Sonntag im Tiergarten

We had a great night's sleep at our lovely hotel and woke refreshed and ready for more Berlin adventures. To our surprise it had rained in the early morning but the clouds soon burned off. After the nicest croissant that I have tasted for many a long year in a nearby café, we set off into the warm city. The Tiergarten was just lovely - a green space in the city with lots of trees, criss crossed by paths. We walked through its dappled shade and enjoyed beautiful views of ponds and rivers. We saw red squirrels and little birds hopping about, and pretty fountains. Berliners were cycling and jogging through it - and some people were sunbathing nude, apparently a favourite occupation. We saw them at a distance - well, either it was the Naturists or people wearing pink bathing costumes! We chatted and walked around; I can't think of a nicer way to spend a Sunday morning!
We visited the large, curved Soviet War Memorial which was built just after the war to commemorate the thousands of Russian soldiers who died at the end of April 1945 during the Battle of Berlin. Two tanks stand on either side of it. Ewan pointed out an amazing photograph at the little outdoors museum behind it which shows the new memorial standing in a wasteland, because the trees of the Tiergarten had been destroyed by incendiary bombs and then stripped of timber for firewood during the last months of the war. It was strange to see it like that because it has such a peaceful setting today on the edge of the woodland. We ended up in a café on the edge of the park, the same one that we were in yesterday, across from the Reichstag, for a refreshing drink then moved onto Die Eins Restaurant for lunch. This restaurant was right beside the River Spree and as we sat outside, a procession of tourist boats went past us - it was so hot that many of the occupants were holding up umbrellas to shield themselves from the sun! We had a nice lunch; mine was a cheese and bacon tart, which was too big for me to finish but tasted delicious.
Our journey home in the afternoon went well, again Heather and Ewan navigated us expertly on the city transport and when we got to the airport they even found us a cute little pub with bar stools just under an air conditioner! Our flight was only two hours back to Glasgow and we were home for tea time. We had heard that it was raining in Glasgow, and it had been, but it was a fine evening by the time we got home. Davie and Jack greeted us with some enthusiasm and we had an early night after our exciting weekend.