Museums etc in Berlin

Posted on July 23, 2011 by admin

The next day in Berlin, we went to the Jewish museum, and the design of the building is worth the hype. Some areas can be quite disorientating, and the garden of exile with it’s high columns and uneven paving really makes you feel a bit queasy and anxious. There was an exhibition in an area called the Memory Void (an open area that went up about 4 floors) where there were all these steal faces covering the floor. It was called the Fallen Leaves and you could walk across them, it made this clanging noise which sounded like being near a construction site, but I couldn’t bring myself to join in. All those faces!

Because the rest of the museum had such a large display and there were other things I wanted to see that day (plus hungry and sore feet) so we decided at the next museum I would separate from Svendlemouse and Star and they could also have time some just couple time.

The next museum was the Checkpoint Charlie museum. It was very cool, but I did rush a it through it, you could definitely have spent longer there. It was fascinating and sobering reading all the different accounts of escape, and there was also a section about different religions and another about different political uprisings (including the one in Egypt recently). They even had the different vehicles that were used in escapes and a lot of other memorabilia.

After that I headed back to the hotel to write some letters and to grab my iPad and found an Internet cafe to update my posts and read emails. Then wandered around looking at shops and posted my letters and headed back home. On the walk back I went along Unter den Linden and saw the book burning memorial which is a glass panel in the paving stones at Bebel Platz where you can see a white room of empty book cases below.

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A day in Berlin

Posted on July 21, 2011 by admin

The train ride to Berlin was not very impressive even though we rode first class (there were more comfortable seats, but the service wasn’t good). We arrived in the evening and got some very good help from the tourist info booth at the train station. Then found our way to the hotel easily enough.

Today we walked around and saw a few sites. We walked along Unter den Linden (and tried a curryworst – pretty good) to the Brandenburg Tor, then to the Holocaust Memorial which is really interestingly designed so you feel easily lost among the columns and uneven ground, but also small kids and other tourists like to climb on it. We didn’t realize there was an information centre for it, so didn’t go to that, but I would have liked to.

We wanted to go to Reichstag next but it (and the surrounding area) was cordoned off by Police for the swearing in of the Army. Well, that’s what Svendlemouse was told when he asked a policewoman.

Next we went to see a remaining part of the Berlin Wall at the Topography of Terror. I think I’m easily emotional right now, so had to be a bit careful about what photos to look closer at, and skimmed a bit to just sit down because of sore feet. I spent most of my time reading and looking at photos of the timeline history of Berlin outside near the section of wall, and at the special exhibit about the trial of A. Eichman.

Then it was off to Potsdamer Platz were we looked around a bit and had dinner.

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Buddhists and Bruges

Posted on July 21, 2011 by admin

When we set off (quite late in the day) yesterday I had vaguely wondered if there might be a buddhist temple nearby so that I could pay respects and offer merit for my uncle. I had been somewhat resolved to just having to wait until I got to Thailand. Well, there may not have been any temples, but just after we had lunch/breakfast (and I posted my last update) I saw four monks wandering nearby.

I sneakily went closer to see if they were Thai monks, and looking at the embroidered language on their bags and hearing their driver taking a photo of them in saying “1,2, 3” in Thai, I engaged them in conversation. At first I asked if they knew of a temple nearby and I found out there was one in another town, which I wouldn’t have time to go to since we were going to Bruges and then Belgium the next day. The next best thing was to ask if I could give them some form of offering in his name. Luckily, Svendlemouse and Star were with me, because I embarrassingly started crying in the middle of the street when I started to say that my uncle had died that morning, so they helped explain the situation.

It was lucky that their driver spoke French, English, Thai and German, and between the four monks there was Thai, English and French spoken. So in an interesting mix of languages, they agreed that it would be appropriate for me to buy them a coffee or an ice-cream if we could find an appropriate place to do the offering. Normally you could offer proper food, flowers, supplies etc to the temple, but they don’t eat full meals after midday, and they couldn’t really carry anything with them.

After a quick wander we found a nice little pub/cafe near a canal to do the ceremony. It was just below a bridge, so we had a bit of privacy, although the waiter and a few tourists had some amusement seeing us, and I think the tourists took pictures.

We ordered coffee and juice for the monks (also got one for the driver/guide), and then I was able to offer the drinks and some money. I wrote my uncles name on a bit of paper and the monks found it funny to see Luang Yat (uncle Yat) written in English, and said it was a common name so they wrote it in Thai for me too. The ceremony consisted of them chanting and they told me to send my good thoughts and merit to my Uncle. Then they burned the piece of paper and did further chanting while I sat teary-eyed with my hands together thinking good thoughts for my uncle.

After they had finished they wished us all well for our travels and told me before I went to bed to send my good thoughts and best wishes to my uncle.

The guide took a few photos and will email them to me and I got the website address for their Temple in France. They were the type of Buddhist monks, the same as those we get in the stokes valley temple in Wellington NZ, that travel to foreign temples. They had been in Ghent that day for a celebration for some buddhists in Ghent and told me there were a lot of Thais in Brussels, but they are actually based in France.

Here is their site: www.watthairoubaix.fr

Although I am still very sad about my uncle, I am amazed at the circumstances that led me to be able to pay respect for him the very day that he passed away, all the way far from home in Ghent, and that makes me pleased.

After we said goodbye to the monks it was off to Bruges. We didn’t have much time there, but it was still good to go and see the awesome buildings that look a little like gingerbread, wander around and look at the lacework in the souvenir shops. I bought a black lace butterfly to wear to remember my uncle. We thought of going to the fries and chocolate museums but they were both closing very soon after we got there. I couldn’t find the Tin Tin shop at all even though we looked around a lot for it. We had a good dinner and saw plenty of swans in the canal.

We got back in time to enjoy a bit more of the festival in Ghent, which I found impressive for a Monday night. It really is a 10 day festival!

I think we all really enjoyed Belgium and would have loved to spend more time there. But as I write this we are on a train bound for Berlin!

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Au revoir to Paris, Hallo to Ghent

Posted on July 18, 2011 by admin

The gardens of Versailles were beautiful and full of heaps of tourists like ourselves. We decided not to go to the palace or Marie Antoinette’s area because the lines were too long and we wanted a relaxing day, and we probably didn’t have enough time. The gardens took all day as it was!

It was really interesting to see how they were all laid out like different drawing rooms and the sculptures and fountains were beautiful, and I liked how they played matching music in each area.

We had a quiet evening and the next day it was off to Ghent in Belgium. The reason we came to Ghent is because Ghentse Feesten is on (and I read about it in the lonely planet guide of top 10 places to go in 2011 that lil sis gave me). It’s a 10 day festival and in this student town it is very fun.

The only downer is that is kept raining on and of, and my new shoes don’t fit as well as I had hoped. Being sopping wet didn’t help. But by evening it had gotten a bit better and our hotel room is very spacious and comfy, so if you have somewhere nice to go back to, getting rained in isn’t so bad.

Plus I got to use Ghost Kite, which is what I have named my cheap raincoat/poncho because I have to wave it around like a kite in the wind when I like it to dry. I look a bit silly wearing it, but since I’m a tourist, who cares?

In Ghent there are about 4 big churches very close together, and all of them seemed to have a concert stage set up in front of it. It was fun to hear slightly accented covers of some great 80’s hits.

The food and drink has been delicious. I tried some cherry beer and sampled lemon, apple and vanilla gin. Tasty! Also, who would have thought that Belgium chocolates are cheaper in Belgium? Dangerous. We also tried these purple cone shaped candies that are gooey in the middle. Mostly just sweet tasting, I think they might be some kind of speciality here. They even have a mcflurry version at mcdonalds. Neusjes, I think they are called noses?

At a candy stall there were smurf gummy lollies and I had to get some… And while it felt wrong eating them, they were pretty tasty too.

I got some sad news this morning. One of my uncles in Thailand has passed away. It was expected as he was very sick. My mother is over there with my brother right now. It is a comfort to know I will be over there in less than a month too, but will miss out on seeing my mum.

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Paris

Posted on July 15, 2011 by admin

Let’s see…I have been in Paris for 5 days. We met up at our hostel with Mackerel and their friend Mlle. G. We got up to a lot of stuff so far, so I shall just list it (see svendsblog.isprettyawesome for more details):

– visited Sacre Couer and almost lost Svendlemouse. Also, fended off friendship bracelet scam artist and fake deaf people.
– ate lots of cheese and bread. Lots. It is good.
– waited for a really long time to get into the Catacombs. Very spooky but cool, I’m still not used to being so close to human remains.
– walked through Pere Lachaise cemetery and saw some famous graves.
– visited Musee D’Orsay. I loved the art nouveau section of furniture. I want a house like that!
– walked through Les Tuileries and had a picnic lunch there.
– visited Place de Concorde, which had a grandstand set up for Bastille Day.
– walked along the Seine river a few times.
– visited the Eiffel tower, but didn’t go up it. There was a big stage set up for Bastille Day concert in the garden, but we didn’t go on that day.
– went for a river tour, which passed the above sights, and also Notre Dame.
– watched a military parade at a the National Assembly. So many hat and uniform combos. Also, singing while marching is pretty cool.
– visited the Louvre and saw most of the ‘must see’ art pieces.
– bought some new shoes (nikes – by now my other pair are worn out and my feet are very sore!) and had coffee on the Champs Élysées.
– had a geez at the Arc de Triumph.
– got used to using the metro.
– did not speak much French.

Today I rested, finished my book and updated photos on Facebook, and a few on this blog. The others went for a big walk around, but I was too tired. I was going to go to Paris Disneyland today, but decided to save the money and have a rest. Perhaps one day I will take my little niece instead?

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Back in London

Posted on July 10, 2011 by admin

It’s been good to stay with a friend and just relax for a few days. It’s off to Paris tomorrow, so I’ve been lazily not doing much while I’m here.

After dropping off the car and saying goodbye to Mackerel, Svendlemouse, Star and I headed over towards the British Museum. But we also caught up with a friend at Gosh comics across the road from the museum. I hadn’t seen him in 11 years so it was very cool. He also pointed us in the direction of a decent place for Star to get a coffee, as she had not had a good cup in weeks.

It was fun seeing the museum again, this time we checked out Egyptian, roman and Greek sculpture. It was daunting looking at the dates and then seeing tourists clambering and touching some of the stuff (despite signs telling them not to).

The next day I slept in and read a book, then meet up with Svendlemouse and Star at London Bridge. We checked out the Borough Market which had amazing food, then took our time traipsing across London Bridge, walking past the Tower of London, crossing the Tower Bridge and looking at an outdoor art display near city hall. There was also an outdoor piano for the summer festival, which was similar to one in New York where there are pianos scattered around the city.

Yesterday I headed out with the lovely Oddnumbereven to the V&A childhood museum. Some very cool old toys thee, especially the dolls houses on the second floor, and a display for the writer of the Mog books and the Tiger who came to Tea.

She also look me to Brick Lane and I actually find it hard to remember all the places we visited. It was a lot and she even described them really well when I was there. I blame my poor memory. I know we went to a very cool cupcake place, and some awesome second hand clothing stores and bead store. We also went to Kid Robot and I got some zipper pull charms. Oh, and Trafalgar Square and I saw the smallest police station which looks like a phone booth. Also, had dinner in Chinatown. It was a fantastic day and I loved catching up with my friend and seeing awesome things.

On Sunday I was lazy and stayed home at Drifter’s house and watched Spartacus (the made in NZ series) with his flatmate. Spartacus was much raunchier/fighty/sweary than I expected, I don’t think I will become a fan but it was fine to waste some time watching.

Then in the evening I went to Camben Town for dinner with Drifter, Svendlemouse and Star. We had a quick look through the market, but none of us were in the mood to buy anything.

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Portsmouth and driving

Posted on July 10, 2011 by admin

Ok, so I can’t be bothered writing about the stuff I did in Wales or Bath. I just read Svend’s blog and he sums it all up nicely.

In Portsmouth, I had had enough of historical places and museums so instead went back to my tried and true habit of catching an elevator up somewhere high and looking around. That was the spinnaker tower. There was some fantastic views, and I should have waited until it finished raining to snap pictures.

There is also a decent outlet mall there, so I bought some underwear and a few birthday cards that I should really post today! Then found a pub for lunch and spent a lot of time using their wifi.

I did go check out the Historic Dockyard and took pictures of the boats and looked at the antique shops, but I didn’t go into any of the museums. Oh, except for the free exhibit on being an apprentice.

I also finished reading Holly Black’s book White Cat. I’ve also since finished reading the sequel Red Glove.

There are three things I noticed driving round the country.
1) Following distances don’t really exist. People like to drive very closely here.
2) I hadn’t realized that in NZ they make pretty accurate signs to portray curves coming up in the road. Here they use the same sign no matter what the curves will be, and it is a frightening backwards N. So it was like false advertising, and every time I expected horrendous double turns, and mostly got gentle curves instead. Better than the other way though!
3) It’s very pretty to drive around, but all the hedges close up make you feel kinda cramped in, and block the lovely view.

All in all, it was a lot of fun driving around with my friends and seeing some great sights!

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Hereford

Posted on July 6, 2011 by admin

Firstly, if I am too bad at updating this blog, it’s because we have been too busy doing activities, and then it is too annoying to write all about them in one go.

Also, you can also check out svendsblog.isprettyawesome.com for updates from his perspective.

So at the moment I am in Portsmouth, but I better write about Hereford first.

We stayed at a motel for a few nights and visited the Catherdral with the Mappa Mundi. Which was an old map of the world written on vellum (calf skin). It is pretty cool with it’s circle shape and mythical creatures.

The cathedral also has a link to the Christchurch Cathedral and they raised some funds for it.

Earlier that day we also visited the King Offa distillery and Cider Museum. Very educaional, and we also tasted a few samples of cider brandy and liquor. I learnt that pear cider is called perry. They had an early edition of a book on apple breeds (is that the right word?). Very nice pictures, but the postcards were only of the less nice ones.

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Yorkshire

Posted on June 30, 2011 by admin

A few days ago, Svendlemouse, Star, Mackerel and I got a rental car and also our first taste of Primark (cheap but fun store, great for clothes). I only bought socks though.

This car is a smooth drive, but I’m used to my little Starlet which only has four gears so it’s a bit of a change for me. When you are going 80 mph in this one it feels like 80 kmp, so have to keep an eye on the speed. Not that I’m jetting around at 80 mph. Only Mackerel and I are driving it.

So we headed up to york and it was so pretty that we decided to stay there another day. Here is a picture taken with my iPad.

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The next day we drove through Thirsk and visited the vet (now a museum) which the novels by James Herriott are based off. I hadn’t read any of his books or seen the TV show “All creatures, great and small”, but it was still very interesting, and I really should read them now.

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The car from the tv show.

Then we went to Marton in Middlesborough which has a museum about the birthplace of Captain Cook. The cottage where he was born was torn down by one of Makerel’s ancestors, so they have a commemorative urn in it’s place. However, due to construction being done at the park, it was gone, so we stood on the pedestal and took pictures of each other instead.

What I like about the museums here is they tend to be geared towards school children visiting so have interactive sections.

Next we headed to Whitby, it was a bit cold by now, but we still went up to see the church on the hill here, and it is a very pretty town. Lots of gothic type stuff due to parts of Dracula being based in this town. There are some crazy paved roads among the touristy type shops and we drove through some moors when we left.

The next day we stayed in York and looked at the Minster Cathedral and also the Castle Museum. I didn’t feel like doing a tour of the Minster, so while the others did that I wandered around the Shambles (utterly cute cobbled streets all packed in close), looked into a church fundraiser and had a key lime pie flavored ice-cream.

The Castle Museum was good with some very cool history of York through the ages type things, a whole Victorian style street recreated inside, and also cool to take a look in the dungeons.

Then we drove to Hereford.

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Wedding 2 and return to London

Posted on June 26, 2011 by admin

The day before the wedding was fun. We went to the meadow where a large marquee had been set up and helped with hanging ivy on all the poles. We also found out that Bride 2 had got a surprise guest of her cousin from NZ which the groom surprised her with, as she had thought that her cousin couldn’t make it.

Then we had a bit of a break, as much of the work had been done by earlier people (Bride2’s family and the happy couple) and played with circus gear. Juggling things and ribbon pois.

For lunch MOH L took Svendlemouse, Star, Mackerel and me to a carvery, where it’s kinda like a roast buffet and for dessert I tried Eton Mess, which I had heard about and is delicious! Meringues, berries and cream, yum.

The rest of the day was also spent making signs and general getting things ready business.

The wedding was a lot of fun. The vows were very sweet (and appropriately funny at times) and the happy couple had tears in their eyes. The weather was a bit drizzly early in the day, but cleared up for the wedding and there was a bouncy castle, fete style games, a paddling pool, BBQ picnic dinner, folk music, seven different types of cake and a whole bunch of lovely people! I think everyone had a fantastic time.

I took a lot of photos and was in charge of the guestbook signing.

Today I made a short trip back to London to visit Little Sis as she will be out of town (the Hamptons!!) for the rest of my visit. Although I may be back.. Still not sure of my future plans.

We went to the British Museum to see a painting of the Buddha’s face that mum had wanted her to see, but it wasn’t on display. We managed to have a look around the Asian section and had afternoon high tea, which was delicious, although a bit expensive.

For dinner we went to China town and ate Peking duck in pancake rolls, it was delicious. The whole time we were together we caught up and talked about how much we loved the pictures Dad had sent of Mum giving our toddler niece a bath while my cat Totoro supervised.

A few days ago I had skyped with Mum and Dad, then Giffle and toddler niece. It is so good to reconnect with family again. Although, I think other house guests may have thought me a bit odd when they could hear strains of me singing “No more monkeys jumping on the bed” through the walls!

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