Not very exciting ......

....... but after getting up at 04.30, driving 60 Scottish miles (96 kms), flying for two hours, driving 350 German miles (560 kms) this is it - what you see it what you get - out of the driver side window of the rental car!!!!

I took a meagre 9 photos today as it rained for most of it .... one of those was even of the car in front of me at some traffic lights - that's how desperate I was getting (however the top secret haggis was delivered successfully despite the lack of invisibility - see yesterday if you wonder what the hell I am on about)!!!

When I finally arrived at my hotel in Koepenick - a second floor, river view room (I know how to live the high life!), it was dark - I can see the outlines of a few boats and that's about all ....... guess what I will probably be blipping in the morning before I leave!!!!!!!!!!!

This photo was taken in the Rummelsberg area of Berlin - in the "old" east before the wall 'came down' ....... a lot of the buildings have been rejuvenated inside and out which, to my mind, is much better than razing them to the ground and rebuilding ....... they have been rendered and painted pale colours and a lot of them have designs like this rainbow .... this one runs over two or three blocks in a swooping design ..... it links the buildings and brightens the area.
On some of the older buildings nearer the centre of Berlin that have not been modernised you can still see bullet scars and marks.
I first came here in early 1990 and the change is beyond description.

The highlight of my day (actually two highlights) was seeing hundreds and hundreds (I would guess probably a thousand) cranes flying overhead, in raggedy formations, as I was driving up the autobahn (motorway/freeway) ..... I saw more in the same area on my way back south - not quite as many as it was starting to get dark - but still a lot more than I had seen before today - no place to stop or grab a photo but just seeing them made me feel strangely thrilled and sad at the same time ......
.......when you see them on the ground they are all legs and neck and are very amusing, when they fly they still look so ungainly, massive wings, long wobbly necks and legs sometimes stretched out backwards, sometimes hanging down a bit at weird angles ...... I think of them flying all those miles and how tired they must be and hope that they make it to wherever they are headed ..... God speed and keep you all safe you big birds (that you should even be able to take off let alone fly is amazing enough!!)


A quick footnote for those of you who follow my Mum's journal (My First Effort - Year Two ...... aka AMC ....... aka Alma) - she will be offline until at least Monday ..... her laptop has thrown a hissy fit and refuses to connect to anything online other than Gimp ..... partly my fault as I encouraged her to download it and I suspect that the register has been corrupted in some way!!!! Mr Laptop is now with my favourite local and lovely PC Doctor and Surgeon (Andy) who can cure all ills!!!! (at a price - a fairly reasonable one actually)




NIKON D5200 : f/5.6 : 1/4" : 18mm : ISO 640