10.2° C overnight. Sunny spells,
cloudy. Woken at 5.30 a.m. by the first passing boat, went back to sleep after
the boat finished bouncing in its wash. The large Czech cruiser moored in
 |
| Spandau south - Wikimedia photo by Uwe Hildebrandt |
front
of us left. Mike and Bill went off to the tourist information office in
Spandau. Mike said later that it was no use talking to the woman in that
office, she spoke very little English and couldn’t answer any of his questions
- she ended up saying that it was not an information office! (The sign on the
door did say information and museum) He spoke to a postman who said there was
no tourist information office in Spandau, so they went in the Rathaus (Town
Hall) and caused a queue. The supervisor came out of her office to assist. At
least she spoke passable English and she understood what Mike wanted. He’d
taken our ‘phone intending to find a person who would place an order for
heating oil for him with Spingies (he took his previous
 |
Spandau north - Wikimedia photo
by Uwe Hildebrandt |
invoices from them with
him) to deliver it to the boat. The lady at the Town Hall used the council’s
‘phone and placed the order for the following morning. Great! Then they found
the town library, where there was just one terminal for the Internet. They
booked it for 1 p.m. I did chores while they were away. The river was quieter
as there was a huge reduction in the movements of trip boats. After lunch they
went back into Spandau to the library and Mike posted another 35mm film for
developing and printing in the UK (where it is cheaper even after adding return
postage). Mike had problems with the PC in the library, the screen went off and
he had to get an assistant to sort it out. She switched the whole thing off and
then back on. It still wasn’t working properly, but he managed to check his e-mails
and have a search for “Sun pipes” - he got one hit! They’re made by Velux, the same
people who make blinds. See link. He did a printout of our ‘phone bill from WWT. Bill
started doing his e-mails, but the thing went off again. They packed up and
came home - the staff at the library didn’t charge them for the use of the PC
or the printouts Mike had had. (It should have cost 1,75Eu for half an hour!
most expensive yet). Took Bill with us to do some shopping. Mike called at an
MBK shop for a new headlight bulb for the moped. Then we went to the Shell
bunkerstation just downstream of the mooring in Spandau. Mike wanted the price
of diesel (95c/litre) and gas (1,20 per kg) plus he got two copies of the Association
of Water sportboat clubs’ annual publication which lists, amongst lots of other
useful info, the
 |
| Map of Berlin waterways - Wikimedia by Chumwa |
free mooring sites in Berlin. Then we went to Havel Park to do
the grocery shopping. The Marktkauf was a large one. We walked our legs
off - starting off with trying to find
the place to get refunds from the empty beer bottles - it was outside in the car
park, a long walk. Everyone who has been before drops their empties by car,
then looks for a parking place to go in the shopping centre. Learning curve
again! Got most of the stuff off the list. Mike went in the DIY to get pop
rivets and glue then we went home. Tired. I put the stuff away and Mike went to
get a gas bottle refilled. On the way back from Marktkauf, he’d called in a
garage to ask if there was a local garage which sold Auto gas. The attendant
didn’t know of one, but fortunately the next person in the queue was a helpful
taxi driver. He thought that there was one not far from the boat and confirmed
his recollections with a call to his radio controller. The pump had a different
nozzle, which wouldn’t fit our filler, and they didn’t have any adaptors. Gas
is only sold at a few garages throughout Germany, so anyone with a vehicle that
only ran on gas would find themselves with serious re-fueling problems, We’ll
get gas later from the bunkerstation when we fill the boat up with diesel. A
large Dutch barge, called Reserve V from Meerkerk, arrived and moored behind
us. Bill went and chatted to the Dutch skipper. Made a stirfry for dinner with
fresh beansprouts - first we’d had since leaving Holland.
CLICK HERE - sun pipes for lighting dim places - like Mike's Mum's lounge!
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