Day 4 - Berlin Sightseeing

 Just when we thought the game was won, Germany scored a late equaliser and then beat us on penalties!

2 dry riding days across Germany had lured us into that false sense of security, you only get before everything turns to poo! During the night, we had thunder and lighning and lots of rain. since then, it hasn't stopped raining, to varying degrees, effectively washing out our sightseeing day. I know we're in Germany but I didn't expect to get trench foot! My trainers are soaked. Wisely, we'd made the decision to put on our waterproof jackets, otherwise we'd not have made it to the corner of the road. So ist das leben!

The forecast didn't lie

Waterproofs on, we left the hotel around 9am, our first target being to buy our 24hr travel passes at the tram stop. Target missed, no ticket machine. The next stop didn't have one either but as it also had an underground station, we were able to buy them there. On the tram, what did they have? Yes, a bloody ticket machine!

We took the tram round to the Berlin Wall Memorial. We took a quick look outside but as the rain got harder, we dived into the visitor centre, where we could read all about the events of those dark days for the citizens trapped in East Germany. It's hard to read some of the stories, particularly those that ended in death but there was a heartwarming video of the day the gates were opened between East & West. Euphoric scenes.

Part of The Wall

Next stop, the Brandenberg Gate, via a tube ride. It was hammering down when we exited the station. We were quite sensibly dressed looking at some people, who had clearly not looked out of the window before leaving home. As we discovered very quickly, Berlin is hosting the World Games, so a large area around the monument was fenced off, which confused the issue when making for the next POI. 

The Brandenberg Gate

A short but increasingly wet walk away, sits the Holocaust Memorial, a memorial of different sized stone blocks, to the Jews murdered by the Nazis. The website says, "a place of contemplation, remembrance and warning". Sad to say, we couldn't get those vibes with the rain bouncing off the road. The weather really was dominating and ruining the day.

Holocaust Memorial

A couple of hundred metres down the road, is a car park. Not any old car park though. It sits on the site of Hitler's bunker, where on 30th April 1945, he and Eva, his wife, took their own lives. The Goebbels family also exited this world in the same fashion. There is really nothing to see here, except an information board. Still, somewhere that will always attract tourists.

By now we were soaked up to the ankles, so made our way to Postsdamer Platz and the mall there, where we saught out McDs for a refreshment. It seems the entire 2nd floor is a dedicated food hall and there certainly was no shortage of options available. Having rested our soaking feet, we decided to head to the last POI via the underground. Only problem being, there was some issue on the line, so plan B was invoked and we walked out into the rain again, heading for Checkpoint Charlie. On the way we passed a memorial to those murdered when the Nazis came to power, a building that was the headquarters for the flamboyant fat man, Herrman Goring and TRABI World, where it appears you can hire one, for a tour of the city. We weren't inclined to stop I'm afraid, the rain having brought our mood right down. A day earlier and we'd have been more receptive. Shame.

There was no let up in the weather by the time we arrived at Checkpoint Charlie. If anything it was getting harder. The plus side, yes, believe it or not, there was one, was that people weren't inclined to stand in front of the checkpoint to have their photos taken, with water streaming down their faces! Good for those of us not wanting a picture encumbered with bodies!

Checkpoint Charlie

We also managed to squeeze in a picture of me with our Dudley.

Woody, Dudley and Charlie

I wonder, is it by chance there is a McDs right by the US Army Checkpoint?

Photos done we made our way to the underground station and home, cutting short a largely miserable day.

After a couple of hours trying to dry out, we went to our usual place for dinner. 😉 I didn't feel I could do a schnitzel two nights running,  in the same place, so opted for pizza instead, washed down, as usual, by some amber liquid. 

Tomorrow we head for our 5th country, Poland, hoping the weather will perk up again, and picking up our WW2 theme once more.

Till tomorrow. 

Day 3 - Osterode to Berlin

 Today was another great day of riding. For the third day in a row, the temperatures reached the 30s but today, we stayed away from the autobahns, which made for a much more enjoyable time. Billiard table smooth twisty A roads, threading their way through pine forest and open farmland, made for a most enjoyable time. 

Our first POI stop today was at Checkpoint Alpha, the Helmstedt/Marienborn border crossing between The West and Russian occupied Germany, the German Democratic Republic (GDR). I imagined it was just a few old buildings that you could photograph through a fence but, it turns out, it is quite a tourist attraction, with coach loads of people dropping by. There's a huge site, with many buildings and lots of information boards dotted around to explain what each building was and what went on there. It was very interesting and such a surpise to me. I had a fairly good look round but could easily have spent more time there than we did. 

A few miles up the road was our planned fuel/coffee stop. As it turned out, it was just coffee at McDs, as the petrol station didn't have any E10 Unleaded and we didn't like the price of the Super Unleaded, Grizzly had quite a few miles left in the tank, so we filled up further along, with the cheapest E10 we've had in Germany, €173.9 per litre. From there, it was full steam ahead for Berlin, with a quick stop at a Netto supermarket (sorry Elly), to get a snack and some water. The latter needed, as the temperature had gradually risen into the low 30s. This is the best weather the two of us have experienced in Germany and we're hoping it will continue, for another half day of riding on Saturday, before we enter Poland. The Netto car park unexpectedly threw up a sample of  GDR's finest engineering, as you can see from the photo below.

A real life Trabbi!

Early impressions of Berlin were favourable but it soon turned to shit. With about 5 miles to navigate to the hotel, on the other side of the city, we encountered road closure after road closure, diverting this way and that, sitting in queues of traffic moving nowhere fast. Ginny was showing the temperature at 34 degrees, so we were both hot and bothered. Finally we broke away from the traffic and made it to our hotel. Grizzly reckoned we probably spent 2 hours covering what should have been, the last 5 miles. How many more than that we ended up doing, I have no idea. It's just unfathomable how the authorities have allowed so manjy road closures on so many important arteries into and through city, at the height of summer.

Freshened up, dinner was taken 3 doors down from the hotel. We had a table on the pavement, allowing us to watch the locals go about their business, as we relaxed with Berliner Pils or Weisse Beer. To eat, we both had Weiner Schnitzel, my third in 3 days. I fecking love schnitzel!

We've now covered about 730 miles since Sittingbourne. Not bad for 3 days, eh?

We have no riding tomorrow, as we shall be sightseeing. Hopefully, the thunder and lightning going on as I write, will have stopped by the time we head out. More about our 'day off' tomorrow.

That's all for now.