I actually managed to sleep until 6:30 am today! Mom got up, too, and while she showered I went downstairs. Herbert came along shortly after and when Mom was done in the shower I showered. The shower here is about a 4x4 square, I kid you not. It has foldable doors that stay shut unless you accidentally lean against them. I speak from experience. We put our toiletries in our suitcases and went downstairs for breakfast.
Anja had planned Müseli with homemade yogurt, having made the yogurt last night and putting it in the oven overnight. However, when she took it out it had separated, telling her that the ok was spoiled. So instead we had it with milk after Herbert returned from the store with it. There were a couple of grains, several different nuts and as well as bananas, dried cranberries, blueberries and raspberries in it. Ohmygosh YUM! We are with small spoons and it really helped ensure we savored the meal.
Mom and I made sandwiches with lots of leftover items to take with us on the train to Berlin today. I used Bröetchen and she used some black bread. We had Remolade (a sort of herb mayonnaise) serve as mayo, lettuce, tomato and baby cucumber from the garden and Mom’s leftover steak from Sat. night. Anja gave us Ziplocs to put the sandwiches in and I put them in my backpack.
The time had finally arrived that we needed to put on our shoes and pick up our bags and head to the train station in Wuppertal. Naila was not pleased to be left at home in favor of our bags in the way back of the station wagon. We drove a short while on the Autobahn and Herbert kept the speed to a level so as not to freak me out. We arrived at the train station without spotting the hanging train that Wuppertal is famous for. *sigh*
After confirming the platform our train would arrive on we found it easily and our train arrived quickly and goodbyes were difficult, many photos were taken and all too soon we were boarding and waving goodbye.
After walking the full length of the car to find our reserved seats we discovered there were 2 men sitting there already. Mom pulled out her printed reservation and went and spoke with them. They picked up their belongings and went elsewhere. Looking at the display above our seats I saw that it incorrectly read that the seats were available and not reserved, but Mom paid extra to reserve them and had the paperwork to prove it, so we were ok. When the Conductor came by to check our tickets all went well. We settled in for an approx. 4 hour train ride. Mom reports he was quite conversational and jovial.
The countryside slipped away quickly and I mean quickly! As in speeds up to and at times exceeding 150 miles and hour. We ate lunch and realized that not only was the train filled but there were many sitting on the floor between the cars and in the hallway of the car behind us. I am truly grateful she made seat reservations! Before we knew it we arrived at the Berlin Hauptbanhof, debarked and after initially going the wrong way, we found our Tram line and boarded. We made our Tram change correctly and soon saw our hotel and we got off where we had been told to and made our way into the hotel and checked in. We found our on on the 4th floor of the hotel but was on Floor 3. In Europe the Ground Floor is just that, the Ground Floor. The 1st floor is what we in the US refers to as the 2nd floor.
We unpacked, changed clothes and went out to explore our neighborhood and were in search of a place for a refreshment, specifically a Berliner Weisse, a mixture of beer and fruit juice. I know, for those of you who are beer drinkers that sounds horrible. But for non-beer drinkers like us, it’s really yummy! We found it at, of all place, a Mexican Restaurant. Our neighborhood, Prenzlauer Berg, is a former hippie artist neighborhood and is absolutely jam packed with restaurants. We found a couple of laundromats, boutique clothing stores, but mostly one after the other of restaurants. I wondered how they can all stay in business with so many of them in the same area.
After wandering back towards the hotel we found a Lebanese restaurant that interested Mom. It was busy so we we hurried back to the hotel to changes clothes and got the last open table when we returned. We ordered lentil soup and a chicken breast plate that came with salad and rice and I wondered how that would be enough for us to share, as she wanted to do. Let me tell you this plate was a platter. It was huge by my standards for a single entree and i was glad we were sharing. It had what I would consider a double serving of rice, a gorgeous salad with greens, alfalfa sprouts, cucumbers and a mild dressing, but Mom said she preferred Anja’s homemade dressings that she’s been having for the past 10 days. Well, yeah, me, too, but this was good. There were pickled veggies and pickles, a couple of pieces of roasted potato on top of a plain grilled chicken breast and the most divine garlic sauce. I mean, I love Zankou’s garlic sauce but this was next level. Unfortunately, there was a spicy relish over some of it, so I didn’t get to eat it all. We had a Mango Shake that was just like a Mango Lasse you’d get at an Indian restaurant and a bottle of “still” water, as opposed to fizzy, carbonated water. The meal was also served with pita bread but it was the size of a small steering wheel. Between the 2 of us we only ate 1 of the 2 brought to the table. This place was so popular they brought out 4 long tables while we were there to accommodate the growing crowd. Wowee!
We decided to walk off dinner and wandered in the other direction than we had gone this afternoon and found ourselves in a park with a pond with lily pads. We sat and people watched a bit and slowly made our way back by a different direction, passing a local Evengelische Zionkirsche (Lutheran) church that was closed up tight, gates on the front door made it look like it hadn’t been used in a long time, however the bulletin board out front boasted activities for the week.
We came back to the room, watched a little CNN and went to bed. Here’s hoping I don’t hear the trams all night through my earplugs…
My journey today was one of transition to a new chapter of this adventure with Mom.
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