[qoute author=WilliamPowell link=topic=2333.msg24586#msg24586 date=1129693105]
Absolutely loved Berlin would go back tomorrow. When I was there it was only a fews years after the Wall came down and you had two very different cultures still adjusting. The other thing was it was so fascinating to see what used to be East and West - the difference in buildings etc was amazing. Would be great to go back and see how much it's change since the last time
Berlin is fantastic. I went there 4 years ago (so a bit after you WP) for work purposes for a week (all expenses paid for
) so didn't get to see as much as I wanted to so would love to go back again. Still got to see the old centre of the Unter den linden, Reichstag, Potsdammer platz, Checkpoint Charlie and sailed on a yacht at night on the Wansee. Also did a bus tour they had organised for us around Potsdam with the German guide cracking anti-Nazi jokes in true Fawlty Towers style when he found out we were mostly British and Australian
.
The whole middle strip of the city where the Wall was was still one big construction site. Cranes everywhere as they were finishing off all the new federal government buildings for the move from the old West German capital Bonn back to Berlin. They had unified the public transport system which shames anything here in Oz. S-bahn, U-bahn, trams and buses which can take you anywhere and everywhere. Loved the old East German carriages where instead of a beeper, a siren would go off before the doors slammed shut lol.
I stayed in a hotel in East Berlin which was in the suburbs 25 mins out so there were lovely old-style individual houses around there but in the eastern half of the centre of the city around Alexanderplatz there were plain white square block flats for miles and miles to see left over from the communist days. A huge contrast to the nightlife and restaurants along the Ku-damm in the Western half.
In Germany I've also went to Munich and the beautiful quaint small town of Heidelberg. The latter again as part of my work trip
. In between I got the train and travelled down to Italy to Rome
, Florence, Pisa and Venice and had a great time.
Also had some unusual moments - I wasn't allowed into the Vatican wearing cargo shorts even though it was bloody 35 degrees outside (I didn't realise my legs were offensive ???); I got asked by a couple of Aussie girls from Perth who thought I was a local if I spoke English
; had a gay Armenian waitor who spoke 5 languages try and give me his number at a restaurant; had some pommy pervert come up to me in Venice and ask me if I liked wearing long black football socks :X. He was lucky he didn't end up in the canal nearby. I also unashamedly did the geeky thing in Pisa of getting my photo taken pretending that I'm holding up the leaning tower
.
Wishlist: Too many - The rest of Western Europe in particular Scotland (heritage), to Moscow and catch the Siberian railway to Beijing, Japan, Canada/US, the Andes and Eygpt. With the latter two a bit put off by the local troubles
.
