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A bit of a slow start to the day as I didn't sleep too well last night but I was at the market in Schoneberg by about 1030am (after taking some time to negotiate the U Bahn).
This is a more upmarket area than where I explored yesterday and they have a good reputation for the Saturday market. There is a range of goods mainly food but also some other interesting bits.
I met up with Vera who I met yesterday at the foodie tour and we had coffee at the market. She grew up in Germany but married a Kiwi and now lives in Coromandel Peninsular in NZ as well as in the mountains outside Tokyo in Japan, as her husband does a lot of work there. She is semi retired and is raising organic beef in Coromandel (Erika she reminds me of Susan Rodger) but spends a lot of time travelling - she is also a vet and bio-chemist while her husband runs a management consultancy. It is one of the real joys of travelling to touch base with interesting people and have an insight into their lives.
I walked from the market to KaDeWa - for those in the know you know what that is - for those who don't know, it is the Berlin version of an upmarket David Jones with a wonderful food hall on the 6th floor which I had to inspect. I was not tempted by the shopping!
I then took the next leg of the Hop On bus which did all the normal haunts, ie Brandenberg Bridge, Checkpoint Charley, Parliament buildings, etc. I hopped off the bus at Potsdamer Platz and had a walk around and very pleased I did. There is a big exhibition on display in the new shopping centre there outlining the history of the wall as it is the 25 year anniversary, and for one who has little knowledge of what happened, it was very interesting.
One of the standout things about Berlin is how much green space there is in the city - I am told that there is 35% of green space - and it is very well used by the people, especially on a lovely 25 degree sunny day like today.
I have probably left myself one day short in each of these stops as I have almost conquered each city but one more day would have been nice - 2 full days is just not enough to do them justice!
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