Warsaw, Poland

The final stop on my tour was Warsaw in Poland.  Here, for the first time I actually had to contend with a bit of rain, having been lucky to just have a couple of showers and a very little snow to content with previously.  However, it wasn’t too bad and certainly did not stop me from getting out and about.

Like many of the places I have visited on this tour, Poland and Warsaw suffered in the Second World War.  From starting the war being divided between Germany and the Soviet Union, to full-Nazi occupation, the most dramatic times were towards the end of the war at the time of the Warsaw Uprising.  The resistance movement in August and September 1944 fought a major battle against the Nazis, expecting support from the Red Army.  However, this never came (at that time) and it was ultimately unsuccessful.  This led to 85% of the city being destroyed, either through the fighting or through a systematic process of destruction.  Therefore, again many of the historic buildings seen in Warsaw are in fact reconstructions with relatively little original parts. 

I visited a couple of relatively new museums that focused on this time in Warsaw.  The Warsaw Uprising museum tells the story of those two months.  The day I went there it had free entry and was packed with people, many of which locals.  I also visited POLIN - the Museum of the History of Polish Jews.  Whilst this also told the story of the war it also went back over 1000 years of history of Jewish people in Poland, and how their position had changed over that time.  There was a lot of content there (much more than I expected) and also an art exhibition of the work of Frank Stella which was abstract art based on Polish Synagogues.  Both museums were good, but possibly fall slightly into the modern disease of focusing on the story of individuals which means that the broader narrative can get lost.

Rebuilt or not, the Royal Castle is one of the highlights of Warsaw.  You go on a tour through many of the palace rooms, and also its collection of art works.  (It also had free entry on a Sunday).  It is located in the old town which itself is a Unesco world heritage site with lots of interesting  buildings, churches, streets etc and some of the old city walls. 

Slightly further south was the Royal Lazienki palace and parkland.  This former bathhouse had been extended by King August and partially survived the destruction of the war.  The odd thing was that you were made to put elasticated plastic bags over your shoes to walk around (I presume because it was wet outside).  This meant you ended up walking very cautiously so as not to slip on these bags!  The parkland around it would (I am sure) be lovely in summer (rather than a damp February day) with its lakes and trees, although I did get to see red squirrels and peacocks within it.

I also (as ever) visited a number of art galleries in the city.  Unfortunately most of them were closed in some part for rehanging of exhibitions!  However, I did get to see what I could at the National Museum, The Zacheta National Gallery of Art, the Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle and the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw.  Of these, it was probably the latter that was the most interesting, made up of modern pieces relating to recent events.

My final stop in Warsaw was the Palace of Culture and Science.  This was a 30+ story cultural complex built in the 1950’s by the Soviets as a “gift” to the people of Warsaw, an impressive building including a number of museums, theatres etc.  It is also a very ornate building inside and out, and now sits on the historic buildings register in Warsaw along with the more “traditional” attractions.  My main reason for going there was the viewing deck on the 30^th floor.  This wasn’t the first viewing tower I had been to in Warsaw, having also been to the Taras Widokowy which overlooks the Old Town on my first day.  However, it was the highest and gave great views across the whole city.  This showed some of the development of the city, from the historic old town core, to the more “communist” building and very modern skyscrapers now built.  Interestingly you also see that there are modern buildings right next door to some very run down areas, showing a city in transition. 

Before going I had wondered how much there would be to see in Warsaw – compared to other equivalent cities (such as Prague) there were no guide books available.  I needn’t have worried – there was plenty to keep me occupied and plenty more I didn’t get to see.  The guidebook gap is also plugged very neatly by a number of leaflets from the Tourist Office which bring together useful information on both general themes (such as top 10 attractions in Warsaw) but also in more detail on areas such as museums or the uprising.  I would also note that the food there is very good too, particularly if you can find a proper Polish restaurant.  So, I am very glad I extended my trip to visit Warsaw and indeed pleased with the trip as a whole.  Seen lots, walked lots (205km over the trip as a whole, climbing 475 stories according to my phone!) and had a very good time.

Watching us, watching you, watching us, watching you

With the vast number of museums etc I have been to over the trip I have become strangely accustomed to being watched.  For some reason, the guides/security staff have been much moiré likely to follow you about (maybe I look shifty all of a sudden) rather than just monitoring from afar compared to other trips/places I have been.  In Prague particularly, many staff members looked especially miserable to be there.

There was even one occasion in Berlin where I got “told off” by a member of staff for spending too little time looking at the displays in a particular room!  Obviously a particular interest of hers, but given it was mainly written in German (which means it has to interest me enough to take the effort to try and translate it) I hope I could be excused!

I say, I say, I say

There hasn’t been that much that is noteworthy from a TV perspective on this trip (no time!).  In the Czech Republic the only point of note was that I happened to see the news when it was reporting on a fire at a museum which explained fire engines and ladders that I had seen earlier in the day.

However, in Poland there was a new (to me) approach taken to programmes in different languages.  Usually, foreign programmes are either fully dubbed (with different people dubbing different characters – this is what happens in France and Germany for example) or they just use subtitles (as per foreign language programmes in the UK).  However, in Poland I have come across a third way – dubbing, but just with one person.  What happens is that they play the usual soundtrack (in, say, English) and then the translator comes in over the top to say that is being said in Polish (rather like it might be on a news report).  Makes for an interesting half-way house, but you might get sick of that one voice after watching a series! 

The efficiency of the German railways

At the start of this trip I described it as a trip through Europe thanks to Deutsche Bahn.  And indeed, that is where I booked my journeys through and given that every train starts or ends (or both) in Germany I would have expected this to be the case.  However it has not.

Berlin to Warsaw was by the Polish railways.  This is perhaps understandable as the vast majority of the trip is in Poland.  Prague to Dresden was by Czech Rail.  Again, the majority of the route was in the Czech Republic so maybe understandable.  (The train itself was mainly Czech but had one German carriage at the end of it).  The trip from Dresden to Berlin... that was Czech Rail again!  It is a continuation of the route from Prague, but it appears that the majority of trains along this route are of this style.  However, whilst the trains are from different countries, the staffing always corresponds to the country you are travelling with a “changing of the guard” at the border.  On the train to Warsaw this also meant a change in the nature of service with a free cup of tea and coffee even in standard class!

Berlin, Germany

As I have previously noted on this blog, my holiday plans don’t often include repeats, generally favouring the new over somewhere I had been before.  However, as I was in the area I thought that I would play another visit to Berlin, having first been there in 2000 and then again for work (with a little sightseeing on the side) in 2007. 

The first thing I noticed there was surprisingly how little had changed.  Whenever you think of Berlin (or whenever I think of Berlin at least) the amount of building going on is one of the first things that I think of.  And it is fair to say that there has been a lot that has gone on.  However, the pace (or ambition?) of change appears to have slowed a bit since the first flurry of change following reunification.  A loot at the skyline suggests there is still a lot going on, but there are areas (such as Alexanderplatz) where I would have expected things to have happened (and I am sure there were once plans) but have not changed (apart from the influx of “western” shops).  In some ways it is interesting to still have a lot of this “communist” architecture about, particularly for a visitor, but I am not sure everyone is happy about it.  One of the big building projects going on at the moment is the recreation of the old Royal Palace.  This had been bombed in the war, and replaced with DDR palace in smoked glass and asbestos.  This has now been torn down and the replacement palace is coming up in its place (I wonder if they are after a replacement royal family as well?)

Having been up the TV tower at Alexanderplatz when I first came to Berlin 16 years ago I had a fancy to go up and see what had changed.  However, the queues even to purchase a ticket from which would have had a 1 hour+ wait soon put me off that.  (At the Reichstag, which I also visited back then, you can no longer just turn up and visit the Dome, there is a limited ticketing system which you have to book in advance.  I didn’t, partly because I had been there before, but if you haven’t it still comes highly recommended).  As I couldn’t not go up some viewing platform I instead climbed the Victory Column in the middle of the large Tiergarten park.  At the top is a relatively small viewing platform (good job it is a little obscure and doesn’t get too busy) which is actually open to the elements and therefore means you don’t have to take photos through glass.  It also meant it was very cold up there!  However, it gave a good location to watch the sun go down and also see the police presence moving dignitaries around linked to an Israeli/German summit. 

I was the last one down from the tower (good thing I had got cold, otherwise I am not sure if someone would have to climb all the stairs to get me down).  Now, I mentioned it was in the middle of the Tiergarten.  In fact it is in the middle of a busy roundabout in the middle of the Tiergarten.  When I got to it there were tunnels under the roundabout that could be used for access.  On my attempt to leave, these tunnels were closed.  I therefore had to negotiate my way off which required a little bit of thinking about (fortunately there were traffic lights which, whilst not designed for crossing, at least stopped the traffic for a minute!)

As well as looking for above I also did a lot of walking around the city to see how it had changed from ground level (answer = lots at Potzdammer Platz, less so elsewhere!) and to get between the various sites I was visiting.

As in Dresden I purchased a museums card.  Here, it gave access to ~50 museums over a 3 day period for €24.  It was therefore easy to get good value from it.  I also had a “Welcome Card” which gave full access to public transport plus discounts at a broader range of attractions.  The full list of museums I visited over this time was as follows:

• DDR Museum – hands on museum of life in DDR times – busy with visitors (visited on Welcome Card)
• Willy Brandt Museum – story of his life (free entry)
• Gemaldergalerie – Old master’s gallery
• Kuntsgewerbemuseum – Museum of decorative arts
• (I also “visited” the art library and museum of prints and drawings at the same site, but they were mainly closed!)
• Musical Instrument Museum – Whilst I came across this due to the proximity to the previous sites it was well worth a visit with an impressive collection of instruments including some unusual pianos and a Wurlitzer organ (which was being played to some schoolchildren whilst I was there).  It also has a very reasonable café for just a coffee or a full lunch.
• Bauhaus archive – A repeat from 2000 – has been rearranged since but will definitely benefit from its proposed extension
• Museum of Photography (which mainly focused on the fashion photography of Helmut Newton)
• Hamburger Bahnhof – a great collection of contemporary art in an interesting location.  Whilst the main part of the exhibition is in the old station building, there is a key part of it in what could have been some form of engine shed which stretches on for miles (well, not miles but a long way!)  As part of one of the pieces was an installation of old arcade museums so I whiled away half an hour playing Ms Pac-Man (which is the same as Pac-Man as far as I can see) and Tetris, back from the days that games were good!

• Allies Museum – dedicated to the role of the allies in West Berlin (such as the Berlin airlift), located at an old US Army cinema.  Included an interesting exhibition on the different approaches to de-Nazification after the war. (actually free)
• Bruke Museum – art collection
• Ethological Museum/Museum for Asian Art/Museum for European Culture – three museums mixed in with each other in Darlem (and going through some reorganisation too it seems)
• Botanical Museum and Gardens – the museums card here would only get me into the museum, not the gardens, and they wanted full price to get into the gardens.  However, I also had a Berlin Welcome Card which meant I got it half price!  Whilst it was winter, the gardens were worth visiting as they had a large tropical house with plants in flower and grounds for a walk in (not that I wasn’t doing enough walking anyway!)

• Deutsche Bank Kunsthalle – temporary exhibition of a Jackson Pollock mural with supporting pieces
• Markisches Museum – City museum of Berlin with displays including the charting of the development of key streets over the years

• Nikolaikirche – rebuilt historic church
• Knoblauchhaus – one of the oldest houses in Berlin (and nothing to do with Garlic despite the name).  (free entry)
• Museum for Communication – mainly focused on the Deutsche Post, Deutsche Telecom etc with lots of history thereof (and some interactive robots).  Best part was a display of how the reunification was approached from a communications perspective (which included things like re-postcoding the whole country) 
• German Technology Museum – To be honest I mainly went here because it was so close to my hotel it seemed rude not to.  However it is well worth a longer visit than I gave it with a large collection of old train, aeroplanes, models of ships, cameras, computing and more.
• Deutsche Dom – Former cathedral now rebuilt and used as a museum of German democracy.  Whilst most of the displays are in German there is also some information in English and is quite fascinating (if you like that kind of thing, which I do!).   

Phew – never resorted to bullet-points before, but I think it was necessary here!  Particular highlights?  Probably the Hamburger Bahnhof was my favourite, but the Musical Instrument Museum, Botanical Gardens, Markisches Museum, Museum of Communications and Technology Museum were also very strong.

As you can see a busy time of it with lots of interesting things to see and more chance to practice my rusty German.  Berlin remains a great place to visit and comes fully recommended.

Dresden, Germany

On first impression, Dresden comes in three parts – a historic centre, communist rebuilding and more modern commercial developments post reunification.  However, it is only when you get to understand it more that you realise just how much of that historic centre was rebuilt following the bombing in World War II. 

I arrived in Dresden on 13^th February which, as fateful coincidence would have it, is the anniversary of the allied bombing in 1945.  This is still marked in the city, in quite a significant way.  Whilst I believe there were a number of events during the day the main event saw people joining hands around the centre of Dresden at 18:00 hours.  At the time I saw this I didn’t realise the significance of it, but it was quite a sight.  Apparently the event has been quite political in the past, and I did see some demonstrations earlier in the day.  It is interesting how the bombing is still so significant to Dresden in a way that I don’t think it is in (say) Coventry which was equally hit. 

Some of the impact of this I understood from visiting the Dresden City Museum, which had a good permanent exhibition that looked back through the city’s history from the base of the Kings of Saxony to the present day.  It did not shy away from some of the more difficult aspects (such as the Nazis and the Communists) and was the better for it.  Also on a combined ticket with this was the city’s art gallery which had a varied collection.

This was not the only art gallery around though – far from it.  Whilst the “Old Master’s Gallery” was closed, the “New Masters’ Gallery” and Sculpture Collection were open in the Albertinium and worth a visit, particularly the current temporary exhibition from Rosa Barba which had some clever pieces using film projection.  (I am also pleased to report that there was a Barbara Hepworth piece within the Sculpture Collection!)  Possibly the most interesting art venue was the Kunsthaus Dresden where the main display is currently about Leoni Worth who built a number of public sculptures and areas during DDR times.  Whilst some of them have since gone there are still some remnants that can be seen in the developing city.  A bit further out of town (near the Blaues Wonder bridge) was the Leonhardi museum which had a set of works by Tobias Stengel who combined art and mathematical thinking.

As mentioned there are a number of historic buildings in Dresden, and it is only through closer looking that you seen that they have been in part or fully rebuilt.  On my first afternoon I climbed the dome of the Frauenkirche Church which gave views out over the city.  However the “ease” of the climb (compared to some other churches) might have given a clue that it had been rebuilt.  A number of other churches that I visited had also been rebuilt, although some also showed the scars of the war still.

The Zwinger Palace is a collection of linked pavilions based around a large courtyard.  Usually the main highlight there is the Old Masters’ Gallery, but that was shut during my visit.  Still there to visit through were the Porcelain Collection and the Maths and Physics Salon which focused on burning mirrors, telescopes, timepieces and globes.

The Residenzschloss (Royal Palace) was another building that had been rebuilt, and hosted a number of different museums.  The main highlight was the Historisches Grunes Gewolbe (Historic Green Vault) which presented the collection of the Saxony Royal family in the original display rooms (some rebuilt).  This was a fantastic collection of gold, bronze, amber, jewels and ivory that coupled with the rooms they were in was quite stunning (although it was slightly disconcerting that the only message around ivory was “isn’t it beautiful” rather than a comment on the standards of the time...)

Also at the Royal Palace were the New Green Vault (more treasures, presented in more of a museum environment), Coin Cabinet, Armoury, Turkish Chamber and a more modern Collection of Prints, Drawings and Photographs. 

A number of these attractions I visited using the Dresden museums card.  This gave access to “14” museums (although, as you will have seen buy now many of these were really the same venue) over 2 days for €22 (worth noting at the palace though that the Historisches Grunes Gewolbe was an additional €12 – but worth it).  You do have to watch out for the right days though – fortunately the Castle was open on a Monday when most other attractions on the card were closed otherwise I would have had an even busier Sunday than I ended up having!  I also visited the tunnels under the city that were part of the old city walls and defences. 

One bonus place to visit was the Military History Museum, which offered free entry on a Monday evening which coupled with the free public transport I had with my hotel meant there was no reason not to visit.  However, it nearly ended disastrously when I lost the token for my coat which I had checked in.  Thankfully, playing the dumb Englishman I managed to get it back (from the huge number of coats they had checked in).  The museum itself was an interesting construction with a modern extension cutting through an older building and had a lot of content within it well displayed.

Also in Dresden I got the opportunity to reacquaint myself with a few German shops – I am pleased to report that Woolworths is still going in Germany (as, of course, is C&A). 

Overall, Dresden was a really surprising city to visit.  There was much more to see and do there than there would be in an equivalent British city.  The old buildings on face value are quite beautiful, and the history gives it another dimension.  I am really pleased I went there.

Prague, Czech Republic

The first stop on my trip was Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic.  In order to get a literal overview of it I started my time there by climbing Petrin Hill.  Usually you can get a funicular railway, but unfortunately it was closed...  However, good exercise, and a chance to explore the “hunger wall” – part of the old city fortifications, on the way up.  At the top is the observation tower – a mini-Eiffel Tower that you can climb (or pay extra to take the lift) to get a good view out over the   city.  This of course I did, and was rewarded by clear views across the city. 

This wasn’t the only tower I went up during my time in Prague.  I later went up the Zizkov TV Tower – planned under Communist times but only brought into service afterwards.  This higher tower gave views over the wider region and I was able to stay up there to watch the sun go down.

Going away at this time of year tends to mean that things are quiet.  For the most part in Prague they were.  The place that was not though was Prague Castle.  Both the castle and the St Vitus’s Cathedral at the site were absolutely packed with visitors – tours from China and Japan in the cathedral and school parties from France and Italy in the castle itself.  Both were impressive (particularly the cathedral) but would have been more so without all these people!  Fortunately there was also a museum about the Castle which was not on most people’s itinerates but gave a good opportunity to find out (a lot!) more and also see some more parts of the castle that weren’t on the main ticket.  The ticket also included access to other towers, churches and palaces situated nearby.

The cathedral wasn’t the only church that I visited.  There were many open, both in the city centre and the Loreto near the castle.  A particular highlight was the church at Vysehrad which had unusual spires and a great view from it and the surrounding area over the river and back over the city.  One of the most unusual churches was to be found on Petrin Hill – a Ukrainian church that was moved to Prague when the valley it was in was flooded.

Of course, being away I had to visit some art museums.  In Prague they don’t make this particularly easy for you – both the National Gallery and the City Gallery split their collections across several sites which makes it difficult to work out what and where to visit.  Therefore, when I went to the collection of modern and contemporary art I didn’t quite know what to expect (nor, it seems, quite how to find it!).  However, what was there was a vast museum with a great mix of big name artists (including a number of Picassos and local artists), local Czech artists (I am always pleased to see local artists as they give something different) and special exhibitions.  I say vast – I walked over 3.5km just going round it! 

Of the other art venues visited, the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art was noteworthy with an exhibition based on Aldus Huxley’s “A brave new world” and Museum Kampa had some good abstract pieces within its temporary displays.  I also looked round the displays at the “Dancing House” (where unfortunately the promised drink on the combined ticket was not available) and a display of Cubist Art in a building of the same background.  Bridging art and maths was a display at the Architecture Centre which brought statistics on Prague and the region to life through creative displays (at least I assume it did – most of it was in Czech!)

The fact that Czechoslovakia was for many years under Communist rule was also obvious from the city.  There were several monuments to its victims, and even a Museum of Communism (which almost seemed like it was a Communist idea of a museum!).  There are even a set of murals still showing at the former “Moscow” Metro station which shows the USSR flag and Cosmonauts!

One of the useful things about Prague is that it is a really compact city.  For the 4 days I was there I only used public transport on one of them.  On all other days I was able to get around the city on foot.  Whilst my appetite for walking may be a bit more than other people’s is, it does make things very practical. 

And it is a very pretty city to walk around.  There are lots of old buildings around, with the Old Town Square a particular highlight with its astronomical clock.  The Charles Bridge is also very popular with tourists, with lots of statues on it.  Some of these are meant to be touched for luck, meaning that they have particularly shiny patches on them.  There are lots of small streets to explore and impressive buildings such as the National Theatre.  A walk by the river in the evening was also very popular, when some of the key buildings get lit up and made even more beautiful.