“Ich bin ein Berliner”, that’s what Kennedy said.  And I can say that I too am a Berliner, as I was born in Berlin one year before the wall came down. Indeed I am not as popular as he was,but I can give you really great insider tips for your trip to Berlin if you want to see something unusual or away from other tourists.
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Inspired by the great British weather I decide to undertake a Railbookers rite of passage – to Italy via the Swiss Alps. I made my way on the London DLR to London City Airport, fantastic for its tiny size and smaller queues, and set off for Zurich airport. The grey clouds and rainy weather melted away as we head over France and into Switzerland, touching down in Zurich airport where the sun most definitely had his hat on. After a 15 minute journey from the airport I was in the centre of Zurich.
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There is not much the staff at the De Tuilerieen would not do for their customers. Maybe bears riding tricycles is too much to ask, but only just. Still, the service is genuinely friendly, not the typical service one might expect in a top hotel – no fake smiles and bowing heads.
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After spending some time travelling by train through Switzerland we decided to spend a couple of days in the charming German town of Konstanz (or Constance) set on Lake Constance. As part of our stay we wanted to hop over to the “flower island” of Mainau set in the middle of the lake.
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After checking in for a 3pm Eurostar we settled down for the short journey to Lille, and onward train to Ypres to view the Flanders Fields that were once so notoriously brutal but today are peaceful farmland albeit snow covered and bitterly cold as January can be in this part of Europe.
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The Grande Casselbergh in Bruges is our newest hotel in Bruges and is designed in a similar luxurious style to the Oud Huis de Peellaert, which comes as no surprise as it is created by the same people. The Grande Casselbergh is grand (to say the least) and you really get the feeling that they’ve pulled out all of the stops for this one.
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Following on from my late running journey to Thessaloniki I was left with just 3 hours until my next train left for Istanbul at 19:00. I was due to travel on the “Filia-Dostluk Express” to Istanbul, the name meaning Friendship in both Greek and Turkish languages. Whilst I hoped the name indicated a friendly onboard service I wondered if it had a more political meaning considering the past tensions between the countries.
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I didn’t know that much about Lille before spending the weekend there. To be honest, it wasn’t somewhere that I had thought about visiting. For the most part I have, shamefully, stuck to European capital cities and places that I have driven through accidently on the way to somewhere else without really knowing their names. After visiting Lille, however, I can see why it’s such a popular destination.
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Everyone’s heard about the recent Eurostar mishaps, trains breaking down in the tunnel, people not being able to travel home before Christmas and all of the apologetic media statements from Eurostar staff to the general public. It looked like a bit of a disaster on TV (that’s what the news is for after all), was I the only person to think that actually it might not have been that bad to spend a couple more days in Paris?
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After walking around Bruges all day doing my Christmas shopping I had worked up an appetite and I was glad that Richard and I had a reservation at the De Vlaamsche Pot, a traditional Flemish restaurant tucked away in Bruges cobbled streets.
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