Back in Berlin. We left Riga in the rain, we always take the good weather with us, sorry Riga.

We arrived at Tegel airport, now officially one of the worst airports I've ever been to, picked up our luggage and into a cab; "Nollendorfstraße achtundzwanzig bitte" and off we went. We are staying at an Airbnb apartment/guesthouse. Our host David is charming. The apartment is enormous with a huge marble kitchen, dining and lounge room area as well as a bedroom wing.

I booked this apartment for short stay over in Berlin, before our flight back to Sydney. I thought an Airbnb would be a nice change from hotels as we had spent so much time in them in the last month.

An interesting fact about this street is Christopher Isherwood lived in Nollendorfstraße during his time in Berlin before the war. The area is very eclectic, with a strong gay community as well as young families.

Our checkin was not until 15:00 so we left our luggage at the house and both said to each other "What now?" You'd think I'd have planned this better. I knew we had a whole two days in Berlin, but I forgot to plan activities. Maybe I'm just sick of planning. Greg and I found a nice cafe for a light breakfast and discussed what we might do. Silly me suggested flea markets, yes where are they said Greg. Again I took on the mantel of planning, thank goodness for google. The target flea market was identified and it was just a short train ride on the UBahn to Fehrbelliner Platz, well at least it was a small adventure. But first a visit to the local famers market at the end of the street.

The market was in the church square of St Matthias Catholic Church. We walked up and down the stalls selling beautiful cakes, pastries, bread and fruit and vegetables. As we walked past the church and heard the organ and went in to listen, there is an unplanned organ theme to this holiday.

On to the flea market. We alighted at Fehrbelliner Platz and found the usual suspects of flea market purveyors. I'm sure they are all from a distant planet sent to earth to annoy me. Greg walked from stand to stand bending low at his wast to better to inspect what was on display, which was mostly junk. Now what?

We continued our walk toward the city centre. It was nice to stretch out and walk through the orderly streets of Berlin. Our new target was the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. The original church on the site was built in the 1890s. It was badly damaged in a bombing raid in 1943. The present building, which consists of the remains of the damaged church spire and two new seperate building which were built in the early 1960's. The Memorial Church today is a famous landmark of West Berlin, and is nicknamed by Berliners "der hohle Zahn", meaning "the hollow tooth".

Well that adventure was over and so we started our way back to Nollendorfstraße for dinner and an early night after an early start.

Tomorrow, better planning and a trip to the Old National Gallery.