Day 8 – Florence, Pisa, Berlin

Waking up early for a bright start to the day, we arrived at the train station in time to catch the delayed earlier train to Pisa. This was incredibly fortunate as it gave us an hour in Pisa before we had to get to the airport, which gave us just enough time to march through town, luggage in tow in the sweltering heat in search of the Leaning Tower.

People have always told us not to bother much with Pisa as there’s nothing of interest. I’ll agree that it lacks the ornate nature of Florence or the amplitude of activities in Rome, but to say there is nothing there I would say is a little harsh! Beautiful buildings around old town squares alone make the trip worth it, but the area the tower is in is itself exquisite with a large fountain, beautiful church all in stark white gleaming in the sunny day and old city walls cordoning it off. The tower was smaller than I expected, but in much better condition and well worth the sweat of getting there with just enough time for a few pics before rushing back to the train station for the connection to the airport.

An easy check in and comfortable flight later, we arrived in Berlin where we had booked a car and Martin had to quickly learn to drive on the “other” side of the road, which so far he has handled spectacularly well.

A few months ago I discovered a very interesting looking hotel online. It is called Propellor Island City Lodge and is basically an art gallery with rooms you can sleep in! Each room is differently decorated, with some totally wacky, like the upside down room or the mirror room, some bizarre, like the coffins for beds or the beds in cages (!) and other less adventurous, like the floating bed or the kids castle room. Edu and Simryn’s room has a sligtly nautical feel as it is all done up in shades of blue, with steel reflective “sails” while our room, the Temple room has the bed on a raised stepped foundation, like the old Inca temples with a bathroom built like a maze!

Even the hallways are awsomely decorated, and everything is uniquely styled. I can’t wait for the next trip to Berlin so we can enjoy a different room!

And after a brief stroll around the area and a bratwurst and currywurst in a gorgeous garden stall we returned to our beautiful rooms to do just that.