Wednesday 25th August 2004 Mooring N° 4 Mitte to N° 5. Thursday 26th N° 5 to N° 10 Landwehrkanal. Berlin

Wednesday 25th August 2004 Mooring N° 4 Mitte to N° 5.

13.8° C Sunny spells, breezy, showers. Up at 8.30 a.m. and moved down to the mooring opposite the museum island. A large cruiser was just about to set off - the skipper said if we

Bode museum Berlin - Wikimedia photo by Manecke

waited ten minutes we could have his mooring place. It was half the space we needed. The crew on a hireboat were up and moving about, so we asked if they would move into the other bay where the boat had just left so that we could have the gap between the dolphins. They moved and we got our mooring and Rosy came alongside. Bill was going on the free guided walk around the city centre starting from the Brandenburg gate at 2.30 p.m. He went off to do his guided tour at 1.30 pm leaving his key with us to let Fanny out for a pee. When Bill came back, he said he had enjoyed his tour but it took longer than three hours as they had stopped halfway for people to have a break and get a cup of coffee.

Thursday 26th August 2004 Mooring N° 5 Mitte to N° 10 Landwehrkanal.

Muhlendamm lock - Wikimedia photo by Beek 100

14.4° C Grey overcast and cooler. Sun out at 10.30 a.m. We set off at 9 a.m. Lots of boats moving, plus loads of trippers up and down. Mike said he thought that the Bode looked like it was under reconstruction - we could see ladders and builders gear through the windows. A bunch of trip boats came out of the left hand chamber of Mühlendamm lock - the gates were just closing as we arrived. We’d been too busy looking at all the bullet holes and shrapnel damage on the museum walls to

Muhlendamm lock - Wikimedia photo by Beek 100

notice that they’d made an area for sport boats to wait for the lock on the left hand side below the locks. A tripper was coming down in the right hand chamber, when he came out we went in, just us two and rose about a metre. The Dutch barge Reserve V was moored next to the historic boats in the weir stream - the actual mooring N° 6 was out of sight further down the weir stream. A Transbode Polish tug from Wrocław, pushing an empty pan, was waiting above the lock, but moved over for the trip boat Belvedere to have the chamber we’d just left. I made a cuppa as

U-bahn Berlin. - Wikimedia photo by Leinhard Schultz

we went along the Spree. We were overtaken by another Polish tug and pan. The tug dropped his pan on the piling in the middle of the river (which used to be the old east-west border) as we turned into the lock down on to the Landwehr canal. The gates were open, but the red light was on, so we backed up to the sport mooring to press the button and call the keeper. He saw us just as we got there, gave us a green light and called us in. Moved over to the right hand wall, then Belvedere, now loaded with passengers, came into the lock, the bottom end gate rotated to fall to the bed of the canal, we dropped down just a few inches and followed the tripper out on to the Landwehr. Bill tied Rosy on the corner beyond a small cruiser with a settee on its

View down the Landwehrkanal -
Wikimedia photo by Michael F Mehnert

cabin roof. We winded and tied alongside Rosy. It was 10.45 a.m. Mike had decided to use the underground to go back to Spandau to fetch the car. I went with him for a train ride. We walked to the station at Hermannplatz and got the U7 to Spandau. It cost us 2€ each for a trip from region A to B. Twenty seven stops, which took forty five minutes. We walked back through Spanau old town, crossed the Havel bridge and collected the car from the station car park. Drove down through Potsdam to Werder. Mike remembered when we got there that the Post Office was in the Edeka supermarket. Both the packet and letter Glyn

Cesar - one day he will be President of South Africa

had posted had arrived. Back to the boat via the longer, but faster, route on the A10 motorway Berlin ring, then north on the 96a to Treptow. Signs for parking for the weekend Haven fest were all around the town. It was 4 p.m. when we got back. The kids were just coming out of the Kita nursery school by the boat. Bill went off to find the internet café that a passer-by had told him about - the last time he went someone broke the PC! Wonder who that was? We had a very late lunch, a sandwich at 4.30 p.m. When Bill returned we had an invasion of Rastas! George was fascinated with the boat and called his friends Billie-Jo and Cesar over to check it out. We chatted, Bill gave them a beer. They were all from Gambia. Fanny knocked Bill’s beer over, breaking his glass. George helped by mopping the whole roof down! He wanted to see inside the boat so he had the tour of Rosy and then

George and Cesar from Gambia

ours. Young Cesar (who had spent some time in the USA - and couldn’t you tell it) was a very radical young man, he’s going to be the f****g president of  f*****g South Africa one day, he said. He invited us to chill out at his truck, (which turned out to belong to his German girlfriend, who was a TV camera assistant) so we took two bottles of wine and followed George. It was a small lorry with a converted Luton body, which had been fitted out (by Karin) for living in when filming on location. The lowered tail gate made a “balcony”. We sat and chatted to our new young Gambian friends. They smoked ganja and drank our bottles of wine. Karin arrived at 9.30 p.m. stayed for half an hour and went off to her apartment close by. When the guys started casting around for cash to buy some beer, looking at us for a major contribution, we said it was time we went home, we’d got no money! Billie-jo stayed at the truck, while the other two went in search of a cash machine (with Billie-jo’s card) and some beer. What a strange end to the day. Berlin.......