Berlin, Dresden, Prague

Howdy doody. Haven't blogged for a while - somehow I just haven't been in the mood. We've been kind of distracted from reporting on our trip by rearranging our trip at the last minute, but it has all worked out v well in the end.

We had a fabulous time in Berlin, arriving on Wednesday last week (see me foux de fa fa-ing with Belly below. Michelin woman on a bike *sigh*). Such a handsome city, wide street, bike paths, trees, lovely buildings and of course a fascinating history. It was cold and clear day one so we biked all over, courtesy of Fat Bike Tours (they operate in Berlin, Paris and Barcelona - I highly recommend them - great bikes, v helpful and excellent rates). I am glad my hairdresser in New York was so enthusiastic about the trip he'd just had to Berlin, or we may not have made it there.

On the way there we spent a day in pretty, musical Leipzig and on the way back we popped in to Dresden - both beautiful in their faded glory. We ironically had the worst and most expensive coffee of our entire trip in what is apparently the oldest cafe in Europe (Coffe Baum) - we had to laugh: Conrad's 4.50 euro double espresso (!) pretty much undrinkable. It was still cool to sit and think about all who had been there over the last 400 years... not something we can do at home!

We visited the Stasi museum in Leipzig, which was sobering - the fear and domination that ruled people's lives. The mail that never made it out, the people detained and interrogated, those who tried to sneak out..quite extraordinary. The offices reminded me of the Treasury Stout St offices in the 70s - not the interrogation rooms or disguise kits, of course, but the papery smell and marmoleum. So odd to think it was less than 20 years ago that the veil of the east was lifted.

The History of Berlin Museum (including spooky bunker tour) was fascinating and helped us to understand it all a little more. Conrad went to the Checkpoint Charlie Museum while the littlies and I went to the zoo, and that too sounded v interesting. The Berlin Zoo put others I've been to to shame. Not so much Wellington (though some of the enclosures there still make me sad), but definitely Barcelona (oodles of space for people, old style enclosures for the animalia - just not right in this day and age) and Central Park to but name two. In Berlin the animals had lots of space, clean enclosures, few fences (just a wire and a moat for the most part) and even a petting zoo and some Kea! We loved it, and the snowstorm was a big bonus (as below). We saw Knut the baby polar bear being fed, and the hippos, too - cute.


There were many successful breeding stories, written in German so not much detail that I could read, but many new babies of all kinds born in the last few months. Nice.

We arrived back in Furth on Sunday night and had more wonderful R and R with the Osel family. We were due to leave Wednesday morning to drive up to Frankfurt (Hahn airport - Ryanair) to get our flight first thing Thursday morning to Marrakesh. But it was not to be. Hen had big fevers Tuesday night and Wednesday - it was clearly not a good time to whisk him off to North Africa. Sigh. So our kind hosts were stuck with us for a few more days. We hurriedly amended all our bookings (though Ryanair can be unbelievable cheap, they do actually allow pretty good flexibility on changing tickets thank goodness). We credited what we had already paid, not to new Marrakesh tickets as the cheapest at short notice were 169 euro each. But I found some flights to Faro in the very south of Portugal, from where we can in 1.5 hours by bus be in Seville. We still hope to make it down to Morocco by ferry, I mean we have the book and everything now!

We fly out on Wednesday 21st and back up to Frankfurt from Jerez on the 3rd December. Then we fly out the next morning back to Montpellier (sounds like a big backtrack, I know but Frankfurt is a hub so many more destinations within Europe. otherwise most flights are out of the UK. From Montpellier we drive 350kms or so across and up to Frayssinet Le Gelat in The Lot, for our lovely holiday house, that of garden guru and writer Mary Moody.

For now we are in beautiful old Prague. Hen is asleep (still recovering his mojo it seems) so we are still warmly ensconced in our amazing apartment/hotel Artesse, which is just wonderful - 4metre ceilings, huge Windows, a bedroom, lounge, bathroom and walk in closet plus kitchenette. For less than we paid for a hostel in Berlin. Crazy! We feel a bit posh.

Soon we will go out and have a nice roam around. Will post some pics later. : )