For our last night in Berlin, I didn’t sleep well at all. I certainly wasn’t going to try one last run here. Our adventure was not yet over however…

Precisely two weeks ago I’d been on my way home when I received a message from DB, the German rail carrier, to say that our train from Berlin Hauptbahnhof to Wrocław Główny had been cancelled, but we could use our tickets with the same carriers for a different schedule. The earliest available train would now get us in ninety minutes later, it was a longer journey, and the connection between trains was tighter with an extra connection.

I realised though that the newly booked route could be optimised a little to give us more time. Instead of walking for twenty minutes to then catch the S-Bahn to Berlin-Lichtenberg from Berlin Hbf, I realised we could take the U3 to Warschauer Straße, and the S75 from there to the Berlin-Lichtenberg station to head to Poland for the second part of our trip. We’d forgotten we’d been to Warschauer Straße before, myself more than once, as we’d not realised it’s the name of the one by the East Side Gallery. This has eliminated a nine minute connection time as a concern, but we’d still got a five minute one in Poznan Glowny that Google Gemini suggested we couldn’t make.

We stood around waiting at Berlin-Lichtenberg, hoping the train would arrive soon - a delay could be disastrous. The board occasionally indicated a three minute delay, which would give us just two minutes to get off the train, run with our luggage to the other platform, and board the train.

Once we boarded the train, I got an email from DB to say the train was now delayed by five minutes and the connection was no longer possible. We’d got a six-seat cabin to ourselves though, and plenty of time to relax until we’d have to figure out what to do next.

there is one change for your journey today from Berlin Hbf (S-Bahn) to Wroclaw Glowny.The arrival of your today's journey with EC 47 in Poznan Glowny planned for 02:26 PM is delayed by 5 minutes. The new arrival time is 02:31 PM. Connection is not reachable.

Carmen had found a workshop she wanted to do in Wrocław, and together we decided that this evening was the best opportunity to do it. Both of our trips together this year have had an art aspect to it in addition to the running, as this was a postcard workshop where we’d get to design our own using watercolour. The problem was though, with the cancellation, and then delay in trains - could we make it?

I searched online for alternate trains - the next one on this route would be two hours after this one, and we’d miss the workshop. However, there was another route that would give us an hour to get from Wrocław Glowny to the AirBNB and then to the workshop. All was not lost.

The train stopped just before the border to Poland, and then got going again after several minutes. We were in our second country of the trip. The ticket inspector finally came round after our first Polish station, and we arrived in Poznań surprisingly a few minutes ahead of time. Another passenger was after platform 10 as well, and advised us how to get to where we wanted to go. We moved quickly, Carmen leading the way, surprisingly amble post-marathon. We got there a minute or so before the scheduled time, but the train arrived late, and departed seven minutes late. The train was busy, and some passengers were inconsiderate towards the wheelchair passengers disembarking - not letting them get off first.

We arrived in Wrocław about nine minutes late, and made our way out of the station to the nearby tram stop. We could have gotten on tram 8, but we didn’t realise at the time that you can get tickets on the tram using contactless payments. As we missed it, we waited for the number 18, and this took us near the Salt Market. We walked through that, and then the Market Square, to where the AirBNB was located at Rynek 3. This one has a code to get in, then up a couple of flights of stairs to where another electronic lock key code is needed. Our arrival time meant we’d got ninety minutes of relaxing, and drinking tea until we needed to be at the Pillory for the start of the postcard painting workshop.

Julia met us at exactly 18:00, and told us about the town hall, and some of the buildings around the Market Square, as well as the square itself, and the Salt Market. Apparently, the row of buildings that included our AirBNB were some of the only buildings that survived the Second World War.

She led us to Bułka z Masłem 2.0, where we decided on a drink to have whilst we were shown a series of pictures from around Wrocław, and some sample watercolours. I decided on doing a composite piece that would combine our visit to Berlin, Wrocław, and Kraków into one. After I’d sketched a rough outline of where things would go, I lightly wet the paper first, so that when I laid down the first colour it would be easier to blend, and keep light. With watercolour painting, I already knew that colours are additive - you build up from light to darker. I just had to be careful of how much colour I put down in one go.

I used a water brush to start off with the water and grass as everything else could be built on top of them, and would be darker. I then had to wait for these to dry to avoid bleeding, so I started on a street scene, but this was one I never got back to once my main piece had dried enough. I coloured the Brandenburg Gate and the Fernsehturm carefully, and then the runner I’d drawn between them and the Wrocław town hall. The hall I found to be the trickiest part due to the number of colours I wanted to use in a small space to represent the buildings around the market square. To help make the location more recognisable I also added a sketch of one of the dwarf statues we’d seen earlier.

The two hour session soon came to an end, and for Kraków all I really had time to do was the dragon from Wawel Castle as it was simple, and I could do it as line work. I think if we’d had double the time, I could have done a much better job than I did. It felt like everything after Berlin’s section had been a rush.

I’d had a large Earl Grey tea, and Carmen had a large fruit smoothie - neither of us had drunk much of them during the session due to our focus on painting. They only cost 40 PLN between us, which equates to around £10. Fortunately, as we’d not yet eaten and didn’t want to go looking for somewhere we liked the look of, we found a supermarket on the square too. We got some sauce and meat to go with the pasta we’d still got from the Berlin goodie bag, some breakfast, and some crisps. There wasn’t a massive amount of choice there at this time of night, but we did the best we could. What we needed came to 38.57 PLN.

I cooked us a large plate of pasta, and thought it was actually quite nice, but very filling.By the time we were done, it was almost 23:00, with a potentially early start ahead of us for a sightseeing run in the morning.