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A trip abroad - and some trains

Fen End Pit

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I usually only blog about model railway stuff but I hope you'll excuse this little ramble because it does include some pictures of trains! After a significant number of years and now the kids are both big enough to look after themselves my good lady wife and I had our first foreign trip. The boss wanted to 'do' some Christmas markets and we settled on Berlin. We'd never been and as she had spent 5 months behind the Iron Curtain in Moscow just after we started going out it seemed an interesting destination.

 

We had a brilliant time, even though to be honest most of the Christmas markets sold the same tat you could buy in the UK probably made in the same Chinese factory. However being Germany there was much Germanic style and plenty of Glue-wine. We were both really impressed by how welcoming everyone was and I'd really recommend the city to anyone. It was fascinating walking along the route of the wall and across places like Checkpoint Charlie.

 

We had a hotel near Alexanderplatz and could see the railway curving around between Hackescher Markt and Alexanderplatz stations with a constant parade of Markin locomotives and stock.

 

Here is something red and electric pulling something double-decker over the Spree new Museum Island.

 

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And a couple of trams pass each other on Spandauer Strasse.

 

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As I said, most of the Christmas Markets sold the same stuff, with many wooden toys featuring turbines to make them go around with the heat rising from candles.

 

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However, being Germany, they of course had to have the full-size version too, featuring a bar (naturally) and fully featured Nativity scene.

 

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It is (almost) enough to make you feel festive.

 

David

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awoodford

Quote: ...as she had spent 5 months behind the Iron Curtain in Moscow just after we started going out...

Good Lord. That seems like rather an extreme reaction. But you seem to have got over it. Nice to see a loco hauled passenger train for a change. 

Alan.
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Fen End Pit
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Quote: ...as she had spent 5 months behind the Iron Curtain in Moscow just after we started going out...

Good Lord. That seems like rather an extreme reaction. But you seem to have got over it. Nice to see a loco hauled passenger train for a change. 

Alan.

 

Yes, I thought at the time is was quite a drastic way of dumping me. Looking back now it seems weird to 'the youth' that the only communication we had while she was away was two short phone calls, letters which got read by the KGB and a handful of telexes to the Cultural Section of the British Embassy. Mind you she found that if you got a telex send from the Russian post office (back to our University library) the operator charged by the word but didn't speak English. I used to get telexes with lots of very long words!

Now days we'd be on skype/twitagram/facepalm etc. etc.

David

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