Hello loyal followers - Co-writer Stuart here for todays episode......
First impressions were that it was freezing and a pretty miserable concrete jungle, however after a couple of days adventuring through its streets we discovered a pretty cool city!
What we did in the couple of days in Berlin......
Day One - 12 Degrees, Intermittent Rain, Windy
- Arrived around five in the arvo
- Got settled into our apartment (which turned out to be just across the street from where Mr Hitler came to an end!)
- Went for a quick dinner at a little Italian restaurant downstairs from our apartment
- Called it a day with an early night to recover from a few big days in Amsterdam!!
Day Two - 12 Degrees, Intermittent Rain and a freezing wind!
- An early start, and off for a five minute walk around the corner to Checkpoint Charlie, where the old American Guardhouse still remains as a constant reminder of the past. We then spent an hour or so walking through the Checkpoint Charlie Museum, which had all sorts of stories of escape over the wall with varying degrees of success!
- After the museum it was still cold and miserable weather so we boarded a local bus tour, where we managed to score the front seats on the top level!! We spent the next couple of hours in heated, waterproof comfort seeing the sights around Berlin - all of them i think!
- Everything on the tour bus seemed to be either something to do with the War, or something to do with the Wall, without either - i think Berlin may struggle to attract the tourists that it does!
- We jumped off the bus in the main shopping district to grab a bite to eat, and as we were in Berlin, thought it only right that we sample one of the local Currywurst Sausages - mmmmmmmmmm. Not too sure how many of them i could eat before vomiting, however the one i had was great!
- We then ventured down to the Brandenburg Gate, the Jewish Memorial and then on to the old undercover SS headquarters located across the road from our place.
- And again - with it being too cold to venture too far outside - it was down to the Italian restaurant downstairs where we thought we were being stalked!!!! Firstly - we had "German Jen" come and sit at a table right behind us (see Facebook for photographic evidence). After we composed ourselves following our meeting with "German Jen" we noticed a cool dog who was barking at everyone from under his owners table. I could not see him, however Tash described him as looking like Whisky, but a bigger version - this got a little bit more funny when the dog (who was a local, well known to the restaurant staff) was called out from under the table, and his name was actually Whisky!!!!
- So there we were, in an Italian restaurant in Berlin, dining with "German Jen" and "German (reincarnated) Whisky"!!
- Off to bed again with our fingers crossed for some sun on our final full day in Germany!
Day Three - about -123412 degrees, bloody windy and a bit of rain..... come on Global Warming!
- We started our day in a lineup to get into the German Parliament House, which has a great big glass viewing dome on the top of it - which would have had great views over the German capital, however after standing in the line for about an hour, and not seeing much movement we decided to make a dash for the warm and dry shopping centre only about a fifteen minute walk away. There are probably people frozen to death, still waiting in that line at the Parliament House!
- After a quick defrost in the shops, we were off to the Berlin Zoo, quite possibly the only toursit attraction in the city that has nothing to do with either the war or the wall! The zoo was fantastic, the rain held off for a couple of hours, there were no people there, and we were able to get so close to all of the animals that it was a pretty amazing experience, and 13 Euro well spent!! Check out the link to photos to see the snaps of the Elephants, Monkeys, Bears, Polar Bears, Lions, Tigers, Penguins, Seals and Hippos - one of which we saw do a massive explosive poo, and immediately after, another of the Hippos surfaced from under the water and made what could only be described as a really loud laughing noise!!! It seems that humans are not the only animals to find poo and farts funny!!
- After the zoo, it was still freezing cold (and i was wearing shorts) so i was roped into seeing the new Sex and the City movie, i heard Tasha's suggestion as "do you want to go and sit in a warm dry comfy chair for a couple of hours?" so after the movie it was back out into the cold. (a nice escape from that movie!)
- Dinner again at the Italian - no German Jen, No German Whisky :(
- Off to Prague tomorrow!
Excellent report Stuart ! Is that the first letter you've ever written?? WELL DONE! Geoff has a theory about German Jen.......she is a blow-up doll that you took to ease your home-sickness! And Whiskey was there watching over you too!! Hope the weather improves....x
ReplyDeleteGeday Stuart and Natasa, What a great time you have had in Berlin. Saw the photo of Mumbo and you Stuart, you did a good job in capturing it Natasha, and the "German Jen" didnt even know she was being snapped. Bit like WW2 you two would have been the french underground ! Great posts, we all read them.
ReplyDeleteHippo shart. Heh.
ReplyDelete