Berlin, Germany
We didn't hurry out of bed this morning, it being Sunday, and it was 10:30 before we left the WoMo. This was intentional, as we were due to meet a friend in the south of the city for lunch at noon, and the most direct way of travelling, the S25, is cut in half at the moment for engineering works. I am not sure if that is just for the weekend, or if it is more long-term; in any case, that is irrelevant. In the end, we walked up to where Line 6 of the U-bahn usually starts, but it, too, is undergoing very long-term repairs, so there is a rail replacement bus for the first five stops.
We thought at first this was a disaster, as we just missed two buses, but a third came along within a minute, so that was all right. Of course, we had to wait for several minutes for the U-Bahn, and again when we changed on to line 7, but caught up with ourselves and it was just on noon when we met our friend who was waiting for us at the top of the steps!
She had decided to take us to a restaurant she likes about ten minutes walk away, called
Tomasa on the edge of Viktoria Park. We had to wait for a table, as our friend said it had never occurred to her that she might need to book, but they were able to seat us, and the food, when it came, was absolutely delicious. I had what was called a California Bowl, which was salmon in a sweet chilli sauce, mashed avocado, avocado chunks, pomegranate seeds, diced mango, rocket and rice.
I ate all the salmon and some of the avocado and mango, but sadly, couldn't finish it and didn't even try to tackle the rice (or the rocket, which is not my favourite salad vegetable!).
When we had finished eating, our friend took us for a walk in Viktoria Park up to a monument from which there is apparently a lovely view over Berlin. I can imagine - I stayed at the bottom, as I am so not good at steps coming down if there is no handrail, which there wasn't, and even from there the view was fairly spectacular - it would have been more so if the trees were not so thickly in leaf!
We then walked down to the main road and caught an M19 bus to Berlin Zoo, our friend leaving us at her nearest stop en route, and, at her recommendation, changing to a 100 bus, which goes all the way across Berlin to Alexanderplatz, passing most of the famous tourist places en route. I was lucky enough to get a front seat, although it was almost impossible to take photographs.
Just before we got on the bus, a motorcade had passed, obviously escorting a VIP somewhere (I doubt it was the Duke of Sussex!), and in a while the bus was badly held up due to a demonstration which took forever to go past. I have no idea what it was about, but do wonder if the two were related!
When we arrived at Alexanderplatz, we got off and made our way to the nearest coffee shop to consider our options. I didn't want coffee, so had a mint tea, which I never normally do, but really fancied it! We decided we would take the M1 tram, and then change on to a bus; it was going to take a long time, but hey.
All went well at first, and then something went wrong with the ramp mechanism after a wheelchair user had got on, and it was taken out of service after the driver had tried to fix it, and the driver of the tram behind had also tried, but in vain. So eventually it went on with only the poor wheelchair user aboard - I hope they were able to get off where they wanted to! We, and all the other passengers from the first tram, promptly boarded the second one.
But what we didn't realise until too late, too late, was that the M1 tram has two branches, and naturally the second tram was going on the wrong one from our point of view. So we leapt off, thinking that we must get a return tram to the junction, but a bit of work with Citymapper told us that if we walked a couple of hundred metres, we would get to a bus stop and catch a 124, which would probably take us to within walking-distance of the campsite! We had to wait 15 minutes for the next bus, but once we were on it was very straightforward, except the back doors jammed once, but the driver turned the bus off and on again, which fixed that. It was a long, hot journey, though, and then a ten-minute walk the other end, so what with one thing and another I've done over 11k steps today!
We were hot and tired, so I flaked out on the bed for a bit, and the Swan Whisperer sat out to read in the shade, and we had our supper (cold Thuringian Bratwurst with potato salad, followed by melon, followed by chocolate-covered raspberries) out of doors. I think, I though, that I shall have an early night!
