Day 7: From Berlin to Sachsische Schweiz National Park

Todays mileage 156 Total mileage 875

No photos of Germany today, just some photobooth shots of us honeymooners!

We got up and got out of our hotel in good time today. Wanting to make up for a late start yesterday and the call of a buffet brunch dragging us from our bed.

Despite check-out being midday, the hotel were kind enough to keep the van parked out front, meaning we could make the most of our final day in Berlin and explore some more.

We'd heard good things about the vegan brunch at a place called Cafe Vux. It was a bit of a trek out of town into the suburbs, being as it was just off Karl Marx Strasse (east or west of where the wall stood you reckon?!). A few U-Bahn trips later we made it there, only to find all the tables full, the staff surly and the whole place reeking a little too much of attitude. So sadly we didn't get any brunch there, but managed to substitute it with yet another burger at a place called Roots.

We made our way slowly back to the hotel to our van taking in a few shops and a couple more sights (The World Clock, an impromptu exhibition in the square) along the way. Then with a mixture of excitement to be back in the van, and sadness to be leaving Berlin, we set off to the countryside.

We aimed for a campsite we found in the book Cool Camping. It was located just on the German side of the border with the Czech Republic in a national park some 50 miles south if Dresden. The park was amazing, stunning scenery of hills, pine trees, rivers and valleys. A really beautiful place. I can only imagine how amazing it must be in winter covered in snow.

We arrived at our campsite at about 7 after Dermott and I had had a brief spat. He'd given us good directions the whole way, but announced our destination when we were clearly at the wrong campsite (the cool camping one in fact being our second choice). I was a little annoyed that Dermott had just randomly chosen a different campsite and vocally let my feelings be known. It was only after a couple of minutes that I realised that I was perhaps more to blame than my good Irish friend. I'd used the Cool Camping campsite's address to get a rough idea of the distance while we confirmed the location of the site we actually wanted. It seems that perhaps I never updated Dermott with the new address. Sorry mate. Still, the best thing about Dermott is that he doesn't hold a grudge and we all went to sleep on good terms.

Tomorrow we explore the park some more and then head to the Czech Republic.