Gal is pretty much the reason that office work is not as tiresome as it should be. Sure, the alleviation of boredom that Gal brings correlates pretty meanly with an alleviation of productivity, but you guys, thesis writing is soooo boring, I take what I get.

One of Gal’s many talents is the ability to accurately throw stress balls at my head, full velocity. It’s such a skill that I think he put it on his CV, and we’ve now both taken to wearing safety glasses in the office more often than in the lab. Which leads to the point that, when Gal told me that I absolutely must visit the Britzer garden, I got on my bikes, and visited that darn garden!

We waited until the weather started to look promising, and we guessed the tulips would be blooming, before cycling the 30 minutes (50, because we got very lost) down to Britzer Garden, situated a bit south of Berlin-Tempelhof.

Entry costs 3 euros (there isn’t a student discount), but it’s well worth it, and if you’re super lucky, like us, the fee will buy you a visual of flowers and a cat!

Britzer is designed a bit like someone’s ideal of a sprawling English garden with fields, complete with sculptures, ‘wild flowers’, hills and lakes, blossoming trees and even livestock! It was a not-quite-natural but not-cultivated-enough-to-look-super-fake vision that drove my heart and my shutter finger crazy.

We wandered around a bit, and soon hit a small canteen area, complete with the omnipresent German snack-hofs, and a slightly obnoxious guy touting the crowd.

We bought some ‘healthy’ fries (sweet potato, and asparagus!), and left just as the live music began. Alas! Schlager music, which unfortunately followed us through the park throughout the day.

I was pretty impressed by all the flowers, but Andy was driven forward by a healthy intent to climb the highest hill in the park, from which you can see all the way to the TV tower at Alex.

Disappointingly, he did not wish to join the young kids in rolling back down the hill. So we carried on the other direction…

Germans (or I guess Europeans), love the sun. In a kind of crazy way, that you can’t quite understand if you’ve grown up and lived your life in a sunburnt country like Australia.

And Britzer Garden was pleased to indulge that love, providing lush grass and metal lounges. So here they were,  in the earliest days of spring, sprinkled across the lawns, lounging and lazing and bathing.

I tried it on for size. 

I’m not sure what this face is.

I’m not sure what this face is  what either of these faces are.

I think I was excited by all the yellow.

Not nearly as cool as finding a tulip that matched my coat!

I guess Andy’s more of a white-on-white kind of guy.

Ever practical, the Germans use their public land for livestock…and train their small-sized children to build adequate shelter for the winter.

MAAH!

The weather looked like it  was about to turn, so we were headed out when we stumbled across the tulip patch. I can’t beleive we almost missed them!

Hundreds of varieties of tulips, layed out in rows beneath blossoming trees. Seriously spectacular.

(These guys are my favourite I think. So much red, but such a messy, splattered little look. I shall call them my spirit flower).                  

After some minutes of gazing and oohing and aahing, the weather started to look even seedier, and my camera card got pretty full, so we made our way out.

Exiting through the draping blossoms.

We headed out there three or four weeks ago, so I think the tulips are still blooming strong, but you can always check the events and timing on the website before popping on over.

Apart from the Schlager music, it was a pretty lovely day!