I just had the pleasure of visiting the world’s tallest building: Burj Khalifa in Dubai. I walked over to this amazing tower from the Dubai Mall metro station and it is impossible to not be impressed by the enormous 800 meter tall building. I had gotten a hold of a ticket to the observation deck “At the top” in advance and the ticket price was 100 Dirham (27 USD) but you can also pay to cut in line but then the price is 400 Dirham (110 USD!!!). The entrance to the At the top experience starts within Dubai Mall (which they claim is the biggest mall in the world) and after I passed through security I followed the path to get to the elevator. Along the path you get information about the building process, the design etc. and to start with there is also a couple of models of the building. The elevator itself was quite small but at least it is fast I honestly didn’t feel the elevator starting but it didn’t take long before I felt the change in pressure in my ears and then I knew we were moving. The lift travels at 10 m/s so it only takes a minute to reach the observation deck – so when the doors opened I was looking out from 124th floor! The observation deck has both an indoor and an outdoor section and it gives you a 360  degree view of the Dubai area. I started by going outdoor and the view from about 450 meters above the ground is amazing. You know that you are high up when you can look down on the 60+ floors hotel The Address The sun was blazing outside and even I was quite high up, there was no cooling effect in the breeze. The outdoor section gives you a view from The Address hotel and the musical fountain, the Dubai Mall, Sheikh Zayed road and towards the ocean where it was possible to see the islands of the World project. When going inside again I got a view of Jumeirah (including Burj Al Arab and the Palm in the distance) and all around back to the Address hotel. Even if this is the tallest building in the world, this observation deck is actually not the tallest in the world. That record belongs to Shanghai World Financial Centre You can read more about the “At the top” observation deck on the Burj Khalifa homepage. Nikki and I went to Dubai last year and you can check out my Dubai trip report on this page.

We arrived in Berlin in the afternoon and the Tegel airport is only located about 15-20 minutes from the city center and the taxi ride was 20€. There is also a bus option that can take you to some of the larger train stations in Berlin.
I booked the room at the Westin on the Starwood Preferred Guest site and the rooms started at 99€ which is not bad for a 5 star hotel in a large European city – only a few years ago I had to pay about 90€ for a 2 star hotel in Paris. As we were a bit late at booking the room went up to 111€ including taxes but without breakfast.

Check in at the hotel was fast and we got room 454. The lobby of the hotel is dominated by a huge and lavish staircase leading to the first floor where the breakfast is served and where they have conference rooms and you also have an open atrium up to the various floors. Our room was a standard size room but it seemed to be newly refurbished. The floor was covered in a brownish carpet while the walls were painted in a light color. Instead of a king size bed we had gotten two single beds standing next to each other but we knew about this in advance. Westin (and Sheraton) keeps advertising about their heavenly bed and some of them are great. The beds at the Westin in Berlin were not that great in our opinion. First of all they were quite soft, the pillows were very thin and there seemed to be something in the mattress cover that made us sweat a lot at night.

There were lots of lights in the room which I think is great and the windows faced Friedrichstrasse and the Bugatti showroom. We did hear a bit of the traffic noise but it was not a huge problem at night. Apart from that we had one big chair in the room with a small table, a desk with a chair and a 32” flat screen TV. The TV had lots and lots of channels in German (and note that even English speaking movies are dubbed into German) so the only thing that was in English was channels like BBC News, CNN etc. But then again – you are not in Berlin to watch TV.

There was also a small fridge with items for sale – a Coke was 4.5 €, a Heineken 6 € and a small red wine was 10 € just to give you an idea of the prices. There were space for both our suitcases which was excellent as some hotel rooms seems to be designed for just one suitcase even if there is a king size bed meant for two people. The wardrobe contained quite a few hangers and there was a small safe – there was even a power outlet in the safe which means that you can charge your cell phone when it is locked up.

The bathroom was tiled with white and black tiles and contained a shower in the bathtub. There was a glass wall that prevented water from splashing everywhere when taking a shower and this combined with a shower curtain worked pretty good. It was fun to see that the standard amenities (like shampoo, shower gel etc) is the same that you get at the Westin in e.g. Bangkok.

The location of the hotel is great – located on the corner of Friedrichstrasse and Unter den Linden you are basically in the middle of town and you can easily walk over to museum island or Brandenburger Tor. Right outside the door you will find the U-bahn station Französische Straße and you can also walk to the larger Friedrichstraße station to catch both U-bahn and S-bahn. There are lots of high-end shops in the area (we are talking Bugatti, Ferrari, Hugo Boss, Wempe watch store) together with department stores (like Galeries Lafayette Berlin) and lots of restaurants. One tip if you don’t have breakfast included at the hotel is to grab a bit at Einstein Coffee near the hotel.

Let’s talk about some of the issues that were not that great with the hotel. First of all – no free internet! I’m not sure how others plan their trip these days but we are very much online planners and we make a Google map before we travel and we normally need to get online to check details. The internet was 7.5 € for 1 hour at the hotel – I would rather recommend that you go to Einstein coffee nearby to get free Wi-Fi and enjoy some coffee for the 7.5 € instead.
The breakfast at the hotel was 29 € per person for the buffet which is way too expensive. Yes, you can order a la carte at the hotel but still. I’m sure it is a wonderful breakfast but for a person that normally just eats a small sandwich or some muesli it is not necessary to go for breakfast at the hotel – but luckily there are many small coffee shops and bakeries nearby.

I have already mentioned that we were not that impressed with the beds. I also found it a bit strange that we only got one bathrobe and one pair of slippers when they knew that we would be two people staying in the room. It was not a big issue and I assume that we could have asked for another. We also had to request an iron and ironing board – the iron was good but the board needs to be replaced soon.

One afternoon when we came back to the hotel we found a used cleaning cloth left by housekeeping on the desk – I have stayed at quite a few hotels but I don’t think I have seen that before.

But all in all – the Westin Grand Berlin this is a very nice hotel with a great location and compared to other major European capitals you seem to get the hotel at an affordable rate.  I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend friends or family to stay there. You can read more about the hotel on http://aktuelles.westin.de/berlin/

When we went to Berlin in March/April 2010 we decided to try out a Trabi Safari – that means that you get to drive your very own Trabant (read more about the car on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trabant ) around in Berlin while the guides in the lead car talk about Berlin and the sights via radio as you drive. The special thing about the Trabant is the gear system and in the beginning of the video Nikki explains how to shift gears We did our tour with Trabi Safari (see http://www.trabi-safari.de/ )

The Norwegian travel magazine Reiser & Ferie (Travel & Vacation) has posted an article about the best coffee shops in Rome and that brought back memories to my trips to Rome (see my Rome trip report from 2005 on gardkarlsen.com). It seems like Italians like their coffee strong and sweet – each morning we would see people come into coffee shops to buy their “breakfast”: a cup of espresso with lots of sugar in it. Anyway, we got to try out some of the coffee shops in Rome and they do make a very good espresso. And on Tazza d’Oro we got a great combination of espresso, crushed ice and whipped cream (granita di caffé con panna). Anyway, here is the list of the best coffee shops according to Reiser & Ferie:

1. Sant ‘Eustachio
2. Museo Atelier Canova Tadolini
3. Caffe Greco
4. Caffé-Bar di Marzio
5. Canova Restaurant
6. Ciampini
7. Ciuri Ciuri
8. La Caffetteria
9. Universale Caffé
10. Tazza d’Oro

Which coffee shops have you visited in Rome and which is your favourite?

A few weeks back I had a stop in Bangkok. I like my Thai food but we decided to check out Arabic food that evening. So we headed for Sukhumvit Soi 3 or better known as Soi Arab (close to Nana). As we walked in from Sukhumvit road the scenery changed – all of a sudden I got the impression that we were not in Thailand anymore but had gone to the Middle East. We decided to stop by an Egyptian restaurant and while we were waiting for the food we had a shisha (the traditional waterpipe) with apple taste. The food was hommos, fried meat of various kinds etc and it was a nice meal. The only thing that we were missing was an ice cold beer in the Bangkok heat but that was not possible at this place at least. Check out this article from New York Times about Soi Arab The photo on the right hand side shows me getting into the apple taste of my shisha

I had a short stop in Sydney a couple of weeks back and what do you do there if you only have 1 day for sightseeing? Well, as most Norwegians I like to get on top of things so I decided to go for the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb. After I had gotten over the initial shock when hearing the price (198 Australian dollar for the 3 hour climb – about 180 USD) I decided to go for it as the weather was nice and I would get a lovely view of the city harbor. I have to say I’m impressed by the way the climb was organized as we got suits, we were checked to see if we were influenced by alcohol etc. The only thing I didn’t like was the fact that I had to hand in my camera but it is understandable as we would be moving high above the 8 lane highway on the bridge. The climb itself was great and our guide explained the view, took photos of us and made sure that we all stayed safe. Here is the one photo we got together with the certificate and you can see me all the way in the back If you do get a chance and the weather is nice I do recommend the climb – it is not really a climb it is more of a walk with a view….and you get a wonderful view that’s for sure. So if you can get past the initial shock when you hear the price, I’m sure you will enjoy this walk. Check out more information on http://www.bridgeclimb.com/

We have now booked tickets to and hotel in Berlin and we look forward to it We have never been to Berlin before so we look forward to checking out a new city. As we only have 5 days we need to plan carefully what we want to see and do there but there seems to be quite a lot to choose from. So maybe we will do a Trabant safari, maybe we will do a Berlin walk, maybe Sachsenhausen etc. But if you have been to Berlin I would love to hear from you if you have any recommendation. What to see, what to avoid and where/what to eat. Get in touch or post it as comments to this article

I’m a big fan of the Google maps but the main problem when it comes to my hometown Stavanger has been that the downtown area has been very blurry when checking out the satelite image. But a few weeks back this was fixed and now you can finally check out how Stavanger looks from above. This combines with Google Streetview will now give you an idea of what to expect when you visit Stavanger

In Bergen you can take the cable railway known as Fløibanen to the top of the 320 meter high Fløyen mountain. From there you get an amazing view of the city of Bergen and the surrounding area. Check out http://www.floibanen.no/ for more information. If you are coming to Bergen it is well worth the 70 kroner (about 12 USD) for the round trip ticket to enjoy the view.

It is not long ago since Burj Khalifa (also know as Burj Dubai) opened officially and the viewing platform called “At the top” opened up for the first guest on the 124th floor. But now there are news saying that the viewing platform has been closed indefinitely. The reason for this closing seems to be vague but things like “unexpected high traffic” and “electrical problems” has been mentioned. Nikki and I went to Dubai last year (as you can see in this Dubai trip report) and at the time the building was not open – but what an impressive building! But now it remains to be seen how long it will take before guests once again can enjoy the view from the 124th floor.