Berlin – Thursday 13th December 2018 After an early, though slightly delayed flight to Berlin, we checked in to an appropriately cat-themed hotel, with cat flaps painted on the outside of the room doors and cats eyes on the key cards. From here it was a short walk to see the site of Check Point Charlie and Trabiworld… …the remaining section of the Wall on Niederkirchnerstraße… …the Sony Center… …the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe… …the site of Hitler’s bunker… …the Brandenberg Gate and the Reichstag… …to finish in the Gendarmen Christmas Market… … for beer and snacks. Berlin – Friday 14th December 2018 After a late breakfast, Jaime wanted to make progress on one of her university assignments so returned to the warmth of the hotel to work whilst the rest of Travelling Herd went to the Jewish Museum which included a special exhibition entitled Welcome to Jerusalem. From there we went to the Topology of Terror Museum which focuses on the institutions of the police and the SS in the Third Reich and the crimes they committed throughout Europe. German museums do not shy away from the atrocities of the second world war and whilst this […]
2018 Iceland & Germany
Iceland’s Golden Circle – Tuesday 11th December 2018 The Northern Lights seem destined to evade us but we booked a coach tour of the Golden Circle to see some of the incredible natural phenomena of the local landscape. The storm had passed overnight but there were still 30 mile an hour winds. The beauty of Iceland speaks for itself and the weather simply enhanced the experience. The tour took in the Þingvellir National Park including the Rift Valley and the mid Atlantic Ridge. Robert remembers being taught about plate tectonics in geography, some time ago at school, at a time when the theory was only just being developed. Geysir is the site of the original and eponymous geyser where the water boils and bubbles, the land steams and the Strokkur geyser, now the more reliable of the two, obligingly and dramatically erupted several times. The Gullfoss or Golden Waterfall is on the Hvitá – White – River and is fed by the water which melts from Iceland’s second largest glacier, the Langjökull. The water drops 32 meters in two stages into a canyon with walls which tower 70 meters above the gorge. Rainbows shimmer over this spectacular sight in the […]
Reykjavik – Saturday, 8th December 2018 Matilda has spent the week prior to this long-awaited trip checking the Aurora Borealis [Northern Lights] forecast regularly on the Icelandic meteorological office website and is resigned to the fact that, due to the weather forecast which is predominantly cloud and rain, the Northern Lights are unlikely to be visible at all during our stay. Despite such a severe disappointment, we are all being very pragmatic and philosophical as Iceland still has so much to offer. There are relatively few daylight hours at this time of year and so we decided to make the most of them after checking in to our hotel by walking round Reykjavík to the Hallgrimskirkja. The Hallgrimskirkja is the largest church in Iceland at 74.5 metres high and its distinctive tower is one of the dominant landmarks of Reykjavík. It was designed by the architect Guojon Samuelsson in 1937 who took local geology and the basalt columns formed as the lava cooled at the Svartifoss waterfall as his inspiration. Sadly we will not see the Svartifoss waterfall on this visit but it is on the list for next time. Work began on the Hallgrimskirkja in 1945 and the nave was consecrated […]