Second departure
N 52°31'3.11'' E 013°16'29.532''
Day: 6-7
Germany
Location:
Berlin
Daily kilometers:
470
Total kilometers:
470
Latitude N:
52°31’3.11”
Longitude E:
013°16’29.5”
In fact, the courier hands us our passports with the transit visas for Belarus and the visas for Russia in the morning. So we have also reorganized the last item for a trip to Siberia. Satisfied that everything is packed and hopefully dry, we are about to go to Andrea and Thomas. The two friends invited us to a farewell barbecue. “Denis! Are you ready? We have to go,” calls Tanja. “Yes, yes, just quickly set up an Auto Reply for our emails!” I reply. Just seconds later, our entire email communication is completely down. Cursing and swearing, I sit in front of my laptop and don’t know what I’ve clicked wrong. “Where are you?” it calls out. “I’ll be right there,” I reply, although right away on the computer can be absolutely relative. “I’ll go now. You can follow me”, I hear 30 minutes later. Desperate, I call Terry, who also lives in the neighborhood and is very familiar with such things. “Come over quickly. We’ll manage,” he reassures me.
An hour later than planned, I’m sitting with our friends, relieved. “And did Terry take our email back there?” asks Tanja. “Yes, it was no problem. Everything is working again. I somehow entered the wrong password in my haste. But to be honest, I could have done without the adrenaline shock,” I reply and take a big sip of delicious Franconian beer on this hot summer evening. “Terry is a really helpful person,” says Tanja. “Yes, it really saved us. Although I don’t like writing emails when I’m traveling, the loss of this communication option would be really bad for us,” I reply and think back with longing to the times when we could only contact our home country from Asia by fax or letter.
It is very hot on the day we leave for Berlin. We sit on the terrace at my parents’ house and have breakfast. My mother is celebrating her 75th birthday and is happy about the unexpected visit, because if everything had gone according to plan we wouldn’t even be there. The local Catholic priest comes by and presents her with a small gift. Because he worked as a missionary in Colombia for many years, we immediately find an interesting basis for conversation. However, due to the lack of time, we quickly say goodbye, pack the rest of our equipment into our Sprinter and leave the village to pick up Rolf. Rolf is a friend of friends who has agreed to bring our car back from Berlin. We greet the tanned, likeable man and although we hardly know each other, we like each other immediately. “I hope you don’t mind the heat. Unfortunately, we don’t have air conditioning in our van,” I apologize. “Ha, ha, ha. I really blossom when it’s hot. I certainly wouldn’t have accompanied you to Berlin in winter,” he joked in high spirits. So, at around 40° C in our driver’s cab and with Rolf’s exciting stories, we drive along the highway to the German capital. We learn that Rolf hitchhiked to London with his girlfriend at the age of 15, that he traveled all over Asia with his two children in an old Hanomag off-road vehicle for over 4 years, worked as a social worker in Colombia for 11 years, traveled South America’s rivers by boat and ship and much more. “You should write books,” says Tanja. “Oh, I’ve written countless diaries but never felt the desire or the muse to publish anything. It’s not my thing,” replies the 67-year-old. “Do you have any other travel plans?” I ask. “But yes. In the fall, I will be traveling through South America for a few months and when my wife retires, we will emigrate to Colombia to live with Indians in their village. We already own a hut there. The people are incredibly lovely and are waiting for us. Sharing a simple existence with the locals is the best way of life for us,” he says with a peaceful smile.
We reach a posh residential area in Berlin without incident. Rolf’s brother lives here in a villa where he publishes the well-known comic magazine Mosaik. When we reach the stately home, the publisher’s son Fabian and his wife Tanja open the gate for us so that we can drive our Sprinter onto the lush grounds. “I’ve brought you something to drink,” says Fabian after greeting his uncle warmly. “My father is currently on his way to Hawaii with his sailing ship. He would have liked to receive you in person. But he cordially invites you to spend the night in the villa.”
We sit on the terrace, partly surrounded by tropical plants, and swap wonderful travel stories. “Would you like to refresh yourselves in the swimming pool?” asks the hostess Tanja and we immediately jump into the cool water. The hot breath of the evening wind carries the live singing of Helen Fischer over to us from the nearby Olympic station. Ajaci is standing at the edge of the pool and would love to keep us company. “Just stay outside,” Tanja admonishes him. “It’s not a pond in your forest, it’s a swimming pool for humans.” We spend the rest of the evening on the villa’s huge balcony in high spirits after a smooth journey to Berlin this time. A venerable conifer surrounds the building with its thick branches in which a flock of squirrels play tag.
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