I have two more nights on a sleeper train before this adventure is over and I hope that I get more sleep on those than I did last night. I gave up the pretence of getting any further sleep a bit after 7:00am, even though it sure felt like I could have done with quite a bit more. In due course Michael and I were presented with the complementary breakfast, which wasn’t going to win any gastronomic awards but at least ensured that we didn’t arrive in Berlin (only about five minutes later than the advertised time of 9:02am) on an empty stomach.
Finding the nearby hotel I had booked wasn’t too hard – you could see it from the station entrance. Far too early to check-in of course, but at least I was able to dump my luggage there as I strolled back to the Tourist Info office at the station to help make some plans for the day. I have to say that the day wasn’t looking great weatherwise – overcast with intermittent light drizzle – but in the end I opted to try and have a look around Potsdam anyway since it is supposed to be very nice.
However by the time I made it out there the drizzle had increased to light rain and the walk around Potsdam was looking decidedly less appealing. As it happened in the Potsdam brochure I had been reading on the way out I had noticed an advertisement for a thermal pool resort with saunas and spas and I decided that sounded like a better alternative in the circumstances. It was a 30 minute bus ride away but one was leaving in five minutes.
I found the resort OK and it proved to be very nice indeed. One pool heated to 33°C and another to 36°C. There were also spa jets and a “river” pool, along with a whole range of saunas – 80°C, 100°C, 85°C + eucalyptus, and “reverse sauna” @ 10°C. Can’t say I tried the latter!
I felt suitably relaxed after my couple of hours of indulgence but things started to go pear shaped thereafter. Firstly I discovered that I had a 50 minute wait for the next bus back to Potsdam. Then I had a 20 minute wait for the next train back to Berlin central (Hauptbahnhof) – which was five minutes late. I was at least able to check into my hotel room by the time I made it back there and grabbed my tripod before heading back out to go up the TV Tower lookout at Alexanderplatz. First I managed to get myself rather confused trying to find the right platform at Hauptbahnhof to catch a train the three stops I needed to go.
Once I managed to get to the TV Tower I found I had a 20 minute wait before my ticket number would be in a batch allowed up. And as I was just about to get in the lift I was told that I was not allowed to take my tripod up. I pondered a while whether it was now worth going up at all since I had planned to use it to try and take composite photos of the current view compared to photos I had taken 30 years ago. In the end I decided I might as well try it without a tripod since I had come this far. However it turned out that what I had in mind would work better on a day with more natural light and with someone to hold the old photos for me so I could get them more than an arm’s length in front of the camera.
I had a bit of a walk around Alexanderplatz before catching the train back to Hauptbahnhof. There I first checked out the platform we would need to be on to catch tomorrow morning’s train to Prague before going to the supermarket to get supplies for both dinner and the train journey tomorrow.
I had planned to use the hotel’s free Wi-Fi in the lobby before heading out to meet Laura’s plane at the airport but couldn’t get it to work, so I caught the express airport bus a bit early which meant that I was “on station” at the designated arrivals gate with only 50 minutes to spare! This at least gave me time to do some blog drafting while I waited.
Fortunately Laura’s flight was on time (if not a fraction earlier) and Laura seemed to appreciate the welcome sign I had specially prepared for the momentous occasion. Although we dashed to the bus stop and made it in time for the 11:08pm express bus back to town, it never arrived so we had to wait 20 minutes for the next scheduled one. The severely jet lagged Laura didn’t seem to mind – she said that after having had to wait six hours for a connection in Abu Dhabi and another four hours for a connection in Frankfurt, 20 minutes was nothing. Nevertheless, once back to our motel Laura was sound asleep within five minutes of her head hitting the pillow.
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