Četiri dana na Balkanu (Four Days in the Balkans)

May 16th was a public holiday in France (Whit Monday aka Pentecost) so I again leveraged the day off with the weekend to take a four day trip to the Balkans. In this case, I stayed in Dubrovnik and did not shift my base to other cities, but instead took day-long excursions to neighbouring countries. Travelling from one country to another in this region is not as easy as in the rest of Europe, and most of the guided bus tours that go from city to city are expensive and are usually packaged for at least a week. In this case, a hub and spoke approach was cheaper and more convenient. The excursions were booked using guided small group tours, which made the border crossings easier as well since the guides could speak the local language.

The weather on all four days was warm (around 21°C) but volatile. On each day, it would rain hard twice a day, but only for 30-60 minutes, and then turn sunny again.

Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik has one of the most picturesque old towns that I've seen in Europe. The entire town is built with a light grey stone and red roofs that contrast with the clear blue waters of the Adriatic Sea. You can get great views of the city by taking a walk through the city's main streets (the tourist information centre provides a free map outlining the best walking routes) as well as by walking along the city walls (where you can get a rooftop view of the old town from every angle). The city is touristy, containing a lot of souvenir shops and restaurants, but it has a few churches with moderately ornate interiors and two small palaces (one of which houses a small art exhibition and a war memorial).

A view of the old town of Dubrovnik (on the right) and the old port, facing southeast on Fort Minceta, one of the larger towers of the city walls.

A view of Fort Lovrijenac and the Pile area of Dubrovnik, seen from Fort Bokar facing northwest.

Walking through the old town and then on the city walls took an entire morning, and I spent the afternoon of the first day on Lokrum Island. The ferry takes only 15 minutes and the island provides a more tranquil atmosphere compared to the tourist-filled streets of Dubrovnik. There are about a dozen notable, but simple, sites on the island, including a botanical garden, an old monastery, a Dead Sea (basically an inland pond connected to the sea), an abandoned fort, and a small information centre on the Game of Thrones.

Guess who's the new King of Westeros?! The Game of Thrones Visitor Center is housed in a non-descript building on Lokrum Island. The center is small and doesn't have much besides a few information displays and a replica of the Iron Throne. There's actually another replica in Dubrovnik, in a souvenir shop near the north gate. That one is easier to find because there's a life-size statue of Tyrion Lannister outside the shop.

The highest point on Lokrum Island is at the top of Fort Royal, which would have provided a decent coastal view of Dubrovnik except for the rain storm that started just as I arrived.

When I returned to Dubrovnik in the early evening, most of the tourist crowds were gone and the streets were near empty. I'm not sure if the tourist numbers dwindled because of the rain storm earlier in the afternoon or because most of the tourists were on chartered bus tours that had to move on to their next stop. Either way, if you want to see Dubrovnik in a more relaxed setting, the early evening is the time to go.

I spent the second and third days of my trip in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro, respectively (more details below), but the last day in Dubrovnik again.

At the southeast end of the Main Street Placa in Dubrovnik is a bell tower, a statue referred to as Orlando's Column, and St. Blaise Church.

I spent the morning visiting War Photo Limited, which is an exhibition centre displaying photos from the wars in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo (with particular emphasis on the siege of Dubrovnik) as well as from the Balkan route of the migrant crisis in 2015. This is one of the top rated places to visit in Dubrovnik and it is worth a detailed look, as there is an information pamphlet (more like a book) lent to visitors that includes a caption providing the context behind each photo. I read a lot of info not available through the regular media reports and felt like I developed a slightly better understanding of the migrant crisis after viewing the photos and going through the book.

From War Photo Limited, this photo was taken in Idomeni, Greece. Iranians are protesting the decision of the Macedonian government to only allow Afghan, Syrian and Iraqi refugees to cross the border, leaving all other migrants stuck on the Greek side of the border.

I had enough time before my flight to take the cable car up Mount Srdj to get a higher view of the city, and was surprised to find that there were a few interesting sites at the top, including a fort housing a war museum.

The old town of Dubrovnik and the island of Lokrum, as seen from the top of Mount Srdj. The mountain is accessible by cable car.

On Mount Srdj is Fort Imperial, which houses the Museum of the Croatian War of Independence. The museum contains detailed information displays on the war as well as a few military artifacts.

The one other item to note is that I had the chance to try frog's legs at a restaurant in the southwest corner of the old town. (It happens to be a local delicacy in Herzegovina.) There wasn't much meat on the legs, but it was an entrée comprised of six breaded pairs of legs served with rice, so it was reasonably filling for what I paid (only 100 kuna). Frog's legs are just like others describe; they taste a lot like chicken with a hint of a fish flavour (e.g. haddock). The meat is tender and comes off the bone easily, but after mangling two pairs of legs with a knife and fork, I realized it's much easier to just use your hands.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

I spent the second day of my trip on a guided group tour of a few towns in the Herzegovina region of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The tour started by stopping in Neum, which is the only coastal town in the country and is somewhat scenic, although there wasn't anything noteworthy there.

The first notable stop was in Medjugorje, a small town known for both a nearby site where six locals claimed to have seen visions of Mary, and a Jesus statue that mysteriously seeps water from his right knee. This makes Medjugorje a popular destination for some Catholic pilgrims, although the Vatican has not confirmed the validity of the visions of Mary and there are suspicions of fraud. While it was touching to see the emotional response the pilgrims displayed from coming in contact with the Risen Christ statue, it was creepy to see the open worship of the idols of Mary as well as the large amounts of money being spent on Christian jewelry in the nearby souvenir shops.

In Medjugorje, a statue of Mary in front of Saint James church. This is a copy of another statue built on Apparition Hill (Podbrdo) outside of town where six locals claimed to have seen a vision of Mary.

The Risen Christ statue in Medjugorje. There is a small amount of water that seeps from the right knee of the statue. Pilgrims will line up in order to rub the knee or absorb some of the water with a napkin.

The tour continued on to Mostar. The town has a small old town (which now appears to be stone walkways lined with souvenir stalls) but is best known for its Old Bridge. The original bridge was built by the Ottomans in the 16th century but was destroyed in 1993 during the Croat-Bosniak War. The bridge has since been reconstructed and its architecture, along with the mosques in the area, reflect the Ottoman influence in the region.

The Stari Most (Old Bridge) in Mostar. There are a few locals that will dive from the bridge if they are paid enough (usually 50 Euros collectively from all of the tourists). One of the divers is standing on the outside of the railing at the middle of the bridge.

The Kriva Crupija (Crooked Bridge) in Mostar crossing the Rabobolja Creek. One of the mosque towers will sound the call to prayer, although at a lower volume than the mosques in Istanbul.

The tour ended with a quick stop in Pocitelj, a very small town along the Neretva river where a mosque and fortress are built into the neighbouring hillside. I had just enough time to run up to the fortress and take in a great view of the surrounding area.

A shot of the Neretva river, facing southwest, from Citadel Pocitelj. The trees hide the walkways connecting the mosque and stone homes in the small town of Pocitelj.

Montenegro

I spent the third day of my trip on a guided group tour of a few small towns in Montenegro, all of them on or around the Bay of Kotor. The first town was Perast, known for its close proximity to two very small islands in the bay. The first (natural) island, Saint George, is not accessible to the public and has a Benedictine monastery. The second (artificial) island, Our Lady of the Rocks, is accessible by motorboat and has a small church (with museum) and a souvenir shop.

A shot of the Bay of Kotor from Our Lady of the Rocks, a small artificial island with enough space for a small church and a souvenir shop. Behind the church is the even smaller natural island of St. George. On the left is the town of Perast and in the distant center is a rain storm that fortunately moved away from town and out to the Adriatic Sea.

The trip continued on to Kotor, known for its medieval old town and for its fortifications originally built by the Byzantine Empire but rebuilt (in its current form) by the Venetians when they controlled the area. Our small group had a guided tour through the old town, which only left about 40 minutes of free time in Kotor, so our tour guide warned us that it would be crazy to try to climb to the top of the fortifications in our limited free time and only a fit adventure tourist would attempt this. I don't consider myself the most fit adventurist out there, but I had enough energy in reserve from the last two days (sitting in a van for long parts of these guided tours) that I ran up to the fortification and back and was only three minutes late. So if you end up on a guided tour of Kotor and the tour guide says you don't have time to climb the fortifications, don't believe him! Take it as a challenge to get up there and back in the allotted time.

The outer fortification at Kotor. It is hard to spot from the haze of the sun and from being a similar colour as the mountain, but the wall zig-zags up the smaller mountain nearest to the town. There is a small church (Saint John) half-way up to the fort at the top.

A photo of Kotor taken from the top of the fortifications, facing northwest. The old town can be distinguished by the concentration of red roofs.

The tour then stopped in Budva, a coastal town with a small old town. The old town did not offer much to see, but Budva is instead being developed as a resort town catering to tourists from Eastern Europe. Most of the tour buses will stop here for lunch instead of in Kotor (which has few restaurants and a reputation for petty crime). As a result, Budva has a great selection of restaurants along its waterfront to go along with its sandy beaches (although the beaches were empty due to the rainy weather that day).

The outer wall along the west side of the old town of Budva. The old town area is small compared to its counterparts in Kotor and Dubrovnik, and it wasn't as picturesque.

The tour took a quick stop in Tivat, primarily to use the ferry to cross the bay and shorten the trip back to Dubrovnik. Tivat actually looked more authentic than the other towns visited, as it wasn't overrun with souvenir shops and restaurants catering to the tourist traffic.

A shot of Tivat while approaching the Porto Montenegro by ferry.

So that was Dubrovnik and the surrounding area in four days. In my excursions, I didn't get to see the capitals Sarajevo and Podgorica, but the small towns in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro provided for a good mix of historical and cultural sites along with scenic landscapes. Dubrovnik is also a picturesque city, with some interesting museums in and around the city as well as some fun places to visit if you're a Game of Thrones fan.

Nedēļu Baltijas valstīs (A Week in the Baltic States)

May 5th was a public holiday in France (Ascension Day) so I leveraged the day off with the weekend to take a six day tour through the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania). Travel between each country's capital was easily done by bus, which took about 4.5 hours from Tallinn to Riga and about 4 hours from Riga to Vilnius. Apparently the train service does not operate any faster than this and the hassles of travelling to each airport and checking through security for short haul flights would only be marginally better. Various travel forums recommend the bus, not only because it's incredibly cheap (ranging from 4 to 10 euros per trip) but it's also very comfortable. I booked the 10 euro Lux Express buses and they had extra leg room, WiFi, A/C and the second trip even had a touch screen where you could pick from a wide selection of movies.

Travel between cities meant that I had a day and a half to visit each city, which turned out to be enough time to see the old town and main sites for all three capitals. The added bonus was that while the weather forecast for some of the days was for scattered showers, it turned out to be sunny and warm (between 19°C and 25°C) during my entire trip. Not bad for countries this far north. I ended up carrying rain gear and extra layers without ever needing them.

Tallinn

I started my time in the capital of Estonia by walking through the Toompea hill area, which includes the Toompea Castle (it was closed to the public during my visit) and several parks (Lindamägi, Hirvepark and Harjuvärava Mägi are all plain but very tranquil). Across the street from the castle is the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, which has a beautiful interior and exterior, although photos of the interior were not allowed. The area also has two Vaateplatvorms, which are spots for getting a good view of the city from a higher elevation (comparable to the miradouros in Lisbon).

A view of the Old Town of Tallinn from the Toompea Vaateplatvormid. The locals call it Kohtuotsa Vaateplats. The towers with the conical, red roofs are part of the city wall. The tallest tower is part of Saint Olav's Church.

One of the towers of the city wall is called Kiek in de Kök, and it contains a small museum displaying the various weapons and armour used throughout Estonia's history. It also offers a good view of the surrounding area. The building on the left is the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral.

I went further east into the old town and visited the Niguliste Museum. This museum is housed in what was originally Saint Nicolas church, but the church was destroyed in World War II and was later rebuilt to house a museum for medieval art.

In the Niguliste Museum, the most notable work is Danse Macabre, from the workshop of the Lübeck master Bernt Notke. There was a protective glass in front of the work, which dimmed the view of its vivid colours and added some glare to the photo.

In the center of the old town of Tallinn is the Raekoja Plats (Town Hall Square) with the town hall on the right. There was a market held in the square during the day of my visit. Most of the vendors were selling local crafts or souvenirs. The base of the town hall has some interesting restaurants, one of which sells a spicy elk soup for only 2 Euros.

From Rannavärava Mägi park, another shot of the city wall with Oleviste Kirik (Saint Olav's Church) in the background. The interior of the church is plain (but tall). One of the city wall towers near the church contains an exhibition of local crafts recreating traditional Estonian tools and toys.

I also visited the Estonian History Museum housed in the Great Guild Hall, but I found that the museum was small and the exhibits weren't effective (the content was organized by theme rather than chronologically, which in most cases doesn't work well).

With a few hours left in the afternoon, I had time to walk to the northern end of the city and visit the Lennusadam Seaplane Harbour. This was a larger museum containing various ships and other sea vessels from Estonia's recent history. The larger ships were docked in the harbour and had accessible interiors, two of which were very elaborate (and much more informative than the SS Nomadic in Belfast). However, the key exhibit to visit is inside the museum building, where a 1930's Soviet-era submarine (the Lembit) is stored. The top deck of the Lembit contains the bridge, kitchen, crew quarters and part of the engine room and is accessible to the public, allowing a close-up, hands-on look at what life was like for submariners working and living on the vessel.

The bridge of the submarine Lembit in the Lennusadam Seaplane Harbour museum.

The northern part of Tallinn also contains an old prison (Patarei Merekindlus) and a sports arena (Tallinna Linnahall) but both sites appeared to be abandoned and falling into disrepair.

With the next half-day in Tallinn, I walked to the eastern side of the city and visited Kadriorg Palace. The palace is surrounded by a large park (Kardiorg Park) which has an ornate, well-trimmed feel around the palace grounds, and a more natural, forested feel as you walk further north to the beach. The palace itself is small, but doubles as an art museum containing a mix of Dutch, Italian and German art from the 16th to 20th centuries. I figured out that Tallinn has five art museums (including Niguliste and Kadriorg) that are all part of a single network, with each museum focusing on a different era. Close to the palace is the Kumu art museum, which contains Estonian art from the 18th century and onwards. Kumu has a wide variety of art, ranging from expressionist and post-expressionist art from the 18th century to the weird modern art of the 20th century.

The Banquet Hall in Kadriorg Palace. Most of the artworks are displayed in smaller rooms throughout the palace.

The Kumu Kunstimuuseum contains Estonian art from the 18th to 21st centuries. Pictured is Summer Morning, by Aleksander Vardi.

A day and a half in Tallinn worked out well, as it provided enough time to go outside of the old town area and visit Lennusadam and Kadriorg. The timing was aided by the fact that the bus station is closed to Kadriorg Park, so I was able to plan my route through the city accordingly.

Riga

The key point I have to make about the capital of Latvia is that, more than any other city I've visited, the common travel advice seems inaccurate. The sites recommended by all of the travel books and websites are so-so, while the most interesting places to visit are rarely mentioned. It's as if everyone who's written a travel guide for Riga was only here for one day, visited the old town and Alberta street, and didn't venture any further. Fortunately I took an extra half-day there.

Riga has an old town, but it feels relatively modern and it looks more like a regular town peppered with a higher concentration of old churches and notable buildings. The northeastern edge of this section is very scenic, as this is where you can find the Freedom Monument, the Latvian National Opera House and the Pilsetas Canals.

The Brivibas Piemineklis (Freedom Monument) is a memorial to the soldiers killed during the Latvian War of Independence. There were also two soldiers (and their supervisor) patrolling the monument during the afternoon.

The Pilsetas Kanals connect with the Daugava river to the north and south of the old town area of Riga. The canals are surrounded by parks on both sides. On the left of this photo (behind the trees), is the Bastejkalns (Bastion Hill).

The center of the old town area (but closer to the southwest) contains some of the city's more famous sites, including its Town Hall Square, where you can find the House of the Blackheads and the Statue of Roland.

A view from the tower of Saint Peter's Church, facing northwest. The white building facing the church on the left is the Town Hall. The church itself contains a small art exhibition as well as the original Statue of Roland (the one in the Town Square in the bottom left of the photo is a reproduction).

A view of the Town Hall Square. On the left is the tower of Saint Peter's Church and on the right is the House of the Blackheads. The interior of the House of the Blackheads (at least the building on the left) is plain and contains a tourist information centre, although the building on the right is used as a temporary residence for the President of Latvia. Between the church and the house is the Statue of Roland.

I had spent most of the first day exploring the old town, perusing the central market (one of the largest fresh food markets I've ever seen) and visiting several old churches and cathedrals in the area. It wasn't until the following half-day that I got around to visiting Alberta Iela (Albert Street) and the Art Nouveau Museum. Both sites are on the northern edge of the old town and top the lists of places to visit for most travel guides. However, Alberta Iela was simply a short street lined with artful building facades, and the Art Nouveau Museum just looked like a upper middle class home from the early 1900's.

A shot of Alberta Iela (Albert Street). The street is lined with buildings designed with nouveau art exteriors.

The Jugenda Stila Nami (Art Nouveau Museum) contains the authentic interior of a 1903 private home. Pictured is the dining room.

Alberta Iela and the Art Nouveau Museum didn't take long to visit (there wasn't much to either one), so I had time to visit several other sites around the northern part of the old town. The Arsenals Exhibition Hall contains a small contemporary art museum, but the sculptures in front of the building are far more interesting than anything on the inside. There was also a church (Nativity of Christ Cathedral) which was more beautifully designed, on the inside and outside, than any of the older churches in the central part of the old town, but travel websites rank it so far down the list of places to visit that most tourists never get to it (although the rule forbidding photos inside and the fact that it's an Orthodox church with service constantly in session may detract some people from entering).

In front of the Arsenals Art Exhibition building are sculptures of the heads of influential artists. Pictured in the foreground is the head of Emils Melderis and in the background is the head of Teodors Zajkalns. Both were Latvian sculptors.

I ended my time in Riga by visiting the Latvian National Museum of Art. I don't recall any tourist guide mentioning this museum and yet it was the highlight of my time there. The museum contains Latvian art from the 18th to 21st century (as well as some Russian art) and its collection is impressive for its size. I got the sense that the museum director prefers vibrant, colourful paintings, because both the older and newer works were of a vivid quality (or maybe that's the Latvian style of art). I'm not an art expert, but there were several works by Janis Rozentals that left me wondering why the painter isn't widely exhibited in other museums across Europe.

In the Latvian National Museum of Art, pictured is Coming from Church (After the Service), by Janis Rozentals.

By the end of my time in Riga, I started to realize that many of the tourists passing through Tallinn and Riga were on guided bus tours, many of which would only stop in a city for a day. So a lot of people were only passing by the main sites (and the places that were quickest to view) before speeding on to the next city.

Vilnius

The capital of Lithuania is often referred to as "the Jerusalem of the north", not only because of its Jewish influence but also because of its high number of religious sites. This is a city of approximately 540,000 people, and it has 65 churches. And these aren't small churches either; several of the sites are larger than cathedrals in other cities of comparable size.

I started my visit in the old town, heading north along Pilies Street to Cathedral Square where the main cathedral, palace and national museum are located.

The exterior of the Vilnius Cathedral and its accompanying bell tower. The interior of the cathedral has scale, but is relatively plain compared to many of the churches in the area. The Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania is behind the cathedral.

The Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania has four floors. The bottom two floors are a museum dedicated to the history of the Lithuanian grand dukes, while the top two floors contain the ceremonial rooms of the palace as well as the treasury. There is a lot to see in this palace. Pictured is the throne room (also called the Baroque audience hall).

After the cathedral and palace, I walked up the nearby hill to Gediminas' Tower. The hill provided a decent view of the surrounding area, but I could see that the Hill of Three Crosses was higher and would offer a better vantage point. The walk up to the Three Crosses also provided for a relaxing walk through Kalnu Park.

A view from the Hill of Three Crosses, facing west. Gediminas' Tower can be seen below center left, while the Vilnius TV Tower can be seen further in the distance.

Further east of the old town is the Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. This church stood out for its interior, which was nearly entirely white but filled with sculptures on the ceilings, archways and walls.

The interior of the Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. My camera struggled to take a good photo due to both the scale of the building and the brightness of an all-white interior on a sunny day.

There were several other churches with impressive interiors, but I won't flood the blog with too many photos. However, I'll mention that the Church of St. Anne had a catchy exterior made of dark red bricks. Photos of this church don't reflect how beautiful the red brick looks, especially with the light-coloured mortar that contrasted with the dark bricks.

The exterior of the Church of St. Anne on the left and right. Behind St. Anne is the Church of Saint Francis and Saint Bernard. The buildings appeared to be connected on the outside, although I did not see any doorways when I visited both interiors.

Next to the Church of Saint Francis and Saint Bernard are the Bernardine Gardens. This park was bustling with locals taking a Sunday picnic or stroll.

I had enough time on the first day to loop back to Cathedral Square and visit the National Museum of Lithuania. The museum is moderately sized, but contains a wide variety of archaeological and historical displays of Lithuanian culture.

The National Museum of Lithuania includes a few Lithuanian toys, including a windmill that automates several figurines performing various industrial and agricultural tasks. I looked closely and there were gears and rods connecting everything to the turbine, but I would guess that the wind would have to be strong to motorize the entire mechanism.

I spent the last day visiting a few more churches (the Dominican Church of the Holy Spirit and the Russian Orthodox Church of the Holy Spirit had notably impressive interiors), as well as the courtyards of Vilnius University. Unfortunately, most of the museums were closed on Monday, so I didn't get a chance to visit the Money Museum of the Bank of Lithuania. I ended the trip by passing through the Gate of Dawn before heading to the airport.

The Gate of Dawn was part of the fortifications of the city built in the 16th century and it contains a chapel above the archway. If you look closely, the chapel contains a portrait of Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn. A small service was being held in the chapel when I visited.

So that was a tour of the Baltic states over six days. I originally wanted to spend only five days on this trip but couldn't decide on which city to cut short. It turned out that each city was worth two days, although anyone else could cut a day depending on their interests. I would have liked to have visited Saint Petersburg on the front end of the trip or Minsk on the back end, but either one would have required a visa from Russia or Belarus, and I don't have time to give up my passport waiting for visa approvals.

The other item I'll quickly mention is that all three countries are great for budget travelers. Museum admissions ranged between 2 and 8 Euros, and hotels/restaurants were also very affordable (along with the cheap bus tickets between cities).

There was another May holiday in France that I leveraged for another trip, which I'll summarize in a future post (I'm still catching up).

Eine Reise nach Berlin und Hamburg (A Trip to Berlin and Hamburg)

There are still a few major cities in Europe that I had yet to visit and Berlin was one of them. I booked three and a half days to visit the city, but then decided to use one day to take an excursion to Hamburg for some variety. I think it worked out well given that I saw all of the sites on the top of my to-do list, while (as usual) missing out on some of the lower priority sites due to scheduling constraints.

Berlin

At this point, I've visited most of the major landmarks around Europe, but one of my glaring misses was the Brandenburg Gate. Step one on day one was to visit the gate and check out the surrounding area.

Built in 1791, the Brandenburg Gate was originally the city gate of Berlin on the road to Brandenburg, but was later used as a triumphal arch in the 19th and 20th centuries, as a checkpoint between East and West Germany during the Cold War, and is now a symbol of German unification.

The Neue Wache is a memorial to the victims of war and dictatorship. The exterior uses classic Greco-Roman architecture, while the interior (pictured) contains a sculpture, Mother with Her Dead Son, by Käthe Kollwitz, which is exposed to the elements by the gap in the ceiling. One of the most elegant and poignant memorials that I've ever seen.

I walked further down Unter den Linden street and saw the Berlin Cathedral from the outside (why do they charge admission?), Friedrichswerdersche Kirche from the outside (it appeared to be under renovation and closed), and Museum Island (I would visit the museums another day). Somehow I found myself looping south and visiting Checkpoint Charlie, but there wasn't much to see there aside from some information panels, a small segment of the Berlin Wall, and a kitschy border crossing booth where two men were dressed in American and Soviet military officer uniforms and getting their photos taken with tourists. From there, it was convenient to just take the subway to the East Side Gallery.

The East Side Gallery is a surviving section of the Berlin Wall which contains various artwork on its east side. Unfortunately, fencing has been placed in front of several sections to prevent vandalism. The west side of the wall contains common graffiti, as it always has from its beginning.

I slated this particular weekend in Berlin because the football scheduling meant that I could watch Bayern Munich one more time, this time playing in the historic Olympiastadion. The stadium is large but old, so the seats are a bit further from the field due to the running track on the grounds. Plus, the views in the upper deck seats are partially obstructed by support beams. With Hertha BSC being the primary football team in Berlin and having a good sized fan base, I often wonder if this team could be a powerhouse in Europe if they ever built themselves a proper stadium.

Olympiastadion at the beginning of the match between Hertha BSC and Bayern Munich. The area on the left with the flares is the visitor's section with the Bayern fans. The Hertha supports are on the opposite end and some of their flags can be seen in the bottom right.

What made this match a bit different from the one I saw in Mainz was that the Bayern fans appeared to be more vocal, active and even aggressive (several Bayern fans were kicked out before the match even started). This differed markedly from Mainz where the fans from both teams intermixed without any problems (that I saw anyway). I was also surprised that the Bayern fans somehow managed to get flares into the stadium. Anyways, Bayern Munich held possession for most of the match and while they looked a bit sloppy in the first half, they still won the match 2-0. The second goal by Douglas Costa was one of the most impressive goals that I've seen live, when he cut in from the right wing and drilled a medium range shot into the far left top corner.

After the match, I went back to the central area of Berlin to visit the Reichstag and the Tiergarten.

The Reichstag building is home to Germany's parliament, the Bundestag. At the top of the building is a glass dome, which contains a tower of 360 mirrors that redirect sunlight into the parliamentary hall below. A screen slowly rotates around the tower throughout the day in order to reduce glare in the hall. You can walk along a ramp to the top of the dome to get a good view of the surrounding area.

A pond in Tiegarten, one of Berlin's largest city parks, during the evening. At the other end is a memorial to the composers Beethoven, Mozart and Hayden.

I spent the second day of my trip in Hamburg (see further below). I started the third day by visiting the Fernsehturm, a large television broadcasting tower standing at 368 meters. The observation deck is about two-thirds of the way up the tower and provides a comprehensive view of Berlin. The other convenient aspect of this tower is that I could see it from just about anywhere in the city, such that I always had a reference point to quickly get my bearings.

A view from the Fernsehturm, facing west. The street running west is the Karl-Liebnecht-Strasse, which veers right and turns into Unter den Linden. Further down this street you can see the Bradenburg Gate and the Tiergarten in the distance.

I visited the Marienkirche below the tower, but the interior was very modest. Further west were the five museums on Museum Island, although three of them were closed on Monday (doh! why don't they rotate their off-days?). This wasn't a big problem, as the museum that I wanted to see (Pergamon) was open that day. I should also point out that the Altes Museum (which was closed) is housed in a beautiful building with Greco-Roman architecture, although it looks like it would benefit from some restoration work.

One of the main exhibits in the Pergamon Museum is the Ishtar Gate, one of the gates to the inner city of Babylon. On the other side of this gate is an equally large exhibit of the Market Gate of Miletus.

The Neues Museum focuses on artifacts from Ancient Egypt and Greece, although there are exhibits from Ancient Rome and the Middle Ages. Pictured is a stele from Egypt. The most famous artifact in this museum is the bust of Nefertiti, but photos of it were not allowed.

After Pergamon and Neues, I was museumed out and went for a more outdoor experience in the Berlin Wall Memorial. After already seeing pieces of the wall at Checkpoint Charlie and the East Side Gallery, I was surprised to see even more segments at the memorial. However, this site was more enjoyable as it wasn't overcrowded with sightseers and the park in which it was located provided a relaxing atmosphere.

The Berlin Wall Memorial contains surviving sections of the wall, with and without concrete, as well as several memorials including one for the people who died attempting to escape from East Germany over the wall.

The final half-day started by visiting Charlottenburg Palace, the largest palace in Berlin proper. There's a large garden behind the palace which isn't fancy but makes for a pleasant stroll along the river or around the ponds. The interior of the palace is slightly more modest than its counterparts in Versailles, Stockholm and Madrid, but still elaborate. This was a good replacement site for me as I didn't have time to go to the fancier palace in Potsdam, southwest of Berlin.

The gardens behind Charlottenburg Palace are well-trimmed and elegant, although the trees and some flowers were not in bloom yet. There is a large pond on the opposite side of the garden and the Spree river runs along the east side (to the left).

Charlottenburg Palace has countless rooms linked in the Baroque style of having one room lead directly to another. Pictured is one of the more ornate (but less furnished) rooms, the Golden Gallery.

One of the reasons that I extended my trip to Tuesday was to take the opportunity to see the Berlin Philharmonic. While I didn't book a concert for the full orchestra, I managed to take in the free concert they offer every Tuesday, in this case with a trio playing chamber music by Monteverdi, Bach, Orlando Gibbons, Schulhoff and Vivaldi. The trio was comprised of a cellist, violinist and a musician playing a sheng (it sounded a bit like an oboe) and I got the sense that they picked the compositions for that day with the intent of demonstrating what each instrument could do, not only solo and together but also with different playing techniques.

A trio from the Berlin Philharmonic playing a free concert in their building's lobby.

I ended the trip by visiting the Holocaust Memorial, which is unique in that its concrete slabs have been placed on a slope and they appear to be the same height at the top, but as you descend further into the grounds the slabs grow in height.

The Holocaust Memorial contains 2,711 concrete slabs arranged in a grid fashion. The slabs are on a sloping field but vary in height, such that they tower over you if you walk to the lower elevations.

Hamburg

The train from Berlin to Hamburg takes about one hour and 40 minutes. Like most of Europe, the countryside between cities is mostly forest and farms, but the notable difference in this area is that some of the farms have several wind turbines (I also noticed this on a train between Vienna and Bratislava).

One of the more picturesque sites in Hamburg is its Rathaus (City Hall), although it was too large for me to take a good single photo of it without other buildings getting in the way. There are also several large churches around the city, and visiting on a Sunday I noticed that their masses were well-attended as most of the churches appeared to be near capacity. I didn't expect this, but Hamburg appears to be one of the more religious cities in Europe.

The interior of St. Michaelis Church (after a mass had ended). This is the largest church in the city and most brightly lit, as the other moderately-sized churches have fewer windows and tend to use stained-glass.

Like Venice and Amsterdam, Hamburg is a city filled with canals and bridges. Apparently, Hamburg has more bridges than any other city in the world, although this record might depend on how you count bridges, as some of the bridges that I saw were either incredibly short or they could be counted multiple times as they traversed several small sections of land divided by the many canals in the area. Nevertheless, I walked across several bridges in HafenCity, the port area / warehouse district of Hamburg.

Within the HafenCity district of the port of Hamburg, is Speicherstadt, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The area is comprised of warehouses (constructed in the late 1800's and early 1900's) surrounded by canals. The warehouse district looks plain, but it is undergoing long-term redevelopment which will repurpose the buildings for residential and office space.

Despite being more of an industrial city, Hamburg has a diversity of natural sites, including a botanical garden and various city parks. The only downside was that the weather wasn't cooperative on that day: there was wet snow in the late morning and it hailed twice in the afternoon.

The Alter Botanischer Garten Hamburg is comprised of several greenhouses with a wide variety of tropical, desert and moderate climate plants. Pictured are a variety of cactuses from one of the desert greenhouses. The plant with the red needles is a Mexican lime cactus.

Planten un Blomen Park is a large city park with a wide variety of trees and flowers (as its name implies). I wasn't entirely sure, but I think the area in the photo is supposed to be filled with a running stream, but it is empty for the season. In the distant background is the Heinrich-Hertz-Turm communications tower.

One of the more iconic landmarks in Hamburg is its Bismarck Monument. The statue is 35m high and is featured on various postcards and tourist brochures in the city, but it is tucked away in a lesser known park (Alter Elbpark) with high trees that obscure the view of it. So most people wouldn't notice it if they were in the area. Unfortunately, due to the lack of attention, the statue is covered in graffiti at the base. I'm hoping the city cleans this before tourist season hits full gear.

In general, I found Hamburg to be somewhat plain. It has some pleasant parks, a wide variety of churches with well-decorated interiors and a multitude of canals and bridges, but there was nothing that really stood out until I visited the Miniatur Wunderland. This happens to be the top-rated place to visit in Hamburg and I could see why. Miniatur Wunderland contains the world's largest model train set (measured by length of track) among a multitude of interesting models of cities with different events taking place. The most impressive model is actually a model airport, with various maintenance vehicles cruising around the airport terminal and model commercial jetliners taking off and landing on a runway. The other cool feature is that the whole building is lit on a daily cycle every 15 minutes, so you can see the cities, trains and airport illuminated in a simulated night.

Miniatur Wunderland contains the world's largest model railroad sets, as well as an impressive model set of a working airport. There are various models with themes of Switzerland, Austria and individual German cities. Pictured is the model of Hamburg. Just outside of this shot to the left is a model of the city's football stadium.

I've posted one video to YouTube of the Switzerland train model (below or here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mriIf_xPlXs), but if you're interested in model trains then it's worth searching YouTube for "Miniatur Wunderland" and checking out the other videos that have been posted. It really is a fun and unique experience (or maybe I need to look for places like this more often!).

So that was Berlin and Hamburg over three and a half days. Berlin offered more sites than I could see in even a week, but I felt like I saw all of the major attractions in the city (excluding Potsdam). Hamburg was a more pedestrian visit, except that its Miniatur Wunderland made the trip worthwhile. The videos don't do it justice; those models were a lot of fun to watch up close.