Heading for Berlin.

Åhus was a wonderful stop for us to get our fix of sand between our toes and sunshine over the water.

It was a very early start for us on the day we left. Driving through the Swedish countryside in the early hours was beautiful and peaceful. The girls were still sleepy and I was on wild life alert for Paul as there were still deer about and warnings for wild boar. The sun was very low and the fields were covered with an eerie mist. As the mist cleared the golden fields of barley opened up and I could hear the words of Sting's 'Fields of Gold' as the west wind blew over the barley.  Beautiful.

We had to get to Trelleborg in the south of Sweden to board the boat to Rostock, Germany. We drove onto 'The Huckleberry Finn' at 7am for the 6 and a half hour journey. Fortunately there was a pirate on board to entertain the kids and then a movie. The trip was very pleasant and much easier than driving all the way back around.

From Rostock we were back on the autobahns and Paul flew down to Berlin taking the Honda's speedo up to 156 km/hour and still we had cars overtaking us. We all knew he was dreaming he was actually driving another silver car from his past.... Ahhhhh, those were the days! The roads were brilliant and this part of the trip was very quick for the end of a long days travel.

The view from our kitchen window.

Our accommodation always has an element of the unknown, especially in terms of the type of area we find ourselves in. While in Berlin we stayed in an apartment on Karl Marx Allee for the week. It is described as 'a  monumental socialist boulevard built by the GDR between 1952 and 1960 for the workers.' and was 'the flagship building project of East Germany's reconstruction programme after World War 2.'



It is a 2 kilometre stretch of apartment blocks, each one a solid 8 storeys with solid doors, wide solid stairs, large square rooms and thick, solid walls. What it lacked in style it certainly made up for in quality construction.

Unfortunately for us, we accidently locked ourselves out of this fortress late on a wet Friday afternoon. Hungry, tired and not speaking any German, we had to find a 24 hour locksmith and hand over 150 euros to get back in.  Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!

We started our first two days in Berlin with the now standard Hop on - Hop off bus tour to get a feel of the town and learn about a few of the sights.

The weather was overcast at times but very comfortable as when the sun came out it was quite hot. 

Berlin was over-run with tourists and we didn't get a real sense of the place, I don't think we even talked to a real Berliner for any length of time except for the locksmith and he was a bit of a crafty character. 

We saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 8, the girls had their hair cut and we spent a morning walking around the markets under the Charlottenburg Gates.

Germany flag

The East Side Gallery was very impressive. The largest and longest open air gallery in the world, painted on a one and a half kilometre stretch of the Berlin Wall. We really enjoyed walking up and down this stretch and viewing all the 100 or so art works and trying to understand their messages, mostly of peoples hopes, the euphoria of change and a free future for all the people of the world. The gallery was originally painted in 1990 by one hundred artists from around the world as an international memorial to freedom. Over the years, many of the pieces were destroyed by erosion, graffiti and vandalism. In 2009 all the surviving artists were invited to repaint their pieces, 8 refused for various reasons but the majority were redone and now, 2 years later they are in very good condition and the strength of their expression and colour is awe inspiring. Small sections are left blank for those who need to add their name in graffiti to be apart of this stretch of history.

 Wallee