Berlin

So it was off back to Berlin last weekend, with Rob in tow instead of my cousin who obviously can't travel due to chemotherapy.

Friday

The flight was late on in the day but we still set off quite early and took a stroll around Rob's old haunts in Liverpool, which was fun. The weather wasn't great though but we had a look around some book places and Forbidden Planet which is always nice.

The flight was delayed by about 40 minutes which was a bit annoying as the flight was so late in the first place but was otherwise uneventful. Once we got out of the airport we got a bit confuzzled with the S-bahn but eventually got to the right stop after changing trains three times in as many stops. Possibly a side effect of the ongoing troubles with the S-bahn.

Saturday

We had a stroll around Alexanderplatz first thing in the morning where we found several interesting shops in a small shopping centre. One was an alcohol shop where Rob saw many rare and interesting items, a shop specialising in old DDR stuff, and a pound shop type affair which had some odd things.

After that it was off to meet up with Amogharatna to head off to the trade fair for the half marathon where he would register and get his number. This was well worth doing as it took place in the old Tempelhof airport. It closed in late 2008 and this kind of thing is the only way to get a look inside these days. It was pretty cool to see the old building which is very impressive.

Lunch consisted of currywurst from Curry 36 on the Mehringdamm, which is reputedly the best in Berlin. It was pretty damn good, that's for sure. After that we wandered around a bit until Amogharatna had to leaves. Rob and I had a good long walk including the length of the Tiergarten before deciding to head off and find supper after a break in the hotel. We started out at the House of 100 Beers, where we had a couple of drinks and then found a nice Italian place on Oranienburger Strasse, which was good. After that we had some more drinks in an Irish bar in the Hackesher Markt station, before finding a much quieter and nice little pub by Alexanderplatz.

Sunday

I woke up and didn't feel well at all due to a cold. Rob wasn't well after a late night session with some Germans playing Dopplekopf and so neither of us made a huge breakfast.

Amogharatna met up with me at 9 and we headed off to Alexanderplatz to meet his friend Harald who was also running the half marathon. Having found him, we headed off to where everyone else was getting ready and putting their clothes and things into bags for safe keeping. Nothing like hanging out with 22,000 runners to make you feel fat and inadequate, that's for sure. I saw Amogharatna and Harald off to the start which was a bit of a mistake as I had then had to fight my way back through the heaving crowds.

After having a look at the route for the marathon, I got on the train and headed off to a few places to watch it, first was the Tiergarten S-bahn station, and then the Ku'damm U-bahn station. That one was pretty good as I saw most of the field go through. Annoyingly I didn't see Amogharatna go past, but I did see Harald. I found out later that Amogharatna was in front of Harald so I must have missed him.

Once the marathon was done I met up with Amogharatna, Claudia and another friend of his for lunch at an Italian place. It was somewhere I hadn't been before so I had a little trouble finding it but it was a good place and it was a good meal. We headed back to the vicinity of the hotel where Amogharatna and Claudia dropped me off at the hotel, and then Rob and I went out for some supper and a stroll. Food was from the Flying Table which was typically excellent.

Monday

I was still suffering rather but Rob was better so we headed off to the Reichstag to try and get up the dome. There were some people there already but as we headed across the lawn a bus full of tourists pulled up so we legged it to get in front of them. This worked and the roof and dome were quite empty when we got there. It was a fairly clear day so we had a good view from the top of the dome and roof. It doesn't look too high from outside but it's pretty good.

After that we had a wander round the government quarter and then headed off to Treptower Park to have a look at the Soviet memorial there, which is really huge and impressive. This was followed by a visit to the rather underwhelming currywurst museum. I then returned back to the hotel for break, only stopping off at Alexanderplatz to find a geocache there. I had a pretty good idea where it was when a German family turned up looking for it and one of the kids grabbed it and ran off, so I had to politely ask if I could sign the logbook.

That evening we went to a restaurant not far from the hotel which was pretty good. This was followed by a stroll around the Ku'damm in the dark which was good although it took some lengthy train rides to get to and from it.

Tuesday

We met up again with Amogharatna in the morning and had a walk around Unter den Linden before walking down to the awesome Fassbender & Rausch chocolate shop for lunch, which was excellent. After this we walked around a bit more but I was really starting to feel tired and rough so we took an earlier train to the airport and got ourselves through security. The flight was uneventful again other than the weather being lovely when we left Germany and then horrible in Liverpool.