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Berlin, Germany

We have finally secured Paris accommodation, with a little anxiety and compromise on our wish list. We wanted an apartment but about 5 good ones we tried were booked out and the next criteria we dropped was tea and coffee in the room, as this would have cost an extra $700 NZ for the 7 nights. Yes really. Enough said on Paris hotels for now, and I hope its better than we fear.
Next stress has been booking tours for Normandy beaches and Mont St Michel, everything we like is booked out, unless we want a private tour at around $800 USD for a day (No thank you).

This highlights one of the negatives of booking on route in busy season – definitely a live and learn experience. I have come to the confirmed opinion now that unless you have an open ticket and plenty of funds then it really is best to prebook before leaving, it is just not worth all the hassle and time for the small benefit of flexibility even with our generous 3 month trip. We have spent at least 10 hours this week on the French leg and have not concluded bookings and I was up till 1 am last night trying to catch up on blogs. You can send me an email of sympathy if you like:-)

One thing we are finding very useful is the SIM card and we will get one in France even though we are only there a week and a half.

So today was meant to be the pick of the bunch weather wise for the week but it looked as changeable as ever. Truly you look out the window to gauge what to wear and by the time you finish putting your clothes on they can be inappropriate. Armed with options from sunglasses to umbrella we made a short underground trip to board a 3 hr canal cruise. 3 hours seems a long time but that’s what it took to negotiate locks and complete a full circuit of the Berlin part of the Spree river and a side canal.

We had lunch on the boat which was two level and comfortable. I had potato pancakes with smoked salmon and horseradish cream (very good and cleared my sinus out) and habibi had potato soup with bockwurst, also nice. Prices reasonable all up with 2 latte macchiato €18.
The cruise was ok and gave you an appreciation of the size of Berlin just from a city centre perspective.

The weather broke a couple of times so we either sat huddling under the umbrella and ducked downstairs when it got too much. The many bridges – more than Venice – as they keep reminding you are quite low and the captain has a collapsible/adjustable wheelhouse which he has to lower in order to get under some. When we went under a couple you had to sink low in your seat as it felt you would only just make it.

We cruised past the immigrant part of town and it looked a bit scary, added to that the audio guide said it had the highest crime rate and attributed a lot to drug problems. Along some parts there was a lot of graffiti and a good number of homeless with their little camp sites or bags of belongings near bridges or on the edge of parks. The most modern part is around the new Hauptbahnhof (central station) and Government offices area, including the €15 million kindergarten for government workers children. Apparently it was not utilised enough by staff so is open to non government workers children as well now.

I had difficulty getting pictures due to annoying people in front with little cameras jumping up and down like jack n the boxes and blocking my line of view. grrrr. Not to worry they were having a good time and taking photos of EVERYTHING was clearly meaningful and important to them.

After the tour we walked to the big communications tower and took the 46 second lift up 240 odd meters to the observation deck. We had hoped to have dinner up there but it was booked out. The view was nice until the rain came over and wrapped us in mist, it probably was not the best day to go up but we are running out of days in Berlin and our holiday. That thought is a bit scary thinking about re-entering the working world and routines again.

We settled for dinner at a Thai restaurant near our hotel that we went to the other night called Cha Cha. It is not the best Thai we have had but still nice, fresh, chef cooked, and good value for money. We got as far as dessert tonight and enjoyed a decadent coconut creme brûlée and banana spring rolls with coconut ice cream:-)

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