2025 - Puglia - Sicily - Berlin - NYC

Slow - slow - no sign of any hurry - a last full day in Berlin -  already into bad habits - breakfast in Friedrichstrabe again! Taxi to the Neue Gallery -more beautiful buildings - more clean city . The gallery? - interesting but not inspiring - we attach a wish to Yoko Ono's wishing tree - Bernie makes and displays a Yoko inspired "mend piece" - nothing too complex - three pieces of broken plate arranged and tied together! The pieces for me? Barbara and Gabby by Franz Gertsch My Daughters by Meine Tochter On the Nameless Height by Auf der namenlosen Hohe. Bernie loved these but had a special affection for Picasso's Reclining Lady with Flowers We move on to the Hamburger Bahnhoff Museum of Contemporary Art - I am left completely underwhelmed! - I just don't understand! - clearly there is not an a artistic bone in my body! - I find the only thing in the entire museum which occupies a former r...

Ah these hotels are the thing! - lifts everywhere - soft beds - nice temperatures . We plan to visit Tranenplast - take a 2.5 hour velobike tour of Berlin and then a 2.5 hours boat trip on the Spree. Breakfast at Friedrichstrube - Then the rain and wind appear - on dear - our first inclement weather!  We battle the elements in our walk of 50 metres into Traneplast - the palace of tears - a museum on the site of one of the original border crossings - West Germans could cross but their East German relatives had to say goodbye to them here - stories of crossings - stories of a divided Germany - we see border visa checking stations - Bernie stands beside a sliver of the wall. We head back to the hotel the weather still inclement! We prepare for what could be an unpleasant morning. Leo arrives at the hotel at 10:30 - he brings with him a change in the weather - we chat - he is an Italian from Bari - married to a girl born in East Germany to East German parents - good English...

The Friedrichstrube station - calm and relaxed - not busy - people business like - everyone seems to know what they are doing and where they are going. We follow one into a French coffee shop. Latte and croissant. We search the station for the S1 line - we find signs - we follow the signs - they are confusing and we are confused - we make liberal use of the lifts - we consult the locals - we are eventually on the train to Oranienburg and the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. "Quick get off" says Bernie - "we are here" - "I read it" - says she - she is almost off the train - "this is wrong" - thinks I - too late! - we are standing on the Oranienburg Strabe station platform. We sit - we wait - try again - success! - we are off to Oranienburg - the town - not the street! The trip? - Pleasant through the German suburban country side - 40 minutes later we have only a few stations to go - the train stops - there is another train on the oth...