Terrafirma Travels

  21 Apr day 4 Felt slightly stiff this morning but not so bad as expected. Nevertheless we decided on a gentle day. Reading in the sunshine after breakfast, then top up trip to shop, and early elevenses. Boots on and visited the church to do some online things including first day of this blog. On to the castle - just some ruined walls but with great view down to South Light. Back to Black Shed for the loo then up to Old Light - this time Lesley went to the top and I stayed below. Back from there the other way through the fields. Met a young farmer who said "my missus likes a holiday on the mainland but I prefer it here - mind you it was a long wet & windy winter". Home for lunch al fresco and cooking of the dinner for all - a Mediterranean chicken casserole, invented because we're using things up, and an apple desert. We'd just finished and cleared up when the others returned so we all had tea including lovely fruitcake provided by Andrew. On the way to the chu

  20 Apr day 3 Up at 7 and out after toast to see more bird ringing. The wind had switched to the east and they were hardly catching any. Did see them handle a black cap that had been ringed earlier that morning - daft bird had hit the nets again. 2nd breakfast of porridge, then all five of us walked up the West Path to the Battery; a very steep descent to a tiny pair of ruined cottages and two 19-pounder cannon that were used during fog in the latter half of the 19th century. What a place to live! We keep reminding ourselves that we are seeing the island at its best, light easterlies and clear skies. On we walked to Jenny's Cove at Halfway Wall, where Warden Lucy had a telescope set up to watch the puffins. We could also see them very well through our binos (I have rented a pair because Uncle Hugh's have a very narrow field of view. There was much talk about the various different seabirds which went over our heads. The puffins though are delightful, especially their crash l

  19 Apr day 2 Up at 8am refreshed after 11 hours of sleep. Porridge all round except John who prefers muesli, quite a production. L & I went to the shop and got most things on the list, then made our sandwiches. The others went ahead, up the Eastern side because theres a strong WNW wind. We found an ant on the kitchen table so deep-cleaned all surfaces (after squishing it). The path to the east side starts below Millcombe House, and there we saw two volunteers doing bird ringing. Huge nets are strung up which the birds fly into and get trapped in pockets. They disentangle them, "within 20 mins" they said, put them on cloth bags and at a table they measure, inspect, weigh and ring them in a couple of minutes then off they go. We watched three willow warblers being processed. Fascinating. Recently they had a bird that had been ringed the previous day in the Channel Islands and flown all this way in 24 hours. The lower east path was quite hard going, narrow, vertiginous

18 Apr day 1 V smooth journey to Ilfracombe, left house at 6am after 0445 rising (groan), arrived 0825. Put car in Larkstone Park, paying on Ringgo for 6 days - that's a new experience. MV Oldenburg very old-fashioned and quite lovely, sea v calm, arrived ontime at noon. John met us at the pier for the stiff walk up to Old House South; very glad they bring the bags up for us .  After our sandwich lunch and meeting Andrew we walked to the SW corner, via the church (which is the island's WiFi hotspot ... and was built in 1890s by Rev Heaven, a splendid example of nominative determinism!) but chose the wrong path for the Devil's Limekiln, a massive blowhole, so another day. Went on to Old Light at the island's highest point, and climbed the 147 narrow steps to the lantern room where John and Andrew discovered two deckchairs; could have stayed all day enjoying the splendid views including down to the 'village'. On our return the bags and our shopping order had been

Up at 6am, bit of a shock. All ready by 0745, which was good as Susan's parents arrived a little early. They gave us a holographic picture of Berlin, which was very kind. Much shaking of hands and smiling, and we were on our way by 0815. M8, S7 and then the FEX from Ostkreuz to Flughafen. All very smooth ... so far. Not smooth at the airport at all! BA are apparently not part of the Fast Bag Drop scheme here, and the day after being closed by strikes for 24 hours they were operating just two desks. It took 50 minutes to drop the bag. Then Security took an hour to get through the Disney queue; it was like the 1990s all over again. Adding insult to frustration, my BA app got confused about my boarding pass, thought I was going to Hamburg again! Luckily it came right in time for Security but failed again at the Gate - the BA lady shrugged and told me my seat. I suspect the whole BA system was a bit overloaded today. That was quote an irritating and stressful experience.  Flight pushed

Up and out by 9am - special effort for the last day. Long tram & train journeys today, time for some reflections. The public transport is brilliant. No ticket barriers anywhere and apparently no-one checking tickets, which is surprising. More people smoking than in UK cities. Plenty of building going on. Vast majority of homes are large square blocks of flats, even in the suburbs. Generally the city is very low-rise. Took the M8 and changed onto S7 at Springpfuhl onto Ostkreuz; this is a practice run for tomorrow because we can get airport express from Ostkreuz. Then RB12 to Oranienburg because the S1 has bus replacement, and the regional train is much faster. Today, to prove me wrong, we did have ticket checkers on the RB train, both ways. The planned route to Orianenberg worked with no hitch at all. The bus from outside the station was crammed with fifty Italian teenagers, a good reason to wear our masks. The Sachsenhausen camp was a huge site, well ordered with exhibits and info