they told our travelers that they would not be allowed to board. Our intrepid couple ran through the terminal and stood by the gate waiting for their test results to be texted to them. All the other passengers had boarded and the ground crew was about to shut the gates when the text came and Gym downloaded the results. Gym and Mrs. Gym flashed the confirmation of negative results and rushed through the deserted jet way, elbowing past the flight attendant at the door. They triumphantly stood at the front of the cabin and Gym was certain that the whole plane then breathed a sigh of relief. A close call, just like in a Mission Impossible movie.

Epilogue

Seven northern European countries were visited on this trip and the consensus was that all the Scandinavian and Germanic people were pretty chill. Many of the citizens of these Baltic countries exhibit the rare genetic combinations that make them blue-eyed blondes. Gym may need to go back and gather more data but based on the work compiled on this trip, it appears that blondes may indeed have more fun. Northern Euros are generally calm, polite, accommodating and happy, making this a great place to visit if you are looking for a laid back vacation.

Gym and his dear wife were lucky enough to travel to Northern Europe in the lull between the Alpha and the Delta/Omicron variants of the pandemic. They arrived home to continued lockdowns and the build-up of the Delta surge. As Omicron started to push Delta out of the way and then a third and very dramatic surge began, Gym and Mrs, Gym got a booster shot. At the point of this posting, it seems the Omicron surge is over. It is March, 2022 and we understand that most countries are dropping the testing requirement for air travelers. It may be time Gym and Mrs. Gym had another adventure.

Stay tuned!

Berlin Pics:

The iconic Brandenburg Gate has seen so much history from
the Napoleonic Wars, to WW2 and then the Cold War.

Bundesburg, the German Parliament

Bundesburg from the back

This line marks where the Berlin Wall stood in front of
the Brandenburg Gate

Underneath this parking lot is Hitler's Bunker. There is no marker or monument
because no one wants it to be adorned or become a shrine.

What's left of the jail cells which were below Gestapo HQ.
They would torture political dissidents upstairs
and then throw them in these tiny cells.

One of the last lengths of the Berlin Wall

The site of Checkpoint Charlie where Russian and American tanks
faced off in 1961. Now you can get a bucket of KFC and a corona there.

A life-size model of the checkpoint at the Allied Museum

The Holocaust Memorial - over 2700 blocks of
concrete of various heights arranged in 200,000 square feet.

Perhaps inspired by the Pieta in the Vatican, this is
"Mother with her Dead Son", displayed in the Neue Wache monument.
It is a shrine to the victims of war and tyranny.

The French Cathedral in central Berlin. Notable for being near a
very good Currywurst emporium.

Hamburg Pics:

The Elphi, a warehouse with a wave pool on top.
The Westin is on the left side. The concert halls are in the center.

Our room was at the top of this corner

It sure stands out

Miniature World in Hamburg is a place everyone would find fascinating.
There are millions of square feet of dioramas in several huge rooms with model railroads,
model boats and ships and model cars, all in motion at one time. There is even an airport with planes that taxi, takeoff and land. One can spend hours in there without getting bored.

Here even Mrs. Gym was captivated by the intricate depictions of various parts of the world.

Cinque Terre in Italy is depicted here.

This is a model of the Monaco coastline with with tiny beach-goers sunning themselves.

The ships on these canals move slowly along underneath the bridges.

Trains, trams, subways and even monorails are constantly moving.

And every 15 minutes day turns to night and thousands of tiny LED lights come on
including the emergency flashers of emergency vehicles speeding along the highways.

It was so cool!

back to the real world.....

Heinz Hertz Tower from the promenade along the Alster Lakes

View From the Westin of the Elb River

Only the bell tower is left of the St. Nicholas cathedral.
The rest of the building still lies in ruins since the bombings of WW2.
Today the tower stands as a sombre war memorial.