22nd - 24th: Berlin, GERMANY

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On the 22nd, we left Dresden as early as possible and headed towards Berlin in hope of finding more interesting cultural and historical monuments. Berlin was only 2 hours drive away, however, again after a numerous amount of toilet stops, petrol stops and food stops, we came across an indoor tropical island beach. Yes….we were pretty surprised to see a road sign on the autobarn saying ‘tropical island exit’. We had to pull over and follow this sign, as considering we were miles from any beach in the middle of Germany, we were pretty intrigued. To our amazement, the signs were right! There was a massive dome building sitting in the middle of a paddock, in the middle of nowhere, with a tropical island beach inside it. It was an amusement park. Very hot inside with palm trees, beaches and water slides. People were even setting up tents to sleep the night on the manmade indoor beach….Strange…



Our hostel in Berlin was called Baxpax. It was very clean and a real comfort for mum. We spent the first few hours exploring the town, taking photos of dogs in restaurants and paying for toilets. We browsed through some market stands and ate crepes from a German-French man. Tired of eating meat and sausages, we found an Indian restaurant for dinner, drank many pina coladas and again had an early night…our ankles throbbing from walking, and my eyes tired from driving.



We were up early again the next morning. Not through choice, but because mum doesn’t seem to know how to sleep in. We found a tour bus that guided us around all the important sights of Berlin. It was an open roof double decked bus and a beautiful day to sit up top in the sun. We walked to parts of the remaining wall, Brandenburg gate and checkpoint Charlie just to name a few.

It wasn’t until late, that Sam realized that our GPS satellite navigator, Thelma, did not have other countries programmed, only Germany. Therefore, when we drive to the Netherlands or Paris, we would need to revert back to a road map. The thought of reading a road map was pretty daunting …yes… again …. three girls… and I’m not sure that I could rely on Sam or mum to read it. So, basically we had to decide, either we read road maps or get a new car…ummmmm… we got a new car. Our new Audi had a great GPS in it, and we named the new voice Louise, after Thelma’s companion as our road trip was fast becoming something of a Woody Allen movie.


Actually, speaking of movies…whilst on our ‘little’ walk around Berlin, we came across a huge wooden screen that was being used as a road block. With police standing guard, Sam and I needed to see what was going on behind the screen. We crept past the security man only to see the filming of a new Tom Cruise movie based on the German war. We smuggled some photos of it while the guards weren’t looking and considered selling them to ‘Womans Day’ magazine.



By the time we got back to our hostel, we were so tired we couldn’t even be bothered eating dinner. We sat and looked at each other, motionless, and then fell asleep.

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Photos

Tom Cruise Film
Tom cruise was filming a movie behind this blocked off street...Sam and I looked through that large gap on the left to watch. There were lots of police and security but they walked away to let us look.

Comments

[Nina]

Don't you love Germany?
I absolutely loved Germany. I've been there a few times now (thanks to having a german boyfriend for a few years). I loved Berlin a lot, but I also like Hambourg. The food in germany is sooo good. :)

[naomi greco]

hello
Hi Kim, What a terrific trip you are having. Europe is a wonderful place and how lucky to be travelling with your family. Please say hello to your mum and sister. Keep warm. Best wishes Naomi