Tuesday 22nd continued

Berlin baby! Here’s how we got here. First, a train from Zaandam to Amsterdam Centraal; next, a train from Amsterdam Centraal to Berlin Haupbahnhof. (I have no idea why Cyclometer stopped recording before we even got to Hanover.) We arrived in the late evening, so don’t do any more than install ourselves in a hotel, then go back to the Haupbahnhof to eat at Hans im Glück. (Eating at Hans im Glück is one of the Deutsche Heilige Dreifaltigkeit: the others are shopping at a DM and doing laundry at an Eco-Express Waschsalon.)

Wednesday 23rd

So, because we were in Berlin, we had to get out! The first part of the escape was a train to Wannsee (still in Greater Berlin, but outside the central conurbation), followed by a 7-lake boat tour. This Cyclemeter map covers all of today’s travels. I like the font on the station signs in this area, and the safety warnings. The commentary on the boat tour was in German, so I didn’t get much of what was being said. (And of course I’ve forgotten it all now.)

This was followed by a hard-to-understand ticket machine at Wannsee station. (We wanted to go onto Potsdam, but it’s in zone C of the Berlin network, and our travel cards were only good for zones A and B.) But finally we were on our way.

We didn’t go far into Potsdam itself – it was hot and, despite having sat almost all the way here, we were tired. I do recommend the local museum, where most of the following photos were taken. (The first three show me flying the LeithChooses flag on a train, and why Fritz-kola is a good thing. The FK accompanied a poké-bowl lunch: Hawaiian-ish food served by a Vietnamese woman in Germany to a Scottish woman and an Austrian/Australian/British Mischlung.)

Thursday 24th

So far, today has been a wimble-day: walk to the Reichstag/Bundestag building, then (via the Denkmal für die im Nationalsozialismus verfolgten Homosexuellen) to the Deutsches Spionagemuseum; U-bahn to Alexanderplatz; Bratwurst (for Elly); U-bahn back to the hotel.

I’ve realised another reason why my blogs are so tedious: it takes bloody ages to winnow and upload photos. The tediousness isn’t my inability to write after all!