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We have decided to take a Hop On/Off tour of Berlin so we can get an idea of what to visit. We go up to the nearby train station and the kids go down to pick up bus tickets for us all. It takes quite a while and then there is a decent wait but eventually we are on the bus on our way to the start-up point. In fact, because of looking at emails, Ryan missed the stop so we had to walk back a ways to get to the bus.
Ryan had selected a bus with live commentary – a Yellow Bus, not RedRyan and Julie at the back of the bus
Our guide was a white haired German who spoke perfect English so at most locations he spoke his piece in German first and then English. The journey involved going back and forth between the old West Berlin and the Old East Berlin. We saw a bit of the Wall that had been preserved and tracks on the ground showing where the Wall had been.
The location of the infamous Checkpoint Charlies
I did not take many photos as this is a food and wine Blog after all.
The guys in the Box Seat up topSelfie showing the roof open and the good weatherThe Brandenburg Gate
We hopped off the bus near the start thanking the tour guide who was very good. We went into a place where Tanika had been earlier that day and went up to the top floor. It provided a lunch Smorgasbord which we decided to proceed with.
The Kids at the table with their meals and mineMy choice was a (mild) Thai green curry with noodles and a spring rollJulie’s Smoked Salmon and Salad plus a bottle of wine
Julie took off to look at the shops while we moved out to the balcony to finish the bottle of wine while she was gone.
Cathedral in the distance from the balcony
After Julie returned, we split with the kids who went touring and we went back to the apartment. I snoozed, Julie pranced just like normal.
Ryan’s photo of a very impressive Mosque
We had dinner in the apartment that night.
Smoked Salmon and Apple for JulieJulie picked up a Wrap for meWith pieces of real chicken cut up and vegies it was pretty good
What with a much better wine than last night, it was a much more successful culinary day.
The other choice for the title was “Why I hate Flying”
Tuesday, 9 October, 2018 – Weather – grey, who cares we are leaving town
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I start the day with the leftover green curry. We have booked a taxi to pick us up early and he shows up on time and we are ready to go. We get to the airport early and have to wait to drop off our baggage.
Waiting and waiting for baggage drop off
After they finally accept our bags we are warned that it will be a dog fight to get on the plane. We go upstairs to the boarding gate and wait and wait and wait. The same staff show up at the boarding gate but show no signs of opening the gate. Finally, we realise that our plane has just landed. After it is unloaded, there is another long wait before we are invited to board. Ryan has listened to my advice about overhead locker space and pushes us and our remaining bags to the front of the queue.
We were told that we had to board at the rear which mean down portable stairs, in the rain, and then up another set of stairs that are quite slippery. We get to our seats and are able to grab overhead space.
We had paid for extra room in the exit row. Yes, there is extra room but gee it is narrow and not a lot of advantage. In fact, my knees were sore for a few days afterwards because of the cramped “extra space”.
I am against the window and it is not possible to get out for a toilet break. The flight is for 2 1/2 hours and seems to take forever. We are travelling West and South into another time zone. When we get off the plane we have to walk on the tarmac to buses. Trouble is that there are only two buses and there are enough people for three. It turns out we only go a few meters on the bus – it would have been much easier just to walk there.
There is another long, long wait. I go off to the toilets because of no toilet break on the plane. Of course, the toilet was closed for cleaning. There was a disabled toilet, of course it was permanently locked. The cleaner moved very, very slowly while the two Ladies toilets moved like clockwork. Finally, the cleaner opens the door and I get some relief.
Even after that long wait, our bags are just coming off the carousel when I return. When we take Ryan’s bag off, we notice that one of the wheels has been broken. We go to the Easyjet claim centre and there is no one in there or else they refuse to come to the window.
We go outside to get a taxi as it will take a bus and two trains to get near our place. There had been a long queue but it had mostly dissipated. However, we needed a large van with all of our luggage and people. So they push us to one side and get on the phone to call in big vans. After a lengthy wait, one finally shows up, but there is another big group in front of us. Another van shows up after us but the guy is in a very angry mood, I guess he thought
he was picking some body else and argued with the traffic controller for ages. Finally, he agreed to take us and turned into a nice guy. Julie rode with him in the front seat and they had a nice chat because he lived in the area to where we were going and gave her some advice.
The exit out of the airport was another major issue as there were enough cars for 8 lanes and at times we had only one, it probably took another 25 minutes to go 1/2 KM. Once we escape the shackles, it is a smooth ride until we are back on city streets in which case the traffic was really bad and slow with lots of lane changes to get through. Finally we arrive at our destination which was a driveway in front of a driveway to a youth hostel.
So all in all it took around 9 hours door to door with a variety of hassles, delays, mishaps, pain, stupidity along the way. That is typical of why I hate flying even though I put up with it for years for work.
Things look ordinary as there we were in a narrow driveway leading into a couple of courtyards into a backpackers den. Plus I had not read the instructions well enough. Then our bad day turned into solid gold. We were informed by the landlords that there had been serious damage in the powder room by the previous guest and we would not be able to check-in until 4:00 PM. We accepted that. I was supposed to find the caretaker for the back packer home but did not follow the instructions, but fortunately he found us. There had been some advance concern about storing our bags, but this guy was great. He grabbed them all and put them in a very secure room for which he had the only key. We then went out looking for food while we waited for 4:00.
There were tons of restaurants around us with a primary theme being Turkish. We did not have a good experience because the menus on display were all in German, which I mostly could not translate, and they would not talk with Julie because she was English. Finally, I find a Kebab shop run by a Father and his 3 Sons. They were happy to talk with me in English and generally were very nice to me which was a welcome change. I thought Julie was going to a Salmon place but she showed up here and also was treated really nicely, Julie was impressed.
Doner chicken souva with lots of vegies, a dainty feastThe Shop, a steady flow of customers day and nightJulie’s Souva with extra salad
We get back to the backpackers place around 3:30 and there are more pleasant surprises. The workers were unable to fix the vanity sink, but there were two such sinks so we survived nicely. We were escorted up to the room by the Managers Wife at 3:30, and the rest of the family brought up all of our luggage and chattels we had left in the storage. This was all a big wow, especially with what we were expecting.
The only disappointment, which I possibly should have known already, was that there was no dishwasher.
Ryan was sent up and knocked on the door at 4:00 and we let them in and everything was good. Each bedroom had a couple of small balconies.
Ryan and I have another beer tasting on the balcony
Incidentally, the kids found that the people were quite unfriendly to them too, they did not really like Berlin. The weather however was quite good.
Earlier we had bought some local wine – it was rat piss. Julie goes out to scout and gets food for tonight.
Smoked salmon and apple for a changeI wanted bratwurst got curry wurst instead, no good
I never did get my Bratwurst, apparently Berlin does not do them and circumstance worked against me in the rest of Germany.
What with the lousy wine and awful snag, I end up with bad reflux in the night. The anti-reflux relief Julie had bought for me earlier came in little tubes and kind of did the job.
So it was definitely a day of multiple ups and downs.
Monday, 8 October, 2018 – Weather – see headline Loyal followers of this Blog. If you find yourself in a situation where you cannot see the photos and / or the captions or alignments are messed up, please go to http://www.beauperi.com directly and all those problems should go away.
Guys, the headline says it all. As a result, this is going to be an abbreviated Post as I did not venture outside at all.
Left over Chook, Rice and Beans for breakfastJulie went prancing in the rain -hence CatsThe latest fashionsI can hardly wait – NOT!
Tanika had sent me some photos of a pizza visit that they liked, so here are some photos.
The MenuThe PlacePizza Dough Salad as a starterThe Pizza, they really liked it
The rain continued all day and I did not budge from the spot. I looked out at the dog track and noticed that there were still owners and dogs using it without much water protection. Apparently the people and the animals just ignore the rain over here.
Late in the afternoon Ryan and I had a beer tasting – American IPA
Julie made a Thai green curry for dinner with cut up chicken and a relatively small bottle of green curry sauce. It turned out to be too hot for the three of them who did not finish their meals, it was about right for me.
Sunday, 7 October, 2018 – Weather – not too bad Loyal followers of this Blog. If you find yourself in a situation where you cannot see the photos and / or the captions or alignments are messed up, please go to http://www.beauperi.com directly and all those problems should go away.
Today we are up earlier today. Julie had donated the good bed, which was much better. She put extra pillows to improve the legacy bed but it didn’t help a lot in the end.
We catch the tram again down to the market. A big, burly ticket inspector boards, Sunday morning?. Fortunately, our tickets are in order and he advises us that we have until 11:15.
Outdoor market – Julie tried a Herring, not for meThere were many boats lined up on the shore, all theoretically selling Herring
I follow Julie over to the indoor market but then decide to go back for some more game.
The Game ShopI wanted a Moose Burger, but they did not have one so settled for a Reindeer Burger and Fries, OK
In the mean time, Julie was going around the indoor market looking for her Salmon Soup.
Making new pots of soupNicely sliced SalmonThe more expensive soup was no better than the lesser one from yesterday. Broth was watery
We take the tram back to the apartment. Our stop is at the Museum of Natural History.
Guarded by this Magnificent MooseDon’t forget the GiraffesAt the apartment Tanika has bought me a traditional chees and rice pieJulie has Salmon for dinnerJulie cooks chicken with a packet rice and bean combo for me
Saturday, 6 October, 2018 – Weather – not too bad Loyal followers of this Blog. If you find yourself in a situation where you cannot see the photos and / or the captions or alignments are messed up, please go to http://www.beauperi.com directly and all those problems should go away.
After a poor night’s sleep on the retro bed, I am moving a bit slowly this morning. Eventually, we get moving. We are going to markets down by the harbour. We board a tram and discover that (1) it is going the wrong way and (2) you can no longer buy tram tickets on a tram. So we walk back a ways and find a place where we can buy tickets. It is an automated machine with instructions all in Finnish but eventually we work it out.
We walk by this museum with the giant “protector”Our Tram, note that there are doors only on one sideBoarding the Tram behind an old lady
We arrive at the shore and get off one stop earlier than Julie had planned. There is an outdoor market.
A lady selling fish, mostly salmon, from her boatOther market goodies – note the succotash on the rightVegiesLots of variety of gameWe went across the way to an old church which is now an indoor food hallJulie perusing the food stallsA variety of food stuffsand moreSweet StuffA variety of (expensive) Reindeer productsI wonder what a Reindeer Moose pie would have been like?I got s reindeer sausage with salad, very gamey, very niceJulie’s Salmon Soup, not nice “I should have bought the more expensive one”Canned gameReindeer Chips at 9 euro very expensive
We jump on the tram to return toward the apartment. There is a Michelin rated Asian restaurant very close to the house. Julie tries to get a booking but it is Saturday night and booked out plus they are closed Sunday and Monday and we leave on Tuesday so we miss out.
Shortly after we arrive in the apartment Julie goes out again to do more exploring.
It is one tram stop away and it was next to the one with the long queues this morning. Address is: Mannerheimintie 22-24, 00100 Helsinki, Finland
Julie outside the restaurant which turned out to be a bit upmarketWaiting for a table, service was quite slow throughout the nightFinally, at the tableIt is a long restaurant and eventually fills upDrinks, Tanika has a special Gin and TonicLightly salted salmon with creamed chanterelles and dill potatoes for JulieCream of crayfish with crayfish and fennel salsa for meRyan’s Choice Beef tartare with anchovy mayonnaise and parmesanMarinated feta cheese with tapenade and sourdough bread croutons for TanikaFillet of reindeer served with cherry and cepp bake and dark onion broth for my main courseThe Girls and Ryan had fillet of pike perch with creamed button mushrooms and butter braised horseradish and thought it was great
As I mentioned at the start, it was quite a posh place which meant probably the most expensive meal of the trip so far. However, I think it was worth it given the exotic foods that we had. After that, we returned home and crashed.
