Berlin, Germany

Saturday 14th April 2018

This mornings wake up call definitely takes the cake for the earliest we have been up to catch a flight. At 2.15am I was plunged into reality by my phone alarm and our google home alarm like an orchestra from both sides of the bed. Lewis of course didn’t even stir until I gave him a kick since we would wake the entire neighbourhood if we didn’t silence them ASAP. I only left half an hour to shower, eat and dress so there was no way I was hanging around in bed. Lew tried to make his way out and fell asleep diagonally across the bed on his side as he went. I guess someone’s not getting any breakfast this morning as time ticked away rapidly. We managed to get out the door 1 minute late and fast walked to Stockwell station which is always the beginning and end of our commutes. The night tubes come a lot more infrequently especially at 3.15am and there was mainly just drunk people trying to find their way home after a long night out. Rather messy with fresh vomit in rubbish bins and some slightly older stuff dried onto the walls. It only got worse as we got to Liverpool Street station where there were big groups of drunk young people in the station and hanging around McDonald’s. Only the drunks and early morning travellers were out at this time of morning. We had booked a Stanstead express train which would take 48 minutes from London Liverpool Street station to Stanstead airport. This would be the first time we had made our way out to this airport and fingers crossed it was better than Luton. The train took us straight to the airport terminal where we found the Ryanair check in desk. Being non-eu I had to present my passport to the check in desk for a visa check before we headed through security. They were friendly and so far this airport and airline are getting the thumbs up from us. We were in the line for security when someone tapped me on the shoulder. I thought someone was about to yell at me for something I didn’t know I had done wrong but it ended up being Cassandra- a Canadian nurse I was working with at St Thomas’s! Now I know NZ is small and there is a much higher chance of bumping into someone but in London with its multiple airports, constant business the likelihood is pretty slim! She had recently got back from Slovenia and was now travelling to Morocco. I really admire how she manages to travel by herself and usually with very minimal luggage. One time she told me she went away for the weekend with only a spare pair of underwear and socks in her handbag! From then on I promised to think of that every time I was packing to prevent me overpacking. Unfortunately we got separated in the security line but promised to catch up when she returned. Security was a breeze now that we know what they want from us - if anyone know why we also have take laptops out of covers please let me know, seems pointless and you risk damaging it which is why you have the cover on in the first place right? The airport was much much better than Luton with many different places to eat and even shop. We chose Joe & the Juice and Lew ordered a hot chocolate whilst I went to the bathroom. There is always a line for the ladies but the best thing to do is not go to the first one you see, there will always be more in the terminal away from the main doors which won’t be as busy. On the way back our gate number 86 was up on the board and we made our way down the corridor. It seemed like this was just an afterthought where they added a heap of containers as they realised they needed more gates. We were shuffled into a line like sheep being herded as they checked out tickets and stickered any carry on suitcases to go in the hold. They were really good at sending an email stating what their baggage policy is so I knew all along my bag would be going in the hold. Non priority you are able to have only a small bag under your seat but if you bring a suitcase within their size limits they will put it in the hold free of charge. Not the end of the world. It’s actually easier than stressing that there won’t be enough room for it in the plane. One thing that is frustrating about Ryanair though is that despite Lew and I booking together the only way to get seats allocated for free is to choose randomly assigned ones. This means that’s you are not guaranteed to sit together which is what happened in our case. It would cost us between £4-6 ($8-12 nzd) to change seats online so I messaged their help desk and also Facebook messaged them to see if they would do it for free or if this would be then case every time we fly with them. Seems it’s just one to their scams to make money and this will indeed happen every time. We ended up forking out the £4 ($7.80) although all Lew did was sleep the entire time anyway. Arriving into Berlin the pilot literally dropped the plane on the runway so it was a bit of a crappy hard landing. As the doors of the plane opened we were both glad we had brought our warm clothes still despite the expected forecast of 18 -23 degrees. Lew even asked me if he should bring his togs in which I replied no it was perhaps a little early. We cleared customs, picked up my small suitcase from the baggage carousel and made our way across the street to the train station. Thank goodness for Citymapper once again which told us exactly how to get into town. We paid the fare of €6.80 (£5.90/$11.50 nzd)  and somehow Lew managed to find the correct platform despite everything being in German. Another 40 minutes later on the train we reached the station closest to our Airbnb and walked 20 minutes to find it. Our lovely Airbnb host Sara came downstairs and showed us up to the apartment. Lew had been looking at the photos on the train and said he wasn't expecting much as the photos looked terrible but as soon as she opened the door to the place we knew it would be perfect. She briefly showed us around and it became apparent that she usually lives here herself but must rent it out on Airbnb every so often to make a bit of money. I decided to shower to wake myself up again and came out to find Lew on the sofa fast asleep. By the time I had got him up and about it was midday and we had booked ourselves in for another one of Sandemans free walking tours at 2pm. Lew easily found us a burger place with good ratings that was on the list of the top ten burger places in Berlin. Shiso Burger is located in Mitte and has an excellent Asian fusion vibe with a menu that made it so difficult to choose what to eat. It all sounded so amazing from Angus beef, king prawns, tuna and wagyu beef on the menu. I decided in the tuna and Lew went with a chilli lemon beef burger with a side of fries. We also ordered a couple of their drinks which was homemade lemonade with brown sugar and a pineapple mint smoothie. The food didn’t take long to arrive thankfully as we were both starving and the burgers were rather tasty with chilli mayo sauce dripping from both of them. Time was running out since we still had to walk to Brandenburg gates which was half an hours walk away where our tour would start. No matter how ready to pay we looked with our jackets on and our card out no one came to us. Such a frustrating thing in Europe since your expected to ask for the bill whilst staying at the table. Not wanting to have to run to our tour start point I just got up and went to the counter to deal with it. €31.30 (£20.27/$53 nzd) euro later we were out the door and fast walking to our next destination.

It was easy to spot the red umbrellas of the Sandman’s tours and this would be our third free walking tour with them. By the way they say it’s free but your guide does remind you that they are volunteers and rely on donations to continue these tours. So just come with some spare change so you can decide how worthy the tour was (we usually pay about €4-6). At 2pm we were herded into four different groups of about 23 and our guide for today was going to be Rob from Manchester, UK. He had been living in Berlin for about 9 years but absolutely loved the place. Just as Rob was beginning his opening spiel the rain set in and instead of learning about the Brandenburg gate whilst standing in front of the beautiful archway we huddled under a building. The Brandenburg gates were opened in 1791 and were one of the main entrances to the city. They have been silent witnesses to everything that the city has been through. In 1806 Napoleons soldiers stole the Quadriga (the goddess of victory driving a chariot pulled by four horses on top of the gates) which was eventually returned in 1814 when Paris itself was captured by Prussian soldiers following Napoleon’s defeat. In 1933 the Nazi's held a torchlit procession through the gate to celebrate Hitler’s seizure of power but post WWII it was left in ruins and had to be restored in 2000. As a former symbol of the divided city that used to draw visitors who were able to climb up to an observation platform in order to get a glimpse of the world behind the Iron Curtain, on the other side of the barren "death-strip" which separated East from West Berlin, geographically and politically it now symbolises peace and unity. The Hotel Adlon Kempinski stands close to the gates and has a fascinating history itself from the moment it opened in 1907. It was the place to go for all upper class members of society and managed to survive WWII with minimal damage before being destroyed in a fire rumoured to have been started in the cellar by drunk Red Army soldiers. The hotel was rebuilt in 1977 and has had many famous guests stay in its Royal Suite costing €23,000 (£20,000/$40,000 nzd) per night including Elbert Einstein, Bill Clinton, Queen Elizabeth II and Michael Jackson who also famously dangled Blanket Jackson over the balcony in 2002. The rain had really started to settle in at this point and this clearly happens often as Rob our tour guide move us inside into the back of the Alte Nationalgalerie museum to a space where he could preach his knowledge. We wandered across the road to where the Holocaust museum lies which was probably looking more miserable in the rain than it usually would. The German government decided that a central memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe needed to be erected and a design competition was held in which New York architect Peter Eisenmen won. Opened in 2005 the memorial is 19000 sqm made up of 2711 concrete slabs of different heights on a slight slope which creates an uneven wave from wherever you view it. The design was supposed to create an illusion of instability in an apparent system of order, and how this system is futile in time but many interpret it as a graveyard reminding us how many innocent people lost their lives. Walking down the street Rob stopped us underneath a tree which we thought he was trying to use to shelter us from the rain but it didn't quite have enough foliage to do that job. Instead he pointed out the carpark infront of us and told us this was where Hitler died April 30th 1945. As the Red Army begun to overpower the Nazi's those important figures remaining retreated to an underground air-raid shelter 17 meters below the carpark we were currently standing on. Hitler became delusion whilst living in the shelter and refused to be captured by the Red Army and pay for the crimes he had committed. He also didn't want to die unmarried so he organised to finally marry his mistress of 12 years Eva Braun before making a joint suicide pack after being married for 24 hours. Ava for some strange reason wore a funeral dress to the wedding and was rumoured to enjoy abusing animals. Before adding those details I think it was safe to say she was a strange person wanting to marry Hitler after all the atrocious crimes he had committed. Hitler didn't want the Soviets to have his body as their trophy so both he and Eva took cyanide capsules before asking that their remains be burn and moved so he could not be found. The remains of two people and Hitlers dog were found and their identities later by the Soviets  who confirmed by their identity based on dental records but this was kept quiet until the Soviet Union collapsed. The bunker still remains underground to this day but it not somewhere you are able to visit. So all that remains of Hitlers final days is a small sign and it's probably the biggest middle fingers to him since his gravesite is now just a muddy carpark. Post WWII much of Berlin was in ruins with 80% of the population being female. These women banded together to rebuild the city from the rubble and the Tegal Airport in just 6 weeks which is still considered one of Berlins main airport to date despite it being scheduled to close in 2012. The Cold War came to Berlin in 1949 as the Soviets and America had a tense relationship stemmed from Americas late arrival into WWII costing many Russians their lives and Americas wariness towards the communist leader Joesph Stalin and his tyrannical rule of his country. It became a race between the two countries to develop atomic bombs that could devastate entire cities and have long term environmental effects. Thankfully it was named the 'cold war' because neither side engaged in any battles. The rain had finally eased as we approached the Berlin Wall located at the Topography of Terror Museum which was where the Gestapo headquarters was once located. It is 200 meters at Niederkirchnerstraße which marked the border between the districts of Mitte (East Berlin) and Kreuzberg (West Berlin) and remains preserved with all the traces of destruction. At this point our group was offered a coffee/toilet stop but Lew and I were keen to get a closer look at this wall. On August 13th 1961 the Communist government of the German Democratic Republic (GDR, or East Germany) begun building a concrete and barbed wire fence between East and West Berlin that covered 150kms in total. Only 43kms of this separated East and West Berlin and the rest separated West Berlin from the surrounding East Berlin countryside. The 3.6 meter high iron curtain was constructed overnight as thousands of East Germans living in the Communist side controlled by the Soviets fled to the Democratic West controlled by the America/UK/France. To ensure no one was able to escape by scaling the wall a second wall 150 meters away was built and the passage way between the two called the "death strip" as it was watched by armed guards in 302 towers, contained anti-vehicle trenches, sand, guard dogs and trip-wire machine guns. Despite this many people did try to cross the border with it being expected that around 175 people died attempted to escape across this land. However, more than 5,000 did successfully escape either under or over by using hot air balloons, light weight planes, digging tunnels and using the sewers. The wall  was in place for 28 years, 2 months and 27 days to be exact when on 9th November 1989 the East German Communist Party announced that their citizens could cross the border whenever the pleased. That night crowds of people swarmed to the wall with hammers and picks crossing over to the West side. The group made it's way down to Checkpoint Charlie which our guide explained is one of the biggest tourist traps in all of Berlin. Checkpoint Charlie was the name given to the crossing point between Allied occupied West Berlin and Soviet held East Berlin by the allies during the Cold War. There were other crossing points but Checkpoint Charlie was the most well known as it was on the historic street Friedrichstrasse in the American-occupied city center. It was however the only gateway where East Germany allowed Allied diplomats, military personnel and foreign tourists to pass into Berlin's Soviet sector which meant that American, French and British military police were stationed here to ensure the borders were enforced. We didn't get down to see it as our guide ensured us that it is not even a good representation of what Checkpoint Charlie was and there was also a very large protest running right down that street. At first Rob said it was in regards to what was currently happening in Syria but then he also said their were signs protesting against rents increasing. Either way there were a lot of angry Germans. The sun had come out now and we wandering into the large square of Gendarmenmarkt flanked by two large  cathedrals - one German called the Deutscher Dom and one French called the Französischer Dom. The Französischer Dom begun its construction in 1701 as a church for the French Protestant community known as the Huguenot who had fled from Prussia for safe refuge. The Germans living in Berlin insisted that they also have a church so plans were made to construct an entirely identical church in the 18th century. Of course it was still a bit of a pissing contest and the Dome of the Deutscher Dom is slightly bigger than that of the Französischer Dom. Both of these buildings sustained significant damage during WWII and also by a fire and were partially reconstructed between 1982-1996.We then moved onto an even more iconic square called Bebelplatz which was where the Nazi's burned all the books of Jewish writers or about the Jewish faith on May 10th 1933. There is a subtle memorial in the center which is a glass square that gives you a view down into an underground empty library large enough to hold the 20,000 books that were burnt. A library without books is sad and reminds you how much knowledge and wisdom was lost from all of those books. Also surounding this square is the Humboldt University, the oldest university in Berlin and which has had famous professors, including Einstein, Karl Marx, and the Brothers Grimm as well as St. Hedwig’s Cathedral, one of the few Catholic cathedrals in Berlin. Our tour was coming to the end but Rob wanted to show us a couple more sites. One was the tower we could see in the distance called Berlin TV Tower or Fernsehturm which finished its construction in 1969 at a height of 368 meters making it the tallest building in Germany. The German Democratic Republic intended the tower to be a symbol of Communist power in Berlin and to be used as a broadcasting station. Finally we crossed over a bridge and the beautiful Berlin Cathedral popped out from behind a building with the gardens of lust surrounding it. Now this is an incredibly eye catching building against the blue sky with it's oxidised copper dome roof and pollution stained bricks it paints an image of how incredible stonemasons were to build such a Cathedral. However, this is not the original cathedral as that was left in ruins post war and it's reconstruction begun in 1975 leaving us with what we can see today. That concluded our tour at 4.30pm and with the sun shining down on us we planted ourselves on the large bowl like monument to soak it up. We decided to make our way home but went via a grocery store and the Nike store where Lew convinced me to buy a pair of Nike Air zooms to run in. Of course with it being such a beautiful night and with a  pair of shoes I needed to try out I was convinced into coming for a run even after having walked 21km today as well as a 2am wake up call. We made our way down the main streets of town to a park called Tiergarten and did a loop around this admiring the blossoms, daffodils and the mild spring air. We ran back under the Brandenburg gates and the distraction of all the beautiful sights made the 9.5 km run more bearable. We cooked potatoes, steak and salad for dinner and were pleased to have a quite night home watching TV before heading to bed at 10pm ready for another busy and exciting day tomorrow. 

Sunday 15th April

After a big nights sleep the light streaming through the windows work me at 6am since our Airbnb had pathetic curtains. Lew somehow must have triple layered eyelids as he never seems to be affected by anything - light or even sound! Both of us were up by 10am and there seemed to be actual sunlight outside. Something we have not seen in awhile whilst living in London. We had both packed some summery clothes for today as the weather forecast said it would be around 23 degrees. We ate cereal and banana for breakfast which we had brought last night at the supermarket so we didn’t have to waste time finding somewhere to eat. Leaving the house just after 10.30am we had a bit more of a skip in our step with the feel of sunshine on our almost albino looking skin after a never ending winter (NZ & UK winters). This mornings plan was to walk down the Spree River to the other section of the Berlin Wall which still remains called the East side gallery. We had gone a substantial way when Lew declared he was feeling rather hot already and I look down and see him wearing jeans. I clearly remember having a discussion late Friday night as to which pair of shorts he was taking with him which involved them all being tried on to make sure they still fitted. Seems he was scared to get those hairy white legs on display today and he would sorely regret that for the rest of the day. Never mind perhaps the shorts will make an appearance in Prague next weekend. We went via a petrol station to get some cash out for the markets we were going to today and the station was filled with old cars and we thought perhaps they were the old cars that Rob was talking about yesterday that the Soviets used to give to citizens living in the East side of Germany. The beginning of the wall was just down the road and was surprisingly long. It was impressively decorated the entire way down the remains of the concrete wall with artists from all over the world. There was one famous paintings that I wanted to see nicknamed "The kiss of death" in which Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev is seen to be giving the East Germany President Erich Honecker a passionate kiss on the lips. At first glance, you might think it’s a complete joke, with no bearing on reality. But the image was based on an actual photograph taken in 1979 in honour of the thirtieth anniversary of the German Democratic Republic–East Germany. Fraternal kisses between socialist leaders was not uncommon but the pair are a little more enthusiastic about the kiss that your average Communist dictator kissing. There were lots of people out and about on this beautiful morning including a few buskers. One was rather impressive which was a man playing a handmade instrument with different sized pipes that sounded similar to a didgeridoo. Along the way Lew begun spotting cars with stickers and number plates with “Berlin bears”  Eisbären Berlin This is a team that has great significance to Lew as whilst on a work trip to the city his dad Paul went to a Berlin Bears ice hockey game and returned back to NZ with photos and some merchandise. This sparked an intense interest for two little Kiwi boys to get into the sport themselves! Doing a bit of googling we realised that the rink was a short walk away in the new Mercedes Benz arena and headed in that direction. People were walking around in their supporters gear and we discovered that there was a 2.30pm game which was actually the final against the EC Red Bull Salzburg - another team Lew has been following (news to me!). We walked around and around looking for someone potentially selling merchandise but there wasn’t anything. The game was sold out so there wasn’t any hope of us getting tickets thankfully as I was very reluctant to be inside when the sun was shining. We continued down the wall and made our way to the Raw Flohmarkt open only on Sundays in the hippy area called Fredrichstein. It had a grungy feel about it with oodles of graffiti on the walls of the buildings but the presence of young people and the occasional child made it feel safe. The market itself is in quite a strange place where they obviously have a lot of concerts or parties as the place was littered with bottle caps, cigarettes and shattered glass. It’s hard to call the large artistic paintings covering entire walls of buildings graffiti due to its incredible detail, but after all it is just spray paint. While I don’t think this area would be particularly safe in the dark no one seemed to have a care in the world of the appearance of the place. Young mums carried small babies in front packs, others wheeled their offspring in big baskets at the front of their bikes and other young people sat around enjoying the sun with of course a cigarette in their hand (surely we will be considered the dumbest generation when it comes to smoking as we are educated and know the health risks associated with smoking, yet a lot choose to still partake in this undesirable activity...we also voted for Donald Trump). The market was tucked in between two buildings also covered in graffiti and there were stalls selling a variety of items including jewellery, food, second hand clothes and records to name a few. I purchased some cute concrete earrings for €9 (£7.80/$15 nzd) in turquoise but nothing else caught our eyes. We were amazed by the amount of people sifting through tables and racks full of secondhand clothes as clearly bargain hunting through someone else’s unloved items is a top activity in Berlin. I have to admit the fashion is plain weird in some cases and usually includes piercings and/or stretchers and a black hairdo with one side shaved ?Lower maintenance. I think I prefer French fashion but a bit of diversity never hurts.

It was midday when we left the market and close by was a place on my list of top food places to visit - Halo Ramen. A short 20 minutes walk away through beautiful streets filled with restaurants with tables spilling out onto th footpath we found our destination.. and it was closed. Thankfully the blogs I had been reading also recommended an equally good ramen place just around the corner called Ramen X Ramen and this was open. They had lots of seats and we decided this would be our destination for lunch. It’s a shame your can never sit outside in Europe if you don’t like the suffocating smell of cigarettes but we chose to sit inside anyways as Lew was convinced he was getting burnt. I told him he had just forgotten the feeling of sun on his skin but later we did discovered we were both burnt haha I will have to find a carry on sized sunblock ASAP! Lew isn’t a huge fan of this type of food and wanted me to order him a beef stir fry like the one from Wagamamas. I had to educate him on what ramen actually was and break it to him that he would be getting a big bowl of hot noodles and meat. He told me to order it for him then since he has no clue but I did give him the decision of chicken or pork which were the two meat options on the menu. I ended up with the chicken teriyaki ramen and I got Lew a pork belly version with a starter of kaarage chicken. It was tasty but I think Chop Chop in Ponsonby Central (Auckland, NZ) still takes first place for good ramen from me. The meal cost us €23 (£20/$40 nzd) in which our Revolut cards (a challenger bank in which you can exchange money between multiple currencies and you are only charged the real exchange rate and no conversion fees) wouldn’t work and we had to pay in cash. The next stop for the day was the famous Mauer Park market which is the biggest flea market in all of Berlin. It was a wee distance away and we used Citymapper to work out the best way there. We chose to try out their tram system and walked to the closed station 5 minutes away. Doing a bit of googling we discovered you could buy tickets onboard the tram which sounded strange but we would give it a go. Sure enough the bright yellow tram came around the corner shortly after we arrived at the station and you could see the ticket machine inside. The only issue was that it was coins only but they gave you the option to download an app so you could pay with a card - easy enough. No one around us seemed to be buying tickets and there wasn’t anyone checking them either. I was happy to not bother paying but good old Lewis insisted we did the right thing and pay the €2.80 (£2.50/$5 nzd). 12 stops later we got off with every other person into a sea of more people heading into the market. Somehow we managed to walk up a small hill which gave us a view of just what Mauer Park was known for. There were thousands of people hanging out on the grassy fields of the park with a beer, cigarette and with a little more exposed skin than we have seen in awhile. The average age looked to be about 30 or less with the occasional grey haired sightseer admiring the scene from afar. The market was in the background with many white tents and boxes of junk visible even from where we were. In the distance was another grassy area with groups of people crowded around plumes of smoke which we discovered were an array of different types of BBQs grilling assortments of meat and vegetables. There very also numerous buskers scattered around the park with large huddles of people dancing to the music. Lew pointed out something so glaringly obvious I hadn't even considered it but there wasn't a police officer insight and there also wasn't a single altercation either. This was so incredibly considering there were a large amount of people, alcohol was involved, drugs were probably also present and the age ranged from babies to adults. There was a lot of glass around considering the bins were overflowing with bottles and everyone was just leaving them lying around. Clearly it had caught on amongst the less well off people in the city to then collect these bottles to make a small amount of money back off them. Clever considering it was also helping keep the place a bit more tidy although people should really tidy up after themselves. There is a photo I took of one man with his bike with multiple large reusable shopping bags full to the brim of glass bottles making his way home. The other amazing thing we walked along was a wall on a hill above the park covered in layers upon layers of graffiti. Parts of the paint had begun to fall off or sag allowing us to see just how many layers of paint had been put on. There were a few artists out who were rather interesting to watch as they seemed a little like rejects within society flaunting their artistic talents with spray paint on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. There was even a family where the mum was painting something and they had clearly brought along the two kids! All of this made us realise just how amazing Berlin is and we hadn't even got to the flea market! Entering one of the main entrances we begun to weave our way up and down the lanes of shops selling many different items new or old. In one area there were just hundreds of stacks of boxes full of junk. I laughed at a little boy who managed to find a serving spoon with a deers legs/hoof on the other end which of course he was very fascinated with but his mother insisted he put it down immediately. We possibly would have brought something but since we had to get it back to London somehow we gave it a miss. The only thing we brought in the hot muddy flea market was some fresh orange juice which we both have to say was very tasty and necessary since it was so hot still at 25 degrees. We grabbed some ice cream and went to stand in the park listening to one of the buskers - basically a band of dads rocking out to a large variety of songs with an addition of their drums. Feeling exhausted and knowing we still had to make it out for a run tonight we decided to head back to the apartment on a pair of bikes. There are SO many bikes scattered around Berlin to choose from but we went with Deezer nextbike which were lined up in a stand. We downloaded the app and thankfully it was relatively self explanatory compared to some of the previous bikes we have hired. Lew navigated whilst I followed behind and surprisingly it's never felt so safe to ride without a helmet as all the paths we were on were off the road! The only thing we had to look out for was pedestrians and we easily made out way back to the location where we thought there were some more bike stands. We did quite a few circles trying to find them until I noticed a few of the same bikes just littered around and discovered you don't have to dock them in specific places but just anywhere you want. Once we got home we both crashed for a little bit - I read my book and Lew caught up with some Youtube. Just after 7pm Lew started mapping out the run for us tonight and we got set to go. I can't say I was thrilled to be out running after yet another day of walking and some very sore muscles from last nights run but it seemed a shame to waste such a beautiful night. We planned to head to a different park this time called Tempelhofer Feld 4km south from the city center which originally was an airport build between 1936-41 by the Nazi's. The airport was used to test some of the worlds first airplanes, house WWII prisoners and gave Berlin residents a lifeline to the outside world during the cold war. It's also been used to film certain movies such as "The Hunger Games" and "The Bourne Supremacy". The airport was officially closed 30th October 2008 and is now a large park used for many events and it also houses around 7,000 refugees making it the largest refugee camp in Germany and in Europe. During the war the airport remained mostly intact as the Nazi's had many anti-aircraft guns protecting it. Large air-raid shelters underneath the airport protected many civilians and the walls still tell the stories of the people and children who spent many hours down there. The strangest thing is that the Nazi's never actually used it as an airport but instead as a factory to build combat aircrafts and weapons all using forced labour. US forces took over the airport at the end of WWII and occupied it until 1993. In 1990, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Tempelhof started to operate domestic flights once again. BUT the reason we actually went there was that Lew was very keen to run down at least one of the 2km runways, I was not so excited about this however as a long stretch of tarmac does not fascinate me but only reminds me of how far iv got to go. The park itself was quite impressive with everything still intact from when the airport was still operating. Many families were having BBQs on the grass between the runways and you could see the large blocks of housing as part of the refugee camp. We did a loop, ran a runway, admired the very Nazi Germany looking buildings and made our way back home making it a 12.5km run. We covered a total of 28 kms today both walking and running today! We arrived back just before 9am and had plans to get a doner kebab for dinner since we had heard Berlin does an excellent job of these. There is one place that is very well known called Mustafa's Gemuese Kebab, it is the place to go in every single blog and guidebook on Berlin that you can find. We had heard that it is so popular that you can expect to wait up to two hours at any time of the day or night. The other option was that we stayed in and had food delivered to us but we decided to go on an adventure. Pitch black but still warm we walked to where we left our biked earlier that day and made our way on the cycle paths to the Kebab hut. Sure enough there was a decent sized line outside it but this didn't put us off and we joined the queue at the back. I set the timer to see just how long we would actually have to wait and as the minutes ticked by our stomaches grumbled and the line barely moved. To make this just that more unbearable everyone in the line was smoking. After waiting 55 minutes it was starting to get late with it being 10.30pm and we had to be up early tomorrow morning for our flight back to London. I had found a blog whilst we were waiting that labelled a couple of other places well and one would be kinda on the way home if we took a slight detour. Our bikes were still there so we biked another 10 minutes to a place called Tadim in the area of Kreuzeburg. It seemed to be popular with the locals but thankfully there was no line outside. We ordered a couple of durum doner which seemed to be the wrap version as opposed to the deconstructed version as well as one of the Lahmacuns which is a Turkish Pizza. We paid €14 (£12/23 nzd) for all of this including a drink and we sat in the back of the starkly decorated and deserted restaurant just pleased to finally have some food in our tummies. We biked home a little frustrated that we had wasted a lot of time waiting in lines and transiting between places but the pleasant weather made things better. To finish the night off we packed up and headed to bed. 

Monday 16th April  

Yet another early morning wake up call at 4.15 to get ourselves back to London. We were suffering a bit from our late night adventure to find dinner and were both still burping up the taste and unfortunately I didn’t bring any reflux medication with me. We ate breakfast and did a quick pack which lead to a very rushed exit with the bus arriving in 5 minutes with a 4 minute walk ahead of us. We ran the last few meters as the bus approached us on the road behind and we paid our €2.80 (£2.50/$5 nzd) each which got us to the airport taking two different buses for about 40 minutes. We were flying British Airways for the first time into London City Airport but unfortunately we hadn't checked in early enough to get seats next to each other or even a window seat. Lew said the plane was so small with two seats either side of the isle it wouldn't be a problem anyways getting a good view. We underestimated how small this airport actually was with security and border control being done at every single small gate. BA made me check my small suitcase for free since it was a full flight and there wouldn't be much room in the overhead bins. We boarded on time and for a change we actually has an airbridge. Our seats were right at the back of the plane with Lew one seat behind me. I spent most of the flight writing parts of this blog on my phone whilst Lew was fascinated about an article on Mo Farah a very impressive UK running with double gold in both the 5000 and 10,000 in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics. He is racing in the London marathon this weekend and it outlined how he has been training for it in Ethiopia. It was a very quick flight and it was certainly nice flying into London City although we didn't see any views of the main attractions since we came in from the opposite way. It felt a little bit like home as we got off the plane and walked straight into the small terminal. Once again we were super happy I had brought the registered traveller membership meaning I can go straight through the E-gates with the rest of the people with EU/UK passports instead of waiting in the never ending line of "other passports". I also don't have to fill out an arrival card which is a bonus. The airport connects up with the DLR (Docklands light railway) which is a driverless overground train and it was a short walk to the terminal after we picked up my bag. We had to wait for a couple of trains as it was rather busy and people kept pushing in front of us to get on. We then took this to Bank where we connected to the Northern Line to Stockwell station taking us just under an hour. Lew showered whilst I made up a quick cooked breakfast and we ate together before he headed off to work and I unpacked, cleaned and did washing before my night shift at Royal London Hospital A&E 8pm-8am. Ready for next weekends adventure to Prague!! By the way there is going to be a heatwave this week in London and for the first time in a long time there in sun and temperatures of 20-27 degrees each day! Yay :D