Day 20: Berlin, Germany. Still.
Having the disaster we had yesterday with Doris not starting and ya being forced to stay here in Berlin for another 2 nights, there was no agenda this morning.
However, with the bright blue sky, glaring sun, we were up, showered and caffeinated by 9AM. Out on our bikes before 10AM.
There is a huge airport in Berlin that now serves its life as a park rather than an airport. That was today’s agenda. It was approximately 35 minute cycle away, but we needed a little drinks stop along the way. Unfortunately, the Germans do not open their supermarkets on Sundays. Doh!
With a petrol station stop, some crisps and wrong turns we arrived at Templehof.
The whole ground space of the airport is now a public park and wow it was awesome. I’ve never cycled on a runway before today, so there’s a first!
It was very well signed and managed which meant lots of people. Which is great because this space is huge and now is the home of so many different activities.
There were lots of kite boarders, cyclists, runners, walkers, groups of dancers, rollerbladers, families having BBQs, people sunbathing. It was full of life but of course it was, it was a lovely sunny Sunday.
Our afternoon consisted of card games, napping, plaiting my hair, napping, eating our picnic and people watching. We watched a video before we left on loads of different cards games. Armed and ready to play out new arsenal of games, we forgot them all and reverted to 4 and 3. So if you’ve got any game suggestions that I can google, let me know!
The cycle home was much easier than the cycle to the airport, but made harder by both stupidly wearing flip flops. We purposely pushed ourselves towards checkpoint Charlie.
Which is the American checkpoint that was the crossing point for American and British soldiers. In 1961 there was a famous face off of tanks from both sides of the wall, primed and ready for war. Fortunately that didn’t happen.
Today’s it’s still guarded, but for a few euros they’ll have you stand with them and take your picture. You can also get your passport stamped with the Checkpoint Charlie crossing. It’s still got that American feel to it. It’s just a bit cheesy and overdone for me, and especially how they’re monitizing pictures. It kinda lost it’s feel for me, but that’s just my opinion.
From there we headed back towards Doris and managed to just time the weather perfect. From beautiful blue skies all day to a weird, stormy and rainy 30 minutes.
We have spent the evening watching friends, Nat willingly fixing my broken feet (from that time I walked 58ish miles in 3 days), eating tea and then headed out for an evening walk.
The evening walks here are so beautiful, especially when it’s quiet here in the city. The Tiergarten is beautiful and you wouldn’t think you were in the heart of Berlin whilst walking through. Tonight we were greeted by two playful red squirrels. They’re so cute but much more shy than our Grey ones. They’ve got fluffy ears that stick up and they’re much more shy. So cute!
It has been such a good few days in Berlin and I cannot stress how lucky we are to have got the spot we’ve stayed in for the 4 nights. It’s so close to everything. We can walk to the Reichstag in 2 minutes, the Brandenburg gate in 5 and be inside the beautiful Tiergarten in less than 30 seconds.
Today marks 3 weeks of travels. 3 whole weeks of being on the road. 3 countries. Lots of walking, cycling and croissants. All in all a bloody fantastic way to spend our savings and our time. I think what I’ve learned the most is budgeting and money management. That and the Germans hate cider.
Let’s just pray for some good news tomorrow and we can get Doris back on the road as soon as possible. But who knows what will happen. We can only hope for the best and then decide on whatever the outcome is. Whatever happens we’ll continue the adventure, the exploring and making sure we make the most out of time we’ve both got left without work.
Tonights camping location: Berlin, Germany. (Park4Night: Click here)