Ich bin ein Berliner

For a day or two. A sad place, and not really me, to be perfectly honest. I think if you are more of a party person then maybe, but I'm more keen on the historic buildings thing, and Berlin has such a raw history that you feel like you are staring into gaping wounds that are only just starting to heal.

So you end up with building sites where the old DDR government was housed

And you get fancy modern domes on buildings that were heavily bombed

Which isn't to say that Berlin doesn't have many fine buildings, just that the context is a bit grim.

Berlin zoo today and hopefully a bit of a walk round the park and then on to Munich tomorrow! Assuming there are no administrative issues, of course...

Bremen

Bremen was my idea. Many years ago, I did some research on the town, chosen pretty much at random. And now I had a chance to go there. I'm not the guy who turns down that sort of opportunity.

A train from Copenhagen to Hamburg (a long way) and then on to Bremen. The dusk light suggested there were good things to be seen here (and a fine bar serving Bremen's most famous export - Becks - did similar). But sadly we had just the one night. So (as ever) I awoke early and took some snaps. I was very taken with the place.
Roland (another famous icon of Bremen) was one of Charlemagne's knights - a paladin. He also had a famous sword called Durendal. Yes, another World Heritage Site...


The more you looked, the more there was to see...





But now Berlin. A different kind of city, indeed.

Copenhagen Part 2: Roskilde and Elsinore

Roskilde was another fine day. We didn't want to get caught out with little to do (as happened on the last day in Stockholm when we were waiting for the night train), so we got off the metaphorical, and physical, arses and trotted over to the Viking home.

They've been doing a lot of recreation of longships to discover history through activity.





That day having worked so well, we did something similar the next, but to Elsinore instead.


It was a fine place. Another one for my list of World Heritage Sites.
Afterwards we headed back into Copenhagen to see the Tivoli Gardens (open for Halloween). Some fantastic rides to be done, but we elected against it.

Copenhagen Part 1

In Copenhagen we saw many fine things, and from there we went on to Roskilde (the base for the Vikings) and Helsingor (or Elsinore) the supposed home of Hamlet. What with the image problems blogger seems to be having I'll see what I can do...

The castle is more of a barracks area, built into a well-fortified castellation. You see more of the same in Elsinore...



Just around the corner from the Little Mermaid is this piece, which I found more impressive and moving. The use of cannons is effective


A much finer fountain (IMHO) of a goddess who turned her sons into bulls so she could plough Sweden. She was given some land in thanks and dropped it into the sea, forming Zealand.


Please also accept another war memorial and some strange yellow houses.

Update and piccies

There's a problem with the uploading of images at the mo, so you'll have to wait. Suffice to say that I'm in Berlin and England lost at football. Thankfully the All Whites won, so not all bad. Astonishingly Smeltz had 2 goals disallowed for offside. Who'd have thought?

The Little Mermaid. Isn't she sweet?






Here is a picture of the Little Mermaid's (ahem) bigger sister. Just a few minutes walk from the proper one.

Bremen

Fab, fab, fab. But again short of internet access. Off to Berlin later today and we are both thinking another day here would not have gone amiss. But still....

Denmark

I'm here and all is well. Been watching England beat Estonia in a frankly rubbish game. I'll write more and put up some pictures when I can.

Updated briefly:
Weather: fantastic
Roskilde: Vikings
Copenhagen: Splendid
Planning: Fiddly
Food: Expensive
Beer: Good

The trouble is that I can only get access to this from the hotel lobby, so I'm limited in what I can say and do. I'm sure things will be better next time... Tomorrow hopefully Hamlet's castle and the Tivoli gardens!