WHERE ARE WE ANNE?

Friday, 2 August 2013

FIRST WE TAKE BERLIN

AH BERLIN!

I know Robert Kennedy said it and I know I'm not one, but I sure like this place.

We've been in Berlin for six days now. Anne has been doing a spot of preliminary job hunting research at the I.E.T.F., the Internet Engineers Task Force conference mixed with good old fashioned sightseeing. We are staying at an airbnb find, a studio apartment between the gay area and the red light area 15 mins walk from the conference venue. The first few days were more conference focused with Anne meeting up with lots of old buddies and renewing contacts. The latter we've been getting about.

The I.E.T.F. is like an international festival of the cream of the geek world. Lots of principal engineer types. Some seriously smart people who may not have every social skill in the handbook but people we all owe a lot to if you've ever used the internet. Like the bloke who was brought in to fix Croatia's telephone system. He also runs the atomic clocks. A geek festival has it's own uniform. Quite a lot of shorts and T shirts, lots of long hair, lots of beards, much of them gray, some astoundingly bad postures and diets and lots of passionate discussion on protocols and things I don't understand.

I sat in on a plenary session with Anne and did actually learn a bit. They've sorted out a single codec for audio on the internet. No mean feat. Now they are talking about a single codec for video but that's too tall an order for the moment. I sometimes hung out at the conference using the greatest bandwidth I am ever likely to use that they had set up temporarily for the Geekfest. It sure made page opening and uploading pics lightning fast.

Berlin is steeped, is dripping in history. At the start of the twentieth century Berlin was the largest Jewish city in the world. It's been incredible to spend a day at Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp and absorb some of the events and treatment meted out there. To see the Wall, The Death Strip, Checkpoint Charlie, The Holocaust Memorial, The Brandenburg Gate, The Reichstag Building, monuments et al. We have yet to see more essentials and a bunch of museums including the Bauhaus museum too. It's a very livable city too, integrated public transport.

It has been a rich experience thus far and one deepened by German friends who have helped us with insights about their experience being smuggled out of East Germany in a car boot or with tips on what to see and do or even where to find great food and beer! We are indebted to many people.

We ran in to Michael from Nice with whom we stayed when we first came over. That was an unexpected surprise and pleasure. I'm even starting to know people from previous meetings and travels and it's been good to further those associations too. The weather was extreme when we arrived, 37oC, then it cooled off nicely and now it is rising to be a scorcher again by tomorrow. That hot Saharan air makes the travel, sightseeing business slow down somewhat but we will just have to seek shade and air conditioning tomorrow. Coffee hunting has gone well with Anne saying she had the nicest cappucino she has ever had in a cafe I found. Not like Anne to wax lyrical about coffee.

The following is a slice of the pics.

THE JOURNEY CONTINUES

ANNE'S FAVOURITE CAFE!

SEXUAL HEALTH TRAIN SIGN

THE KILLING TRENCH SACHSENHAUSEN CONCENTRATION CAMP

THE JEWISH BARRACKS SACHSENHAUSEN AUDIO TOUR

HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL. 2,700 BLOCKS. EXTRAORDINARY.

HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL

CHECKPOINT CHARLIE

THE JOURNEY


THANKYOU SABRINA. IT'S DELICIOUS!

LOST IN TRANSLATION

AS IT WAS

BERLIN HEATWAVE

BRANDENBERG GATE IN THE HEAT

AN OFF THE WALL THRILLER NEITHER BAD NOR DANGEROUS

DID WE MAKE A WRONG TURN SOMEWHERE?

ONWARDS TO SABRINA'S!

We wanted to drive to somewhere just out of Berlin for our last night with the car and then take on the Berlin traffic navigation in the morning to drop the car off. A lot of time gets sucked up doing internet research of accommmodation options, cross referencing them with google maps to find where the hell they are, looking up trip advisor reviews and trying to contain costs and stay in budget. We eventually booked a hotel after quite some time of frustrating fruitless searching when I found one that ticked the boxes. It was by sheer chance that it was 15 minutes drive from Sabrina's house.

Sabrina is Anne's colleague and friend from Anne's other life before she became self unemployed.
Anne contacted Sabrina after we booked and Sabrina said come on over for for a swim in the lake, it was 37oC after all. The swimming pics didn't get past the censor but after a good cool down from the heat of the day Sabrina's daughter Skye took their dog through his tricks and training paces.

Thank god for Sabrina, it was fantastic that we could give her a lift in to Berlin the next day. Having a local on board defused the stress bomb that was ticking waiting for us to return the car in the middle of Berlin.


A PRETTY, HISTORIC VILLAGE DIVERSION WITH RESIDENT STORKS

PATCH AND LUCY TRAINING SESSION WITH SKYE

SKYE AND LUCY

SKYE RELAXED JUST MOMENTS BEFORE THE SUPER SOAKER SESSION WITH PETER

ANNE DOES HER BEST RIVER DANCE ROUTINE AS LUCY CHASES SHADOWS

LONG DRIVES IN THE COUNTRY

ANOTHER OPERA BY ACCIDENT

We have avoided major autobahns for most of our trip. Our route has taken us through rolling rural heartland areas of mostly grain crops often through avenues of oak trees and all with very little traffic. It's been easy driving and there is usually a really well made, sealed, wide bike path running alongside a few metres away. Cycling holidays are a very pleasant proposition here and we've seen quite a few cyclists with their Ortlieb paniers. Ortlieb rules here.

After the cute wohnwagen experience we drove over to Rheinsberg which has a castle by a lake with an enormous area of carefully laid out gardens. It dates back to a period circa 1730. Yes that's right, you probably know, King Frederick the second. The day we arrived the place was fully booked out, the opera was on. I think it had to do with the top new young talent on the block strutting their stuff. Anne and I listened to and watched a moment or two of the Barber of Seville then walked on to check out the gardens.

We had a very nice fish dish for dinner, I'm calling it trout and sampled a bit more of that Erdinger Weissbrau. The beer sampling was not straightforward. I saw a beer with an interesting name of Diesel and thought I better try a Diesel then. Turns out that is the local vernacular for a shandy of horrible sugary lemonade and beer. About as drinkable as diesel. We all make mistakes on the great beer sampling journey of life and I won't make that one again.

We took a post prandial stroll in the lovely long twilight and then headed down the road where we had previously found a hotel with a spare room. Alas, no airbnb rooms in this area.

THE BARBER OF SEVILLE

DINNER AND NEWS CATCHUP READING GERMAN NEWSPAPERS

DELICIOUS, WHATEVER IT WAS.

Thursday, 1 August 2013

ANCIENT CASTLES, ANCIENT WOHNWAGENS

WHEN THE ROAD GETS TO WEARIN' THIN

SOMETIMES TRAVEL GETS TO WEARIN' THIN, OR AT LEAST 4KMS FROM IT.

Jan and Bea recommended a great place to stay for our next night from their place. They came across it when Jan was doing a two week canoe camping trip through the inter-connecting lakes. A grand old knights Manor built in 1906. Charming, spacious rooms, great location and lovely host. The sort of out of the way place someone has to tip you about. They hadn't even heard of airbnb. A little on the expensive side but 'what the heck' we said. Jan rang them to book for us, they said they were full although they did have a "wohnwagen" if we wanted for somewhat less. We said ok in the same 'what the heck' spirit, whatever a 'wohnwagen' was.

We waved bye bye to Jan and Bea after two nights and drove to Schwerin for some sightseeing on our way to the wohnwagen in Alt Necheln.

Schwerin Castle dates back to 1160 but was remodelled to what we see today in 1857. After unification the regional parliament decided to make it their parliamentary seat. Why not? It houses a museum and some other bits.

FIRST THING, BOOT UP THE GPS. THE GIRL POWERED SYSTEM AND BRING UP THE MAP DISPLAY

SCHWERIN CASTLE

ON TO THE WOHNWAGEN! (THROUGH FIELDS OF GOLD)

We motored our way in our groovy polo to Necheln and then Alt Necheln (old Necheln) to pull up at a very fine old manor where we were shown to our accommodation out the back and down through the garden. It was a very cute circa 1960's tiny caravan that as a ten year old I would love to have slept in. As a ten year old I would also have just comfortably fittted on the bed too. There is no doubt about it, it was totally cute even if it had no fly screens, electricity or lights. We were welcome to use the toilet in the house but there was no shower. Oh well, the tariff of 40 Euros included breakfast which was nominally worth 12 Euros each, so it was a cheap bed for the night.

We drove around to Rotter See, the Red lake, for dinner at another location that only the locals ever get to. Definitely off the beaten track. It was a summer camping phenomena with many swimming in the lake at 9.00pm while it was still light and everyone else chowing down at the restaurant and drinking beers.

We drove back to our little 'wohnwagen' which means caravan and settled down for the night. Ok, my feet stuck out over the bed and yes, the mossies were annoying but it was all a bit of fun, just for one night mind you. The breakfast made up for things, it was good and they had an espresso coffee machine so not all was lost. It fortified us for the next leg as we closed in on Berlin.

ALT NECHELN MANOR

THE COMFY MANOR ROOMS THAT WE WERE WELCOME TO USE

THE WOHNWAGEN!

WOHNWAGEN BOUDOIR

ANNE SPOTS A CAMOUFLAGED DEER SHOOTING HIDE

WALKING BACK TO CAR AFTER DINNER AT ROTTERSEE ABOUT TEN PM

BREAKFAST IS INCLUDED WITH THE WOHNWAGEN

THE DAY TRIP

NOT SO LONG DRIVES IN THE COUNTRY

ALL TERRAIN COMPACT CAMPING GERMAN STYLE

From Jan & Bea's place outside Molln we planned an intrepid day trip to picturesque Lubeck and on to the Baltic sea about 80kms away. We managed to get to Ratzeburg 13kms away and that was it. By the time we stopped at the Bio store on the way, walked around Ratzeburg, swam in the lake, had lunch and swam in the lake some more, well, it just seemed enough. A nice relaxed pace.

We stopped at a seriously vertically integrated Bio store, Domane Fredeburg Demeter. Anne was in heaven. Four families started 20 years ago with organic farming ethics. Today they run a fifty head dairy farm which largely goes to their cheese factory. They run 50 pigs, chickens, 100 hectares of grains, legumes, fruit, vegs, seed breeding, workshops, tours, school visits, a shop and plenty more. They have a very impressive solar pv array above the milking complex and more arrays on other available roof space.
In the spirit of sampling Beers On The Journey I bought a bio beer and a bio sulphite free red wine. The concept is great but the taste came second. It didn't rate a Great Beers in Life pic. As for the red, well it was drinkable but only just got over the line.