The German immigration process is a well-structured waltz in a strict triple metre with the immigration office. Neither of you will be stepping on any toes as long as you both dance exactly to the tune of the federal government. The three-metre waltz has three parts to it: visa application, Read more…
About 40 kilometers southwest of Berlin, it is a tourist hot spot with its one dozen or so classical palaces turned into museums and galleries and its small town charm. Accessible by S-Bahn or Regio trains it’s only a short 30 minute ride away by transit. My tip? Bring a Read more…
About 45 minutes away from the centre of Berlin by regional train RE4, Elstal is an unassuming train station in the outskirts of Berlin. It’s East German “charm,” if you can call it that, radiates from a lonely phallic water tower and graffitied facilities. The nearby outlet village is the Read more…
The Werneuchen airfield was built in the mid-1930s by Germany in preparation for WW2. The Luftwaffe trained pilots at the airfield with the Air Force Group 55, which is only an hour’s train ride away from Berlin. In addition to training, the Germans also developed their radar system and tested Read more…
The Flakturm IV built by the Nazi Army all across the country were designed to be impenetrable concrete fortresses to shoot down allied bombers. The towers were feared by pilots during the war as they were terrifyingly efficient with elevators bringing ammunition from lower levels to upper levels and some Read more…
Built in 1907, the Elbe Tunnel was the first tunnel under the River Elbe in Hamburg and was considered an engineering masterpiece at its time for being 24 meters under water level;. Although it used to be the only way for carriages to get across the river without the use Read more…
It’s very rare for me to upload dozens of pictures for a single place, but the Miniatur Wunderland sure is worth it. When I first visited in late-2016, the models have been under construction for 18 years and wouldn’t be complete until 2020. Its impressive model railway system is the Read more…
Germany is the land of advanced automotive engineering and a visit to Stuttgart to see Porsche and Mercedes, Munich to learn about BMW’s history, and Dresden to visit Volkswagen’s glass factory should prove the point. I would not have suspected that the Hanseatic city of Hamburg, known for its shipping, Read more…
The first time I visited Hamburg was in 2016 when I went to see and stay with an old friend from Hong Kong. It was the first time I brought my cat, Shakey, on holiday with me on board the German trains. It was also the first time I traveled Read more…
The original C-Type trains on the Berliner U-Bahn have either retired or been scrapped for parts. On my last day in Berlin I was in luck! I caught the unveiling of a newly refurbished C-Type recommission from the museum to serve on the U-55 shuttle line between Brandenburger Tor and Read more…