Germany Trip - 3 Days in Berlin, The Logistics

With the fun bits about Berlin already said, this post is about the basics of getting around Berlin and what the city was like. There will also be some lessons learned on what we would do next time that we didn't do this time, or stuff we wouldn't do again.

Finding a place to stay in Berlin was relatively easy to do. Roslyn looked at hotels and at Airbnb and found a fairly inexpensive apartment to rent, which came out to about $12 per person per night. The apartment was rented out closer to down town and had staff at the front desk 10 hours per day. The experience with the Airbnb rental was pretty good and we would definitely do this again.

For getting around in Berlin/Germany we initially had a rental car, which we drove from an airport to the Airbnb. We struggled to find free street parking the first evening so we ended up parking in a parkade, but move the car to a free spot the next day. Other than that, we did not use the car at all while we stayed in Berlin. The public transit system is inexpensive, convenient, and easy to use. The buses, trams, trains, and subway system all had frequent service and we didn't wait for more then 5-10 minutes on any given route we were taking.

Another thing about driving in Germany, especially if you are from North America, is that there are probably 2-3 times more road signs than we use at home. I spent a good portion of the first few days looking up and memorizing new road sign meanings and other traffic conventions that were different. I used the below site to get a basic understanding and Wikipedia to look up road signs that were new to me. All in all though driving was pretty fun.

Driving in Germany info: http://www.gettingaroundgermany.info/fahren.shtml

For food we ended up buying some groceries for breakfasts and snacks, and I think one lunch. Otherwise we at out at a variety of restaurants. Roslyn and I found that the small coffee/sandwich stops in the subway were both good tasting and fairly cheap. Local grocery stores tended to be inexpensive as well. Small local Mom n' Pop style restaurants were both very good tasting and less pricey. The basic exchange here however was that we traded time when we went looking for cheaper alternatives.

Pretty much everything we did in Berlin was done via the Berlin Pass. This was a great find by Roslyn and led to an exciting three day in Berlin. Essentially, the Berlin Pass is a prepaid entrance fee into dozens of exhibits, museums, and tourist attractions. We both highly recommend getting this if you plan on going to Berlin as it was a great deal for us.

Here's a link to the Berlin Pass website: Berlin Pass Website

This is everything that we did in Berlin that was included on the Berlin Pass:

Hop on, Hop Off Bus Tour of Berlin
Madame Tussaud's
Victory Column
Check Point Charlie
Berlin Dom
River Boat Tour
Berlin Dungeon
Aqua Dome
Little Big City Berlin
Greek and Roman Museum
Natural History Museum

All of that was on the Berlin Pass.

All in all our stay in Berlin went great, both the logistically and the experience in general.

Pisew-Kwasitchewan Falls Day 1

Date: August 4, 2018
Length: 15.6 km
Elevation: 457m
Time: 7 hours 20 minutes

Map of the trail to Kwasitchewan Falls

Pisew provincial park is a park in northern Manitoba about a half hour south of Thompson, near Paint Lake. The park is fairly small and really only offers a picnic area and access to both Pisew Falls, the second largest water fall in Manitoba, and Kwasitchewan Falls, the largest waterfall in Manitoba. Naturally, Roslyn and I had to go see them both, with Tyler in tow.

The start of the trip was a 7.5 hours drive north on a Friday night. We had originally planned on stopping about half way there, but decided to just push through. We arrived at the Pisew Provincial Park parking lot at around 1:30 am and promptly went to sleep in the car. We woke up around 5:30 to try and find a gas station that was open. We were unsuccessful but did see a bear about 100 feet from the parking lot. After that we just decided to hit the trail and were hiking at about 7 am.

First we set off down the board walk to look at Pisew Falls, which is a different trail about 300m long that the route to Kwasitchewan Falls. The boardwalk is pretty well made, has stairs, and some benches, but was pretty slippery due to the morning drizzle.

Start of the Pisew Falls boardwalk

Pisew Falls from the boardwalk

Roslyn and I enjoying Pisew Falls

After looking at Pisew Falls, we set out down the trail to Kwasitchewan falls. This trail starts really well groomed, wide and either covered in gravel or a boradwalk fort he first 300m until you reach a bridge crossing the Grass River.

Bridge over Grass River

Connor crossing the bridge

From here the remaining 15 km was split between first being rained on for the first 10 km, walking through a narrow trail with soaked underbrush for about 3 km, and then happily drying out as we reached open hiking in the last 2 km. The actual trail was fairly nice, if a bit narrow and over grown in places, but it was easy to follow and looking out over the river all day was quite pleasant. There were also some really interesting mushrooms on the path.

Red mushroom cup

Some Gnochi shaped mushrooms, per Roslyn

At around the 13 km mark, we spilled out of the trees onto a rock outcrop over looking the start of the rapids before Kwasitchewan falls. This out cropping is also the emergency landing point for helicopters in the area, so don't camp on it.

Start of the rapids

River opens up again

After taking about 40 minutes to dry out some we continued onward. Upon reaching the first campsite at kilometer 14 we looked around it and found a privy. The first camping area was quite nice and open with decent water access, but we decided to try and get closer to the falls. This camping area could probably hold about 5-6 tents, and had no fire pit, bear box or picnic tables.

Campsite number 2 at 14.6 km was tight, with less easy access to water and no privy, picnic table or bear box. You could probably have fit 2-3 tents in but we decided it wan't worth it and we would check out the next site.

Campsite number 3 is right at the falls, and could probably fit 6-8 tents in the general area if you picked through all the downed trees. There is a privy at this site, but no picnic tables and no bear box.

After putting our packs down, we went over to look at the fall.

Top of the falls

We didn't manage to get many good pictures but we have some great video that will go up on our channel (once we get it setup of course). After looking at the falls for about 10 minutes I noticed that a giant black cloud was almost on top of us and we rushed to put up our tents. As the rain started to fall I finished up my tent, and Tyler was about 95% done his, but he did get a bit of rain inside. One thing to note about this site is that the soil is only about a half inch deep so we had to use rocks to hole the tents up instead of pegs. The rest of the night was spent alternating between hiding in the tent from the rain, eating supper, and looking at the water fall and the lake. We discovered that the waterfall has a rainbow in it as the sunsets!

In Roslyn's words:

This trip was our first real encounter with rain while hiking, and we did not handle it as well as we would have liked. I for one didn’t think I would need rain pants so I just wore gaiters and a rain jacket. Well, as soon as I was the one leading the pack and running into all the wet tree leaves, my pants became a waterfall right into my boots. Yup, sloshy boots for days (literally). It also was quite the drain on our attitude after 6 hours of being wet, but just like light at the end of a tunnel the sun came out just as we were reaching the river fork indicating we were near(ish) our camping spot. The actual trail on the way there was quite nice. Lots of roots, typical of a forest hike, and tons of super colourful mushrooms.

This trail goes past some rapids on the way to the falls (clockwise loop) and I strongly recommend you take the time to enjoy the rapids. They are massive! It really makes you wonder what kind of rock formation lays under the water.

Before this trip, the largest waterfall I had ever seen was Rainbow Falls in Whiteshell, and I knew I was going to be awed by the Kwasitchewan Falls, but man was I awed. I have never before seen something so powerful and authoritative. Also the daily rainbow when the sun shines at about 4:00 is quite spectacular. It actually lines up perfectly with a little island down the river a ways. At the end of the day, falling asleep with the eerily calming roar of Manitoba’s largest waterfall tens of meters away, is quite something.

Germany Trip - 3 Days in Berlin, The Fun Stuff

This post is going to cover the activities we did while we were in Berlin. I will have another post on the logistics of it, how public transit was, etc. There was too much to fit all in one go.

This year, Roslyn and I spent two weeks in Germany with Roslyn's sisters and grandmother. Roslyn's grandmother is from Germany so the three sisters got to experience Germany and meet a bunch of new family members. 

Germany started with a flight from Winnipeg to Toronto, followed by a flight to Rekyavik, then to Berlin. We took WestJet for the Winnipeg to Toronto, which was a fairly normal flight. The flight to Iceland on IcelandAir was quite wonderful though, as was the flight to Berlin on the same air line. Rekyavik air port is very nice, clean, plenty of restaurants. The entry point into Europe was easy, quick, and efficient. The staff on the Iceland Air flight was one of the best flight crews I have had the pleasure to fly with.

First beer in Germany

Once we landed we picked up our rental car and found the Air BnB we were staying at. Finding free parking was hard so we parked in a parkade for night (we did eventually find free parking a short walk away the next day). The Air BnB was nice, spacious and slept 5. The only problem with it was that it was one room and a bathroom. After settling in, we went out for supper and picked up groceries on our way home.

The first full day in Berlin we did a Hop-on Hop-off bus tour. We made an early breakfast, jumped onto the subway, then walked about 10 minutes to the bus stop. At the stop there was an old church with a flower garden, and the Fountain of Poseidon in front of it. 

One of the flowers with a tower in the background

Fountain of Poseidon

Shortly after jumping on the bus we drove past the Berlin Dom. It was a majestic building sitting on the rivers edge. While we went past it on Day 1, we planned to visit it on Day 2 and it did not disappoint. For now we just settled on driving by it and heading onto our first adventure for the day.

Berlin Dom drove by

Group shot on the tour bus

Our first stop on the tour was Madame Tussaud's, a wax museum. The wax creations inside were extraordinary, and the overview of how they are made at the end was interesting as well. You can take pictures of all the exhibits except the Hitler exhibit, but I would still strongly recommend going to it if you are in Berlin because the pictures can't capture the detail or feeling of them well enough.

 Roslyn and I with Einstein

Roslyn's Omi with Vader

With Madame Tussaud's behind us, we jumped back onto the tour bus and headed off to our next stop, the Berlin Victory Column. The Column has a nice green space all around it and is centered in a three lane round about. To get to it you need to take a tunnel underneath the road. While we walked through the tunnel a guitarist played classical music which seemed otherworldly due to the acoustics of the tunnel.

Roslyn and I in front of the Victory Column

Stair to the top of the Victory Column

The Victory Column had a small museum to the different historical monuments in Germany. There is also a staircase up to colonnade where there is a mosaic wrapping around the base of the Column. The a longer staircase then takes you up to the top of the tower which gives a great view out over the city park.

After seeing all of the Victory Column, we ate a quick lunch and had a beer at a near by patio, then jumped back on the tour bus. This time we were headed to Check Point Charlie for a bit of a history review.

Church left and even reinforced in its destroyed state to memorialize WWII

Recreated checkpoint

Single piece of the Berlin wall, we didn't get to see the longer section

Check Point Charlie was pretty interesting. We went into the museum and read through the information stations, listed and watched the videos and just tried to soak it all in. We were there for about an hour and a half and we only made it about half way through before we decided to call it quits. The museum is deceivingly large and we were getting pretty worn down by that point. After leaving Check Point Charlie we headed out to a restaurant then went back to the Air BnB.

Interesting fountain we found on the way home on Day 2

Day 2 started off nice and early again. After a subway trip and a walk we were at the Berlin Dom, ready to see what waited for us inside. We were actually a bit in awe at the main level of the building and the view from the roof. There is also a crypt, which we walked through and looked at the sarcophagi, but we refrained from taking pictures there. The Dom is still an active church with services every Sunday, but the rest of the week they allow tourists into the building.

Side door of the Berlin Dom

Imposing main entrance 

View from the courtyard in front of the Dom

The left side of the main hall, entrance door on the left, altar on the right. The room is circular but it's hard to capture that in a picture 

 The right side of the main hall, continuing onward from the altar

After the Berlin Dom, we walked over to a river boat tour and waited for the next one to start. We didn't take any pictures of the tour but did get quite a bit of video. We will be showing video of the river boat tour, as well as everything else on our trip, on our YouTube channel starting next week!

With the river boat excitement behind us we went to a funny scary haunted house called the Berlin Dungeon. The Dungeon walks you through a somewhat interactive haunted house that plays up some parts of Berlin's past to be both a tiny bit scary and quite a bit humorous.

 The outside of the Berlin Dungeon, no pictures allowed inside

After the Berlin dungeon we did a tour of the Aqua Dome, which is an aquarium amusement park. We didn't get many good pictures because of the lighting and the tanks shapes, but it was pretty fun to see all the fish.

Once we wrapped up the Aqua Dome, we spent the last bit of our day perusing Little Berlin. Little Berlin is a history of the city of Berlin recreated in miniature. There were lots of little hidden gems to go looking for and a few interactive 'race' games that were fun to play against each other.

One of the set pieces in Little Berlin, the craftsmanship was amazing

Little Berlin tired us out completely and we headed back to the room. On the way we stopped at an Italian restaurant for some pizza. The pizza there was the best pizza we had ever eaten at the time (some Sicilian pizza we had in Munich ended up being even better!).

As Day 3 dawned we were a bit tired from all the walking the previous two days, but determined to persevere. We headed back to the Berlin Dom and went to a Greek and Roman museum that was adjacent to it. After he Greek and Roman Museum we grabbed a trolley, a subway and a bus to get to the Natural History Museum.

Greek and Roman history museum

Different Greek hoplite helmets from different regions

Front of the Natural History Museum

Dinosaur skeletons are always cool 

A fully  complete T-rex

Up close T-rex skull

One of the stuffed specimens, a nice jaguar

Both of the museums were enjoyable, and we spent about 3 hours in the Greek and Roman Museum and 2 in the Natural History Museum. The exhibits in both  were expansive and the effort needed to maintain enthusiasm the whole time was pretty exhausting, but all five of us enjoyed it in the end.

With the museums completed, we headed to another restaurant for supper, grabbed some beer from a local grocer who labelled himself as a "YouTube Tourist", and had a relaxing evening at the Air BnB before heading out to Tropical Islands the next day.

In Roslyn's words:

Germany was a once in a lifetime trip, not because we will never be going back, (believe me, we will) but rather because we were able to go with my Omi (grandma) to where she was born and raised. It was something me and my sisters always kinda talked about, and with all of us now out of school, it was the perfect time.

I have been on a big trip before, but not one where I was a responsible party member (aka I’m in charge now). It definitely adds some extra pressure, even more so when you were the one planning the majority of the trip for the group. Will the Airbnbs work out? Will the neighborhoods be sketchy? Will the great deal on that combo attraction ticket actually pan out? Thankfully by the end of the trip my organization and planning efforts all payed off.

The first stop on our adventure was Berlin and man was it awesome. From the seamless transit system to the kind of architecture you can only have from an well aged culture, there was so much to experience and so little time. And just as it was there, there is no way to touch on everything in this post so here are my top five favorite things from Berlin.

The hop on hop off bus tours - They may seem super awful touristy and you will probably get tired of people running around with 6 foot flags on their back trying to sell you a ticket, but I actually really enjoyed it. You can see a bunch of interesting sites and just jump off at the ones you want to explore. It works especially well with the Berlin pass as you can cash in some free entrance locations along the way.

The Berlin Dungeons - Again, super touristy and much more showy than what one thinks of when going to Berlin, but what a great time. Great actors and audience interactions, amazingly well detailed sets, lots of laughs, and a few screams to boot. There was also some added humour from simply watching my Omi react to some of the dirtier jokes made.

Museum Island - I could have spent the whole three days wandering from museum to museum. We had attempted to do a musium day but overestimated our history stamina. If I were to go again, I would try to mix up the attractions and museums more.

Mum n pop restaurants and shops - Having an Airbnb a little bit aways from the main tourist center of the city, we were able to enjoy a few family run establishments. A few times we walked down the street a half block and picked up some bread and fruits from a small family market as well as have a super delicious meal for 7 euro a person (that ended up lasting me for 3 meals). Moral of the story, explore more then the center of Berlin.

Amazing architecture you just cant find in Canada - Just building after building, each grand in it’s own way from gold leaf everything to expansive mosaics. Simply otherworldly for this prairie girl.

Best and Worst of the Epinette Trail System

This weekend we completed the Epinette Trail System, which is a three loop system in Spruce Woods Provincial Park. We took our friend Joel with us this time since he was free for the weekend and he got to experience his first backpacking trip.

#1 Best Part of the Epinette Trail System - Trail Maintenance

The Epinette trail system was wonderfully maintained. Much of the trail was 3 to 4 people wide, grass covered, and completely free of fallen trees. In fact, we only encountered one fallen tree in the entire ~44 km trip. The wide open trails made it easier to talk to each other while hiking, which was a nice change from the single person wide trails we have been doing.

#2 Best Part of the Epinette Trail System - Campsite Quality

The three campsites on the trail system all have a cabin, an outhouse, a couple fire pits, a water pump, and a couple picnic tables. The cabin's can only be slept in during the winter and only with a reservation, but they were nice to have to store food in over night. The other people at the campsite we stayed at put their bikes indoors to keep them out of the rain.

The fire pits had a really nice grill on them and were very large, and the fire wood was provided at the sites as well. Each cabin also had an ax for splitting fire wood as needed to you don't have to pack in your own.

#3 Best Part of the Epinette Trail System - Pristine Parkland

The scenery was quite different from the forest Roslyn and I were used to walking through in the Canadian Shield. The entire hike was a walk through gorgeous parkland in fall colours, with wonderful transitions from primarily deciduous forest to open plains spotted with stands of pine trees.

All in all the hike went quite well and we got to try out some of our gear in the drizzle.

#1 Worst Part of the Epinette Trail System - Sandy Climbs

While there were only 3 or 4 of them, the worst part about the trail was the sandy climbs. We were luck that it was wet out because the sand held together quite well, but sand is still much harder to walk up that normal dirt. In a dry period it would have been much more slippery and annoying.

#2 Worst Part of the Epinette Trail System - Few Sheltered Tent Sites

Most of the camping areas are wide open areas surrounded by a ring of trees. This isn't too bad, but there is really no where to put your tent that Roslyn and I really felt qualified as being 'sheltered' so the wind picked at the tent and there wan't much cover from the rain. Maybe this is just an issue because were used to setting up in dense forests where its fairly easy to find a tent spot in a protective ring of trees.

Either way, don't let these two "worsts" stop you from seeing the trail, there only here to let you know what to expect.

Top Things We Learned This Summer

Doing over 300 km this summer (and heading out to do another 42  km this weekend) has given us a lot of time to figure out what we are doing right, what we are doing wrong, and what we are doing ugly. Here are the top  things Roslyn and I learned this summer, so that hopefully you can learn it a bit more easily.

1 - Weight Management Matters

Roslyn and I started the summer thinking we would be okay with 35 to 40 lb packs so we could take some extras along and "enjoy" the hike more. All this really did was cut down our daily distances, increase fatigue, increase soreness, and make us grumpy. We then didn't even use most of the extras because we found it wasn't necessary.

If you're looking for things to cut out to save some weight, try losing extra clothes, extra rope, extra snacks, extra seating, pillows, and extra water. We have cut down from 40ish lbs to 29-30 lbs any find we are much happier at the end of the day since we still have energy at the camp site.

2 - Water Management is Key

In order to help with the above weight management, we learned to check out the trail maps and plan out our water stops, or at least make sure there were plenty of options. This did two things. One it helped us reduce weight as we went from carrying 3 liters of water each to carrying 1.75 liters of water each. Two is put our minds at ease because we knew how much we could drink and how much distance we needed to cover until we could get more water. No more guess work.

3 - Sleeping Pads are Necessary

We found this out on a cold May long weekend when we forgot our sleeping pads. The ground leeches the heat out of your body, and its impossible to sleep well when cold.Using a sleeping pad (and remembering it) is more comfortable and warmer, so you get a better rest and recover better.

4 - Self Awareness

Know how your body functions. Know what motions will make it sore and how to avoid them. Make sure you know what to do to ease joint soreness if you are prone to it without damaging the other joints in your body by over compensating.

Also make sure you are aware of your mental state. Being frustrated, grumpy, or upset makes it much harder to enjoy the trail. It also makes you much more prone to giving up, making bad decisions, and taking extra breaks. All of these things make completing and enjoying your trip more difficult, not to mention more dangerous. Even if you can't over come them, make sure you realize you are frustrated or grumpy and then work to mitigate it.

Those are the top 4 things Roslyn and I learned about this summer. There aren't really any easy steps to learn about them other than practice, so make sure you get out there and do your best!

Mantario Trail, Caribou Lake to South Trail Head

Date: July 2, 2018
Length: 11.7 km
Elevation: 135 m
Time: 5 hours 15 minutes

Map of the trip home

Waking up in the morning, we took down our tents and ate breakfast before setting out. We were the first group to leave in the morning, but thankfully there wasn't much dew or rain so we stayed dry while pushing through the undergrowth.

After the first kilometer we came to the scramble and creek crossing again. Here one of the groups behind us caught up and we let them pass while we took some pictures and videos. I climbed down the stream a bit to get a different angle.

Looking out past the crossing area

Looking down the stream

Looking back up stream

The rest of the hike was pleasant. The weather was good, but warm. And it was nice to have more time in the day than required to get the trip finished. Overall the section from Caribou to the south trail head was enjoyable.

A section of the forest

Best and Worst of the Mantario Trail

We are going to start up a new type of series called "Best and Worst of ...". Here we're going to give the top 3 Best and Worst things about our most recent backpacking trip. We will only be doing one of these per overnight trip, so the normal posts should still come much more often.

#1 Best Part of the Mantario Trail - Marion Lake Campsite

As mentioned in our posts about our July long weekend hike, and as will be mentioned more in our posts about our full Mantario through hike, Marion Lake campsite is just the best. There is easily enough room for 12 tents to be comfortable, and probably up to 20 if people cooperate and squish them together. The water is the best tasting on the trail and very clear. The bear box and latrine are centrally located, easy to find, and pretty convenient. There are three metal fire pits and a picnic table. It is easily the best supported camp site on the trail.

#2 Best Part of the Mantario Trail - The views between Moosehead Lake and Mantario Lake

This section of trail was the most rugged over all, requiring a lot of effort on our part due to the constant elevation changes. But with elevation comes views, and the lookouts over the lakes and surrounding area are amazing for this 8 km section of the trail.

#3 Best Part of the Mantario Trail - Sunrises and Sunsets

We experienced some of the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets to date in our travels. The trees, lakes, and rocks make for both wonderful colors and shadows as the sun comes and goes fro the day.

#1 Worst Part of the Mantario Trail - Wasps and Hornets

We had some really bad luck. About 100m before Marion Lake a hornet nest was on the trail. Roslyn was leading and as she walked past it and was saying she saw it, I managed to step on it. A 100m sprint and 12 stings later and I was at camp. I had also been stung earlier in the day by a hornet, so they just seemed out to get me.

It didn't stop on day 1 though. On day 2 Tyler and I were both stung one as we were walking along the trail minding our own business, this time by wasps.

Then about 1 km from the end of the trail, Roslyn stepped on wasp nest. Once again 100m sprint and 8 stings later we were catching our breath and ready to get to the vehicle.

#2 Worst Part of the Mantario Trail - Lack of Latrines at "major" camp sites

On the trail, the notable sites that didn't have latrines were Caribou East and Hemmenway. We didn't stay at Caribou East this trip but we did stay at Hemmen way. This isn't a huge deal but the convenience of a privy can't be overstated.

#3 Worst Part of the Mantario - The Elevation Grind

The elevation changes are both one of the best and worst parts of the trail. However it does eventually start to drag on your as you go up and down, and up and down, and up and down. All in all its a part of hiking and backpacking, but be aware that it can get old when you can't really open up and hike at speed for a while.