Photos will follow for all the posts in France and germany. H

Sunday 26^th August Berlin

Quiet morning in apartment getting packed ready to leave next morning then we were picked up at 12 noon by Dianna and Marc, for an afternoon out and about in Berlin. They had stayed with us at Parituhu in January 2011 and Dianna had seen on Facebook that we were in Berlin.

We went for an hour long boat trip on the river which was very interesting, especially having Dianna and Marc as our local guides along with us.

 After lunch at a famous riverside café "Die Standige Vertrettung" where Lyndsay had Currywurst.

we then went to an area of Berlin where a stretch of about a kilometer of the Wall is still standing and which has a whole series of murals painted on it.  

 

 

 

     

 

Saturday 25^th August Berlin

“Watched” All Blacks v Australia rugby test on TV3 website, i.e. watched =written play by play account with video clips at intervals plus some texting backwards and forwards to Auckland. Amazing the number of places around the world that people were watching from plus someone from Kaitaia on “Dial up”.

Tackled the Berlin train system this morning, managed to figure out how to buy a day ticket with aid of guidebook, then took S Ban from Kurfurstenstrasse to Warscher where we changed lines for Hackesche Markt. Spent a couple of hours wandering the market next to the station and then visited the Hackesche Hof, a group of older apartments built around interlinking courtyards and with very interesting stylish shops. Many people out and about.   

We then walked back along the banks of the River Spree and through the museum area tho didn’t go into any of them as a bit late in the day, nice violinist busking on street.

Arrived at Alexanderplatz Ban Hof and had a bit of difficulty finding the right U Ban platform. What a frighteningly amazing place on a Saturday evening, so many levels ,so many people moving in so many different directions. However managed to catch the correct train to Schonhauser Allee BanHof, walked 200 metres to Schivelbeiner Strasse to Franca and Anna’s apt where we had lovely dinner with them and baby Thea. They were part of the wonderful group at the Chateau in France the week before.

Train ride back “home” was straight thru to Bulowstrasse Bhf just a couple of hundred metres from our door. Figured after that introductory day we could have gone anywhere in Berlin on the train

 

Friday 24^th August Berlin

Out walking, less than 500 m from apt we found a shop called ReSales on Postdammerstrasse (www.secondhandandmore.com) where we spent a pleasant hour or so

On to Sony Centre on Potsdammerplatz. It was pretty amazing to see photos of this area immediately post WW11 and then when Wall still in place, as it is now a monument to western capitalist consumerism.

Near the train station here there is a display of about 5 sections of the Wall interspersed with panels describing how they are going to create permanent displays.

We then went on to the Memorial to all European Jews, which is an area of about 2 acres with 2700 concrete Steils (rectangular blocks of different sizes) covering the undulating site with a whole museum display underneath where we spent a couple of hours. This includes displays showing all the sites across Europe, family histories and a room where names of all those who died are being read out (which will take 7 years). At entrance the quote from Primo Levi “It happened, therefore it could happen again” Pretty sobering stuff.  

Walked back towards our accommodation and had another hearty German Dinner at restaurant on Potsdamerstrasse. Some nice conversation with young Italian couple sitting next to us.

Thursday 23^rd August Cologne to Berlin

We were very sad to be leaving Sabine and Ulrike as we had had such a great 5 days with them.

Packed another box of “stuff” to be sent home, just on 10 kg when weighed at home but 10.5 kg at DHL office,, so had to remove 500 gm which would have cost an extra €50.

Train to Berlin was a 4.5 hrs smooth uneventful journey through sunny afternoon country landscapes to Berlin HauptBanHof, taxi for €13 to Uli and Carstens appt on Kurfurstenstrasse about 2km from Brandenburg gate. They were continuing from the Chateau to holiday in Brittany and had kindly offered us use of their apartment.

Wednesday 22^nd August Cologne, Germany Slow start again, leisurely breakfast, then in afternoon walked down to river Rhine past allotments and parks, and watched people getting on boats for cruises.

 

Ulrike told me that you can cycle along the riverbanks from Cologne to Budapest, maybe about 1000km , Lyndsay says she might be up for part of that !!

Also on the river bank there is a memorial to all the gay and lesbian people who were victims of the Nazis.  

 

Spent about 1 ½ hrs in the Museum Ludwig which had an exhibition of “Degenerate Art” from the Haubrich Collection. These were all modern, late 19^th early 20^th century, mostly impressionists works up to late 1930’s that had been banned and confiscated by Nazis as “degenerate”. Each work had a note of its provenance as much as could be determined.
 

 

 

One painting in particular, “Woman with Fish” an oil on glass by Heinrich Campendonk

was hung with both front and back visible showing the original gallery stamp,

the confiscation number ( one at the top)  and now the gallery number.

 

Quite fascinating and I spent all my time in the museum at this exhibition so didn’t get
to see any of their 500 Picassos.

Also some interesting installations in this museum, this man below was very lifelike.

Walked back past the Roman museum  ( Cologne was a major Roman city) which was closed by then but has great display in windows of pieces of buildings displayed, many with very legible writings and images. 

 

Then the tour guide took us to Globetrotter, the most amazing outdoor place clothing and equipment shop, with 3 levels of every best brand of outdoor gear in world, a pool within the store to try out canoes etc and a “wet” room to try out rain gear. One really fun thing there was a toilet made to look like a dunny in the woods, with a computer screen for a window across which an elk or moose walked ! 

 

 

Stop at pub, outside on street, Lyndsay did the ordering and paying for the Kolsch. Sabine bought some pork/pasta stuff and home for dinner with this fried and nice salad.

Tuesday 21^st August Cologne, Germany. Walk to local supermarket with Sabine for fresh rolls and after breakfast we had inspection of the major alterations that have been made to the house.

 

 

 

 

The brick chimney exposed in new floor living area on the top floor and the cellar are the only parts of the house that survived WW11 bombing. Later we had a visit to the cellar which takes up the whole footprint of house and is a magnificent storage area.  

On our 10 min Walk to local station, you can see why people bicycle everywhere in this city as they grow up with it as well as fact that it is flat.

 

 

Just 2 stops to central Train station to get tickets for Berlin, which became a 10 min conversation with a very helpful DB lady.

 

Then spent more than an hour in Cologne Cathedral which is a truly magnificent building, quite unique and with a fascinating history, photos really don’t do it justice.

 

 

Whole interesting area below of former Roman buildings

 

And of course I met a Kiwi woman in the Cathedral (mother of a Black Sticks at Olympics) who was on Rhine cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest.

Also while in area we saw some filming of a TV crime programme with 2 famous German actors just outside the Cathedral before spending the rest of the afternoon and evening walking around central Cologne with our superb travel guide, Ulrike.

 

 

out the elves of

 

In the city centre there is a fountain with scenes from the childrens book about

the elves of cologne

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Also took a ride on a bus past an area where in 2009 the excavation of a new underground train tunnel had caused the collapse of several buildings, including the city archives and an apartment building and 2 people died.

We had dinner in a brewery restaurant where we were introduced to the local beer “kolsch” which is served cold in tall thin 200 ml glasses. Dinner was hearty German fare, Lynds had liver and I had schnitzel.

 

 

 

 

 

Friday 17^th –Monday 20^th August 2012

Chateau des Grotteaux, between Blois and Chambord, France.

Sabine and one of her friends Uli collected us from the station at Blois about 5.30 pm in her little Citroen for the ½ hr drive to the Chateau. It was a very very hot day when we travelled from London to Paris and down to Blois, about 38 C, clear blue sky and blazing sun. The weather stayed like this for most of our stay there

Despite having seen a photo of the Chateau on the website we were blown away when we arrived to see the building itself, our magnificent bedroom on the 1^st floor, the grounds and forest around it and the amazing pool and pool house where we spent much of the 3 days we were there with our other 21 fellow guests.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The whole property which was about 25 hectares in total, including 18 ha in forest had a very well preserved wall about 3 metres high surrounding it.

A small river flowed through part of the grounds. There was a large set of gates near the building itself which swung open with an electronic garage opener control and another large gate by the gate house building at the back of the pool complex.  

The Chateau itself was built between 1610 and 1620 in a style we saw elsewhere, and had had 2 other additions in later years. Downstairs on each side of the main door there was a dining room and a sitting room and you could walk right through from one end to the other.

 There was a modern kitchen, with great table that was used for breakfasts plus a professional catering kitchen in the basement.

Upstairs there was a long corridor along the front with bedrooms opening off it, there were also bedrooms in the additions and in the former chapel across the courtyard. All modern plumbing and 3 wifi networks, one for house, one for garden and one for the pool area.

Bats also flying around the pool late in the evening after sunset and Carsten found a dead bat in the basement.   

  

There were 23 people at the chateau by Saturday (22 adults and 1 child), about 15 of whom had been there most of the week. We knew only 2, our hostesses Sabine and Ulrike, prior to our arrival on Friday but didn’t take too long to get talking to the others, as most people spoke English very well.  

Friday evening dinner was at the pool house, with the piece de resistance being a 4.5 kg whole salmon being tied up in wet newspaper and cooked over a charcoal BBQ.

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday morning and early afternoon was spent in the pool or preparing for the afternoon’s celebration which was actually deferred to 6 pm in evening as so hot outside, 39 degrees !!

Started with everyone dressed in their best gear gathering in one of the dining rooms in the building, then gathering outside for group photos then precession up garden to shady area under trees where various friend and relatives spoke and champagne tower successfully filled.

 

 

 Then on to dinner at pool house, oysters, prawns, roast beef and then helium balloons were liberated into the night sky.  

 

 

 

Re swimming pool , Lynds and I have refined our synchronised diving skills, first established in the swimming pool at Gays house in Limiuel in France in 2000, expanded further off a pier into the Adriatic sea in Croatia in 2009 and are now close to perfection! There will be proof published here,

Sunday morning Lynds and I ventured outside the walls and walked about 2.5 km to the end of the walled forest area and had a bit of an exploration of a ruined cottage. Fortunately it seems that French nettles are less fierce than their English counterparts.

 

 

 

There was a further expansion of water sports into water polo with a particularly vigorous game on Sunday afternoon involving lots of cheating from Carsten and Sabine, before the 11 remaining guests had Sunday night dinner at the pool again of all leftovers.

On Monday morning after a latish start and getting cars packed up we spent some time with the owner of the property inspecting his new project which is to convert the old millhouse across the road from the Chateau into an Auberge and restaurant as well as his own quarters, very interesting time walking right through this building and lots of talk about returning in 2014 when this is completed.

Pierre Antoine with Sabine and Ulrike

 

 

 

 

Helen in pig stye!

 

 

After another swim we set off by car for Cologne about 3 pm, stopped at the “Pig”, a rest area and gas station with huge statue of a wild pig, for picnic meal at sunset and having traversed ½ of France and across Belgium we arrived in Cologne at about midnight.