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Brussels/Berlin 2023

Friday 21st July 2023 – Going Underground and Showing Solidarity

After breakfast, I had a date with the underground of Berlin. Thankfully, this did not require me to agree to any potential espionage activities or to learn any passwords. Instead, €19 were paid to the very above-board and well-advertised “Berliner Unterwelden” and a meeting point communicated by email. This turned out to be 20 minutes […]

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Brussels/Berlin 2023

Thursday 20th July 2023 – Trawling the Bookshops

Today, after breakfast on my balcony I decided to stock up on literature. In particular, I was looking for a copy of “Christopher and His Kind”, the autobiography written by Christopher Isherwood that gives more of an accurate account of his life in Berlin than his more fictionalised “Goodbye to Berlin”. My first stop was […]

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Brussels/Berlin 2023

Wednesday 19th July 2023 – Alexander Haus and Queer to the Max

Today I was on a mission. My destination was the town of Groß Glienicke, situated to the South West of Berlin and North of Potsdam. This required careful navigation of the Berlin transport system, sometimes called “BVG” after “Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe”, the company that manages it. At this point it is worth a mention of how […]

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Brussels/Berlin 2023

Tuesday 18th July 2023 – A Schwimm and some Footstep Following

This morning, I resolved to go for a swim in a local outdoor pool. This would necessitate the purchase of an item I had forgotten to bring from home, namely a pair of swimming goggles. This is of course an item sold by many shops but trying to work out which would be my best […]

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Brussels/Berlin 2023

Monday 17th July 2023 – An Old Friend and Some Time Off

During my morning ablutions, I received a message from a very long-standing friend and one I had not seen in many a year. Michale Bryan and I were at Primary School together at Cuiken Primary and later on High School at Penicuik High School. He now lives in Berlin with his wife and two children […]

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Brussels/Berlin 2023

Sunday 16th July 2023 – The Berlin Tourist Trail. Kinda.

After a light breakfast on my balcony and some reading of Christopher Isherwood’s “Goodbye to Berlin”, I took myself on foot to what is probably the most visited area of this city, that situated around the Brandenberg Gate. This impressive monument dates from the late 1700s and was modelled on similar structures in Greek architecture, […]

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Brussels/Berlin 2023

Saturday 15th July 2023 – Checkpoint Charlie and ‘Mon the Gays

After a breakfast consisting of eggs and salami on toast, tea, and a nectarine, I ventured again along the path of the former Berlin Wall. This time, in the opposite direction along Bernaur Straße from before, heading west. It is important to remember that the division of the Germany led to West Berlin existing as […]

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Brussels/Berlin 2023

Friday 14th July 2023 – Der DDR

One of the reasons I like to stay so long in a location, is to avoid the feeling of having to “run myself ragged”, seeing much in a short period of time. As a result, I had no problem spending much of the morning sleeping in, doing a workout, showering, doing my washing, and submitting […]

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Brussels/Berlin 2023

Thursday 13th July 2023: Good Morning Berlin

It can be hard to tell whether one has slept or not. I didn’t mind as I had expected this to be a bit of a restless night, given the circumstances. In a way, I preferred the times that the train rattled on through the night as opposed to the station stops with bright lights, […]

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Brussels/Berlin 2023

Wednesday 12th July 2023: What to do with a “non” day?

This is the sort of day I struggle with what to do with. My checkout at my accommodation was 11.00am and my train to Berlin not until 6.00pm. I decided after a workout and a shower (warm this time after instruction from the owner on re-pressurising the boiler), to avoid “killing time”, as I had […]