Super Tired, Super Recovery

 

 

Needed to find a level of recovery today, but in a way that did not eat into our journey of discovery.  Not much in the way of decent sleep and a useful reminder why a few drinks is a rare occurrence these days, you have to get it out of your system once in a while! With breakfast part of the deal at the Park Inn, we made use of the facilities with a bit of immediate hydration in the form of fruit and juice and even fruit juice!  Some cheese and bread made into a sandwich of sorts, with a bit of cake and coffee to round things off.  And then straight to meet our running friends 'at the bear'

No time to wallow though, a keen focus with running friends to get us out and about and over to the Berlin Half Marathon expo out at the old airfield in Templehoff. (one of the big 3 back in the pre war days, along with Croydon)  A couple of trains got us there, emerging into a bit of a concrete soviet (or Newport lite) jungle at first with little sign of life. Think we might have exited a stop too soon, but we soon found a trickle of people that turned into a stream all heading towards what was the old terminal building.

This now disused airport was caught in a time trap with its check in desks showing now defunct airlines and a less technological approach to air travel. This was just the welcome hall for the Expo with a few sign in stands and a wall with every competitors name listed.  More Lliswerry running folk emerged for the roll call and we were then directed outside onto the air strip itself.

The organisers has turned this into a small catering area, festival style, and you could get good views of this historic transport hub. Site of the infamous Berlin airlift 1948-49 provisions were moved into West Berlin which meant it was an absolute hive of activity in this post war / early cold war period with planes having quite unique ways of dropping and leaving with staggering regularity to assure supply chains.  Those were the days the German military were probably the smallest users of the base, but in these troubled times I think Europe now looking at the German army to take a lead as unreliable partners to our west exit the stage.

Rather blearily unprepared to enter the actual Expo having failed to upload any details on phone, but turned the data on for the second day, and got the job done. A fetching pink T shirt and bib were the main items collected, and then a look around the hall.  Non alcoholic beer (its the future) looked interesting, so tried one, I found the German ones at home also the best, recommend in Aldi, but this one was pretty tasty too.

Plenty of photo shots with Lliswerry folk and then first quick catch up with travel blogging mentor Haydn and his half marathon partner Drew also over here for the lovely running / travel combo that pretty much becomes the perfect match in my world.  They moved out to secure the beach head in a nearby coffee shop, the border guards in the Expo wouldn't let us move back through the zones, and before I completely turned into Oz from Auf Weidershen Pet (early poster boy for Reform, but at least scripted ironically) we moved our way back out of the airport.

Tidy little coffee shop the backdrop for a good catch up with font of knowledge and wisdom Haydn who has now got us a couple of key east Berlin sights and we have the time to follow his advice this time, last year we were exiting Prague as he gave us the advice. He was on double americanos so our conversation covered a lot of ground ranging from the Napoleonic Wars, Soviet architecture, running goals, travel plans as well as a significant amount of East German history.  Great to see these travellers again on their travels, now Drew is moving up to marathon distance may take a 26.2 rendez vous in the future as he has done all of the Super Halfs, whilst we have quite a way to go. Who knows, one year we might even cross paths in Cardiff!

On the subject of architecture, or at least in a tangential sense design we tried to date our hotel. We are quite amused by the rather random fact the shower is pretty much in the middle of our room with limited privacy, like the glass cage used by the serial killer in You. Next to that is a toilet that also offers little to the imagination. You want to know your room mate pretty well, in the case of a couple of the Lliswerry boys, they will know each other a lot better after this trip.

Thinking about the rest of the day and managing our weariness I took a look at the Get your Guide tours and saw a short hop along the River Spree. We needed to get across town via the hotel but it was only a short walk to the jetty and given permission to hop on board. As the shadows drew in we chugged past a few of the city landmarks. The main memories were the TV tower (of course), Berlin Palace, Grand Dome, main train station, Reichstag, bridge east/west, a shared working space cube, and any number of riverside bars as Friday night Berliners got their evening underway.

Our walk after the cruise took in the shop of the little green traffic man, and then a stumble into a poignant Jewish quarter Rosenstratze. History show this to be some reslience to the nazis via a series of protests against Jews in mixed marriages being deported.  A series of statues and sculptures marked things a little more somberly, appropriate in the dusk.

Immediately around the corner we ran into a Vietnamese restaurant. quite taken by the menu and twinkly ambience. Taylor Swift on a loop made Chrissi happy, and we both needed some comfort and comfortable food by this point. non alcoholic beer and water of course and then an assortment of starters. crunchy tofu dumplings, crispy vegi spring rolls, and some shrimp, peanut, rocket salad translucent parcels. All with chille and plum dips. We both had red curry mains, one tofu, one chicken. Slightly fresher and mintier than their thai counterparts, all full flavoured and filling.

Our evening ended as others were beginning, absolutely exhausted. Needed to recuperate for running and further exploration, decided not to go out of town tomorrow as first planned, felt it an over stretch and needed sleep rather than early start. So bit of a chill couple of hours before sleep, planning exploration and watching the Germans and Swiss share a few goals in a friendly international.