Doris’ Makes it to Berlin!

DAY 18: Lubben, Germany to Berlin, the capital.

Remember those smelly clothes we were meant to wash about 3 days ago? We’ve still not washed them. That was todays only and main agenda. I’ll spoil it for you now, Doris still stinks.

Woken up by heavy rain through the night and the thought of leaving the roof vent open. Thankfully I didn’t but the heavy rain did make sleeping a little harder. We knew it was going to rain until about lunchtime so we didn’t plan anything or set an alarm.

Once up, we watched some fiends, mock the week and drank some coffee. There isn’t really much else to do when it’s pouring down outside. It is nice to not have any agenda whatsoever and just sit in the comfort of Doris watching the world go by.

It was gone 1PM when we ventured out. Aldi and getting some steps in was the agenda. Thankfully the Aldi was a mile or so away so easy excuse to get some steps in. Also, thankfully, Lubben is incredibly beautiful with small canal ways, bridges, beaches and all manner of waterways. It made the wet walk a little nicer.

Stocked up on goodies and some stuff to tie us over for a day or two in Berlin we headed back through the woodland and over the waterways and back to Doris for some lunch.

I don’t know whether it’s us looking poorly or wrong, but we cannot find a laundrette this side of Berlin. Most seem to be dry cleaners who want more money than a machine does to wash our dirty smalls. It was decided we’d leave the washing and head straight into Berlin instead.

Thankfully the rain had passed and it meant the drive into Berlin was made a little easier. I could worry about the 5 lanes of traffic rather than seeing through Doris’ big eyes. We’d struggled to find somewhere close enough to the city centre for overnight parking on our usual Camper Contact. We did however find somewhere absolutely dead centre on a different app.

With that in the maps we thought we’d chance it. It just so happened the parking place we’d entered was that of a theatre. It’s more like a circus tent, a fancy one, but a theatre type place anyway. Right near the Brandenburg Gates and the Reichstag.

On the way into Berlin we drove up to the impressive Victory Column. A 67m monumental erected after the victory of the Prussian-Danish war in 1873. A very cool monument that can be seen all over Berlin. Next up was the Brandenburg gates, one of the only monuments to remain standing after the world war with only minimal damage. Impressive sight to see.

The streets lined with parked cars got busier and busier as we got closer to the parking space we’d call home for the night. As we pulled in there were no actual bays for us to park in but plenty of space to ‘leave’ Doris for an hour or two.

Within 30 minutes a car had moved and we’d jumped in their grave. Doris parked nicely into the bay with her bum and our bikes safely against a tree! We can’t believe we’re actually able to park here, within 500m of all the sightseeing spots, for free. That is if we don’t get turfed out by the morning, we’ll see.

I’ve booked a Cold War Tour for the morning and super excited to learn about the extensive history of Berlin. That and see all the incredible things in has here. Just driving in the city looks incredible and I can’t wait to explore more of what it has to offer.

Remember that theatre we’re parked by? Well there is a show on this evening and apparently running till 11PM. It’s loud, but what can we expect being parked in the city centre? And remember that tree Doris is parked by? Yeah, it decided to shed a branch onto Doris and absolutely scare the living sh…

We should sleep just fine, here.

Tonights camping location: Berlin, Germany. (Park4Night: Click here)