Terrafirma Travels

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...

Late up again, with good excuse after last night! Got the M8 tram into Moll Str and walked down to corner of Alexanderplatz where after a selfie with the TV Tower, L went into a vast 'charity shop' for an agreed hour. N went to the Little Big City behind the TV tower - its a model of Berlin - but decided against going in after seeing the lego and duplo figures in the foyer. Instead he went to St Marienkirche, the 13th century church nearby; sat quietly while they finished a communion service, then admired the vast simplicity of the building.  With 15 minutes to kill he went over to the Rotes Rathaus where the city mayor and council live - one can just walk in, unchallenged, although there's only one main area open at the moment. A restorative Kaffee Kuchen (a shared apfelstrudel, if you must know) saw us on our way via the U5 to Brandenburger Tor for our Sandemans Cold War & Wall Walking Tour. Two Danes on their 14th visit (presumably they could have led the tour!), a b...

The day started late as we were tired from Monday's travel. There was a strike on the suburban S trains, so we took a long tram ride in to Alexanderplatz, and walked over to the 1970s East German TV tower, the tallest building in Berlin by far. It was a fast lift ride to the observation level where we spent ages walking the 360° circle, looking at notes on the buildings in each direction. It was a good view, slightly misty, but rather hot and too much to take in.  We then had a coffee, ate our own sandwiches (how British) and got on the hop-on hop-off tourist bus that we had pre-booked. It took us around all the big sights including the parliament, zoo, Tiergarten etc until we hopped off at the iconic department store KaDeWe.  Astonishing displays of luxury goods. Food halls bigger and better than Harrods! We had a coffee and cheesecake at huge expense and watched the cream of German society flounce around.  Then back on the bus, and off again to visit the Spy museum, a f...

 A much earlier start to finish packing and breakfast by 0830 when René wanted to show us the new floors for all their 1st floor apartments. It looks lovely, the same shade as inside our kitchen cupboards! An uneventful drive and filling fuel got us to Rental Car Return a little early. S1 train into Hauptbanhof. Café Kuchen in the huge food hall in the ginormous station. Killed an hour there doing a crossword before getting the ICE1007 to Berlin. Train v comfortable, quite empty, no stops. In the Hbf we got our Berlin Welcome cards for all travel plus 25% discounts at many places. Then the S7 out to Raoul Wallenberg, which took 30 mins. Susan's parents Wolfgang & Renata met us on platform as arranged and escorted us to the flat via a short bus ride. We walked in companionable silence, not having any common language beyond greetings. The flat which is visitors to the area, and is a perfect size and very comfortable. We gave chocs & wine to W & R as a thank you for arrang...

 Yes, you guessed it ... there's not a huge amount to do on Fehmarn and we were lucky with dry weather, so we decided to make a thing of visiting all five lighthouses. Doing so took us to all parts of the island and made us feel connected with the sea even if we weren't on it.  So today was the last one, and the one nearest Susan's in Gammerdorf where we had a lazy morning and did some Berlin planning. A 12 minute drive took us through the vast building site which will be the southern entrance to the Tunnel to the little village now isolated in the NE corner and a very modern lighthouse. The wind was even stronger than yesterday and 10 minutes outside the car was quite enough.  Packing was easy cos train not plane. Good zoom chat with Felix, though we both had to write something in 15 minutes as we only got the prompt then. That worked; pico fiction from me and 4 line poem from L. He always wanted to go on a river cruise, thought he looked a bit like that Rob Brydon. She ...

Shoulder better. SW lighthouse, long walk in bitter east wind, sea v rough. Biggest lighthouse so far. Dark pic cos couldn't get to sunny side. Saw some nonspecific hawks, rolls of cut reeds. Talked locals about Tunnel.  Orth for coffee and pee, boats, 30+ coots, mad kite-boarders in F7 flying into the air, llama walkers. V pretty here.  Ano 15 min drive down tiny  roads to Wallnau nature reserve run by NABU. Fierce wind so poor bird viewing, saw avocet and many ducks, even very furry cows, pleasant walk. Played with irrigating a model of the reserve. L talked to helpful lady about resistance to the Tunnel, got more background and hot chocs.  Yet ano 15 min drive north to NW lighthouse, a smaller affair. Back to car after 10 mins. Back to Susan's for tea !!. L might be working up bigger Tunnel story.

45 min €10 return foot passenger Ferry to Denmark, 1.5hrs with Jasper PR for Femarn Belt Tunnel, brilliant exhibition centre plus tour of site by car. Walked 10 mins into Rødby for danish sandwich lunch. Lovely Denmark. N Germany and S Denmark are not into decaff, though. Instant from jar if anything.  Disaster at car, key no work. Got driver door open by inserting key, then alarm went off for 15 mins. Called Hertz, freezing cold, helpful man called back, agreed key prob needs new battery, tried to advise how open key. Tried and tried. Called Susan. Then car suddenly started. Could not exit car park as ticket expired, could not get new ticket because L not as heavy as a car. Intercom and barrier opened. Shot through and drove straight back to reception of Susan, René, Michael who eventually wrestled key open and replaced battery. Hooray.  L cooked doggy bag fish n potatoes from Golden Anker plus salmon & veg we'd planned - big dinner. Susan came over and we chatted the eve...

Walked around Burg for old times sake, went to Fehmarn belt-tunnel info centre - L thinking could be a FOOC - then Bio cafe, postcard Felix, church closed, Strukkamp (little) S lighthouse, sandwich lunch, sat in sun, bird strike on me, Burkstaaken boatyard, coffee, marina, drove Staberhuk SE corner, walk bitter wind, Golden Anker fish supper.  V gentle granny pushup before bed, tweaked my shoulder, v stupid.

U p 9am. Bfast in Landkirchen bakery. Edeka weekl y shop. Walk at Gruner Brink beach, way too cold and too s hallow for swimming. Tea and !. Made large meat sauce. L zoom to perform her winning poem. Smoke alarm problem, René took it away.

We promised ourselves, and our friends Susan and René who live there, that we would go back to Fehmarn after we brought SIRENA IV back to UK in 2020. Each Spring something got in the way.  We had BA vouchers left over from Covid times when we couldn't fly to Spain. They were going to expire in 2023 so we booked a Sep week in Berlin, in an apartment organised by Susan's parents. Then Nic's kidney happened. So we re-booked everything for Mar24. Then we had the bright idea of going to Fehmarn first, so changed outgoing flight to Hamburg, booked a car and here we are. Left home 0720, arr Susan's 19:55, via taxi, train, coach, plane, car. All worked perfectly. Except upgraded Lynk&Co car v hard to understand controls.

 Two and a half years have passed ... oops! It's not that we haven't been anywhere, we just haven't recorded it.  2022 was selling SIRENA IV and buying SIRENA V. We had our last fling in IV by going cross channel with a CA rally to Guernsey and Cartaret on the mainland. 2023 included a Brittany Ferry Plymouth to Roscoff for a few days as foot passengers. Excellent. Nic's kidney stopped any travelling in second half of year. SIRENA V