Legends of the Sun Pig

At the start of May when Susan was visiting we took a family trip to Amsterdam to do an escape room. We went to the “Wake up!” adventure at Questomatica on the Foelistraat. I don’t want to give away plot points, so I’ll just say that it was excellent. Alex has done an escape room game at school, but for the rest of us it was our first time. We’re all seasoned video game puzzelers, but the thrill of being right inside the puzzle was a great sensation. I don’t know if “Wake Up” is a representative example other escape rooms, but take on its own I thought it was well-constructed, challenging, with a theme that kept us engaged and excited all the way through. Highly recommended!

While Susan was visiting us this year, we took a trip to Berlin! I had never been there before, but had heard lots of good things about the city in recent years.

We flew to Schönefeld early on the morning of Thursday 27 April. We took a train into town, and met Abi on the way. (She had gone there a few days earlier for a conveniently timed work trip.) We had a hotel on Anhalter Str., just a couple of blocks away from Checkpoint Charlie. After dropping our bags, we walked round there, and had lunch at the McDonalds overlooking the checkpoint. (Rather: everyone else had McDonalds. I had a currywurst next door.) In the afternoon we took a bus tour to give us an overview of the city. Later in the evening, when everyone else was tired, Abi and I took a walk up to Potsdamer Platz and the Brandenburger Tor.

The next day, Abi and Fiona had booked themselves on a street art tour and workshop, while Alex and I visited the computer games museum. The following day Fiona was struggling, and she and I stayed in our room most of the day. In the evening Alex, Fiona, and I did make it out to see Guardians of the Galaxy at the Sony Centre, though. On Sunday Abi and I went out for a little wander before we checked out. Then we all then parked ourselves at a café opposite the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, from where we mounted various small expeditions until it was time to head to the airport for our flight back.

Overall impression: Berlin is a beautiful city, and I want to go back. The sensation of history of the place had a big impact on me while I was there. The city’s pride over being at the heart of modern European politics also shines through. Also, the scale of the place is huge. Some of the streets felt like they were built for giants, and underground stations often felt empty, like they had been built for a city with ten times the population. Thumbs down on Schönefeld airport, though. Nice public transport connections, but the facility itself is a hard-to-navigate dump.

Walking up the Bridges back to my B&B in Edinburgh late one evening in April I spotted activity on the High Street. Turns out a film crew was shooting scenes for the new Avengers film! I stood around behind the barriers for a while and watched the crew at work. Conclusion: 80% of your time on a big budget film set is spent standing around waiting for things to happen. Every now and then the marshalls would hear an announcement on their ear pieces and call for everyone to be quiet. The cameras were half-way down Cockburn Street, though, and the barriers were well up on the High Street, so I couldn’t see much. I caught a few glimpses of people in odd-looking uniforms with what looked like thin poles sticking up from their backs, but mostly I just found it fascinating to observe all the peripheral effort that was going on: wind machines being trundled around; a guy hosing down the street; the huge crane-mounted lighting rigs that must have made midnight look like daytime. Lots of pizza and food boxes being delivered for the crew. At one point a big black SUV with tinted windows passed by and the marshalls gave the crowd a big knowing grin. He didn’t say anything, though.