The sun was shining and calling us to get out and make the best of the day. Because of the 9C temperature expected today, I chose to wear 40 denier stockings under black jeans, my short sleeve green tunic with a singlet top underneath and my new green coat with the hood removed ( although I should have kept it on because at times we experienced a cold wind while we were walking). Sneakers were the best choice due to all the walking we eventually did. So to begin in Berlin, we walked to a small cafe where I tried some Gozleme.

Then we rode a train from Treptower Park to Ostkreuz where we boarded another train to Frankfurt am Oder, a town on the border of Poland. (this is another town called Frankfurt but it is on the Oder river, whereas the large city of Frankfurt is on the Main river further south west). Scott knew how to get the tickets using the machine on the platform as I would struggle to follow the prompts.

The train was very clean and new. It was well designed with lovely staircases that were easy to manage on the double decker carriages. I love how they announce the next station and whether you will alight from right or left of the carriage. The countryside was very rural with lots of woodlands and fields with windmills. The trip took an hour.

Once in Frankfurt am Oder the architecture was somewhat austere and I noticed a lot of Fast food outlets like Burger King, Subway and of course McDonalds! Scott knew the way to some authentic Polish cuisine across the border in Slubice in an area called Polenmarkt.

My watch kept losing a small pin that attached the band to the watch. Scott speaks German well so we went into a jewellers in Frankfurt am Oder and she agreed to repair it and we would collect it on our way back to catch the train.

You can walk (or drive) across this bridge and then you are leaving Germany and entering Poland. This is the first time I have walked between countries. There were many cars queued up in both directions, some being stopped and searched by people with Hi Vis vests that said ‘Zoll’ on them. They were choosing random cars that were crossing the border from Poland to Germany and thoroughly checking out all areas in the car and boot. Once across the bridge we headed to the right along a raised footpath. It looked like it was designed to deal with the flood plain if the river ever flooded.

I think a lot of German people come over the border because products in Poland can be cheaper. We walked along the riverbank for over 2 kilometres from the bridge to the area called Polenmarkt. This was a collection of buildings that sold trinkets, knock off designer clothes, small goods and Fireworks among some of the offerings.

The restaurant looked like the inside of a timber cabin and was fully decked out with timber furniture. When the Polish waitress approached us, Scott enquired about her choice of language – English or German … she preferred German. The menu was also in Polish and German. We ordered a Zurek soup each which were served in a cob rye bread loaf and packed full of Polish sausages and half a boiled egg. The soup can be described as a fermented rye sour soup. It was the best!!!!!!

After the soup we ordered Bigos (cabbage fried with polish meats) which also came in a bread cob and the Ruski Pierogi – cheese and potato filled dumplings. The pierogi were ok but we agreed that our homemade ones are better. There were many patrons here for a meal. We enjoyed a Zywiec beer each with our meal.

We then walked through the markets to check out the wares, there was a liquor stall that stocked Zybrowka white vodka in a glass jug of around 2 litres …. Pity that it was too heavy to carry back to Germany .

We then tracked back to Germany, the border checking was still being conducted with cars but at no time were we asked for our identification while we were walking. There were a lot of people walking back from Germany to Poland and I sensed that maybe a shift had finished somewhere and these were workers returning home. We collected my watch which cost 10€ ($17AUD) for the repair.

Once back at the Hauptbahnhof we just missed one train and had to wait another 40 minutes for the next. We grabbed a coffee in a nice little coffee shop and then went up the platform to await the train. It was much cooler up here!

There was a train at the platform that all of a sudden was terminated at the station so people had to alight. There was an announcement that the train we were waiting for was delayed because of a ‘police incident’. So a train finally arrived at the opposite platform and there was no information about it but we all just got on and anticipated that this would become the train to Berlin. It did! So this took about an hour travelling west to get to Ostkreuz station, Berlin and then one stop to Treptower Park station. It was now dark and we still had the 1 kilometre walk to Scott’s apartment. For dinner we finished the left overs from lunch. Just as good as before.

We could hear, and sometimes see fireworks being let off in random places. Even at 3 am in the morning there were still people letting them off.

So this was the end of a long day of much walking with many new experiences.

◦ Guten Nacht.