We finally arrived in Berlin after a grueling 36 hours on planes and in airports. We had to wait another four hours or so at Berlin Tegal airport for Elsbeth to arrive – schlepping our luggage around with us. We found the hire car place, drew some money from an auto teller, got onto the wifi, charge Kris’s laptop and had a good coffee and bagel at a cafe with comfy couches. Our first German bread – yum.

It was so good to see Elsbeth finally coming through the arrivals door.

Then back to the car hire place to organise the car. We left Kris to it, practicing his German with the care hire lady, while Elsbeth and I sat and chatted on some benches nearby. Kris came back to confer with us about taking extra insurance (with no excess) and an extra charge to take the car out of Germany in case we want to go into Poland. We ended up taking all the options. Kris had booked a hatchback with an option for auto transmission (automatic is good as he will be riding on the wrong side of the road). They offered him a choice of a manual hatchback or to be upgraded at no extra cost to an automatic eight seater – a Ford Tourneo Connect – which Kris took.

I was amazed when I saw it – my first response was that it looks a bit like a hearse (with dark tinted windows). Next response – this will be an excellent vehicle for buying and carting bicycles!

It is one of those vehicles with masses of computer controls on the console, so just switching the radio off was a challenge. Also windscreen wipers on the side where we usually find the indicators. It is a big, wide vehicle, not that easy to turn around, adding just another challenge for our poor driver. It is so high that we can reach our arms right up above our heads before we touch the car ceiling. It also has a large window in the roof.

Our first wrong turn took us back into the airport taxi area!

Finally we got going into quite heavy traffic – managed to turn off quickly and head out for the Potsdam area to the South West of Berlin. We soon found ourselves on wooded roads and began to catch sight of some of the water from a series of rivers (parts of the Havel) and lakes characterising the area. We went in and out of various little settlements, some with fantastic looking homes along the water, others with cobbled streets.

Our idea had been that we would make our way to the Gastehaus near Meissen, slowly along country roads, and keeping off the autobahn. However after spending a couple of hours around Potsdam we began to get worried about how long it may take us to get there! Especially when we passed a familiar looking street more than once around a place called Babelsberg. The problem was a combination of confusing road signs in an area with many dead ends where roads doubled back on themselves. (Kris trying to cope with the confusing roads, driving a people mover and driving on the wrong side of the road). We were relieved when we found a sign that said Leipzig (right direction) so we soon found ourselves on the autobahn.

I was nervous as I had heard about the speeds that cars do on the autobahn – but happy when I saw a speed limit of 120km/hr. However Kris soon discovered that at 120km/hr he was one of the slower vehicles on the highway (either the limit was a suggested speed or the minimum expected). Cars were passing him at a pace. Kris got into the swing of things, and after a while was passing trucks at 140km/hr. or so. It honestly didn’t feel that fast – I think relative to what the other traffic was doing and the fact we were in a large car.

Naturally we made good progress – traveling around 150km before coming off the autobahn at Schipkau, about 40km from our destination, to try the country roads out again. You really don t see anything much traveling on the autobahn. We found ourselves in semi industrial areas and struggled navigating around the next settlement, Lauchhammer, which was not so pretty. We saw quite a few of those featureless East German apartment blocks – apparently with people still living in them. We stopped at a supermarket and bought some bread, cheese, cold meat, fruit and wine. The next little town of Elsterwerda was a lot more attractive, and we considered stopping for something to eat, but everything was looking closed up as it was past 6pm. Eventually we found the main trunk road to Meissen and it was quite easy to find the little town of Jessen from there. The road into the town is relatively narrow (not always possible for two cars) and runs between alternating green and neon bright yellow fields (I think the yellow is rape seed for canola oil). The yellow fields almost hurt my eyes when I look at them. After riding around the town a bit, and it is really very small, just a few streets and houses, we were relieved to find the Gastehaus Shirner.

Kris had found the Gastehaus on the Internet and we booked our first five nights here from New Zealand. It turned out to be quite a find. Kris and I had booked a double room, but have been given the self contained flat. Elsbeth’s single room is effectively a double, with an on suite bathroom. There is also a nice common dining room and outdoor terrace dining area directly overlooking the fields. It is on the edge of town and very quiet. The décor is a bit old fashioned and quirky (for example artificial flowers hanging on the walls). We become accustomed to this odd décor from various accommodations during our last cycle trip. The rooms are very clean, well equipped and comfortable, at an excellent price.

We had a lovely evening chatting, having a glass of wine (or two) and the food we had bought earlier. Kris fell asleep on the bed in his clothes and I didn’t have the heart to wake him up to shower and change.