Frankfurt to Berlin

Sadly our time in Bad Homburg had come to an end and it was time to catch the train to Berlin. It was not a final goodbye for Alice, Benedetta and Torsten however as we will meet again in Tuscany in a few weeks time. We did not see Alice as she had to get up early to get to school and Torsten needed to go to work. After breakfast we packed up our things and waited for Benedetta to take us to Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof.

Dad had booked 4 tickets on the ICE train to Berlin and we looked forward to another comfortable journey. This time we had 4 seats around a table. The railway lines to Berlin have been damaged by recent flooding and the trip was scheduled to be a little longer as a result.

Benedetta waited for our train to leave to make sure all was well.

Benedetta took us to Frankfurt Hbf to catch the ICE train

Waiting for the train to Berlin

The train travelled a little slower than usual due to the damage to the tracks but our patience in DeutscheBahn was really tested when the announcement came through that our journey would stop at Berlin-Lichtenberg instead of the central station, Berlin Hauptbahnhof. This was  a suburban station nowhere near our final destination and so we needed to quickly work out the best way to go forward. Ultimately we boarded the local S-bahn train with all our luggage and then took a taxi from the Zoologischer Garten station to our apartment. This was quite a journey in the end but despite the rain we arrived safely without getting too wet. Our apartment was very close to Dad's conference venue at the Hotel  Intercontinental... but it was also close to the Berlin Zoo.... and a lovely restaurant in the gardens called the Cafe Am Neuen See. We walked in the gentle rain over another "padlock bridge", passing by some animals in the zoo to this very atmospheric cafe overlooking a little lake in Berlin's  Tiergarten.

Over another padlock bridge.

Biergarten at the Cafe Am Neuen See

Writing postcards at the Cafe.

Can you see an ostrich and her baby?

Here they are....

Dad needed to work for a few days here in Berlin attending the MASCC conference. It was only scheduled to run for 3 days and so he would be back in holiday-mode before too long...