John comes to see me

My mate John, from Australia, came to Berlin to see me. I am pretty sure I am the only reason he came on holiday. He did go to see some other places first though.

I hadn't had much time to recover from my Holland and Germany trip, but I was excited to see Johnny when he came to Berlin a couple of days after we had returned.

We spent lots of time together and had some laughs.

I am going to miss him :(

Safe travels buddy.

Catching up on travel memoirs of Holland and Germany

I know, I know, I know! its been fucking ages since I last wrote. Not my fault.

Unbeknownst to me, we were going on a road trip. No one had told me this. One day I'm going to bed as usual, and the next day Mama and Papa have gone out, collected a car, packed all our shit, and then chucked it all (and me) in the car for a road trip.

Whoa - what the fuck? They should run this shit by me first.

Anyway, I thought this could be an interesting thing for me to write about. We had a massive drive - the longest for me ever. This was so tiring. Then when we got to Holland it got weird. Mama started talking a different language, I met two new dogs and then we moved to a huge dolls house in a garden.

I said to Papa, 'I need to get on the internet to write about my travels'
Papa said 'There isn't any internet here'.

WHAT? NO INTERNET? What is this? the middle fucking ages?

That pissed me off, but it was late and after a long day we all needed some sleep.

The place was weird, with the sleeping area up in an attic space with a ladder much to steep for me to climb. I was left downstairs as Mama and Papa went upstairs to sleep in their sleeping bags.

It was already cold in this doll house but it just kept getting colder. I was still pissed about the no internet situation so I wasn't speaking to Papa. He can go sleep upstairs without me for all I cared. I will brave the cold on my own.

It got colder and colder and colder. I never felt so cold. I started to sing to myself to take my mind off it.

'I'm walking on sunshine, Woo ohhh, I'm walking on sunshine, Wooo ohh'.

It wasn't working, and when I got to the bit 'And don't it feel good!' I'm ashamed to admit that I started to cry...loudly. I was so cold I thought I was going to die. I couldn't breathe properly, I couldn't see, and I was frozen stiff. All I could do was cry.

Papa came to get me and the warmth of his body was so comforting. He took me up the ladder and I nuzzled in between their sleeping bags. It was still cool, but I was happy, warmer. And don't it feel good!

Thankfully we moved out of the middle ages and into a proper house after about 10 days in the doll house. We had internet here, but Mama and Papa said I wasn't allowed to use the computer. They said they needed the computer for the trip and couldn't afford for me to break it. How humiliating. 

They said I could use it once we got back to Berlin. And guess what, when we got back to Berlin I found out that Papa had already written all about our holiday, stealing all my thunder. How rude.

Seeing as he already wrote about our trip I guess that saves me some work :)

What I can say though is, Holland, WHAT THE FUCK IS WITH THESE STEEP STEPS? It's bullshit how steep everything is. How am I supposed to get up and down the levels?

My other issue in Holland was that I had to share the house with two other dogs and a cat. The big dog, Moos, I didn't care for. I growled at him when he was near Papa - I didn't trust him. The little one, Sammy, he was okay, except he stole my red ball and I wasn't cool with that. I barely saw the cat and we never spoke.

We sometimes ate together, which was tense for all of us as we made sure no one else stole our food.

And we went for walks three times a day.

We went out lots during this trip, and it was so tiring for me.

We left Holland and they told me we were going back to Germany. Woo Hoo! 'Berlin?' I said.

No - the Black Forest. WTF. Another long drive. Very tiring for me.

The Black Forest was okay, but at one point they tied me to a 'Dog Parking Spot' as they went shopping. RUDE!

Unfortunately the weather was so shit the whole time we were away. The good thing was that I was with Mama and Papa 24 hours a day! (Although they can be very tiring). 

In Triberg I met another dog like me. Except they were uglier. Stuck up too.  it laughed at me for being on a lead. I shouted back 'Your owner doesn't care about you and hopes you will run away'. We didn't get friendly.

Heidelberg was my favourite where I scored some schnitzel and chips;

And some food from a stranger;

And chilled out overlooking the beautiful city with a drink.

The weather in Nuremberg was too shit to enjoy the place. A pair of dogs came up to me to ask for my phone number so we could hang out. I said I was only cruising through town so it was a no-can-do.

In Opa's birth town I met some strange animals - Ente they were called. Strange strange strange. I wasn't allowed near them.

Dresden was a nice place, but I was super tired and wanted to go home.

So by now I was over it. 'TAKE ME HOME TO BERLIN' I said.

And they did. 

I slept all the way.

We got home and finally, my own bed again! I was so happy.

It was an interesting trip, but I was so happy to be home. There was too much disruption to my life, too much walking and not enough sleeping.

I slept the whole of the next day. 

I love my bed.

Strandbad Weissensee

Today spring has finally properly SPRUNG! It was our first proper sunny and warm day since we got here.

'Lets go out!' I said to Mama and Papa.

'I'm a step ahead of you Barn' Said Papa, 'We're going to the beach!'

'You're shitting me' I said. 'There's no bloody beach here in Berlin'.

'There sure is, and inland beach, and its only a tram ride away!' retorted my smart ass Papa.

'Well, let's go then people!'

So we hopped off down the road to our nearby Tram M13. All of us outside for the first time without our winter jackets - yea, even me!

The tram took only about 20 minutes and we went through our normal Berlin and to the district of Weissensee. The tram had stopped outside of a park and we walked through it to see it was dominated by a lake.

People were outside, drawn by the first real sun of the year. It was so nice.

We walked around to the 'beach' area. This is a fenced off area and you need to walk through some 'cabiney' type structure to come out on the other side to the beach.

The beach wasn't super crowded but it was busy.

I wasn't allowed on the sand area so we had to stay on the terrace at the top.

This was a good spot for people watching. It was obviously too cold for people to go in the water. A few children tried to go in but as soon as they touched the water they quickly ran away.

We watched as a mother and her son played some beach football by themselves, people laying on picnic rugs and mostly everyone rather overdressed for what we would consider 'beach wear'.

Mama and Papa got a beer as we watched the day go by. I took shade under the table.

It was so nice to be outside and enjoy the great weather for a change.

I liked this place and would like to come back...maybe with a bowl of water next time though.

As we left Mama and Papa said they would come back with their friends. They didn't mention if I was invited too?

Village Kladow

I have been going everywhere lately. I don't know what Mama and Papa are doing to me but I am getting tired out!

I've been going on daily excursions and even to that XXL restaurant they went to. I didn't get any of the food though so just went to sleep on the floor.

Today I said to them 'Look, if you are taking me out again today, let's do something different!'

'Like what?' They said.

'Well, with these month card thingies you have, they entitle us to ride on the ferries too. It's great weather today so let's try that!' I said.

So with that we went on our way, out of our way, to Wannsee. This was quite a journey.

First we walked to our local U-Barney, Weberwiese and took the train to Alexanderplatz.

At Alexanderplatz we switched to the S-Bahn.

And after a long ride of about 40 minutes we ended up at Wannsee. This is the limit of our monthly card things - being the A-B zone. Any further we end up on the C zone. 

At Wannssee station it was just a short walk to the Große Wannsee Lake.

There was already a long line for the ferry. It only goes once an hour and I hoped we would get on the first time. I think everyone had the same idea to be outdoors in the nice weather.

We only waited about 5 minutes and then the ferry came and we could all board. This was my first time on a ferry...I was pretty excited!

There was no mucking about and once everyone was on board we set off. We sat out in the open air and admired the Strandbad Wannsee (a man made beach), apparently the largest inland 'lido' in Europe. Papa said they would have to come back to that beach when it is warmer, but probably without me. Aww.

The ferry ride was about 20 minutes. Too quick! I loved it. We came in to land at the other side - the village of Kladow.

We got off the boat. I admired the nice laid back atmosphere, while Mama and Papa admired the two lakeside biergartens. Again, they said they would have to come back here, but probably not with me because the might 'get on it'. Not sure what that meant other than I would be left at home next time. :(

We left the ferry dock and biergartens and walked into the main street of Kladow. It is a nice little place, but being Sunday almost everything was shut. The main street was not very busy but we had a nice walk up and down its quiet stretch. Such a different feeling from our Berlin city hustle and bustle, yet it still is Berlin.

There wasn't much else to do so we jumped on the bus to Spandau. 

After the excitement of the ferry and the Kladow walk, this bus trip gave me a chance to nap.

The bus ride took us through the town of Gatow and then into Spandau. It only took about 20 minutes We got off at Rathaus Spandau. 

Mama and Papa have already been here twice before but this was my first time. Spandau has a wonderful old town area and we went through a short walk through here. Sunday = closed = not much point hanging around.

We walked to the nearby shopping centre thinking we could have a look around. It was open, dogs are allowed so we went inside. Only the fast food chains were open and nothing else. Boo!

We went to the Spandau S-Bahn station instead and picked up some pastries from 'Back Werk' for the train ride home.

We hopped on the S-Bahn to head on home - eating our pastry things. They were slow in feeding me so I reminded them that I was there with a few barks. They fed me.

 And then Mama said I should learn some manners and then started to stare at me for a bit.

This train ride was also about 40 minutes to our local S-bahn station. Then a short walk home for us and a well deserved nap for me - Ich bin Hunde müde!

What a day.