I rather think that I will regret having walked quite so far today, but it was worth it! The Swan Whisperer added a bucket of water to our tank so that we will have enough for our showers in the morning (we will refill before we leave), and, once we had both succeeded in buying day-tickets on the app BVG provides for the purpose (not that anybody checked, not even once), we set off.
Gesundbrunnen station is just round the corner from this "Wohnmobile Oase", as it calls itself, and from there we caught the S1 down to Potsdamer Platz, which the Swan Whisperer wanted to see. I am never terribly impressed by it - just a large station and a load of skyscrapers, but there was quite a lot about the history of the Wall, and a bit set into the pavement showing where it had run.
We walked up to Leipziger Square, rather tempted by a couple of museums en route - especially the Espionage museum. But we only had a day - and I rather suspected that, in my case, it wouldn't be much more than half a day - so we pushed on. We wanted to see a watchtower from the old days, which is I think Listed, but they are doing building works round there and the tower is sheathed in protective cladding while this is happening. So we walked back, and up Ebertstrasse, passing the Jewish Memorial en route, towards the Brandenburg Gate. I wanted to see the Soviet War Memorial, which is a few yards away in the Tiergarten, so we walked down there. But there are Works going on in the area, and all the roads are blocked off. We could perfectly walk into the Tiergarten, but what we couldn't do was cross the road to the memorial, so had to content ourselves with taking pictures through barbed wire!
So we came back and walked on to Unter den Linden, where we had hoped to catch a bus down to Alexanderplatz. However, the next bus wasn't for some minutes, and I needed a break, so I suggested to the SW that we took coffee in a convenient café, which we duly did. After which, of course, we had just missed another bus, and then the next one suddenly announced that it was Delayed, so we ended up taking the U-Bahn down to Alexanderplatz.
We had a good look round, and then found a café to have lunch - the SW had currywurst, and I had nachos, which weren't really terribly nice, but still. Then we decided we would go out to look at the Schloss Charlottenburg, and decided to go by bus.
We had to change buses at the Zoo station, but didn't have long to wait. Then we walked the length of the castle, and were going to walk on down to Westend S-Bahn station, but another bus came along at the right moment, and then the right train was waiting in the station. It didn't take long to get back to Gesundbrunnen, and I nipped into the local Rewe to get a bit of shopping (mostly bread, but also salad and fruit juice) and then back to the WoMo, which I have no intention of leaving again until tomorrow morning, when I shall do a quick trip to Lidl before we head south.
The SW has gone out again - he went down to the park at Tempelhof, and is coming home via Checkpoint Charlie. How he can find the energy, I do not know - but I do envy him, as I should have liked to have done that, too. Oh well. Photos on Facebook, as per usual.
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