Trip 4 - Berlin

This weekend, I was able to convince my co-worker to take a trip to Berlin. Even though I had been there before, it was good to go back with another set of eyes.
Without a GPS, it is easy to get turned around in a big city. We were following the signs to the Zentrum (center of the city), but I guess I missed one of them. We ended up taking a driving tour of the city, but eventually ended up at the Brandenberg Gate - but not where I had intended. We started our tour by walking north to the Brandenberg Gate. On the way, we passed the holocaust memorial, which consists over 2700 pillars of different heights.
We went to the Reichstag, only to find the line was still long (were all those people still in line from the last trip?). We (again) didn't want to wait, so we passed through the gate. I was tempted to stop at the US Embassy and say Hi. Perhaps next time.

On both sides of the gate were people protesting against fur, animals, or something. They were self-controlled, and stayed behind their own barricade. There was apparently an agriculture ministers' conference that day. It seems there is always someone protesting something there. They can protest now - 20 years before they would have been arrested.

We decided to take the hike to Checkpoint Charlie. It was much easier to find this time, since we didn't take a short cut (hah). Another big line at the museum, so we pressed onward. This time we were watching the time, since we had only paid for 4 hours of parking (6 Euro!) on the street. By the way, if you park on the street, you are supposed to go to a kiosk and pay for parking, then put the slip on your dash. I'm not sure what happens if you don't pay, but we didn't want to find out.
On the way, we passed an interesting building (?) that seemed to be made completely of scaffolding. I couldn't see anything solid inside it - no concrete forms - just scaffolding. See if you can figure it out.

We drove to the East Side Gallery (where the section of the wall remains). Much easier than the train, and no walking back.

Remember what I said about not having a GPS? Leaving the city with the Avis map (and not much else) was, shall I say, difficult. The key was to watch for signs that gave us a direction to follow. The first such sign pointed us toward Dresden. Knowing that Dresden is in the same general direction as Leipzig, and that there are highways that circle the city, we should run into one of the rings. Eventually? Adventurers that we were, when we stopped seeing signs for familiar places, and convinced that the outer circle was still expanding as we drove, I saw a sign for Dresden that turned down a different road. After several kilometers on a dark road, we decided that this was not such a good idea, so we turned back. Eventually, we saw the elusive Dresden sign. It took us over an hour to reach the outer ring. We didn't stop until we reached the correct highway.
We did stop for dinner at Sam Kullman's diner. I guess we were missing food from home. Good hamburgers and Ben and Jerry's ice cream. Yum.

Trip 4 - Snow

The first week of this trip, it snowed. I don't mean flurries. It got really cold on Friday, and we had a really interesting ice fog. It was so humid that we could watch the ice crystals forming on the trees and handrails.

It started snowing Friday night, and snowed continuously through Sunday. By the time it was over, we had probably 12 inches of snow. Little did we know that they don't plow the autobahn until the snow stops (or so it seemed), and don't plow the secondary roads until after that (spring?).

As a result, we didn't even try to do any touristing. (My co-worker would rather relax in his room anyway.) We did go downtown (Leipzig) for dinner Saturday at the Italian restaurant next to Thomaskirche (St. Thomas Church). The snow was deeply piled on the roads, and some of the locals were sledding down the walkways. Good food, but kind of treacherous.

So - not much to report, except some pictures of the snow.

Trip 4 - A long trip

This trip is probably going to be the longest yet. I left on January 5th for Germany, and won't return home until January 30th. Some things are worth stretching a bit for, I guess. Since this trip is so long, it should allow me to meet some personal dates. More on this as they develop.

This time, I chose to take a different route to Germany, and use Gold status on American Airlines. I took Iberia Airlines from Chicago to Madrid, Spain, for the overwater leg of the trip. As luck would have it, Iberia chose to upgrade me to Business class. Ah, yes. Sitting in row 2 in my lounger (the seat fully reclines) watching movies and trying to sleep. Sounds luxurious, but the "bed" was not comfortable, so I didn't sleep. Well, at least they had lots of movies. The food and wine were OK too.

Maneuvering through Madrid was kind of difficult. Twice I had to stop and ask where to go (you know how much I hate that!). From the nice new terminal, I had to take a train to another terminal, then leave the terminal and get on a bus to the next terminal. I was getting a bit worried when the bus went out of the airport, and I could not see any terminal at all. It finally ended up at an older terminal, where the Lufthansa flights were located.

I also took this opportunity to leave my carry on bag at security. I was sitting there calmly eating lunch (breakfast?) when I realized I didn't have everything. So I backtracked to security, and they let me have the bag (after several questions).

Once I got to Germany, I spent over 6 hours in the Frankfort airport. Taking the less expensive route sure does take a long time. I took this opportunity to leave the security zone to go shopping. I had realized in the St. Louis airport that I had not packed my belts. (I seem kind of scattered on this trip, huh?) So - I shopped in St. Louis, and didn't find one I liked for a price I liked. Then I shopped in Frankfort and bought one. Going back through security, I made sure that I had my carry on.

I finally arrived in Leipzig after 11 pm. Tired - and work the next day...

Trip 3 - Hong Kong

The return flight for this trip included a 12 hour layover in Hong Kong. Knowing this in advance, I made reservations at the Marriott, and fully intended to tour the city as much as possible given the limited time.

When I arrived at the hotel, I asked the concierge where to go. He recommended taking the train to Hong Kong and then to the Lan Kwai Fong district. The train station was in the conference center adjoining the hotel, so it was easy to catch. 100 Hong Kong dollars (about 15 US dollars). Since it was dark (10:30 pm) when I started, there wasn’t much to see until I got downtown 30 minutes later. The train station is near the high-end shopping district (Prada, Louis Vitton, Coach, etc.) which were all closed.

Even though it was late, there were still a few people walking around in the area. As I got closer to the district, though, more people were around. It was really apparent when I arrived. The concierge had told me it was the night-life district, and he was right. It looked like a huge street party all the way up the hill, with music blaring from every bar. It seemed to me like the bars were competing to see which one could play the music loudest. I paused at a Ben and Jerry's to get a scoop of Chunky Monkey, and ate it all the way up the hill. After a little while, I decided to join the revelry and had a beer at one of the bars. The first one I went to (called Insomnia) had a sign out front for "over-25s", saying that under-25's had priority, and that "snappy dress" was required. So I moved on. I didn't think my jeans would qualify as snappy. I went to a bar across from Insomnia (perhaps it should have been called "sleepy" - hah) and had a beer where I could watch. It was lots of fun. Saw one girl hang from her knees on a bamboo scaffold. Pretty hilarious.

So, after my beer, it was a little after 1 am, so I decided I should go back. When I got to the train station, the customer service told me that there was no more trains. Uh-oh… now how to get back? I found a taxi, but all I had left was HK $100 - he said it would be 300, but he would take me to an ATM. Well, I eventually got back to the hotel (around 2 am).

One other interesting memory: When was on the way to my room, a woman (probably older than me) came down the hall apparently having trouble opening their door. So, nice guy that I am, I went to try to help out, even though I don't speak Chinese. Their group included an older man (her father perhaps). I took her key and it opened on the first try. So I was their hero for the night - a nice American.

The next morning, I met a girl in the airport who had been there for 11 hours. She didn't opt to get a room, so she was tired. She told me that she had been going to school in Shanghai, then a semester in Bangkok. More information than I needed - I suppose she felt "safe" talking to me.

A travel note: the Cathay Pacific flight to NYC used a Boeing 777-300ER. This is one of the newer models, and has lots of passenger goodies. It has personal video screens (like all 777s) with many movies and shows. There is a camera under the fuselage which allows you to see what's going on outside. Also, each seat has a power plug that allows you to plug in your computer with a standard power supply. Very nice. Cathay Pacific service is very nice. They even have a video on exercises to do in flight.

Trip 3 - KL

On my second trip to Kuala Lumpur (KL), I was able to start earlier in the day, since I arrived early in the morning. I started out at City Centre, but then quickly went to Petaling street.

Petaling street is in Chinatown and is where you can buy inexpensive items (read "knockoffs"). There were booths lining the street that sold everything - DVDs, purses, watches, you name it, and everything is negotiable. After I found something to buy, the quote was for 250 Ringgitts (about 75 dollars). I told him what I wanted to pay, and then held out for that. I'm pretty inexperienced with negotiating a price like that, so I probably didn't get a good price, but, hey, it was fun.

After I went through all the booths and then got a Starbucks (they're everywhere), I rode the monorail to the Bintang Walk shopping district. There are a lot of the high end stores there, Coach, Burberry, etc. and several malls all decked out for Christmas.

I ended up in a mid-priced mall where a singer was giving a Christmas concert. After shopping until about 5, I returned to the Cyberview where I met up with Mike for dinner.

Sunday ended up the only day that we didn't have a thunderstorm. Apparently it is the rainy season in Malaysia. The rain and lighting is pretty spectacular. You could see the thunderstorms rolling in from the straits southwest of KL.

One of the nights, they had set up for some sort of beauty pageant (I think) - they had the big movie lights, a camera boom, and lots of people to set things up. It took them 3 nights to set it up, and it was all gone within 24 hours. Another evening, the rains had finished, so they were carrying tables from the conference center already set with glasses and all. Then another storm came through, and they had to move everything back into the conference room. On the day that I left, there was another thunderstorm.

Trip 2 - Berlin

On this day, we decided to go to Berlin. The Autobahn was a lot of fun, and we were able to crank our rental up to 170 km/ hour.

I am sure that you are aware of the history of the Wall, and we were there for the 20th anniversary of when the Berlin wall fell.
If you don't mind, I'll take this chance to let you know a little of my memories of when the wall fell. In November 1989, I was working in Matsuyama, Japan. Since it was the first trip, we were staying in apartments, and had little contact with the western world. In late November, a consultant came over from the US to work with us. One evening at dinner, I asked him what was new in the world (literally). He answered that the Berlin wall fell. We thought he was kidding, until he showed us a newspaper. Pretty amazing that I missed that significant point in history.

Back to the current story...
We parked next to the Bundestadt, which is the seat of the German government, and very near to where the Berlin wall had been. The line to visit inside the Bundestadt and the glass sphere behind it was very long, stretching outside and half way across the area in front. Time is short, so we passed on the line.

The next stop was the Brandenberg gate, which was located just east of the Wall and served as a symbol of the suppression. Interestingly, the U.S. Embassy is now located next to the Brandenberg gate. I have to believe that this was intended to show that East and West Germany were united again. Walking inside the gate, there were many interesting people. Several street artists pretending to be statues, soldiers, etc. were there, acting it up for the tourists' cameras. There was also a peace meditation taking place, inviting any passer-by to join.

After passing through the tourists, we walked down to Checkpoint Charlie. This was the main gate that was used to pass from East to West Germany. When we got there, we found a construction wall with pictures, several tourist shops, and a private museum. It was less than spectacular. No - it was downright disappointing. We did notice that the path of the wall was marked by brass plates put into the street and sidewalks.

Wanting to see some of the wall, we checked the guide book to see if there were any sections still remaining. This took us to the East Side gallery. This gallery is a section of the wall that was kept intact and is used by artists from around the world as a painting canvas. It was very interesting to see the different paintings which generally depicted the artist's feelings about freedom and the fall of the wall.

It was a long walk from the gallery, but we saw several interesting things that showed the age and modernity of Berlin today. There was a auto service station that had regular fuel along with a hydrogen filling station and a car recharging station.

The Berlin mayor's residence was a huge building, that I think was left from earlier times.

After passing the art museum, we ran across a barricaded section of the road. Hmm... no one we asked seemed to know what was going on. Must be some VIPs who were going to do something. There was a local fair, so we grabbed a brat and a beer, and decided to wait and find out. So we waited for quite a while, then saw some people bringing wreaths to the memorial for fallen soldiers. Interesting, but pretty much a waste of time.

On we walked, back to the Brandenberg gate, noticing the brass plates in the street. Went to a souvenir store and bought a piece of the wall. The people who gathered up the bits of concrete were definitely entrepreneurs. The street performers were still there, but the peace meditators had left.

All in all, a pretty good day of being a tourist.

Trip 2 - Prague

We had been talking about going to Prague in the Czech Republic. So on this Sunday, we got in our car, set the GPS and off we went.

The highway was great until we got a little ways into the CR. The highway between Dresden and Prague is under construction - a fact that neither the map nor the GPS made us aware of. The signage was OK, though, and we made it to Prague with little trouble.

When we arrived at the city, our first stop turned out to be the city square to get some tourist information and figure out where to park. The square was grand, surrounded by old churches and other buildings. After we got some local funds (CR uses the Korony). Many shops do not accept the Euro), we went up into one of the church towers where we could see the whole city, including the square below and the castle on the hill.

After getting oriented from the steeple, we started walking toward the castle. This took us across the Charles River bridge, which was lined with vendors selling paintings, photos, and other souvenirs. The castle is quite a climb from the bridge. Once there, we rented the headsets and went on the tour.

The Prague Castle is the largest in Europe, and includes the St. Vitus cathedral. St. Winceslas is buried in the church, and there are several interesting chapels inside. One of the stories was when the Czechs were being attacked by the Romans (check this), they made loaves of bread in the shape of babies. When the attackers saw them eating the bread, they thought that they were actually eating their babies. Thinking this, the attack was called off, since it was so barbaric that the soldiers couldn't fight.

After touring the castle, we moved down the hill where we found a crowd waiting for the astronomical clock to strike. The church where we initially went up in the tower has a clock that was built in the 16th century (?) that shows the time, phase of the moon, position of the sun, and the sign of the zodiac. Figures come out when the clock chimes the hour. Rather than fighting the crowd, we found a seat at the restaurant across from it. Then we could watch the clock and eat at the same time.

Going home through the construction detour was interesting, as the GPS kept trying to take us back to the non-existent road. A long, tiring day, but it was quite an adventure.