West End Weekend

As someone who has spent almost all of my life living in Australia, I find it incredible to say that I went to London for the weekend.  But it's true.  On Friday morning we flew to London Luton airport, and by around midday we were at our hotel near Russel Square.

Armed with new oyster cards, our first stop was Westminster Abbey which we ran out of time to see when we were in London last year.  Unfortunately it was just closing, so from there we went to Harrod's shopping mall.  This upmarket centre was incredibly, even inaccessibly opulent.  We spent some time wandering through the foodhall with the beautiful food displays set up in themed rooms.  We've been to a few high end food halls on our travels, including the Galleries Lafayette in Paris and KaDeWe in Berlin which we enjoyed, but found Harrod's too high end and intimidating to actually be enjoyable.

Next we visited St. Paul's cathedral, where we learned about the history of this church that was built after it's predecessor was destroyed in the great fires.  It was well worth the climb up the several hundred stairs to the top of the dome to see the nice view in all directions over London.

View of London from the top of St Paul's Cathedral

Rare blue sky

After a delicious and authentic Japanese meal at a casual little restaurant/diner in West End, it was time for the main event of the weekend- Les Miserables at Queen's Theatre.  Sam is a big fan of this musical (the tickets were her birthday present) so she was pretty excited to see it.  I found it quite enjoyable as well, I particularly liked the rotating stage which they used to add some movement and depth to the performance.

Shaftesbury Avenue

Queen's Theatre

As we missed out on seeing the Westminster Abbey the previous day, we started here on Saturday morning.  There was a lot of history in this church, but it is still playing an active role in the present. Having seen the Stone of Destiny in Edinburgh Castle earlier this year, it was particularly interesting to see the throne under which it was kept for many years, and will return to for future coronations.

Inner Cloister at Westminster Abbey

We had a delicious lunch of Indian curry at the Borough Markets on the South Bank.  These markets were absolutely packed- apparently this is pretty normal but I'm sure that the intermittent rain driving people under the cover was making things even more congested.  We wandered around admiring all the delicious food before settling on a nice big piece of cheesecake.

From there we walked along the South Bank to the Globe Theatre, a reconstruction of the original theatre where Shakespeare made a name for himself in the 17th century.  Although the original was destroyed by fire, the current theatre is built as closely as possible to the original specifications and materials, based on research of the remains and written documents.  It is an outdoor theatre so closes down during winter months due to lack of sunlight hours and unpleasant temperatures, which means there was unfortunately no no shows playing, but the guided tour and museum were quite interesting.

Outdoor stage at the Globe Theatre

Just next door to the the Globe is the Tate Modern, and given that entrance is free we decided to drop in for a few minutes.  Modern art is not really my thing so we didn't spend too long there, but I can appreciate that it is a world class collection. We finished our day with a really nice meal at a French bistro called Cote, and some dessert and drinks at a typical English pub in West End called the Angel & Crown, which seemed to retain some authenticity and coziness despite being in fairly prime tourist area.

St Paul's at night

On Sunday morning we started with brunch at a trendy cafe in the suburbs of East London called Caravan.  The menu looked impressive but it was maybe a bit too popular for its own good- we were seated outside (which was fine until the sun went away and the wind came out), service was extremely slow and the dishes were pretty small portions for the price.  But the coffee was pretty good.  From there we went on the underground to Portobello Road and although the markets were closed, it was still bustling and full of interesting little antique shops.  We then walked the length of Hyde Park, enjoying the fresh air and wide open spaces, until it was time to catch our train back to the airport.

Portobello Road

Hyde Park

London is a great city which I really enjoy going to, although I'm not sure when my next opportunity will be.  Even if we don't manage to make it back here again, we've definitely had a chance to experience some of the best that London has available.

Lazy Amsterdam Morning

On Saturday morning we headed into the centrum to walk around and soak up the city before the masses of tourists came out.  We cycled to the Jordan and wandered along the Prinsengracht, checking out the little boutique shops and getting lost in the character filled alleyways.  We ended the morning with an early lunch at our favourite canal-side cafe Spanjer en van Twist.

No entry- bikes excepted

Orange awnings on the apartments on our street

Coffee on the canal

Berlin

Berlin is like a dirtier, poorer, cooler version of Paris.  Sure, the skies are grey, the streets are full of graffiti and there is construction work everywhere, but it is authentic. There are plenty of visitors, but not the stereotypical map-reading, camera-around-the-neck, starbucks-in-hand, hop-on-hop-off type that outnumber the locals in some cities.  The whole city feels a little 'off the beaten track' (unlike the phrase itself which, along with 'hidden gem', is well and truly trampled to death- spend 2 minutes on any travel website/forum and you'll see what I mean).

Our long weekend in Berlin was just enough to get a taste of the history (both ancient and modern), culture, architecture, food and nightlife in this fun city. Although the skies were dull and grey, the turning season gave the trees and leaf covered ground some beautiful colours really brightened the streets.

On Friday we went on a walking tour that covered the main sights and also some less well known back street areas, and was a great way to get an oversight of the city.  The city is quite densely packed with sights- the Brandenburg Gate, the holocaust memorial, preserved sections of the Berlin Wall, the site of the Nazi bunker, Checkpoint Charlie, the Berlin Reichstag, the luxury Hotel Adlon where Michael Jackson infamously dangled his baby from the window...

Checkpoint Charlie

Brandenburg Gate

The place where the Berlin Wall used to run

One of the few standing sections of the wall

Grey concrete blocks of the Holocaust Memorial

A carpark now stands above where the Nazi Bunker was located

We spent the afternoon on Museum Island where we visited the Pergamon Museum.  The highlights of this museum were the full size restoration of the Pergamon altar and the Ishtar Gatewhich was built for King Nebuchadnezzar around 600 BC.  We also made the climb up the many stairs to the top of the dome at the nearby Berlin Cathedral where we had a great view out over the city.  After dinner, our walk back to our hotel was literally lit up by the lights festival where many buildings were covered with brightly coloured light projection shows.

Pergamon Altar

Ishtar Gate

Berlin Cathedral

Looking up at the stained glass in the centre of the cathedrals' dome

View from the top of the cathedral

Lighting displays on the Brandenburg Gate

Lighting displays on the cathedral

Saturday began with a visit to the dome of the Reichstag, Berlin's parliament house.  Fortunately we had booked ahead online so had no troubles getting in, although security was very thorough.  The view from the top was nice, but the mirror filled dome itself was pretty spectacular.

After the tour we walked through the Tiergarten which was quite nice despite the gloomy weather.  When we reached Potsdamerplatz we walked through a giant inflatable intestine (not sure what it was advertising though because it was all in German...) before catching the underground to the extravagant KaDeWe shopping mall. We had some delicious cake at the massive food hall, although I enjoyed the currywurst from the little street-side vendor across the square from the mall just as much.  

Intestines...some sort of health awareness campaign at Potsdamerplatz

Cake at the KaDeWe food hall

Currywurst at Witty's on Wittenburgplatz

The afternoon was spent at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.  The self guided audio tour helped us find our way through this truly evil place. It was pretty incredible finding out that before it was even fully decommissioned after the fall of the Nazis, it was already being used as a 'Special Camp' under the Soviet forces.  It was not a particularly enjoyable experience but it is important to understand and remember these things, and it was well worth the visit.

Back in Berlin we visited the East Side Gallery, one of the more well cared for stretches of the Berlin Wall. This strip is covered with brightly coloured paintings and murals, some of which were quite political but some are just nice paintings.  The other side of the wall was also well covered, but much less curated.

We had dinner at a cozy little pub/cafe which prided itself on it's beer menu.  Of course we had to try the Berliner Weissbier.  According to one story we heard, the immigrating French people took offence to the taste of this sour beer and added different syrups to give it flavour- it's a Berlin standard to order either the Red (raspberry) or Green (woodruff) Berliner Weisse.