These notes will be relatively short, as for this period of time I was no longer maintaining my blog. But for the sake of consistency I will endeavour to paste something across from my facebook notes.
This trip, albeit just a short weekend break, is special in that it is the first one that I have invited a group of friends along to. More to the point, the first one they have agreed to join me on. Likely the last n’all, considering what I put them through. Allow me to elaborate.
05.10.2024 - Friday
Finished work at 17:00 and travelled immediately to our air BnB in Luton with my work bestie Charlene, because in booking I had the genius idea of booking at 06:30 flight to make the most of the day without considering that there would be no trains to get us to the airport at this time. I had an option of a ridiculously expensive taxi journey or a bed closer to the airport. Found a sofa bed for £23 and considered this to be the solution. Charlene opted for a slightly more expensive room in the same property and Becca also joined us in the 3rd and final room. After dinner and multiple train cancellations Charlene and I finally got to the bnb after 22:00.
06.10.2024 - Saturday
We were all (barely) awake for 03:00 to Uber our way to Luton airport at around £20.00. Still cheaper than the Uber from home would have been. I think the girls would have appreciated more sleep. I myself am fairly well acquainted with irregular sleep patterns at least on a short term basis, so was happier with the arrangement than I suspect my ever patient but long suffering companions were.
The plane departed at around 06:30 UK time and landed at around 09:30 German time. We caught the RE8 train (very easy to find and direct from the airport to the city) and reach our hotel of Maritime ProArte in very central Berlin by around 11:00am where we met our final companion Dan. He showed us around the local area before we joined our 3 hour walking tour at 12:00
The tour guide Philip was incredible. Passionate and knowledgeable - the tour actually went over by over an hour. The whole team was nursing sore feet, ankles and legs in general by the end, but I learnt - so - much! (it admittedly that I knew so little in the first instance. I have always avoid the gloomy subject of war, which was of course a large part of the theme along with the Berlin Wall and the subject of socialism, so I had more to catch up on than my more learned companions)
By 16:00 we were all desperate for a little R&R time back at the hotel. We reconvened at 18:00 for a steak dinner at the Block House, which I cannot recommend enough. We then meandered back past the various light installations that had been set up temporarily against most of the famous Berlin monuments to celebrate the 20th Festival of Light on our way back to the hotel, whereupon after a walking 12.5 miles and 4 hours sleep we all retired to our separate rooms and fell into respective comas.
07.10.2024 - Sunday
First thing this morning I drag to crew to the Natural History Museum to see the Guiness World Record Largest mounted dinosaur skeleton. A Brachiosaurus of course. It is truly magnificent. The rest of the museum is of course excellent, but having Londons Natural History Museum as my base camp NHM has made it somewhat impossible for any other cities contribution to blow me away.
We then pootle around the city, visiting the DDR museum during the day and the Oktoberfest celebrations at the Hofbrau Wirtshaus in the evening (before finding more steak, of course. The pub was excellently engaging and served bear in 2-pint glasses, but it’s culinarily offerings of ‘anything you want, so long as it’s sausage’ didn’t quite strike our bells) before meandering back to the hotel past more light installations.
08.10.2024 - Monday
This morning Dan and I set off earlier than the others to check out the Reichstag Building. It is a spiralling ramp within a large glass dome, and is essentially an ascending viewing platform of central Berlin. The audio guide talks us through the various scenes and monuments in front of us as we reach them. It also talks a little about the Bundestag or German parliament, which is in the chamber below the Reichstag building. One of the amenities mentioned in the audio guide is the old zoo, which apparently hosts one of the most extensive species of animals in the world. Seems rude not to check it out. We reconvene with the girls, and do so.
It is a very lovely zoo and the animals are very clearly healthy and well cared for. There is indeed a very good array. It takes us around 2 hours to walk around at a somewhat purposeful pace.
We then catch our train back to the airport at around 15:00 and depart at 17:45.
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