Walking and Drinking Beer on a Las Vegas Showgirl Backstage Tour

Jubilee backstage tours are led by showgirls three days a week.

There’s no greater icon for Las Vegas than a statuesque showgirl, sparkling with jewels, her head covered with ostrich plumes, her outstretched arms shimmering with diamond cuffs as she stands motionless and nude, a celebration of the beauty of the female form.

But times change.

Where once every casino on the Strip had an elaborate showgirl production, today it is all Cirque du Soleil, Broadway musicals, Celine and Donny & Marie.  When the Folies Bergere  closed in 2008 after a run of 49.5 years, that left Glitter Gulch with just one last showgirl production.

Ah, but what a production it is.  Jubilee! is pure Vegas – the longest running show in town, and second longest in the world.  For 31 years, this $50 million, over-the-top spectacle of 85 dancers wearing 1,000 different costumes has exploded on a stage half the size of an American football field.  Literally exploded.  Each show uses five pounds of explosives and 1,000 pounds of dry ice.

But no special effect can top the showgirls – the 60 beauties who wear 10,000 pounds of rhinestones, 8,000 miles of sequins, 4,000 pounds of feathers…and not much else.

One of the great ways to enjoy the show is on a backstage tour, held three days a week.  Led by one of the showgirls, the tour takes you into their dressing rooms and behind the show’s staggering 75 different curtains and backdrops to see what it takes to put on this swirling sea of color.

Laura the tour guide

Our tour guide, Laura, is a former ballet dancer who has been with Jubilee! for five years.  She’s perky, tall and model-thin and joins the tour wearing a g-string, fishnet stockings and a short little sparkling black jacket and bowler hat.   While she’s certainly the most glamorous thing in our group of twenty, older, sweating and overweight tourists, we soon learn there is really very little glamour in being a showgirl.

Jubilee! is performed twice a night, six days a week, 52 weeks a year.  And there is only one cast with no understudies.  That means each dancer must perform every show. When dancers are injured, sick or on vacation, the other cast members must fill in.  Laura is a “swing” dancer, so for certain production numbers, she has to know the moves and routines of all the other hoofers so she can fill in for anyone missing. This requires her to memorize 45 different dance routines and costume changes and be able to perform any one of them at the drop of a hat.

Into the Dressing Rooms

After standing on the main stage to see the immense size of it, the tour group descends two stories below to the cramped dressing rooms.  Here we learn that the spectacle you see on stage is dwarfed by the excitement that goes on behind the curtain.  Laura has 11 costume changes in the show.  Each change requires that she go up and down two flights of stairs in three inch heels, often wearing a 20 pound costume with a headdress that can stick out three-feet on each side, all the while avoiding all the other 85 dancers (and the 75 stage hands pulling curtains and pushing sets).  She does 1,500 stairs a night.  “There’s no need for the dancers to work out or exercise,” she says.  “We get all the exercise we need just being in the show.”

There are 65 dancersin the show, 40 of them are nude dancers.

It’s hard to imagine the chaos that goes on in these cramped quarters.  Some of the headdresses are so huge that they are held up by pulleys twenty feet in the air and lowered on to the girl’s head just before going on stage.  The headdresses alone can weigh 25 pounds and feature hundreds of feathers from ostrich, pheasant, and even vultures – all individually attached to a football-like helmet designed to fit snugly on a showgirl’s head.  There are no chinstraps. 
It takes balance and incredible strength to hold the headdress up, move gracefully across stage, avoid hitting the other girls, and get back to the dressing room, where you have three minutes to change and do it all over again.

Designed by Bob Mackie and Pete Menafee, the costumes are all different, and many of them are 30 years old.  They are valued at up to $50,000 apiece. 

 Keeping the costumes in shape requires three costume shops, where a team of specialists are constantly sewing, wiring, and cleaning.  As you walk through the shops filled with feathers and sequins, the most memorable thing is that the mirrors are bedecked with personal photos, just like any office desk in the world.  “This is where we spend most of our lives, and we’re like a family,” Laura says.  Dancers must be 18, but there is no older age limit and the oldest male dancer was 51 and a grandfather.  “As long as you look good and feel good wearing a g-string, you’re in,” Laura says. 

To stand out on such a huge stage requires real presence.  Women dancers must be at least 5 feet 8 inches tall for the “short” end of the line, and 5 feet 10 inches for the “tall” end.  The 25 males dancers have to be 6 feet tall.

The History of Nude Dancing in Las Vegas

When Las Vegas introduced showgirls in 1959, the law was that for them to be nude, they could not move.  That led to the iconic image of showgirls just standing still.  Today, that has loosened up and all of the showgirls are dancers and athletes.  Forty of them in Jubilee! are topless; the other covered dancers, of which Laura is one, are called “Bluebells,” after a Miss Blue Bell, one of the early dressers.  But it is the nude dancers that steal the show, and consequently they make more money, are the featured dancers, and have the best costumes. 
“When I saw the costumes, I knew I had to try them,” Laura says, so she “swings” or fills-in for the nude dancers when required.  She holds up a bra that is little more than a ribbon outline of sparking diamonds, the key pieces missing.  “It doesn’t look like much, but I’d feel naked without it!” she laughs.

In addition to the dressing rooms, the backstage tour visits some of the elaborate sets that are stored below stage and whisked up by 11 elevators.  The show’s set pieces include the sinking of the Titanic, a Samson and Delilah number in which a gigantic temple crashes to the ground, and homage to Hollywood. 

Two floors underground, you can see the 30-foot model of the Titanic, or the ship’s enormous boiler rooms, or the huge metal cages, where Laura, as a slave girl, dances in the Samson number.   Some 100,000 pounds of sets are moved up and down to the stage in seconds – and all by hand.  Whereas modern shows like Phantom of the Opera are computer and machine controlled, the “Old School” Jubilee! production is done by hand with 75 stage hands pulling ropes, shoving props, and placing explosives by hand.

Each girl must do their own makeup – and to be visible on a huge stage, the makeup is heavy.  Since their own hair is not part of the show, the girls wrap their heads in a pantyhose cap so they can easily slip into headdresses and wigs. The pantyhose cap may not be the most glamorous look  behind the stage, but once they get into their costumes, dance past the curtain, and shimmer into the spotlight – you are seeing some of the hardest working, most athletic, talented and beautiful dancers in the business.

If you go:    Jubilee! is a unique and wildly expensive show to produce.  When it closes, the world will never see its likes again, so see it soon. The backstage tours are available Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 11 a.m.; cost is $17 per person ($12 if you also purchase a Jubilee! show ticket).  www.ballyslasvegas.com, 702-967-4938.

Walking and Drinking Beer in Las Vegas

Las Vegas has the most liberal drinking laws in the world.  You can drink anywhere, any time. Buy a beer at a liquor store (there's more than a dozen on the strip) and you can walk around drinking from the glass bottle, and take your beer into a casino or anywhere you like.  The ABC Store (direct from Hawaii) has a good selection of single beers.  There are deals along the strip for $1.99 Bud Lights and other cheap beers and for frozen drinks, but to get a craft beer requires a search and will run you $7 to $8.  Las Vegas is not cheap anymore.  There's a craft beer booth on the second level of New York casino with 24 beers; the New York casino also has a decent but crowded Irish pub down below.

Venice has fountains and gondolas

To walk the main part of the Strip from Luxor to Wynn is about four miles, but it will seem like 20 with the craziness of the people, the lights, noise, non-stop traffic and shows.  Still, it's one of the most fascinating walks in the world.  All of the large, free shows that begin at dusk are worth seeing.  In order of spectacle they provide, the best are:  The Pirate Ship battle at Treasure Island, the volcano at Mirage, the gondolas floating by at Venice (the inside shopping center is worth a look), the plaza at Ceaser's Palace, and the dancing fountains at Bellagio. 

It was 108 degrees the day I was there (in early June), but it was not as frightfully hot as it would seem.  There's plenty of casinos to duck into, there's usually shade, and it is a dry desert heat.  There is a monorail, but it is not located on the strip, so it requires walking the lenght of the casino to find a stop, and the casinos are designed so there is no straight line through them. 

Ceaser's Palace has cool fountains -- when it's 108 degrees.

A better public transportation is the Deuce bus, which runs up and down the Strip.  It's $5 for a two hour period or better, pay the $7 for a 24-hour pass.  The Deuce is a good way to get from the Strip to the Fremont Street Experice, a section of Old Las Vegas that now has zipliners racing overhead, a canapony of several million lights, free bands, and the biggest crowds in town.  Fremont Street is too far to walk from the Strip, but worth the journey -- at least once -- just to experience its craziness.  Get on the Deuce, grab a seat on the upper deck (the bus is air conditioned, new and very cool), and it's a great (but slow) ride up the Strip to Fremont Street.

Fremont Street Experience

Aria Resort & Casino

Where to stay:   The new “showgirl” of the Las Vegas Strip is Aria Resort & Casino, a 4,000-room, AAA Five Diamond beauty that opened in 2009.  It’s fun to see an “Old School” show like Jubilee!, but you want to stay in the 21^st Century – and this place is it.  All of the guestrooms feature floor-to-ceiling windows and the most technological advanced rooms in Las Vegas.  One “Good Night” turns off the lights, shuts the curtains, and turns on the privacy notification.  The lobby and public areas mix water, wood and stone, including a relaxing 270-foot long waterfall as you enter.  The curvilinear steel and glass towers were designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli (architects of some of the most monumental buildings in the world including the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Canary Wharf Tower in London and New York’s World Financial Center).  This resort -- and the attached Crystals shopping center and three outdoor pools – are a whole new contemporary look for Las Vegas, but in keeping with the same elegant shapes and classic beauty of the city’s famous showgirls.   www.arialasvegas.com

Dresden is a “New” Mini-Prague

Dresden today has been rebuilt into a gorgeous, Baroque city.

They say that no one is building a city like Prague anymore, but that’s not quite true.  Most of the gorgeous Baroque, “Old Europe” city you see in the heart of Dresden, Germany today is brand new, even though it appears to look centuries old. 

From Medieval-looking back alleys to grand cathedrals, from an impressive Baroque opera house to beautiful bridges, from huge squares lined with colorful cafes to a river teeming with nine steamboats, central Dresden ranks for sheer beauty with any of the great cities of Europe.  While the historic center is smaller than Prague, street for street, Dresden has the same feeling.  Located midway between Berlin and Prague (just two hours from each city by train) it makes a romantic stopover city, but one that many North Americans have yet to discover.

Dresden after the bombing

Of course, the reason everything in Dresden is new is because the city was completely destroyed in World War II in one of the most horrific bombing raids the world has ever known.  At the outbreak of the War, Dresden was a university town, renowned for its architecture, art treasures, history and beauty.  Because of its celebrated status as one of the most elegant cities of Europe and because there were no military targets here, Dresden escaped bombing for almost the entire war.  Through the London Blitz, the D-Day landings at Normandy and the Battle for Berlin, life in Dresden was fairly normal.  But all that changed on the night of Feb. 13, 1945. 

British Lancaster bomber

Allied Air Marshal Arthur “Bomber” Harris had devised a plan to destroy the will of the German people to fight by leveling their cities.  Dresden, with its medieval wood buildings on narrow streets, gave Harris the target he was looking for to experiment with firestorms.

Just two months before the end of the war, some 244 British Lancaster bombers dropped 800 tons of bombs on central Dresden, including 10-ton mega bombs called “blockbusters.”  Each of these bombs literally blew the roof off an entire block of buildings.  With the roofs gone, the city had no protection when the second wave of 529 Lancasters filled the skies some hours later, dropping 1,800 hundred tons of phosphorescent “sticky” fire bombs that fell on the exposed buildings and began fires wherever they stuck. 

Dresden today.

A third wave of 311 U.S. “Flying Fortresses” came the next morning, when fire crews and survivors were on the street.   This third wave of bombs created a draught that united individual fires into one huge firestorm that swept across 75% of Dresden, using up so much oxygen that city dwellers were suffocated, even in their underground bomb shelters.  The horror of that night was captured by American author Kurt Vonnegut, who was a prisoner of war in Dresden and wrote about it in his classic novel, Slaughterhouse Five. 

When the bombing finally stopped, 25,000 civilians were dead and Dresden was an inferno – so completely, utterly destroyed that many questioned if it should, or even could, ever be rebuilt.  Ironically, the railroad through the city, the alleged target justifying the bombing raid, was hardly damaged. 

The Oper House in Dresden.

In the Cold War, Dresden was part of East Germany and there was little money for restoration so the city center remained in piles of rubble… or worse, much of the city was bulldozed and rebuilt with cheap, ugly cinderblock. 

The Frauenkirche church was rebuilt in 2005

But with the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany in 1990, millions of Euros poured in to the city and Dresden’s entire center was restored to its old beauty.  The results are simply incredible.  Dresden’s city center is once again an Old World marvel of towers and turrets, squares and arches, murals, churches, statues and theatres.  As you sit in a café sipping a beer, surrounded by a beautiful Baroque city teeming with young people and tourists, it’s impossible to believe this is the same bombed out ruin pictured in the postcards in every shop.  But look closely at all the “old” buildings.  The white stone used in them is new, but the black squares used here and there are bits of old stone salvaged from the ruins and put back in place, as if building a giant jigsaw puzzle. 

The Parade of Nobles

Other old things remain.  The Parade of Nobles, an amazing block-long mural of 24,000 tiles, is all original.  The ceramic tiles, depicting 700 years of Saxon history and clothing, were already fired twice when they were created, so the temperatures of the firebombing didn’t hurt them:  in fact, the firebombing temperatures were actually cooler than their original firing.

The city’s visitor center has walking tour brochures in all languages, and it’s possible to take guided tours by foot, by horse-drawn carriage or by boat along the Elbe River.   You could see the center in a day, but it’s even more magical at night when the buildings are illuminated.  Dresden also makes an excellent base for a series of day-trip adventures in the surrounding countryside. 

Munzgasse is lined with outdoor cafes

With 40 museums, there’s shortage of things to see; some of the “must do” Dresden experiences include:

·                   Have a beer in an outdoor cafe in the Newmarkt Square beside the Frauenkirche church with its towering bell-shaped dome.  The church dome was destroyed in the bombing in 1945 and lay in a pile of rubble for decades, a somber anti-war symbol.  But in 2005, at a cost of $100 million Euros, the church was completely rebuilt and today is an architectural marvel, inside and out, and a symbol of Dresden’s re-birth. 

·                   Walk through the Zwinger  Palace – a Baroque masterpiece with fountains, gardens and some of Germany’s grandest museums.  Once part of the fortifications, the palace was built by the city’s hero, Augustus the Strong (1670-1733), the famous king of Saxon who, according to legend, fathered 365 children and could bend a horseshoe by hand.  There are four art museums in the palace – the most famous is The Green Vault, which is a treasure-house of amber, precious stones and art objects (and requires advance reservations).

Zwinger Palace is filled with museums

·          Walk along the Parade of Nobles, a street-long mural of tiles depicting 700 years of Saxon royalty, uniforms and weapons. 

·                   Stroll the Balcony of Europe, the city’s old ramparts looking down on the Elbe River.  There are bike and walking paths along both sides of the river with gorgeous city views.

Steam-driven side-wheel paddle boats go up the Elbe River

·                  Have another beer on Munzgasse – a lively block of outdoor beer gardens and restaurants.  Or climb down into an old stone cellar for dinner at Sophienkeller, which is bit touristy, but fun with costumed staff carrying liters of beer as they re-create the days of August the Strong in a medieval setting of wooden tables and military shields.

The Elbe River from Saxon Switzerland National Park

Ride a river steamboat.  Dresden’s collection of nine operating steam paddleboats is the largest in the world.  The beautiful, sleek boats (some of them more than 100 years old) dock side-by-side in Dresden and sail 80 km up and down the river to 14 villages.  You can take a short excursion by boat one-way, and bike or walk back on paths that line the river. There are boats that travel to dream riverside biergartens in cute towns, like SchillerGarten, or you can sail 20 miles by steamboat to Saxon Switzerland National Park.  Trails from the dock in the village of Kurort Rathen climb steeply for a pleasant 45 minute hike to Bastei Bridge, which offers sweeping views of the Elbe River and unusual rock formations.

If you have a car, visit nearby Fortress Konigstein – the largest fortress in Europe occupying the top of a rock butte.  Surrounded by 200 foot cliffs and built into the rock, the fortress has fantastic views, rampart walks, canons and of course, another biergarden.

For complete information on Dresden, visit:

www.dresden.de/dtg/en/index.php

Biking and Drinking Beer in Berlin

Gendarmenmarkt, the prettiest square in Berlin (photo: Visit Berlin)

The best way to see Berlin is by bicycle. For one thing, the city of 3.4 million people is huge – 9 times the size of Paris – and, like any capital city, there are long distances to be covered between monuments and historic buildings.
But the best reason to see Berlin by bicycle is because that’s how Berliners see it. This is one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in Europe and there are bicycles everywhere: riding side-by-side with cars and trolleys on the main thoroughfares, bouncing on the cobblestone backstreets of Mitte and zipping along on bike paths that line the Spree River – the heart and soul of Berlin.



Spree River

 Most of the “must see” attractions are on or near the Spree, which meanders and twists west to east the entire width of Berlin. Use the Spree as your bicycle highway, and you can easily pedal the flat city from the Scholss Chalottenburg to Checkpoint Charlie, with stops at beer gardens along the way.

There are great parks, wonderful tree-lined shopping boulevards, amazing architecture, and everywhere, history. This city is fixated on its history, and no wonder. The events that led to World War II in Europe all started in Berlin. By the time the war came back and ended in Berlin in April 1945, one seventh of the world had seen fighting, 60 million people were dead, 50 million injured, and 80,000 towns and cities had been destroyed.

Among the destroyed cities was Berlin. More bombs were dropped on Berlin than any other city in World War II. Some 612,000 homes and one fifth of all buildings were destroyed. An army of 900,000 Russian soldiers eventually took the city, but by that time, one million people had been killed in the Battle for Berlin, including 125,000 civilians. And the horror was not over a long shot. In the vast sea of rubble that had been a city, the conquering soldiers of the Russian army raped 110,000 Berlin women.



Russians capture Berlin

 Stare carefully at any pre-World War II stone building in Berlin and you’ll see scars from machine gun bullets, tank shells and bombs. Human scars are harder to find. But there’s no forgetting. Every tourist postcard rack is filled with images of Berlin as a destroyed city, Russian soldiers waving flags from the top of bombed out buildings.

With the war’s end, Berlin’s nightmare kept going. Ahead were occupation and the Berlin Wall, which for 28 years ran a twisting 96-miles through the center of the city, cutting apart families and friends. No city can match a history like this, and there are museums, historic markers, and old bits of the wall, books and posters everywhere to remind you.

But of course, that’s exactly what young Germans don’t want. They’ve had enough of the war, Nazis, and East and West Berlin, and they’ve built and inhabit a wonderfully new, hip and chic city of cafes, restaurants and fashion…and, of course beer. You could live comfortably for a long time on delicious street vendor sausages that sell for one Euro, washed down with 3 Euro half liters of beer. All of this makes Berlin one of the cheapest and most fascinating European cities to visit.

Orientation & Bike Rentals

One of the least expensive and easiest places to stay is by the Zoo and beautiful Tiergarten Park. The central train station used to be here, but a new station has made this area kind of a backwater – it’s still easy to get connections everywhere, but much cheaper to stay here. There is direct bus service or S-Bhan service from the airports for 2 Euros (booths at the airport with English speaking guides will sell you the tickets and tell you where to catch the bus or train).



Brandenburger Tor (gate)  credit:  Visit Berlin

 The Zoo station has all three public transportations: the U-Bhan (the underground subway system) the S-Bhan (the streetcars and light rail) and DB national railway. Buy a daily pass from an easy to use machine with English instructions and your ticket is good on all of them.

Lots of inexpensive hotels are in the Zoo area along Kurfurstendamm (Ku’damm for short), which is one of Berlin’s main, tree-lined shopping boulevards. We booked the pleasant enough Hotel Boulevard am Kurfuerstendamm (with a rooftop bier garden) through Expedia for $65 Euros. http://hotel-boulevard-berlin.h-rzn.com/?lbl=ggl

Fat Tire Bike Tours also has an outlet at the Zoo station (and at Alexanderplatz). They rent big, comfortable cruiser bikes, useful for hopping tram lines. You can take one of their organized bike tours of the city or just rent a bike and go off on your own for 12 Euros a day. www.FatTireBikeTours.com/berlin
www.berlinfahrradverleih.com/

Around the Zoo: Walking Ku’damm



Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church

 It’s impossible to see all of Berlin, but in a couple of days of walking and biking around, here are some highlights. Kurfurstendamm was the main shopping street of West Berlin when the city was divided. Ironically, the shopping is now better in what was East Berlin, but Ku’damm is a still a great strolling avenue. Visit The KaDeWe, the largest department store in Europe, which has more than 2,000 employees. The 7th floor is like the Harrod’s food stalls and is devoted to every imaginable delicacy that can be eaten, including 1,800 different cheeses and 1,400 breads. The displays of food alone are worth a visit, but there are counters where you can sit and dine on everything from seafood to specialty meats, although it’s not cheap.

The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church hovers over Ku’damm as a grim reminder of the War. The tower was destroyed in a bombing raid in 1943, but the ruins were left standing as a memorial. Photos in the museum show the sheer, utter destruction of Berlin, making it all the more unbelievable when you exit on to the same street now and see it filled with cafes and handsome people busy shopping and living well.

Biking Berlin from the Zoo
Hop on a bike at the zoo station and it’s a pleasant three-mile ride along the Spree to Schloss Charlottenburg. Built in 1695, this is one of the major palaces of Europe and a one-time home of Frederick the Great (1712-1786), a name that will pop up all over Berlin. It was this Frederick who made the city one of the grandest on the Continent. There are better palaces in nearby Potsdam, but the grounds, gardens and lakes here are lovely to bike around.



Schloss Charlottenburg

 Back on the bike path, you can follow the Spree all the way to the Reichstag. The most important building in the city, it was built in 1894, destroyed in 1933 (its arson was used by Hitler to seize power), and rebuilt in 1990s with an amazing new dome to become the official seat of the German parliament – the capitol of a reunified Germany. It’s about a 40-minute wait to get through security for a free tour, but well worth it. The outdoor view from the top of the Cupola takes in all of Berlin. Walking up and down the ramp inside the glass dome (you can look straight down into the parliament floor) is one of the top Berlin experiences.



Reichstag interior

 The area around the Reichstag is one of the great places to have a bike because you can zip between top attractions that would take days to walk. Within a short ride you can be at the famous Brandenburger Tor (gate), the great symbol of Berlin that was right in the middle of the BerlinWall. The tree-lined Unter den Linden starts here. This is the most beautiful boulevard in the city. Combined with cross street Friedrichstrabe, it’s the Fifth Ave. of Berlin. The beautiful trees that once lined it were cut down by Hitler and replaced with Nazi flags, but people objected (one of the rare times they stood up to him) so the trees you see here today were replanted by Hitler. There’s a bike lane (never bike on a sidewalk…Berliners will let you know that is verboten) and it’s possible to zip along past cafes, and impressive old buildings now filled with shops.



German History Museum


Along the way are the impressive gates to Humboldt University (Albert Einstein was educated here) and the fantastic German History Museum, a must stop for anyone interested in the rise of Nazi Germany, World War II and the Berlin Wall. The museum covers all German history, so there are suits of armor and Napoleon’s hat (captured at one of one of the many Prussian battles with France) but the mesmerizing exhibits are on how the Nazis came to power. Not to be frivolous, but beer played a role. One of the great attractions of the big mass Nazi rallies was free beer and sausages. About a third of the exhibits have English translations, which is enough to follow the story.



Alte Museum on Museum Island



Mitte, Berlin’s old town with cobblestone streets and attractive squares (Gendarmenmarkt is the most beautiful) is just a few blocks south and fun to bike through (with less cars to compensate for the bumpy cobblestone ride). Unter den Linden also leads to Museum Island, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the most important collections of museums on the planet, led by the Pergamonmuseum, with its great collection of ancient art. Even if you don’t have time for any of them, the layout of the island and the architecture of the museums are worth a journey. Just over the bridge on the other side of the island is Hackescher Markt, one of the most attractive squares for an outdoor café, sausages and a half-liter of bier. We watched a film being made on the bridge of a nude couple dancing, then witnessed a bike do a 180-degree flip when a rider’s front tire got stuck in a tram rail. Watch those rails!



Museum Island, a UNESCO World Heritage Site

 Heading back to the Zoo, the Tiergarten is one of the great parks of Europe with lakes, biergardens, miles of tree-covered bike trails, statues and monuments, …all making a nice end to the ride.

Berlin After Dark



Mitte outdoor cafe

 Berlin’s famed nightlife is hard to find. For one thing, it allegedly starts very late with clubs opening at midnight. Hip neighborhoods change constantly, and you could walk by clubs in the day and not recognize them. But there are no end to nice neighborhoods lined with outdoor cafes and restaurants: Kreuzberg is the Turkish center (Berlin would be the fourth largest Turkish city in the world) and has a real international flavor. Prenzlauer Berg is an old East German neighborhood with literally dozens and dozens of restaurants built into what had been a neighborhood of uniform, boring, and Communist cinderblock buildings. They are now alive with people, colorful awnings and umbrellas. Mitte has restaurants and galleries built into old buildings and Savigny-Plaz has outdoor cafes surrounding a nice square park. Young Berliners are hip and nicely dressed, and the cafes and bars are always full with people in animated conversations. But it’s quite tame, and if you’re looking for a scene like Amsterdam, well, we couldn’t find it..though we asked enough people.

Most people would see Berlin on a trip around Germany or on a triangle trip with Prague, Vienna or Budapest…all of which are easily accessible by train in a few hours. It certainly ranks with those cities in interest, especially if you’re fascinated by 20th Century history. Another option is to stop in Dresden, a mini-Prague-like city just two hours away, (halfway to Prague) that was also destroyed in World War II and has been rebuilt into amazing destination.



Sanssouci

 BIKING IN POTSDAM
Berlin’s most popular day-trip is Potsdam (a half hour train trip: buy the A, B and C daily transit pass and you can travel there by train or slower tram). In the main station of Potsdam, exit towards the river, turn right and 200 yards down there is a bike rental shop. They’ll give you a map that guides you to one incredible 20 km bike ride past palaces, fountains, gardens and tree-lined lanes of Sanssouci. You’ll also bike to a wonderful pedestrian town of cafes and shops, on to the famous site where Truman, Stalin and Churchill decided the fate of Europe after WWII, over the “spy bridge” where East and West Germany often exchanged prisoners, and along a lakeshore to palaces turned into beirgardens.



A palace in the great park of Sanssouci

 Sanssouci (“Without worries”) is the Versailles of Germany – a UNESCO World Heritage Site of 700 acres filled with a dozen palaces, working windmill, and elaborate gardens and fountains, all with landscaped trees lining the roads. What a bike ride! No traffic, flat paths and something amazing around every corner. It was started as a summer resort by Frederick the Great in 1744. He is once again buried here (after being dug and exploited in a tomb by the Nazis) under a simple stone slab, that always has a fresh potato on it (Frederick introduced the potato to Germany).



Potsdam at twilight

 From the park, it’s an easy pedal to the quaint pedestrian streets of Potsdam. Walk your bike (or get stern glances from locals) past beautiful shops, flowers and cafes to the Dutch Quarter, a centuries old street with red tile roofs. The Allies chose Potsdam as the place to meet after the war, and it was here that Europe was divided into East and West. Fittingly, Potsdam was right on the line. The Glienicker Bridge was one of the most famous dividing lines, and a place glorified in Cold War novels where spies were often exchanged. Bike over this, and follow the lakeshore back to town.

IF YOU GO:   www.visitberlin.de/en

Rolling and Drinking Beer on New Zealand’s TranzAlpine Express

It’s not the fastest or most luxurious railroad in the world, but the TranzAlpine Express is certainly one of the most scenic. Slicing across the South Island of New Zealand, the 260-km rail line travels from the wild, rocky, glacier-studded West Coast of the island to the pastoral, rolling green hills of the east. In between are the Southern Alps – Lord of the Ring Country -- a stark landscape of jagged snowcapped peaks and strange rock formations that’s been a backdrop for the Lord of the Rings and Nardia films.

To traverse these rugged mountains, the train hugs riverbanks through narrow canyons and gorges, burrows through 19 tunnels, and rattles across high bridges and trestles. Incredible scenic vistas fly by and are gone in a second. But no worries, there’s another panorama just around the next bend.

As gorgeous as the scenery is, the main reason to take the train is that it links the two very different coasts of New Zealand’s South Island and is a perfect gateway to the wonders of this magic place.

Christchurch Reborn

New Zealand is roughly the same size as the state of Colorado, but stretched out into two long, thin islands. There are only 4 million humans living here, but they share the green land with 40 million sheep and 5 million cows. Most people arrive on the South Island (the wilder and more spectacular of the two) via Christchurch, New Zealand’s second largest city. And its most tragic.

All these buildings will have to be demolished.

Two earthquakes last year devastated this lovely city and a third good-sized quake hit as recently as December 22, 2011. The city experiences small quakes on an almost daily basis, and 10,000 people have found the strain too much and left town.

Strangely, only the downtown core of the city was damaged in the major quakes – the airport and suburbs show almost no signs of destruction.

But the downtown core was hit hard. The force was equal to 60 atomic bombs. Some 1,200 buildings were either destroyed or so damaged they will have to be torn down and 182 people were killed. The whole central city, called “the Red Zone” is fenced off and will have to be demolished. It includes the town hall, the convention center, sports arena and some 20 hotels. Today, it looks much like an abandoned urban area from a zombie film.

The new "pop up" city (white building will be torn down)

Despite the quakes, Christchurch is coming back. Around the edges of the downtown core, they have already built an amazing new “pop up” city – in truck containers. Dozens of 50-foot long steel truck containers have been stacked on top of each other. They are painted a palette of bright colors with large picture windows and serve as banks and bookstores, coffee shops and grocery stores. Mayor Bob Barker speaks for the city’s spirit, stating that Christchurch not only intends to rebuild (a 10-year, $30 billion project) but the city will become a model for the 21st Century as a green and sustainable, low-rise urban oasis – “a city in a garden” filled with bike paths and pedestrian areas. Maybe. But first those quakes are going to have to quiet down. In the meantime, Christchurch is still a fascinating tourist stop. Many major attractions survived and are open, including their gorgeous Botanic Gardens, punting on the River Avon, and the famous Canterbury Museum (with its town crier ringing a bell out front). Combined with the new “pop up” city, Christchurch is worth a visit, but accommodations are tight so you need a reservation in advance.

All Aboard the TranzAlpine

TranzAlpine Express

The train leaves Christchurch daily at 8:15 a.m., making a 4.5-hour journey across the island to the West Coast town of Greymouth. Because of the steep grades, this is a narrow gauge line; however, the windows are huge, offering magnificent views of the countryside. There is an open-air gondola car that is windy and rattles quite a bit, but is great for photos and the thrill of being outside, barreling through this wild country. Of course, there’s also a bar car for drinks and snacks.

From Christchurch, the 14-car, light blue train speeds along the Canterbury plains, flashing by green fields of sheep and cattle, until it reaches the foothills and begins the long, slow, twisting climb up river canyons into the jagged Southern Alps. The literal high point of the trip is Arthur’s Pass, where the train enters the 8,554-meter long Otira Tunnel, the longest tunnel in both the British Empire and the Southern Hemisphere.

From here it’s a long glide back down the mountains – the perfect place to grab a local Southern Island Speight’s ale, and listen to the soothing clickty-clack of the rails as the unending scenery rolls by.

Speight’s is typical of New Zealand’s “major” brewery products. NZ is big beer country, but 90% of it is pretty standard lagers and ales. On the South Island, Monteith’s and Speight’s are the big locals. Tui (named after a local bird) is a 120-year old brewery that has taken on a hip, new, sexy image with ads like this www.youtube.com/watch?v=dn7u5XvupSU. They do a fine East India Pale Ale, and if you can get a Tui, take it. There are a number of microbreweries producing IPAs and stouts, such as Epic Brewing, but they’re even harder to find.

The Wild and Wooly West Coast

Bordering the Tasman Sean, the West Coast of the South Island is the wettest place in New Zealand, and one of the most dramatic. Some 140 glaciers slip down from the snow-covered Alps, creating long, icy tongues that cut huge valleys right down to the edge of the rainforest, in some places ending just 250 meters above sea level. Just 90 minutes south of Greymounth, two of the glaciers, Franz Josef and Fox, are among the most accessible glaciers in the world. While easy to get to, the only safe way to venture on to them is with the services of a professional guide. Franz Josef Glacier Guides  offers half day and full day glacier walks, supplying all the equipment you will need including socks, sturdy boots, crampons, waterproof jackets and rain pants. They’re not kidding when they say “don’t wear jeans,” they won’t let you on the hike with them. You don’t want to think too long about where your “shared” wool socks have been before, and they load you down with more clothing than you need, but weather conditions can change rapidly.

The adventure begins on a rainforest trail that soon opens into a rock-studded moraine, waterfalls cascading down beside you. After a long climb, you are up on the river of ice itself, an out-of-this-world experience. Your guide will cut stairs into the glacier with an ice axe, helping you scramble up and down crevasses, enter caves of blue ice, and ascend to viewpoints. People must be in moderately good shape to do the trek, but no special skills are required and the guides will soon have you proficient enough with crampons to walk along ledges and ice cliffs you would never have dreamed of doing an hour earlier. For even more thrills, Fox and Franz Josef Heliservices offers rides in four and six-passenger helicopters that soar above the glaciers and land on snowfields, high up in the alps. The copters are a bit claustrophobic, (asked which was less claustrophobic, the four-passenger or six-passenger, the guide said, “Oh, they’re equally claustrophobic). But no worries -- the views soon take your mind off the thousand foot drops below.

Franz Josef is a great little town with a couple of neat pubs and glacier hot pools to soak in after the hike. Te Waonui Forest Retreat is surrounded by native rainforest. In the small one-street town, Speights Landing Bar has a fireplace, deck and local crowd. The Monsoon Bar is another cozy place, in the rainforest with a fireplace and young crowd.

The West Coast has a rocky shoreline.

Views dot Highway 6.

To the north of Greymouth, literally hugging the West Coast, is Hwy. 6, which Lonely Planet calls one of the “Top 10 drives of the world.” The snaking road parallels the coast of Punakaiki, cutting along a landscape of rainforest, jagged rock beaches, caverns with glowworms and strange geologic formations. Papaora National Park has many great walking trails, including those to Pancake Rocks, limestone boulders formed 30 million years ago that have been sculpted by pounding seas and rain into fantastic formations. There’s not much here in the way of towns (only 20,000 people live on the entire West Coast) but you could spend a lot of time walking the beach and exploring trails and rocks. Punakaiki Resort is a great place to stay, literally on the beach within walking distance of Pancake Rocks.

The Peaceful East Coast

Banks Pennisula looking down on Akaroa

You can return to Christchurch by train, bus or rental car. If by car, the town of Arthur’s Pass would be worth planning a stop for a hike to the gigantic waterfalls you can see from the road. Also Castle Hill, another Lord of the Rings filming site, looked fantastic from the road.

Back in Christchurch, for a completely different experience, venture 80 minutes east out to the green, rolling hills of Banks Peninsula. The peninsula was formed by the violent eruption of two volcanoes millions of years ago. The sea eventually worked its way into the volcano cones, forming protected, tranquil bays surrounded by high cliffs. The first European to see this picturesque bay was Captain Cook in 1770.

The French recognized its beauty and in 1840 started the only French colony in New Zealand, the town of Akaroa. Today, Akaroa maintains many French traditions and has the look of a village on the French Riviera with palm trees, seaside outdoor cafes, and flowers. The tricolor French flag flies on everything from B&Bs to bakeries and there is a great section of fine dining restaurants, including tapas at Vangionis Trattoria & Bar and European influenced dishes at Ma Maison.

The road stops in Akaroa, giving the town a backwater, end of the world quietness, but there’s plenty of adventure. You can swim with the world’s smallest and rarest dolphin – the Hector – and see seals and penguins on harbor cruises. There are many trails around the rocky coastline, or for a unique experience, accompany the local postman as he delivers mail to remote sheep farms.

It’s a peaceful opposite to wild West Coast. Riding the TranzAlpine, in a matter of hours you experience landscapes resembling Ireland, Switzerland, Scotland, France and Hawaii. Which can mean only one thing – you’re in New Zealand.

Franz Joseph sits at the base of a rainforest.

IF YOU GO: For West Coast tours: http://www.keatours.co.nz/ or http://www.westcoastnz.com/ ; for the train: http://www.tranzscenic.co.nz/; for East Coast: http://www.christchurchnz.com/ and http://www.akaroa.co.nz/

Tramping Around Wellington

Lonely Planet called Wellington the “coolest capital city in the world,” an accolade the town loved so much, they made it their official slogan. And why not? New Zealand’s capital city is a pretty cool place, and the 300,000 people who live here know it. More than a quarter of them walk or bike to work, many along a spectacular 2-mile long waterfront walkway that is lined with pubs offering views of boats, mountains and the skyline. Come 5 p.m., it’s almost dangerous strolling here as the wide walkway is packed with hundreds of bikers, joggers, roller skaters, and commuters heading home, while the harbor is filled with sailboats and rowing crews. It’s standing room only at the outdoor pubs on a sunny day.