Berlin-Braunschweig

[arcanamundi]

Woke up many times over the course of the night and morning, which I suppose is inevitable – I do think that the 60 hours I went without a bunch of consecutive hours of horizontal sleep helped me to beat down jetlag though, because I just don’t have any. At all. Yet, at least - knock on wood.

I’m not sure what the Hotel Sorat Ambassador usually goes for, because I know that I’ve been getting very good low rates on hotels through the university travel’s arrangement with hotels.com on all the hotels I’ve booked so far. I paid 46 Euros for this room, and the breakfast alone was worth 15. I showed up pretty late due to the delays at Orly.

 

The Hotel Sorat Ambassador is two blocks away from the U-Bahn (Wittenbergplatz station), and one stop from the Zoological Garden stop, which is a major hub for access to almost all other bus and tram and train lines.  I stayed in mid-February. The room was large, very clean, with pleasant lighting, a large wardrobe, a good flat-screen television, minibar, desk, free wireless access, two twin-sized beds pushed into a king, two twin feather duvets, and feather pillows. The bed was very comfortable with good feather pillows (topped with mints, natch) and the linens were of decent quality. The wireless internet access was consistent and fast with a strong signal. A selection of magazines chosen based (I presume) on the guest’s demographic were neatly arranged on a bedside table, a nice thoughtful touch.

The hotel offers limited room service (gourmet pizzas with complimentary wine) and there is a very pleasant and comfortable bar downstairs offering standard sandwiches (club sandwich, meatball, etc.), comfort food (curryworst and french fries), stanrard salads, and a fun creative menu (on the latter while I was there:  ravioli stuffed with  mangold, raisins, and pinenuts;  tagliatelli with fried prawn in saffron sauce; blackened wild boar shank with root vegetables, red wine sauce, and potato dumpling, and a grapefruit and mango frozen aspic for dessert. I didn’t sample any of these due to the lateness of the hour of my arrival, but based on the high quality of the breakfast buffet I’d hazard a guess that it’s all very good. The breakfast buffet at the Sorat was simply amazing, and it is served all morning (ending at 11:00 AM, another thoughtful gesture – too many hotels force you up and out too early in the morning by turning off the coffee at 9 AM). It wasn’t so much a breakfast buffet as it was a Willy Wonka Breakfast Factory – it was breakfast paradise.

The breakfast room is large and sunny and the tables set attractively and well-appointed with large insulated coffee pitchers (and the coffee was very, very good) and cream. The offerings included: a muesli bar containing muesli, a generous selection of nuts and fruits, an icy urn of milk; a table containing a wide selection of tiny pastries – apple, almond, raspberry, croissants, etc. – three types of sweet bread, several types of butter, honey, and jam; a tartlet station in which tiny pastry shells could be filled from a selection of fruit fillings and/or honey. A table for tea, with about 15 varieties of teabags and all the accoutrements. Orange juice and cherry juice. A hot bar held two types of sausage – one of which was in the style of a meatball and was just incredibly delicious – a tray of fluffy scrambled eggs, a tray of crisp seasoned fried potato wedges, finely cut. Chopped green onion and various other condiments for the eggs were off to one side. A belgian waffle bar – waffle iron and batter, about five bowls of various fresh and preserved fruits, and a large bowl of very thick whipped cream. A cold savor y bar containing a large array of German cold cuts, smoked salmon, sliced cucumber, cheeses, and various types of bread. A yogurt bar containing a pink yogurt (strawberry?), vanilla, plain, and a bowl of “German curd” which looked like very, very thick yogurt and had clearly been a huge favorite, as it was nearly empty. I scooped a little of this into a bowl and topped it with some preserved cherries. It turned out to be very much like sour cream without the sour, or like clotted cream.   I had a large breakfast of eggs and sausage and fried potatos and coffee and fruit salad (the fruit salad was another pleasure – a mix of fresh melons, grapes, apple, and citrus). This was one of the best breakfast buffets I’ve seen in years. In addition to the delicious food, the room is well-staffed by smiling, warm, friendly individuals who refresh the bars, re-set finished tables, and just generally create a positive atmosphere. This is a wonderful way to start the day, and I noticed that many guests seemed to be very happy to sit there and linger over their breakfasts.

Check out was quick and efficient, the desk staff gave me clear directions on how to get to the train station using the U-bahn and the S-bahn (be aware that if you take the S-bahn you have to leave the U-bahn station, go above ground, and at Zoological Gardens, find the entrance to the S-Bahn in a kind of tunnel-looking type thing), and I was overall very happy with my stay. The only criticism I have is very minor –there is no power outlet anywhere near the bed or desk, making it difficult to use a laptop without depleting the battery unless you happen to have an extension cord handy.

 

Pictures from the hotel:

 


Engrish Englisch!

“In the seventh floor guests meet on the interior factual turquoise.”

Nearby Wittenberg station:


 

The main Berlin train station is more or less a shopping mall that trains run in and out of, which was pretty cool.  It was easy to get a ticket, but once again – I have no idea why people say “Oh, everyone speaks English in Germany” because… No. Everyone in the hotel, yes. Out in the world? No. And I’m totally lost without my little phrase book. I bought my ticket and picked up another phrase book, which, amusingly (and predictably) is not English-German. It’s German-English. So I have to read it inside out., and there’s no pronunciation guide (well, there is for the American English part, of course). Still, it’s better than nothing! But I think it confuses people a little bit to see me carrying it around and then trying to order stuff using it in clearly non-existent German. I asked for a kase sandwich and ended up getting some kind of wurst. Um.

S-Bahn side of the train station:







I took a slow train to save 20 Euros (and have more opportunities to take pictures). If I'd realized that all of the IC trains between Berlin and Braunschweig would require running like hell to get from one train to another each time I might have had a second think about that, but of course I didn't realize it until my ticket was bought and printed.  So that was more adventure, and I really fear that this suitcase isn't going to make it more than a month. One of its wheels is already unhappy even though I've been babying it by carrying it up and down stairs. I hope I don't have to replace the bag. I'm already really badly off budget for the week, between one thing and another, and if I don't keep those horses in check I'm going to end up living on ramen noodles (or whatever the equivalent is in the UK) for all of May. I have $8000 left after airfare and about 35% of the hotel rooms paid for via the uni travel web site, and 14 weeks. Some of that has to go to hotels, and some of it to microfilm, and sometimes train tickets, and the rest for eating and drinking and necessities - so the $570 a week is going to go awfully fast. Too fast. I need to revise my budget tonight. Sigh.

More pictures! Get my mind off the inevitable budgetary fretting:

The reason my train was full of shrieky teenagers - a) some kind of holiday and b) ultimate destination of train:



Arrived in Braunschweig and checked into the pentaHotel after more cab hilarity – very cool, funky hotel. The beds are wicked comfortable and as ;pmg as the décor doesn’t keep me awake by glowing in the dark (which seems like a possibility) I should be fine. 

Hotel staff looked like they were all under 21, which (combined with the pounding techno music and mirror balls in the lobby and the fact that the reception desk is also a bar) made me a little nervous that the hotel was just an upscale hostel, and possibly one that would turn into a nightclub. The room décor is fantastic, and the complimentary toiletries are nice, but for the money the room costs, 1) the wireless internet access should be free (it’s even free in Ibis hotels now, for heaven’s sake) and 2) there shouldn’t be such a strong smell of mildew coming from the bathroom, the ceiling of which has a lot of visible mildew stains, and 3) 15 Euros for breakfast? Really? I’m glad my next hotel is another Sorat. I wouldn’t make pentahotels a habit based on the internet and breakfast and the disco balls. While I think hotels should have bars, making reception one is just a little too much for me. I think it could make checking in an aggravation if one was arriving late at night, especially on a weekend, if you were tired and just wanted to get a decent room and go to bed. I expect travelers like that walk in the door, look at each other, and just turn around and walk out, headed back to the Mercure by the station.



I thought of

morganlf when I was looking over the room for the first time. Totally up her alley.




 

 

I’m looking forward to a hot bath and an early bedtime, and getting into my first archive in the morning!

View out the window: