We were staying in a rather nice apartment in Granada, Spain, with a lot of art on the walls.
I looked up from the dining table, on our first morning, and saw these.
Two Entomological insect drawings.
They were rather delicate, yet simple.
Then I looked into them further and found that they were also rather sexy.
Boobs on the right and two penises on the left.
It couldn’t be a coincidence I thought.
Or was it just my dirty mind?
We have just spent 10 days on Jersey and Guernsey. These are part of the Channel Islands, just off the northwest coast of France.
Today the Channel Islands consist of Alderney, Guernsey, Sark and Jersey.
Some history from the BBC:
“The Channel Islands were owned by the Duchy of Normandy, and passed to the English Crown when William the Conqueror became King of England in 1066.”
“The islands are not part of the United Kingdom or European Union, but rather are possessions of the British Crown with independent administrations. Their inhabitants are British citizens.”
During WWII the Nazis occupied all four of the islands from 1940 until the end of the war in 1945.
On June 15, 1940 Britain left the islands undefended and they were demilitarised.
Hitler believed that the islands could become a ‘stepping stone’ to an invasion of Britain.
The Nazi invasion of the islands had a profound influence on the local population. This is physically evident by the infrastructure that they left behind.
They built lookouts, fortifications, gun placements and storage depots. Much of this work was carried out by by workers from a forced labour camp that was situated on Alderney.
There was even a concentration camp there.
As you drive around you are constantly reminded by just how much the Germans built and how well they built it.
Today most of what was constructed in those five years remains intact.
Surprisingly, this has had a beneficial influence on the islands today.
Most of the fortifications, such as the bunkers and gun placements, were built along the coastline and then joined by containment walls, This has left a legacy of coastal erosion barriers that today keep the rising water at bay.
These structures are also a great tourist attraction and many are open to the public.
Rarely anything good comes from war but in this case there have been some benefits.
At the start of the pedestrian area in Agrigento, Sicily, we came across this monument to the victimisation of women.
Thea interpreted the plaque to read:
‘In memory of all the (women) victims of violence so that they can tell their story without silence and arouse conscience and civility’.
Given what we have experienced recently in Australia, I think there should be one of these in every Australian town and city.
It might just jog the conscience of some of the many perpetrators.
We arrived into Granada late in the day and got settled into our apartment.
Then we all went out for dinner with the family.
It was great to get everyone together, especially our two young granddaughters.
The plan was to get the cousins, Aida and Brianna, together, before the wedding in Rome, so they could get to know each other.
We were in another Airbnb, which was yet another example of how poor the system has become.
I believe that these places are never tested, by real people, to see if they are usable.
There was one huge pot to boil water, no dishwasher and no tea towels, a washing machine but no pegs.
Also there was nowhere to hang bath towels to dry and there was a bathroom door that couldn’t be shut, let alone locked.
And this was a three bedroomed apartment, so more than likely the facilities would need to be shared.
After breakfast and discovering all the foibles of our Airbnb, we went off in search of a playground.
An essential activity when there are kids travelling with you.
It was then was back to our rooms to tend to washing and a bit of ‘housekeeping’ like onward bookings and reconciling the last week’s family expenses in Portugal with Ev and Steph.
That night it was another dinner with the family.
This time it was at Capitán Amargo (Captain Bitter) a craft brewery. This wasn’t Hayden and Andrea’s first choice, as that was booked out.
It certainly would have been mine.
The local craft beer was excellent, as was the food.
Capitán Amargo (Captain Bitter) Craft Brewery
As the big event on the upcoming calendar was the wedding in Rome the ‘girls’ needed haircuts.
Granada is Andrea’s home town, so it was left to her to select and book the salon.
That night it was another dinner with the family. We were sitting outside the restaurant and looking up at the Alhambra.
What a unique Granada experience to have while eating.
After dinner we all had an ice cream at a Heladeria los Italianos. This Italian gelateria has become an institution in Granada.
It certainly pays to have local knowledge.
Everything operates on a different time zone in this part of Spain.
At 2pm, sharp, the city shuts down for lunch and then siesta. Dinner doesn’t really get going until at least 9pm, however 10pm seems to be a very popular time to start.
At 11:30 the streets are still full of people.
Alhambra in the background
Another consequence of the upcoming wedding was that we needed to get congratulatory cards for Cam and Fran.
It wasn’t that easy, however, as usual, El Corte Inglés came to the rescue.
In Spain we have always found this department store to have ‘whatever’ we needed.
We then found more playgrounds, to entertain the little girls, and afterwards spent more time just wandering the streets of Granada.
That night it was Brianna’s early third birthday celebrations at Sonia and Toni’s. It was a warm night and the little girls and their dads all went for a dip in the pool.
Brianna’s birthday celebration was about a week early as she was going to be in Rome for the wedding on her actual birthday.
This was our last day in Granada, as we were headed to Barcelona tomorrow.
Our flight was at midday, so there wouldn’t be much time to do anything more than pack and get the to airport.
I have always enjoyed Spanish coffee but after the last few weeks I feel that it isn’t as good as what we had in Portugal.
It was the size of serve and the strength that made the Portuguese coffee more enjoyable.
On our trip north last year, we were having dinner in our apartment near Torquey, Queensland and I got rather a shock.
I went to serve myself some salad and this little feller was staring at me from the bowl.
I doubt a really good food stylist could create this, even if they tried.
It was just a freak of nature.
At night, we very often listen to Spotify and most often we listen to the songs of our era.
These I regard as the soundtracks to our lives.
Just recently Lesley Gore’s 1963 hit single ‘You Don’t Own Me’ was playing. As I listened to the lyrics, I thought just how far ahead of its time this song was.
It was Gore’s second most successful hit after ‘It’s My Party’ recorded in her debut album of 1963, when she was only 16 years of age.
‘You Don’t Own Me’ was also a winner in the pop charts, reaching number two on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1964, where it stayed for three weeks.
Its rival for the top spot was taken by the Beatles ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’.
Surprisingly it was written by two blokes, David White and John Madara.
I wonder what their mates thought of this song back then.
Since its recording the song has been hailed as an early feminist anthem. It has been seen as a deciding factor in influencing the Second Wave Feminist Movement, that started in the early 1960s.
In 2016 it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Better late than never.
Gore was very much our contemporary, being born in New York City in 1946. She unfortunately died, at a relatively early age in 2015, aged 68.
Just read the lyrics and you will understand what I’m saying about the song.
Lyrics:
You don’t own me
I’m not just one of your many toys
You don’t own me
Don’t say I can’t go with other boys
And don’t tell me what to do
Don’t tell me what to say
And please, when I go out with you
Don’t put me on display ’cause
You don’t own me
Don’t try to change me in any way
You don’t own me
Don’t tie me down ’cause I’d never stay
I don’t tell you what to say
I don’t tell you what to do
So just let me be myself
That’s all I ask of you
I’m young and I love to be young
I’m free and I love to be free
To live my life the way I want
To say and do whatever I please
And don’t tell me what to do
Oh, don’t tell me what to say
And please, when I go out with you
Don’t put me on display
I don’t tell you what to say
Oh, don’t tell you what to do
So just let me be myself
That’s all I ask of you
I’m young and I love to be young
I’m free and I love to be free
Back in 2013, I wrote a blog in support of a poster on the facade of St Paul’s Cathedral in Melbourne.
That message has remained up there for the last ten years.
However now it has changed and the new one, again wins my applause.
This one is in support of the ‘Yes’ vote.
Good on you St Paul’s, you have hit the mark once more.
Surely the original owners of this country, who have been here for over 65,000 years, should have a say in how it’s run.
So many people around the world think it, I just had to visualise it.
Summer of 2022.
Saturday, October 19th, 2024Part 8: Our final 3 weeks in Berlin.
September 20 to 26, 2022. Berlin, Germany.
Hayden and Andrea’s.
We had nothing really planned for this, the final stage in Berlin.
The first week would be spent at H&As then after that we had rented an apartment, just around the corner.
Getting to rekindle our friendship with Brianna was top of mind.
They were moving to their new home in Granada in November, so we were there to help out as much as possible.
The weather was cooler, so now eating outside wasn’t possible.
As Hayden and Andrea were working Monday to Friday and Brianna was at Kita, we were free to come and go.
That is until Brianna came home at 4pm, then it was our turn to keep her occupied.
Our weekday morning ritual was to wave goodby to Hayden and Brianna and then prepare our breakfast.
This was usually followed by a walk down to The Barn Coffee Roasters.
There they made a very acceptable Long Black.
On our first visit to Berlin this trip, we were regarded as regulars, so much so that they offered me a Loyalty Card.
September 26 to October 11, 2022. Berlin, Germany.
Clara Vahlenstein in Vahlenstein’s Distille
Limehome Berlin.
As I have mentioned our new accommodation wasn’t far from Hayden and Andrea’s place. So it was relatively easy to wheel our luggage there, even over the rough cobblestone paving of the Berlin footpaths.
Limehome was a comfortable, if little crowded, room with a kitchenette and a good view over Prenzlauer Allee.
Once we settled in and discovered what was in the place, we went out and shopped.
We were going to be self catering for the next two weeks – well mostly.
That night we popped into our favourite German restaurant, Metzer Eck, just for old times sake.
The weather has turned cold and it was threatening rain so we figured we had better eat inside.
When we walked in, we were treated like old friends and immediately given a table. It was only after we had been there a while and people were being turned away, that we realised it was booked out.
We then looked at the sign on our table, which read: ‘Reserved for friends’
We did feel special.
Metzer Eck has a proud history in Berlin.
This family owned bar and restaurant has been on the same corner of Straẞburger and Metzer Strasse for over 110 years.
It was opened by a housemaid, Clara Vahlenstein, in 1913, after she had a lottery win.
It was then known as Vahlenstein’s Distille and was a restaurant come pub and very popular in the area.
The pub survived the First World War, the Depression and the Third Reich.
After the clean up from the Second World War it was given it was given its current name, Metzer Eck.
In 1951 Clara Vahlenstein died and the business passed to her daughter, Charlotte. In 1957 Charlotte’s daughter Bärbel joined the business.
In 2000, Bärbel son Horst Falkner, the great-grandson of the founder, took over the restaurant with his wife Sylvia.
After a short illness, Horst died in 2007, leaving the business to Sylvia, who is still running it today.
It’s certainly not a flashy place, its just a good, honest Berlin restaurant that specialises in excellent, yet simple, German fair.
Living right on one of the busiest streets in Berlin, we were constantly reminded of the city by the ubiquitous sound of emergency vehicles racing past.
In Berlin these sirens greet you when you arrive and farewell you on departure.
As I have mentioned before, even Brianna can mimic the sound of a Berlin siren.
When we were wandering around at the start of our first visit to Berlin, we came across a cafe called ‘Daisies’. We wondered if it was owned by the Daisy who ran the Coffee Room next door to Hayden and Andrea’s apartment.
Daisies was down in Mitte and one day we decided to go and check it out.
The woman who owned it might have been Daisy but she certainly wasn’t the one we knew.
Our Daisy was very English, while this one was very Chinese.
Unfortunately coffee wasn’t worth the walk.
However the area was.
This part of Berlin looks more like a small German village square than part of the capital city.
Einstein Kaffee is a chain of coffee shops in Germany. They became our go-to place when the more specialist places weren’t available.
The coffee was good, staff friendly and there was always a place to sit.
As common as the emergency vehicles sirens are in Berlin, is the pedestrian crossing Amplelmann or ‘Little traffic light man’.
These characters were developed in East Berlin in 1961 by traffic psychologist, Karl Peglau (1927-2009)
They are now everywhere in Berlin and not just on the eastern side of the city.
Another observation about Berlin, is just how slow building construction is.
When we last visited Hayden and Andrea, in 2019, the block opposite their apartment was a building site – it still is and doesn’t look as though it will be finished any time soon.
In 2019 and again now, in 2022, we visited Kaschk by BRŁØ. It’s a coffee and craft beer cafe.
Good coffee in the morning and good beer at night – what more do you need.
We certainly were leaving Berlin with more luggage than when we arrived.
So a lot of our last days were spent trying to squeeze it all into our suitcases.
We were up early on our final day and got a taxi to the airport.
Our trip home was firstly Berlin to Barcelona, on Vueling and then Barcelona to Dubai and then Dubai to Melbourne, with Emirates.
All in all it was about 22 hours in the air and 5 hours waiting.
That’s a very long time sitting on your bum.
In summery it’s been a strange trip.
The highlights being, time with Hayden and Andrea and watching Brianna grow and mature, two weeks in Portugal with Ev, Steph and Aida and having the entire family together in Granada for Brianna’s third birthday.
The travelling has also been interesting and, in many respects, an eye opener.
The open support of Germany towards Ukraine and growing distrust and dislike of Russia.
Seeing Portugal again after so many years and traversing England, Scotland, Ireland (both north and south) and Wales.
The shock of the continuing troubles in Northern Ireland and the surprise in the prosperity that’s over the border to the south.
And of course the continuing decline of England.
The sad state of their economy and their disfunctional government.
All this was tempered by Thea’s unfortunate illness and hospitalisation in Barcelona, which resulted in us missing out on Cam and Fran’s wedding in Italy.
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