for my immediate family.

Hallowe'en marks my Mothers birthday, she would have been 89 this year and just to compound things, Dad would've been 96 just over a week later. They may be gone but they aren't forgotten.

On to less melancholy stuff. I spent a goodly chunk of Monday at the keyboard, a new Gaby chapter was the result, Patreons can of course read that now. To bring you all up to speed, i now have 72 chapters written and i hope to reach 80 in the next couple of weeks, the plan being that the current story arc will be 'complete' at that point. At that point my intension is to crack on with 'May Queen' part 2, i know a lot of you are waiting for that. Beyond that - well to be honest i'm not sure.

Moving on, yesterday i had the opportunity of a vehicle assist bike ride so despite a showery forecast, after breakfast i found myself and the bike heading along the M4 to Cardiff. Given that the fairly stiff winds were from the south west, rather than any sort of loop, i decided that after a short exploration of east Cardiff, i'd ride the 60ish kilometres back to Brizzle. It was just after 10 when i headed off to explore around Roath and Heath Parks, a few sprinkles of H2O, doing their best to dampen my spirits but failing on all counts.

Then it was time to head east, through Rumney and St Mellons before breaking into more open country around Marshfield, not the prettiest but being basically flat, easy riding. By the time i reached the western edge of Newport, the stomach was rumbling and combined with another dose of wet, provided enough excuse for a stop at the local Greggs! Fed and watered, the sun doing its best to make an appearance, i set off anew, pausing briefly for a toilet stop at Tredegar House, an NT property i should probably visit properly at some point.

On then through Newport, picking up the A48, the old main route from England to south Wales, replaced now by the M4 motorway. Once out of Newport its a nice wide road with little traffic which was in stark contrast to the single lane, passing places, route i took to reach Caldicot! Why you may ask, well the main road is a bit boring after a bit, the 'coast' road is a bit nicer to ride. Soon enough i was climbing over the Severn Bridge back into England, a check of the distance suggested i'd fall short of a century ride by a tantalisingly small amount.

Well that wouldn't do, i ran the options through my head, i know these roads fairly well now but to add km, would require some lateral thinking. A longer loop here, another alternate route there to avoid the more direct but shorter roads, the sun was low on the horizon by the time i stopped at just turned four thirty. 101km, a surprising 800m+ of up, a nice day's ride despite the bits of wet.

And today - well its back to the keyboard before cooking up a hearty dinner, pork 'steaks' et al, fuel for tomorrows bicycle expedition! But before any of that, here's the penultimate part of the Berlin trip.

After the slight disappointment of Saturday, Sunday didn't start much better. The plan had been to travel up to Neubrandenburg, a train journey of almost two hours but line works meant replacement buses and the journey stretched to over three hours so we scratched that idea. Instead we caught the U-bahn out to its northern terminus at Oranienburg, still nearly an hour's journey and somewhere i hadn't been previously.

Despite it's appealing name, the town has little to offer, no palaces, grand squares or interesting architecture but still it pulls in the tourists, the reason lying just to the north east of the town itself. This is the site of the Sachsenhausen work camp, set up in 1936 by the Nazi's to house 'enemies' of the state, not just Jews but Russians and other minorities, undesirables (think LGBTQ) and dissidents. Unlike places like Birkenwald and Auschwitz, this wasn't an extermination camp but instead a work camp, the inmates forced to work in industry as far away as Berlin and even assigned to things like bomb clearance when the Allies started to target the German capital - they were, after all, expendable in the eyes of the authorities. It's a sobering place but not as uncomfortable to visit as the likes of Bergen-Belsen etc. I've said it before but i'll say it again, i feel it my duty to visit these places if i'm nearby, to remember the inhumanity which some supposed free countries and their leaders still perpetuate, naming no names.

Back in Berlin it was still early so we stayed on the train through to Wannsee in the hope of finding a food outlet before returning to the city centre. Well that plan changed, the afternoon was reasonably warm and sunny and 15€ each for a two hour cruise around 7 of the regions lakes was too good to miss. So that's what we did, spotting castles and bridges, views impossible to see from any other than from the water. We still needed to eat, other than a piece of cake at Sachsenwald we'd had nothing since breakfast. So we ended up back around Alexanderplatz, where we dined on lamb hock and Werner Urpils before returning to the hotel.

Sachsenhausen

Wannsee

TV tower

Monday, the penultimate full day in the German capital, was to be our rescheduled 'shopping' day so after a solid breakfast at our regular bakery, we caught a bus and headed first to the Schoenberger Suedgelande Nature Park. Not exactly shopping i know but there was still plenty we hoped to see on this trip. The nature park is actually on the site of a huge goods marshalling yard to the south of the city, no planting, removal of tracks just natural regeneration. You can still see the iconic water tower and other rail infrastructure including a steam locomotive hiding in the trees, the highlight for me came on the walk through the rewilding. Firstly we spotted a red squirrel, the first i've seen in the wild for literally decades then still pumped by that, we saw a green woodpecker sat on a branch not five metres from the path, i've never seen one of those in my life before.

Then, after deciding against another longish walk to a museum, it was another bus up to the Ku'Damm for our 'shopping' expedition. First stop a second user emporium for all things model railway where i picked up 11 models for the princely sum of 24€ then it was on to, for me, the main attraction, the model car shop! Yup, two levels of model autos from micro 1:220 scale all the way to 1:12, slot cars, kits, you name it they have it. I'd been saving for months to have something to spend here, each of my purchases as much as i'd spent altogether at the second hand shop!

There was stuff we each wanted to do so at this point we got some lunch in the Galleria before splitting up for a couple of hours, we'd reconvene later to eat. I hadn't got anything specific to buy but i do like to look around the likes of C&A but i had something else on my mind. I made my way almost back to the hotel to visit the second hand clothing store, a couple of things had caught my eye, maybe there was something for me inside. It wasn't super cheap but the variety was a bit overwhelming, the things that had caught my eye ended up not being suitable on size but i did leave with a Hennes skirt and a Gothy dress for just 26€. Dinner ended up being pizza at a street restaurant nearby, not too far to stagger back to the hotel.

Lok im wald

Tufty (if you know, you know!)

dinner - brother for scale!

More from Berlin next time.

That's all for today, i'll be back on Sunday but for now,
Ciao,
Madeline Anafrid