Bumbling around Berlin..

Well, what started off as a great idea for a b'day present for Blake seemed to turn into a doomed weekend of disasters.. though we still have fun and enjoyed the city..

It all started when Blake and I turned up to Liverpool St station to catch a train to Stanstead airport - only to have just missed one, so we took the opportunity to buy a few travel necessaties while we waited for the next train - only to lose track of the time and miss that train - so another half an hour til the next train - which by our watches would get us to the airport just on time... apparently we were wrong - arriving at the check in desk a minute too late.. we were told there was no way we could get on our flight! - My first EVER missed flight!!

so we paid the extra fee and got booked on a flight at 6 am the next morning and decided to try out the hospitality of the Stanstead Mountfitchet (the closest village to the airport).. Lovely little village - but have no real want to go back there - except for the pub with the outdoor table tennis table!

We managed to make our flight in the morning (though after a bit of a panic attack when our taxi was late picking us up) and finally made it into berlin..

We did a 4 hour walking tour around Berlin, saw all the major sights, and learnt a whole heap about the history of the place - some really interesting stuff!


Palace


The Wall




Sunday wandered through a big street fair - munching on sausages and grabbing drinks from the many street bars, then we hired some bikes (after spending an hour or so following various directions to find the bike hire place!).. explored the city even more, picniced in the Tiergarden, admired the Freedom Tower, listened to jazz on museum island, and posed in front of Checkpoint Charlie.. It was a great way to get around the city and cheap too.. until of course I realised that I had lost the key to the lock and had to pay for a replacement!..


Cycling to the Freedom Tower


Jazz @ Museum Island


Blake playing at war memorial

The next day was time to journey back to london which started off with us of course JUST missing a train to the airport and then when we got the next train, making the realisation that it wasn't the express - and hence were cutting it fine to make our plane.. and then one of the few times we didn't buy a train ticket, and hence of course got picked up by an inspector and was told to pay a fine!! but we made our flight back to london - only to find out the trains weren't running from the airport to central london - by that time, I wasn't surprised by any of this!!..

Meanwhile, we had a great time, but of course way too short!!...