Visitors from afar

Well, here I am back after a few weeks of gallivanting. It's been an eventful month! I've got lots of posts to get posted, so let's hit it!

First up, we had a visit from our lovely friends from Sydney, Charlie and Petra.

C&P Brandenburg Gate

Mostly, we climbed things while they were here.:) To fortify ourselves for climbing, we turned to beer, of course.

Beer good

We climbed this:

Franzoische Dom - it's tall!

View from the top

We made it!

Charlie and I also climbed the Berliner Dom, which seemed like a good idea at the time.:) I don't seem to have any photographic evidence of this climb, however. You'll have to take my word for it.

Charlie and Petra stopped by Berlin after attending a rowing competition in Italy, and they were kind enough to donate some Italian coffee and some mystery novels to our ever growing stash of supplies here in Berlin. They could only stay a couple of days, but we packed lots of sightseeing and fun into them (the days, not visitors - well, maybe both!).

Charlie, behind bars at the Berlin Wall Memorial Park

Petra, testing out the neighborhood pump (they're all over the place in Berlin)

We had barely farewelled our Aussie friends, when who should appear but our stalwart travelling buddies, Dave and Brenda!

Los Fritos in Berlin!

Dave and Brenda have bravely ventured to many countries with me and Mark over the years - we've been to Mexico, France, Spain, and Italy together - and Vegas, too. I think that should count as its own country! We had a whale of a time when they came to Oz; we rented a houseboat on the Hawkesbury River and lived to tell the tale (barely!). There were close encounters with other boaters ("We're drifting!" - those anchors aren't always as secure as you think) and newly invented, location-specific cocktails (the Jerusalem was an unholy concoction of tequila and lime cordial created in Jerusalem Bay).

This time, we've decided to journey behind the Iron Curtain (or where the Iron Curtain used to be anyway) and visit Prague, Budapest, and Mikulov (a wine region in the Czech Republic, near Vienna). I can promise you thrills and spills in the days ahead, but it all started in Berlin.

We wanted to start the day by hitting some galleries on Auguststrasse, but had very little luck. Apparently, artists aren't morning people - who knew? We were there at about 10:30, but the galleries were shut. Brenda and I wormed our way into a couple of places, but Mark and Dave had given up to go look for beer after an hour or so. We met up at the Clarchans Ballhaus, one of my favorite places in Berlin.

It's a dance hall and beer garden that's been around since before World War I - it's basically unchanged over the years, and I love its scruffiness.

After our beer break, we hit all the Berlin highlights:

The Berlin Wall - the last time Brenda was here, the wall had just come down, so it was fun to watch her marvel at all the changes to the city.

D&B and the wall 

Checkpoint Charlie

We also visited the Holocaust Memorial near Tiergarten. It's designed as a series of stone slabs - hundreds of them.

You can walk around between the slabs - you feel the blocks looming over you as you get closer to the centre of the memorial. All you can see around you is stone, cut through with passageways, and slices of sky above you. It's oppressive and peaceful and deeply moving all at the same time.

Next up, the Brandenburg Gate! It's mainly crowded.

There was another beer garden in there, too, as you probably guessed. You'll recognise the Cafe Neuem Am See from previous posts, I'm sure!

We did a ridiculous amount of walking that day, mainly because I can't seem to figure out how to get the trains and trams and busses to hook up. If I can't get there on the S-bahn, I'm lost. That's the chance you take when you look to me as your tour guide - lots of steps! Luckily, it was a beautiful day, and Berlin pulled out all the stops to welcome the Fritos. We actually saw a lot more things on that day, but I'm told being concise is a virtue...

The next day, we headed out to Potsdam to see the palaces.

I've got this figured out!

We visited the Neues Palais - it's the larger palace in Sansouci Park, intended to impress royal visitors and display the royal family's immense wealth and good taste.

Neues Palais

The palace kitchens!

They don't really let you take pictures inside the palace. They do, however, insist that you wear these strange giant felt slippers over your shoes so you don't damage any of the flooring. I felt like I was 10 years old at the skating rink again - you can slide around pretty quickly on those things! I can't believe no one fell. I did see plenty of people doing a little dance slide step when they didn't think anyone was looking.:) I personally think they just want to get their floors polished for free. It's a strategy I might adopt if we ever put down wood floors in our flat - as soon as you walk in the door I'll hand you a pair of slippers, with the bottoms coated in floor polish!

The gardens at San Souci are pretty spectacular.

And a beer garden at the end of the day!

One thing I always appreciate about travelling with Dave and Brenda is that they can make themselves comfortable just about anywhere. Even on the inflatable bed on the floor of our smallish flat!

Not that we've got that much more room ourselves, but we picked it...

We love our screens!

And so everyone tucked themselves into bed for a good nights' rest. We'll need it, as tomorrow we're off to Prague! See you next time, same Bat time, same Bat channel!