So, this past week I went to Berlin, Krakow and Warsaw. It was a pretty standard jaunt to Northeast Germany and Poland, hitting the major spots, and adding three cities, one country (Poland) and one airline (Air Berlin) to my lists. I thought about doing a diary like I did a year ago for this trip but one day in I really couldn't muster the energy. I honestly think having my trip be 105 days last year made the diary something that could keep me sane through it all. This was a normal trip. I didn't have three weeks off of doing anything like I did in India last year. This was all work, but also a lot of play.
Travel/Transit
Flying: I knew nothing of Air Berlin before taking them. I first thought they were a low-cost carrier type, and while they kind of are in Europe, they were not at all on the long trip. First I'll talk about their short trip. I took Air Berlin on a short flight from Berlin to Krakow. It was on a Bombardier Dash Q-400, a small prop-plane that somehow is used on an international flight. Either way, that flight was nothing, as any would be on that type of plane.
No, the real way to view Air Berlin is in the way I would use them, to fly medium-haul from New York JFK to Berlin-Tegel Airport. There, the flight was on an Airbus A330-200 plane, a nice normal plane. I was seated on one end of the four of a 2-4-2 config, with someone else on the other side, giving us each an empty seat to play with. The flight was great, my first overnight transatlantic (TATL) flight in a long time. The movie selection with awesome, even giving me The Godfather 2 to put on low volume and dark-screen and fall asleep to, making this the second time in two month's that I've used The Godfather, Pt. 2 to do something but actually watch it.
The food wasn't great on Air Berlin, but it wasn't bad either. Overall the flight was a good experience a great start to my trip. I wish I could say the same of British Airways. Now, I took it on far from a premium route (Warsaw to Heathrow), on a small plane, but it was the equivalent of US domestic travel. They offered drinks, just like they do in the US, and while they gave a flatbread sandwhich to eat, the sandwhich was cold and tasteless. There was no real entertainment, and by hte end of two hours I was glad to get out into that convoluted mess that is Heathrow, especially when you don't fly into or out of Terminal 5. At least this time I wasn't to do a 'random' carry-on search before boarding my flight to New York like I was four years ago.
Finally, we get to the flight I entered not really wanting to take, but ending up really enjoying: American Airlines Flight 107 from Heathrow to JFK. Now, while I am about to compliment American Airlines a lot, there are a few caveats. First, this is one of their flagships flights, aboard their brand-new Boeing 777-300ER, a plane the world first took to eight years ago but America just got their first. This was a flight they would pull out all the stops, and they did.
The food was OK, but had two large meals, which is not something I was prepared for on an evening flight. There were two outstanding aspects of their flight experience, both unexpected given my previous experiences with American Airlines. First was their beer, which was served colder than any beer I've had on an airplane ever, including trips on some of the most respected airlines in the world (All Nippon, Singapore Airlines, especially). Honestly, they were freezing cold. It was awesome.
Second was their movie selection, which was more thorough than anything I've seen. I would posit it was a selection of about 200 movies, 120 or so of which in English including some true CLASSIC classics (Citizen Kane, Lawrence of Arabia, The Sound of Music), some great modern classics (Amadeus, Goodfellas, Mean Streets, All the President's Mens), and all the modern one's you would want. What a great selection, and they do something most airlines I've taken apart from Thai Airways do: let you start watching when you're on teh ground before take-off, and don't switch it off. Honestly, I was watching Goodfellas when we were taxiing towards our gate in JFK. This was a great, unexpected finish to my trip.
The Cities
Berlin: Despite being by any estimable measure the third biggest tourist destination in Germany (behind Frankfurt and Munich), Berlin is a giant city. On the map, it doesn't look that big, but the blocks are big and the city is unwalkable. Thankfully, it has a huge, 24/7 transit system. Of course, that transit system is terribly complicated. This doesn't ruin your chances of getting around by train, but makes it take a bit longer than it should.
Thankfully, the rest of Berlin is really nice. There is more history there than other parts of Germany. Not only was it Germany's main political capital before WWII, it was obviously the center of Germany's political turmoil post WWII. Both histories are present. I got there early, and check-in at my hostel was at 3PM, so I had about five hours to kill. I started my walk near where the center of Berlin's universe used to be: near Checkpoint Charlie, a US Government checkpoint between the US encampment and Soviet land. From there I walked by a lot of, at the time not opened yet, exhibits about the Wall's history. They seemed to be pretty commercial so I wasn't too sad to not be able to see them.
The rest of my walk through Berlin took me to some of the more famous sites, like the stunning Brandenburg Gate, the various Platz-es that are all more impressive than the next, from the Postamer Platz, next to the glistening Sony Center, the Pariser Platz behind the Brandenburg Gate, and finally the Alexanderplatz, with the Radio Tower and St. Mary's Cathedral. They were all nice. From Berlin, to Warsaw, and especially Krakow, I wish the US had more 'squares' and open plazas.
Berlin itself has everything you would want from a city, but is a little spread out. What Berlin does have, and pretty centrally located, are museums. I only went to two, but they were both tremendously. Their main art museum, the Gemaldegalerie, was so vast that I had a hard time finishing it, something I've only have happened to my in Florence. They had a vast array of German artists, but also a substantial amount from the Dutch Masters, people I haven't really seen in museums since 2000. The other one was the National History Museum of Germany, which was a long walk through the history of Germany, or more exactly, the land Germany now entails and its surrounding areas, through time. It was a long museum, and got a little confusing, but it was always interesting, accompanied by some good exhibits.
It all really comes back to the walk near the Brandenburg Gate and Berlin Wall. On the way between Postdamer Platz and Pariser Platz is a large square with strange gray rectangular blocks, all representing the lives lost of people in Berlin, namely the Jewish people. A pretty chilling square (far less chilling than what was to come in Krakow).
The food and drink in Berlin was good and varied. Berlin actually has a lot of their top restaurants featuring other cuisines. I went to one, a hole-in-the-wall Vietnamese restaurant for lunch one day. The other restaurants were various German fare (save for one meal I will get to), like wurst, Pork Knuckle, goulash. They were all at different places. One, the goulash, was at a Bavarian-style beer house near the Brandenburg Gate that I went back to another time to just have their delicious beer. The Pork Knuckle was at a charming little German-style restaurant also near the Brandenburg Gate.
The best meal of the trip, though, was at the massive food hall on the 6th floor of the KaDeWe department store, which is essentially Berlin's form of Harrod's. Their food hall was more exquisite though. They had many of food bars with limited seating serving various food all around the floor. I finally chose a fry-cooked fish bar and had Kingklip, which took a while for them to grill (in front of me), but tasted amazing.
Berlin was a great city, a good start to the trip. I left Berlin, headed to Krakow, which going in probably had the largest range of possibilities.
Travel/Transit
Flying: I knew nothing of Air Berlin before taking them. I first thought they were a low-cost carrier type, and while they kind of are in Europe, they were not at all on the long trip. First I'll talk about their short trip. I took Air Berlin on a short flight from Berlin to Krakow. It was on a Bombardier Dash Q-400, a small prop-plane that somehow is used on an international flight. Either way, that flight was nothing, as any would be on that type of plane.
No, the real way to view Air Berlin is in the way I would use them, to fly medium-haul from New York JFK to Berlin-Tegel Airport. There, the flight was on an Airbus A330-200 plane, a nice normal plane. I was seated on one end of the four of a 2-4-2 config, with someone else on the other side, giving us each an empty seat to play with. The flight was great, my first overnight transatlantic (TATL) flight in a long time. The movie selection with awesome, even giving me The Godfather 2 to put on low volume and dark-screen and fall asleep to, making this the second time in two month's that I've used The Godfather, Pt. 2 to do something but actually watch it.
The food wasn't great on Air Berlin, but it wasn't bad either. Overall the flight was a good experience a great start to my trip. I wish I could say the same of British Airways. Now, I took it on far from a premium route (Warsaw to Heathrow), on a small plane, but it was the equivalent of US domestic travel. They offered drinks, just like they do in the US, and while they gave a flatbread sandwhich to eat, the sandwhich was cold and tasteless. There was no real entertainment, and by hte end of two hours I was glad to get out into that convoluted mess that is Heathrow, especially when you don't fly into or out of Terminal 5. At least this time I wasn't to do a 'random' carry-on search before boarding my flight to New York like I was four years ago.
Finally, we get to the flight I entered not really wanting to take, but ending up really enjoying: American Airlines Flight 107 from Heathrow to JFK. Now, while I am about to compliment American Airlines a lot, there are a few caveats. First, this is one of their flagships flights, aboard their brand-new Boeing 777-300ER, a plane the world first took to eight years ago but America just got their first. This was a flight they would pull out all the stops, and they did.
The food was OK, but had two large meals, which is not something I was prepared for on an evening flight. There were two outstanding aspects of their flight experience, both unexpected given my previous experiences with American Airlines. First was their beer, which was served colder than any beer I've had on an airplane ever, including trips on some of the most respected airlines in the world (All Nippon, Singapore Airlines, especially). Honestly, they were freezing cold. It was awesome.
Second was their movie selection, which was more thorough than anything I've seen. I would posit it was a selection of about 200 movies, 120 or so of which in English including some true CLASSIC classics (Citizen Kane, Lawrence of Arabia, The Sound of Music), some great modern classics (Amadeus, Goodfellas, Mean Streets, All the President's Mens), and all the modern one's you would want. What a great selection, and they do something most airlines I've taken apart from Thai Airways do: let you start watching when you're on teh ground before take-off, and don't switch it off. Honestly, I was watching Goodfellas when we were taxiing towards our gate in JFK. This was a great, unexpected finish to my trip.
The Cities
Berlin: Despite being by any estimable measure the third biggest tourist destination in Germany (behind Frankfurt and Munich), Berlin is a giant city. On the map, it doesn't look that big, but the blocks are big and the city is unwalkable. Thankfully, it has a huge, 24/7 transit system. Of course, that transit system is terribly complicated. This doesn't ruin your chances of getting around by train, but makes it take a bit longer than it should.
Thankfully, the rest of Berlin is really nice. There is more history there than other parts of Germany. Not only was it Germany's main political capital before WWII, it was obviously the center of Germany's political turmoil post WWII. Both histories are present. I got there early, and check-in at my hostel was at 3PM, so I had about five hours to kill. I started my walk near where the center of Berlin's universe used to be: near Checkpoint Charlie, a US Government checkpoint between the US encampment and Soviet land. From there I walked by a lot of, at the time not opened yet, exhibits about the Wall's history. They seemed to be pretty commercial so I wasn't too sad to not be able to see them.
The rest of my walk through Berlin took me to some of the more famous sites, like the stunning Brandenburg Gate, the various Platz-es that are all more impressive than the next, from the Postamer Platz, next to the glistening Sony Center, the Pariser Platz behind the Brandenburg Gate, and finally the Alexanderplatz, with the Radio Tower and St. Mary's Cathedral. They were all nice. From Berlin, to Warsaw, and especially Krakow, I wish the US had more 'squares' and open plazas.
Berlin itself has everything you would want from a city, but is a little spread out. What Berlin does have, and pretty centrally located, are museums. I only went to two, but they were both tremendously. Their main art museum, the Gemaldegalerie, was so vast that I had a hard time finishing it, something I've only have happened to my in Florence. They had a vast array of German artists, but also a substantial amount from the Dutch Masters, people I haven't really seen in museums since 2000. The other one was the National History Museum of Germany, which was a long walk through the history of Germany, or more exactly, the land Germany now entails and its surrounding areas, through time. It was a long museum, and got a little confusing, but it was always interesting, accompanied by some good exhibits.
It all really comes back to the walk near the Brandenburg Gate and Berlin Wall. On the way between Postdamer Platz and Pariser Platz is a large square with strange gray rectangular blocks, all representing the lives lost of people in Berlin, namely the Jewish people. A pretty chilling square (far less chilling than what was to come in Krakow).
The food and drink in Berlin was good and varied. Berlin actually has a lot of their top restaurants featuring other cuisines. I went to one, a hole-in-the-wall Vietnamese restaurant for lunch one day. The other restaurants were various German fare (save for one meal I will get to), like wurst, Pork Knuckle, goulash. They were all at different places. One, the goulash, was at a Bavarian-style beer house near the Brandenburg Gate that I went back to another time to just have their delicious beer. The Pork Knuckle was at a charming little German-style restaurant also near the Brandenburg Gate.
The best meal of the trip, though, was at the massive food hall on the 6th floor of the KaDeWe department store, which is essentially Berlin's form of Harrod's. Their food hall was more exquisite though. They had many of food bars with limited seating serving various food all around the floor. I finally chose a fry-cooked fish bar and had Kingklip, which took a while for them to grill (in front of me), but tasted amazing.
Berlin was a great city, a good start to the trip. I left Berlin, headed to Krakow, which going in probably had the largest range of possibilities.
