These arrived in the Riverford Farm box today - what wonderful colours, can’t wait to try them!

We took a few days off over the bank holiday weekend and stayed with great friends in Totnes, Devon.  The weather couldn’t have been better, and with unlimited ‘insider’ activities planned we saw the best that was on offer including beaches, moors, rivers and rolling countryside.  Not to mention the charm of local Totnes and the stunning Dartington Hall, and some of their treats!

Last week I had a stand at the Spirit of Summer Fair at Olympia.  On the last day I finally made it to the Kids Company stand to purchase some raffle tickets.  Kids Company is a charity that provides pratical, emotional and educational support to vulnerable inner-city kids.  I had this feeling at the time that my tickets were lucky, perhaps because I was buying them with my son, perhaps because they were green, or perhaps it was the positive attitude of the girls on the stand.  As we were packing up the stands later in the day I was passing the Kids Company stand when the girls smiled at me and announced I had won the grand prize - a Mulberry bag!  I hugged the girls in disbelief, and I just want to say that I love my new bag, it is gorgeous.  So thanks girls for selling me the green tickets, and thanks to Kids Company & Mulberry.

… and this is what I saw.

It’s been a great trip to an amazing city; a highly recommended city break.  And I’ll let you into a secret of where we stayed as this place was perfect, in the buzzing Mitte district of East Berlin, and run by a really friendly and helpful family.

A finale to our trip was a visit to the East Side Gallery to see one of the biggest sections of the wall that has not been knocked down after reunification.  The west side of the wall was completely covered with graffiti, the east (below) had paintings done by artists from all over the world, although now these are also embellished with graffiti and visitors names and notes.  Lives were sadly lost trying to get from East to West, so the wall is a poignant reminder of harsher times.  East Berlin is now a cool place to be with blossoming new communities, culture and businesses.

Another gorgeous day in Berlin so lots of walking.  Visited the Bauhaus museum, the building of which was built in the late 70’s and is the work of Walter Gropius the founder of the Bauhaus movement. Although a fairly small collection of art and design, there was a good all round selection in the museum, and a shop showcasing pieces supposedly with a Bauhaus influence, like these bangles by Judith Hofel.

Today was a glorious day, and a day fit for walking everywhere below the cloudless skies.  We started with a visit to the rooftop of the Reichstag (German parliament) to see the glass dome (designed by Norman Foster) and the excellent panoramic views (top left). After a tasty selection of wurst from a street stand outside (bottom left), we then walked through the Tiergarten to the Victory Column with it’s gold angel on top looking over the city as featured in the film Wings of Desire by Wim Wenders(top right).  Then we continued through the Tiergarten passed the Zoo, along the river and stopped for a cold drink at Schleusen Krug, an outdoors bar and restaurant that seemed to be very popular with locals (bottom right).

Top of our list for museums was the Jewish Museum, of which the new extension was designed by Daniel Libeskind and opened in 2001.  This was a very beautiful museum, with it’s dramatic lines, clean spaces and special areas for reflection, aswell as a permanent gallery of Jewish history.  The Garden of Exile (top) and Memory Void (bottom) were really extraordinary parts of the museum, the latter in particular with it’s 10,000 faces entitled ‘Fallen Leaves’ dedicated to all victims or war and violence.  As you are allowed to walk into this space the metal faces clunk underfoot sending chimes echoing around the installation.

There are so many cafes for breakfast in Berlin.  Today we had frothy caps and chunky scones and muffins at Cafe Sankt Oberholz on Rosenthaler Platz.  What could be a better start to the day?

All set for a morning at the Sony Centre’s Legoland and endless fun with those clever and boldly coloured building blocks, that now come in all sizes.  Here is the Reichstag shown in Miniland at night with a rock concert.

We started the day with a great coffee and croissant at cafe Zur Rose, with its fresh roses on every table, retro wallpaper and variously upholstered chairs, this one in particular I wanted to take home!

After that we headed over to Fat Tire Bikes to rent bicycles for the day.  Our tour took us from the shop at the base of the Berliner Fernsehturm / Berlin TV Tower (below left) to many of the historic and modern architectural buildings, parks and platz’s.  Cycling in Berlin is a must as there are ample bike lanes and wide flat boulevards that make it a real pleasure and a brilliant way to sightsee!

With SWD’s desire to see more of Europe, Berlin has been on our list of Euro capitals to visit for sometime.  Today we took a very quick flight out of T5 with absolutely no delays and a super efficient arrival procedure at Tegel Airport.  Although it was a fairly cloudy and rainy day, we headed to the trendy Mitte district where we were staying, with it’s brightly painted buildings and grafitti adornments that seem to liven up the place.  Infact, there is a lot of grafitti here, it’s colourful, humourous and presumably not seen as vandalism but more of a local artform.  Take for instance this oversized scaled wooden fish in a neighbourhood playground, it has been transformed into a colourful fun statement.

What a perfect day and perfect start to Spring, plenty of sunshine and warm enough to spend all day outdoors.

The Happy Jack.  One of the most colourful and most fun tote / shopper bags.  Launched last week at the Country Living Fair, the bags are 100% cotton, made in England, and really great for all sorts of jobs, not to mention their upbeat take on the iconic flag.  If you didn’t manage to get hold of one there, they will be online in the Sweet shop any day now.