Today was mainly a driving day, nearly 600 K’s from Berlin to the outskirts of Munich.

We enjoyed our stay in Berlin, nice place and friendly people. You do notice that the German people are not as good at English as the Dutch are. Pretty well everyone in the Netherlands speaks English. Bit hit and miss in Germany but it is their country and we are just visitors.

We had to put the key to out Berlin flat into a letterbox, which we did and then realised that we had forgotten the chain that blocks the car park. Ryan managed to get a guy who came out of the block of flats to walk his dog to use his key to open the gate. We were only delayed a couple of minutes. 

This AirBnb programme we are using is pretty good. People who have room allow it to be rented by tourists like us. You can share or have a place to yourself, we have kept to a place to ourselves but that may change as we get use to the programme.

The drive down was pretty uneventful. When we had breakfast 55 minutes into the drive, Australia was 2/40 off chasing Pakistan’s total. After that we lost internet and a pit stop at a Burger King did no good as it had no usable internet, 70 cents each to use the facilities.

It wasn’t till we got to Dachau around 2:30pm that we found that the Aussies had won. Cool. I never had any doubt in Shane Watson!!!!

Once in Dachau we checked out the concentration camp. The main office area is still there, the gate and even part of the railway. All the barracks have been removed but they rebuilt one in the sixties to show you what it is like.

Our flat is very pleasant; we are the first people to use it. Sadly no Internet so we may need to do a Maccas run for the Wi-Fi so I can load this up.

Wow, we just went very German for dinner at a German Restaurant, the Waldschwaigstuberl. Nobody in the restaurant could speak English and we had a lot of fun trying to be understood. Everyone was very nice. We all had schnitzel. Very German and very nice.

Now at a Maccas to keep my fans updated. 

Tomorrow is a change of pace. We aim to check out the Steiff Bear factory in Giengen An Der Brenz and then on to visit my friend Anka in Ginsheim-Gustavsburg.

We were up early on the long trek from Hilversum to Berlin, about 600 kilometres.

Nice roads all the way and the Autobahn has mostly unlimited speed limits. At one stage Ryan had the car at 172 kph, which I grizzled about but then when I was driving and the others were asleep I got it to 180 kph. Much of time I was an 155 kph and maintaining my position in the flow of cars.

It was a slow start, heavy traffic in Holland and some fog but after a half hour or so we got going pretty well. No border check when crossing into Germany. We did fuel the car, around $55, similar to Aussie prices. I have to say that Europe is a lot cheaper than I thought it would be.

We got to our apartment in Berlin at 3:30pm and were met by Petra who showed us around and gave us advice on how to get places. We rested a bit before heading to the local underground station and catching the train to the Checkpoint Charlie Stop. Here we checked out the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. Checkpoint Charlie was the name given by the Western Allies to the best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East and West Berlin during the Cold War. The checkpoint still exists as a tourist attraction and you can get your passports stamped there. We had 11 stamps placed on our Aussie Passports, Britain, Soviet, German, US and others, he explained each one as he did them but I forget. We also had our photo taken with the guard. Good fun.

It was then a long walk to a music store for Ryan to check out some guitars, the walk was made longer by Ryan taking us in the wrong direction. It was dark and we were tired so we caught a bus back to Checkpoint Charlie where we caught the train back to our apartment.

Another long day.

We loved our time in the Netherlands. Lovely people and much to see. However the whole country doesn't seem to open till 10am and then closes at 6pm. Some shops even close for a lunch break. We noticed the language probem a little more in Berlin, but at least the place seems to stay open beyond the sun going down. Interesting catching the bus, so often I get people asking for advise and I can get a little testy with them. Today the shoe was on the other foot, I must remember to be less grumpy! I must remember to be less grumpy!  I must remember to be less grumpy!  I must remember to be less grumpy!