Out for the day
A travel pass opens all kinds of possibilities for a free day in a city. We’d done the shopping we wanted to do, we’d visited the places which were top of our list, had plans for tomorrow - so today, Saturday, was a chance to explore somewhere new. We had two places on our list and set off towards the first one, thinking that if it turned out dull, then we’d buzz off to the second!
Potsdamerplatz Christmas Market looks a little sad at this time of the morning. It will liven up later for sure!
When we arrived on the U bahn platform, a train was just pulling in, so we jumped on it. But as it approached the first stop we realised we’d made the mistake everyone makes at some time - it was going in the wrong direction! Ooops! It didn’t matter. We jumped off, crossed the platform and waited for a train travelling in the right direction.
We had just one change to make, so we got off at Bismarckplatz and went to cross the platform. Here was our next challenge: the other side of the station was undergoing renovation. Advice was to continue to the next upline station and change there, which is what we did.
We’d only been out for less than an hour and already this was turning into an adventure!
We made it to our first destination without further ado. In common with all the other stations we’d passed through on this line, Spandau had a distinctive tiled design.
We’d left the train at Spandau-Altstadt and from the minute we put our heads out of the door of the station, we were there, in the thick of a bustling small German town (suburb, really) where people were doing their Saturday morning shopping.
We have been to so many similar places and love being here. There are quirky details like the street names, which bear the original name as well as the current one. Around here, there’s quite a bit of history of course.
The florist was just wheeling out his trolley of spruce, having laid out the ready made wreaths on the ground in front of his shop. I’m not sure if those are destined for doors or for cemeteries, but the same designs were on sale in the market too.
Also on sale in the market were plenty of warm insoles for shoes. I’ve never seen such things at home but what a great idea!
I imagine these two chaps would welcome such things in a couple of months, for example. They were playing an entertaining set of tunes on the street corner, with a captive audience across the street.
The Vaccination Bus was parked there and with a lengthy queue of people awaiting their jabs, I feel sure their music was appreciated. When I said “long queue” , I really did mean it - look….
We stayed and listened a while and then popped into a nearby bakers for coffee before continuing our meander through the town. It was our idea to walk from Spandau-Altstadt to the main Spandau station, from where we would hop on another S bahn to…well, we’ll see.
We didn’t know what there was to see here or how long it would take us to see it. But as we rejoined the original main street, we realised that we had seen most of the old centre and unless we wanted to take a look at a modern shopping mall, then we’d seen the best.
In common with the rest of Berlin, Christmas was coming in the form of the market buildings and a few decorations in front of the Town Hall.
At times like this, my hero really does come into his own. Not only had he identified another small historic town worth a visit, he’d noticed that even though it was quite some way from here, it was on the same S bahn line and with our super duper tickets, we could just hop on a train here and be transported there in one go.
That’s how we came to be travelling from a green and pleasant north western suburb through a rather gritty urban landscape, formerly East Germany, towards Köpenick in the south east of the city.
There’s plenty of evidence of the old style of station here and our guidebook had been encouraging in its description of the old town here.
But we were disappointed. Once we left the station we were in a pretty ordinary urban setting. Where is the old town?
The answer was 1.4km away, so off we set in the hope of finding it!
After some time the modern buildings fizzled out and we found ourselves walking alongside a park with a lake. We also found a large number of police vehicles there, which was curious. Was there something going on of which we were unaware?
From the park, we crossed the bridge and found ourselves in a small churchyard where there were some benches. My knees were telling me they’d had enough, so mindful of the need to return, I sat on a bench and suggested my hero might like to do a recce - if there was something worth seeing, I’d be there in a flash (well, slight exaggeration, maybe!) The next I saw of him was standing at the tram stop opposite, waving. “Come on, let’s go”
Perhaps we needed to be here in Summertime? Maybe we should have devoted the whole day here rather than try to see it as a “second half”. Whatever. Let’s just say we got on the tram to the station and caught the S bahn back to Potsdamerplatz. We had plans for this evening so arriving back at 4pm was not a bad idea anyway.
Of course, my curiosity got the better of me, so when we saw a group of four police officers standing at the top of the station ramp, I just had to ask what was going on. “Football”, she replied, “There’s a match here later” We learned that FC Union Berlin play here - and this morning we found our that they won their match. Here’s hoping there was no trouble.
