Around 15th September 2012

A modern street-car and lots and lots of bikes!

We had arrived in Berlin on Sunday, the 9th of September. After we had a couple of rather dark unpleasant days a bit of a cold started to hang around me. Luckily towards the end of the week the weather had improved. The skies cleared and there was plenty of sunshine! So we went on quite a few outings to explore the city or take some rest in the close- by Tiergarten park area.

It amazed us how many bikes there were to be seen all over the place. Still there were many, many cars as well. The way some of the bike-riders went through the heavy traffic, often looked pretty scary to us. A lot of buses were often part of the street-scene as well. There seemed to be quite a bit of traffic too on the different water ways. And street repairs and new buildings going up where-ever we went in the midst of the city. Our first impression was, this is a buzzing city where always something was going on. But then there were the quiet areas in the parks in the midst of the city where the city seemed to be far away.

We later found out that Berlin has in just about every district a lot of park area. Only 60% of the available place is built upon, the rest is landscaped in some way. We believe this report because wherever we went to during our stay in Berlin there always seemed to be some beautiful looked after park for people to enjoy. We also noticed a lot of memorials and sculptures. Of course we took quite a few pictures of a lot of them. Since most of my pictures did get lost in cyberspace, I am now using for my posts mainly the pictures that Peter took.

First Week in Berlin

The first few days in Berlin Peter and I were suffering terribly from jet-leg, that is we woke up in the middle of the night and just couldn’t go back to sleep. Sometimes we would start playing Rummy Cub in the middle of the night! On one of the first days it got windy and cold. We were out on this day. I soon did get very exhausted. Next day I started getting a bad cold. But when the weather improved and I did go out into the sunshine, I soon felt a lot better. But I think a bit of this cold was with me for nearly a week. Peter bought me some lovely flowers. We soon noticed all over Berlin there was a glut of flowers. You could buy flowers just about everywhere, beautiful fresh and low priced.

Arriving in Berlin

We arrived at Berlin Tegel Airport on time, however it took quite a while before we did get through customs and were able to receive our luggage. Klaudia was waiting for us. It turned out she had forgotten where she had her car parked, that is she knew where the parking area was but she wasn’t sure how she would be able to get there. She ventured into one of the old lifts of Tegel Airport and left us behind. All we could do was wait. In the end we made it to the car all right. With all our luggage!

Our arrival was on a Sunday. In Berlin nearly all shops are closed on Sundays. Klaudia first of all took us to Peter’s sister’s place. Surprise, surprise, she had a big bag full of goodies prepared for us. She had thought of everything that we would need for the first day in our apartment, things like butter-milk, bread, cheese and wurst and fruit and tea-bags as well as milk and butter. Remember, the shops are closed on a Sunday, she said. Peter’s sister lives pretty close to the airport. However, we thought we might take off somewhat early so we’d be closer to where our apartment was. We had been told a woman would meet us in front of the apartment block at 2 pm. Perhaps there was a chance to meet her bit earlier so she could let us into our apartment? If not, we’d just stay in the surrounding park area, called ‘Tiergarten’ till it was time for the meeting.

Actually in the Tiergarten, not far from where our apartment block was, is the ‘English Garden’ with the English Tea-House. Klaudia was well acquainted with this place and led us there where we had some lovely refreshments sitting in the outside garden area. It was a beautiful balmy autumn day. Before we went to the Tea House we found a nice picnic table where we all dug into the stuff Peter’s sister had provided. I remember as cheese there was ‘Harzer Käse”, which I love and which is hard to get in Australia. Everything Ilse had packed, tasted wonderful!

The handover of the apartment at 2 o’clock went without a hinge. We straight away liked the place. It was tiny, just a studio apartment, with a small kitchen. But it seemed adequate for us as a holiday place. There were lifts which meant getting our luggage up to the second floor was no problem. Klaudia was helping us all the way. She was really great! She is a bit on the nervous side. (Who wouldn’t be a little bit stressed in a place like Berlin? Unless you’re on holidays , of course.) Once she’s a bit de-stressed, she’s a wonderful person to be with. And she said she wanted to make time for us to see us often while we were in Berlin. And she sure did keep her promise. She didn’t disappoint us in any way. We had some very good time with her. She kept talking a lot about Australia and how she’d love to go there once more.

Ah, it's a cleaning car.And this on a Sunday! — Ah, it’s a cleaning car.And this on a Sunday!

From Sydney to Berlin continued

SOON WE SEE SYDNEY FROM ABOVE!!

Maybe you can see the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge from here!

And on we go. Change at Kuala Lumpur, then Amsterdam and at last Berlin.

From Sydney to Berlin

Peter is as bit worried because he couldn’t find his wallet when he wanted to shout some bubbly. It looks someone else may have shouted the bubbly!

Looks like Peter is happy now: He eventually did find his wallet amongst all his stuff!

Last minutes with our daughter before we vanish through the gates to catch our flight.

I take this picture of Peter. We made it! We are on our way to Berlin.

Lunch Hour in Berlin

We arrived early for lunch. Peter took the opportunity to take some pictures. Looking at them now they revive memories of that day in Berlin. Once our guests arrived Peter stopped taking photos.

Sunday Documentary: The Real Cabaret

Sunday Documentary: The Real Cabaret.

Anybody who is interested in the film ‘Cabaret’ or in Icherwood’s book about Berlin might want to check out the above documentary!

Botanic Gardens (continued)

This is my husband's favorite picture from that day — This is my husband’s favorite picture from that day

As I said in my previous post it was Saturday, 20th October this year (2012) when we visited the Botanic Gardens in Berlin with our dear friend. Peter, my husband, took many more pictures on that day. So I can publish a few more now. Most of the previous pictures were taken by Peter as well.
We had walked for quite a while through these beautiful gardens. I was glad I had bought a bottle of water at the entrance. I really needed this water after walking so much. Our friend then told me she knew a place where I got get rid of the empty bottle for recycling. Here are the ‘recycling’ bins which appeared on our way:

Obviously someone had been very creative with the writing on these bins!

A Walk through the Botanic Gardens in Berlin

Peter and I have visited quite a few Botanic Gardens in a lot of different cities but somehow we had never made it to visit the Botanic Gardens in Berlin. On Saturday, October 20th, this year we finally did walk through these gardens in Berlin. A dear friend of ours came along with us.

Twelve more Days

Today is Friday. In exactly three more weeks we’ll depart Germany to go back to Australia. So in Berlin we have only

TWELVE MORE DAYS.

Why are we kind of panicky about what to do with the last few days in Berlin? There’s no simple answer. I tell myself, don’t worry, play it by ear. Still, writing about it may help a bit to see a bit more clearly. Actually I think I am pretty laid back concerning the planning we have to do on a daily basis. Maybe too laid back. For instance I didn’t do anything yet about finding my ‘lost’ brother B. Nobody cares where he is. Do I care? Well, I do and I don’t. If only I knew what I should be doing. Is it right to do nothing? I just don’t know.

The relationship with brother B. has always been a bit strained and a bit confusing. The relationship with brother P. on the other hand was always easy going. Of course we don’t see eye to eye in everything. But I think we tend not to hold grudges against each other. As I said, easy going. This is what it mostly is.

Hubby’s sister and brother-in-law arrived from Austria just a couple of days ago. We saw them yesterday at the other sister’s place. We spent six lovely hours with them. Peter’s sister Ilse provided a home-cooked lunch. Later on we had coffee and cake. It was a very relaxed atmosphere. The five of us plus Ilse’s partner had much to talk about, since we have quite a few memories to share. The visitors are going to stay in Berlin till next Thursday. Of course they want to see us again. Only so far we have no clue when this is going to be. We tell ourselves we’ll wait and see. In the meantime there are quite a few other people who’d love to see us again before we leave Berlin.

I have childhood memories about Leipzig. It would be great to go there for a day. Going by train it’s only about two hours away from Berlin. At the moment we still think we might be able to spend one day in Leipzig. Indeed, we do think there’s still a chance we can do this as planned. There are other places in Germany we’d like to visit. Only it seems to be out of our reach at this time. I wonder whether there’s going to be another time. I guess, it all depends on our priorities, doesn’t it?

After a number of overcast days the sun is out today It’s not freezing yet but there’s a chill in the air. Since there’s no wind, we don’t feel the cold very much. A lot of trees have lost nearly all their leaves. Around the houses here in the Hansa Viertel big piles of autumn leaves are building up every day. Workers busily pack them up into huge bags and cart them away. Once another load of leaves is taken away, the lawns under the huge trees look still beautiful green.

By the way, I’m very much looking forward to spend the last few days of our stay in Germany at P’s and A’s place 100 km north of Berlin in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, which is a quiet, relaxing place. Actually very few people live in this area. It is full of natural beauty and altogether very different from Berlin. Come to think of it, there are lots of quiet, relaxing places in Berlin too. But it’s also a city with millions and millions of very busy people. One thing is for sure: It’s never boring in Berlin!

We visited the Bode Museum the other day. I was very impressed by the beauty of the building and the quality of the displays. We also saw an excellent movie, called AMOUR (Liebe). This was a very slow moving film about an elderly couple (right up our alley!). It won the PALME D’OR at the FESTIVAL DE CANNES.