Week 116 - Berlin, Cologne, Brussels, Bruges (Germany, Belgium)

After a 6 hour sleep in Warsaw it was time to pack up and check out. We were only in Poland in transit and didn’t have time to see any of the city. We took the Metro north to the bus station and found the platform. We had another long journey ahead, a 9 hour drive to Berlin. Again, we were surprised at the border when we weren’t stopped for any kind of passport check but the journey was on time and comfortable, arriving into Berlin at 5:30pm.

We were picked up by our friend Monique at the bus station and beer in hand, jumped on the Metro. We met Monique in Ecuador nearly two years ago and again in Colombia and had kept in touch. We were lucky enough that she offered for us to stay at her flat in the centre of the city and she’s so easy going and chatty that it didn’t feel like it had been nearly two years since we’d last seen her, in fact we were talking so much we got on the Metro going the wrong direction and it took us 20 minutes to notice. 

After dropping off our bags and picking up some groceries for breakfast, we set out to a famous curry wurst stall a couple of Metro stops away. Ever since we met Monique, Rhys has been excited about visiting her in Germany to try curry wurst so it was top of the to do list. We joined the queue and made short work of the sausages before turning to the next stall, a Turkish kebab booth. 

We were surprised to find the extent of Turkish influence in Berlin and to learn that Turkish food has become a Berlin institution. At 5% of the cities population, the Turkish community there is the largest outside of Turkey and it’s really noticeable. In the 1960’s and 1970’s there was a labour shortage in West Germany and a deal was struck with Turkey, inviting immigrants over to fill the void, a lot of the families ended up settling there and staying.

After the best kebab we’ve ever eaten, and with the left overs wrapped up and stuffed in our pockets, we wandered off to find a pub. Another noticeable thing about the city was the lack of bars, there are hundreds and hundreds of restaurants but finding a pub was hard and Monique hasn’t lived in the city long enough to know all the best spots. We ended up in a little wine bar with a huge bottle of wine that we shared while we swapped travel stories (Monique’s trip took her all the way from Patagonia to Alaska). We weren’t out late before walking back to her flat, looking forward to getting a good nights sleep after our long journey.

Monique skipped uni the next day to study from home so we left her to it and followed her directions out to the Eastside Gallery, within walking distance of her flat. The gallery is a 1.3km stretch of the Berlin Wall that has been left to stand as a memorial. The section of the wall is covered in graffiti works by internationally renowned artists but is in a bad state of disrepair with erosion and tagging covering the original works. 

Painted section of the Berlin Wall in the Eastside Gallery, Berlin.

We were quite shocked with the sheer amount of tagging covering every inch of wall space throughout the entire city, it’s like nothing we’ve seen anywhere else and it’s a real shame to see brand new buildings covered in scribbles. The wall itself is a humbling sight, it stood for 28 years from 1961 to 1989, dividing Berlin and surrounding the West of the city, then part of West Germany. East Germany claimed it was built to protect it’s people from fascist ideas when in practice it acted more to stop mass emigration and defection from East to West.

It started raining while we were out so we didn’t stay long before walking back to Monique’s where instead of studying she’d been sitting procrastinating. Along with the curry wurst, when we’d met Monique in South America, we’d promised to cook her Shepherds Pie one day and this seemed the perfect opportunity. While I prepared the meal to heat up later, Rhys cracked open the vodka. We ended up sitting around playing cards chatting until dark when we finally got ourselves ready to head out to a Christmas market.

As we arrived at the Gendarmenmarkt the heavens opened and we ducked in to a hat stall to try on hats and wait it out, before finding a covered area to stand with a mug of mulled wine. It was a beautiful market, all lit up with fairy lights and surrounded by classical, columned buildings, the Concert Hall and the French and German Cathedrals. After a few mugs of warming mulled wine and hundreds of cheese, pate and saucisson samples (Monique’s great at getting samples!), we headed back to the flat for dinner with Monique’s housemate, Jutta. The shepherds pie seemed to go down well and instead of heading out we decided to stay in the warmth of the flat, playing cards and eating Monique’s homemade biscuits.

Rhys and Monique at the Gendarmenmarkt, Berlin.

We slept late again the next morning before sitting down with a map for Monique to give us pointers on where to spend our tourist sightseeing day. We left the flat together and first stopped at a Turkish market near Monique’s flat. Berlin was surprisingly cheap and we ended up buying yet more fabric. The food stalls looked immense but we’d had another enormous cheese, ham and fresh bread breakfast at Monique’s and couldn’t fit anything more in.

After the market, Monique headed to work while me and Rhys went in to the city to tick off the main sights, the cathedral, the 1791 Brandenburg Gate, the government offices at the Reichstag (although we couldn’t get tickets to go in) the Victory Monument (which we climbed for views of the city) and the Holocaust Memorial, a city square filled with standing concrete slabs with a museum underneath. We’d thought to take in a museum or two but ended up walking miles and before we knew it, it was getting late and starting to get dark and it was threatening to rain.

Sculptures on the riverside by the Cathedral, Berlin.

Me at the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin.

Holocaust Memorial, Berlin.

We’d arranged to meet Monique from work so after a quick stop back at the flat we headed out to the main shopping street. Although we hadn’t left enough time to explore to see the lights, it was still very festive. Monique finished on time and we jumped back on the Metro to head to a Dim Sum restaurant on the outskirts of the city. Monique’s housemate was moving out the following day and had invited us to tag along to her leaving meal. The Dim Sum was delicious and Jutta and Monique’s friends were really friendly and welcoming. It was a shame that we had another early bus the following day and couldn’t join them afterwards for drinks.

We jumped on the Metro back to Monique’s and climbed in to be just before midnight. The next morning we were up and out early with Monique popping out to say goodbye with promises of seeing us again in the near future. It was an easy trip back to the bus station (although Rhys was a little heart broken because we thought the trip to Berlin was our last bus trip and we’d be able to stick to trains from here on in, and then we realised the trains in Germany cost a bomb and we’d have to bus it and we assume Austria will be the same).

The journey was long and drawn out and we were delayed by an hour and a half as there were road closures just as we got close to Cologne. Karen was flying in from the UK to join us in Cologne and typically bad timing, London airspace had closed the previous evening and we hadn’t heard if it had reopened in time for her flight. Luckily her flight had taken off. We’d rented an apartment through airbnb and Karen had managed to pick up the keys and get a couple of hours nap as she hadn’t been to bed since her office Christmas party the night before. She was fresh faced and ready to start the wine when we walked in the door and we spent a couple of hours chatting and catching up in the flat. 

We’d lured Karen to Cologne with promises of mulled wine and Christmas markets and just as night was falling we jumped on a train to the centre of the city, wearing our new Christmas jumpers that Karen had bought for us. Ró, who we’d completed the EBC trek with had been to Cologne a few days previous and we’d joked about her leaving a note for us somewhere to find. We’d received instructions, something about a run in with a priest, a EUR5 note and a Roman arch and were intrigued to see if the letter was still there. We couldn’t believe it when we found it, tucked in to a hole in a brick with a little present as a reminder of the trek. We had a quick walk around the cathedral market and took hundreds of photos of the gothic cathedral towering overhead, looking quite eerie in the twilight with some of the most amazing gargoyles you could ever imagine, before retiring to a German beer house for Kolsch and to excitedly read Ró and Una’s note.

Rhys posing with Ró's message at the Roman Gate, Cologne.

Kolsch is a Cologne tradition, a really pale German ale served in tiny 200ml glasses by barmen who walk around with trays full of fresh beer and as soon as you finish a glass they replace it. We were all pretty tired so we didn’t stay for long and as soon as we got back to the flat, Rhys fell in to bed fully dressed while me and Karen stayed up chatting and making mini Christmas trees.

We all slept late the next day and enjoyed breakfast in the flat. By the time we headed back in to the city it was lunch time. We started back at the Cathedral Market and bought tickets for the Christmas Market Train. The train drove a route with 4 stops showing us the best of the markets without us having to bother navigating around the city, and it was pretty funny sitting in a little train, in traffic, listening to Christmas songs when we could easily have walked it quicker - in fact we gave up on the train at the end. The first market it took us to, in the Old Town, practically joined on to the back of the Cathedral Market and was by far and away the best market with little log cabins and gnomes scattered across the roofs. 

Cologne Cathedral in the daylight, Cologne.

Old Town Christmas market, Cologne.

Karen making one of her hundreds of purchases, Cologne.

Rhys and Karen looking suitably festive on the Christmas train, Cologne.

We’d made an error in deciding to do the markets on a Sunday and it was hellishly busy, we could barely move and you didn’t stand a chance of getting close to any of the stalls. We managed to fight our way to the front of the mulled wine stall and Karen elbowed her way in to a meat on a stick grill.

Our next train stop was at the harbour by a chocolate factory by which point we’d had enough mulled wine to loosen the purse strings and Karen ended up with bags and bags full of Christmas goodies. We had one more market to visit, the Angel market in the New Town, which was pretty small and it didn’t take long to complete a circuit. 

By then we were cold through and ready for a sit down, retiring to an Irish bar to warm up. We ended up spending the whole night in the bar, only popping back out to the markets for dinner and sausages. After a night time sneak through an empty market, we jumped on a train back to our side of the city, or to what we thought was our side of the city. It was the wrong train and we ended up in the middle of nowhere with no cash and no idea how to get back to the flat. Finally we found a taxi and jumped in.

The next morning was another late start. After breakfast we had to hand the keys back and we took our luggage to the main train station to check it in to the amazing self service luggage machines. We then had the whole day to explore the city. Done with the markets, we decided to check out the inside of the cathedral and climb the bell tower. After hundreds of steps, we were ready for a sit down and ended up back in the same Irish pub. Karen had one thing left she wanted to do while in Germany, eat schnitzel. Not wanting to disappoint, we found a little restaurant and ducked in for dinner before it was time to collect our bags. Karen headed of to the airport for her flight back to he UK while me and Rhys waited for our train platform to be called.

Inside Cologne Cathedral.

We made our way to the platform only to be told the train was delayed. And then, that the train was only going one stop and wouldn’t be continuing in to Belgium, as Belgium was on a nationwide strike and no transport was running in the entire country. Apparently there have been strikes going on for a while but the train company didn’t think it necessary to email us to tell us our prebooked ticket was affected. We were told over the speaker to head to the bus station where there would be people to help us and a bus waiting. Of course, there was no bus and we ended up running around for 15 minutes desperate to find someone to help us. We ended up on a bus where our ticket wasn’t valid but they agreed to take us and settled in for the drive, expecting there to be some kind of replacement bus in Brussels to take us the rest of the way to our destination, Bruges. 

We arrived in Brussels to find the station on lock down. After walking around for ages while the clock neared midnight, we found a staff member who laughed in our face when we asked about a bus. Our first impressions of Belgium hadn’t been good. We had no option but to find a hotel for the night, despite already having one booked in Bruges. Luckily, as no one could get in or out of Brussels, the hotels were empty and we found a decent room for EUR64 for the night. 

The next morning we woke to blue skies and as we were next to the station could hear the sound of trains running. Hopeful, we walked to the station and had to buy a new ticket to get us to Bruges. The journey was only an hour and we checked in to our hotel and were ready to head out and explore in time for lunch.

Our hotel was located a short way out of town but we’d picked up a map with walking routes highlighted that would take us around to see the main touristy areas and some of the many churches. Instantly we liked the place, it’s a pretty little town with cobbled streets and tall skinny buildings lining canals and waterways, a bit like Amsterdam but smaller. The historical centre is pretty compact and walkable and we spent a couple of hours wandering the streets, crisscrossing the canals and seeing some of the windmills on the ring road. The streets were filled with tourists and horse drawn carts with winding narrow alleyways lined with chocolate shops and lace makers, leading to towering church spires and beautiful squares. It truely was one of the prettiest towns we’ve been to.

Exploring Bruges.

A typical street in Bruges.

After a couple of hours and a bratwurst at a Christmas market, Rhys wandered back to the hotel to chill while I carried on exploring for a couple of hours. As the sun started to drop I stopped at a tea room above a chocolate shop for an incredible giant mug of hot chocolate that came as hot milk and solid dark chocolate to melt in it.

Bruges on the riverfront.

Bruges, canalside.

As we’d had a hard journey the previous day we decided to treat ourselves and after a bottle of fizz in a bar we wandered around until we found a Belgian restaurant with a great three course meal offer. Plates of delicious flemish stew and chocolate mousse later and we were content. Back out in the cold we passed the night market where everyone was in good spirits and we stopped for a final mulled wine before bed.