Last day in Berlin and another palace

We decided to take it easy today and only do one thing. We headed on the U-bahn (subway) out west to the palace called Charlottenburg. 

This palace was built in the 1700s for Princess Sophie Charlotte, who eventually became queen after her husband Frederick I took the throne as King of Prussia. Her elder brother became King George I of England in 1714. 

Compared to cobblestones, this beautiful formal driveway was much easier to walk on.

As usual, there were no photos allowed inside. The palace was huge and had many beautiful pieces of art, a lot of porcelain, and many interesting artifacts. It was a nice relaxing afternoon to close our visit to Berlin. 

Tomorrow's agenda, Barcelona. 

Luftwaffe and shopping in Berlin

As you may have gathered, we went to another aviation museum today. Wendy and I headed about as far away in Berlin as we could (and still be covered by our transit pass). We went to the village of Gatow where the Luftwaffe Museum is stationed. We did get lost on the way there - the bus route apparently splits into two routes at one spot, but we didn't get that information from the overhead announcements. The bus driver told us where to wait, then picked us up again after about 15 minutes (he and his bus sat only 50 feet away the whole time). Getting back on, he said: "You were looking for the airplane museum, right?". He drove us to the branch point and showed us the correct spot to change. On getting on the new bus, that driver said: 'You were looking for the airplane museum, right?'. Seems they chat on the radio!

This F-104 Starfighter was modified for a zero distance take off - they added an extra rocket engine that allowed it to take off without a runway!

The museum itself was great, and even better, it was completely free! Great collection and good gift shop. Afterwards, we had to walk 27 min to catch the bus going back - at least it was 25C and beautiful out.

We decide to go shopping at a famous department store (KaDeWe = short for Kaufhaus des Westens), and while having a late lunch, Wendy found a Coca Cola Bar! And yes, she enjoyed every drop of her coke. Eric looked at the watches, but most cost more than this trip...

Good lunch, then back to the room to rest and prepare for dinner at a Pizza place a half block away. Strangely, their web reviews say that the serving staff are "left-leaning". Not sure what that meant in the context of a restaurant, but it was good either way. Took less than 10 minutes from ordering for our pizza to arrive!

First day in Berlin

Our first full day of touring Berlin greeted us with beautiful weather (again).  After a leisurely breakfast, we headed out to see the Berlin Wall Memorial, then walked along multiple sections remaining of wall,  then went to checkpoint Charlie (with KFC and McDonalds within a few feet of the spot).

Several sections of the Berlin Wall have been left standing

This section also included a guard tower

Very Americanized section of Berlin

At the Topography of Terror museum

We then found a great donair spot for lunch, and after a brief rest, walked 30 min to the Spy Museum (saw an Enigma machine), walked around the Mall of Berlin, went to the memorial for murdered Jews, and then the Brandenburg gate. If that wasn't enough, Wendy Seidlitz and I walked over to the Reichstag. Sore feet pushed us to head back to the apartment for a light dinner. 

Enigma code machines

At the Spy Museum - all spies drove Trabant's, right?

Memorial for Murdered Jews - a lot larger than we had pictured.

The Brandenburg Gate

The Reichstadt

Berlin so far is full of people smoking (as all other parts of Germany we have seen), but the most notable thing is the graffiti everywhere. Even at the top of tall buildings!  Very different from Bavaria.

Up to Berlin!

Just a travel day today. We got on a train in Garmisch (about 200 m from the apartment) and took it all the way to Munich. A 30 min transfer in Munich had us on our way to Berlin in facing first class seats. Went through all sorts of towns and cities, including Erfurt and Leipzig. Unfortunately the train didn't go through Halle, where my grandfather was born.

 

A quick tram ride to East Berlin brought us to our AirBnB for the rest of the week. Sure can tell the difference in architecture between Munich and the old East Germany. 

Went to Austria - twice!

We took it easy and really only did one thing today. We woke up early and drove to Neuschwanstein castle - about an hour away via Austria. Beautiful scenery all the way. We had prebooked tickets and were glad since it was a busy place. Tickets in hand, off we went towards the castle. It was a 1 mile steep uphill climb... but we took the bus.

The castle was gorgeous and there were great views from many different angles. Inside, we had a 35 minute guided tour through several rooms and were surprised that there was not as much decoration as other castles. Unfortunately, there were no photos allowed inside.

Hohenschwangau castle - nearby Neuschwanstein, but we didn't visit

Neuschwanstein

After a bite to eat, we drove back through the hoards of people and cars. They were not even guaranteeing a 5pm tour for people in line, and this was 11:30am. The line of cars and RVs were many km long - it was non-stop traffic (mostly in Austria), but all going the other way. Seems everyone was leaving their camp sites to go home after the long weekend. 

A dinner in town wrapped up our visit to Garmisch. Off to Berlin in the morning!

Today Wendy and I had only planned one touristy item, but it turned out we did 3 amazing things! We took the train then the gondola up the tallest mountain in Germany (Zugspitze) and were blown away by the view from ~9,000 feet. We visited Eibsee on the way down and walked around a while. 

Eibsee from the top of Zugspitze

Already done what we wanted to accomplish, we headed to Linderhof castle in case any tickets were available. Virtually no waiting and we were in an English guide tour! 

If that weren't enough, we drove to Oberammergau and found the Alpine coasters - sledding down a world class ski hill! Took 25 minutes up the chair lift and maybe 10 coming down.  

If the video doesn't play, click here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/UgHeWxcBLVxtqHF68

Fantastic time, all capped off by dinner at a German restaurant (seems redundant, here) near our AirBnB.