How to Plan an International Trip: Travel Tales and Tips : How to Plan a Trip to Berlin: INTRO ; Report Days 1, 2: Museum island

We had a LOVELY vacation in Europe [Berlin, Munich, Bavaria, Belgium (Brussels, Bruges, Gent) and Netherlands(Leiden, Zaanse Schaans, Amsterdam)]Apr 12-29, 2019 including the Easter week.

LOGISTICS:

FLIGHT:

TIP: Check if there are no major trade fairs/conferences at your choice of cities before committing to your travel plans

Our main target was to enjoy the tulips in Netherlands and we started to build our plans around that. We planned to hit up the tulip belt during the 2nd week of April

Our plan was to fly into Munich on Apr 12 and then go to Berlin by train, onward to Hamburg for Miniatur wunderland and then take the train to Amsterdam. We planned to fly out of Brussels. There are Direct flights to Munich from Houston reasonably priced and we were monitoring the trend before locking it in. We got the shock of our life when we tried to fix the accommodation in Munich... 6 months ahead, the prices were through the roof. We realized there is Bauma trade fair in the 2^nd week of April in Munich.

So we switched our plans and decided to fly into Berlin, then go to Munich. Now we had to take a flight to Brussels from Munich. Also we were in the highly hyped Neuschwanstein castle during the busiest period of Easter week. Anyway it all worked out!

CAR RENTAL:

We rented a car at Munich hauptbahnhof from Europcar booked through Autoeurope for 3 days and drove around Bavaria.

We rented a car for a day at Schipol airport from local company BB&L to drive around tulip fields and visit Zaanse Schaans.

Both worked out great.

This is the map I prepared for our trip:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1nzhce3hmlj_mu3CJ1dAuAFIIl25kUP3-&usp=sharing

You can zoom in and read the notes in the bubbles.

We were in Berlin for 5 days (Apr 12-17),

Took the train to Munich on Apr 17

Hired a car on 18^th and drove around Bavaria for 3 days,

Returned the car at Munich, spent 2 more days.

We then flew to Brussels on Apr 23 and spent 3 days in Belgium before taking the train to Netherlands for the last 3 days.

AWESOME experiences! AND NO CROWDS! Here are a few highlights of Berlin and surrounds...

Ishtar Gate at Pergamon museum, Berlin

Bode Museum

Potsdam Neues Palais

Chinese Tea House, Potsdam

Raphael room, Orangerie Palace, Potsdam

Schloss Sans Soucci Potsdam

Miniatur Wunderland, Hamburg

Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin

East Side Gallery, Berlin wall

As said, We had a great 5 days in Berlin, Apr 12-16 and left for Munich by early morning train on 17^th and here is an intro for the Berlin part followed by detailed report

STAY:

We stayed at Ibis Berlin Hauptbahnhof. It is just 300 m from Berlin Central Station. Excellent location. Bus from TXL airport right outside, and trams, buses connect to all desired places.

Quirky decor, all basics in place

MUSEUMS/PALACES:

We got the 72 hr museum pass for €29 each. We managed to visit 4 of the museums in the Museum island and it was LOVELY!

Unfortunately we could not use the pass consecutively because we arrived on a Friday (my flight was delayed by 4 hours!). In Potsdam, the Versailles of Germany, all palaces are open only in weekends in April. So we had to schedule our Potsdam day trip for Sunday. So it would have sufficed to buy the 1 day museum island pass for € 18 each

Most Berlin museums are closed on Mondays.

So we booked our day trip to Hamburg on Monday and visited the magnificent Miniatur wunderland.

We missed out on the Decorative arts museum among many others. But no major regrets.

TRANSPORT:

https://www.bahn.de/en/view/index.shtml is the official site where one can book discounted tickets 6 months ahead. Prices rise as travel date approaches... from € 19 to even € 89 on the travel day.

We booked our tickets for our day trip to Hamburg for Apr 15, 6.38 train. 300 Km distance is covered in 2 hours. Our return was at 18.40 which also worked out great.

We booked our main transfer to Munich in advance as well.

BERLIN-MUNICH:TRAIN, ICE, DIRECT, 4H 30 Min, ; 6.30 to 11

LOCAL TRANSPORT:

Getting from TXL airport to the center is easy and fast. The best way is to take one of the Airport Express buses – going either to Zoologischer Garten (Charlottenburg), Hauptbahnhof (Mitte) or Alexanderplatz (Mitte). Fare: €2.80 one way, but we'll buy day pass for €7.

There are multiple choices for saving on local transport and sight seeing... German philosophy being why be simple when complicated works, ha ha!!

Kidding aside, we were very grateful for all the discounts.

https://www.berlin.de/en/public-transportation/1772016-2913840-tickets-fares-and-route-maps.en.html

is the official site listing all options

For selecting day passes we need to know our zone. Berlin AB for within the city limits of Berlin. ABC includes surrounding cities and villages.

We do have to validate (time stamp) them by inserting them into the validation machine when using for the first time. Validators are either at the access to the platforms or on the platforms. With buses and trams they are on board

OUR CHOICE: one 7 day card ABC 37, €60 ;

two day tickets AB €7 each for Friday, Tuesday.

TRANSPORT: First day covered by one day ticket and the 7 day card, both validated on 1st use on the airport bus

SAT, SUN: ALL covered by the single 7 day card ABC

MONDAY: already have hamburg train ticket; buy single tkts there for the bus to Miniatur Wunderland from the station

TUESDAY: Day Ticket AB when going to Schloss Charlottenburg.

WHERE TO BUY:

We bought the transport passes as well as the 72 hr museum pass at the DB counter at the Txl airport before we exited and took our airport bus. Very convenient! They are available at machines too.

ITINERARY:

Here's a short summary of our time in Berlin.

Day 1, Apr 12, 2019 Friday: Landed in Berlin. Museum island, Berliner Dom

Day 2, Apr 13, 2019 Saturday: Brandenburg tor, Pergamon, Neues museum, Altes museum, Bode museum, 9PM at Reichstag dome

Day 3 Apr 14, 2019 Sunday: Day trip to Potsdam Schloss Sanssouci.

Again Used the single 7 day pass we had for the both of us

Day 4 Apr 15, Monday: Day trip to Hamburg Miniatur Wunderland

Day trip to Hamburg on our pre bought train tickets. We had booked 8.30 to 9.30 slot for Miniatur Wunderland. Spent 9 to 17 there,

Day 5 Apr 16 Tuesday: Kaiser Wilhelm church, Schloss Charlottenburg, evening at East side gallery Berlin wall

Kaiser Wilhelm church

Waited in this contemporary church till KW opened.

Schloss Charlottenburg

East side gallery of Berlin wall

Detailed daily report with many pix, videos follows. This post covers days 1 and 2

Report, Day 1, April 12, 2019, Friday:

We were landing by different flights at Txl at 10 am. Plan was to go to the museum island, book timed slot for Pergamon and visit any museum possible.

Son's flight landed on time, mine was delayed by 4 hours! (SWISS has compensated me with €600 for the inconvenience, making a bank transfer to my account just 2 weeks after I applied online after our vacation was over ).

We bought our transport passes and museum passes from the airport and boarded the Airport bus, validated our passes. Got dropped right outside our hotel. Checked in.

Took bus 147 from near our hotel, got down at Neumangasse. Walked 250 m to the museum island.

Said Hi to Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the fathers of Communism

Ended up visiting the Berliner Dom cathedral and even climbed the 270 steps.

DAY 2, April 13, 2019, Saturday:

Used the single 7 day pass we had... no need for any validation, just hopped on to any transport.

Took U 55 from the hbf. Went to Reichstag, [the Reichstag building, which houses the German parliament (Bundestag)].

We booked the 9 pm slot for tower climb (it's FREE,they needed to see our passport for issuing the tickets),

Walked 450 m to the Brandenburg tor built in 1730. This gate is the monumental entry to Unter den Linden, the renowned boulevard of linden trees, which led directly to the royal City Palace of Prussian monarchs.

then took same bus 147 as the previous day, went on to Museum island. Lovely photo ops on the way...

Altes Museum in the background

Berliner Dom cathedral behind

National Gallery right behind, background left corner is the Pergamon, perpendicular/adjacent is the Neues museum

The museums open only at 10 am.

Pergamon:

The city's most popular museum, the Pergamon features a Museum of Islamic Art, and reconstructed historic buildings from the Middle East: the Ishtar Gate of Babylon, and the Procession way, the Aleppo Room, the Roman Market Gate of Miletus, and the Mshatta Façade (the decorated e facade of the 8th century Umayyad residential palace of Qasr Mshatta, one of the Desert Castles of Jordan). We can pre book our entry time online as the museum is heavily crowded.

We were first in line to enter Pergamon, no pre booking.

We enjoyed all the highlights...

the Ishtar Gate of Babylon (8th gate to the inner city of Babylon, built in 575 BC by King Nebuchadnezzar. Wall finish is by glazed bricks with animals in low relief)

the Roman Market Gate of Miletus, built during Hadrian's rule 130-120 AD... served as the northern entrance to the southern market, or agora, in Miletus, an ancient city in what is now Turkey

Also from Miletus, There is a wonderful mosaic floor of Orpheus who charmed all creatures with his music.

The reconstructed facade of Nebuchadrezzar’s throne room is decorated with palm trees, a symbol of fertility and long life.

the Procession way: The Ishtar Gate led to Babylon’s Processional Way, which stretched for over half a mile across the city. A statue of the god Marduk was carried along it during the New Year Festival

the Mshatta Façade (the decorated part of the facade of the 8th century Umayyad residential palace of Qasr Mshatta, one of the Desert Castles of Jordan)

Islamic Art section:

Ivory casket and horn

Mosaic niche

Carved wooden Koran stand

Carpet rooms in the Islamic Art section

Animals, birds and geometric patterns

Tiles

The Aleppo room features a reception room from a broker's home in Aleppo, Syria, that was commissioned during the Ottoman Period. It has multi layered painting on wood

The New Museum (Neues Museum)

We visited the New Museum next

The New Museum (Neues Museum), destroyed during WWII, was rebuilt and opened again in 2009. It is the home of extensive collections from the Egyptian Museum, the Papyrus Collection, and the Collection of Classical Antiquities.

Tomb stele

Sarcophagus

Lovely busts/statues

Lamassu , winged lion with human head is an Assyrian protective deity

The Old Museum (Altes Museum):

The Old Museum (Altes Museum), built in 1830 houses Roman, Greek and Etruscan treasures. The monumental pillars, expansive atrium and rotunda lined with antique sculptures resemble the Pantheon in Rome.

Ivory oliphant... hunting horn

Carved Ivory again

Coins

famous Berlin Gold Hat — an elaborate golden headdress thought to be around 3,000 years old.

Life like busts... the light in the pupils startle you

The Bode Museum houses a collection of Byzantine art, as well as a large sculpture collection spanning from medieval times to the late 1700s

The Altars were awesome...intricate carving of dioramas

Lovely Ivory collection

Very beautiful mirror cabin

we had no time for The Old National Gallery (Alte Nationalgalerie), which opened in 1876, and displays Neoclassical sculpture and paintings from 1815-1848, as well as Impressionist and early Modernist pieces.

It had been a huge treat for our senses enjoying these museums

I was tired and called it a day.

Son went to Reichstag at 9 with his passport and the guards checked it against the reservation we had made in the morning . He had a good time enjoying the views