Days 7 and 8 2023, up a tower and round a market

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Sunday: so last year, we left the hotel (the same one) drove to a train station (ten minutes away) hopped on a train and were at Potsdamer station in less than an hour. Today, we left the hotel, drove ten minutes and ended up with Google telling us we had arrived, no trains to be seen and we were literally in the middle of a roundabout. Ash amended his sat nav to take us to the actual station instead of just 'blankenfelde' (not the car park, the station) and this took us fifteen minutes back to almost where we had come from because of a closed road (open road it would have taken us three minutes.) We got there and..... No station..... But really close. Finally we thought it might make sense to put the actual car park in to Google. It did except when we got there (ten minutes later given the closed road, even though we were a two minute walk away) there was seemingly no station. The level crossing that was there was a building site and we saw a sign saying replacement bus. So we walked. To where we had just come from 🤦 but...no buses and the sign said they only came once an hour. With a two pm slot at the tower and it being half eleven it was looking grim. I got a bit cross, realising that we'd been out almost an hour but literally got nowhere and that Google was still telling is there was a train in six minutes going to Berlin....So we walked back to the car park. Looking up, through the grump and pretending to be Minecraft characters, we saw....a train..... On the opposite side of the road on the bit of track where, evidently there was still a station which, conveniently went to Berlin. In our confusion at there being no station where it was last year, we hadn't really thought about the fact that a) the train went from the other side of the road b) the station was in fact still there on that side and c) the replacement bus was to go the other way......we hastily got a ticket, ran and jumped on the train with seconds to spare. At Potsdamer, we jumped off the train and ate at what seemingly is our favourite place to have lunch in Berlin! After pizza and pasta, we got back on the u bahn and made our way to Alexanderplatz. Last year we went to the tower but there were no spinny restaurant tickets available and we'd promised Seth a spinny restaurant ice cream. Only slightly (lots) claustrophobic I can't pretend the lift up is the best thing I've done this holiday but it was worth it to see Seth's face as we stood on the restaurants moving floor. A very expensive drink, ice cream and cake with glorious views was worth it for us all though.i made it through the lift down and we wandered past an African festival back to the underground. A brief stop at unter den Linden and it was time to get the train back to the car, this time far simpler, and to make our way to near to the Polish border.

Monday a lazy morning first but then a quick trip to Poland for lunch. It was very noticeable that we weren't in Germany any more as we found ourselves in the strangest market. Selling literally everything (rifle anyone? New lace curtains?) And with, honestly, at least twelve 1980's hairdressers in less than one square mile, several tattoo parlours and everyone smoking it felt..... Not quite right. We filled up with cheap fuel though before braving a car park and a wander into the market. Years ago we came to Poland but had to leave without me even setting foot in Poland as the road was so bad, it felt wrong to come to Poland again but not actually do anything other than drive in and out. We found a place to eat. Not speaking polish and then only spreading German and Polish, we ended up with...a chicken leg, a schnitzel, a small portion of fries and a huge pile of beans (french beans cooked to within an inch of their lives) in an 'ash special foreign food fear purchase' between us. 😬 A quick wander round and two ice creams later we all decided going back over the border would be a better bet.

We found a fabulous park for Seth with a huge viewing tower and play area, Ash enjoyed the zipline just a little too much (he's great asleep now bless him, all tired out 🤣) so we had to leave and go to the Mecca that is a German supermarket for tonight's tea but also for corny cereal bars. The best food in. The. World. We were a bit more restrained this year and only got twelve boxes 🤣 though along with a selection of other goodies. A bed pizza picnic and it's time to relax. Another new country for Seth tomorrow, Czechia

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