I think I have lost a posting...I am sure I added from Oslo - Kopenhagen but it isn't there...will have to try and remember what we did!! In the meantime........

Berlin.....

We arrived in Berlin on a Sunday afternoon. It had been a long drive from the outskirts of Kopenhagen 

along with a ferry crossing from Zealand, (DK) to Rostock (D)...another chance for Duty free shopping!!

So the first long drive on the Auto Bahn....Dotty did us proud but there was no way she could keep up 

with the Audi's and believe it or not...the Skoda's!!

So...Berlin...my brother is living there at the moment so we lobbed up at his place...once we found it! 

He is subletting a lovely little place in the Schoenburg area of Berlin, it is really central and reminded me of Sydney.

We wandered out for dinner nearby and found a Turkish Restaurant! The menu was the same as our favourite at home! 

So no problems ordering! Although my Brother's German is impressive...

After a couple of beers and a long drive we were all a bit sleepy so we set off to find out campsite - "Tent Station"

www.tentstation.de

Technically they closed on the day we arrived so we had called in advance and in the typical cool Berlin way they had said we could stay anyway and there would probably be a few other campers...

After a couple of wrong turns into what seemed to be an abandoned sports arena...we found the Tent Station...an abandoned municipal swimming pool.

Sure enough we found a few stragglers...a bus load of Aussie's...I am pretty sure I counted 6...god knows where they were sleeping or even sitting....the mother in me was activated!

A few other tents dotted here and there...

We were staying for a week we decided to set Dotty's awning up and really settle in...

Sure enough, as the week progressed the tents slowly dissapeared until there was just Dotty! 

All in all as a campsite goes I would say this is one of the most unique I have stayed in...it was a public swimming pool until 2002 when privatisation forced it's closure. 4 years ago a group of enterprising Berliners took it over and with very minimal changes turned it into a campsite. The toilets/showers are pretty much as they were for swimming, vast amounts of lockers still there, some with washing lines strung up and others used for dishes and laundry. 

The main swimming pool has been adapted with bleachers and during the summer months plays host to local DJ's and bands staged on the diving boards...there is also a basketball hoop in the deep end! 

The smaller pool has been filled with sand and while it is an awesome place for castles...it also makes a great volleyball court....Aparently there is also a bar and cafe during the peak season...wish so much we could have been there to see all the fun but in a strange way it is also nice to be there totally alone...we are in the middle of Berlin and have 2 acres of land all around us...if we didn't leave we wouldn't have seen another person for days!

But we did leave...eventually!! 

Berlin is a great place for cycling...mostly because there are no hills...but also because, similarly to Amsterdam there are cycle paths everywhere, separate to the roads in most cases...and bikes get right of way!! London really needs to get it's shit together and sort out some Cycle rights!

So we spent the whole week cycling around and checking out the sights....Tiergarten, beautiful park with many aspects and many paths for which to get lost!! 

Brandenburg gate, spectacular arch with hoards of tourists, Berlin Zoo...so so so wrong on so many levels, Elephants, tigers, lions and bears....including Polar Bears...the very famous Polar Bear Konook....Many of the enclosures are being improved and modernised...many of them are still very old fashioned and in some cases heart breaking....but I guess you can't have it all huh...if we want to see wild animals someone has to make a sacrifice....I can only hope that there are fantastic breading programs...to quell my guilt!

We made the crossing into what was East Berlin and ascended the fabulous tower which hovers over the city...(see Chris' pictures on Facebook...he must have taken hundreds!)

It was a clear day and we gained a really good perspective of how the city is laid out. It is really clear to see where the division lay...the architure between East and West has many obvious differences, yet with so much modernisation and improvement it is easy to forget that it has only been 20 years since the wall fell.

Other days we just pootled around and took in the sights and sounds of the city...we spent our evenings with my bro, mostly cooking and eating and just hanging out! 

Come Saturday after a stroll around the market we left Berlin behind and headed towards Prague..........