Middle Europe Weekly Small Pleasures #17 – Berlin and Brandenburg

Welcome to this week’s Weekly Small Pleasures, Mani’s blog event where you take note of the little things during the week that bring you happiness. After spending the whole week working inside a biosafety level 3 facility, the weekend was a good chance to get some sun and some time outdoors. We had great weather in Berlin this weekend, and spent Saturday walking around the city of Berlin and Sunday cycling in the surrounding countryside of Brandenburg.

Our first stop on Saturday morning was the Markthalle Neun in Kreuzberg, an indoor market where you can enjoy different foods such as English pies, Italian cheeses, German cakes, Spanish tapas as well as craft beers, coffee and ice-cream. a good coffee is always a pleasure. After that we took a long walk around Berlin. My favourite part was the pretty and charming area around the Nikolaiviertel. After a brief stop at home we headed off again to check out the blossoms at Bornholmer Strasse and continued walking by the railway tracks right up until Pankow.

On Sunday we went for a bike ride on the Panoramaweg, as it is Baumblütenfest time. We enjoyed cycling in the countryside through villages, orchards and countryside and trying the fruit wines along the way.

Other pleasures of the week were the fact that it’s getting light later now, the temperatures shot up, ending the cold spell of the week before, and we are having blue skies more regularly.

Check out A new life wandering blog to see what other people enjoyed this week.

Wishing everyone a good week ahead!

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A visit to 3 beaches on the German Baltic coast

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What’s one thing that doesn’t come to mind when planning a summer holiday to Germany? Beaches! But in fact the north of Germany has the lovely Baltic coastline, called Ostsee by the Germans, and you’d be missing out if you didn’t go there. My first experience of the Ostsee was on the lovely isle of Rügen, north of Berlin; home to seaside towns, countryside, beautiful beech forests and white chalk cliffs. Next I visited the Darss peninsula, where the waves were wilder. Last summer we went to Boltenhagen, a lovely seaside spot with long beaches and great cycling routes. And more recently, last week, we spent some time after a work trip to the north around the lighthouse at Bülk Strand near Kiel, and at Haffkrug Strand and Timmersdorferstrand towards Lubeck. It’s still a bit early for swimming, but it’s always good to see the sea! We”ll be back in summer!

Bülk Strand

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IMG_20160423_135238_1 The waters were amazingly clear, and standing on piers we could even see jellyfish swimming below in the water. Continue reading

How to make an Easter Egg Tree

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Easter is coming and so is spring! Although I quite like the warm Christmas we have in the southern hemisphere, I do find that spring is probably a nicer time to have Easter, like they do in the northern hemisphere, since it comes with the added excitement of the arrival of spring. In Germany I first came into contact with the Easter egg tree, and have since also seen them in other countries such as Czech and Slovenia (apparently you can also see them in Austria, Poland, Ukraine and Hungary). Sometimes people decorate trees or shrubs outside, but you also see cut branches decorated in vases. This year I decided to make my own Easter egg tree. Continue reading

Tübingen in Photos

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Tübingen is a picturesque, hilly university town in the state of Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany, only 30km from Stuttgart. To the north is Schönbuch, voted one of the most beautiful forests in Germany, and to the south east are the Swabian Alb mountains. The river Neckar flows through the town, which has many beautiful old buildings, canals and cobblestone streets. In fact, Tübingen has one of the most intact historic old towns in Germany, so it’s surprising that it’s not on most people’s tourist radar. Like in another famous university town, Cambridge, boating is popular in Tübingen, which has its own version of the famous Cambridge punt boats, called Stocherkähne. It’s very pleasant to visit Tübingen and wander its streets. Here are some of the photographs I took during my visit. Continue reading

Cross Country Skiing in the Harz Mountains

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When my Czechman moved to Berlin over three years ago, he brought his cross country skis with, ever hopeful that there would be enough snow one day for him to ski to work. So far it hasn’t happened! Rumour has it when it snows enough you can cross country ski in Tempelhof, the old airport that is now an open park in Berlin, but that hasn’t happened yet either. But for cross country ski lovers, never fear, the beautiful Harz mountains lie only three to four hours away from Berlin. Continue reading

The Year 2015 in Instagrams (Part 2)

Time for part two of my recap of 2015 using some of the Instagrams I created on my phone throughout the year! I don’t have Instagram photos of all of the places we visited, but going through my Instagram folder has given me an overview of 2015. When I ended off in the last blog post, we had just reached summertime. Along with a lovely trip to the Ostsee (Baltic sea) in summer, we also took a four day trip to visit some friends in Seville. Together the four of us also travelled to Granada, where we visited the beautiful palace of Alhambra. Continue reading

Daily Life

Since moving to Berlin I’ve seen and experienced lots of new things and have learnt a lot. At times there has also been some culture shock, although now that I’ve been here a while I don’t tend to notice these things anymore. Here are some posts I’ve written about our daily life here. For more on our travels, you can visit the Travel page.

Easter traditions

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City biking for dummies

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Spring in Berlin

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Hedgehog in the garage

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Cake for breakfast

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The IKEA experience

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Cooking in a foreign country

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10 things I dislike about Berlin

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15 things I love about Berlin

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Riot on Schedule – 1 May

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Solar eclipse

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Carnival of Cultures

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A walk in the world (1)

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Snow scenes

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Planning our Czech Wedding

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2015 in Instagrams (1)

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2015 in Instagrams (2)

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March – Wildlife in the Garden

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How to make an Easter egg tree

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The wedding planning continues

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South Africa meets  Czech Republic: our Protea-themed wedding

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Weekly Small Pleasures Blog event:

Middle Europe Weekly Small Pleasures #1 – Park Life

Middle Europe Weekly Small Pleasures #2 – Weekend in Czech

Middle Europe Weekly Small Pleasures #3 – Strawberry Fields

Middle Europe Weekly Small Pleasures #4 – Beer, food and sports

Middle Europe Weekly Small Pleasures #5 – Food and more food

Middle Europe Weekly Small Pleasures #6 – Summer days

Middle Europe Weekly Small Pleasures #7 – Summer flowers

Middle Europe Weekly Small Pleasures #8 – Summer thunderstorms

Middle Europe Weekly Small Pleasures #9 – Cake and Kayaking

Middle Europe Weekly Small Pleasures #10 – Changing seasons

Middle Europe Weekly Small Pleasures #11 – Early autumn

Middle Europe Weekly Small Pleasures #12 – Christmas is coming

Middle Europe Weekly Small Pleasures #13 – Christmas market season

Middle Europe Weekly Small Pleasures #14 – Frost and Christmas

Middle Europe Weekly Small Pleasures #15 – Emerging from winter

Middle Europe Weekly Small Pleasures #16 – Spring has arrived!

Middle Europe Weekly Small Pleasures #17 – Berlin and Brandenburg

Middle Europe Weekly Small Pleasures #18 – Lilac and canola

Middle Europe Weekly Small Pleasures # 19 – There and back again

Middle Europe Weekly Small Pleasures #20 – Cambridge in spring

Middle Europe Weekly Small Pleasures #21 – Summer days

Middle Europe Weekly Small Pleasures #22 – Summer in the city

Middle Europe Weekly Small Pleasures #23 – 2 in 1

Middle Europe Weekly Small Pleasures #24 – Holding onto summer

Middle Europe Weekly Small Pleasures #25 – Winter is coming!

Middle Europe Weekly Small Pleasures #26 – Cold but cosy

Middle Europe  Weekly Small Pleasures #27 – Autumn pleasures

Middle Europe Weekly Small Pleasures #28 – Going back in time

Middle Europe Weekly Small Pleasures #29 – Chocolate, kriek and autumn forest

Middle Europe Weekly Small Pleasures #30 – November ’16

Middle Europe Weekly Small Pleasures #31 – Spring things

Middle Europe Weekly Small Pleasures #32 – Roses and burrs

Middle Europe Weekly Small Pleasures #33 – Monsoon summer

Middle Europe Weekly Small Pleasures #34 – Work hard, play hard

Middle Europe Weekly Small Pleasures #35 – Winter is coming (2)

A whole new set of medicines