Saturday, November 10, 2012
Berlin, Prague and Vienna Day 3 (Contiki Day 1)
Although today is the first day of my Contiki tour, I don't actually meet up with the group till evening at 1700 after which we will go to dinner. So I pretty much still had the day to myself. Unfortunately, I had checked with the hotel reception the day before and was told that I needed to check out and then check in again (I had booked two nights before the tour on my own), so that restricted my morning options a little.
Lounged around till check out and found out that I could have just stayed in my room.... -.- sianz, totally wasted my effort packing and sticking around. Sigh. Lugged my luggage back into the room and off I went to Charlottenburg!
Schloß Charlottenburg is a palace built around 1700 for Sophie Charlotte. In the beginning, it was built as her summer place but after she was coronated as the first Queen of Prussia, Charlottenburg was extended with new wings.
The trip from my hotel to Charlottenburg took around 1 hour 15 mins (walking plus U Bahn) and the walk from U Bhf Sophie-Charlotte Platz to Charlottenburg took me through some neighbourhood that was clearly different from the neighbourhood that my hotel was in. Charlottenburg is in former West Berlin and my hotel is in former East Berlin so you can really still see the differences (although I have to say that former East Berlin has apartments not unlike what we have in Singapore so we should be quite used to landscape here.
If you have the Berlin Welcome card, the admission ticket to Schloß Charlottenburg is discounted. However you have to purchase a photo permit at 3 euros and if your camera is unable to take low light photos, you should just save your money.
You get an audio guide which I found lovely because I can move at my own pace and yet I still get guided explanations. The ground floor is dedicated to Sophie Charlotte and also her husband Frederick I. The uppper floor was pretty much destroyed in WWII and had been rebuilt, so it is more modern in feel and showcases mainly silverware and portraits.
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| Ceiling in the state room, ground floor |
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| Sophie loved porcelain and Far East (Chinese) stuff |
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| More Chinese stuff |
After jaunting around in the palace itself, I went out to the
gardens (no ticket required). The gardens are rather nice although I
didn't quite like the Baroque style portion right in front of the
palace. It was drizzling so I couldn't really get photos of the gardens
as well but it was a rather nice stroll through the gardens.
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After leaving Charlottenburg, I headed back to the hotel to meet up with my Contiki group. It was raining a little harder when I reached my U Bahn stop ... bah. At least I have my umbrella so that wasn't too bad.
Was late to the meetup but I guess that was nothing compared to the wait time we had for the registration. After the meet up, we headed off to the Europa Centre for Dinner. The restaurant is called Kartoffeln Kiste and the food here is quite good too. Seriously way better than the stuff I had on the Chan Brothers tour last year :(
After dinner it was back to the hotel and sleep..
Now, I have had friends who say that I am very courageous to fly over to Berlin alone, I find that is nothing compared to getting together with a roomful of absolute strangers. Now THAT, is scary.
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