Berlin

Having finally got to Berlin I found that I didn’t know where to start, so on Monday lunchtime I caught the U-bahn into the city and decided to walk around without visiting anywhere, I’d pick up plenty of tourist leaflets and see what I might want to do for the rest of the week. I did crack and visit one attraction – the Berlin wall 360 exhibition but only because on Monday afternoons they do a ‘pay as you feel’ entry fee. The logic behind pay as you feel is that you pay what you think something is worth – this place was a pay on entry though, without seeing it how do you know what you think it’s worth? It wouldn’t have been worth the full entry fee but it was interesting so I’m pleased I’d seen the Monday offer. I needed to get back to my van at a decent time as on Sunday I’d failed to find the campsite I’d been looking for and things are so much easier to spot in the light – turned out I had been one wrong-turn away from it. The site was worth the hunt though – cheap, un-timed showers and not far from a U-bahn stop. I spent Monday evening putting a plan together for the rest of the week.

Tuesday’s itinerary was to go to the Topographie de Terror museum and the Checkpoint Charlie museum. Both would now make it onto my essentials list for visiting Berlin, although the Checkpoint Charlie one was a jumbled maze so hard work.

Wednesday’s culture was the DDR museum, showing how life in East Germany was before 1989. Probably my favourite museum that I visited. Then some more walking round the city, it’s quite a small city and apart from getting the U-bahn in and out each day, I didn’t catch any other transport.

Thursday – I decided to cycle in from the campsite. I’d been told there was a cycle path alongside the canal right into the city centre. 6 miles of very quiet riding and even when you get into the city centre its proper cycle lanes or you can just ride on the path. One place I wanted to visit which is away from the centre is the East Side gallery where there is an almost mile long section of the Wall, all painted, still standing. Over this side of the city there is the Computerspeile museum – the history of computer games with plenty of old consoles to play on. A perfect way to spend a rather chilly afternoon, and something a bit lighter than some of the other museums. By the time I’d dragged myself away from there it was starting to get late. I’d wanted to see the city lit up as there’s a festival of light on at the moment but getting home in the dark would be an issue. End up at a U-bahn station towards the end of the line, deserted and then walk out and along to wherever I might have parked Bertha earlier in the day wasn’t an attractive option. The ride in that morning had been straightforward though and I had proper lights with me so I took a calculated risk and decided that I’d rather cycle in the dark than do the U-bahn option another night.  I’m glad I did, I only saw the light display at the Brandenburg gate but it had been worth staying for. Considering I was in a capital city centre the ride out wasn’t too bad, although my memory of the route backwards had to be jogged by my GPS trail a couple of times and I don’t think I’ve ever ridden my mountain bike that fast before.

Friday. On Monday morning I’d finally got some tyres ordered for my van, knowing I’d be there for the 3 day lead time made it make sense to get them in Berlin rather than anywhere else. Friday morning they had arrived but by the time they’d fitted them it was 3pm, so not really long enough to do anything. I’d thought I’d spend one more day in the city but as the campsite was fully booked from Saturday onwards, rather than find somewhere else in Berlin to stay I decided to move on – Dresden was calling me.