Annette's 60th Birthday Celebrations begin

Rain maybe?, better be prepared

the sunflowers though promise sunshine

A short ferry trip over to Årø

walk from ferry to the restaurant

more guests walking


what a feast we had

Anette with Freya

Entré , no its not a poached egg but a rather yummy sauce in a white dish

Karen and Helga

A walk after lunch around the island

Knud and Anette outside the farm that used to be home

The party continues latter back at Anette and Frede's, Stine and Karen preparing the next feast

Barb and David visit

Great to have Barb and David to visit us for a week. We picked them up in Berlin and made our way slowly back to Brandenburg Plaue , where we will winter Linquenda.
David and Knud wash down the side of Linquenda, that worked up a thirst.

David, Barb and Knud in the gardens of Sans Souci ,Potsdam . Amazing gardens and palaces covering many acres


Chinese Pavilion, SansSouci


Barb and I , we met on the first day at high school and still great mates

Barb relaxing in the wheelhouse
All too soon the week over, time for them to continue their European adventure and we have headed to Denmark for a week.
Oh happy days , Christoffer worked some magic and my blog started working again!!!

Bike parking

Now this is a great way to store bikes

Berlin, and the Wall

The Wall. What a fascinating history. So briefly a rough overview. After the second world war finished Germany was divide up by the allies, Russia getting the east part of Germany, England, France and USA the west part. Berlin being the capital and in the East was divided up too, Russia getting the east and England, France and USA the west. The reason behind the allies being in Germany was to get the country back on track, diffuse the Nazis etc., then hand it back. So there sits Berlin like a little island in the middle of East Germany. The Russians begin to close borders, communism the flavour of the day. Life in East Germany gets grim, food shortages, loss of freedom of speech etc, naturally people don't like this and by the 1000s flee to the west. The Russians get their knickers in a knot and decide that this will have to stop so one night in Aug 1961 they put barbed wire around West Berlin , then built a wall, 156km long! Families split apart and not reunited for years. Many amazing stories of escapes.
1989 The cold war finishes, the wall comes down and families reunited, 2 years latter Germany unified.
We have gone wall searching, some areas easy to see where it was, some not so.
Through a cemetery


This area more touristy, an interesting museum to see and lots of posters to read


No mans land, middle of Berlin and its still a wilderness


This is a marking that shows where the wall ran. Sometimes disappears under a new building then reappears again the other side.


A bit of the wall near Check Point Charlie, now covered with chewing gum

Claire heads home beginning of August

Has been ages since doing an update on blog, so many technical problems, but maybe it's working today so I had better get a move on and fill you in on what has happened.

Claire's last night on board, a beautiful warm evening so dinner up on deck

Time for Claire to head back to Australia, we will miss her happy laugh and smile

Relaxing on the Lakes

Monday morning I set off into Berlin HBH by one of the frequent, fast , clean , cheap trains ( don't get me started) to meet up with Claire and bring her back to Linquenda. How wonderful to have Claire with us for the next week.
Planning on exploring yet another arm of the lake system south of Berlin. The lakes around Berlin are extensive, should not have been a surprise because everyone we have spoken to who has been over here has told us so but to actually be here cruising about this beautiful and huge system is amazing. Nothing like anything we have done in France, here it can be days between stepping on land, needless to say the poor old bikes are not getting much of a work out ,cobwebs even on a couple of them.!
My big problem is getting enough books to read , I know I should have a Kindle but do like the touch of paper.
Our anchoring skills are improving, the biggest challenge Knud faces is trying to instruct me on how to manoeuvre the boat while he is wrestling with the anchor. So far so good , we still remain a happy family.

Claire getting the flag mast down for a low bridge

Claire with lake behind

Early morning and heading back towards Berlin