We decided to catch trains to West Berlin today. We walked to Nuekölln Rathaus to catch the U7 train. At Bismarckstraße we changed for the U2 line to go to Wittenberg, the station outside KaDeWa.

Being a Saturday, lots of people were out and about. We perused the sales but then decided to hit Level 6, the bourgeois food hall! (Not the level 7 food court). 

We first sat at an Oyster bar, enjoyed some bubbles and observed the locals enjoying their afternoon with food and drink. We then relocated to the Verve Cliquot stand and continued with tasting the wares and people watching. 

It wasn’t as cold as yesterday so walking back from our train trip was quite pleasant. 

Guten Nacht

We had a simple day today staying warm and taking it easy.

The simple plan was to make another pea and ham soup as well as a Chinese Chicken and Corn soup. 

We walked down to the Edeka supermarket and gathered the ingredients for the soups. The Chinese Cooking Wine had to be sourced from the specialist international store down the road.

Both soups were easy to prepare, one ready in 20 minutes, the other slow cooked over night.

Scott pottered around with his remote controlled car. He wanted to drive it on the icy canal.

Unfortunately even the car thought it was too cold for a run so we gave up and went back to the warm apartment for the evening.

Guten Nacht 

Another sunny but cold day in Berlin.

Scott needed to remove some rubbish from hls storage area so a trip to the garbage tip was planned. Germany takes recycling very seriously and you need to sort everything carefully, and then unload it into clearly marked containers at the BSR (Berliner Stadtreinigungsbetriebe), the city’s official waste management and street-cleaning company. Scott collected a car, we packed it as best we could and then unloaded the rubbish as directed at the BSR. 

KaDeWe is an upmarket department store, an icon of Berlin’s luxury shopping and culinary culture. It has a wide range of departments, including fashion, cosmetics, home goods, electronics, and gourmet food. We wandered around, taking in the luxury goods and Scott purchased some new items of clothing.

The food court, up on the gourmet floors, has lots of different food options from classic German dishes to seafood, sweets, and drinks like champagne and wine. We found a table in the corner overlooking the west end of Berlin. I chose a goulash soup and a lobster tail for my dinner and Scott chose a roulade with red cabbage and potatoes plus a lobster tail.

We admired the view as the sun set. We then wandered some more through the gourmet food section.

The U-barn train was the chosen method of transport to get back to the apartment in Neukölln. 

It is getting colder each day so we are hoping it may snow again before I leave Berlin.

Guten Nacht

The pea and ham soup was a success! The smoked pork was the right choice for the flavour and the meat fell away as it was shredded. It was delicious for breakfast.

The weather promised to be perfect again, although cold! 

The plan was to go to Potsdam for the day, a city about 25–30 km (15–18 miles) from Berlin. We strolled down a few blocks to find the car Scott had hired for the day, a modern Peugeot. The traffic was heavy in places but we persevered and finally reached our destination. 

We walked down to Brandenburg Straße and stopped at Das Eiscafè am Brandenburg Tor for coffee and apple cake. The coffee, food, service and atmosphere were excellent.

We wandered up the Main Street which was lined with shops vying for the tourist dollar. There were a good variety of stores that enticed us to buy some items too. We also picked up some beef roulades and placki (potato cakes) for dinner from the fancy delicatessen, Lindner. 

Onward to the Sanssouci Palace, through a run down church building with a bell tower and religious statues. We followed the paths, some with ice, to the impressive estate and gardens. 

Potsdam was a major Prussian royal city.  This palace was built in the 1700s as the summer palace of Frederick the Great. Its name means “without worries.” It’s famous for its Rococo style, gardens, and for hosting thinkers like Voltaire.

 In 1945, the Potsdam Conference was held there, shaping post-World War II Europe and Potsdam’s palaces and parks, including Sanssouci, are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

On the drive back to Berlin we encountered some traffic but the setting sun was casting a lovely light over the landscape.

We found a parking spot relatively close to the apartment for the hire car. We settled in for the evening enjoying the food we purchased in Potsdam and catching more episodes of Younger on Netflix.

Guten Nacht

It was another beautiful sunny day in Berlin. The plan was to go to the Hermanplatz Galeria to get the ingredients to make an authentic Pea and Ham soup. 

My day started with an omelette prepared by my domestic chef served with a glass of bubbles. Scott showed me the book he was given when his unit in Leipzig was complete.

The walk to the Galeria was enjoyable in the Berlin sunlight although it was cold enough for coats, beanies and gloves. The canal was still frozen but clearly not solid enough for people to walk on, cracks were showing. Disappointingly, there was also a lot of debris and rubbish left behind by people who had enjoyed the solid canal a week ago. 

We wandered through the department store and perused the goods on sale. Teresa found a unique jacket on sale. 

The food market was downstairs and we went to find ham bones if possible but we found a piece of smoked pork which would be suitable. At the delicatessen counter, the young worker insisted on giving us samples of dips and olives to taste. He kept offering more but we chose to purchase the spicy capsicum dip & chilli olives and then he gave us some complementary olives with almonds.

We loaded up with the other ingredients for the soup and walked back to the apartment. 

The soup needed to be slow cooked overnight so it was prepared and left to do its magic. 

Younger was a series on Netflix that was recommended for us to watch. We settled in for the night with some Cherry Vodka and bubbles.

Guten Nacht

We awoke to another beautiful sunny day which belied the fact that it was minus 7C degrees.

We packed our belongings into the car to drive back to Berlin, about a 5 1/2 hour trip. Driving through northern Poland was still wonderful with the snowy scapes and minus 10C degrees. 

When we stopped for petrol, Scott had to call Sixt because they stopped the car from starting once he filled up because his chosen 6 day hire was complete. They can control the engine from head office! Once sorted we drove on closer to the border to order some lunch. 

The whole trip was amazing as there were absolutely no clouds in the sky. We hit traffic once we were in Berlin but we were happy to be back.

Guten Nacht. 

It was a cold morning and the sun started peaking over the horizon highlighting the snow covered vista outside our villa. 

I was pleasantly surprised to see that an impressive fire had been created by my travel companion for our comfort. The landscape outside was awe inspiring.

The plan was to go to Hel today. Hel is at the end of an isthmus in Northern Poland which was an important strategic location for the Polish Military during WWII. 

I needed my sunglasses today as we drove past cold white fields covered in snow. The roads were lined with trees devoid of leaves and snow was cleared to the sides of the streets and foot paths. 

The area is clearly a holiday destination these days with camping grounds stretching out along the coast covered in snow and ice. There were many new developments and apartments catering for tourists as well. The Baltic Sea was frozen for a few hundred metres from the shore and of course there were lots of birds enjoying the weather!

Hel can also be accessed by train from Gdansk or Gdynia and there were people travelling this way as it was a Sunday. We parked the car and negotiated the ice paths to get to the Esplanade and the Baltic Sea. I was surprised to see a group of about 10 people swimming in the freezing waters!!!!

We admired the view before seeking warmth and some lunch. The Fala restaurant was just across the icy road so we settled in. We enjoyed Borsch soup,  Flounder and fried potatoes and then a Pierniki gingerbread cake that was so moist and boozy, it was a hit!

We wandered around the town and perused the souvenir shops but these are cheap knock offs and not authentic Polish crafts. We even went past a bar dedicated to the Australian band AC/DC, apparently the owner is a fan!

We drove around the frozen waterfront and marvelled at the amount of snow everywhere.

The sun was a red ball near the horizon as we were driving out of the isthmus but unfortunately we could not capture this in time…. And getting out of the car was a major effort in the snow and cold wind.

We stopped at a Jabka store on our way back for supplies and looked forward to our fireplace in the little villa. 

Apparently the massive snow piles and icy conditions have not been this severe for ten years. Our villa has a projector and screen that we took advantage of to watch the next episode of The Night Manager.

We were just enjoying the magical fairyland created by this weather. 

Dobranoc

The beds were comfortable and we had a good night’s sleep in our little beach house. 

The ferry back to Poland needed a check in by 8am so we had early showers, packed the belongings and headed for the ferry terminal. It was cold and foggy but we were better at navigating the process to board the boat this time. Check in involved scanning tickets and passports before being directed to our designated rows.

This time our car was parked on the outside deck of the ferry amongst the trucks. The trucks and cars were assembled on the decks like a Tetris puzzle Walking and negotiating the path to the reception was cold and exposed to the weather. 

This ferry was much smaller than the Peter Pan and our cabin was on level 5. There was a pet’s lounge on this ferry like yesterday’s. Our cabin was not quite ready so we settled in the cafe section and enjoyed a coffee and water. 

We retired to our cabin once the boat started sailing and relaxed as best we could. The ferry WiFi was not good once we were on our way and my Optus data roaming also decided it would not work! 

So we relaxed in the cabin with small excursions to the shop or cafe for a drink. The cabin was very warm and the beds were very comfortable. 

We had to leave our cabin 30 minutes before docking and settled in the reception area. We watched the ice floating across the lagoon as we were waiting to get back to the car. The doors to the outer deck were unlocked 15 minutes before docking. We walked the cold path to our car and sat there for over 30 minutes until we were moved off the ferry.

Scott had a long drive ahead of him to get to our next destination – nearly 4 hours. The highways are great and we’ll sign posted. 

We stopped at a roadhouse for some supplies and ate a Frankfurt each for dinner. There was a KFC store here too! 

We drove on and found that it must’ve snowed quite heavily a few days before as the streets were lined with ploughed snow. We stopped at a Zabka store in a small town and noticed that the ploughed snow wall was more than a metre and a half high.

Our accommodation for the next two nights was accessed through snowy streets. Our hosts already had a fire burning and there were lovely trimmings such as Wawel chocolates and a fresh range of fruit in a bowl. We felt very welcome and looked forward to settling in.

It was a clear night so the stars were twinkling in the cold night sky!

Dobranoc

Woke up at 3am to prepare for our 6am ferry to Trellenborg. Once on the deserted streets a couple of police appeared from nowhere and Scott was breathalysed. Lucky he passed the test! 

We drove to the Check in terminal. We were very early and sat in the car wondering what next. There was a lovely man who spoke English and he assured us that we had everything we needed to get on the boat. Passports are checked and online bookings were scanned before we were given boarding passes for the ferry. These passes contained the cabin number designation and a free drink each at the bar…including alcohol.

So we waited for about an hour before things started happening. We got our boarding passes and then queued in our cars waiting to drive onto the ferry. It was dark and foggy and when the driving started, we followed a Swedish BMW, thinking that he knew where he was going. But no! He just stopped in the middle of the wharf area and about 10 cars were behind us. Finally we saw cars turning around and we found the correct route to get onto the ferry.

We parked the car and found our family cabin on the boat. It was very spacious with 4 beds, a sofa and a bathroom with shower and toilet. 

We made our way to deck 11 where the restaurant served a buffet breakfast for €16:50ea. 

We settled for a while in the restaurant and then made our way back to the cabin to catch up on missed sleep. 

The fog was lifting so we could see more of the water. We took ourselves out on the deck which was not as cold as expected.

About an hour before the final destination we were told that guests have to leave their cabins in half an hour. 

The level three car section was unlocked about 15 minutes before arrival.  The ferry was emptied and it was quite a drive to exit the terminal. 

We drove straight to our little beach hut on the Baltic Sea. It was very modern with nice trimmings but we were disappointed that there was no firewood for the fire and the place was quite cold as the evening wore on.

There was a path leading down to the beach. It was cold but the ducks in the surf didn’t seem to mind. 

We drove into the main part of Trellenborg and checked out the shops before finding the supermarket. We stocked up with local goods for our dinner and drove back to settle in for the night. 

We also bought a loaf of rye bread and some tomatoes. We had been transporting eggs we’d brought from Berlin and decided to hard boil some to eat on the ferry ride tomorrow.

God Natt

After a good night’s sleep it was time to make a fire  to warm the residence again. 

Scott went to find the animals and make friends with the donkey. It was overcast again and ice covered the grass areas and fields.

Check out was 11am so we packed our belongings and begrudgingly left this wonderful quaint accommodation. 

Onward to Swinoujście for an early lunch. We settled into Restauracja Polska where we were given complimentary shots of cherry liqueur plus bread slices with schmalz and pickle. I chose the Rosol (chicken soup) with a Margarita and Scott ordered the Beef Goulash with beer.

After lunch we drove to the beach. It was an unusual sight for us to see snow on the sand and the shells crunched and shattered as we walked over them.  Although many people were walking along the beach, it was clear that it was a good hangout for the birds! The cold wind kept this visit short before we wandered back into the touristy part of town to buy some wares. The area seemed to be the ‘Gold Coast’ of Poland with its many luxury apartments, walkways and tourist activities. 

We then went for a drive across the border to find petrol for the car in Germany but the Sixt app misinformed us and Scott had to pay for the petrol this time. Teresa went over to the Biedronka supermarket for some supplies and bubbles.

Our apartment in Swinoujście had check in at 4.30 so we found another warm restaurant and ordered drinks and hot chips. We were next to the city centre and watched as people admired the Christmas decorations and went about their daily activities. This restaurant also gave us complimentary shots of cherry liqueur if we promised to leave a positive review on Google.

The sun had set at 4:30 as we wandered to our apartment for the evening. It was on the 9th floor and had a great view of the harbour. 

We went bed early as we had to catch the ferry to Trelleborg at 6am the next morning. 

Dobranoc