Karen and Peter- European Vacation 2023

 A lazy start to the day, ie a sleep in and late breakfast. A peek outside! To our surprise it was super-quiet, ghost town like.  There is a law in Germany about what can and cannot be done on Sundays.  Bottomline: shops/markets are closed and people are having family-time. Restaurants were open. We thought we would try our hand a tram-adventuring.  So we caught a tram to the end of the line.  Unfortunately, there was thing much there.  At first we walked through some residential areas.  Lots of units.  Then it was commercial/industrial.  Ho-hum.  Made our way back to the tram. A moment of excitement on the way though… we walked past the Bundesarchiv Militararchiv (German Army Archive).  Sadly, it was closed.  FYI, it is a non-descript building with several large non-descript storage sheds. Cool crest, eh! When in Freiburg and you have doubts about what to do.  Then you go to the town square (it’s not really a square its m...

We woke to the sound of rain.  It looked fairly overcast outside for a while.  But a little fall of rain was not going to confine us to our hotel room. Today we ventured a bit further beyond the built-in areas of Freiburg.  We caught the tram, then the bus and lastly the cable car to Schauinsland.  By the way, the cable car to the Schauinsland peak is Germany’s longest cable car ride.  Whilst we did not go deep into the Black Forest (Schwarzwald), we were in the fringes.  The pine trees were huge and magnificent.  The forest was dense, dark and foreboding but beautiful. About one third the way up.  The little red roof in the background is the cable car shed. It is easy to imagine the Brothers Grimm writing stories of trolls, gnomes, fairies and witches living in the Black Forest.  We even saw a ‘herd’ of wild deer. Once upon a time in a dark forest lived…. When we reached to top of Schauinsland, we had morning tea in the cafe.  A nice co...

 Up early in Munster to catch the train all the way to Freiburg. This took 4 trains with 3 changes and all day. Left Munster at 10am arrived Freiburg just after 5pm. We actually picked a great day to spend travelling as it has been our only rainy day. I’ll give Germany mostly full marks for their train travel. When delayed the driver would always keep us informed. Our hotel for the next 4 nights is the Intercity hotel. It is conveniently located close to the train and down town. Bags dropped off, time to explore a bit of Freiburg - thank goodness for the long days of daylight.  Freiburg was first established in 1120 by the dukes of Zahringen. Can you believe that? It never ceases to amaze me when I read those dates. As we walked through ‘Old Freiburg’ we discovered one of the major landmark buildings  -  The Cathedral of Our Lady. It was started in 1200 and completed in 1513.  Freiburg was bombed during the 2nd world war and unbelievable as it is the church surv...

 We left Berlin this morning and made our way west to Munster (Ortze)… not to be confused with several other Munsters in Germany.  Munster (Ortze) is a small town but it is home to the Deutsches Panzer Museum ( or the German Tank Museum). The train trip required three changes.  The first train was similar to other Deutscher Bahn trains that we had caught.  Then the second train was a surprise… it was like a two carriage shuttle.  The next train was conventional and then another small shuttle.  Karen began to wonder why we were travelling so far into the boondocks.  Notwithstanding, our small shuttle arrived at the Munster Bahnhof.  We were definitely not in Berlin anymore.  In fact we were not in Brandenburg anymore.  We were now in Lower Saxony, just south of Hamburg. We had a short walk to our hotel, the Kaiserhof.  We were greeted by staff who had about as much English as I have German language skills!  We were able to commu...

 Well Berlin, our time together is drawing to a close. Today is our last full day in Berlin. I suggested that we just board a train and see where it takes us. Nice to see more of Berlin away from the general tourists. We took the train to the last station in the west - Spandau. Little did I know there was an ulterior  motive for Peter’s destination.  What do you think??? Not a lot I can say about Spandau it did not jump out at us. Seemed to be more culturally diverse and in need of some lovin’.    City Hall in Spandau.  It did get better though as Peter had located a quilting shop.  Although it was only a small store it carried the familiar rows of fabric, patterns, lots of made samples and bits and pieces. It was wonderful to be surrounded with this ‘stuff’ that makes me happy. The owner spoke a little English so was happy for me to have a good look around. I bought this, instructions in German. Reckon I’ll know.  Some ideas for later.  Grea...

 Day 3 started with a short cruise on the River Spree.  It was a relaxing way to see parts of Berlin from another angle.  The commentary was in German but we had audio in English.  One of the audio ‘things’ worked.  The other was a dud.  Cruisin! After the cruise we popped up to the Unter den Linden for a spot of lunch.  We had a very nice traditional Kartoffelsuppe!  essentially a potato soup with some herbs, mushrooms and bacon thrown in.  Very nice. Of course it was accompanied by more very fine German beer. The afternoon was a Third Reich Walking Tour.  Karen abandoned me as she had other important things to do!  Oddly, the tour guide was a youngish Irishman.  Ciaran (which is Irish for Mike, I think), was well informed on the political shenanigans of the Nazis but he was a bit lacking on the military side.  There was an 18 year US lad on the tour who felt the need to fill the void of the Irishman.  The kid was pr...

The day started with a bit less tourism. We travelled to Kreuzberg (south Berlin) to take part in Parkrun. Parkrun is a worldwide weekly run or walk in the park. Karen and I have been doing Parkrun, off and on, for four years, or so. It is encouraged to visit other Parkrun events and participate. We thought it would be special to attend in Berlin. And it was!    In action! Karen and I wore our Parkrun shirts. When we arrived, we were welcomed like family members. Everyone was very friendly. There were quite a few Parkrun 'tourists' (England, Chile, South Africa, Netherlands, and others). So it was decided to give the briefing in English. Eventually, the run started... so off we set for a merry 5km. On completion, we were invited to join the Hasenheide (the name of the park) Parkrun crew at a local restaurant for a buffet breakfast. Breakfast was delightful and we got to know more of the locals. They gave us some tips for things to see and do in Berlin.  ...