A last fling

Tuesday was the last day of 'the visit'. I went off to work while the rest took the train into Berlin and looked around the mirror filled glass dome of the Reichstag (lower house of parliament) and the sand pit play area where people pay to model some serious sandcastles!

I was not there so you'll have to decide your own commentary for these.

....and I cannot resist putting in this picture of the train station, I think it's really cool!

A bridge not quite far enough

Since Monday was the last full day of mum's and Bridget's stay with us we thought we would have an adventure and drive into Poland (it was good enough for Hitler!)......
It is only 60 miles from the apartment to the border so we set off full of excitement!

Unlike our recent trip to Brugge though where we drove across the Dutch and Belgian borders without barely noticing it, there was an ominous queue at the Polish border. When our turn came at the border control the guard was not impressed by my British driving license and a car load of Brits. We got turned around and had to go back into Germany where at least we were allowed back in without a problem! Whatever happened to the EU open borders?

Anyway we spent a couple of hours in the German /Polish border town of Frankfurt (Oder). The 'other' Frankfurt is in the district of Main and is the city most people think of when they hear Frankfurt. We ate at the most German looking restaurant we could find (despite mum's protest that she would be happy with a McDonald's!).

Bridget had trouble thinking what to order....

We were not too sure what we ordered to eat but it was OK, here's some pictures of what we ordered!



We did walk to one of the bridge crossings into Poland and thought about making a dash along the pedestrian tunnel which looked almost unguarded but settled to take this picture instead.



Bridget and I also thought we found another bridge into Poland completely unguarded but it only went onto an island that overlooked a river, the other side of which was the town of Slubice, Poland. We took some pictures of Poland from about 30 yards away!

Time to get honest

If you have followed the story so far you will know that on our reccy visit to Potsdam we could not take pictures because of a technical problem (dead camera batteries). That meant that we used pictures from the Potsdam tourist website for the blog. Now though, taa-dah!, we can post the evidence of our visit with mum and Bridget.

On Sunday we put it right by visiting Potsdam again, fully charged batteries and spares in the bag. We visited Sansoucci Castle and gardens (above), the 'New Palace' (below) at Sansoucci.

After that we stopped at a street cafe for a drink before heading off for a picnic at another castle where Winnie Churchill and the other victorious WW2 allies met to carve up Berlin. The castle was set in quite a large park that enclosed one lake and bordered another. It was a bit confusing until I looked at a map and saw it was two separate lakes, I had thought it was all the same one! The park also included a restaurant in a restored building which included pictures of the before and after restoration in the entrance way.

It was another nice day for sightseeing, not too hot or cold. We had planned to take a guided tour through the town but ran out of time which is a good thing I suppose.

The 'Winnie' castle in a nice park across from where we stopped for a picnic before doing the town. Unfortunately we couldn't figure out the car park payment system and we ended up at the barrier unable to get out through it and with a car behind us that we had to get to back up so we could reverse back into a parking spot and seek help. I ended up finding an attendant a little way up the road and she, a bit irately, let us out with a magic card after we crossed her palms with silver!

Trains and boats and a lot more

Today, we spent travelling around Berlin looking at lots of sites and clicking away on our cameras.

The first task was to get everyone about of bed....

The weather looked a bit dubious for tourism early this morning but in general the weather improved and was 'scattered clouds' most of the day. There was one period when it rained hard for about one minute when we were on the top (sun) deck of a boat. By the time almost everyone (Bridget and mum stayed put) moved downstairs in the covered cabin, the sun came back out again!

Brandenburg Gate ...not forgetting Berlin Dom (Cathedral)

One of the first stops was Checkpoint Charlie...

There should be many pictures loaded here. Among them you can spot the Holocaust memorial (2711 granite blocks of different heights arranged in a pattern to make it look like waves when viewed from above). It is a great place for kids to play hide and seek and there were more than a few kids there today, if you know what I mean!

Holocaust memorial with the Reistag in the background.

We also saw some of the original Berlin Wall, kept as a memento, with a good question asked and another with the Berlin wall but also showing part of the derelict, but being restored SS 'facilities' adjacent but below the wall.

Here also is a picture of Berlin's 1 billion Euro glass covered train (DB = Deutsch Bahn = German railway) station from the inside (but spot the glass dome of the Riestag on the outside!) and outside, as well as one where we are about to board a regional train. Regional trains (designated RE) are red, suburban trains (designated S) are red/yellow and underground trains (designated U) are yellow. We rode on all three modes of transport today as well as in the car, on a bus, escalators, lifts and foot power.

Another photo here is of Alexander Platz television tower. This was built by the East Germans in the age of communism but it became something of an embarrassment to them as when the sun

came out, the globe in the tower reflected a very bright cross!

A dry run

Well, as promised, with recharged camera batteries and a nice day to use it, here is a picture of the car with the new 'final' license plates. Not very original but we had to have 'TF' as it's the district area we live (Teltow-Flaeming), we wanted GB but could not, so took UK instead and wanted 007 but the number could not begin with a zero. Apart everything we wanted for the license plate was there!

With Den in the UK and arriving back next week with mother and middle big sister in tow, I decided that I would do a dry run of the tourist spots I thought we should hit next weekend. I worked out a plan of what trains etc to get to cover it in the best way but that plan quickly fell apart and I have to reconsider the route again.

On the train into Berlin I started re-jigging the order of destinations and I took three trains before I arrived at my first destination - Checkpoint Charlie. This was the famous crossing point between East and West Germany. As you can see, the checkpoint is little more than a shed but it's the historical significance more than anything else. Alongside the 'shed' is a museum dedicated to freedom from repressive regimes (ah, those days at Triumph Group!!). It looked quite interesting but today's plan was not to actually go in anywhere I had to pay as I didn't plan on sticking around anywhere long today and next weekend we may all do it anyway.

There was no shortage of tourists here including a large group from Canada. Whilst at 'Charlie' a safari of Trabants drove through. Trabants were the only car that ordinary East Germans could buy. They were and still are very noisy, smoky and basic, in the East they were also very expensive and there was a wait of years to get one! After the fall of the Berlin wall (Nov. 1989) Trabants became a 'must-have' for the western yuppie set but now they have grown up a bit and abandoned them. with the fall of the Wall the Trabants ceased production and it is becoming increasingly hard to get spares, so they are on a limited lifespan unless someone decides to go to a lot of expense. I later saw a herd of 8 Trabants driving tourists around but couldn't get a good picture. They do actually call it a Trabi-safari (check out http://www.trabi-safari.de/).



I made my way to Charlottenburg Schloss (Castle). This, again as you can see, was a pretty impressive place. From the main street;Not what Brits would expect a castle to look like, more of a palace but very imposing and lived in by Prussians princes. The grounds are free to wander around (voluntary contributions accepted), so I did (both!). It was very nice, lots of trees and shade on a day that temperatures were about 34C. I found a secluded shady spot by the lake, ate my packed lunch, read a bit from the copy of The Guardian I bought earlier (in desperation you buy anything, not my first choice of paper but at least I can read it) and took a nap!

One family decided it was time for a paddle though, very sweet!





Some herons were flying overhead but birds in the sky do not make good pictures so you'll have to make do with this one, who, like me, decided it was lunchtime.

















Isn't that a spectacular view of the back door of the schloss?


On the way out of there a tour boat also passed by,

I guess they didn't pay their fares and got dumped in the River Spree!
A tour boat with no tourists? Next week we must remember to pay and get a receipt, if there are no more posts for a while, you might suggest where to look for us!