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Our Berlin to Prague Trip, 2019

Well, we hadn’t even left for our grand vacation this year, but had already had a disappointment. On August 15th, we got this e-mail from Viking:

“Dear Viking Guest, Thank you for choosing Viking for your upcoming European voyage.

This message is to let you know that water levels on the Elbe River have receded, making it unlikely that your ship will be able to sail. Since rain is not forecasted in the near future, we have modified your itinerary in order to ensure you are still able to visit the sights you planned to see.

If the water levels remain at their current capacity, we expect that your itinerary will proceed as follows:”

It goes on to put together the best possible options, except that five days of river cruising become five days of bunking aboard ship while getting bused around in the daytime to see the sights. This isn’t SO bad, because Viking has its own fleet of very nice coaches, but still--. It takes more time out of the day getting to places that should have been close to the docking points, and travelling by bus is more tiring and less convenient. Most annoying, you don’t get to see the river! We were offered the option to cancel for a full refund, or to go on as planned, and Viking would send us a voucher good for 50% off our NEXT cruise with them.

We elected to go, since, in part, I had already bought tickets for things to do while in Berlin and Prague—opera and theatre—which would not be refundable. We have no guarantee we’d be able to go at all next year, or if conditions would be any better, as this is the second year in a row of very dry weather for that area.

As things stand, there’s very little chance we will get any use of the 50% off voucher, unless Viking does establish a proposed Mississippi river trip.

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Traveling

This time, I elected to let Viking make the air arrangements for us, and paid to upgrade to Premium Economy, which we considered well worth it, as the extra seat room makes the long trips easier to stand. As it was, we have agreed that this will be our last overseas trip, as the long flights are just too wearing.

Our flights were booked with Air France, which code-shares with Delta and KLM. Flying over, we went from Milwaukee to Atlanta (Delta’s hub), to Paris Charles De Gaulle, and from there to Berlin. The eight hour flight from Atlanta to Paris was just an ordeal, even given the Premium Economy seating. The plane this trip was an Airbus, and, as we have noted before, was loud. The incessant roaring background sound made conversation impossible, and was just wearisome. Also, the food on this flight was terrible. I chose the “bistro steak” which had the texture of pot roast, and was seasoned with an herb mixture called “chimichurri” which I found inedible. Georgie’s “chicken meatballs” were also too spicy. It is a known fact that altitude deadens your sense of taste, hence the oft-heard complaint that airline food is bland. We guessed that the spicing on these dishes was an attempt to counter that, but they went overboard. Then, at Charles De Gaulle, we had to trek from one end of the airport to the other (You’d think terminal 7E and 7F would be adjacent, wouldn’t you, but no--.) Which included taking a train (which we also did at the huge Atlanta airport), and going up or down escalators or elevators five times in the course of the trip. We have a particular animus against Charles De Gaulle airport, since this was where luggage of ours was temporarily lost TWICE on our last trip, so I had decided to use Luggage Forward, a new service mentioned by Viking. They pick up your bags at your home, and ship it to your hotel. Going home is the reverse. This was kind of expensive, and I noticed that UPS and DHL actually did the shipping and handling, so, if I were going to do this again, I might see if I could make my own arrangements. It did work well, our baggage got to Berlin on time, although Georgie’s suitcase was damaged. The bags got home from Prague safely, and in less time than promised.

Flying home was actually better. We flew out of Paris to Minneapolis on a Boeing plane, which was more spacious, more comfortable, and somewhat quieter, so we tolerated the nine-hour flight better than the slightly shorter trip over. Amazingly, we got from 2F to 2E at CGD in half the time and apparently half the distance, and without taking the train. How did they do that? Space is evidently warped in that location. Murphy’s Law struck when my carry-on bag was stuffed a bit too much, and had to be checked. Marvelous to say, it appeared normally on the baggage carousel at Minneapolis.

(Side thought: On our way through Charles De Gaulle, we trekked through a very high-end section of duty free shops, most of which appeared to be occupied by a single staffer in glittering splendor. How many people, while walking through an airport, are suddenly seized with the desire to purchase a Rolex watch, or a Bulgari bracelet? I think these shops serve mostly as 3-D advertisements--.)

Having signed up for Global Entry was also worth it, as it allowed us to skip most of the immigration lines at Minneapolis passport control, which meant we got to the gate for our connecting flight to Milwaukee with about five minutes to spare before boarding began.

Another good thing about Premium Economy is that you get to board after First Class, but before Economy, which gives you a good shot at the overhead bins. So many people cheat on carrying on—either the bags are oversized, or they stuff both their bag and their backpack (which should be under the seat stowage) that I considered it a score being able to get both of out carry-ons overhead.

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Getting Around

Berlin and Prague both have a common type of public transport system, which combines buses, underground trains, and streetcars or trams. In Berlin, we found that most of the sites we wanted to visit, such as Charlottenberg Palace, the Museumsinsel, and Philharmonia, were on, or a relatively short hike from the 200 bus line, which we got quite familiar with. Prague’s systems were laid out more confusingly, and did not run near some of the places we wanted to go, so I took a tip from our tour coordinator, and downloaded the Uber app, which worked well most of the times we used it. The notable exception was Sunday night, when we came out of the Black Light Theater presentation. First, we discovered that anywhere within three blocks of Wenceslas Square, where we were, was treated by the app as though it were all a pedestrianized zone, so you couldn’t hail a car until you were out of the zone, something it hadn’t shown me on the outbound leg. Second, it was raining. Although Uber showed plenty of cars available, for some reason the connection kept dropping and reassigning. After the third time, we noticed a regular cab at a stand across the street, and took that back to our hotel.

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Hotels

Viking uses a number of first-class hotels for its extended stays. In Berlin, we were put up at the InterContinental Berlin, and at Prague, at the Hilton Prague. Both of these were large, new hotels with both advantages and disadvantages.

The InterContinental is fairly centrally located, and backs onto the Tiergarten, Berlin’s equivalent to Central Park. The Berlin Zoo was quite close by, and bus and train connections were nearby. The room was comfortable, a good size, and had an actual desk with nearby power and Ethernet connections. (The outlets are all German so a converter was needed, but the hotel can supply them.)  The bathroom was unusual. The closets and a small dressing area were part of the space, as was a separate stall for the toilet, very common in Europe.  The bathtub had a rainfall shower head and a handheld spray. Both of these were located near the center of the tub, whereas the shower enclosure, a hinged glass panel, barely covered the area, such that it was impossible to take a shower without getting water on the floor. Weirdly, there was a window between the tub area and the sleeping room, about a foot high running along the top of the tub. A closed venetian blind was sealed between two panes of glass, although it looked like it could be opened with a special tool.  On the good side, the InterContinental had the best bed of our trip. A lot of hotels have little shops or vending operations where you can get a bottle of water or something when going out. Neither the InterContinental nor the Hilton did, being I guess too upscale for all that.

Accommodations aboard Viking Astrild and Viking Beyla were just like the other Viking ships we have been on, and very nice.

Our hotel room at the Hilton Prague was quite spacious, with a normal shower curtain arrangement in the bathroom. There was a small table in the window alcove, but only one chair. USB power ports for charging were conveniently located. The bed was probably number two for comfort of the three types we used. Some space on or near our floor was being remodeled, with hammering and power tools in use, but at least the workers quit at 7PM each day, and we were out of the hotel during working hours anyway. Both the Hilton and the InterContinental staffs were friendly and helpful.

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InterContinental Hotel, Berlin; Viking Astrild; Hilton Prague

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Arriving Berlin

We got to the hotel in Berlin early Wednesday evening, August 28th. After checking in with Viking and collecting our shipped luggage (It got there, yay! Georgie’s suitcase was damaged in transit, boo. However all the contents were intact.) we partially unpacked and went out for some dinner. The InterContinental has two dinner restaurants, Hugo’s, which is a Michelin-starred haute cuisine place with a very esoteric menu, and Marlene’s which is basically the hotel bar (although a very nice bar) with food. There was a Greek restaurant across the street from the hotel, but we wanted something more local. We ended up at Blend, a very pleasant and arty location a half-block from the hotel on Budapester Strasse. Blend’s menu was still a bit on the hip and trendy side for how we felt that evening, but we found dishes to order, and they were very good. I had their version of barbecued ribs, which was very tasty, and Georgie had swordfish, which was also good. Then we walked further along Budapester Strasse toward the Zoo, checking out the neighborhood. There was a strip of small shops near the hotel (including a little coffee shop where we got water and drinks), that had in it the most amazing men’s formal wear store we’d ever seen, MK Herrenmode Berlin. The suits seemed to be strongly “steampunk” styled, with elements of German folkish designs, particularly the Tziacco line. After that, we went back to our room, finished unpacking, and went to bed.

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MK Herrenmode Berlin; Kaiserdom Ruin; Spree canal; Blend restaurant

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Charlottenberg Palace

Thursday, August 29th, we started out getting directions to the Charlottenberg Palace. The Charlottenberg is a baroque palace built in what was originally an outlying village, but is now a neighborhood of Berlin. We visited the original palace building, the “new wing”, and the new pavilion. Like most of the historical buildings in Germany, the palace has not been upgraded with air conditioning. We were there on one of Berlin’s hitherto rare 90-degree days, so the palace’s shutters had been mostly closed on the sunward side. This made some of the rooms a bit dim, but I was still able to get good pictures. The mostly female security force had been issued folding paper fans, which curiously seemed to lend them an air of greater authority.

Bombed during World War Two, most of the palace has been painstakingly reconstructed from available records, with some reminders of the devastation. The ceiling of one room in the old palace has been left plain white plaster, because there was no record of what it had looked like. In one of the new wing ballrooms, a ceiling mural had been replaced by an abstract art piece on the same theme. The Baroque and Rococo decoration of the rooms is truly impressive, as are the royal collections. By standards of the British and French monarchies, they are rather modest, but still worth noting. Charlottenberg hosts a sizable collection of the Hohenzollern family portrait collection. One sees how one could have made a living as a portrait painter in the days before photographs, when every relative needed to be represented by a painted picture. Charlottenberg also contains the Porcelain Room, a large space lined floor to ceiling with blue and white porcelain pieces, ranging from large jars, through plates, saucers, and cups to tiny snuff bottles. There was a time when porcelain, known as “white gold”, and only made in China, was so sought after, that Frederick I of Prussia purchased the services of a regiment of Dragoons from Augustus the Strong, Duke-Elector of Saxony, for the price of 151 pieces of porcelain. Porcelain became somewhat of a theme during our trip, and we would learn a lot more about it, and about Augustus the Strong.

Georgie was interested in seeing works by painter Caspar David Friedrich, His paintings were kept in the New Pavilion along with works of contemporaries, and we studied them with interest.

After leaving the palace, we stopped at Café La Mouch, one of several sidewalk establishments across the street, and refreshed ourselves with a cool drink, before taking the bus back to the neighborhood of our hotel.

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Charlottenberg Palace

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Charlottenberg 2

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Garage

Georgie had looked up the location of a potentially interesting resale shop in the general area, and, using maps and Google navigation, we found Garage, which is in the basement of a building with an entry off a small dead-end street. Given that, we were surprised by the size of the place and its very extensive inventory. We spent a good bit of time shopping there, and Georgie came away with two nice skirts. (I have now productively thrift shopped in two world capitals: Paris and Berlin! – G.)

After that exercise, we felt like eating, and decided to get an early dinner at a corner restaurant called Gaststatte Ambrosius. The place, located in the street level of what once may have been a religious institution, was bright and pleasant, and had an extensive menu of German specialties. We didn’t want to eat too much, due to the heat, but Georgie had a good Weinerschnitzel, and I tried the roast wild boar, which was tasty and not like modern pork. I tried the local beer, Berliner Pils, and found it quite palatable.

Then we went back to the hotel, rested, and changed for the evening.

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Garage Second Hand Shop, Berlin

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We had enjoyed the cabaret we had gone to in Paris, and I had looked up to see if anything similar ran in Berlin. In so doing I found out about the so-called “VIVID Grand Show” which was described as “a top class revue on the biggest theater stage in the world with over 100 dancers, musicians and artists.” It was well reviewed and running through our visit, so we got tickets.

VIVID is basically what happens when you put together lighting designers, costume designers, and choreographers, give them a basically unlimited budget (12 million Euros!), and let them run with it. Oh, and throw in a couple of Cirque de Soleil-style acrobatic acts for good measure, and the result is a very entertaining spectacle.

There’s a minimal plot that runs through the review: R’eye, a girl, is lured onto the stage by a mysterious mystical figure (“The Guru”), and disappears into the backstage. Her father, “The Explorer”, goes after her when she doesn’t reappear. We see that she is transformed into a member of a Borg-like collective (if the Borg were all sleek, shiny dancers--) lead by the Android Madonna, who sings that Borgification is the “new direction” that leads to “ultimate perfection.” R’eye retains enough of her individuality to resist being assimilated, and works her way back toward humanity through an Alice-in-Wonderland like series of encounters with characters like The Entertainer and The Show Girl, along with dozens of stranger creatures. There are comic-relief segments featuring her father, and circus acts leavening the mix. The “Iron Jaw” act, where a man and a woman perform an aerial act suspending themselves, and sometimes both of them, by their teeth, was truly amazing. Eventually, R’eye succeeds in asserting her independence, and takes a new place as a White Queen to Androidonna’s Black Queen. Although most of the show is family friendly, the “Fun House” number lead by The Entertainer that starts the second half was definitely risqué. The Fun House is definitely a house of assignation if not an actual brothel, with shadow play of various sexual acts in the windows. A dance duo of two young men, supposedly naked except for shoes and strategically held hats, is featured. The fact that each one is holding his hat over the other’s groin made for some very interesting dancing--.The music was nice, atmospheric, and played at a decently moderated level so we weren’t blown out by it. We had a good time, and enjoyed the sheer over-the-topness of it all.

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VIVID Grand Show. Photos scrounged from the Web--.

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Museumsinsel

Friday morning, August 30th, we set out via bus for Berlin’s Museumsinsel, or Museum Island. Like Paris, one of the oldest places of settlement in Berlin was an island, this time in the River Spree. The island now holds the Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral), the newly rebuilt Berlin Palace, and a number of the country’s most significant history and art museums. Our primary target that morning was the Pergamonmuseum, so called because it houses the famous Pergamon Altar of Zeus, a reassembled temple portion brought back from an ancient Greek city in what is now Turkey. The actual Pergamon exhibit is undergoing renovation until at least next year, but we were interested in seeing the equally famous reconstructed Ishtar Gate. This massive gateway was once part of the walls of Babylon, and was rebuilt by the museum staff from individual bricks recovered at the site. The outer surface of the bricks is glazed with a royal blue coating, so that it must have blazed under the Iraqi sun, and been a sight to inspire awe in approaching travelers. The gateway and its approach are decorated with bas-relief lions and dragons, and a commemorative plaque proclaiming that it was constructed in (about 575 BCE) by order of King Nebuchadnezzar II. (I have loved this work ever since I saw photos of it as a teen. It’s even better in the real.-G)

Passing through the gate, we entered the Market Gate of Miletus, a Roman construction dating from around 100 CE. Being able to walk through and around these structures was deeply moving.

The first floor of the open wing also houses Babylonian and other early Mideastern artifacts including some of the earliest known cuneiform tablets. The second floor holds the collection of Islamic Art, which intricately decorated stone façade of the caliph’s palace of Mshatta (Jordan, ca. 740) and the famous Aleppo Room with its brightly painted wood paneling (Syria, 1600).

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Pergamon Museum; Ishtar Gate, Market Gate of of Miletus

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Haupstadtrestaurant Gendarmerie

After a good study of the Pergamonmuseum, we walked a few blocks along Unter den Linden, Berlin’s “main street” and a block south to the Haupstadtrestaurant Gendarmerie, which I had chosen from the Internet’s listings of best “German” restaurants. Because the weather was still hot, we skipped starters and went right to entrees. Georgie had the grilled salmon, which was excellent, and was accompanied by a very good salad. I chose the “traditional meatballs,” often referred to as “Konigsberger Klopse”, which were light pork meatballs in a champagne white sauce, with mashed potatoes, red beets, and capers. Both these dishes were wonderful. For desert, we split an order of the Pavlova, a meringue with pineapple, rum, raisins, and pistachio ice cream. Not traditional German, but where else would we get that? It was delicious. Service was excellent, and the ambiance lovely. The fine old space with its beautiful wood is enlivened by a large “modern” painting. This was one of the highlights of dining during our trip.