I Get My Photo Taken!

Sunday August 15th
Today we got up early enough to visit a nunnery in Wienhausen not far from where we were staying. The Tom Tom took us there but when we arrived it was closed. We are not sure if we were too early or it didn’t open on a Sunday. We decided not to wait around to see if it would open later. Mary thought that being Sunday there might not be so many trucks on the road, and she was right. There were trucks parked up everywhere in all the laybys with curtains drawn; the truckies were obviously sleeping or waiting to start out later in the day. It was bliss driving on a truck free road. They were heading for Berlin.

Travelling through the villages towards the motorway she got a bit over confident and I got my photo taken with a lovely red flash. I wonder if Mo will have a letter waiting for her when she gets back. It is most annoying as she never drives me at much more than 50 mph, but the villages all have little short bits of 70kph. Alan usually monitors the Tom Tom which tells you what speed you should be doing and what speed you are doing, but on this occasion he was admiring a lovely field of sunflowers! They were heading for the outskirts of Berlin and had programmed in a little village which showed a campsite nearby. Once they were off the motorway they asked the Tom Tom to find Campingplatz and the one they were hoping for came up. They had to get back onto the motorway as they had come off one too soon, but it was all very easy to find.
The office was closed so they just found a park and waited.

A Korean man came and asked them about finding a campsite nearer to Berlin and they told him, this is it. He thought one hour to travel in was a lot. The web address is actually called www.city-camping-berlin.de so it is unlikely there is anything as well positioned as this. They assured him that he wouldn’t want to be any closer in. There is a bus that takes you to the train which will be very easy. There is a bit of a walk to the bus.

The young woman in reception spoke really good English and was able to explain where to go and which line took you into town. She had been to Auckland when she was working on the QE2.

This campsite has a Hotel attached and it has WiFi! It is only €1 an hour, so Mary spent an hour getting all the blog posted and up to date. There was a nice bar to sit in and have a drink at the same time.

I am parked on the banks of a canal (Teltowkanal). Here I can watch the barges carrying freight and the pleasure craft drifting by. I could be here a few days as they have booked for four nights to start with and may stay longer if they really like Berlin.
There was a big thunderstorm last night and quite a bit of rain. They had the good sense to put my awning on a lean so that it doesn’t fill up with water.

Today it is Alan’s birthday and it is the 8th time he has spent his birthday outside of NZ. They were going to eat out, but on checking the menu at the outdoor restaurant, they decided that Chez Hemi would be able to serve better food and they would have a better meal in Berlin later in the week. With all the diaries up to date, all the video transferred, photos named and everything saved to external hard drives they were able to have a night off and watch a movie off the entertainment drive; singing in the Rain, what a classic and so ahead of its time.