ICE - Inter city express

On my way from Berlin to Milano and there were three trains which would take all the pain of transferring me from the German Capital to the Monza circuit. Well, over the last few days whenever we have travelled on the trains we have always been late. Maybe 10 minutes and in some case half an hr late. What happened to the efficiency of the railways, and that too the bloody Germans. I thought they were supposed to be setting the highest standards. Well time to test that with the ICE from Berlin to Koln and then a 20 min later train from Koln to Basel. My first stop in Switzerland and finally a EC to Milano Central. And what a surprise. Not only was each train on time at the given destination they were dot on time at all the intermediate station. For some reason I just felt so happy all the times when the train would halt at some station and I would check the watch to confirm that the train was ON TIME. Just as the germans were supposed to be. Perfectly efficient. I think this has more to do with the fact that as in Indian we are used to trains coming late, “making up time at night” and tolerating 10-15 minutes delay as part n parcel of the whole system. God dammit, we need to learn so much from the ICE. Was on the phone for quite sometime on the train and there was perfect reception of my Vodafone signal because there were mobile repeaters in place. So in a perfectly quiet  apartment u can talk for as long as u want while the train rushes past the german landscape at 249kph (that is what they were displaying on the screen in the compartment, I know it was not the fastest the ICE would have gone but am sure that was fastest I have gone while on land except the airplane takeoffs, not sure what the speeds are then)

Which brings me to the main point, about why we as human beings appreciate something as simple as punctuality and honesty when these are assumed as the basic characteristics of any individual?  All this while when people were evolving into more and more complex beings, we forget that even now all we need is the other person to be polite, gentle, and honest and some simple things like that. So next time when you board the ICE and you marvel at how awesome it is, remember one thing – it’s just doing what its supposed to do, reach every station at the designated time. Simple. The rest is all show off from the Germans J Hate the Italians. They need a reservation on all their stupid trains. Bloody 13euros for a 4hour train journey from Basel to Milan. 

Berlin – The history lesson

Day 1 – Arrived in Berlin via Frankfurt on my first ICE (the proper one not the other flat faced one) and boy what a ride. They even hves LEDs on each seat which informed the passengers if a particular seat was reserved so that what happened to me at Goteborg would not happen here. The Germans were impressing me more and more J 

So we arrived at 130pm on time and then we were in a soup as to what to do. Went to burger king to find free wifi but instead we found wifi from Starbucks. Saw the location of a hostel which was on the S-Bahn route (free for euro rail pass holders) and then on our way to that hostel. Booked rooms for 2 days and boy the rooms were soooo nice. Fluffy pillows and good blankets. 14euros seemed to be a good deal. (Remember we are in europe) 

Having flicked off free maps from all possible locations we were prepared to go on our first outing of Berlin, and the first history lesson would come from the infamous Berlin Wall, we were conveniently put up at the beginning of the East Side Gallery and what a landmark. 

Such remarkable art in a city and each one better than the previous one, Berlin was going to be a wonderful trip. You could see tourists (Mostly Chinese, god knows how many of them we saw on the trip till now) everywhere and a whole bunch of school going kids wandering along the wall, taking pictures, staring at marvel at some of those master pieces.

 If that was not enough then we made our way walking all the way to Alexanderplatz. A happening place in berling, full of malls and eateries, and a good hang out place in the evening. The time we arrived we were astonished by the whole environment there, definitely helped by the guy playing the guitar. The star attraction of the area was the TV tower situated there, currently the second tallest structure in the EU, and a 10euro fees to take you all the way to the top to a restaurant from where am sure the night view would be SPECTACULAR. 

When i do go back to berlin i’ll do that for definitely. Hopefully on my next trip to mainland. 

Went back to the hostel early as even the shops in Berlin start closing by 8pm and by 1030pm we were tucked in and ready to sleep. Tmrw Sudeep would join us from Frankfurt and then we would go on a full day tour of Berlin.

Day 2 – Day 2 began with us going to the Warschawer strabe station to meet sudeep, who had come down from Frankfurt and then we all headed to the Reichstag (pronounce it properly man... ) The german parliament which was the centre of all that action during the last century and lo there was this long queue of people waiting to get in, and after an hr of waiting we were finally at the front.

 Security checks and then we were herded to the dome of the Reichstag which was open for public and was situated on top of the room where the parliamenterians used to sit. The idea being that if at any point of time they 4got who was the real boss in germany then only need to look up once and they would find the people of germany (these days it would be tourists of course J)

 It was an audio tour with all of us given some audio guide which was sensitive to your location on the ramp. So as soon as u came to a particular area the voice in the device started giving u some gyan. Very very clever. So people could go on at their own pace without having to operate or worry about the guide. 

The Reichstag was definitely a  good place to begin the tour and the guide was excellent with detailed explanation of events in the history of Berlin. There was also the free tour which according to the pamphlet that we got was scheduled to begin at 1pm. So we had enough time to go to Branderburger gate which also has a very unique history. At this point of time i am tempted to tell all the things which my guide told during the free tour because i doubt if things can be made more interesting than that. J 

So we met Ed at 1pm near the brandenberger gate from where four different groups proceeded at the same time. Some notable points during the whole tour –

1.       The godess at the Brandenberger gate looks towards the French embassy, the French were the ones who had stolen her in the first place (napoleon)

2.       The commercial bank there seems a very stale bank from the outside, coz according to the laws anything in that square cannot outshine the gate, however the inside is supposed to be breath taking. He also designed another structure in Prague or some other city.

3.       The hotel adlon there was the one which has a room which costs 15,000 € per night!!! And was the same building from which Michael Jackson threw the baby!!!

4.       
       The holocaust memorial cost around 6mn € and was quite controversial

5.       The square where Hitlers bunker was present and how the allies kept it a secret of his death

6.       German and French Cathedrals on the same square very similar to each other, though the German one was a few inches taller.

7.       Bank which featured in the movie run lola run.

8.       Island museums and some of the escape stories surrounding the berlin wall.

And by 5pm we were done with our tour and what a tour that was, and all that for free even better. Well they run on tips only basis so we also decided to chip in. This was followed by a tour of the new museum. A one hour marathon through the 3 floors of the museum. That was quick. 

This followed by a visit to the sony centre which housed only Hollywood flicks, so we decided against watching the movies. A trip to alexanderplatz where we had our dinner, and some more live music. Finally at 930 we made our way back to the room, a tiring day but then it was good fun. The last day in Berlin would be dedicated to schausenhasen, the concentration camp near berlin. 

Koln – Stop 1

 We arrived at Koln early morning at 7am (train was again late by some 20 minutes)  and the first thing to greet us on as we set foot in the mainland was a mammoth station. What a sight. And with no clue as to what to do, we went to the Tourist Information centre to get some gyan on what all to see and where to find a good youth hostel. Soon we were directed to a closeby youth hostel which did take some searching though It was quite close to the station. We convinced the lady that we were here only for few hours and we wanted to put our luggage there and use none of the facilities, she obliged by renting us their locker for free.. so sweet.. On our way from the hostel to the Rhine banks where we would make our plan for the day. The Rhine was already bustling with activity – tourist boats as well as the ones shipping out cargo. 

And as soon as we turned around we knew where to go. The largest cathedral of Germany (I forget what its called) and by god that was some sight. 

Towering above us we looked like tiny dwarves make that ants near those towers. Went inside the cathedral and it was even more beautiful from the inside. I cant tell you who all were there on all those windows or the ones on those pillars but by god that was some architecture. Everytime I see anything as huge as magnificent as that, I always wonder – how exactly did they manage to build these things back then. Superb. And then after some more time spent in the cathedral we roamed around to see what all were there around that place, and it seemed that most of the things to be seen in Koln were very close to each other. Good. So we went to the Ludwig museum, closed. Another museum next to that. Closed. Dammit it was 9am and they were all closed even then. While roaming around the church we saw a sign which said that at 1 euro u could make your way to the top of one of the towers of the church. That was 100metres and that definitely seemed like a good investment. Boy was soo wrong, these germans had actually built steps around one single pillar and that was the route were supposed to take to go to the top. And man it was tiring and scary at the same time. Oooof. Finally reached the top and it was all worth the effort, a spectacular view of the entire city from up there and you could even see the place where there was going to be a concert held later at 12 noon.

 The descent was even more scarier though not so difficult. And finally after getting down it was time to go the famous Ludwig Museum. And at that time there was an exhibition of Roy Lichtenstein’s work as well. Now am not sure exactly who he was at that moment so I think I am not the best person to describe the (2.5hrs) spent there, but then it was well spent I guess.

 After this we went to the Chocolate museum while we found out that that required another 5 euros as entry fees, so we satisfied ourselves with chocolates for the time being from the shop there. Lindt apparently had setup the exhibition with a lot of thought behind it and they prepared a fresh batch of chocolate every time a bunch of visitors came into the museum. Naaice. Some snooping into some of the supermarkets told us that everything was cheaper compared to the Scandinavian countries and that was definitely good news. On the same day a triathalon was being held in the city – cycling, marathon as well as swimming. 

And the whole city was geared up for the event, people had come to cheer up family as well as friends and there was definitely no shortage of old, young, male, female literally everybody had turned up. It was a good way to get the city together. We should have more of those of marathon things in the city. Finally at 5 pm we decided to make way to the station and then on our way to Frankfurt. And guess what . we meet turakhia (for the uninitiated he is the topper from my college and my class mate in first year) He was also in Koln on the same day however he had arrived at 12noon and since we were going to his house only in Frankfurt it was mighty convenient. After an hr of train jouney from Kobleinz we were at his house and now that we  know the address we can easily make way to that place whenever we are in that area. Sudeep was a good host and he even served us pizza for dinner, and finally we slept off at 2330 ready to get up tmrw morning at 730 to go to Berlin, the Capital and the place which has had such a action packed history in the recent decades that it is literally a history class for the tourist. Hope it is that good. Am sure it would be.