A Hotel To Avoid
My hotel in Berlin is definitely one to avoid.
These are current anoyancies.
- The television can’t receive BBC World.
- The glasses are small thin plastic things in plsstic bags, that break easily. McDonalds provide better ones!
- There is no plug for a laptop by the desk.
That doesn’t matter as the desk isn’t big enough for a laptop. - The doors are heavy steel ones that are hard to open and hit you as you go through.
- There is no place to put clothes
I shall be glad to leave tomorrow.
I will mot return or use another of this group’s hotels.
I’ll name the hotel, when I get back to Blighty and I have put my vitriol on Trip Advisor. I can’t fo that now, as I haven’t got my account details with me. You always forget something!
These are a few pictures I took.
In some ways for me, the non-existent glasses was worst. Because of my stroke, I like to drink out of a glass, as I can’t use a straw.
This hotel is totally unsuitable for solo travellers like myself, who need to charge devices. It would also be terrible for a couple, as the average woman would have no place to put everything.
C would have gone potty.
If I were to give the average Premier Inn 7 out of 10, I would give this Metro One hotel by the Hauptbahnhof in Berlin, a score as low as one.
Does London Need A ‘Grand Paris Express’?
The Grand Paris Express is a plan to create an automated Metro, that goes all the way round Paris. Wikipedia says this.
Grand Paris Express is a project of new rapid transit lines to be created in the île-de-France region, in France. The work could begin in 2014, with the first line opening between Pont de Sèvres métro station and Gare de Noisy – Champs (fr) RER A station around 2020. This line was first proposed in the project Orbival, then integrated into the Arc Express project.
The French also seem to be moving on the project as is reported here in Global Rail News.
So does London need something similar?
If we look at Berlin, that has a circular railway around the city centre called the Ringbahn. It’s about the same size as the Circle Line, but differs in one big way; it has a parallel freight ring.
London also has the Overground,which is a great way to get round the city without going through the centre. Like the Berlin Ringbahn it also carries freight.
The Overground is not a Metro, as in Berlin or as Paris is proposing, but a full-size railway, with not as high a frequency, as you’d get on a tube or metro line. However, the Overground does share a lot of objectives with the Grand Paris Express.
But those creative minds at Transport for London have proposed something similar to the Grand Paris Express in their Transport Infrastructure Plan for 2050. It’s a plan to extend the Gospel Oak to Barking Line under the Thames from Barking to Abbey Wood and then by means of existing lines take the trains around London via Sutton, Wimbledon, Hounslow, Old Oak Common to Gospel Oak. I documemted the route in full in these posts.
London’s plan differs from that of Paris in one big way, as it only requires one expensive piece of new infrastructure, which is the tunnel from Barking to Thamesmead. The main factor that will make London’s plan possible is that in a few years, all trains will have in-cab signalling, so slotting in the new Overground services on existing lines, will be a lot easier.
The title of the French proposal sums it up. It contains the word Grand and that is what it is.
London may take a much more mundane and affordable step-by-step approach, but it means that you don’t have to wait years to get the benefits you need now.
Do We Really Need A New London Airport?
The Guardian is running a report this morning, about the resignation of the Mayor of Berlin. This is the first paragraph.
Klaus Wowereit, the openly gay mayor who turned Berlin into a capital of cool, announces intention amid delays to new airport
If you read the Wikipedia entry about the new Berlin-Brandenburg airport, you’ll see a large number of problems.
It looks like to me, that Berlin has bitten off more than it can chew with this airport.
So would it be the same if London decided to build an airport in the Thames Estuary? Or anywhere else for that matter?
I think that we’re in some ways trying to make a decision about new airport capacity in the South-East, before all the things we’re doing now have had time to settle down.
The aviation industry obviously wants more airport capacity, as it will make the aerospace, airline and airport companies larger. And Directors, Senior Managers and Shareholders would like that, as it would enrich them. Just as British Airways has merged with Iberia, will other mergers happen, that will effect our decision on airport capacity. The shape of the airline industry will be driven by the desire to get bigger and also American companies wanting to be more tax efficient.
The airlines too, will be bringing in lots of new aircraft. If we take the example of replacing say an A330/A340 with an A380, this will probably increase the passengers going through an airport for the same number of aircraft movements. Even small airliners like the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 are squeezing in a few more passengers every couple of years or so.
So in the future we may need several more terminals. But perhaps only one extra runway! If that!
We also don’t know what the air passenger market will be. If I read the travel pages of serious newspapers, you find that the self loading cargo is restless and complains about everything from drop-off and parking charges to security delays. Even Ryanair is introducing a Business Class. Things are changing and in some ways, I think I’m typical of the new breed of passenger. I go to and from the airport by train, I only carry hand baggage and if it is available, I can afford to travel Business Class. Incidentally, I’ve had five or six outward flights from the UK this year and only one inward.
In some ways the most interesting flight I had was to Iceland, for my holiday. Many of the travellers I met, were going between North America and Europe and were having a holiday and flight break on the island. I never liked long flights and would often go to Houston or California, by changing planes at Boston.
So I think we’re going to see passengers demanding flexibility in how they book flights and they’ll adjust their schedules to make the most of the awful experience of sitting in an aluminium tube for several hours.
With the growth of low cost airlines, have we in the UK changed our pattern of holidays and swapped long haul holidays for several short-haul ones.
I believe that every flight that can be avoided should be. After flights this year, I think my days of travelling steerage are over.
All the vested commercial interests also ignore the herds of wildebeest and zebra in the room. Trains in the UK will shape our airports policy more than anybody predicts.
Manchester is now the UK’s third busiest airport. With the Northern Hub rail developments and the expansion of the Metrolink tram, the airport is getting much better connectivity. Already, electrification in the area, has allowed new electric trains to connect the airport directly to Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Heathrow gets Crossrail and Gatwick gets an updated Thameslink in 2018/2019, which coincidentally is the date when the Northern Hub developments will be substantially complete.
If you look at the top ten airports by passengers, only Glasgow and Bristol don’t have a rail link, although Glasgow may be getting one. But then Glasgow’s trains need a good sorting out, as I discussed here.
I think by the end of this decade, that a much higher percentage of passengers will go to their departure airport by public transport, mainly because of more frequent and passenger friendly tram and rail links. Although the way airports see motorists as cash cows will help.
And then there’s the elephant in the room of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link. By now, London should have been linked to at least Amsterdam and Cologne, in addition to the current destinations. I wonder sometimes if there is lack of political will in the various governments to get more services through the tunnel. Or is our policy determined more by the British government discouraging immigrants than providing a proper rail service?
All of these factors must be allowed to settle before we decide if we need any more airports or runways in the South East.
Being Wise After The Event
The last two days of this trip were a bit hurried. Thinking about it a couple of days after I returned, I think I should have given myself another night in Berlin and come home via Cologne on the Friday.
This is possible at a cost of €154 in First Class leaving Berlin at 10:47. And then you have another for €99 Standard Premier on the Eurostar. This totals at €253
Alternatively you can buy the Berlin to Cologne ticket from DB for €117 and then buy a ticket from Cologne to London on Eurostar for €114. This route costs €231 and allows you to use any train you like between Cologne and Brussels.
I would think that on paper, the second route might not only be cheaper, but more convenient, as you could take a train to suit your Eurostar and perhaps have a good meal in Brussels, in the time you are waiting.
This joint ticket is available from several other cities like Bonn, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich. Munich to London in Standard Class costs £127, although I can’t seem to find a train to get to Brussels from Munich.
Would I Go Back To Berlin?
Yes! But I’d certainly find a better and cheaper way to come home.
In DB Style From Berlin To Heidelberg
I’d always wanted to go to Heidelberg, as it was probably the first German town, of which I knew the name. This was because I spent so much time from the age of about six watching one or other of my father’s Original Heidelberg printing machines. One is shown in this post. My simple job, was to call him, if the machines dropped any paper, which is a letterpress printer’s worst nightmare, as then other shets follow and paper goes everywhere, often damaging the intricately set type.
There is no museum in the town, but I just had to go.
So I bought an extremely expensive ticket at €215 for the journey, expecting a bit of DB TLC in First.
All I got was one cup of coffee which I had to pay €2.50 for.
My €2.50 Cup Of Coffee
But I suppose the seat was comfortable and I had most of the carriage to myself.
At least on my journey from Berlin to Warsaw, which is about the same distance, I paid only €79 and got a free cup of coffee and some biscuits that weren’t gluten-free.
As Berlin to Heidelberg is virtually the same distance as London to Edinburgh, I looked up the fares on the Scottish route. Today it would be £208, but tomorrow it would be £120. On the other hand for the German trip for say next Thursday, it will still be €215.
There is also one big difference in the UK, in that anybody, even Germans, over 60 can purchase for £30 a Senior Railcard, which reduces the prices I’ve shown by a third. And you can buy that at a ticket office, when you take your first journey. I did try to see if I could buy a DB Card, but the lady at the ticket office didn’t want to sell me one and didn’t have good English.
But the biggest difference between East Coast or Virgin and DB, is that on many long distance journeys you get snacks and endless tea and coffee thrown in with the ticket.
I have had customer service problems with Deutsche Barn in the past, most notably at Osnabruck.
No wonder the train was empty for most of the way!
Maps And Information In Berlin
This is a subject that I find important and feel that if a town or city wants to be a Grade One tourist destination, then they must have good maps and information.
London has always had a street map at each Underground station and this policy has been extended to most of the proper bus shelters. It’s a policy that Londoners and tourists must like, as more and more maps and information is appearing, with yellow topped liths popping up everywhere.
Warsaw it seems has started to add liths and maps for tourists, with quite a few finger posts too.
But I only one map on the street in Berlin.
A Solitary Map
There are maps at stations, but they are not up to the detailed level, you get in other cities, including some German ones.
Art On The U-Bahn
The U-Bahn is Berlin’s underground railway and just like some of the older lines on the London Underground, it has some appropriate artwork.
The one thing that I didn’t like was the stick on decoration of some of the trains, which meant you had difficulty seeing out to read the station names.
Exploring The S-Bahn In Berlin
The Berlin S-Bahn is the ideal way to travel around the city centre getting a good view of everything. All these pictures were taken on the S-Bahn.
Note that some were taken from the mainline train I took to leave Berlin
Gluten Free Beer And Pizza In Berlin
For supper, I ventured into the non-touristy parts of Berlin to Yorckstrasse station to have supper at Cielo di Berlino,
It was a trip worth making.
Although it nearly did get embarrassing, as they didn’t take credit cards and much of my euros had been used up. Note that in Germany cash points don’t seem to be as numerous as they are in the UK.
The Anonymous Widower 