A stop over in Berlin – Germany.

It was a long flight from USA to Germany, we didn’t have any stop overs which was nice.

The first day Dad and I checked into our hostel and just crashed. We were jetlagged and tired. There was a guy in the room when we arrived but that afternoon he was gone. We were both convinced that my WMD (Weapon on Mass Disgustingness’) Shoes had sent the backpacker running. They were very… ripe.

 After a days rest we were up early, still jetlagged and were out walking the streets. We found a nice German baker who made some amazing bread with cheese and meats on for breakfast. It was nice to have a descent breakfast after the junk we had in USA. After breakfast it was time to explorer, we had a small map and I could read and say perfect German… so dad asked me “where do we go?” and I would reply down “hugan fluggan fliggan strazen” and not having a single idea if I was saying it correctly… and most of the time it was way off. But it was a laugh.

After a hour of walking around, most things were still closed being the weekend. We ended up at a great park. In the middle was a monument to wars and battles, with a great golden angel on top. It was cool. 
We tried to rent some bikes which were there but they didn’t seem to work. So it was walking time, which wasn’t to bad.

We strolled though the park at 7am in the morning and people were out exercising and enjoying the early morning. It was nice. Popping back out on the main road we arrived at a old soviet war memorial, the tanks were small compared to ones I have seen in Vietnam. From here we could see the arches and the horse and chariot of the Brandenburg Gate.
We headed back into the park and started walking in the direction of the Gate.

Arriving at the gate there was a mass of tourists starting to come from every direction, guess everyone had woken up? People were taking pictures of the road, but it was a sign on the road, it was the path the berlin wall once took and they had layed stones and signs on the original path to show where the wall went.

The gate was amazing in detail, beyond the gate was a bunch of people dressed up in soviet and allied uniforms. I guess it was a important spot in the wall.

We were both still quiet jetlagged, so we started to walk back to the hostel though the park.

The next day we were up and about as normal, still tired but feeling much better. We decided to book ourselves a 2 day hop on hop off bus ticket, for the next 3 days we used the ticket to travel around berlin, no body checked our ticket so we got a free day ;).

The first day we rode the buss around till it took us to a stop where a large memorial to the berlin wall and the war was. We took some time to walk up and down the memorial and read some of the horrible things that happened.

After the memorial we walked a short distance to checkpoint Charlie and got a look at the old checkpoint guard house and some more people in old uniforms.

There was also a wall with images of what checkpoint Charlie looked like before the end of the cold war.

We stopped a few stops along the way at a old church court yard. There was 3 churches around and loads of cafes. We decided it was a perfect place for a beer. Sitting down at a pub we ordered a litter beer… the best beer ever! It hit a dry spot.

We hopped back on the bus and rode it for a short distance again this time I headed away from the centre of berlin along a road to a river. There was about 2km of the berlin wall still intact here, and it was painted in all different murals and paintings.  We walked up and down the wall for a few hours and then came to a bridge it was very old looking but very nice.

Hopping back on the bus we took the bus all the way around its trip on the loop.

That night we headed to a pub we had gone to the night before, and had a plate size chicken snitzel. It was sooooo good. It would not be the last time we ate there.

The following day we hopped back on the bus and headed to a area we had seen the day before on the loop, a large old church.

Arriving at the church we took a look inside and it was truly amazing, there was artwork and sculptures everywhere, the organ was also very large.
We walked around inside for some time then proceeded up stairs.  There was a area with models of the church though its ages and after the war. We kept walking up stairs until we reached the dome at the top.

From the top we could see a large distance over berlin, and the surrounding area.

After the church we walked around the area looking at the buildings before hopping back on the bus and continuing along.

That afternoon we wanted to stop and see charlottenburg palace but when we arrived they were closed. However there was a nice beer festival on outside the palace. Perfect place to stop and have a beer and some grilled food to eat. It was amazing food… so nice to have potatoes and meat again.

The next day we had seen everything except the palace on the hop on hop off tour. So that’s what we did, we headed to the palace and took a tour around. It was not like it was in the olden days, it had been restored and I guess I should not have been surprised.
It was still nice to walk around but the history of the Prussian rulers and things really didn’t mean much to me.

That afternoon we went shopping, I was in desperate need for some new shoes as my old ones were falling into pieces. We found a shopping street and after a few hours of walking around we found the shoes I was looking for.

The next day we packed up our things and headed back to the airport, it was time to head to Denmark.

The trip to Germany was a nice stop, it was very interesting and I really enjoyed the time walking the streets with my dad, it was nice.

Till next time, HAVE FUN!

Steffen.

                  

Part 3 – From Death Valley to LA – The final stretch.

We were up at 4:30am and on the road by 5am out of Las Vegas towards the desert, Death Valley laid in front of us. We wanted to be through it before the sun rose in the sky. We stopped at the Death Valley junction but it was all closed due to the early hour of the day.

It was over cast but still very very hot, we stopped at a small town for some breakfast and to tank up on water. 
We had gone though 3 litters of water between dad and I in a few ours in the desert. For the most of the trip (other than breakfast we  didn’t stop, but we did have a quick break to find some survivor stones from the valley. Dad and Flemming out collecting rocks ;)

I managed to get a nice photo of the road as we were driving down to a low point in death valley, on the photo you can see what looks like a river, but its all sand. Tails of water once being here I guess.

As we climbed out of death valley, the motorbikes started to heat up considerably the signs on the side of the road were telling people to turn off there AC to stop over heating, no sighs on what to do if your on motorbikes?

We drove for another day and we reached Yosemite National park, we went from 45oC heat to 20oC in 1 day. It felt super cold. The change from the heat was welcome though.

After pitching our tents in a nice small camping ground dad and I hopped on the bike again and went for a drive. I wanted to explorer, we would drive 200m then stop and take photos of some amazing lakes and streams, then drive again.

It was so peaceful when we stopped and relaxing. It gave dad and I time to really appreciate the surroundings. We went for a small walk, and enjoyed the park.

A short trip down the road we found the tourist information center and stopped in for a look. There were loads of info on the park and some of the animals that live in the park. One of those animals was the brown bear, a picture that I liked was a mum and her cubs eating at a picnic table (awww how nice, hehehe), poor tourists that lost there lunch.

Back at camp we had some visitors, ground squirrels were popping out of holes all around our tents, they were interested in what we were having for dinner and snacking on.  Every time you moved close to them they would run down there hole for a few seconds then pop there head out for a look to see if it was safe. Soo cute.

The next day we drove though Yosemite, after a small stop for lunch and a hike to another information center we were on our way to San Francisco, and would reach it by sun down.

As we neared San Francisco and it seemed to turn from nice and sunny and warm to down right freezing, and rain. We got to our campsite at the edge of san Francisco that night and dad was completely blue.

The next day we headed into the city to explore. We hopped on a tram and headed into town. We forgot however to check which stop we were to get off at, so we ended up in the middle of no where in San Francisco. From there we hopped on a older tram that would end up at the piers.

At the piers we walked around and got our first sight of the “golden gate bridge”, and Alcatraz island. I would have loved to go on a tour of Alcatraz island but apparently you had to book long in advance.

After a small walk and some amazing clam chowder inside a sour bread bowl, which was AMAZING!. We headed up to the street car, which would ride up and down the famous hills of San Francisco. It was a long queue, but dad and I managed to get great spots hanging on the edge. It was a matter of holding on and enjoying the roller coaster ride.

We ended up in china town where we then walked to Lombard street (the most windy road in the world), it was packed with people driving down the street. I had seen this street in so many movies before. It was cool to be here and see the street. But I wouldn’t want to live here with all the traffic and tourists.

That afternoon we spent our time just relaxing on the pier it was nice to enjoy the ocean breeze and watch people walk past.

The next day we drove out to the golden gate bridge and over it to the other side. It was very cloudy sadly and very hard to see the bridge.

We decided to move on to the coastal road, Hwy 1 another famous road in America running from San Francisco down to LA.

The road was nice, but super cold! Lots of nice views along the way. At one point we noticed lots of people parked at the side of the road and stopped to see what the commotion was, it was a pack of sea lions all living on the beach.

The next day dad and I left Flemming, we wanted to get ahead to LA and explorer a bit on our own, we also had to collect some goods from a motorbike dealer.

The next day we relaxed, we headed out shopping and lazed around the pool for the day at the hotel.  After a nice day of rest, we booked a tour of Hollywood. The tour would take us from Beverly hills to sunset boulevard and the beaches of LA.

At the beaches there was sooo many homeless people it was very sad, however people seemed not to see it, at the edge of the sand was a skate park. Some of the skaters were really good. We watched them for 15 min before the tour had to continue.

We got to walk the Hollywood boulevard past the Chinese theater and see the stars on the side walk. We headed up to a view point where we could see the Hollywood sign.

The next day dad and I took a hop on and hop off bus tour around LA. It repeated much of what we saw the day before but it was just nice to be off the motorbikes and relax.

The next day ended our trip to the states, dad and I were on our way to Denmark to meet the family, but first was a short stop in Germany.

So till the next blog about Berlin, Germany.

Have fun!

Steffen.

                      

Part 2 – Cross country USA, a moto trip.

We were in bluff, a small town in Utah, and near the Arizona state line. That morning we were due to move out when we stopped off at the local town museum, it had all sorts of small shacks setup like the people would have had in the old days, it was very new but cool to see. We met the museum runner a old lady and she explained the story of bluff and how the settlers tried to migrate south into Arizona and the issues they had crossing the gorges and canyons.

As we left bluff we entered into monument valley, the place where all the old western (Cowboy and Indian) movies were filled.

We headed off the main road and up a dirt track that zigzagged up a cliff wall, it seemed to clime forever and was a amazing view at the top.

We drove for a hour or so then reached our first canyon, we drove along the national park road that followed the edge of the canyon and stopped at a few places. There was several “natural bridges” and arches. The clouds in the distance started to rumble so we couldn’t stay long sadly.

As we left the national park we seemed to follow this canyon, crossing it on bridges and driving along its edge.

We took a turn off towards a place called “Bryce”, which had another canyon near it. It happened to be called “byrce canyon”. It was more we were driving on top if a ridge and looking over a cliff. The canyon was very orange dirt with natural arches and these columns that was left behind. Very pretty.

We left Bryce and drove for a few more hours until we arrived at a lake. It was the start of lake Powell, which would lead up to the grand canyon.

That afternoon we reached the next town we were stopping in, Page. It was in the Navaho (Native American) nation area. The next morning we were up early we were heading to a small canyon in Page, called antelope canyon.

This would be the first “tour” we had been on since arriving in America. Flemming had already seen it before, so it was just dad and myself. We entered the park and had to pay a parking fee, I always hate coins, even in Australia so I had a bag full. We were queued up in the line waiting and I started counting out the $6 to park, in quarters… when I got the $12 for the 2 bikes 100% in quarters they were almost spilling out of my hands. 
The guy in the ticket house was not impressed… he even counted the lot. Dad and I had a little giggle and my pocket was a million times lighter. ;)

We were loaded onto some large v8 pickup trucks with a bunch of other tourists and driven by our guide out to the canyon, it was to say the least a bumpy ride. The canyon was a cut in a wall, only 1-2 meters wide at the entrance and it cut thought the sand stone rock. What was special about this though was how the light cam in from the top and eliminated the inside of the canyon. The sand was like a fine dust and got everywhere. I was very worried about my camera it could easily destroy the lenses if it gets into the joints… The canyon was amazing and our guide was very good, showing all the good places for photos and telling loads of info about the natives (being a native herself).

We got some great photos of the sand stone, the light coming in from the top made it look almost golden at times. Definitely a place worth visiting.

Dad at Grand Canyon

Leaving Page our next stop would be the almighty grand canyon. It wasn’t long before we arrived, but boy was it busy… we had gone close to 2 weeks now with out hitting a major tourist place (other than Niagara falls). It was hard to grasp at the start just how big it was. 
We stopped at a few lookouts but did not stay long.

One of the lookouts had a tower, inside was a large number of native American artworks. Very nice to see and at the top was a good view. But it was very crowded and smelly as no fresh air getting in.

After spending a few hours at the canyon we moved on, it was nice to see but I found the smaller canyons (Bryce and page) must more pretty. However Grand canyon was impressive in its own right just how big it was.

The next day, we entered a road most people would know… route 66. We stopped in a small town for some lunch, all the shops had something funny, if it wasn’t number plates then it was cars or sighs or souvenirs. We spent a while just walking around the shops.

The next day route 66 merged into the main state hwy and disappeared, we were now on the road that would lead into Las Vagus!

It was HOT now, I was in the side car with the roof off and it was like having a hair dryer in my face all day, dad was driving and I don’t know how he could take it… it was super hot. We drove into Vagus and pulled into the first casino. “Circus Circus”, the rooms were only $30 a night so we took it and got out of the heat.

The casino had a indoor roller coaster and theme park for kids, live circus acts at night above the casino floor and loads of shops inside.

The night dad and I went out to dinner, we had a coupon for “All you can eat ribs”. We ate all we could eat till we were busting, they were soooo good.

After dinner I hit the town, I walked the “strip” and headed into a few casinos to have a look. I ended up having a few games of blackjack at MGM and doubling up my $100 so I pocketed the money and left while I was ahead.  The strip was alive at night with people dressed up in all sort of celebrity costumes. Each casino also had its own theme, there was pirates, romans, Disneyland, Egyptians, lots or things. I rounded out the night and walked back to the hotel at little over 3am.

The next day dad and I booked a hop on hop off bus tour which would take us up to the old vagus area on Fairmont st. It was cool we got to see all the old neon lights (during the day), and all the old casinos, the old mafia areas and loads of other things.

As we drove past the Vagus sky tower, someone was jumping out (like bungee). 
I turned to my dad and told him, I was going to do that today… no matter what, when the tour was on its way back, we hopped off at the tower. I booked my place on the jump and 10 min later did it.. sadly they forgot to tell my dad I was jumping and he wasn’t outside. 
But here’s a picture of the tower and me dressed up ready to go.

We also headed to the top of the tower hand had a go at a few rides, they lifted you over the edge of the tower and spun you around. A lot of fun. My $100 win from the night before gone ;) money well spent.

That afternoon we changed busses and headed down the other end of town, we got a tour of all the larger casinos and had a wonder around inside the pyramid, castle and creasers palace. Before heading back to the hotel as it was way to hot.

The following morning we headed out of vagus over death valley. We were up very very early… but that’s for part 3.

Stay tuned, part 3 and the final installment of my trip over USA. Death Valley, Yosemite, San Francisco, Hwy 101, and LA…

Till then, HAVE FUN.

Steffen