Grunewald

Last Wednesday, 3rd october, marked 22 years since the German reunification (Deutsche Wiedervereinigung). Demonstrating my enduring disconnection with everyday life here, I was not aware of the holiday until my flatmate suggested we head to Grunewald, in the south-west of Berlin, for the day. I was enthusiastic as during the summer I had been to and thoroughly enjoyed Schlachtensee, a beautiful lake on the edge of Grunewald. I was also uncharacteristically keen for some nature and physical activity. Grunewald is a lovely area, peaceful and idyllic, surprisingly close the the city centre. It was a fairly warm and brilliantly blue autumn day. After walking for an hour or so through the woods, the trees a lovely golden-green, we stopped for lunch by a lake and snoozed a while in the sun. The walk back was a little more difficult, another 5 or so kilometres, often uphill and I seemed to have developed a head cold during my post-lunch nap. It was then I decided that I preferred to sit in nature, rather than struggle through it, but it was lovely to have experienced the area in two seasons, and to briefly escape the chaotic city streets.