This morning was my chance to catch up with a good friend, Ines, who lives in Berlin. She is going on holiday tomorrow but suggested we meet for a cup of tea at a nice tea room she knew about in Schöneberg, so I put the address in my Garmin and set off.
After less than a mile I came across this unusual installation. It seemed to be a large metal sheet with names of people who had been killed in various concentration camps, there was also a train carriage with stone shapes in it (sculpture) and a few other sculptures.
After a bit of a look at the sculpture I carried on, following my Garmin’s route which was largely on very good roads with cycle paths.
I haven’t visited Schöneberg before (that I can remember, anyway) and so it was all new to me – although to be honest it looks like most other bits of Berlin.
The tea room is called Tee Tea Thé and was lovely! You can read about it here: http://www.teeteathe.de/index.html
It had an enormous selection of different teas, including 21 varieties of Rooibos and four pages of ‘black tea’. I had brought my teabags along but Ines said the teas here were very good and I ought to try one, so I was brave and went for “Old English Tea”.
The shop also offered “High tea” (cake, cucumber and salmon sandwiches, etc) but that was pretty pricey so instead I went for the scone & jam & clotted cream, that well-known German speciality. I asked the guy serving how he said ‘scone’ – he said he has a friend from London who says scone (rhyming with cone) and a friend from Newcastle who says it rhyming with ‘gone’, so he wasn’t sure which to use. I realised I use both, so I was no help.
Anyway, the tea and scone duly arrived.
Notice the little liquid eggtimer which is to tell you when your tea has finished brewing!
And he had even put proper milk on the tray for me. What a result!
Here is a close-up of the scone which was very nice, although the cream wasn’t really clotted cream.
Most amazing of all, THE TEA WAS ACTUALLY NICE! Yep, I have finally, after years and years of drinking appalling tea in Germany, had a cup of tea that tasted good. Hurrah! I told the café owner this and he said that the company Ronnefeld was good – however I’ve had their teas in the past and not liked them. But Old English is clearly OK.
Ines took a pic of me outside the café:
And I reciprocated. She found the recumbent trike most comfy!
We said goodbye and I headed off in a bit of a random direction, deciding to do a bit more riding rather than going directly home. Eventually I decided to go and visit the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche which is a wonderful church at the head of the Kufürstendamm which was damaged during WW2 and has been partially rebuilt.
I started typing the name into my Garmin and it came up with “Kaiser Wilhelm Platz” which I duly navigated to (only half a mile away) before realising that it’s nothing to do with the church. I had been there before for some reason, however, as I remembered this memorial to the concentration camps in Germany.
My Garmin was having a bit of a headache so I navigated the old-fashioned way (following road signs) until I passed KaDeWe the huge department store and knew I was very near the church. I actually cycled past it – not a particular surprise when you see what they’ve done to it:
It’s being renovated and they’ve covered it up. It should look like this:
I navigated by road signs back to my apartment to grab a quick sandwich before heading out this afternoon, I think to the Grünewald. Watch this space!
Statistics for this ride:
Distance – 9.93 miles
Time – 1 hour 10 minutes
Moving average – 8.42 mph
Average heart rate – 97
Max heart rate – 133
Maximum speed – 22.45
Calories burned – 317