East Berlin - The Ostel Hostel and Trabant tour.

Ostel Hostel, ex-east Berlin.

13 August 2012 

Then we take Berlin. Heaps of traffic getting to Heathrow but our driver took us around the world to get there but at least we were moving - why is everybody leaving? We took a taxi from the airport to our accommodation - The Ostel Hostel and our driver commented that in his ten year driving in Berlin he had never had a fare to there - our hopes were on high. The Ostel was all that it promised to be - true to its DDR styling and after checking in it was a monster schnitzel for lunch washed down by a local brew or two. Caught a cab into the Brandenburg gate to get some ideas from the info centre – “service” here was close to useless.

We walked up to the Jewish memorial and then headed down to checkpoint Charlie. There was an exhibition on the wall which was quite informative. One of the things we had planned was a Trabant tour which we booked for 8:30 PM. Too far from the luxurious Ostel to rest up so we sourced a local spot for an aperitif and although we ended up 15 minutes away we were in a lovely square and the relaxation time was well warranted. We made our way back to Trabi World for our tour and for us it was the stretch Trabi with chauffeur as neither of us wished to drive this beast. We were joined by Bruno and Rosa from Iceland who bought their own beers along - that was the reason they were not driving. The tour was brilliant although you had to pay attention as the Brazilian lad was doing the commentary in at least four languages from three cars behind. Got a taxi home and had hoped to revisit the lunch time spot for a night cap but alas it was closed. Managed to find a rather dodgy 24 hours night spot but after two beers discretion was the better part of valour and it was home to the Ostel.

Trabi tour.