Réinitialiser la recherche
Berlin break
  • Gina Kirkwood
  • Gina Kirkwood

Berlin break

Une aventure courte mais sympa de Gina En savoir plus
S’abonnerAperçuAperçuCalendrierCalendrierPhotosPhotosPartagerPartagerListe de choses à faire
Les plus récents en premier
  • Début du voyage
    14 août 2023
    Gina KirkwoodBerlin breakVoyageur

    Day 1 - Luton to Berlin

    14 août 2023, Angleterre ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    The Kirkwood parents, it's well documented, are not great in the air. We're also pretty bad at early mornings, and I hate motorway driving, especially in driving rain. Add a prolapsed disc into the mix, and you can pretty well imagine the stress of this morning's 3am start. By the time we arrived at the Luton car park in a biblical downpour, we were all nervous wrecks. (No fun for Andy having to be the navigator.) Thank goodness it's not further away.
    Those who know us well will also understand my frustration when our progress through security was delayed by Andy's bloody man-bag - yes, AGAIN. The Swiss army knives had come out, but he'd forgotten the several screwdrivers in another pocket. However, my horse wasn't as elevated as it might have been, given my underestimation of the broad definition of the word "liquids" - apparently these include nail varnish, roll-on sunscreen, sanitising liquid and hand cream, all of which I'd failed to remove from my bag. We made it to the gate with minutes to spare, poor Andy on two sticks throughout. The flight itself was actually fine, and definitely helped by Thomas smuggling on the pain au chocolate (although no-one seems worried about food now?) He was sound asleep within 5 minutes of landing, which made getting him off the plane interesting! Very hot and sunny here (which we're also not very good at - some people are just hard to please). Happily German security is more sympathetic than British - we were fast-tracked due to Andy's predicament. Took us a while to work out how to buy underground tickets, and then where to go from - it was busy! Long walk in the heat to our huge apartment, where we collapsed in a heap! Forgot to take any photos...    En savoir plus

    Voir la traduction
  • Gina KirkwoodBerlin breakVoyageur

    Day 1 - Frankfurter Tor

    14 août 2023, Allemagne ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C

    After hardly any sleep last night and with Andy walking well beyond his capacity just to get to the apartment, day one was a settling in sort of day. Our apartment is 'unusual' - it has glass doors, mirrors everywhere, four double bedrooms, all with huge high ceilings, but very little in the way of kitchen facilities. Fine with us, as it transpires that eating out in this area is really good value. The local eateries operate a 'self service' strategy, so you order directly with the chef, take whatever bottles you want from the fridge, and watch the busy world go by from your pavement table. He yells when your dishes are ready, you collect them from the pass (adding any toppings as needed), and enjoy. And no money passes hands until you leave. We dumped our bags late morning with Gabriel and left him cleaning our apartment whilst we ate lunch at Pizzeria Meyman. Freshly cooked and absolutely delicious. Gabriel had vanished in our absence, although the washing machines and dryers (2 of each) were still full and operating. Is that weird? We chose bedrooms (boys thrilled to have one each!) and napped. Matthew and I made it out later to scout for transport options for tomorrow and dinner options for later. Chose Pizza Vira. When you're us, Italian is really the only option! Again, waking Tom post-nap proved difficult but Matthew's powers of persuasion (and use of Netflix) proved up to the task. Groundhog Day sandwiched our evening meal - we remembered that we first watched it with the boys in a Heidelberg Air bnb exactly 4 years ago.En savoir plus

    Voir la traduction
  • Gina KirkwoodBerlin breakVoyageur

    Day 2 - Brandenburg Tor

    15 août 2023, Allemagne ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    My weather app was absolutely spot on. At 2am the heavens opened, and thunder and lightning commenced operation 'keep them awake'. I've never heard thunder so loud. It went on for at least half an hour. Inconceivably, Matthew managed to sleep through it!
    We had a late breakfast in the flat, and strolled up to the underground. Alexanderplatz (the bit we managed to reach, at least) was hot, scruffy and full of shops - not what we needed today. So we got back onto the underground and headed out to Brandenburg Tor. Very hot in open sun, so found shade first in a cafe for milkshakes (and cards, of course) and later in Tiergarten where Andy could rest properly, on his back, on a handy stone bench! Matthew and I walked to see the Reichstag, and then to the wonderful Holocaust memorial, built in 2005. We tried to make an educated guess about how many concrete columns there are, and decided on 2000 - we discovered it's actually 2711. Amazing place to go into.
    Lion Burger hosted us for dinner, where Matthew continued his staggering losing streak at "Beat the Cox" (our current card game of choice) and we visited a very lovely Turkish ice cream shop on the way home.    En savoir plus

    Voir la traduction
  • Gina KirkwoodBerlin breakVoyageur

    Day 3 - 23,861 steps

    16 août 2023, Allemagne ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    Last night we decided, with regret, that if we were going to enjoy the remainder of the holiday, we were going to have to spend some of our remaining time in two groups: one group consists of those people who can a) walk without grimacing, and b) rise from slumber before noon. The other group (let's call them the Warhammer club) consists of those who are not able to tick both boxes a) and b).
    So this morning saw Matthew and me heading off for the Hauptbahnhof (Berlin's main station) to fulfil our first task, which was to discover whether there was any feasibility to our "day trip to Leipzig" plan for Thursday. Lots of very helpful people in the ticket office and info places. At one point, I apologised for not speaking German. The reply was "You don't have to be sorry. Everyone in Berlin speaks English." However, it was going to take a lot longer and cost a lot more to get to Leipzig than previously thought, so reluctantly Matthew had to abandon his hopes of showing Thomas and me the highlights of the CYO's visit there last summer.
    However, the following couple of hours revealed Berlin in a much improved light and convinced him that we really ought to explore it more. We tubed to Museumsinsel and were immediately impressed by the grandeur of the buildings there. Took lots of pictures for Andy's benefit :-(    En savoir plus

    Voir la traduction
  • Gina KirkwoodBerlin breakVoyageur

    Unter den Linden

    16 août 2023, Allemagne ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    Finally made it to the most grandiose strasse we've seen so far - we were at the Brandenburg gate end yesterday but didn't make it very far along. We also had to stop for spaghetti ice cream, another legacy of the CYO tour - loving the Angela Merkel artwork in the donut shop.En savoir plus

    Voir la traduction
  • Gina KirkwoodBerlin breakVoyageur

    Reunited and Wall part one!

    16 août 2023, Allemagne ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    Thank goodness for technology and telecommunications! Group Warhammer let us know that they were up and moving, so we made our way via Rathaus and Alexanderplatz to the East Side shopping centre (wonderfully air-conditioned) where they were consuming frozen yoghurt. Lunch and more "Beat the Cox" followed (with some interestingly named variations causing a giggling fit), before we walked / hobbled to the River Spree and the East Side Gallery, home of the remaining section of the Berlin Wall. Spent a very hot and happy hour or more looking at all the art before returning to the lovely, open, café-filled square outside the Mercedes Benz arena for mocktails.En savoir plus

    Voir la traduction
  • Gina KirkwoodBerlin breakVoyageur

    Potsdam 1

    17 août 2023, Allemagne ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C

    After a bit of a glitch when we arrived in Potsdam about which tickets we needed, we finally got on some German trams! Got dropped off in the Dutch area - beautiful quiet streets. Found the church Matthew remembered from last summer and then walked to Potsdam's Brandenburg Gate. Had drinks and chips for fuel, then left Andy choosing a pavement cafe whilst the rest of us went into Park Sanssouci. Oh my gosh, it was beautiful - my favourite place this holiday. Lit avenues, ponds, statues, beautiful flower beds, fountains, palaces, terraced gardens, views, orangeries, a windmill, greenhouses built into steps ... just glorious. Photos on next post! These are the rest of Potsdam, including the fab ice creams the chaps had when we reunited.En savoir plus

    Voir la traduction
  • Gina KirkwoodBerlin breakVoyageur
    2

    Potsdam 2 - Schloss Sanssouci

    17 août 2023, Allemagne ⋅ 🌩️ 26 °C

    "Sans souci" means "Without worries", meaning that we all had Hakuna Matata in our heads this afternoon! We really applauded Frederick the Great's idea to build a palace outside the city to live in peacefully.En savoir plus

    Voir la traduction
  • Gina KirkwoodBerlin breakVoyageur
    1

    Auf Wiedersehen Berlin

    18 août 2023, Allemagne ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Spoiled ourselves with a really nice Italian again for our last evening down a street Andy had seen the evening before, Kopernikusstrasse. Staff were super nice, and offered us all shots on the house - boys were quick to accept! Three Amaretti and a Spiced Rum went down very well, ending a really super day.
    I never find it easy to enjoy the last day when there's transport to catch, and today (30°+, bad back etc) was no exception. At least the kids don't need me to pack / clear up for them any more - Thomas had prepared well in advance for a fast getaway. Quite enjoyed the random final breakfast ingredients too! Out of our slightly odd accommodation by 11, underground from Frankfurter Tor for the last time, stowed bags at Hauptbahnhof and found a bus (dodging the sun where possible) to Potsdamer Platz area. Settled on Mall of Berlin for snacks (might as well have been in Milton Keynes), before Matthew and I made a very quick foray into the Platz itself. Very impressive modern buildings, but obviously a place that comes to life after dark (lots of building work happening too). Bussed back to Main Station, bags collected, hot S9 train endured to Flughafen (possibly my favourite German word) and very easy progress made through to final pizza slice and flight home.    En savoir plus

    Voir la traduction
    Fin du voyage
    18 août 2023