Berlin-Reise mit dem Freund (včetně Prahy a także Szczecin)

Today we were supposed to leave early to get to Prague and spend the full day there. It turns out we left a couple of hours later than we had planned. I blame Ken and his morning constitution.

We finally set off. The drive was 217 miles and it was quite scenic. Ken maintains that for most of the drive I was asleep. I maintain I wasn’t. We don’t have proof either way so I guess we’ll never know who was right. Haha. Mind you, when we stopped for a brew and food and to powder our noses I was wide awake. Mcdonald’s had some amazing cakes in the McCafe – stuff you would never find here which is a shame (but also probably a blessing for the Chris I am now).

We then continued on to Prague and I am sure I was awake for the portion of it too. We got there around 14:00 and quickly found somewhere to park that seemed to be the smallest and tightest spot in the world.

We went to the tram and headed towards the castle. We didn’t really have a plan of what we wanted to do but I told Ken that the Castle and Old Town Square was a must. Since I was still a fat, lazy arse we got the tram all the way up to the castle and then we had a wander around. As much as my back was killing, we had a good time walking around and taking in the sights of the grounds and the church and castle itself. I would highly recommend going here if ever you go to Prague.

We decided to head down towards the Old Town and have a wander around there. As we were walking down we stopped every so often to admire the views of the city (they are awesome) and rest my weary frame.

Once we were at the bottom, we found a stall selling potato spirals. They are delicious and a must if you see them. I bought two and gave Ken the option of which one he wanted. He picked the one that was smaller and he still smarts about it to this very day. If you ask him, he will tell you he was robbed (despite him choosing the smallest one). I have no sympathy for his loss of the bigger spiral. He’s going to weep for it until the end of his days. I will ensure it’s on his epitaph: “Here lies the man who was potato spiral robbed (through choice) in Prague by his friend!”

We got to the Old Town Square and had a wander around and then went to see the Old Town Hall Astronomical Clock and then headed for the tram back to the car park to head back to Berlin. I think we left Prague around 20:30 and it was still light which was good.

I had a really good time showing Ken around Prague and I would love to go back with him so we could see more of the city. I think he would really enjoy it.

You can read about my 2016 solo trip to Prague here

You can read about my 2019 solo trip to Prague here

Below are some pics from today

As Ken hadn’t been to Poland I decided that we should go so we could add another country to his list. I tried to find somewhere that was close to the German/Polish border and the closest city that was biggest was Szczecin.

We set off not so early this time as it wasn’t as far away as Prague. It was (only) 90 miles away. As soon as we were close to the border, it started to rain and we were beginning to wonder what the day had in store for us. I am sorry to say that it rained the entire time we were in Szczecin.

We found somewhere to park and struggled to find some money for parking. Once we had that sorted we started to walk around and quickly found a shopping centre to escape the rain. We found a Costa and quickly went in for a brew and then to have a look around the shopping centre.

We then found a Subway and had some lunch before heading back to the car and then to Berlin. It was such a shame that we had rain as Szczecin looked really nice from the pictures I had seen.

As soon as we were back in Berlin, there wasn’t really much rain and we went and found a Dominos and had some dinner before heading back to the flat for the night. Luckily we had a balcony so we could sit out there and just chill and put the world to rights. Spoiler: we did just that. We also were deciding what we wanted to see in Berlin on our last full day and the half-day we had before leaving for the airport.

Below are some pics from today

Disclaimer: Whilst all the stuff in Berlin happened, I may have gotten a couple of the events mixed up given it was 4.5 years ago. It will be the days we did the stuff and the order we did it.

We decided to do the touring of Berlin on the last full day and the half-day we had before we needed to be at the airport.

I decided that we should do the sightseeing bus tour as that would take us to the main tourist sights of the city. We got the tram and then the U-Bahn to Alexanderplatz as I knew that is where we had the best chance of picking up the bus. The company we used had a couple of different routes that went from here.

The first route we took on the full day took us around the city centre area itself and then to a preserved section of the wall on Bernauer Straße. It was really interesting to see this as I hadn’t gotten a chance to see it up close on the trip here with Jamie. We only really saw it from the bus. We decided that we would head here after we had some food.

We got back on the bus and continued on the trip and we got off at Checkpoint Charlie and had a look around there before getting back on the bus and then staying on back to Alexanderplatz and having some food.

After we were done eating we had some ice cream from the place we went to on our first day here. I had Ken pretend like he was pushing the tram so I could get a picture. Yeah, we are kids like that. We got the tram to the wall museum and had a look around for an hour or so. It is really sobering to see what it was like and to hear and read about the lengths the country went to build it and how they constructed it. There is more information about it on my solo trip post. I think it’s really important that it is preserved for as long as it can be as a reminder of the atrocities that took place during its construction and operation.

Once we were done here, we got the tram back to Alexanderplatz to pick up the U-Bahn and then tram back to the area the flat was and we went back for some Schnitzel. Once we were done eating, we went and had a wander around by the flat and then back to chill as the weather was turning cold and rainy. We got back in time for it to start raining and then we had lightning. I managed to get some videos from the balcony. I tried to get some slow mo videos of the lightning. They aren’t the best, but I think they capture it well. You can see them below.

Ken woke up today with a migraine which wasn’t the best since we had the bus to do again and then flying later. I told him we could stay at the flat until it was time to go to the airport but he said he wanted to see Berlin some more so we headed back to get the bus. We headed back to Alexanderplatz to pick it up

The route we took from here took us around the inside of the city itself. We went by the Cathedral and then down Unter den Linden and along Museum Island and then around by the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe before riding by Tiergarten and the Brandenburg Gate and then down past the Reichstag and up to the Olympic Park. We had a stop of about 30 minutes here. We got out and got the lift up to the top of the tower. The views from here were amazing – not just of the stadium but of the city itself too.

Once we were back on, we headed to the section of the wall that I think is famous in a lot of pictures – it is the section on Niederkirchenstraße that has a hole in it. After we were done on the bus we headed to pick up the car and head to the car rental place at the airport to drop it off and then into the terminal.

I had a really good time here in Berlin with Ken and we had some good laughs and made some good memories and ate some really good food. What’s not to like about a holiday like that!

You can read about my 2015 trip to Berlin with Jamie here and here

You can read about my 2021 solo trip to Berlin here

Below are some pics from today