September 4, 2010

Fred Plotkin: How to travel without the rental car

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When I travel in cities around the world, I often find that one bus or streetcar offers views and connections to some of the most important sites in that city. This is much better than taking a tour and you get to experience the locals.

Since the two parts of Berlin were reunited, the city has reconnected bus routes that were long separated. I like the #100, which goes east and west, passing through the highlights of both zones. It often has double-decker buses and drivers who are aware that visitors to the city are interested in knowing when the Unter den Linden, Brandenburg Gate, Museum district, Philharmonic Hall, the opera houses, the KaDeWe department store and many other attractions will come into view.

Helsinki has quiet trams that glide through the city's district, affording views of the harbor, the Esplanade gardens, the imposing palaces and churches of the Russian imperial era, and a neighborhood full of Jugendstil homes. The best one to take is the 3T, which does a figure 8 through the main sites.

London is famous for its double decker buses, all of which provide marvelous views of the pulsing city below. I like the number 24, a north-south bus that passes many museums en route. It goes from Hampstead and funky Camden Town in the north, past the British Library (near Euston), the British Museum (near Goodge Street) through Leicester Square to Trafalgar Square (National Gallery) down through Westminster (Abbey and Parliament) past Victoria Station to Pimlico (the Tate Britain museum) and the Chelsea Embankment on the River Thames

New York City: Manhattan Island is long and includes view of parks, skyscrapers, cozy neighborhoods, rivers and bridges. I like the #5, which starts in Soho, passes through Greenwich Village, past Herald Square (Macys) up to 42nd Street (beautiful Bryant Park) up Sixth Avenue past Radio City to Central Park South, to Columbus Circle and then Lincoln Center and its major attractions. Then up to 72nd Street and up Riverside Drive, with views of elegant apartment buildings, parks, the Hudson River, Columbia University and all the way up to 168th Street, with a great view of the George Washington Bridge. The trip south covers this terrain down to Columbus Circle and then down Fifth Avenue, past St. Patrick's Cathedral, Rockefeller Center, Saks Fifth Avenue, the New York Public Library, Lord and Taylor department store, the Empire State Building, the Flatiron Building, New York University, and down to Houston Street, separating Greenwich Village from Soho. Look for a "Limited" #5 bus, meaning that it only makes stops at key intersections. Given the distance it traverses, the bus moves nicely when it is not in thick traffic.

Paris seems to be scenic wherever one goes. A trip through some popular and less-known areas can be made on bus #96, that starts in the vibrant Montparnasse Quarter, with great restaurants, cinemas and shopping, up to the chic Left Bank of the Boulevard St. Germain (don't miss the church of San Sulpice) up to the Ile de la Cite (Notre Dame), past Chatelet (the Louvre is nearby), then up to the Marais district (try to see the Place de Vosges, one of the prettiest squares in Paris) and then northeast to the 20th district, now quite trendy but unknown to tourists

Rome has the #64, which begins at the Termini Station and passes near the Piazza della Repubblica, the Via Veneto, the Piazza Venezia (close to the Campidoglio and the Roman Forum) down the Corso Vittorio Emanuele (close to the Pantheon, the Jewish Ghetto, the Piazza Navona, the Campo dei Fiori) and across the Tiber to the Vatican. Be mindful of pickpockets who know that tourists like this route.

Vienna, with its gorgeous boulevards and elegant neighborhoods, is inviting no matter which streetcar you take. One of the lesser known is the D. In 25 minutes you can go from the Opera House (Karlsplatz) on the Ringstrasse (and the fantastic Albertina Museum just behind the opera) through the museum quarter (the Kunsthistorisches Museum is one of the great collections in the world) through the district that contains the Berggasse and Freud's House (worth a visit) and on to the Belvedere Palace and then to Nussdorf, with its Heurigen (wine taverns serving local food and wine). Vienna has more than 1500 acres of vineyards in the city limits producing outstanding wines that are sold at these taverns along with savory food such as Backhendl (chicken) and Wienerschnitzel (delicate breaded cutlets of veal). A bit of the countryside so close to the city center.

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