Legoland. The real one in Denmark. Plus Germany and Switzerland

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Onto Berlin. Having never visited the German capital, a big question was what district to stay in.

We landed on Potsdamer Platz, which looked like it was going to be within close walking distance to a number of key attractions.

So it would be 5 nights at the Berlin Marriott at Potsdamer Platz.

It turned out to be a good area to use as a base, with a well connected train station right next to the hotel, and several excellent restaurants in the immediate vicinity.

Within a 10 minute walk you had:

• Checkpoint Charlie
• Berlin Wall
• Reichstag building
• Tiergarten
• Brandenburg Gate

And a lot more. Weather was perfect.

 

[craven morehead]

Why does the tiny town of Billund in Denmark (pop 7000) have a major international airport, the second busiest in the country of Denmark?

Answers to this and more in this trip report!

This was my first overseas trip in almost 3 years. First time on a plane in fact, since Jan 2020.

Travelling party is a family of 2 adults 2 kids, and the travel occurred in Sept-Oct 2022.

The plan:

• EK From SYD to CPH (Copenhagen)
• 4 nights in Copenhagen at the Hotel Coco
• Train CPH to Vejle in western Denmark
• 2 nights in Vejle
• Visit Legoland in Billund
• Train Vejle to Hamburg in northern Germany
• 2 nights at Le Meridien Hamburg
• Train Hamburg to Berlin
• 5 nights Marriott Berlin
• Train to Heidelberg
• 3 nights Heidelberg
• Train to Zurich
• 2 nights Zurich
• EK ZRH to SYD

Here we go...

Dialing in late

 

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Next up was two very different Museums. Neues Museum and the German Spy Museum

Neues Museum, best known for having one of the most highly regarded collections of Ancient Egyptian artefacts outside of Egypt, including the Bust of Nefertiti



No Photography is allowed in the Nefertiti Room, so here's an official photo

 

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Next was the German Spy Museum.

This is quite close to Potsdamer Platz, under a 5 minute walk.

As Berlin was probably THE hotspot for spycraft during the cold war, the museum has a strong focus on cold war spy apparatus and events.

However there's also quite a lot of content from WW2 and earlier, as well as a few "modern" attractions for the kids like a real working laser maze.

Overall, really good. Recommended.

Enigma Machines


Cold war spy tools



Depiction of a famous "bridge of spies"incident. A spy "exchange" from the 80's where captured spies from each side were swapped.

 

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Q. When did people start wearing their pyjamas to breakfast at the hotel restaurant?

A little about the hotel, Marriott Berlin:

It's a pretty large hotel by European standards and is well located.

Onsite dining options include a modern mixed cuisine restaurant, and, in what must be pretty unique in the world, a Currywurst restaurant.

For those not familiar, Currywurst is a street food, invented in berlin and commonly sold via food trucks or "hole in the wall" takeaway kiosks.

The Marriott has The Big Dog on premises.

The Big Dog Berlin - Hot Dog Restaurant In Berlin, Fritten, Craft Beer

The Big Dog - das Hot Dog Restaurant in Berlin, ganz in der Nähe vom Potsdamer Platz! Dich erwarten köstliche Hot Ddogs, himmlische fritten und jede Menge Craft Bier in lockerer Atmosphäre.

www.thebigdog.de

Of course we had to try it out. When in rome...

Onto the pajamas thing. The hotel's main restaurant is at ground level with large windows to the street. This is used for the breakfast buffet.

On two separate days, I noticed people coming to breakfast in their PJ's. When did this become a thing?

Hotel Pool

 

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A few more shots from around the traps in Berlin

The East german TV tower


Obligatory beer photo


#NOPE


The Sony Centre at Potsdamer Platz.


Plenty of support for Ukraine at the HBF


Reichstag


We did a canal tour, which was quite good. Ran for about 2 hours.

 

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Next stop, Mannheim. This was the longest train journey of the trip, about 4.5 hours.

 

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We await the train at Berlin station. ICE 371 to Interlaken gets us to Mannheim with no changes.

When it arrives, we find our seats and settle in for the journey



We arrive at Mannheim later in the afternoon and walk about 50metres to the Hilton Garden Inn, which is right outside the station.

They put us on the top floor, and the room offers extensive district views

Downstairs is a large courtyard and a decent restaurant/bar

Mannheim is our base for visiting nearby Heidelberg, but it has a number of attractions in its own right. We go for a wander

One of the key landmarks is a 19th century water tower, right in the middle of town. It was still in service until 2000.



The main shopping drag is a pedestrian zone with trams, a bit like Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich.



Tomorrow we will head to Heidelberg

 

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Next morning, we catch a local train to Heidelberg, which is only about 20 minutes away.

I saw that fellow member @boomy was also there recently, and also had a lovely experience.

We couldn't have asked for better weather and headed straight to the castle

 

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Yes that wine barrel is enormous. 219,000 litres apparently!




Specialist abseiling stonemasons were doing some preservation work on the ruins.


Portcullis


Sundial

 

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Next morning we started with the ‎⁨Mannheim Art Gallery (Kunsthalle Mannheim⁩)

This has an eclectic mix of modern art, as well as some iconic pieces from Manet, Monet, Renoir, and Van Gough.

Manet's "Execution of the Emperor Maximiliian" is apparently valued higher than the entire building of the museum (according to the very informative security guard!)



Over the main atrium, is an exhibit featuring a large ticking clock, spinning against a boulder as a counterweight. Very unusual

 

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After the gallery, we pop back to Heidelberg for lunch

If the town looks terrific when seen from the castle, the reverse is also true!


The main square in the Altstadt is a wonderful place to have lunch. Take your choice from about 8 different cafes.

 

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Next day we depart on the train to Zurich.

This involves a change of trains at Basel, which is just across the German/Swiss border. Everyone promptly removes their masks the moment we leave Germany!



Accomodation is the Hotel Adler, in the old town, about a 5 minute walk from the Zurich Hauptbahnhof.

The hotel itself is in a 15th century building and is well known for its Swiss Chuci restaurant which focuses on swiss specialty cuisine. We make a reservation for that night (...when in rome).

There's a courtyard behind the hotel that runs market stalls during the day, and restaurant seating in the evenings.

We go for a wander around the area then make our way back for dinner

 

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This is the restaurant (their photos are better than mine)

Zurich Food Guide: The Best Fondue at Swiss Chuchi - MyTravelBuzzg

Our Zurich food guide and food recommendation when visiting Swiss Chuchi for their best cheese fondue in Zurich.

www.mytravelbuzzg.com

Good thing we made a reservation, because it was packed, and there was a line outside in the street!

We had some of the cheese fondue, as well as the less famous (but better) meat fondue, in which a tray of meats and sauces are provided to be dipped in a pot of hot, seasoned oil. Also served was some rösti and raclette.

Keeping with the "when in Rome" theme, this is accompanied by a local Zurich area red wine, and Rivella for the kids.

 

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Another day in Zurich and we take a short tram ride to Zurich Zoo.

Zoos aren't normally part of our plans when travelling overseas. Given we have excellent zoos in Australia (eg: Taronga Zoo and Western Plains zoo), overseas zoos can be a bit of a letdown.

But curiosity got the better of us, and the kids were keen.

It was surprisingly good.

The highlight was probably the snow leopard.


The elephant enclosure was also very good. Due to the climate, it's indoor, inside a massive dome structure. From the outside it looks like a mars base from science fiction. The elephants can also make their way to an outdoor section via a tunnel.


The zoo is broken up into zones for Africa, Asia, Australia etc.

 

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In the evening, we stop at a beerhall for dinner. This has become a bit of a tradition as mentioned in a previous trip report:

There’s only 1 Lake Como. Plus Zeppelins, plus F-18’s!

Having the outer skin covered in powdered aluminium didn't help either. It's effectively solid rocket fuel. Yes, Mythbusters did a piece on this a few years back. Apparently the material on the skin, combines with fire and hydrogen to create thermite. Nasty.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

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The following day its time to head for home. The EK flight is in the evening, so the Adler Hotel kindly looks after our luggage after checkout.

We head to the Sprungli Cafe for lunch, a well known institution on the Bahnhofstrasse.

Sprüngli Café & Restaurant | Cafés | Zurich

Sprüngli has been around for over 180 years and for locals it’s synonymous with excellent confectionery and chocolate. Their café is the place to stop for a coffee when shopping on Bahnhofstrasse. Try to get a window seat on the first floor overlooking Paradeplatz, order a coffee and choose some

www.inyourpocket.com

Followed by a bit more sightseeing before we make our way to the airport.

 

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At the airport, there's a guy first in line at the Emirates F checkin counter, trying to buy a ticket for the flight to Dubai that leaves in 3 hours. He gets into quite the squabble with the staff, who are trying to tell him that:

A) The flight is completely full.
B) This is checkin, not the ticketing desk
C) EK no longer has a ticketing desk at Zurich airport (a casualty of covid).

He is advised that he needs to buy a ticket online, by phone or via a travel agent. The discussion goes on for some time, but he eventually gives up.

Also a casualty of covid is the EK lounge at Zurich.

They are using a 3rd party lounge called "Primeclass".

It's surprisingly good and has a large outdoor observation deck






The flight was indeed full, and we land in Dubai and get a "remote stand".

 

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And that's pretty much a wrap.

As mentioned at the start, being the first post covid trip for us, we really tried to minimise the risk of disruptions and lost luggage and thankfully it worked out ok.

What worked well:

• Booked all of the hotels as flex/refundable. It costs about 10% more, but allows some good flexibility, and you're not out of pocket if there's some disruption to your travels.
• The trains. These were all on time and just generally enjoyable. The idea was to avoid internal flights in europe. We used the German and Danish train apps to buy e-tickets and seat reservations, generally only a couple of days in advance.
• Travelling in September! Friends and relatives who travelled in Europe in July and early August had some experiences with excessive crowds, massive security lines, flight disruptions and so forth.
• AirTags in the luggage.
• Emirates I must say were pretty good. Easy routing both ways, one stop via Dubai, plus a full swag of QF points. Nice to be back on a A380 for the long sector to AU.

Other observations:

• Smokers! Still a big thing in Europe. You tend to forget about that after being stuck in Australia for 3 years !
• EV's are really making an impact
• People wear Pyjamas in hotel restaurants now apparently!
• Cashless is becoming the norm, even in Germany which used to be pretty cash dependent pre-covid.
• Big ‘herded’ groups of tourists wielding selfie sticks were notably absent.

 

[craven morehead]

Very enjoyable TR many thanks for making the effort