Jena.
Aug 9th. 04:00 taxi to Gatwick. Very easy getting through as had already checked in Online and only had a small cabin bag. Packed airport.
EasyJet flight to Berlin. 06:40 flight left at 07:25, but only an hour and a half flight.
5 min walk outside airport to the Flix bus terminal, but I had a 3 and a half hour wait anyway. I bought drinking water and read an English newspaper and time passed quickly enough.
The 13:25 left about 7 mins early and went through Berlin City and out to Jena. A very comfortable ride, but major motorway repairs meant we were delayed reaching Jena by 3 hours, arriving at 8 pm. Actually, it didn’t matter as Tor was working until 10 pm. I went to the Fiddlers Green pub and had 2 Guinness, then walked to Tor’s Apt. We both arrived just after 10:00, so good timing. Brilliant to see him. Chat, chat over a beer then I had to sleep as I was shattered from the travelling.
Aug 10th. Breakfast and shower. Walked to Kaufland…only 10 mins…for food shopping. We bought ingredients for a Thai Pork curry on Sunday; supermarkets are closed on Sunday so you have to plan ahead a little bit.
Walked into town. Went to the Park and sat at the Bar by the river. Hot day and very pleasant by the river…but needed a couple of beers. Walked to Grunowsky for beer, then Tor treated me to a tasty chicken shawarma for dinner. Went over to Fiddlers Green (Irish Pub) for an ale then caught the tram back to the apt. My knees were aching a bit and I didn’t fancy another 35 minutes walk. There was some red wine waiting in the apt.
Aug 11th. I skipped any breakfast as I didn’t feel particularly hungry but thought I’d try to last until the Pork curry in the evening.
We went for an hour and a half walk, initially going away from the city and more into the countryside, then crossing the river at a covered/tunnel bridge and back into Jena. Really lovely walk in the warm sunshine.
We crossed the section of the river…oh, Salle it’s called…and went to the other nice bar for an ale. We caught the tram back to the apt again, and Tor got stuck into preparing dinner. I sat in front of the large wide open window, just sunbathing. The sun was very hot. Dinner was superb…washed down with red wine. Then we connected my phone to his TV and I showed him all my Ethiopia pics/videos from just over 3 years ago. The excuse for that is that we were to have dinner with an Ethiopian work colleague at an Ethiopian restaurant on Tuesday.
Mon 12th. Little Kaufland shopping. Bottle bank and refund. Back to the Apt then walked into town. Library was closed. Checked for a ‘memory bank’ for storage of my phone pics. Went to The Bean for a coffee. Then Grunowski for a beer.
Took the tram back. Ate leftover Thai curry. Relaxing evening. Showed Tor my Rwanda pics/videos.
Tues 13th. A muffin for breakfast. I put some cardboard in the recycling. A walk into town from up behind the Apt and along through the cemetary. Printed my ET flight itinerary at the library because I needed that for my Kenya eTA application. I sunbathed for 45 mins in Paradise park while Tor relaxed in the shade. Hot sun…temp was into the 30s. One beer at the Riverside bar. Another at the Bier garden. Then to Addis Abebe for an Ethiopian meal and met Amanuel, a work colleague. It was nice to be reminded how delicious Ethiopian good is.
Tram halfway back. Stopped at Rewe for a bottle of wine. Very warm evening .
Wed 14th. I took some of the cardboard to the outside bin…very exciting.!! Walked into town. Stopped for a chai latte at the Bean. Stef wasn’t headed to Jena after all to see us, so we had to rethink our plans for the day.
Decided on the Weir bar on the outskirts…about 10 mins tram followed by 40 mins walking. Lovely location by the river. We caught the tram back and went to the Garten for just one beer. We called into the Media Mart where I bought a little hard drive on which to store all my pics/videos in order to free up space on my phone.
Called in at the Irish Pub before catching the tram back to the flat. Tor cooked up potatoes, bratwurst, onions in brown beer, sourkraut and dill sauce. Delicious. Then eventually Tor figured out how to copy all my 7,000 plus Camera pics/videos onto the hard drive.
Thurs 15th. We got off to an earlier start than usual. After a quick breakfast and me doing a cardboard dump run, we caught a tram to Zwatzen after 09:00 and then the 09:27 train to Bad Kosen. There were 2 castles, built on two hills close to each other, about a 45 minute walk away to visit. One was originally built around 800AD, so a lot of history. Lovely countryside, and especially the walk back through the forest to Bad Kosen. There was a watermill powered by an interesting wooden pump.
Train back to Jena. It was about 15:00 and having got off at Jena Paradies, we weren’t far from Grunowski. !! After a couple of drinks there and a visit to the Irish Pub, we went supermarket shopping for pork, onions, carrots and wine for dinner.
We caught the tram back; Tor cooked a lovely spicy dinner with basmati rice and we had a relaxing evening. The sun was still very hot and I enjoyed basking in sunshine in front of the open window.
And Tor helped me with my Kenya eTA application after dinner. We made a booking through Jipe Eco lodge for 16th Sept and uploaded the other necessary documents. It all worked and a couple of hours later I got notified that the application was submitted successfully.
Fri 16th. Tor wanted a bit of a lie in, which was fine, but in the end he got up more or less at the usual time. We took our time and left the flat around midday. Another warm day to walk into town.
We looked around for a new little back bag for me as the sports bag Tor gave me last year is almost totally ripped/torn now. I had it mended/stitched about 4 times over th last year. No success in buying a new one.
We went to a different café for coffee; nice old cobbled street location. Nice weather again…warm as opposed to hot. Found our way to Grunowski for the last time. At about 4:30 we went to Spicy for a delicious chicken Mandi. We ate there a year ago when the restaurant first opened; it’s Middle Eastern…possibly Syrian or Afghan.
That was the end of a brilliant visit to see Tor. Great that he was off work for the week so we could spend every/all day together. I presume we stopped at Fiddlers for a last drink, and then to the flat. It wasn’t too early a start the next day to the train station…no stress.
Forest Row
Sat 17th. Tor went with me to the train station and waited until I was safely on. I think I went to Weimar and there I got the connection to Berlin. I gave myself plenty of time as the Railways were experiencing some delays. I ate some leftovers from Tor’s flat at Berlin. The connections all worked, and I got the commuter train to the airport. About 5 hours all told.
The Gatwick flight was a bit delayed, but no matter as I was travelling in the late afternoon and the flight only about an hour and a quarter. At Gatwick I got the shuttle train to South terminal and decided on using the no. 400 bus to get to East Grinstead as it wouldn’t cost me anything.
I thought I was going to be more delayed, but just as well I wasn’t as I’d been invited to Alastair & Hilary’s for dinner. Judith picked me up from Grinstead and that’s when I understood it to be a dinner for just the 4 of us. Some absolutely delicious dishes. Phew, just as well I wasn’t late.
So, 8 days in England before I was due to fly to Dar. At least I saw a little bit of Judith. I really hadn’t seen her that much this time. Even the weekend before I left, she went with George to her sister’s. I saw her briefly on Sunday 25th in the late afternoon when she came back.
As for that final week I didn’t do much apart from stress out…like I usually do. I had my two jabs. There was a nice bbq dinner with Phil and Fatima. And the real surprise was Paul Farnsworth coming from the US for an Eastbourne christening. (I was his best man in 1989 and he was mine in 1990). He drove up to Forest Row and we spent much of Sat 24th together. It was great to see him.
Linda had no space for my bike this year but the Club offered to keep it in the shed around the back. I’ll see what condition it’s in, in May !! The last thing to arrange was a taxi…Jill was fully booked, but after a few calls I managed to arrange one.
An eventful/busy/stressful few months.