What I learned about the Prague-Berlin train

by Iva Skoch on

I just got back to Prague from Russia and went straight to Berlin. How is that for a grand tour of War War II history? Completely unintentional, mind you.

I took the train from Prague to Berlin yesterday. It’s a great way to travel between the two cities. The train follows the river Labe (Elbe] for much of the route and takes you through what Czechs call the “Czech Switzerland” area, a picturesque gorge area.

One thing to keep in mind if you want to take this train is that you should buy tickets at least three days in advance. I didn’t and it cost me twice as much. I paid roughly $150 for a roundtrip Prague-Berlin ticket. If you book in advance, you pay as little as $70, even less if you are a student or purchase a Czech rail pass. Schedules are here.

The train ride takes 4 and 1/2 hours and is clean and comfortable. They even have a few tables where you can plug in your laptop. It is a good idea to purchase an assigned seat for an extra $5 each way. I didn’t and was kicked out of my seat no less than three times. The train isn’t crowded on the Czech side of the trip, but once we crossed the border with Germany, literally the entire East German population over 60 years got on my train for some peculiar reason.

Arriving at the new Berlin Hauptbahnhof is pretty amazing, too. Finally, a train station that looks cool and smells good. Which, certainly, cannot be said about Prague’s main train station. What a dump that place is. They are, however, renovating it. Keep your fingers crossed.

More from Berlin later.

Europe on a budget: Take public transportation

by Anna Brones on

It really shouldn’t come as a surprise, but when you are trying to save those euros this summer, you are going to want to spend your time discovering cities by way of public transportation. Buses, street cars and metros are what the European continent is known for, and this article in the New York Times highlights how many good deals you can find aboard different forms of transportation.

The article lays out how much you’ll have to pay and where public transportation can take you in five European cities: London, Paris, Barcelona, Berlin and Rome. Any budget conscious traveler will most likely already be well versed in the variety of modes of public transportation and how to pay for them — the constant “single tickets vs. multi-day pass” question — but what I do like about the article are the recommendations for day trips, all accessible by main Metro, Tube or U-Bahn lines, and that take you to some off the beaten path destinations.

The budget basics:

London: The Tube. Invest in a pay-as-you-go Oyster Card to save some money, you have to pay a 3.50£ deposit to get the card, so make sure not to lose it so you can get your money back.
Paris: Le Metro. One trip passes are 1.50€, but the Times recommends that it’s probably cheaper to buy a pack of ten than invest in a multi-day pass.
Barcelona: Metro. Single tickets cost 1.30€, but it makes more sense to buy a ten trip pass which starts at 7.20€.
Berlin: U-Bahn. Single ticket fares start at 2.10€ and a one day pass starts at 6.10€.
Rome: Metropolitana. It’s super cheap: single-ride tickets start at 1€ and one-day passes at 4€!

Read the whole article here.

Tempelhof Airport’s closure will be good news for Berlin

by Jeffrey White on

A lot has been made of the referendum earlier this week in Berlin over whether or not Tempelhof Airport should close, during which those bidding to save the historic building lost. It’s an interesting story that has Berlin once again divided between east and west. West Berliners, remembering the airport’s role in keeping them alive in the years of the Berlin Airlift of 1948-49, naturally want to preserve the building. East Berliners don’t, perhaps because the airport in many ways helped divide the city in the first place, and was an early precursor to the Berlin Wall.

Either way, the fact of the matter is that the referendum was meaningless (and technically non-binding). City officials decided quite a while ago to close the airport.

I live a few blocks away from the airport, and from a historical perspective I’d like to see the building preserved; it truly is an impressive site to see up close (the airport was once the largest building in Europe). But the fact of the matter is that very few use the airport these days: private charters mostly, and Brussels Airlines. Those who want to close it say they need to make room, money wise, for a massive airport project planned for the Schoenefeld section of the city. I can get behind this.

Berlin is unique among European capitals in that it doesn’t have a major airport. Its two airports — Tegel and Schoenefeld — strike any who land at them as woefully inadequate for a major city like Berlin. They are simply too small, and cannot handle the increasing number of people who are traveling to Berlin. So, the plan right now is to fully upgrade Schoenefeld into Berlin’s primary international airport sometime in the next few years. Trust me, the city needs it.

Things always happen slowly in Berlin. It’s a fair question to ask how the capital of Germany has survived so long without a main airport. But then again, the city only unveiled its main train station two years ago, in time for the World Cup.

Planning your European nightlife

by Anna Brones on

Despite the low dollar, some of us still have European summer adventures on the horizon. And just because the economy is in a rut, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t focus on fabulous things to do across the Atlantic. This weekend, the New York Times put together a set of 10 articles on things to do after midnight in various European cities. I tend to like the New York Times Travel section, but I really enjoyed this compilation of articles which takes us from hip billiards in Paris to 24 hour bookstores in Moscow to a tram-based nightclub in Prague.

The ten cities covered are:
Athens
Barcelona
Berlin
Copenhagen
Lisbon
London
Moscow
Paris
Prague
Venice

Go here to discover more of Europe’s after-midnight adventures, and then start scrounging for euros.

Photo of the Day (04/07/08)

by Iva Skoch on

We haven’t featured any socialist realism photos here for a while. This one caught my eye.

Taken by Damiel in Berlin, we are looking at the backs of Karl Marx and Fridrich Engels, possibly the world’s most influential “utopists.” The composition is what makes the photo: mixing the old with the new. Juxtaposing the TV tower with the old Rathaus (Town Hall), set on the bed of white fluffy clouds and, of course, concrete. This must be how utopia is born.

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