Zum Geburtstag to Linda!

Today is Linda’s birthday. Even the rain and gloom all day didn’t dampen our spirit of celebration. After breakfast, we cabbed it over to our tour hotel, the Marriott Berlin near Potsdamer Platz. We stored our bags  then with raingear and umbrellas ready, headed out to see more of the Berlin sights regardless of the weather.

Our sightseeing included a stop at the legendary KaDeWe department store, Berlin’s version of Harrod’s. Then had lunch at an Italian restaurant across the way. Started the birthday celebration off with a big carafe of Chianti. That sure warmed us up some.

Linda (R) with travel buddies Ron and Diane

Trucked on over to Checkpoint Charlie, the former American Sector border crossing between East and West Berlin during the Cold War.

Diane & Ron at Checkpoint Charlie

A few blocks over stands a remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall, the former Death Strip and an exhibit recounting the history of Nazi crimes, all grim symbols of a divided Europe that endured four decades of uncompromising suppression.

Linda and Jerry at the Berlin Wall

Later on back at the hotel we met our Tour Director Elena and the rest of the group of 35 we will be traveling with for the next 16 days. Looks to be a robust mix of experienced travelers from Australia, the Philippines, South Africa, Germany, Russia, Canada, and the U.S. Three-fourths are younger than us. We toasted to our shared journey with flutes of sparkling champagne. On to our steak dinner with more Champagne, beer and wine. How about some birthday toasts - Prost! (Cheers!) Zum Wohl! (To you!) Langes Leben! (Long life!) 

Can you say ‘ein kleines betrunken’?

Sachsenhausen Nazi Concentration Camp

Today we spent four hours walking throughout the remains of the Sachsenhausen Nazi Concentration Camp with a local tour guide.

Established in 1938 just outside of Berlin, Sachsenhausen became the center of the whole concentration camp system that included the more widely recognized Auschwitz and Krakow camps in Poland. Among other things, this camp was a: training center for SS guards, an administration and records center, brickworks, forgery workshop, refurbishment and redistribution facility (mainly the personal property of incoming prisoners). It was the propaganda show place of all work detention camps. Hidden behind that picture of a model camp, brutal atrocities were carried out resulting in the deaths of over 100,000 victims, mostly through starvation, disease, cruelty, torture, medical experimentation on live subjects, infections from injuries left untreated, gas chambers, hangings, suffocation, and firing squad. The bodies were cremated and buried in mass graves or dumped in a nearby canal.

Inmates shared four to a narrow bed in stacked bunks. The barracks had no heat in winter, no cooling in the heat of summer. Prisoners had little food, no coats, gloves, and often no shoes. They were not only Jews but also Roma gypsies, asocials (artists, playwrights, ministers), political adversaries, foreigners, and homosexuals.

After the war, the camp was used as a gulag (prison labor camp) by the Soviets until it closed down in 1950.

 Entrance Gate

 Grounds, Wall and Towers

 Open Torturing Posts

 Mass execution wall

 Public Gallows

 Torture Rack

Partially destroyed Crematory Ovens

Crowded bunks

A sobering reminder of this terrible period in history.

London --> Berlin

Day Two took us from London to Berlin in a short 1-1/2 hr flight aboard British Midland Airlines, United’s code share partner. 

Berlin's Tegel Airport

Took a cab to our hotel in downtown Berlin.

Nh Potsdamer Platz hotel:

http://www.nh-hotels.comnh/en/hotels/germany/berlin/nh-berlin-potsdamer-platz.html.

Skies are overcast and rain is likely. At this point, however, we are walking zombies since we got very little, if any, sleep on the plane overnight. It never got dark out. The more north we went the longer the daylight (Land of the Midnight Sun) and eating up times zones brought morning all too soon. We have free WiFi at the hotel and as soon as we checked our email, there was a message from United Airlines apologizing for the trauma of the horrendous turbulence we went through. We would have been happier with a free drink or two, and maybe a replacement change of underwear.

We are heading out into the neighborhood in search of a quick dinner so we can try to get some sleep tonight despite the jet lag. Wish us luck.

SFO --> Heathrow

Day One was an eleven hour flight from San Francisco to London.  

 

 Our 777

Leaving San Francisco  

The flight path varied considerably from that shown in the back of United’s Hemisphere magazine, probably due to the smoke and ash continuing to belch from the Icelandic volcano. The flight was smooth with the exception of some pretty gnarly TURBULENCE at 37,000 feet as we crossed the southernmost coast of Greenland. The stomach-dropping dips, jolts and side-to-side tossing had Linda and Diane white-knuckled and whimpering in stereo from both sides of the plane. It was the longest 20 minutes of fright we’ve ever experienced. Scary! The pilots finally got us to a smoother place and the last part of the flight over Scotland and the green English countryside was beautiful.

Travel Vaccinations

Did we have to get any special inoculations in preparation for this trip, you ask? Well, none were mandatory but the Travel Clinic strongly recommended all vaccinations and boosters be current. Our resident hypochondriac made sure she had her inoculations against hepatitis and typhoid, and a handy supply of Cipro antibiotics and probiotics. Not to mention the gallon of hand sanitizer gel. Um, are we ready yet?

Three weeks and counting . . .

The last of the official travel documents were delivered today.  Now with the cooperation of a certain ill-tempered Icelandic volcano, we are good to go....!

Eyjfajalajajofjalljoyfaflafolajalofjaljofolafajokull

Pre-trip planning

Got our Russian Visas! Plus Letters of Invitation required to enter the country written in Russian Cyrillic. $221 per person. The Belarus Visa will be another $160 each in cash when we get there. Egads, you'd think they're trying to keep out the riff-raff! All that for the privilege of dour lodgings, questionable sanitary food preparation, and contaminated drinking water from centuries-old lead pipes. Ah, but it will certainly be an adventure...can't wait!

Visa Photo Requirements:  no smile, no teeth, no kidding