Poland being back in my good books (and good to see Donald Tusk back on the scene), with the real reason being a walk with Fritz Heiber, Empor Berlin, on 2 November, with a very early start from Berlin.

Despite the fact that I am a morning person, it did not take much self-convincing to decide to treat myself to a night in a hotel in Stettin in order to be able to get up and have breakfast at leisure before meeting the others at the train station. And then – what the heck – another night there in order to have breakfast at leisure on 3 November as well, given that that is my birthday. Not an interesting birthday – 71 – but considering that I am still around, and spent my 70th birthday in “Reha”, this will make a nice change. By the way, not a word against the Hamm Klinik Sankt Peter Ording – I thoroughly enjoyed my four weeks of “Reha” there this time last autumn.

More about my strained relationship with Stettin later, which is only getting marginally better, with all those damn barriers everywhere with seemingly no other purpose than to make life miserable for pedestrians. Cars can of course move around unhindered and are clearly still king in Stettin while pedestrians are unwanted.

Anyway, I played a bit with low shutter speed, as well as (unsuccessfully) my aversion to photographing people :-), and caught some vibrant autumn colours on the way too.

By the way, I saw large flocks of storks, both in fields and in the air, but was never fast enough to photograph them. Always a wonderful sight, though.

After I had checked in at my hotel and decided to stay and not go straight back home (which I might have done, had it not been for the historical city walk I was signed up for the next day), I headed for the river. Stettin is blessed with a lot of waterfront but does nothing to make the area particularly appealing. Such a shame.

At the Chobry Embankment I headed back and started to look for a Vietnamese restaurant for dinner later, which would have been one redeeming feature, but unfortunately, I did not find any.

Some photos of the relatively new philharmonic:

Today’s afternoon route on MapMyWalk here. Total distance walked: 13,5 km.

Day 2

After a leisurely breakfast, and before meeting the other fourteen people off the bus from Berlin via Angermünde, I went out to have a look at the area beyond the central station – very run down, full of barriers, supposedly because of roadwork, and even more difficult to navigate than the area around the by now infamous new central station under construction in Stuttgart. Incidentally, Stettin reminds me quite a lot of Stuttgart – full of barriers and stairs.

Despite the fact that the others travelled on a Deutsche Bahn “Ersatzbus” from Angermünde, they arrived punctually, and we had a very nice and interesting walk. Eckehard Heiber had put in a lot of work and effort to prepare and make this happen, and even booked a table for lunch for us in a very nice restaurant: Karczma Polska with modern Polish food and great service. Highly recommended.

After the lunch, the others headed towards the station, and I went to the contemporary art section of the national museum. Not wildly interesting, I have to say. Afterwards, I checked out the shopping inferno called Galeria Kaskada. Not too bad, actually, and had I been in shopping mode, I could easily have found something to buy, and at lower prices than in Berlin.

I can’t think of anything else to do here, so tomorrow, all that remains is another leisurely breakfast (what a shame – I hate that ;-)) and return to Berlin, hopefully in time for the bridge evening at my place.

And then I have to start preparing the next project – the challenge I have set myself to visit and try to take acceptable photographs of things and places I don’t like (Christmas markets).

IN PROGRESS

With Empor Berlin: Loop from S-Bhf Strausberg to Lange Dammwiesen, Unteres Annatal, Hennickendorf, Gr. Stienitzsee.

Walk and weather both lovely, though a bit misty. Again I wondered why some people, instead of enjoying being in nature, feel compelled to talk ALL. THE. TIME. I guess that is the price I pay for having no orientation skills and sometimes just find it easier to walk with people and let them find the way :-).

I was shocked to hear on Danish TV that many Danes throw out food routinely and unceremoniously on a daily basis for the simple reason that “they can afford buying some other food tomorrow”. Words fail me.

I have always found food waste unethical and immoral, not to mention largely unnecessary.

Of course, it can happen that food becomes unsafe to eat, but with a bit of planning, it can and should be avoided most of the time.

One way is don’t buy more than you know, or think, you are going to eat. But as we all know, not all days go according to plan.

Here is another way:

A couple of days before going away for four days, I realised that I would not be eating at home any more till after my trip, and I had far too many vegetables still to use.

I love one-pot meals which can go in the freezer in portions. That way I can always pull a healthy, tasty dinner out on days where I know I will be too tired, or just too plain lazy to cook.

Here is what I did:

Two red onions and quite a lot of ginger – coarsely chopped and sizzled in some oil – practically all my one-pot meals start that way. (The garlic comes later, since it cooks very quickly).

Added two tblsp mustard seeds and two tblsp fenugreek seeds, stirred, then about a third of a tube of tomato paste, stirred, and a tub of goat yoghurt nearing its sell-by date, some water, and five bayleaves.

I then added a heaped tsp of turmeric (and don’t forget a healthy dose of freshly ground black pepper if you want the health benefits of turmeric) and the same amount of moringa powder, and a tblsp chili flakes.

Here, I added a handful of uncooked red split lentils (they will cook while simmering), some thyme sprigs from the balcony, and a glass (previously opened) of black olives about two-thirds full, and half a small glass of tahini, also previously opened, so that it would probably not keep for another week.

In went, in that order, sliced or diced: Five carrots, one sweet potato, one kohlrabi, one aubergine, two red bell peppers, and half an iceberg salad (the root end), one lemon in slices (organic like everything else, of course – never use the peel of a lemon for ANYTHING unless it is organic) and a whole head of garlic.

And finally, some leftover, cooked millet and some leftover “paleo” (mostly nuts and seeds) bread, diced. Simmered till everything is done. Stir frequently, and any hint of anything catching on the bottom, add some water. Or a tin of tomatoes. Or a tin of coconut cream. Or both. It will only get yummier.

I did not this time, but had I had a bit of peanut butter in need of being used up, I would have thrown that in as well.

Voilà, it would not win a beauty contest, but nevertheless several complete, tasty and very healthy dinners for the freezer.

For a while, Pergamon Museum – one of Berlin’s greatest assets – has been offering guided tours of five highlights and I took one with a couple of InterNations members.

Unfortunately, they have only been doing this on weekends. I can’t really stand museum on weekends, crammed full of hordes of people in picnic mode, with strollers with loudmouthed children that are sometimes let loose to run wild, and that was also the case here.

Nevertheless, the tour was interesting and the guide excellent, and of course the museum is very impressive.

Unfortunately, the museum has to close soon, one part for at least four years, for some general maintenance, and the main part – the one with e.g. the Ishtar Gate – for at least fourteen years (!) in order to fix a geological problem stemming back from the ice ages. Apparently, the whole building is resting on a giant “pocket” full of mud, and needs to be stabilised. To me that sounds like a hairraisingly daunting task, and it has to be performed by humans. What could possibly go wrong. (Seeing as it was also humans who had the bright idea of placing all those gigantic museum buildings on a tiny island surrounded by water and …. swamp in the first place).

Afterwards, in true Indian summer weather, I went to “Vegan Sundays”, this week in the new recreational area in Spreepark, “Zum Eierhäuschen”, for a little bit to eat and to play around with manual exposure and double exposure.