Berlin's Green Heart & Belt

                                                   
A little known fact about Berlin is that is has wide areas of parks for recreation, located primarily in the south west of the center but also throughout the capital; Tiergarten,  Botanische Garten and the vast expanse of the Grunewald. In the middle of the upper picture you can see the Siegessauele, a national monument to commemorate several wars (built between 1868-1873) and well-known landmark.

                                             
This was already the most important region for R & R for the common populace 100 years ago, long before the World Wars.It encompasses about 1,000 acres and several lakes.When Germany was still divided and the wall up, it was the biggest recreational area in the west of the city. The Grunewald has been mentioned in an old popular song from 1929: There is an wood auction in Grunewald. Funny title? Listen to this almost 90 year old recording of this song!
The Grunewald Tower below was built about 100 years ago. We were too lazy to climb it but enjoyed the "Biergarten & Restaurant" next to it very much on a hot day (about 90 degrees). Here we found a lovely breeze when the rest of the city was rather stifling.
                                                        
Another song recording from the 1951 gives you a glimpse of the famous lake Wannsee in the Grunewald:Pack your Swimming Trunks! (Pack die Badehose ein).
Nothing much has changed except that Berlin has gained its freedom!
Approaching Berlin from the air above Potsdam (more about Potsdam in my next post.)

                                                        

See Berlin by Boat

The best way to get a good overall impression of Berlin is to go on a bus or a boat tour. We'd done a bus tour before and were hoping for a bit of a breeze on the water in this hot weather. There are many boat rides of the "hop on and hop off "kind. They will take you along the two rivers, Spree and Havel, and even on the canal if you so choose.
It was an extensive trip of 3 and a half hours. We saw the most famous parts of Berlin, the government buildings, a few remnants of the wall, new fancy apartment buildings built in what used to be the former East; 1 million plus apartments without a kitchen because the logical thinking is that their clients work all day and go out for meals.
We learned that Berlin has more bridges (969) than Paris or even Venice (410). I just learned that Hamburg has even more :2485.
This is the famous and beautiful Oberbaumbruecke where in the 1800s citizens threw felled trees and logs into the water to make boats pay a tariff on their passage over the river. Only after paying did they remove the obstacles and let the boats through.

Other bridges were not architecturally important, but noteworthy in their surroundings. With this one you had to remain seated and duck down as it was so low.

Romantic or at least picturesque corners everywhere, especially on the canal.

Locks always make for interesting viewing. Here there was a man who was inside the restaurant watching the boat being heaved by more than 1 m to the higher level. He started to close the windows of the restuarant until his wife explained to him that it was not the water that was rising...


If you're into sailing, you're spoilt for choice because Berlin is surrounded by a myriad of lakes; also by many forests which can be explored by bike and on foot as well. More about that another time.

We are Berliners now!

It took me 3 days to adjust to the climate and getting over jet lag so that I'm only starting this year's exchange experience here today. Hubby slept it off for almost 36 hours.
The weather is only beautiful, around 80 degrees with a welcome breeze. We had a few little adventures already in between our napping bouts, but here's about the apartment first.

 It's in a very nice area on the high-end outskirts in Berlin, a maisonette --which should have forewarned me that steps are involved. Not a problem; they keep you fit and all that. But dragging about 250 pounds of luggage up 46 steps almost broke our backs. As I learned on my latest trip to Germany recently, taxi drivers aren't obliged to lift your bags in or out of the car anymore. Must be new union regulations. And our female taxi driver certainly had no inkling to help. She clutched her card machine for payment while hubby and lifted the bags out of the huge van. Then we saw the steps. Somehow I had not realized we were on the 4th floor.
The circular stair case to the upper floor that has a wrap around terrace the size of most Irish flats totally took the wind out of us. No wonder we collapsed. We wonder can you hire a man to carry suitcases up or down the stairs into a car for you? There should be an app for that!

We haven't unpacked yet.
Two nice terraces with lovely views await us for breakfast and other meals.Mega parties could be and were hosted here, I'm sure.

Computer is giving me a tough time rotating the pics. Sorry about that! I'm working on it.

SEASON 6 IS UPON US!

No, it's not Paris this year.

Believe me, it's definitely not Paris although it bears some resemblance, doesn't it?

A street scene, full of cafes and little boutiques in the fashionable quarter of  Kreuzberg .

You're excused to think so, but it is not the Seine. It's the Spree with a view of the famous Island of Museums (Museumsinsel). It houses the Pergamon Museum with the famous statue of Nefertiti, strangely called Nofretete in German.

If you haven't been to Berlin, you're in for a treat and surprise. Berlin is the hottest - and I mean- trendiest capital in Europe with the most visitors in the last 2 years. It will be the start to this years's home swapping adventure starting in early June, earlier than we ever did before. This couple approached us and we couldn't think of one single reason why not leave for our annual trip to Europe earlier than normally. 

We have two more exchanges lined up after Berlin, a little village near Baden-Baden near the black Forest and border to France. I hear you say that we were there before. In fact, it's our favorite area in Germany and we keep returning to it almost every year.

After that, we'll be heading to Luxembourg. This exchange came about quite unexpectedly after a long wait when we thought we couldn't find another swap. More about all destinations as we go along. 

Going Hot and Cold on Me

Back to our home away from home in Alsace after a wonderful weekend I spent in Germany's capital with my daughter. Berlin is such an exciting city. I had been there several times before but to get the insider scoop on a tour is no much more entertaining.
Der Reichstag (like the American Capitol)

(socalled Museums-Insel)

We did a boat trip thru the city past the government buildings and other parts of town that belonged to the former East.

(Washingmshine-nick name for Angela Merkel's work place)

There, bid parts of the wall are still standing.I had thought it had been dismantled; not by officials but tourist who liked to take a stone home, preferably with some graffiti as a souvenir.The new hip entertainment scene is also located there.
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Cool buildings and the hippest of people. The latest is to be dressed all in black with a black backpack and your hair up in a bun- boys too!For the 20-34 somethings, computer nerds, music fans and freaks and everybody who wants to be "in". They call themselves hipsters.
We still had far more than 30 degrees of mugginess and the refreshing thunderstorms only came Sunday night.But lo and behold, when I had to leave on Monday, there it was  again almost 30 and the humidity.

Before I even had left "home", the weather here had broken and it remained kind of wet and cold.
On my return, we had a situation!

There is always a time during each house swap where we desperately try to figure out the heating system.After 95 degrees last week it is down to barely 60 and at night? Who knows? Who looks? But me having to go to the bathroom several times and sit on that frigid commode let me go into the basement and check out what's what with the central heating. Unfortunately technology has so much progressed since I left Germany and this, in addition has its description in French, that we have no choice but wait for better weather.Or buy a heater. Last week we were looking for a fan to cool down the place. But they were all sold out.The shop assistant called the sales an "eruption".
Victory! I persuaded the father of our exchnage partners to switch the central heating on for a few hours late in the evening and the mornings...until it gets warmer at the weekend. He explained he installation they had for heating the house and water: A wood pellet burning oven! Very economical and few emissions.France has the lowest electricity prices due to the fact that they still heavily depend on nuclear power whereas Germany which has sworn off nuclear has the highest.

3 Day Blitz Summer

Germany's biggest tabloid, Bild (or Bildzeitung) declares the summer over almost before it got started on its front page today:"3 Day Blitz Summer".
In contrast to British minds, nobody here associates the word Blitz with the war anymore.It means lightning and appears in weather reports.Not even remotely, secretly in the back of their minds does it connote to WWII.
It appears in word combinations like blitzschnell (as fast as lightning), blitzartig (like a lightning) or blitzsauber (so clean it sparkles). War references, Blitzkrieg, mean The First Gulf War or Israel's 6 Days War.

Anyway, Bild, not exactly the paragon of journalism, knows our bliss with the sun is going to be short-lived.We shall see and I'll let you know. Today certainly is another day for the swimming pool.In Berlin that means that the lucky ones who needn't go to work hang out on the banks of the River Spree, Havel or at Wannsee.  
All of Meck Pomm with its hundreds of lakes and waterways imbedded in a gorgeous landscape of unspoilt forests is basking in the sun. Really worth a vacation for nature lovers.

Next Stop: Berlin

(Brandenburg Gate with its Quadriga on top)

Eventually, it also feels like summer. Now we can leave the old brollie and coat at home. We didn’t come here for the weather; on the contrary, we needed to escape the Floridian heat. Locals said that at least they don’t have brush fires here. Southern Europe, Mallorca & Greece in particular, are literally being scorched.

  

The weekend was spent at my daughter’s in Berlin. I’ve been to Berlin several times, yet like in any other capital, there is so much to see! Berlin became the capital of reunified Germany in 1990 and the seat of the German government since 1999 – much to the dismay of some countries who feared that Germany’s position in Europe was becoming too big again and felt reminded of a certain time in our history. Its dominant position within the European Union and especially during the recent fiscal crisis have renewed and aggravated these sentiments.

During previous visits, Berlin was one big construction site but this has come to an end over 20 years after reunification. A lot of hip young people are drawn to the capital and there is a lot of entertainment. We primarily explored the neighborhood (“Kietz”) where my daughter just moved to. Berlin is like a conglomerate of many little villages with their distinct features, many pubs, restaurants of almost every nation under the sun, and flea markets at the weekend. Even after 2 days of walking around and eating out, some faces seemed familiar already.

.(Picture of Berliner Dom / Cathedral in the city center).The best way to get a first impression of the city (3.5 million inhabitants) is a guided bus tour

Feels more like winter in FL

And now you’re all eager to know how our swapped home turned out – I know. It is a spacious house that can easily accommodate 7 people, clean but showing the sign of the times in some rooms. The family room furniture must have been handed down from grandmother’s time whose picture is on the wall. Very dark wood and lots of bric-a-brac (or collectibles) from that era. The thatched roof gives it a very cozy feel but is also responsible for some mess on the ground. The birds on that roof like to play with the straw.  The outside swimming pool has brown water in it, not out of neglect but it’s taken from a nearby lake of the “blue flagged lake “variety. I only read about blue flagged beaches recently in the US. Florida got none, CA only one. It’s too cold for these Floridians anyways.

They just recently installed a fancy new bathroom upstairs for their teenage kids, something you will see in hip hotels. Thank goodness there was room enough left in the closets for our stuff in contrast to last year’s experience. In the meantime, it has gone so cold that we lit a fire in the living-room. That doesn’t warm the bathroom where I need it most. First the radiators started to warm up a little- and then there was none. A sure sign of having run out of oil/ kerosene. Hubby asked how I knew. I only know too well from my experience in Ireland and Germany. In a normal summer, you don’t need heat and oil and turn it off in the spring when the weather picks up. You reorder some time during the summer months watching heating oil prices like a hawk and strike when it’s low. We had a tank of 12,000 l; so a difference in price of 2-10 cents makes quite a difference. But low and behold, especially in Ireland, the weather gods weren’t in the mood for summer and in the middle of July, more than once, I ran out of the last drops.

Who needs heat in the summer? I do when daytime temperatures hover around 14 Celsius and nights are even colder. Delicate me wouldn’t have made it far down the line through Evolution…

Yesterday, the last night my son was here, the “Men” barbecued outside while we had the fire going and watched Mamma Mia. We were happy we only had to do the kitchen chores. Now it’s sheet changing time because my daughter is on her merry way from Berlin to visit us. Yeah! She wants to visit on of the seaside resorts. In this weather?

I fought and lost a battle with the dryer which is of a new technical generation we hadn’t encountered yet. Thanks to a technically minded husband the problem was solved. This apparatus doesn’t blow hot air out anymore while spinning and drying but accumulates the water in a plastic container on the top left where a washer has its soap dispenser. So now for you. My daughter said,"Of course, a condensation dryer!"