City Break - Berlin

Berlin, Germany. Wednesday/Monday 02/07-October-2024.

Yet again, parkrun is the inspiration for a city break.

Normally parkrun is on a Saturday but each year there are two days where event teams may choose to hold a parkrun on another day. One is New Year’s Day (January 1st) in all countries; the other is a ‘Special Day’ for each individual country - List of Special Days. In the UK the special day is Christmas Day, in Germany it is National Unity Day. 

We are grateful to the German volunteers for giving up some of their holiday to make this trip worthwhile.

This presented us with an opportunity to do a city break in a larger city that has two parkruns. We chose Berlin as it is one of the great cities of the world which neither of us had visited before and was on our travel wish list. 

Wednesday 02-October-24. Travel.

We booked an anything-but-low-cost RyanAir flight, Bari to Brandenburg Airport. We arranged accommodation through Home Exchange in a fantastic apartment right next to one of the two parkruns. In keeping with the tradition of the UK parkrun tourists FaceBook group we posted a photo of us at the airport including our Cow Cowell - the "masonic" insignia of this group!

Hassenheide had put out a call for volunteers but when Mary offered to be Tail Walker or Park Walker they had to turn her down - apparently the course is so complex that they wanted someone familiar with it, having lost a front runner and a tail walker in the past. They subsequently put out a call for cakes so Mary baked some tea loaf muffins and transported them from Italy like "Cakes On A Plane".

After a 30 minute Uber ride from the airport we arrived at the apartment. The apartment and a view of the park opposite:

Having arrived we explored the area looking for a supermarket for breakfast basics and spotted the Muted Horn, a nearby craft ale bar that was an ideal place to go for a drink before eating out. 

We do like a bar that does a paddle of beers. Normally bars offer three beers, this bar offered a four beer paddle and the barman was very helpful in suggesting beers to suit our respective palates.

We decided to eat local and went to Bloom's, the nearest restaurant to our apartment, which served a great selection of tapas and good beer plus great music that could have come from our own playlist! 

Thursday 03-October-24. German Unity Day.

We were hoping to do Hasenheide parkrun first because the park is right opposite the apartment and meant we did not have to familiarise ourselves with the German transport system in order to get to the more distant parkrun at Havelkanal on our first day. 

It was a bit of a nail biter as they only declared two weeks earlier having had to wait for permission from the council to be confirmed.

Unsurprisingly there were a large number of UK tourists doing the same as us, making a long weekend break of it and doing the two Berlin parkruns.

It was a lovely wooded parkrun, two laps, and level apart from an entirely unnecessary loop round a steep hill on the second lap. During his briefing in English and German, the Run Director, tongue firmly in cheek, asked if there were any tourists which got a loud, ironic cheer and lots of raised hands. However they were obviously expecting us as they had organised three first timers briefings, two in English and one in German. There were tourists from all over UK and further afield. We chatted to a visitor from Australia who we thought would win the furthest tourist but, as she predicted, there was someone from NZ! 

All 48 of the mini muffins were devoured and many compliments received. Then back to Bloom's for a huge brunch and more great music.

Friday 04-October-24. A day of touristing.

We spent much the day wandering about the town following a downloaded itinerary. Out itinerary started at the World Clock took us past lots of historic buildings including the Berliner Dom, through the Brandenburg Gate and ending up at the Reichstag.

The Marienkirche - the only building we went inside.

I was mightily amused by the Berlin pedestrian crossing green man sporting a jaunty hat. The Berliners obviously also have a soft sport for Ampelmann [traffic light man].

We saw a couple of shops devoted to his merchandising so that was the fridge magnet souvenir sorted.

The other parkrun was some distance away so rather than get up at the crack of dawn and make our way by public transport to Havelkanal parkrun we treated ourselves to one night in a nearby guesthouse, La Brigitte, so that we would only have a short walk in the morning. The host, Brigitte herself, spoke little English but was very friendly.

Researching food options in the area we discovered an interesting looking restaurant in an old train carriage right next door and with good reviews. Turns out it was the idea of Brigette and it is her husband who runs it in their back garden. 

Lovely setting, bit lacking in atmosphere once the locals had left but very convenient. The short menu had typical German dishes and a good choice of beers. We will gloss lightly over the healthiness of the food. 

Dinner was a very Germanic supper of beer, curry wurst and chips or potatoes. 

Saturday 05-October-24. Havelkanal parkrun. 

Unsurprisingly we bumped into a number of the people we had seen on Thursday who were doing the same double as us.

Beautiful and flat course, out and back along the side of the canal on a tarmac path. Apparently there are beavers in the canal. We saw signs of a lodge on the far bank but no creatures. One of Mary's fastest times lately, so perhaps beer and curry wurst was the answer. Lots of walkers and, as always, a friendly bunch of volunteers.

There was cake!

Back to the guesthouse for a shower and a return to the city apartment. Then we went out for more wandering about the local area where I admired the decorations on wiring cabinets.

That evening we ate at Restaurant Hasenheide as recommended by Barbara, a Berliner, we met while she was visiting Puglia.

Sunday 06-October-24. Sightseeing.

This was the day we did most of our tourist wandering. We started with a two and a quarter hour boat tour along the River Spree. It was cool so we wrapped up with many layers. Even so my fingers went white with the cold.

From the river we saw lots of fascinating buildings: the TV Tower (locally known as the Toothpick where we subsequently had lunch), religious and government buildings such as the Reichstag, the Berliner Dom, state libraries, many different styles of architecture. The trip took us on a canal through the industrial area where we saw old hospitals and industrial buildings. The factory on the bottom left dates from 1900. 

We went for lunch in the TV Tower, in the revolving restaurant 207m up; each rotation takes 30 minutes. We did not have a seat by the window but we still had great views all over Berlin, often spotting somthing different on each rotation.

After lunch we did the Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie which were must see's on the tourist hit list. An open-air exhibition nearby gave a very helpful summary of what happened before, during and after the wall.

By then we were all walked out and went back to the apartment for our usual siesta.

We had been told about the festival of light so went back into town that evening to see spectacular laser light shows projected on a number of building along the Unter den Linden, an avenue running from the Berlin Palace to the Brandenburg Gate. 

The Berliner Dom all light up with changing static images.

The State Opera House.

Couldn’t resist. Had to go back to the Ampelmann shop to get the duck!

And, of course, we had to sample the beers in each place especially as it was Oktoberfest! That evening we went to Hopfingerbräu am Brandenburger Tor but were so full after lunch we were happy to see they offered soup on the menu. After starters, goulash soup for Mary and potato and sausage soup for me (plus beer) we had had sufficient so toddled off home.

Monday 07-October-24. Return.

Up very early, we Uber’d our way to the airport for a 09:05 flight back to Bari. As we didn’t fancy shopping for food we broke our drive home for a lunch at Osteria del Porto in Savelletri for a relaxed lunch. 

Then we drove home for a siesta, our parkrun extravaganza complete.