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  I could not say so easily good-bye to the Spree. 

My river walks may have come to an end, but how about doing one of these touristy things, going on a river boat tour. We did not manage to arrange such an outing with all the relatives as planned. So three days before leaving Berlin I went to Hauptbahnhof and just hopped on one of these  boats.

We went up and down the river, from Moltkebruecke to Muehlendammbruecke and back  again, even a little further than Moltkebruecke.

 For reason of continuity I will describe the tour in one go, from west to east. That is actually in the opposite direction I did my walks and  it is also not all the distance I had walked along the Spree.

So good that it was a sunny day.

Great to cruise along, seeing everything from the middle of the Spree and get running commentaries, in German and English, explaining main points of interest along the tour.

                                                                  

Haus der Kulturen der Welt.

This large apartment complex was especially built to house public servants when the government moved to Berlin. 

I had not noticed these when I walked along here before.

We went under many bridges.

One bridge special and different is the Kanzlersteg. This footbridge is for the sole use of the Chancellor and guests to cross over from the office, the Kanzleramt, to a private park

Next is the beautiful ornate Moltkebruecke 

Between Moltkebruecke and Gustav-Heienmann-Bruecke lies he new main railway station Hauptbahnhof. 

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 The next bridge is the Kronprinzenbruecke

            

then Jakob-Mierscheid-Steg, a double story pedestrian path,

     

                                                               and opposite the Reichstag 

   Friedrichstrasse  Stadtbahnbruecke 

     

Weidendammbruecke 

                                                                 

                                                    Ebertsbruecke

           

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      And more bridges. They say Berlin has more bridges than Venice.  

Monbijoubruecke  and Bode-Museum 

Stadtbahnbruecke

       Friedrichsbruecke    

       and Dom

Liebknechtbruecke

     Rathausbruecke and Schlossplatz

         

                                                                     Muehlendammbruecke

And when we got to the lock the boat turned back.

It was nice to have done this tour. I enjoyed the boat trip very much. 

I got to know the Spree from a very different viewpoint. 

Can’t wait till I come again and do some more walking in Berlin. 

AUFWIEDERSEHEN

I went to Hauptbahnhof to catch the train home and I saw this sign:

      "Erzähle deine Geschichte"

            

Well, this is 'meine Geschichte',

My Story Berlin 2013.

                   

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 And, maybe one day I dig out some old photos from the time when we lived in Berlin near the Spree.

In my postcard collection I have an old postcard of the Bode-Museum, the then Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum, from before World War 1 .  

Harbour Walks
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My Sydney Harbour project will continue for a long while to come, so much more to do.
I hope to get one fine day to the islands in the harbour, go on a special sight-seeing cruise and maybe walk along the north shore and eastern suburbs.

My Project 2012    

ALONG THE WATER’S EDGE  

       

January 2012

I thought this year my project should be walking around Sydney Harbour, maybe also along beaches and headlands. Just walking along the water’s edge.

We moved to Sydney 50 years ago. A good reason to look at the same old sites and the many new buildings afresh. 

I will try to do one walk each month, starting with the inner harbour. 

There is excellent information available on all sorts of harbour and coastal walks, brochures with maps, routes, distances, landmarks. And of course google anything about Sydney Harbour and the information coming up is endless.

So no need for to write a Blog about Sydney Harbour. But this is not the point. I just want to do it, the walking and the talking. Telling what I see walking along and taking pictures. Maybe even a bit of reminiscing.

And yes, maybe I want also to prove that even being older one can still start doing what one wanted to have done ages ago.     

Do it now and enjoy it. Whatever! 

So here we go! 

Sydney Harbour is best seen from a ferry. 

But I am walking along the foreshore, around the water’s edge as close as I can get. 

I planned to do a walk each month. But sometimes I did  more than one walk in a month.

By September I had walked all around the Inner Harbour. 

Walking across the Harbour Bridge is a must, so that is what I did in October.

In November I explored the harbour by going on all Sydney Ferries. 

I thought of something special to do in December around Sydney Harbour. 

And now it is all done.

These walks around Sydney Harbour was one of the nicest things I have done. I had so much fun. 
And I am sure I will walk a lot more along the water's edge of Sydney Harbour. 

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SYDNEY TO HOBART YACHT RACE   

December 2012

approximately 2km 

more than 2 hours  

 As a special and final contribution to my Harbour Walks Blog I thought the favourite attraction on Sydney Harbour, the annual Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race starting on Boxing Day each year would be a fitting end of this project. 

So I took the ferry to Watson Bay and walked around the Bay, along a few pretty streets onto a small reserve, to Green Point. 

This is an ideal spot to watch the start of race because not too many people were here. 

The Maxi Yachts were first to cross the starting line,   

 and sailed very fast through the Heads. 

The smaller boats looked great as many started putting up their Spinnaker sails.

It is easy to get back from Green Point to Watson Bay Ferry Wharf and walk up the short distance to the Gap, overlooking the ocean. 

There together with a few thousand others spectators

 I could see the boats heading south on their long and hazardous journey to Tasmania. 

The Sydney to Hobart Race was started in1945. The distance is 630 nautical miles, or 1170 km. It attracts international competitors. The race record up to now is 1 days and 18 hours and 40 minutes and 10 seconds. 

But the winner is not the one getting to Hobart first, although line-honours is a prestige, this race is won on handicaps, giving all boats a chance. 

The atmosphere was great all around and it was very enjoyable to see Sydney Harbour so crowded.