Considerations on Berlin, and travel surprises

I'm posting this on Wednesday night; we are in Prague. But I am taking up where I left off. In our last episode, D & K had just completed the "Langes Nacht des Shoppings" before setting the clocks forward one hour, thereby depriving themselves of even more sleep. We take up the story on the next morning, which was last Sunday.

The plan today was to visit the Alliance church in Berlin. Their web site said that they have services at 9:30 and 11:00. We had to check out of our room by 12, so the 9:30 service was our only option. We took S-bahn and U-bahn to the church and got there by 9:25 (a small miracle!) only to find that the early service had been cancelled. This was a big disappointment. Why can't churches keep their websites up to date? :)

So we went back to our room, checked out, and went to the OstBahnhof (East Train Station) to get our train to Dresden. They have special weekend rates of 30 euros for up to 5 people for as much travel as you want, in one day. So we got on the train to Dresden. There was one stop on the way where we would have to change trains. On the way we talked about Berlin. Karen did not really enjoy Berlin as a city. We didn't really get to relax there; we were always zigging about on an S-bahn and zagging on the U-bahn, going from one destination to the next. Much of the city is old Soviet-era multi-story apartment houses which are quite ugly and depressing. There are many reminders of the war, including the Jewish Museum, the Haus am Checkpoint Charlie, and the damaged buildings. There are huge, strange new buildings and construction everywhere you look. Everything seems big and impersonal. I enjoyed the destinations enough that I overlooked the journeys. But Karen likes the journeys - walking through town, talking with people, relaxing - things that are not easy in Berlin. I suppose that they have that in bars and taprooms, but those are not places where we feel comfortable.

We were talking about this on the train when the ticket collector came by and asked us our destination. I was surprised because she had already been by to check our tickets. I told her "Dresden" and she shook her head and said "That's very bad" in German. She tried to explain and after a while I caught on to the fact that the train from our transfer stop to Dresden was not operating. She explained an alternate route. We would have to go from the transfer point to another transfer point (Riesa) and then to Dresden. This would add a couple of hours to our trip.

We arrived at the first transfer point on track 3 and I checked the schedule there. The train to Riesa was going to be on track 1. So we hauled the suitcases down the stairs, through the tunnel, and back up the stairs to track 1. It was pouring rain. We went into the station to wait for the train. A station official approached, asked our destination. I told her "Dresden" with some fear and trepidation and she asked me to follow her - out of the station and into the rain. I followed reluctantly and waited in the rain for her to come out of another door. Eventually she did and handed me a paper with a written timetable that we were to follow. And then she said that the train was on track 4! So we grabbed the bags and went over to track 4 where the train to Riesa was waiting. We got on there, switched again at Riesa, and finally got to Dresden at about 5:00.

We were so tired from the trip and the short night on Saturday that we skipped the vespers at the Frauenkirche. We decided to go on another day. After a rest, we took a little walk and found dinner at XFresh, where we had delicious pasta (mine with beef, Karen's with salmon) and fruit drinks. At 8:30 we went to sleep!