Tuesday, May 30, 2017
Day 10-14: A Necessary Rest
May 26-30 -- Liam only had to work part of the day on Friday and for an hour on Saturday, and otherwise, the weekend was ours to enjoy together. This is the first weekend Liam has had off since he got here over a month ago, so needless to say, we spent much of it just resting. On Friday, we went down to the town center and enjoyed some great food, the best being the Chocolate Restaurant for dessert, which included a flight of hot chocolate, truffles, cappuccino, and at least five different types of chocolate mousse dishes. We were in a chocolate coma on our walk home that night.
On Saturday, we visited Fort VII, which was the first concentration camp established during WWII. It was a dark, eerie place with a horrific history, as can be imagined. It was sad to think that a place that was build to protect the Polish people of Poznan was used by the Nazis to destroy them.
After a dinner of pierogis, we went to a mall to see if it had a theater with English movies, and we were excited to be able to watch Guardian of the Galaxies 2 together in Poland in English.
On Sunday, we attended a small international church that meets in a hotel, and then after a restful afternoon, we went down to the town center again for dinner. We had heard that there was a jazz concert going on near the church downtown, so we went to check that out, but when we got there, we decided that we would rather save our two dollars for more chocolate at the Chocolate Restaurant than pay to go into the jazz concert...you can see that we definitely have our priorities right!
Throughout the weekend, I came down with a head cold, so on Monday and Tuesday, when Liam had to go back to work, I just hung out at the apartment resting in between bouts of coughing. I'm glad for this down time to recover from the cold before we hit the road again next week.
On Saturday, we visited Fort VII, which was the first concentration camp established during WWII. It was a dark, eerie place with a horrific history, as can be imagined. It was sad to think that a place that was build to protect the Polish people of Poznan was used by the Nazis to destroy them.
After a dinner of pierogis, we went to a mall to see if it had a theater with English movies, and we were excited to be able to watch Guardian of the Galaxies 2 together in Poland in English.
On Sunday, we attended a small international church that meets in a hotel, and then after a restful afternoon, we went down to the town center again for dinner. We had heard that there was a jazz concert going on near the church downtown, so we went to check that out, but when we got there, we decided that we would rather save our two dollars for more chocolate at the Chocolate Restaurant than pay to go into the jazz concert...you can see that we definitely have our priorities right!
Throughout the weekend, I came down with a head cold, so on Monday and Tuesday, when Liam had to go back to work, I just hung out at the apartment resting in between bouts of coughing. I'm glad for this down time to recover from the cold before we hit the road again next week.
Friday, May 26, 2017
Day 9: Bubbles and Snails
May 25 -- We planned to have a relaxing day, just seeing what we could see within a short distance from our apartment, but we somehow still ended up walking 8 miles. We found our way down to the Town Center and walked around some. A young guy was making big bubbles with some rope and two sticks, and the kids got super excited about that. They helped him make bubbles and ran around popping bubbles for at least an hour. S and I turned our brains off for a while and mindlessly watched them. We went into a Catholic church on the way back and also stopped in a park with a memorial to the 1956 uprising (we are assuming the Polish were uprising against the Soviets, but we couldn't read any of the signs). The park was surrounded by old castles and other cool buildings, but the kids were more excited to play with the snail that they found.
Liam came after work again and we went to the purple couch restaurant (so called because it has velvet purple couches in the entrance). The restaurant was very fancy, and I'm sure I didn't savor the delicate flavors like I was supposed to. It didn't help that I didn't know what I was eating. But at least it was a very pretty plate of food.
Liam came after work again and we went to the purple couch restaurant (so called because it has velvet purple couches in the entrance). The restaurant was very fancy, and I'm sure I didn't savor the delicate flavors like I was supposed to. It didn't help that I didn't know what I was eating. But at least it was a very pretty plate of food.
Day 8: We've been in Germany for three days. It's time to go to Poland
May 24 -- After a somewhat less amazing, but still good breakfast at the hostel, we dragged our suitcases back across town, stopping for a little shopping on the way, to the train station. Maybe we really are pros now because we had no mishaps getting back to Berlin or getting on the correct train to Poznan, Poland. We spent about four hours on the train total and were glad to watch the rainy, dreary, cold weather from the train rather than walking it through it today. Sadly, our passports were not stamped upon entering Poland, despite our asking for a stamp. Baby Tripp Trotter has now been in 5 countries...pretty good for only being 4 inches big.
G met us at the train station, and we walked through puddles and pouring rain to our home for the next two weeks, a one-bedroom apartment airbnb. It is quite nice with the only problem being that the dryer is broken so we have clothes for five people hanging all over the place.
Liam came over (his base is 10 minutes away) after he was done with work, and we went to a nice Italian restaurant. His curfew for the barracks is 11 pm, so he and G had to head back to what they call the dungeon after hanging out for a couple hours. It was so good to see Liam again.
G met us at the train station, and we walked through puddles and pouring rain to our home for the next two weeks, a one-bedroom apartment airbnb. It is quite nice with the only problem being that the dryer is broken so we have clothes for five people hanging all over the place.
Liam came over (his base is 10 minutes away) after he was done with work, and we went to a nice Italian restaurant. His curfew for the barracks is 11 pm, so he and G had to head back to what they call the dungeon after hanging out for a couple hours. It was so good to see Liam again.
Day 7: Lutherstadt Wittenberg
May 23 -- The breakfast continued to be amazing at the hostel, and we were ready for a short train ride to Wittenberg. We got to the Berlin train station, easily found the right platform without even having to ask someone and sat to wait for our train with time to spare, feeling like pros. The train pulled up and we got on, but we didn't know where our seats were (the numbers on the seats didn't match our tickets), so we asked someone. She told us, "No, that's not this train." So we hurried and jumped off again before the train left the station. In hind sight, we should have just stayed on the train because it was just the slow train going to Wittenberg and not the express train, but in the panic of the moment, we didn't even think about that. By the time we figured out the correct platform for the express train, we had missed it. So back to the ticket booth we went. We had a very similar experience as on Sunday, with the ticket lady not offering help in any way, and ended up having to buy a new ticket on a slow train with an hour and a half to kill before departure. We were frustrated, of course, but also disappointed because that was the only day we had in Wittenberg, a place that was on the bucket list for our trip, and because it meant we would miss the organ concert at noon.
We didn't have any more mishaps getting there and arrived around 2pm. We dragged our suitcases through town and deposited them at the hostel, which just happened to share a courtyard with the Schlosskirche (the church where Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses). We toured that church (saw where Luther is buried and saw the door which is no longer wooden) and the Lutherhaus museum (which was in the house where Luther lived and which didn't do a very good job of explaining what we were looking at) and the City church (where Luther did most of his preaching). We ate a sack dinner under the Melancthon statue, while looking at the Luther statue. Our group lowered the average age of the tourists quite a bit, since most had arrived on tour buses and were, as Preston says, blue hairs.
At the end of the day, we had walked another 9 miles and were happy to call ourselves reformed. Happy 500 Years, Reformation!
We didn't have any more mishaps getting there and arrived around 2pm. We dragged our suitcases through town and deposited them at the hostel, which just happened to share a courtyard with the Schlosskirche (the church where Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses). We toured that church (saw where Luther is buried and saw the door which is no longer wooden) and the Lutherhaus museum (which was in the house where Luther lived and which didn't do a very good job of explaining what we were looking at) and the City church (where Luther did most of his preaching). We ate a sack dinner under the Melancthon statue, while looking at the Luther statue. Our group lowered the average age of the tourists quite a bit, since most had arrived on tour buses and were, as Preston says, blue hairs.
At the end of the day, we had walked another 9 miles and were happy to call ourselves reformed. Happy 500 Years, Reformation!
Thursday, May 25, 2017
Day 6: Berlin
May 22 -- Quote of the day: "I like Germans. I like how I live when I'm with them." -AC
Our plan was to get up early, eat a quick breakfast, and get out the door. We succeeded at the first part, but the breakfast at the hostel was so impressive that we had no chance of eating a quick breakfast. We had many different kinds of bread and yogurt and cheese and lunch meat and fruit and cereal and juice and coffee, cappuccino, and macchiato. The kids may have gotten a little over-excited about it all and stuffed themselves.
When we finally got out the door, our first stop on the train was Alexanderplatz, where we saw the TV tower and St. Mary's church. And we saw the outside of the Berlin cathedral, but we didn't go into that one. The TV tower was built by the atheist East Berliners to prove man's greatness in living without God. Little did they realize when they built it that the shadow that it would cast was in the shape of a cross. St. Mary's is a cathedral that is 700 years old but had to be mostly rebuilt after WWII.
Next, we stopped to see the Berlin Wall Memorial. We saw the only remaining standing section of the wall and walked a long way along where the wall stood, where the escape tunnels were, where people tried to escape, and the buildings, including a church, that were knocked down/blown up because they got in the way of the security of the wall. We also went to the Berlin gate and ate lunch on some grass outside the Reichstag. We walked to the site of Hitler's Bunker, which is now a gravel parking lot. And we walked through the Memorial for the Murdered Jews. It was a simple, yet fascinating memorial of concrete blocks in the shape of coffins, but of all different heights, which took up a whole city block. Our last destination before an ice cream stop and back to the hostel was Checkpoint Charlie, which was basically a tourist trap where we didn't spend much time. In all, we walked over 10 miles and rode at least 7 trains. And that, folks, is how you do Berlin in one day.
Our plan was to get up early, eat a quick breakfast, and get out the door. We succeeded at the first part, but the breakfast at the hostel was so impressive that we had no chance of eating a quick breakfast. We had many different kinds of bread and yogurt and cheese and lunch meat and fruit and cereal and juice and coffee, cappuccino, and macchiato. The kids may have gotten a little over-excited about it all and stuffed themselves.
When we finally got out the door, our first stop on the train was Alexanderplatz, where we saw the TV tower and St. Mary's church. And we saw the outside of the Berlin cathedral, but we didn't go into that one. The TV tower was built by the atheist East Berliners to prove man's greatness in living without God. Little did they realize when they built it that the shadow that it would cast was in the shape of a cross. St. Mary's is a cathedral that is 700 years old but had to be mostly rebuilt after WWII.
Next, we stopped to see the Berlin Wall Memorial. We saw the only remaining standing section of the wall and walked a long way along where the wall stood, where the escape tunnels were, where people tried to escape, and the buildings, including a church, that were knocked down/blown up because they got in the way of the security of the wall. We also went to the Berlin gate and ate lunch on some grass outside the Reichstag. We walked to the site of Hitler's Bunker, which is now a gravel parking lot. And we walked through the Memorial for the Murdered Jews. It was a simple, yet fascinating memorial of concrete blocks in the shape of coffins, but of all different heights, which took up a whole city block. Our last destination before an ice cream stop and back to the hostel was Checkpoint Charlie, which was basically a tourist trap where we didn't spend much time. In all, we walked over 10 miles and rode at least 7 trains. And that, folks, is how you do Berlin in one day.
Day 5 continued
May 21 (cont.) -- One of our stops on the train was in Mannheim, so in honor of my dad, I took a picture of the railroad sign with a train in the background (unfortunately not a steam train though). I have no idea if the Mannheim Steamrollers actually have anything to do with the city of Mannheim.
When we arrived at the Berlin train station, we spent a solid, stressful hour at the ticket counter trying to figure out how to do trains cheaper than the original 850 euros (about 950 dollars) that they originally quoted for us. Thankfully, with some creative thinking and persistence through the ticket counter ladies' bruskness and, what seemed to us, anger, we found a price with which we could live for our next three train days and our day pass for the subways in Berlin. I don't know who was happier, the kids who were tired of sitting around or the adults, to leave that ticket counter. Little did we know that we would be right back there less than two days later for another frustrating round with the ticket counter ladies.
We took the train to the hostel and took the elevator up to our room. We never learned the history of the building, but it appeared to be an old insane asylum or an old hospital that had been renovated. It was really cool, with really high ceilings, big windows, and hundreds of rooms for guests. After dragging our suitcases after us all day, we were happy to know that they would be able to stay in the room on our "do the whole city of Berlin in one day" that we had planned for the next day.
When we arrived at the Berlin train station, we spent a solid, stressful hour at the ticket counter trying to figure out how to do trains cheaper than the original 850 euros (about 950 dollars) that they originally quoted for us. Thankfully, with some creative thinking and persistence through the ticket counter ladies' bruskness and, what seemed to us, anger, we found a price with which we could live for our next three train days and our day pass for the subways in Berlin. I don't know who was happier, the kids who were tired of sitting around or the adults, to leave that ticket counter. Little did we know that we would be right back there less than two days later for another frustrating round with the ticket counter ladies.
We took the train to the hostel and took the elevator up to our room. We never learned the history of the building, but it appeared to be an old insane asylum or an old hospital that had been renovated. It was really cool, with really high ceilings, big windows, and hundreds of rooms for guests. After dragging our suitcases after us all day, we were happy to know that they would be able to stay in the room on our "do the whole city of Berlin in one day" that we had planned for the next day.
Sunday, May 21, 2017
Day 4 (I think) and 5
May 20 -- We got on the flight! They opened up 30 free seats instead of just the 19 they had originally said. We were fourth on the list, so we probably would have gotten on even without that, but it was quite comical to hear the whole terminal of people (mostly retirees) break out into cheers at the announcement of more seats. We got on the plane (another C17) around 7pm. It was full of shipping containers and helicopter blades, so not quite as much room to spread out, but still enough that we were able to lay out our sleeping bags. The young airmen (is that what they are called?) entertained us by climbing on top of a red cross shipping container to do his safety briefing. The 8 hour flight went by quickly and before we knew it we were stumbling out of the plane at 10 am into 53 degree weather, quite a shock after the 93 degrees we left in the US. One of our fellow passengers offered to let us stay at her husband's apartment about 20 minutes from base, which was a very kind offer since we didn't have any reservations for the night. We stopped at the USO for some refreshments and a recoup and decided that staying closer to base would be smarter since we would have to come back to the same area for the train the next day. We made reservations at a local hotel since the on base hotel said they were booked. Then, we walked across the street to see if we could at least store our luggage at the base hotel while we grocery shopped. When we got there, we were told that they just had a cancellation so we could stay there after all. So I ran back across the street and cancelled the other hotel. We got all our errands run and then checked in to our room...but really I should say apartment. It was four bedroom and two bathroom, with a full kitchen, living room and dining room. I'm sure it's the cheapest yet biggest place at which we will stay our whole trip. It definitely felt good to climb into bed.
May 21 -- We had a brisk walk to the train station this morning through the town of Ramstein. There was no ticket counter as we had hoped, so the ticket booth was our only (unfortunately not cheap) option. Thankfully, we have found enough people who speak English to tell us what platform to be on and at which stop to get off and on, since neither the train app nor the stations themselves are super intuitive to our foreign brains (Germany could take some lessons from Korea in that regard). Our destination this evening is Berlin (330 km or 7 hours on the train). We are excited to eat some German food this evening and experience our first hostel stay of the trip.
May 21 -- We had a brisk walk to the train station this morning through the town of Ramstein. There was no ticket counter as we had hoped, so the ticket booth was our only (unfortunately not cheap) option. Thankfully, we have found enough people who speak English to tell us what platform to be on and at which stop to get off and on, since neither the train app nor the stations themselves are super intuitive to our foreign brains (Germany could take some lessons from Korea in that regard). Our destination this evening is Berlin (330 km or 7 hours on the train). We are excited to eat some German food this evening and experience our first hostel stay of the trip.
Friday, May 19, 2017
Germany Poland and Beyond Days 1-3
May 17 -- Today was our first attempt at getting on a Space A to Germany out of Andrews after spending a very hot, sweaty morning at Arlington Cemetary. We didn't make it, despite the man at the check in desk assuring us we would. We now know not to get any hopes up until we are on the plane even with reassurances from someone in a uniform. We did get on the flight to McGuire though, and we were able to get a hotel reservation on base. It was a fun experience to fly on a C-17 for the first time. When we got to New Jersey, we learned that the flight out of New Jersey for Thursday was cancelled, and the next flight would be on Friday, giving us a free day at McGuire.
May 18 -- We spent the morning walking to the commissary, dodging the 93 degrees in the sun and trying to make our way across base (2.5 miles) in the shade as much a possible. We bought some lunch which we ate in the shade of a tree. Then, we spent a majority of the afternoon menu planning easy, portable meals, purchasing a few things at the PX and grocery shopping again. We were able to get a ride back to the hotel and were thankful we didn't have to lug our groceries back across base.
May 19 -- Laundry in the morning before we had to check out was nice though the slow dryer made the 11 AM checkout from the hotel a hectic process. I'm sure that will be the story of our lives for the next several weeks. We are currently traveling with 5 backpacks, 5 carry-on size suitcases, 5 extra bags of food and camping mats, and a 2 gallon jug of water (which will not be going on the flight with us). We arrived to an empty terminal, which gives us hopefully not unfounded hope that we will be successful today in getting on. We will sit here at the terminal until roll call and glare at anyone coming in to scare them into thinking it's not worth checking in. I'll keep you posted.
May 18 -- We spent the morning walking to the commissary, dodging the 93 degrees in the sun and trying to make our way across base (2.5 miles) in the shade as much a possible. We bought some lunch which we ate in the shade of a tree. Then, we spent a majority of the afternoon menu planning easy, portable meals, purchasing a few things at the PX and grocery shopping again. We were able to get a ride back to the hotel and were thankful we didn't have to lug our groceries back across base.
May 19 -- Laundry in the morning before we had to check out was nice though the slow dryer made the 11 AM checkout from the hotel a hectic process. I'm sure that will be the story of our lives for the next several weeks. We are currently traveling with 5 backpacks, 5 carry-on size suitcases, 5 extra bags of food and camping mats, and a 2 gallon jug of water (which will not be going on the flight with us). We arrived to an empty terminal, which gives us hopefully not unfounded hope that we will be successful today in getting on. We will sit here at the terminal until roll call and glare at anyone coming in to scare them into thinking it's not worth checking in. I'll keep you posted.
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