When I started writing this, we were on our way back from a lovely break far in the north of Germany. We had started 9 days ago, fairly early in the morning on a train to Berlin. Hauling our luggage through what seemed to be roadworks with the least respect for passengers ever seen, we left our heavy bags at an apartment and off we went to visit Birgit's Aunt and Uncle in the south of the city. Ronja had a brilliant time, we were well fed, and too soon (though actually, we left too late) it was time to go and meet Matt's parents and sister at the train station. This time we skipped most of the roadworks with a bus, and everyone settled down for a much needed night's sleep. We had a tall order ahead of us: try and see Berlin in one day.
I think everyone will agree we didn't do a bad job... the tour went something like this...
- A walk to the Bundestag/Reichstag, continuing to Brandenburger Tor.
- SBahn to Potsdamerplatz, stop for coffee and sandwiches.
- Hop on the UBahn to Französische Str. for the obligatory photo opportunity at Checkpoint Charlie.
- Back on the UBahn, change at Stadtmitte for Warschauer Str. to see the East Side Gallery (Berlin Wall). Good ice cream.
- Then we actually should have headed round the ring to our dinner goal of Hackescher Markt, but between accident and wanting to savour the lovely bridge, we walked back to Schlesisches Tor and took the scenic route via Gorlitzer Bahnhof and Jannowitzbrücke. Dinner there is probably more for the atmosphere than the menu (although there's a reasonable choice of places), but it was tasty enough.
- To work off the food we walked through the Museuminsel area and back to Unter der Linden.
But we weren't quite done yet. The next morning we hauled our stuff to the train station coffee shop and Matt's dad, Matt and Grace took a fly-by tour to the Holocaust Memorial. We didn't really have enough time to take it in properly (assuming that's even possible), but one more sight ticked off the checklist I suppose. Making it back punctually, it was time to take a long and partly uncomfortable (think DB regional train on a Saturday in summer: bikes, people, chaos) journey to Usedom. Finally we were there - a clean beach, pleasant air, home cooking and relaxation for one wonderful week.
At the playpark
Matt's dad thinks to himself: "What happened here?". Money spinner: The upside-down house. Would be a good activity for a rainy day except that the roof's not pointing the right way up...
Rockets... this is where the Germans worked on the V2 during WW2
Geocaching FAIL. I think I didn't get it yet. When you use a GPS you get lost in the forest,
and when you don't use one...
A lot of time was spent reading on the balcony, along with feigning wetness at the sight of Ronja's Duplo hose (don't tell her, it's actually supposed to be petrol coming out of there)
Last night - let's treat ourselves. Second worst Indian restaurant ever. The other one was, and possibly still is on a boat in Bratislava.
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