MUENSTER-BERLIN. 6th-7th September

(Arrival in Muenster Saturday 6th September). After finding that all the hostels are full, I go back to the man in the info booth at the railway station, and my enquiry about 'hotels' elicits a head jerk at the crowded railway ticket office next door. Deciding that would be pointless, I ask a man at a doner kebab stand, and he points me in the direction of a 'government information office' which turns out to only sell bus tickets. I get directed from there to a 'tourist information office' in the Dom (Cathedral) Square. It was already closed, but a sign directs me to another such office in the Rathaus (Town Hall) on the other side of the square. The lady there gives me a book listing all the hotels and prices, and I mark the 3 0r 4 cheapies, and she tries ringing one for me, but it's full, and she gives up, as she is very busy. I then try ringing a couple myself without success, and then find one at 37 euro, including brekkie, which is at Wolbeck, about 9kms out. The lady tells me which bus to get, and to get out at SuiteMeyer Klostermann. I write this down as Zweit something or other, but the bus driver recognises it anyway, and I am soon showering at the hotel, which is up a side street, very clean and rather upmarket. It's still early, and I have an idea of going back into town, but as soon as I get to the bus stop I realise just how tired I am, so I walk around and find a supermarket, stock up, and am soon in bed, with lights out at 8pm.

I spent about 10 months in Muenster during National Service, and wanted to see if anything was the same. I assumed that our old camp would now house the German Army, but was interested in walking out to the camp. I'd had a look at a map of Muenster a few times the previous evening. It has roads radiating from it like the spokes of a wheel, and the only name that sounded even remotely familiar was 'Gievenbeck'. So Sunday morning I got the bus into town, and wandered down again to the Rathaus, and there was a lady there who spoke really good English. As soon as I mentioned the word 'Gievenbeck' she said 'ah, you want the barracks' and drew me a map of how to get there. I particularly wanted to walk out to the camp, because I spent the last weeks of my service there. Nowadays two years goes in a flash, but when you're 18 or 19 and you're waiting for something to happen, it can seem an eternity. That summer I and Woody, a kindred spirit, and one of nature's gentlemen, often used to go into town on a Saturday, for a couple of jars etc, and would invariably miss the last bus, so we'd walk back to camp through the countryside. And then we'd invariably start discussing our individual plans for what we were going to do when we got out. We had the whole of our lives in front of us, and some of those plans were way out! We never kept contact after demob, but over the years the memory of those walks has often come back to me.

I reach the camp, which hasn't changed an iota, and am surprised to see a sign proclaiming that it is now the home of the First Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment. I get chatting with a middle-aged man on the gate, and find out that of the five camps that there used to be in this area, this one will soon be the last, and may itself be phased out by 2012. I wander down into Gievenbeck itself, which is now like a new satellite surburb, complete with light industry. From there I walk back to town and towards the Aa See, a lake formed by a widening of the River Aa at Muenster.
I've always been fond of rowing, and would sometimes hire a boat there and row the length of the lake, and then let the boat drift, while I laid back and consumed black bread and cheese and a suitable liquid refreshment. Another idyllic memory, which I have ideas of emulating, but unfortunately the row boat pier has been replaced by a sailing club, and private at that. However, there is now a very inviting riverside cafe there, run by Italians, and I spend a pleasant hour over a passable spaghetti amatrichiana and a very passable glass of red. I then do a complete circumnavigation of the lake, which is about equivalent to walking right round Albert Park Lake, but without all the concreted paths and banks.

And then disaster. My digestive system, unused to hot Italian food and strong red wine, succumbs to Montezuma's Revenge, right in the middle of a residential suburb, and I have to hike about 2 kms to a youth hostel before I can do anything about it. ('Too much information Charles' - doesn't matter, nobody's holding a gun at your head making you read this stuff). One positive is that I ask about other hostels at the desk, and they give me for free a whole book listing details of all the German hostels. So it is a rather sore and tender, (but thankful) adventurer who totters onto the bus after only a two minutes wait (hourly service Sunday nights). After a welcome shower, I take a double dose of antibiotic, as I'm concerned about infection, and apply copious amounts of cold cream at hourly intervals, which works, and I awake Monday morning much improved, but determined to give the walking (and definately the cycling) a rest for a couple of days.

I had intended to go to an ATM and try booking something in Berlin before going back to the hotel Sunday night, but in the circumstances they became lesser priorities. Now I reap the whirlwind, because the hotel doesn't take cards, and the only ATM nearby is in German only, and I have this phobia about losing my card. So I get the bus into town, (morning peak) which takes forever, find an ATM, then race back, get my gear, and back into town. I had enquired the price of the train to Berlin on Sunday (81 euros), and wondered if it would be cheaper by bus, but enquiry at the bus ticket office revealed that buses don't run from Muenster to Berlin (possibly because they didn't run in the GDR days and the routes are still set in concrete, or, I suspect, because the railways hold a monopoly). Anyway, a pleasant surprise is that 2 trains are leaving at 11.38 am, both going via Hannover, and that while on one you have to change at Hannover, wait 30 minutes and get another train to Berlin Hauptbahnhof (main station) which costs 82 euros, the other one goes direct to Berlin, and costs only 71 euros, and that is the one I am on. The only difference is that you have to get out and change at the station before the main station, wait 6 minutes, and then a 4 minute journey. Which was great, except that our train gets delayed for ten minutes at Spandau, which means a 40 minute wait now for the next connection.
I toy with the idea of getting the S-Bahn (Metro) to the main station, but a girl and her mother that I quiz about this tell me that I'll have to change trains, and I don't really feel strong enough for that at the moment. And where can I get a ticket? 'We don't know - we get ours at home'. But they very kindly insist that I keep their S-Bahn map, as 'we have another one at home'.

Get to the Hauptbahnhof. I had rung and booked a bed at this 300-bed hostel, and the guy said to get bus N82. The only 82 bus is a M82, so I ask the driver about the hostel, (Kluckenstrasse, no.3, with a picture of a tall grey GDR-era building, but no name of the suburb). He is new on this route, and doesn't know, but says get on and we'll work it out as we go along, you can ask the passengers. He is a tall smart-looking young guy, and has a normal short back and sides haircut, but with a horizontal shaved section about an inch wide all round his head, about 3 inches from the crown. Women get on at the next 4 stops, and though everyone wants to help, nobody knows Kluckenstrasse. Then I have a brainstorm and ring the hotel on my mobile and ask, and repeat what they're saying for the driver's benefit. We pass the refurbished Reichstag, and the Brandenburg Gate and go through Potsdamer Platz and he drops me a couple of stops after.
He doesn't charge me anything, as the ticket machine is busted (most people seem to have season tickets for travelling). I ask an very unlikely-looking couple who come along for Kluckenstrasse, and they pull out a map of the district and look it up for me, and it turns out to be about 200 metres away.