Berlin - Day 3

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Geo: 52.5223, 13.3706

So today was a bit of a bust I'm afraid. My intention was to go to the Hohenschonhausen, which is a prison the Stasi used for deserters and political dissenters during the soviet occupation. Kim had mentioned it yesterday on our tour. You can only see Hohenschonhausen by guided tour and their tours weren't until 2.30. No matter I thought, I can go to a museum beforehand. My intention was to head to the Pergamon Museum, where they have monuments from ancient cities. However things went a bit awry.

I was a little bit late getting started as the Hohenschonhausen is a bit out if town and I had to figure out how to get from one place to the other. The very nice lass at the tourist information booth in the train station helped me with that info. So first I toddled off to catch a train to Hackescher Markt, the nearest station to Museum island. Two stops on the train and I realised I was going the wrong way. Got off the train, crossed the platform got on the next train and four stops later I was at Hackesher Markt. When I walked out of the station I realised I had walked through this area yesterday. I probably could have hoofed it from my hotel, but the train was quicker, even with my little error.

So I walk to the Pergamon museum to see the queue is a mile long. At this stage I really only had a little more than an hour to spare so I figured probably best not to spend to much time in the queue. The queue to the Neuses museum was much shorter, and I could see from their banners they had an Egyptian exhibition on. There were a few rooms with Egyptian stuff, but they had a lot of rooms with ancient artifacts from all over Europe. However I'll be damned if I can figure out their logic. They had artifacts from the Vikings in the same room as Roman and Byzantium artifacts. All next to each other. Don't get me wrong it was great to see all this really old stuff, but surely it should be in some kind of order, age? Region? Something? This is Germany after all.

I left the museum at about 12.45. Giving me over and hour and an half to get to Hohenschonhausen. All I had to do was catch the train to the next station, then the No5 tram. Easy. The train was no problem, I even went in the right direction. I found the tram stop, even got on the right tram. I was so proud of myself. Then at some point, I think about was about 10 stops before mine, the tram stops, and an announcement comes over the PA, this tram is terminating here. Hmmm. So I get off and wait. The next tram to come was the No10. Not the right tram but it was heading in the same direction as No5 so I figured that was OK. Five stops down the line, that was not OK. The stops they were announcing were definitely not on the map for the No5 line. So I got off, went back to the spot where the 5 and 10 lines intersected. Jumped on the next No5, it went the same way again. I got off (at the first stop this time) and walked back. I started looking for a cab because this tram thing was no longer working for me. No cabs. When I got back to the intersection I noticed a sign on the info panel. I don't know what it said but there was a little man with a shovel and high vis vest and the M5 tram. I think the dates were from 31 August to 24 September but cant be sure. I figured that meant there were track works on the number 5 line. I think at this intersection, the No10's turn left and the No5's go straight, but they were running the No5's along the No10 route for four or five more stops. Why! No bleedin idea! Still no cabs. By this stage it was about 2.15. Quarter of an hour until the tour started and I was getting hangry. I gave up, no Hohenschonhausen for me today.

I caught the number 5 back into town. I stopped for lunch and treated myself to a steak. It was absolutely delicious, and my waitress was really lovely. At one point I had my iPad on the table while I read my book. I was dinning alfresco, right at the edge of the restaurant. She suggested I hold onto it or move it further away from the passing foot traffic. "Just in case, you never know with these gangsters" It was very sweet.

After lunch I decided to walk along the river to see what I could see. It was a beautiful day after all. I got to hand it to Berliners, they really know how to use their green spaces. Several places along the river in a few parks there were open air bars with deck chairs out along the banks. It looked really cool. Eventually I got tired of walking and jumped on one of the river cruises. The cruise took about an hour and I could sip on my wine as I watched the city go by. The "tour guide" was a pre-recorded message delivered by wireless handsets. It was a bit hard to hear at first but I found I could plug in my phone headset, problem solved. A family was sitting at the table in front of me. I asked the wife if she would mind taking a photo of me, with my wine, on my cruise. One photo for Facebook. She took about six photos every time we passed a nice building or under a bridge or went past a piece of the Tiergarten, she'd turn around and take another one for me. Some people are nice, some people are just awesome.

After my thoroughly exhausting afternoon I found another one of those deck chair bars, sat down and had a bite to eat. I stayed there until the sun went down and then I made my way home for some research and rest. Yup, today was a real bust!

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