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Leisure trip at a glance
Country: Federal Republic of Germany
Period: 03 Jul to 04 Jul 2010
- Train timings:
03 Jul: Neuchâtel (via St. Gallen) to München Hbf, ETD 0724 ETA 1328
04 Jul: München Hbf (via St. Gallen) to Neuchâtel, ETD 1634 ETA 1941
Train tickets: Return tickets at CHF 126 per person
Accommodation: A&O Munich Hauptbahnhof Hostel (03 Jul to 04 Jul)
Period: 17 Jul to 19 Jul 2010
- Flight timings:
17 Jul: EZY 4632, BSL – SXF, ETD 0855 ETA 1020
19 Jul: EZY 4631, SXF – BSL, ETD 0640 ETA 0805
Air tickets: Return tickets at CHF 161.90 per person (inclusive of airport taxes)
Accommodation: Airport InterCity Hotel Berlin (17 Jul to 19 Jul)
Currency exchange rate: EUR 1 = SGD 1.72 (Jul '10 period)
There is no time difference between Switzerland and Germany where both countries uses Central Europe time. Total damage was about SGD 400 per trip including train tickets, transport, food and hotel, excluding personal expenses.
Here's the overview of the trip itinerary:
03 Jul to 04 Jul 2010
Day 1 – Morning train from Neuchâtel (Switzerland) to München (Germany) train station via Switzerland's St. Gallen. Arrived at Munich in the afternoon where we then took the Sightseeing Bus to tour Munich city. During the tour, we stopped at Palace of Nymphenburg, Olympic Park and BMW World. We then got off at Marienplatz and had our dinner at Viktualienmarkt before going to Hard Rock Café for our souvenirs. Took Munich Subway back to Central station and checked in our A&O hostel for the night.
Day 2 – Checked out the hostel and walked towards the Central station. We then took a regional train to Füssen, followed by Public Bus No. 73 to Hohenschwangau Ticket Center to exchange our online vouchers for the actual admission tickets. We then took another Shuttle Bus up to the Mary Bridge Bus-Stop and walked for about 10-mins to Neuschwanstein Castle. After the guided tour inside the castle, we then walked to Mary Bridge for a photo shot before heading back to Füssen train station using the same transportation mode. Had an early dinner at Munich Central station and boarded our train back to Neuchâtel.
17 Jul to 19 Jul 2010
Day 1 – Morning flight EZY 4632 from Basel Airport (Switzerland) to Berlin Schönefeld Airport (Germany). Checked in InterCity Hotel, followed by a train ride to Hackescher Market Station. We then walked around the Museum Island, before joining the Berlin Insider Tour. In this tour, we visited the Berlin Cathedral, Bebelplatz, Charlie Checkpoint, remains of Berlin Wall, Detlev Rohwedder Building, stood over Führerbunker and finally to Brandenburg Gate. After the tour, we visited Hard Rock Café before taking subway then train back to hotel.
Day 2 – Took train, then subway to Zoo station to book our Potsdam Tour. Next, we took train from the Zoo station to Potsdam, and visited Sancoussi Palace, Cecilienhof Castle and Glienicke Bridge. After the tour, we visited Jewish Museum and Berlin Wall Information Board. Had dinner near Charlie checkpoint before heading back to hotel for a good rest.
Day 3 – Checked out from hotel early in the morning and took flight EZY 4631 back to Basel Airport. Follwed by a train ride to Neuchâtel.
Munich Central Station
Munich Central Station (left photo below), also known as München Hauptbahnhof in German, is the main railway station of the city of Munich. This station has a high ceiling (right photo below) that gave every visitor a relax feeling without feeling congested after a long train ride.
Long distance trains such as Intercity, EuroCity, and Regional train utilizes the main hall (left photo below) within the station, while local transport system such as S-Bahn and U-Bahn uses underground platforms. Glad that the eastern part of the main hall features shops and a small food hall (right photo below). Also there are also several smaller kiosks in the station hall selling snacks and newspapers.
Berlin-Schönefeld Airport
Berlin-Schönefeld Airport (left photo below), also known as Flughafen Berlin-Schönefeld in German, is an international airport located near the town of Schönefeld in Brandenburg, directly at the southern border of Berlin and 18-km southeast of the city centre. The IATA code for this airport is SXF. Due to the high demand in budget carrier, the airport even allocates its Terminal B exclusively to EasyJet airlines (right photo below). Not much eatery can be found inside the terminal, except for a more decent Marché restaurant.
Transportation
Munich U-Bahn
There are two types of electric rapid transit in Munich: U-Bahn and S-Bahn. U-bahn means underground train, and its lines are color-coded with indication with a 'U', for example U2.
Tickets can be bought from the ticketing machine and all tickets, except for weekly ticket, must be stamped (validated) using the stamping machine (left photo below). If a ticket is found without a stamp, it is considered invalid and passenger can be fined for EUR 50. These stamping machines can be found at the entrances to the S-Bahn or U-Bahn platforms. This rule is special in Munich as other German cities allow passengers to validate their tickets on the train. As we stayed in Munich for only half a day, thus we only bought a single trip in zone 1 (city center) which cost EUR 2.40 to travel from Marienplatz to Central station.
Train platform in Munich is spacious (right photo below) like most subways in major cities. As for the train, it is well maintained with sleek and contemporary design (bottom photos).
Munich Sightseeing Buses
Like most sightseeing buses worldwide, the Munich Sightseeing Bus (left photo below) has distinctive design that is easily recognized and differentiated from the rest of public buses. The bus is open top where most of the seats are unshaded from sunshine or rain (right photo below). Frankly speaking, being Singaporeans we didn't enjoyed sitting in open top buses especially during the hot summer season.
Bayern Tickets (Munich)
During our visit, we bought Bayern group day tickets which cost EUR 30 and covers up to five people; so each person just need to pay EUR 6. There also single ticket available.
The Bayern Ticket is a Deutsche Bahn rail ticket which is valid for rail and bus travel throughout the whole of Bavaria. The ticket can be used between Monday to Friday from 9 am until 3 am the following day. On Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays it can be used the entire day until 3 am the next morning. We used this ticket for the train between Munich and Füssen, and the public bus between Füssen and Schwangau.
Berlin Public Transport
Berlin has a well-established pubic transport network where its extended system of U-Bahns and S-Bahns, buses and trams will take visitor easily, safely and cheaply to any sight or attraction. Following is a list of the various network available:
- 11 tram lines in daytime and 4 tram lines during night.
- 9 MetroTram lines, which run 24 hours.
- 11 U-Bahn lines with 173 stations. Overnight on Fri/Sat, Sat/Sun and before bank holidays, 8 lines run every 15 minutes. On other nights, the U-Bahns are replaced by buses, which follow the course of the U-Bahn lines as far as possible.
- 15 S-Bahn lines with 166 stations. In addition the S-Bahns run overnight on Fri/Sat, Sat/Sun and before bank holidays. A number of lines run beyond the city limits of Berlin.
The train station 'Berlin Schönefeld Flughafen' (left photo below) near our hotel looks rather run down as the frequency of trains arriving and departing is not that high. Whereas the U-bahn station 'Zoologischer Garten' has an interesting animal pictures on its wall (right photo below). As some of these U-bahn stations are built as early in the 1920s, they undoubtedly have those retro-style designs.
The special regional train RE7 (left photo below) is the most frequent transport we took from our hotel to the city centre. There are 2 passenger levels inside this train, with the top level having slanted cabin wall (right photo below). My colleague likes such design as he can rest his head comfortably on the slanted edge when seated near the window.
As for some of the U-bahn trains, it has simple but rather old design which reminds me of those trains still use in Eastern Europe (photos below).
One depressing sight I saw was that cabin windows are vandalized by passengers (left photo below) and emptied beer bottles left inside the cabin (right photo below). These do tell something about the capital of a country.
Accommodation
A&O München Hauptbahnhof Hostel
Centrally located in Munich's Old town, the A&O München Hauptbahnhof hostel (left photo below) is just two minutes walk from the Central Station. We booked this hotel online for a 4-bed room suite.
The room consists of one double-deck bed and twin beds (right photo below) and cost EUR 100 per night per room, with an additional credit card fee of EUR 2.50. However breakfast was not included in the hostel package.
Airport InterCity Hotel Berlin
The Airport InterCity Hotel is located just 5-mins walk from the Berlin-Schönefeld Airport and 200-meters away from the Berlin-Schönefeld Flughafen station. This contributed the main reason for choosing it as our accommodation in Berlin. Our return flight to Switzerland departs at 0640 hours, thus we were required to arrive at the airport at least 2 hours in advance. Public transport might be difficult to reach the airport in such an early hour, therefore we booked this hotel as a result of above considerations.
Without disappointing us, the hotel is brand new and easily spotted from the airport (left photo below). The façade of the hotel is engraved with names of major cities throughout the world, including Singapore or Singapur in German (right photo below).
Its entrance (left photo below) is strategically located at the side of the building away from the main highway but facing the carpark. Hotel lobby is modern in design (right photo below) with a large map of Berlin behind its counter.
The standard room is luxurious designed, and generally clean (left photo below). The lavish working desk is cleverly combined with a flat-screen TV and a mini-bar (right photo below). We paid a total of EUR 117.30 per room for 2 nights, excluding breakfast, which is a reasonable price in Europe for the facilities provided.
Interesting Observations
- During our visit to Munich, it was World Cup period in 2010. Several pubs and eateries allowed customers to watch the whole telecast. Interestingly even the famous ice-cream stall – Häagen-Dazs (left photo below) was crowded with soccer-fans. Several public areas in Munich were also allocated to allow fans to watch the match for free (right photo below).
- Even the popular chocolate manufacturer joined in this market of World Cup memento (photo below). These chocolates are coated in three colors: Black, Red and Yellow which represent the color on a German Flag.
- Sometimes it is unbelievable that what fans can do when their home team – Germany won a match. They can jump on top of rubbish bins to wave their National flag (left photo below) or wrapped the flag behind them (right photo below) and run around. These sights perhaps will not happen back in Singapore.
- Souvenir stalls had the best sales during this period; with scurfs and caps being the most popular items (photos below). Wondering what's the word on the scurfs? No guessing required, in fact 'DEUTSCHLAND ' is the German name for 'Germany'.
- Toilets can be found in most Germany train stations. Each visit is not cheap; it can cost EUR 0.80 or about SGD 1.40 per trip (left photo below). However its standard, in terms of cleanliness and facilities, definitely comparable to most hotel toilets (right photo below).
- Sightings in Berlin: One-man operation (OMO) hotdog seller was found in Berlin streets (left photo below). Interesting comical sculpture of Superman crashing into the ground was spotted outside the Jewish Museum (right photo below).
- During the walking tour, Beer Bike (photos below) was spotted along one of the streets in Berlin.
- What Food to eat in Germany? There are many food stalls in Germany (left photo below) selling the popular snack: Currywurst. Currywurst is a is a fast-food dish of German origin consisting of hot pork sausage cut into slices served with warm ketchup and sprinkled with generous amounts of curry powder. Sometimes French Fries are served together with the currywurst (right photo below).
Travel Tips:
If you're staying in Berlin for more than 2 days and a museum-lover, then it is worth the money to get a Berlin Welcome Card (left photo). This Berlin Card provides free travel with all methods of public transport for 48 hours, 72 hours or 5-days from day of purchase. It also provides discount from 25 to 50% to major tourist attractions and highlights.
For a 48-hour Berlin Card, it costs EUR 17.90. But if combined with Potsdam visit, the total cost is EUR 19.90. Do check out the website to find out more to take the advantage of the discount.
Useful Links:
My Munich Travel:
http://mytravelmunich.com/
Berlin Travel:
http://www.justberlin.org/
Wikitravel – Munich:
http://wikitravel.org/en/Munich
Wikitravel – Berlin:
http://wikitravel.org/en/Berlin