Volume 2, Day 8
After a rest day, it was one again time to explore some of Berlin’s glorious sites. I decided it was necessary to go out to the palace in Charlottenburg, and if I had time, to visit the Berggruen Museum, which is also out there. Charlottenburg is about 8 km to the west of Mitte, and checking the route via public transportation, Google Maps recommended way to the south and transfer to some ring line. That seemed unreasonable, and I figured biking might be a better option.
I had been doing some research into Mobike. Although one (out-of-date) blog cited the price as 0.5 Euro per half hour, the actual Mobike app burst my elated bubble by indicating that the prices of bikes is now a uniform 1 Euro per twenty minutes. I believe that is the market consensus among the half dozen or so dockless bike shares that are all over Berlin. So that is something like 10 times the price of the same service in China. However, the app aggressively advertised discount commuter cards: 20 yuan for unlimited riding in 30 days. That would pay for itself with three rides! Unfortunately, because I had purchased a 10 ride discount card in Beijing and didn’t use all the rides, Mobike won’t let me purchase a new pass in a new market.
I decided to bike anyways, because 1-2 Euros for the bike is still cheaper than the 2-3 Euros for public transport and more fun. The Mobikes are actually noticeably larger and after cycling furiously for ten minutes, I realized it had 3 gears. Okay, so the better bicycle is worth a little bit more money, but I still wouldn’t say its worth 10 times as much. Having also priced Mobike in Japan, I wonder if the company’s international pricing strategy is to be just barely competitive with public transport. However, given how underpoliced and overpriced the public transport is, in Berlin at least, they are competing against “free.”
Once I figured out I could shift gears to maximize the efficiency of my effort for speed, it was a lovely ride, once again following the river around the Reichstag and through Tiergarten. However, when I parked near the palace in Charlottenburg, the pain point was enhanced by the automatic conversion into RMB. 15 something for a single ride when I would typically load float 10 RMB and have it last months. Ouch.
For the palaces, I purchased the Charlottenburg+ “through ticket” that includes the old palace, the new wing, some mausoleum and lookout post in the gardens, and a new pavilion. As the audio guide was included in the price, I took the free smartphone with a single app and followed the self-guided tour. I don’t have any pictures to share because I refuse to pay 3 euros for a photo permit as a matter of principle.
I can still remember visiting several of King Ludwig’s palaces in Bavaria back when I was in high school, and compared to that experience, I suppose I am more appreciative of taking in the Baroque/Rococo/Classical architecture/interior design. It’s still not my cup of tea, but it I enjoyed the hour long tour of the old palace. I was most struck by how much china and orientalist themes were weaved into so many of the rooms. The plaques in Chinese museums discussing the porcelain trade with Europe give only one side of the history, but seeing how much Princess Charlotte loved porcelains, to the extent of buying them by the crate, gives me a richer sense of the fashions of the 18th century (among the wealthy at least).
After finishing the first tour, I headed around the palace to explore the wooded grounds and find a shady bench to have my prepared picnic lunch. Of course, I had swung by a supermarket in the morning to buy a bottle of mineralwasser and a couple bread rolls. I also should, compared to my childhood years, that I am totally down with the carbonated mineral waters. Yes, please! It is interesting that the garden grounds are open to the public, and as I slowly ate my lunch, alternating between doing German vocabulary drills and flicking insects off of me, I saw so many locals walking their dogs, taking jogs, and wheeling their strollers over the graveled paths. Though the garden immediately behind the palace was of the classical mold–i.e. geometrically arranged paths, trimmed hedges, and fountains–most of the garden had a more romantic (i.e. naturalistic) feel of trees and grasses grown wild and free.
After lunch, I headed into the mausoleum and was rather blown away by the fine marble renderings of each of the four individuals in repose. It is true craftsmanship to capture the texture of the textiles in stone. I headed over to the Belvedere in Schlossgarten, passing several “cosplayers” dressed in centuries old courtly attire. The Belvedere housed three floors of more porcelain, mostly table servings as opposed to vases. I swung by the New Pavilion next for a quick look at its art exhibit, highlighting the paintings of a handful of German masters who also had a hand in the palace history before touring the New Annex, which is attached to the palace but cleverly separated so that they can charge you separate admission.
The annex also included a smartphone audioguide and a roughly 50 minute tour that strangely involved a lot of backtracking. I wouldn’t say that the new annex was particularly better or worse than the old palace. In any case, it is actually hard to distinguish them. For example, I can’t remember which had an extra section concerning the history of the whatsitname royal family of Prussia. I need to go the German history museum because I gleaned some information about the rough timeline of German political history from about 1100 onwards, but need to see it presented a little more systematically and with lots of maps. You know, for like that period when Napoleon conquered most of what we think of as German and Prussia was almost entire located within present day Poland. Chinese history is so much easier because it is all presented through the Marxist lens of “unified China” that tries to erase the existence of distinct kingdoms and cultures.
I was pretty tired by the end of the tour, having spent a solid four hours looking around the palace and its grounds, so I decided to give the museum a pass. The prospect of another ten euros for an entrance ticket just to see a couple of Picasso (when literally every city in Germany has a museum with a handful of Picasso’s, or so it seems from perusing the guidebooks) felt a bit steep. I also decided to walk back so that I could get a closer look at the Charlottenburg Rathaus and enjoy Tiergarten.
I only walked a couple blocks before I spotted a cheap looking bakery and stopped for a cheap pick-me-up: a coffee and some walnut cake thing (even though I could have bought two croissants for a euro, what a steal!). I sat for about twenty minutes, alternately being blinded by the sun and enjoying the cloud cover while I drank my coffee and flicked through vocabulary. Properly refreshed, I started the proper walk, and barely noticed the 7 km distance as there was plenty to see in Tiergarten–e.g. the victory monument in the roundabout, and the monument to the 20 Russians who died when they swept through Berlin pillaging, raping, and murdering. Why the f*ck is the German government paying to preserve a monument installed by the USSR (indirectly) commemorating war crimes committed against them?
I took the opportunity afforded by a leisurely stroll to also get a closer look at the Reichstag and pass once again through the Brandenburg Gate. I wanted to pop into this one free museum where there used to be a crossing point in the Berlin wall, but they insisted I get rid of my backpack. I didn’t have any coins for the locker and I suddenly felt it wasn’t worth it.
I was back and chilling in the hostel before too long. The weather was nice, so I eventually went over to a supermarket to source some food. I grabbed a bag of salad and in place of dressing a little package of antipasta (which contained cheese, olives and roasted red peppers in a bit of oil). Feeling nutrient deprived by my bread heavy diet, I also sprung for a fruit salad. I couldn’t resist a Rittersport bar. I sat in the park for a long while, slowly eating my dinner in between reviewing chapters of a textbook and looking around at the groups of young people enjoying the sunny evening.
When I returned to the dorm room, it didn’t seem quite as miserably hot as previous nights, and I managed to finish “Avatar” despite the rather raucous crowd in the courtyard below.
| Coffee and pastry | 4 EUR |
| Bread and water | 2.3 EUR |
| Mobike | 2 EUR (15.39 RMB) |
| Charlottenburg+ | 17 EUR |
| Coffee break | 3 EUR |
| Salad | 6.3 EUR |
| Total: | 34.6 EUR (269.9 RMB) (USD 39) |
Running Total: 4782.3 RMB (USD 690.5)
Daily Average: 597.8 RMB (USD 86.3)
It’s interesting that Mobike’s internal exchange is 7.695 RMB per Euro. That’s quite cheaper than the floating rate (per Google, today) of 7.78. I would almost appreciate it if I wasn’t so flush with cash (in Euro) and starting to realize that I might have to use my credit card for any intercity buses or trains.