Higlights The apartment in Berlin and the Halensee.

We packed and left at about 9.45am as planned, Google maps had again suggested 2 different routes, with minimal time difference, both getting close to our apartment on an autobahn, so we left the Tomtom to choose. It gave us a route through the Czech Republic for a bit longer, and not going near Dresden. As we had no intention of trying to get into a city on the way, that was fine. We filled the car with the cheaper fuel from the Czech Republic and Katherine spent the last crowns on snacks.

We were due to arrive between 3pm and 4pm and the GPS was saying 2pm so we looked for a place off the autobahn. I choose Delitzch for no real reasons other than it went off to the right and seemed both big enough for restaurants and small enough for parking. We drove through countryside until we go to the outskirts. First there was parking but no cafes. Then parking but no places to sit and eat and provide toilets. Finally, we spotted a Greek restaurant and it had all we needed. It was a very friendly spot, that obviously had a regular clientele, some of whom even chatted to us as we left.

Back on the road and roadworks became our bane. We ended up at the set address at 3.40pm, having kept in regular contact with the airBNB owners at their request.

Wow. We have had some good spots but this must be very hard to beat. Our friends, Jeni and Gary, had suggested we try to get in here as they had had a wonderful stay. Heidrun and Tobias have people stay in their own apartment when they are away. We had to wait a couple of days for a booking to be confirmed when we first tried to book. They then arranged to meet family at a place in the Baltic, so we were accepted.

We were first offered coffee, biscuits and conversation. Eventually Tobias showed us his apartment manual. As we have free use of the apartment it included manuals for the coffee makers, dishwasher, induction cooker, TV, DVD player as well as the washing machine and drier. He included suggested walks, public transport maps, suggested eating places and areas of interest. There were also maps and tour guides on a side table. We have a patio as well as a lounge in the 130 square metre apartment. Then we were told that we should use any food in the apartment, some of which had been bought just for us and drink the wine in the fridge which was a welcome gift. The final instructions were to help ourselves to schnapps and an offer for Katherine to stay any time free of charge.

They left and we did do a suggested walk around a nearby lake, Halensee. There had been a few comments made to us about the area which we gathered, correctly, was frequented by a number of naturists. The Lake had been too overgrown or polluted for swimming until a few years ago but is fine now. We saw a couple in swimming but soon realised we could only walk a certain distance by the Lake and the rest was on streets with no view.

Back at the apartment we looked for a local restaurant. We headed in what seemed an odd direction to find a local spot where the waiter was happy to help us order. We then returned back home via a supermarket, as we had decided on a deli tea the next day.