Berlin!

Take a deep breath, everybody, because this might be a long one. LOML took far better and more numerous photos than these, but they are on his camera and so will come later. These are some of the considerably less awesome ones that I took.

IWe spent the whole of Thursday travelling - first up to London, then to Dusseldorf, and finally to Berlin. We stayed in the Courtyard Marriot, and it was just wonderful, I can't recommend it highly enough. We had a gorgeous waitress who was very understanding of our attempts to speak German, and who taught us some very useful words and phrases!

The hotel restaurant had absolutely wonderful food - we ate there every night (and had the rest of our meals out). Naturally, we had to try the local beer.

Our hotel was very close to where the Berlin Wall used to be. We went for a walk after dinner on the first night and found Checkpoint Charlie practically on our doorstep. I formerly had only a very scanty knowledge of the events leading up to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, but after visiting Alexanderplatz and reading the story on the installation there, I am even more moved and impressed by the struggles and heroism of the German people as they worked towards reunification. I won't recount the story here, but if (like me) you have never really studied it, you should definitely look it up. It's hugely inspiring (and harrowing). LOML posed with a statue of Axel Springer near some fragments of the old wall.

Our first full day in Berlin was Saturday. The weather was just gorgeous, hot and sunny. We strolled down Unter den Linden from Alexanderplatz to the famous Brandenburg Gate, stopping regularly to look at the many amazing old buildings, monuments and statues along the way. And there were so many! Berlin is such a great city for walking, and LOML and I felt perfectly comfortable exploring on foot. For such a large city it has a very laid-back, almost peaceful atmosphere. We had to take the obligatory tourist photographs in front of the Brandenburg Gate, naturally.


We spent the whole of Sunday in the Berlin Zoo - a really amazing, vast place. I had never been to a 'proper' zoo before - all my experience of wildlife growing up was in game parks. It was a beautiful place, with large and luxurious enclosures, and I saw so many animals that I had never before seen in real life: brown bears, pandas, sea-lions and very hot-looking polar bears sweltering on rocks. An orangutan who looked like a gigantic orange shag rug put on a show for us, swinging and somersaulting from his ropes, and a very friendly little goat followed me around for a while in the hopes of acquiring some food. I was especially thrilled to see the otters - I know they're not the most spectacular of animals, but they have a special place in my heart. They seem like little underwater cats. Perhaps I was an otter in a previous life?


I was impressed by the size of this rhinocerous's rhinocer-arse.


I feel like I'm not doing justice to this wonderful city at all, but I would be here all night if I tried to. More and better photos will be forthcoming as time wears on and LOML downloads them, but I wanted to catch you up on our doings.

Thanks so much for all your comments while I was away! I was thrilled to find out that I had been selected as one of the Wardrobe_Remixers of the Week this week, too, which is a great honour. We're here with my grandparents for the day tomorrow, and then on Wednesday we set off for London once more. I'm meeting with my editor on Wednesday afternoon, and my agent on Thursday. A busy week ahead!