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!