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Lunch before heading into the city
Finally at our campsite, Liz fuels up before her big tow to the station... Although we were now getting used to long journeys in Herman, the trip down from Hamburg to Berlin was further than anticipated and we arrived at our campsite at 8pm again. Unfortunately, this was we were punished for not having learned Lesson 1, as the reception was closed and the barrier down. We drove to a neighbouring campsite only to find the same situation, so as it was late, we needed the toilet desperately and were slightly frazzled from the long drive and not being able to swan into the campsite as we'd expected, we spent the night in a guest house.
Once we'd finally made it to the campsite and checked in with the friendly campsite owner the next day, we unhooked the bikes from the back of the van and cycled (well, Liz did, at least) to the local train station for a train into Berlin. After a much convoluted trip in (the line in was partially closed) we got off at a station Liz thought she remembered, so we could chain the bikes up and walk to the East Side Gallery. Unfortunately, Liz realised almost immediately that it was the station before that we should
have gone to, so we hopped back on the train again to go back one stop. This will turn out to be a recurring theme of our time in Berlin...
It was a rather hot day so we had a quick but interesting mooch along what's left of the Berlin Wall at the East Side Gallery. Difficult to comprehend the devastation that the wall caused to peoples lives for so long, but heartening to see the positivity in the messages and art work on what remains of it, and interesting to see what Berlin has become because of it.
After the wall we wandered around looking for a bike shop (who would have thought it was so difficult to find one??) before guilting/wearing down some bike shop mechanics into letting us "fit it ourselves" in their shop (one of them did it for us whilst on their cigarette break after discovering us looking slightly baffled at the tool they had given us to use to do it!). This was not before we had to go back to the originally-wrong station to retrieve the bikes!!
New chain successfully fitted we finally headed
Brandenburg Tor
As we were admiring the gate and capturing our moment there, we were interrupted by the cries of one lady shouting to her group "Oh my god! There's a Starbucks"... (no prizes for guessing where she was from) into the centre to "do" Berlin. Our first stop was to Hackescher Markt, one of Liz's favourite places to spend time at, with a small cafe she whiled away many hours in close by. We found Cafe Cinema, after doing a lap of the train station and surrounding roads, whilst Liz got her bearings. We swapped the usual coffee for a couple of Berliner Pilsners and had a chill in the cool and shady interior. Suitably refreshed, we then hopped on a bus to visit the Reichstag and Brandenburg Gate with all the boistrous tourists before having a quiet and reflective walk through the Holocaust Memorial.
Next stop - Ali Baba's in Eberswalder Strasse; another one of Liz's Top Picks of Berlin for a freshly made falafal kebab and some Berliner Kindl beers. These were delicious and certainly lived up to the hype.
After a great day in a great city, we headed back to the campsite, after retrieving the bikes from outside the bike shop (our third visit to that particular train station!). Finally, both under our own steam, we cycled back from the station in no time. However, it was pitch black
Champagne o'clock
Cheers to Liz's parents who bought us this bottle for Christmas!
And Happy birthday Keith! and we (obviously) only had one front light between us and so spent the entire time on tenterhooks as we tried to navigate the uneven twisty-turny country lane that ran through the forest next to our campsite. Little bit spooky but we found our way back along the right track (Lucy: you're welcome, Liz) and made it back to Herman in one piece.
Our final full day in Berlin was spent in and around the campsite, with nearly two hours spent adjusting the bike rack. We spent a large proportion of this time trying to undo a rusty screw and trying to saw/snap an unsawable/unsnappable and very bendable piece of metal - but team work and patience (mostly) prevailed! We then rewarded ourselves with a visit to the beach where we enjoyed the champagne that Liz's parents had bought us for Christmas (Thanks, Graham and Helena!) and finally took some time to really relax and enjoy the beautiful lake (with some bat and ball and a failed and tangly attempt to fly a kite...).
The next day we checked out and had a short stop in Dresden for our last Bratwurst of Germany before
entering mountainous Czech Republic en route to Prague...
**** Jobs that should have been done before we left ****
•
Re-attach sink waste pipe •
Re-attach steering column cowling •
Adjust bike rack • Fit new blower motor switch
• Adjust awning fixings - cut to length
• Re-fit front speaker
• Attach bungee storage
• Clean steering wheel and sun visors
• Screw down sliding door threshold
• Fit hydraulic hinge to sink covering
**** Jobs that have materialised since we left ****
•
Buy new bike chain and get fitted • Find out what the clicking noise behind the speedo when you drive is (any ideas??)
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