Date: 11-21/05/2017
From/To: Berlin
Distance:–
Road:–

Today is the day… I have to go to the migration department (Auslaenderbehorde) and try to get my six month visa. We organized all requested papers and went to the office. As it turned out, we had all papers. Klaus brought the proof that he is owning the property were we are registered, I brought proof that I’m married to Sigrid and some Bank statement and not even after 3 hours and 180AU$ later, I got the permission to stay for 6 Month in Europa. Success! Then we rushed home and off we went to visit Freya. She organized a cabaret evening in the ‚Bar jeder Vernunft’. The vicinity is an old mirror tent, and it looks like it is from the 1930th. We were sitting right up front close to the singer, she had a great voice. The evening was entertaining and on the way home, we stopped at a Döner shop and had some Curry Wurst and Döner.

The next day we were invited to Carsten’s Birthday party which c-conveniently for us was at their new house. It was really impressive what Carsten and Gabi did with the old house. There were hardly any original walls left. The whole house was opened up. The most impressive part for me was how they converted the cellar into a marvellous bedroom. Ahh, and they had a sheep in the garden, with a crownJ.

 

 

 

 

 

The next day we finished the bikes and Klaus was test riding the ‘BumbleBee’ J. All appears to be in order. In the evening we went to went to Christina for dinner. It was a nice relaxed evening and Niklas played some piano tunes for us. In fact it was so relaxed that I forgot to take pictures….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next day we moved back to Bodo and Gabi for Gabi’s 60st Birthday. We’d organized some tickets for ‘The One’ a show in the Friedrich Stadt Palast as a surprise for her that worked great!

. The costumes, the music the light effects, the acrobatics and the stage were fantastic! But, as always in these shows we were only allowed to take pictures at the end of the show.

 

 

 

 

 

At night we celebrated Gabi’s birthday at 24:00. Well, I opened a bottle of Champaign, unfortunately the Champaign started its escape and it sprayed all over the room, Bodo and me. So the celebration was delayed until the mess was cleaned up. ‘Luckily’ there are no pictures J

 

The next day we strolled through the city before we were going to a Chinese restaurant which had a buffet too large for us to try everything. However we gave it a good shot J.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back to Klaus and Connies, to organize some birthday gifts for Sigrid, we went pre-birthday shopping. The weather was nice so Klaus and Connie decided to join on the Yamaha. The bike must be around 35 years old and still looks amazing.

 

 

We drove to a BMW, where I had pre-ordered some new riding trousers for Sigrid. Connie and Klaus heard that Sigrid’s rain pants were leaking, so they organized some new rain pants for her.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today is Sigrid’s Birthday. I was busy organising things and preparing the bikes so I had no time to organize something for Sigrid (lame excuseJ. but Connie organized and decorated a great birthday table for Siggi.

 

 

 

Connie had a great suggestion for Sigrid’s birthday breakfast, the ‘Kings Garden academy’. Here we meet with Freya, Gabi, Robert, Klaus and Conni. It was a very tranquil breakfast.

 

After the breakfast, we said good bye to our friends and went with Klaus and Connie for a walk to Moorlake. The intention was to visit the ‘Pfaueninsel’, a small island nearby. When we arrived at the ferry- guess what-the ferry was out of order for maintenance, just today… So we walked back and had another go at the ‘Koeniglichen Gartenakademie’ for coffee and cake. At night we celebrated with a glass of Champaign at Klaus and Connie’s balcony.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next day was Gabi’s birthday, but she had to work, so we decided to meet at night at a restaurant with a beautiful view. Unfortunately our tires arrived and we had to get them changed today, at least on one bike. So in a rush we went to the tire shop, got the tyres on the yellow bike (BumbleBee) fitted and rushed to Gabi house. Well, rushing was relative, since we hit the rush hour. Stop and go for nearly two hours. Needless to say, we arrived late and Gabi’s father was patiently waiting for us. We hopped in his car and arrived just an hour later L. The view and the food were fantastic; from the portion size I would guess it was a French chef J

 

 

 

Gabi organized for the next day a beauty treatment for Sigrid as a birthday gift. So we split up, I went back to the tyre shop to get the rear tyre on the red bike changed. During this time, Sigrid went to the beauty treatment. We meet around 6PM close to Kudamm. I was surprised, when a foreign women approached me. Well it took a while before I realised that it was Sigrid J

 

 

 

 

And for Saturday, we planned to go with Gabi to some nurseries to buy some plants/trees. At the end Gabi found some rhododendron and blue berries, they get delivered mid next week. In the evening Gabi organized a gathering at Mathias rowing club.

 

 

 

 

 

The adventure was not finished jet, Gabi organized as well a boat trip at Linum. Germany has many channels which are connected to a huge network. In Linum is the Amtmann channel which is part of the network. Around the channel is a wild life reserve, where birds rest during their winter migration. The boat had an electric motor, so we had during the whole trip no engine noise.

 

 

 

During the trip we got hungry, so we had a nice lunch in the restaurant nearby, had a look at a goat cheese and went to a milk refill station. I thought that is a great invention. The refill station is on the farmer’s property, and you refill your own bottles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the evening Gabi arranged a meeting with Heidi Hetzer. We met Heidi in Australia when she was doing her world trip with Hudo, a 1930 Hudson car. She stayed with us for a couple of days before she continued her journey to Melbourne. We meet at a restaurant called ‘Kaptain’s Kajüe’, it was a picturesque setup at a nice lake (Wannsee). Heidi arrived with her red Opel GT, nice car. This was the last day of partying, well at least in Berlin J