Pictures from Potsdam, Germany

Pictures from Potsdam, Germany

I travelled down from Berlin to Potsdam, with the New Berlin Free Tour group, and the whole group of international travellers visited the historical and beautiful city of palaces and German places.

First, you can see here on my travel blog: the Brandenburg Gate of Potsdam, not the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. According to the tour guide, there are two Brandenburg Gates, and here is the second gate in Potsdam. That was very interesting and a cute nugget of information.

The next two pictures are of the Sansoucci, and you can see the parks, the trees and the water at the Sansoucci. We all loved the Sansoucci, but the problem was that we had little time to visit, because sadly we were rushing from one place to another in our rush to get from place to place, visiting all sorts of palaces and parks. Heh...

Next: a palace under renovation - in Germany, during the Second World War, many palaces were destroyed, and what you see today are usually and mainly reconstructions of palaces and beautiful old and ancient buildings that the government reconstructed and preserved, not just for heritage but for visitors and tourists like me and you. There are many, many palaces and ancient heritage buildings here in Potsdam!

You can also see the bridge which divided East from West Berlin, and this is today a tourist attraction but was a deadly, deathly bridge from which many tried to flee from the East to the West, but with tragic results. More history to come in future posts on Germany, because the country has a unique and special history despite being a rather young nation (compared to many other nations, Germany is young as it was born in 1871).

The last two pictures are of Cecilienhof, where the famous Potsdam Conference was held. We visited the hotel and had a good look around the whole place. Interestingly enough, as I have probably mentioned before, there is a gigantic Red Star in front of the facade of the Cecilienhof, where Stalin was no doubt showing Churchill and the rest how powerful he was. Germany is beautiful and a great place to visit, and Potsdam was no exception. I hope you love the beautiful and scenic pictures here on my travel blog from Potsdam in Germany!

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Pictures from Berlin, Germany

Pictures from Berlin, Germany

Here are pictures from Berlin, the interesting and beautiful capital city of Germany. I visited Berlin as the last leg of my continental central European tour, and here are the pictures of:

the Apotheke near my hotel where I stayed; the Markgrafenstrasse somewhere in Berlin, where you can see all the colourful and huge pipes around the place (as Berlin is literally built on a swamp, there are many pipes to ferry water out of Berlin - echt! According to the tour guide who gave us a guided tour around the city, Berlin was not just founded on a swamp, but the word Berlin is from a Slavic term, meaning swamp. Not my words, but from the tour guide who was from the New Berlin Free Tour company); the Brandenburg Gate; the Reichstag; souvenirs from East Berlin and of course, who can ever miss the interesting Legoland in Berlin, Germany!

More beautiful pictures of Berlin, Potsdam, and Germany to come, here on my travel website, Tour and See the World! Stay tuned :)

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Potsdam in Germany

Potsdam in Germany

My friends and I took a trip down to Potsdam together with the New Berlin Free Tour's tour guide, and she showed us around Potsdam with a bunch of very interesting and intrepid travellers.

Potsdam was more cultural than Berlin, in many ways, and felt very much like a German city, even though there were many people from all around the world here at Potsdam. Apparently Potsdam was historically a place of immigration where all the French, Russians and Dutch people emigrated to when there was trouble in their countries. In addition, there were many beautiful palaces and parks around Potsdam, revealing a sort of imperial past here in magnificent Potsdam under the Prussians and under Frederick the Great.

The places that we visited while here in Potsdam were:

the Sansoucci (it is a giant park that houses a giant palace called the Sansoucci Palace),

the Charlottenhof Palace,

The Old Market Square, which is Potsdam's historical centre,

the Potsdam Brandenburg Gate, which is much smaller and looks similar to the other Brandenburg Gate in Berlin,

the New Garden, which was very beautiful, and which housed some very important building... Cecilienhof, where the Potsdam Conference was held in 1945.

I have some little comments on this very interesting and historical place, the Cecilienhof. Firstly, my friend Cecilia might be glad to know that the place has now become a high end hotel, so there is a hotel named after her! Cecilia has a hotel in Germany named just for her, and that should be nice and easy to remember. (Cecilienhof is, of course, named after Cecilia in German.)

Secondly, there is a gigantic red star of flowers and grass in the middle of Cecilienhof, and this was to signify the power of the Soviets, because if you know your history, this site was the important area where discussions about the fate of the world and the new world order were held. Joseph Stalin, of course, wanted his way, and besides the Red Army were doing most of the fighting in Berlin at the end of the Second World War. In fact, as an aside, without the Red Army, the Allies would have been hard pressed to win against the powerful Hitler, actually, and it was only with massive losses by the Soviets that the Allies eventually prevailed in Europe.

All in all, it was a great experience visiting Potsdam for a day and after that, due to the long duration to get back to Berlin, that was the reason why I was late for the Bundestag tour in the evening in Berlin. Pictures of cultural, historical and beautiful Berlin and Potsdam to come in the next few posts here on my travel blog!

PS There were also many small and interesting novelty and specialty shops in Potsdam which I visited and looked in, but I cannot sadly remember what they were called individually - well, who can remember the small proprietors, especially when dealing with a huge country like Germany? There was a little book shop selling Kindergarten Books and a small kebab shop. Hmmm, and a nice cafe which I visited, ate at and drank tea. Haha ... :)

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Berlin in Germany

Berlin in Germany

In my Europe trip, where I toured the whole of Central Europe, I visited Paris in France, Zurich in Switzerland, Milan in Italy, Rome in Italy, Bratislava in Slovakia (that was a short day trip though), Vienna in Austria, and Munich in Germany. Then I travelled to Berlin in Germany.

With the New Berlin Free Tour, I visited both Berlin and Potsdam, a city near Berlin. I will be talking about Potsdam in my next post, and definitely there will be beautiful pictures of palaces and great places in Potsdam here on my travel blog as well!

By the way, if you do go to Berlin, I would strongly recommend the New Berlin Tour (the free tour) for a great walking tour and for a great history lesson as you go around Berlin.

Here are the interesting and historical places that we visited while in Berlin during the free tour:

the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, the new Holocaust Memorial that looks like a million square and rectangular stones, Hitler's bunker (or what remains of it, because it is nothing more than just an empty plot of grass), The Berlin Wall (or what is left of the Berlin Wall, actually), the former SS headquarters as well as the former Luftwaffe HQ, Checkpoint Charlie - without doubt one of the most interesting and visited places in the whole of Berlin on account of the Cold War, Gendarmenmarkt, the Book Burning Memorial, the Berlin-Humboldt Uni, the TV Tower, and Dunkin' Donuts, OK, that last one I added in because I like Dunkin' Donuts.

In addition, I went for the Berlin pub crawl, which was a very interesting and eye opening experience for me. I have been to British pubs and clubs, Singapore pubs and clubs, and the Berlin experience was rather special and well, eye opening, to the diversity in Berlin. Some was good clean fun, and yet other characters at the pub crawl, which took us to pubs and clubs all around Berlin, struck me as a little unsavoury and rather aggressive - but I shall save these stories for another post on my pub crawl experience in Germany! :)

I didn't get to go to Sachsenhausen concentration camp tour, because Potsdam and a booking/ reservation with the Bundestag (German parliament) for a visit ensured that I had no time, after the free tour.

OK, I must admit, it wasn't all about the Free Tour, Potsdam and the parliament - I wasted a lot of time because I spent a great deal of time in German CD shops, bookshops and comic shops. But what the heck, it was fun and it was a great experience of travelling and experiencing Germany, and in particular Berlin.

The people at the Bundestag were professional yet friendly, and I am really sorry that I turned up half and hour late - haha yep I was late, majorly :) I brought my little gang, which by this time was four people, myself, my friend Ai Lian, June Ang and Christine from Hongkong, and we all got lost travelling around Berlin and couldn't find, believe it or not, the correct entrance to the Bundestag. When we did find the entrance, we spent yet another 15 minutes before we could get in due to anti-terrorist checks and measures. All in all though, it was great and interesting to visit the Bundestag and I loved the experience and the history very much, as well as the great view of the city from the rooftop.

Pictures of Berlin and Potsdam, my perspectives of the Bundestag and of Potsdam, and much, much more to come!

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More pictures from Munich, Germany - last instalment

More pictures from Munich, Germany - last instalment

I wanted to post 8 beautiful pictures here, and then Blogger did some abracadabra magic on me, and now there are only 4. Hmmmm. Sorry! Oh well, we'll make do I guess :) Sorry to all my loyal readers :p

Here are the pictures that did make it past Blogger's sudden picture "censorship":

The stone map of Munich; the Allianz Stadium for football, which we visited while in Munich; the lion is the standard emblem of Munich, and then finally a beautiful arial/ high up/ rooftop view of Munich from the top of St Peter's church.

After Munich, we flew by Air Berlin to Berlin, Germany! More to come on my Europe tour/ trip and Berlin and Potsdam, in my next post here on my travel blog. Cheers and stay tuned!

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More pictures from Munich, Germany - Dachau, Munich and More

More pictures from Munich, Germany - Dachau, Munich and More

Here are more pictures from the Dachau concentration camp, and also more pictures of other places in Munich that I visited. You can see the Glockenspiel at Marienplatz here, the Frauenkirche, the Beer Hall (where you can actually see the Nazi symbols of the Swastika on the ground here, if you stay here and look hard enough), the Viktualienmarkt, and then Dachau concentration camp.

The tour guides, the bearded guy and the fat looking and jovial chap, are from the New Munich free tours and were our guides for the tour. They raised an interesting question: when visiting Munich, the home of National Socialism and Hitler's beginnings etc, and Germany in particular, all over are Holocaust memorials and Nazi symbols from the past - should we have these symbols and these memorials or not? On the one hand, it is good to learn from history and all these can teach us the lessons of the past. On the other hand, these remind people of the evil that the Nazis did and are a blot on the pride of some Germans. And besides, the Germans of today are not the ones who killed the Jews, Hitler and his henchmen did... or did they? New research in history shows complicity by the German population, but only a majority, because Sophie Scholl and others in a minority went against Hitler. Beautiful Munich, and interesting but sombre history... do enjoy the pics!

More to come on Sophie Scholl in the next post.

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Dachau concentration camp - Germany

Dachau concentration camp - Germany

(Disclaimer: negative and very horrific topic coming up: don't read unless you want to read about negative aspects of Nazi Germany's history!)

I went to visit the Dachau concentration camp near Munich, and this concentration camp was one of the first to be built and the model camp where SS personnel were trained to carry out their evil deeds elsewhere. Many died here and there were many torture rooms and torture methods.

Dachau was not an extermination camp where Jews were deliberately murdered, but it was not a holiday camp either. It was a work camp, where the Jews and other undesirables laboured for the Third Reich, providing slave labour. Many died while working, under harsh conditions, and the people here had no rights and absolutely no dignity under the harsh power of the Nazis.

Concentration camps are a dark, black blot on humanity's history, and we should learn from them. I love Germany myself, and I speak German, and although I have a bias towards things German and love German history, the Nazi period is one major period of history that we must learn from and never ever repeat again. Someone once asked me, what is the benefit of travelling? Well, there are many benefits of travelling, and one of them is that you get to learn important history lessons or important life lessons. I think, not forgetting history and learning from history so that less people will die in vain are important. Dachau reminded me of that, because all who died here were no less human than we are.

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Munich in Germany

Munich in Germany

After Vienna, my friends and I flew using Air Berlin to Munich in Germany. Firstly, a personal air and travelling tip - Air Berlin is one of the best budget flights in Europe for European tours and journeys, in my own personal opinion, because flybe.com, niki, ryanair, and the other airliners don't seem to be as good and convenient as Air Berlin. (Although I actually hear that Air Berlin isn't really a budget airline, but a low cost standard airline, that's why...)

I used the New Munich Free Tours to get around Munich, when I visited Munich. The New country tours are really good and they are full of quality and value for money. There were many interesting and good places to visit, and I did a lot of visiting and travelling around Munich.

The Glockenspiel at Marienplatz is the main attraction and is something that visitors all over the world go to Munich in Germany to see. The famous beer hall where Hitler launched his famous Beer Hall putsch is also on display here in Munich. The Frauenkirche is an important and very interesting church to visit, as well as its apparent legend of the devil's deal with the architect (no doubt apocryphal) and the fact that Joseph Ratzinger, the Pope, was from this church. The Viktualien Markt is a famous outdoor market and was very interesting with many traditional German foods and goods. The royal residence, the new town hall and the old townhall (Rathaus) were also nice places to visit and there was a lot of history behind them. In addition, we also went on a walking tour around Munich to trace out Nazi steps in Hitler's ascent to power, or more accurately, his attempted ascent to power.

I visited also Dachau, using the New Munich Concentration Camp memorial tour where I saw firsthand an interesting but dark and macabre part of Nazi Germany's history. Dachau was a model concentration camp and I think it is important for people to get to know Germany's past and history so that we will never repeat the mistakes that man has made. Sad to say, concentration camps still exist throughout the world and these concentration camps of torture and inhumanity still exist today. Mankind must learn from her mistakes!

More to come on my Tour and See the World travel blog regarding my exciting and interesting visit and stay here in Germany! Stay tuned for beautiful pictures from a beautiful and cultural city ...

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More beautiful pictures from cultural Vienna

More beautiful pictures from cultural Vienna

Here are more pictures from Vienna, including the anatomical body research centre that I was talking about in an earlier post about Vienna. Vienna is after all full of interesting sights and sounds.

Below here, you can see here on my Tour and See the World travel blog: a scientist's anatomy school, the body of a man found inside the school, a cultural landmark, the Holocaust Memorial in Vienna and Mozart, the man who embodies cultural Vienna. More pictures of Vienna can be found in my earlier post, the one before this. Vienna was beautiful and very interesting, and we capped the visit with a visit to a concert, which was marvellous and excellent - Vienna is cultural and "musical", after all. Cheers!

More about my Europe tour to come in the next post, and the next stop in my Europe tour (tour of central Europe) was Munich, Munich in Germany!

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Pictures from beautiful, cultural Vienna - Schloss Schoenbrunn and the Tiergarten

Here are some beautiful pictures from Vienna in Austria.

In particular, here featured on my travel blog: Schloss Schoenbrunn and the Tiergarten. The Schloss was an important part of imperial Austria when it was a gigantic multinational empire, as it was a ruling palace. The Tiergarten is basically a zoo, and it was an imperial zoo for the Austrian emperor, Franz Joseph. OK, there were many emperors but the major one was Franz Joseph, the last emperor.

Enjoy the beautiful pictures of Vienna and there are more to come in the next post on Vienna, Austria :)

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Vienna in Austria

Vienna in Austria

There were many places of interest in Vienna, Austria, the next stop on our world tour. We reached the airport in the night when the bus from Bratislava brought us there late. My two travelling companions also met up with our latest member, Christine, another girl who joined us to travel around Europe on the last three places of our tour (Vienna, Munich and Berlin). So we had a great big company on our travels.

In Vienna, here are the interesting and beautiful places that we visited:

the Tiergarten, Schloss Schoenbrunn, Stephansdom, some museum that featured dead bodies and anatomy scientists (yes, very morbid and macabre!), Mozart's statue, the Austrian parliament and the statue of Athena, the outside of several museums, (we had not enough time, money and inclination to visit all those museums, and besides we had museum phobia after visiting the colossal and gigantic Louvre in Paris) in particular, the Kunsthistorisches Museum and the Naturhistorisches Museum, and we also attended an concert/ musical/ opera in some place in town next to a gigantic Beethoven statue! It was a fun time in a great country with a proud and ancient imperial history, but now surrounded in modernity and culture.

All these and beautiful and cool pictures to come on future posts here on Tour and see the world! Austria is one of my favourites because I can speak German and they thought my German was cool and very good! :)

PS You should all visit the Stephansdom, and see for yourself how majestic and interesting it is, situated in the middle of town and in the middle of modernity.

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Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia

Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia

Our next stop on our Europe tour: Bratislava in Slovakia! Apparently, Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, is straddled between Slovakia, Austria and Hungary. So it was with no wonder that our plane from Rome brought us all the way to Bratislava, where we then took a SkyEurope bus from Bratislava to Vienna. We had to change some of our money into the local currency, the kroona or the koruna, and it was very interesting! It was neither like the Euro nor the pound and was rather quaint.

We stayed at the airport terminus for about a few hours and then after that took a long and interesting bus ride throughout the whole place on the way to Austria, seeing lots of windmills and other huge structures in the countryside along the way. Bad news: I didn’t take many photographs of the airport and the surrounding countryside or the city as we drove past it, because it was nearing evening and it was rapidly getting dark. And I was very tired from my travels and wanted a nice long nap after seeing how modern, beautiful, cultural and high tech Bratislava is. Sorry for the lack of photos of beautiful Bratislava from my window seat. Be alerted nontheless: Bratislava is a beautiful and modern city!

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More beautiful pictures from Rome, Italy part 2

More beautiful pictures from Rome, Italy part 2

Here are more pictures from Rome and in particular, the Roman Fort, Circo Maximus/ Circus Maximus and St Angelo's Castle. Circus Maximus is a park today and we were lucky enough to have good weather in the morning when we were there. You might want to visit the place because of its natural beauty. Also, St Angelo's Castle offers a view of Rome if you get up high enough. Enjoy the beautiful pictures from Rome!

After visiting and travelling around Rome, I took a plane flight from Roma Fiumicino Airport to Bratislava in Slovakia.