Aspireontour

Celebrations and New Year over

It must be time to travel again and this time have vowed to do blog as I go along! Hopefully the rest of last year will follow along quite quickly once I get back, well that is the plan.

Left Salisbury on lovely clear sunny morning for Heathrow, so roof down, music blaring the joys of being footloose and fancy free. Good flight to Hong Kong, a necessary evil in my desire to see more of Japan than the average land based tour. Fellow passengers generally older than me but not all and some fairly sprightly ones amongst them. Glad I have double cabin even at the cost, as plenty of room to unpack and check out where everything is before jet lag caught up. Just before dinner there was a chance to get some photos of the island all lit up.

The following morning I took a tour round Kowloon, where we are docked, visiting the Chi Lin Buddhist Nunnery and Nan Lian Garden. Whilst looking old, the temple has been re built from the original 1934 version (although in a style dating back 100s of years)

and the gardens only date from 2005 with imported trees. It is a very tranquil place amid the high rises of the surrounding area as you can see. The sun came out so very pleasant to wander around

and watch other people working.

Back to the ship after local vegetarian lunch and the jade market, (all too garrish for me) so decided to make the trip on the Star Ferry across to Hong Kong Island partly so could take picture of Minerva which is fairly small as this shows

and get a daylight shot of Hong Kong island

(Rather proud of this one below)

Couldn't take too long as sailing at 17.30 just as lights starting to come on and clouds coming in

with a final reminder of the season (if you can read the geetings!).

3 days at sea until due to dock at Shanghai but plenty of films and lectures to occupy one's time, not to mention exercises(!), as well as trying to get my sleep patterns rather more in tune with local time. Had to batten down the hatches and were prohibited from walking round the decks for a while because of very high winds. Fortunately not buffeting from the side but walking becomes more interesting when either the floor meets you before you expect it or worse disappears when you are putting your foot down. Once we had turned into the estuary some rolling then it all calmed down for our long trip up the river to the port.

Welcome to Shanghai!

View from the ship, quite stunning.

Morning city tour visiting the Jade Budha Temple, the most prestigious in Shanghai

The old against the newest skyscraper in town,

as you can see full of tourists and not just off our ship!

Then to the Yu Garden in the old town, weather glorious cold and clear .

With an arty shot

plus a look at the roof decorations

After lunch took a walk along the Bund with great views of the skyline

and where the tragic events of New Year's Eve took place when too many people came to watch the fireworks. Rather liked this artwork lots of rubbing going on for luck as ever, with the more colonial buildings in the immediate background.

Then walked through the city to the Museum which has some interesting art, (but on the way saw this building, Sauron's Tower anyone if you have seen Lord of the Rings.)

and beautiful jade, like this which dates to about 2,500 BC!

Didn't have time to do it justice unfortunately and have to be up at silly o'clock to visit a village on the outskirts of the city tomorrow so unlikely to have the chance to go back.

Another beautiful day although the air quality is getting worse and becoming more hazy, and this is the sun rising, not something that happens to me too often.

They have made attempts to restrict cars and increase public transport but in a city of 26 million people it is undoubtedly difficult.

Trip out to village past the second most important temple

and this rather wonderful plant butterfly.

The local side streets could be anywhere it seems

The village, which is clearly designed for tourists of all nationalities including other Chinese, has been developed from it's original existence as a small village on a lake. It is however very picturesque as you can see.

This is air drying pork, right on the path with all the tourists walking past,

we had a boat ride back to the coach.

Next stop a silk factory where they make quilts using the silk from double cocoons, very lightweight and labour intensive, here they are stretching the silk which can't be spun, tough work.

Plenty of buying opportunities both of the quilts and pillow cases and some very expensive silk quilt covers, strangely i managed to abstain.

Late lunch on the ship and sit in the afternoon sun before cast off and watching the sunset as we set off down the river. The river is very wide and very well used for barges as well as tourist boats with a constant flow,

so organising our turn round was left to the river police, clearly one doesn't mess with them!

Can't get better than those!

Why have I never been to Berlin before? Such an interesting place as many of you will know, I feel quite foolish that it has taken me so long to catch up and write this blog!! Word to those who might consider a visit, don't go in the winter it was bitterly cold!

Travelled club class (avios sometimes useful) along with Jerry Hall (ex-wife of Mick Jagger) who held everyone up at passport control by being in the wrong queue, she obviously still travels on a USA passport. Arrived at hotel in West Berlin mid afternoon so just time to check-in then have a little walk locally before it got dark, passing a store long gone from the UK

and the 'Erotik Museum' shades of Iceland!! Although I thought I had prepared for the cold the thought of layering up in order to go out looking for a restaurant was rather less appealing than popping downstairs to the hotel restaurant!

I found the starting point for a guided walk next morning and what a walk! Fortunately meeting place not too far from my hotel in West Berlin and was introduced to the train system by the guide, since most of what Berlin is famous for is found in what was East Berlin. As a London tube user not difficult and overground so quite pleasant.

We started in Alexanderplatz where ancient and modern collide with a medieval church and very tall tower the top of which sometimes disappeared into the clouds.

Walking to Museum island which houses the cathedral

as well as the Alte, (where Hitler apparently liked to stand on the top of the steps), the National gallery

this modern buiding opposite

and the Neues and Pergamon as well the building holding a memorial statue open to the elements above, commemorating all the war dead, if you are a radio 4 listener you will have heard the Director of the British Museum refer to it during his series on Germany, very moving of a Mother with her son.

Carrying on, through the university area small plaques in the pavement were pointed out being memorials of university students killed during the war and some after, very poignant.

We then passed walls left with the bullet marks from shootings

and Angela Merkel's apartment, fairly low key security so I assume she wasn't there even though it was a Sunday. Second yellow one along apparently.

Walking down Unter Linden once on the border between east and west the railway signs still show both typefaces

we passed the book burning memorial, empty shelves beneath where a great many books had been burned in the square near the university.

The old border is marked by a double line of bricks in the road and in some cases the border was through buildings which must have been strange and the angle shown here indicates how arbitary the whole thing was!

We reached the Brandenburg gate which is very imposing

and close to the Reichstag (of which more later) and then walked on to the Jewish Memorial of 2811 concrete blocks of different shapes and sizes to wander around and reflect. The creator has refused to confirm the reason for the number but the photos can't really do justice to the scale of the place.

We then walked to a place in the middle of some new blocks of flats built over Hitler's bunker finding out that his old house has been completely destroyed.

Carrying on we walked past the Luftwaffer headquarters, now the tax office with this mural on the wall

and on to the Memory of Terrors Place which is the ground the Gestapo headquarters building had occupied so much history in a relatively small area with underground cells left visible.

Our walk ended at Checkpoint Charlie by which time it was close to 4pm having started at 10am!

I did a swift walk back to the Neues Museum which wouldn't be open on the Monday to view amongst other things the amazing head of Nefertiti. The building has only been re-opened since 2009 having been damaged in the war but houses their Egyptian collections as well as other artifacts from Troy (always contention between the western Europeans over who got to these old sites first) and the ancient history of northern europe.

Unfortunately not enough time to do it justice as needed to get back to hotel and change before going out to a concert at the Berlin Philarmonia. In order to get there I used the U9 and U2 train routes and yes the pop group is named after it!

Lovely concert hall and sublime music, fortunately not ending too late.

Monday morning and off to visit the Reichstag, as had pre-booked a time slot which as you have to provide passport etc details proved beneficial (the joys of the internet). Designed by Norman Foster it is a clever building where you can walk up to the top of the dome

where there is a cafe but you can also look down into the chamber, just visible through the reflection above. Unfortunately the weather not exactly on my side for views from the top but you get the idea.

Plus the mirrored glass covering the central area makes for some interesting photo opportunities.

One of the oddest self portraits I've taken!

Then managed to negotiate the bus system back to Museum island to visit the Historical Museum which houses an interesting mix of items including the famous picture of Martin Luther by Cranach right up to old mines from the war,

the building and later destruction of the infamous wall, but also including Napoleon's hat, quite why I'm not sure!

I then went to the Pergamon, gosh what a place (and only a small part was open) it has the capacity to show a reconstruction of the 'Gates of Babylon' ( Ishtar Gate) or at least the smaller gate although the pictures show just how grand it would have been, the second photo is of a model and the smaller gate in front is the one reconstructed from original tiles shown below.

Then there is the Market gate of Miletus a Roman town

and the Pergamon Altar, a Greek find with a well preserved frieze showing the battle of the Olympian Gods against the Giants placed within a reconstruction of what the whole thing would have looked like, but unfortunately my photo rubbish, so a reason for you to go and see for yourself.

And finally another monumental facade this time from Jordan, German archaeologists obviously very busy!

Not surprisingly all this culture had taken it's toll so wended way back to hotel before venturing out for supper, had surprisingly cheap (well compared to London!) and good meal.

Home tomorrow so booked taxi to airport which was smart move as woke to snow!

Visited the Fredrikstrasse Church which has been left with a damaged spire as another war memorial but a modern bell tower stands alongside. Some lovely mosaic work