Day out

I had a day out with ‘The Kidz’ yesterday. In a recent post I told you about meeting them and listening to their complaints, Some were about parental relationships, some about school and expectations and some about not being able to go to places other pupils in their schools were going to for summer holidays due to money problems.

We agreed to meet yesterday and I prepared maps of the area from Berlin into the eastern areas of Land Brandenburg up to the Polish border. I bought extra travel tickets. water and snacks before we met.We started in a shop near the U-Bahn station selling all kinds of things children need for the new school year. I also gave them adverts for such things available next week at Aldi and Lydl.

We then climbed into a U-Bahn, changed into a S-Bahn and got out at Strausberg Stadt. This is one of my favourite places to the east of Berlin. We walked into the centre and posed with a military man from the DDR time. It reminds visitors that the town was the centre of the DDR army.Lots of Generals and ‘top brass’. Hard to believe when you visit now.

We looked at the ferry area, playgrounds, areas for relaxing in the sun and the memorials to local Jews murdered in concentration camps. ‘The Kidz’ did not know about this so I gave them a short history lesson. We then went north stopping for an ice cream cornet before hitting the beaches.

They were more than happy to put on swimming clothes and jump into the lake. I let them get on with it as I dozed off. Very happy faces on their return and my job was then just to dry their backs before they changed into summer clothes and we set off for the station and return journey.

I bought more bottles of water and apple cake which disappeared quickly as we waited for the S-Bahn back to Berlin. What a great day out. We agreed to plan more journeys but next time with bicycles so they could explore the landscape in the very pleasant  hot weather we are enjoying at the moment. Looking forward to that.