Micsan

My experience of traveling through Great Britain and Germany with my iPad

Michael — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 14:21:07 +0000

I wanted to share my experiences regarding traveling through Great Britain and Germany with my iPad.

It should be noted that my son brought his netbook with iTunes on it so it was simple to get the carrier file for microsims. I think if you are travelling without an additional system for the update, a quick visit to an apple store would take care of it.

First stop: Scotland/England

The day after I got to Scotland we found a 3 store. I walked in found a iPad specific sim hanging on the wall, took one and brought it to a rep who took my ten pounds and activated the sim. All in all, it took about five minutes. It popped it in when we got back to the hotel and connected the iPad to my son’s netbook, iTunes popped up, I told it not to sync and then it offered to update the carrier file. I clicked okay and a few minutes later I had 3G up and running with 250 megs of pre-paid data. In my last few days in London I did another 10 pound top-up as we found ourselves relying on the mapping functionality a lot.

Coverage-wise, 3 was quite good. The only places I had problems was when we were on a four-day hike along Hadrian’s Wall where I found the signal coming and going.

All in all it was a great experience and I give it an A.

Second stop: Germany

Germany was a completely different thing.

Both Vodaphone and O2 shops do not have sims in stock. You need to pre-order the sims and have them mailed to a German address. On top of that, one of them (I can’t remember which) wanted 25 euro just for the sim. The reps in the store were always unhelpful, many did not even know that iPad sims were available form their respective companies and several mentioned that because “no one wanted an iPad in Germany” they didn’t see the point in carrying the sims. So, no 3G in Germany for me.

On top of that, WiFi was not all that common. Even places that advertised free wifi often told us it was currently broken.

So, iPad travel experience in Germany: D-

Auf Wiedersehen Berlin

Sandy — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:43:29 +0000

It’s time to start packing!
Michael was up early (of course) and wandered the streets looking for wi-fi. Unfortunately, Starbucks was the only provider open at 7 am…
We finished up with a day of walking. Aleksander and I sauntered down to Schloss Charlotteburg’s gardens and Michael and Kieran raced over for a walking tour of Berlin’s history.
We found a lovely confectioner’s shop on the way back to our hotel. Michael and Kieran found a great book store.
We ended off with a huge German meal (except for the vegetarian amongst us) and am now packing. We start off to Paris tomorrow at 5 am, so I know it will be a special sort of day of travelling.

Berlin Zoo

Sandy — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:41:25 +0000

Wow. Hippos as agile as seals underwater. Black rhino pacing shyly at the back of its yard. Giraffes that glow in sunlight. Black jaguars with spots only hinted at under daylight… This is an amazing zoo! We wandered throughout most of its acreage before succumbing to exhaustion. We also managed to slide in the aquarium house – jellyfish, sharks, snakes and frogs! We spent almost 5 hours at the zoo and loved every minute.
They have a polar bear enclosure that puts Winnipeg to shame.
The big cat area was great – we saw adorable wild cats as well as lions and tigers. There is a nocturnal animals area where their day is lit for night. Lots of small mammals: bats, aardvarks and mice.

German telcom – fail

Michael — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 06:03:54 +0000

It has been noted that the amount of information flowing out from this site and our Twitter accounts has gone down substantially since we left Great Britain. That is because the German telecoms are in the dark ages when it comes to sims and that wireless is not nearly as common as one would suppose, even here in Berlin…

Sorry folks, we are doing what we can…

Today we hooked up with an expensive provider just to get maps and weather and make sure we have some email. Weird how you get used to being connected on a trip…

Rostok

Sandy — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 05:49:53 +0000

We drove up to Rostok on Sunday. Michael got his share of autobahn driving in. I went with Kelly and Klaus so I wouldn’t drive him crazy.
The weather was volatile, but cleared a little at the beach. We had lunch at a Sea Lord restaurant, complete with a pirate statue. The streets by the shore are narrow and full of cobblestones and lots of tourists. The beach is lovely, and they have cabana-like structures that you can rent. Closer to the lighthouse are bars and restaurants on the beach. There are beautiful four poster type beds with white linens and pillows you can also rent. Even though the wind was cool, there were many people napping on them. You can have your drinks ordered from these beds too!
The sea was reasonably warm, but I think the wind would have given you hypothermia. There were Swedish cruise liners slipping in and out of port not far from the beach. Apparently raw amber sometimes washes up along the shore.
We found a few trinkets in the stores and a pair of shoes for me (thanks Kelly!) before heading into the city market place. Unfortunately, it was the end of the weekend so the market had pretty much closed up. We walked the streets and admired the buildings and the fountains.
The drive back was “interesting” for all of us. The rain poured down and we had to concentrate on seeing Klaus’s car and watching the changes in the traffic flow when it got hard to see. Michael drove wonderfully and we had a quick drink in Hotel Fritz’s bar before retiring.

Stone grinding and bowling

Sandy — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 06:41:42 +0000

On Friday, as part of the rainy wandering through Schwerin with Danny and Birgit, we found a small museum for old fashioned stone grinding/cutting. Danny translated for me so I got most of the story. It was several hundred nears old and had made items for the castle. One story was about a man who ordered a sarcophagus and died almost 15 years before it was ready. Then his son decided it would be used for someone else. The guide then skipped outside to “turn” the waterwheel on and raced back to throw grist and water onto a stone set up under the saw. It was a wall of sound. Apparently stone grinders go deaf after a couple weeks. They also stand in ankle to knee deep water for up to 16 hours a day. Not a fun job.
Saturday afternoon Birgit and Danny left us to head back to their respective homes. It was wonderful to meet a few more of the folks that helped Michael complete his Camino. Birgit is doing another one next Tuesday. Maybe she will meet Doreen.
The Geltmeiers took us to a local 10 pin bowling alley – it was a lot of fun – and Kieran emerged victorious! Kelly and I were the cheering (Michael’s comment – she means heckling) squad. Afterwards we ordered in pizza and watched part of an absolutely appalling movie called Gamer.

Schwerin

Michael — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 06:41:10 +0000

We’ve been in Schwerin for a few days now, and the Internet is dodgy so posting is difficult. We’ve met Klaus’s family and a couple of Michael’s Camino friends rolled into town for a short visit. The weather has been grey – missing my Manitoba sunshine – and cool but we managed to see the castle, the market square and some gardens.

Schwerin und Wismar

Sandy — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 09:06:15 +0000

So we arrived in Schwerin and contacted Kelly & Klaus by email as we couldn’t figure out what part of their phone numbers we no longer needed. We waited a bit, figured we wouldn’t see them until after work so we set off to a nearby mall. We went the wrong way and ended up running into Kelly who had some time between classes!
We went for coffee, picked up some groceries, then to the Hotel Fritz where Klaus showed up.
We popped over to a car rental and Michael is once again behind the wheel of an Opel.
All of us went to Wismar and wandered through the streets to the harbour. We also toured the Dom of St Nikolas and went up into roof for a tour. Kieran decided the height was too much and scurried back to the yard.
Later we ended up at Jack the Ribber where we tried to eat several animals’ worth of ribs.

Interesting times…

Sandy — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 19:22:00 +0000

Well, we started out easy enough…
After catching a very nice train under the Chunnel, we ended up in Brussels. We got on the right train to Cologne but after that… let’s say we panicked and ended up on the wrong train. Our bit of luck was that Cologne has two stations within the city limits but by the time we returned, our train had left the station. We had had an eight minute time frame and we blew it.
Michael took charge immediately and found a very helpful Deutsch Bahn attendant who told us we could ask for our tickets to be switched to another train that was heading to Hamburg. We then took the new tickets to another attendant who told us she didn’t have to validate them – yes, there were two attendants in total for this procedure – but she would. We were obviously incompetent tourists and she took pity on us.
We boarded the next train without problem. We had a nice four hour ride to Hamburg. There we caught a regional train to Schwerin. We checked at least four times that we were on the right platform too.
Just as we started to pull into the third last stop – Schwerin Sud – the automated announcement system cut out, leaving me frantic, and Michael stoic. We did get off at the right station and grabbed a cab to Hotel Fritz.
Then we hit a small snag at the hotel. As in “I’m sorry, you booked in for tomorrow night”… By weird luck, our apartment had been vacated early by the guests who should have been there and we moved in with the help of an angelic hotel staff. We are very pleased with the hotel and would recommend it to all.

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-08-22

Michael — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 19:53:00 +0000

#ebz Souls are traded to Hell for brass, hydrogen, devilbone, earthly delights, rare coins and ot… http://fallenlondon.com/c/206329 #
Just finished an amazing steak and ale pie in the Folly Bridge Inn! #
Aleksander: Can I take the iPad back to the B&B? Kieran: Can you trust him in the mean streets of Oxford? #