A Journey of Shopping and Music

Today is Shopping Day!  We went to KaDeWe anticipating spending the whole day browsing the 7 floors of department store goodness.  Instead… well, let me back up.

We slept in and weren’t in a hurry to get out of the room since we didn’t have any timed plans for the day. We went to our regular früstuck place.  We had lattes, I had müseli and an apple danish type sweet and Mom had a half of a Bröetchen with sautéed veggies and a sunny side up egg on it.  It was cold, but yummy.  Then we took the U-bahn further than we had yet and got off in the oldest U-bahn station in Berlin.  Rick Steves says to look around at the old time ads on the walls.  We did, I took pics and will post on Facebook when I get home. They were fun!

We emerged from under ground and bang!  There was KaDeWe smack in front of us!  It’s sometimes a crap shoot if we’ll come out on the right side or not.  The signs down below give directions for which street is which direction, but we don’t always know what street we want, but we do know what sight we want to see, so there’s that.  We guessed right this time!  The store is an imposing size being all one store and not a mixed use building.  We entered, eager with anticipation of what treasures awaited us.

We were immediately greeted with a Macy’s type 1st floor make-up section with high end jewelry behind it, I mean Rolex, Tiffany, Bulgari and the like as well as high end Chanel bags, Prada and similar brands. They all had stanchions ropes across the entry to their stores and I can only imagine you had to go through a financial application in order to enter.  Mom tried to take a picture of the front of Tiffany for Premilla and got scolded and told Nicht photographs! by the guard.  Yikes!  Okee dokee, sir.  I promise we’re not staking out the place.  We went up to the 1st floor (remember our 1st floor is their Ground Floor) and found Men’s wear.  The “Sale” rack had t-shirts for 70 Euro, after mark down!  Yikes!  Moving on… Up to the 2nd floor.  Women’s wear.  High end clothing.  Jimmy Choo shoes for $895.  Next!  Another floor of Woman’s wear, another floor of high end items.  There was nothing we could afford.  We were getting disappointed.  We moved to the 4th floor and it was Housewares. Nothing here we can buy cuz we can’t take it home, if we could afford it.  

The 5th floor was books, stationary, Mont Blanc pens and supposedly Souvenirs.  We wandered and wandered and couldn’t find any so we had to ask.  Well darned if this place doesn’t have all sorts of nooks and crannies behind walls we didn’t see.  Finally found souvenirs.  Yay for stuff we could afford.  All 3 shelves of it. What???  Seriously, very little to choose from.  We managed to find a couple of key chains, and some AmpleMann stuff (Google it, trust me, very cute).  Finally we headed to the 6th floor, Food!  Lots of individual food stalls offering everything from sandwiches to champagne (Veuve Cliquot, thankyouverymuch).  Tall tables were scattered to sit and enjoy your feast.  There were a couple of full on butchers, raw meat on display and all, as well as ice cream, chocolate (LOTS of different sellers of individual truffle size bites up to gourmet full bars.) We couldn’t decide on a stall to have lunch at when Mom suggested we look at the restaurant on the top (7th) floor.  It’s a cafeteria style place that was high end. We wandered through and it all looked so good!  We decided to stay here, share a Rinderrouladen (thin slices of beef with bacon and a pickle rolled inside, served with Rotkohl (German cooked red cabbage) and roasted potatoes.  I went to the salad bar and got a serving of cucumber salad.  We each chose a drink then we went to find a seat by the window for spectacular views of the city.  Well, we didn’t get right next to the window but with the large windows and windows on top, we had a fabulous lunch!

We went back to the 6th floor and I bought some chocolate, along with a small piece I could eat right away.  We asked about touristy items and were directed out to the street to the “I Love Berlin” type stores.  Off we went, found a few shops, browsed made some purchases then wondered how we’d spend the rest of the day, as we had intended to be at KaDeWe all day.  We decided to walk the couple of blocks to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.  This is a church that was heavily bombed during WWII, and all that remains now is the spire.  It’s one of the iconic sights in Berlin.  I encourage you to Google it.  The Germans decided not to demolish the spire, but to preserve it as a visible reminder of the destruction of war.  There are reminders everywhere in Berlin of the cost of war.  Lest We Forget is a typical phrase here.

We went into the Memorial portion of the church and viewed a photo display and explanation of what the church looked like before and after the war and the reasons for preserving it.  We went into the new church on the same grounds and sat and saw the amazingly beautiful stained glass that surrounds the congregation on all 8 sides.  It’s not like our stained glass in churches at home. No depictions of Christ or Disciples or the Virgin Mary. Pictures soon.  Mom saw a poster outside about Organ Vespers tonight at 6 pm.  We decided to attend and then hop Bus #100 and ricky tick over to The Dome for the 8 pm Choral Concert we learned about on our 1st day in Berlin.

We went outside and solemnly paid our respects at the Memorial to the 12 people killed in the terrorist attack at the Christmas Market just outside the church on December 19, 2016.  We did a little more wandering in and out of tourist shops and decided to sit down in a cafe and have a cool drink while we waited for the 6 pm Organ Vespers.  Mom had a bottled peach tea and I had a blood orange Orangina.

The Organ Vespers was magnificent!  So moving.  I saw Mom listening with her eyes closed most of the time.  The sound was hypnotic.  We quickly left and found the bus to go to The Dome.  We slid into our seats after a quick bio break (a 50 cent donation for the church) just as announcements introducing the choral group and instrumentalists from Zurich was starting.  They sang a Bach Contata and a Bach Mass. I thought it odd that they came all this way to sing a 45 min. concert.  Mom said she thinks they’ll be doing other things in town to keep busy.  She thought the choristers sounded “mushy” and that the acoustics were not designed for singing.  We enjoyed the music, nonetheless.

It was now 9 pm and we navigated the bus to the U-bahn in the fading light and got back to our hotel by 10 pm and fell into bed about 11 pm.  Tomorrow will be an early day as we need to get up, showered, frühstuck’d and *back* to The Dome for the 10 am service!

My journey today was one of disappointment with some retail therapy and music and more music to fill my soul.

A Journey of Anticipation

Today’s schedule changed after we returned to our room last night and found a message from Mom’s Berlin college friend Manfred.  She had been corresponding with him before she left home, but had no definitive response that he was going to be able to come to Berlin to see us, let alone any sort of definitive day/place/time to meet. We got a message on Thurs. night that came in Wed. night and we neglected to ask the front desk if we had any messages that night.   He had said to meet him on Thurs. at 3 pm at a specific spot.  We got the message after 8 pm on Thurs. night.  We called his hotel and were told his room didn’t have a phone and no, the front desk person couldn’t take a message because Manfred wouldn’t know to stop and ask.  We momentarily looked into how to get to his hotel, to see if we could find him Thurs. night.  We decided against it as we didn’t want to be traveling while it getting to be dusk and dark.

We decided to postpone our plans to start at the Nationale Deutsche Museum at 10 am and to go to his hotel and write a note ourselves and ask that it be slipped under his door.  After breakfast we did exactly that.  We had breakfast at has now become “our frühstuck spot”.  I had the yogurt müseli parfait and a slice of zucchini quiche, while Mom had the couscous again.  We both had lattes.  We walked to the U-barn and after we got off a the station closest to his hotel, I used my Google Maps app and was given walking directions.  We were at his hotel in less than 10 mins.  Mom wrote a note in German and we asked the front desk rep if he’d make sure it was slipped under his door.  We gave a 1 euro tip.  He said yes, and gave the tip back, saying it wasn’t necessary.  I should mention Manfred doesn’t have a cell phone.

We left and formatted a plan for the rest of the day.  We’d go to the museum then head over KaDeWe (more on that later) and perhaps have lunch there before heading back to the appointed meeting spot at 3 pm.  We arrived at the museum, paid our fee, stashed our backpacks and entered.  The exhibition was not at all what Mom had been expecting.  It was talking about “What is a citizen” and what the word has meant through the history of Germany and how it has been given to some and taken away from others.  While interesting, it was not what we had been anticipating.  Mom asked one of the employees and was told that indeed, the building we thought we’d be in is under renovation, that this is the supplemental exhibition.  Ah-so.  Okee dokee.  We finished on that floor and then went upstairs to see a photo exhibit of former Chancellor Angela Merkel.  It started in 1991 when she started her political career and went through 2021 when she stopped being Chancellor.  There were only 2 pictures from each year and they were all formatted the same.  One bust shot and one 3/4 shot.  These were each accompanied by a quote from her at the time, sometimes about her political life, some about what was going on in the country and some were simply about her life as herself at home not related to being Chancellor.  The photos were all in black and white.  It was quite interesting and a nice departure from the heavy museum stuff we did yesterday.  We also took a bit of time viewing the exhibition about Richard Wagner (Vog-ner) the composer.  Some of the exhibition focused on the fact that he had anti-Semitic views and was a favorite of Hitler’s.

When we decided we were museum’d out, we began a trek toward KaDeWe (short for Kaufhaus Des Westens, meaning Department Store of the West).  It’s 7 floors high and boasts one floor dedicated to food!  We took an U-bahn to the Hauptbahnhof with the intention of transferring to another U-bahn that stops near KaDeWe.  When we got to the Hauptbahnhof we couldn’t find the other U-bahn so we asked at the Visitor’s Center how best to get there.  We were given instructions about taking a bus.  We made our way out and to the bus stop.  I don’t think I’ve mentioned yet that Berlin is a city where a LOT of people ride bikes.  There are dedicated bike paths in the street and on the sidewalk.  The bikes have the right of way in the bike path.  Woe be the pedestrian who doesn’t get out of their way.  Mom didn’t get out of the way fast enough today and almost, key word being almost, got taken out by a bike.  I hollered and she turned around and didn’t collide with him, thankfully.

At the bus stop the digital sign said the one we wanted would be there in 9 mins.  3 mins later it still said 9 mins.  Then it changed to 8 and said that for a few more mins.  This went on and what should’ve been 9 finally turned into Delayed. *sigh*  I suggested we abandon this plan and go to KaDeWe tomorrow, as we want to spend a majority of the day exploring it.  Let’s go find lunch near the place where we’re to meet Manfred, then we won’t have any transportation issues and we’ll be there on time.  Mom agreed to that.

After braving the Hauptbahnhof again to get the U-bahn, Mom stated she doesn’t want to go through there again if we can help it.  It’s so super crazy and confusing with U-bahns, S-bahns and regular trains all going through there and all of them using numbers for their tracks, it can be difficult to know where to go at times.  Ok, we’ll try not to change there from now on.

We found a Donner (gyro) type place for lunch and ordered a chicken Donner and a small fries.  Mom finished her couscous from breakfast and only had a couple of bites of the Donner and a couple of fries.  It was so yummy!  We then found a public toilet, paid our 50 cents each then were off to the appointed meeting spot, where we proceeded to wait for an hour, as we said we’d do.  Each older man who was alone drew our scrutiny.  Was it he?  Was there someone looking around like they were looking at us, trying to decide if we were the right people?  All of the answers came back No.  We were very sad.  We enjoyed the outdoor cello concert that was given by a woman who had her case open for donations while we waited and we dropped a donation in as we left.

Ok, now what?  I suggested we go to the Brandenburg Gate as we hadn’t been there yet, so off we went.  We spent a little bit of time approaching it and then just standing admiring it’s size and history.  Surrounding the plaza in front of the Gate are several Embassies, USA, France, Britain and Russia, the Axis Powers.  Mom had read that there is a Silent Room on one side under the arches and she wanted to find it, so we did.  We entered and were silent.  It was a simple room with basic plastic chairs, cloth ceiling to floor blinds and a non-descript weaving on the wall.  We sat a few mins. and left, walking under the Gate and out the other side.  There is a Memorial to the Murdered Jews a block away and we went there next.  We walked along the length of the US Embassy to get to the Memorial.  It is 1 square block in size and has 2,711 cement rectangles of various heights that allow for contemplative walking in amongst them.  The paths are straight but head down, some look like a roller coaster, up and down, allowing for a person to get completely lost in and among the maze.  It was a sobering time walking and thinking about the millions of Jews murdered in WWII.  How awful that we’ll never know how much better this world could be now if they had lived.

We sat at one end and spoke about our time there before moving on.  I mentioned a memorial I remember from when we were here 40 years ago, on a river bank, several white crosses stuck in the dirt to commemorate the people who had tried to escape East Berlin by swimming across the river and were shot.  Mom said she thinks we passed that the other day on our boat ride and it’s up by the Reichstag (Capitol building).  As we got near we found some white crosses with pictures of people who were killed trying to escape.  We spent some time there reading their stories.  Walking across the street we saw some folks queueing to get into the Reichstag.  Mom thought it odd as it was now 5:30 pm.  We walked up and found they were indeed still letting people in.  Our reservation is for Sunday afternoon.  We inquired and were told our Driver’s Licenses would be sufficient photo proof and they don’t require our passports to enter.  Yay!  We also saw the Memorial to 96 Legislators who opposed Hitler and they subsequently killed.  We never found the exact spot of the white crosses on the rover bank that matches the picture in my head, but this area has been developed extensively since 1981.  I’m sure it’s been updated and moved.

We walked and walked and walked after that and I said I was really quite done and tired, could we go back to the room now?  Mom agreed and asked where we should stop for dinner.  Honestly, I’m still full from lunch, I told her.  She was happy not to eat more, so we went right back to the hotel, stopping only at our local Berliner Weisse dealer’s establishment.  I perused their chip section, looking for something unusual and interesting.  Finding nothing unusual, I settled for a bag of “Student Chow” which was just mixed nuts.  We found 2 different flavors of Berliner Weisse tonight!  We got 1 of each.

Back in the room we relaxed, watched some news in English and tiring of that found a football (soccer) match to watch with the volume all the way down, while we blogged.  I’m hoping for an early night tonight.  I didn’t sleep well or much last night.

My journey today has been one of disappointment and recovery.

A Journey of Museum-going

Today has been our longest day away from the hotel in 1 shot.  I woke up at 5:30 am and was hot so I flip-flopped my head to the other end of the bed and managed to fall back asleep within an hour and woke up just before 8 am to find Mom just getting out of the shower.  We dressed and left the room by 9 am.a

We went back to the same frühstuck restaurant as yesterday.  I had a müseli yogurt parfait (yum!) with kirche (cherry) cake and Mom had a parfait container sized portion of, wait for it, couscous.  Yes, folks, orange colored couscous.  She said wanted something light and not sweet and they had all their lunch options out already so she chose couscous.  Whatever floats your boat and makes you happy, Mom.  We both had iced lattes.

Today was our Museum Day.  We had a time reservation for the Pergamon Museum for 4 pm.  We had tickets for any and all museums we wanted to go to today.  In addition to the Pergamon, Mom wanted to go to the Altes Nationale Gallerie (Old National Gallery) and the Neues Museum (New Museum) where  Nefertiti is, but when we had tried to get reservations for entry times for those we were unsuccessful, so we decided to get there early and stand in line if we had to.  The first one we went to, the Altes Museum,  let us right in since we already had the day pass.  Yay!  We spent a good 2 hours there seeing many famous and not at all famous paintings and sculptures.  We saw original paintings by Monet, Manet, Renoir, Cezanne, Degas, paintings I’ve seen in books or posters but never in person.  We saw the original The Thinker by Rodin   But, my favorite of the day was one titled The Blue Grotto in Capri by Carl Friedrich Sieffert.  The study of light and shadows was stunning and it has a fantastic depth to the grotto.  The blue is mesmerizing.  Look it up.  See for yourself.

When we were done there we went right to the Neuse Museum to see about getting in.  There was a line, so we waited.  When we got to the front Mom explained that we had a ticket but no reservation.  The man told us that they were full at the moment, that we needed to wait a bit.  So we waited maybe 10 mins and then he let us in.  Yay!  Mom was eager to see Nefertiti as her father was enamored with her.  We worked our way through the museum and saw the Golden Hat, a late Bronze Age artifact that is 30 inches tall and is said to have served astrological & calendar functions.  We also saw replicas of the bronze doors from the Baptistry at the cathedral in Florence that I’ve seen in person.  And we saw Nefertiti!  We’re not sure what it is about her that captivated my Papa, but it was great to see such a famous work in person.  The bust is only 18 inches tall and is painted limestone.

When we left the Neues Museum we sat down and Mom marveled and glowed that we were able to get into both museums without having reservations.  She was very happy!  Yay!  We then took the U-bahn to the Hauptbahnhof to get a sandwich to share.  It was 2:30 by now and we needed to be back at Museum Island for our 4 pm Pergamon Museum reservation.  We shared a baguette sandwich with the bare minimum amount of ham, cheese, lettuce and tomato possible to still be called a sandwich.  And a bottle of water.  We rode the U-Bahnhofstrasse back to Museum Island and after going the wrong way to find the entrance (my bad) I found a small sigh we had missed that showed we had passed it several times.z. We sat on the steps and waited as it was not yet 4 pm.  I asked Mom if Rick Steves mentioned in his book about an alternate entrance while the Island is undergoing extensive construction.  She looked and lo and behold, he did!  He said exactly where it was.  So, her bad.  :) We called it a wash as we were still early.

We entered and after a small snafu with finding our reservations on my email on her phone, we found it and were admitted.  We were offered an audio tour in English for free and were given a smartphone type device with Walkman-style headphones.  And we were off!  How to describe the Pergamon… It features full-scale reconstructions of architectural monuments from Greek and Roman antiquity.  The main attraction is the Pergamon Altar that dates back to 180 BC.  The museum is undergoing extensive renovation and the room the altar is in is off limits until at least 2025.  *sigh*. Oh well.  We’ve both been here previously and seen it already.  We spent a lot of time looking at the Ishtar Gate and Processional Way of Babylon and all the other artifacts like sarcophaguses (sarcophagi?) and plates, bowls, and all manner of other daily living items from that time period.   We also saw the skull of a Neanderthal!  We spent 2.5 hours here and also saw artifacts from a 6,000 year time period from the regions of Mesopotamia, Syria and Anatolia.

When we walked out of there at 6:30 pm we were done. D.O.N.E. done.  We had seen most, if not all, of 3 of the. 5 museums on Museum Island.  It was all we could do to drag ourselves to the U-bahn and figure out where we needed to change to get to the desired station nearest the place we wanted to have dinner.  But, somehow we managed and got to the Ukrainian restaurant that we had seen on our dinner walk last night.  Mom ordered a bowl of borscht (beet soup with potatoes and carrots served with a dollop of sour cream (Yum!) and I had a plate of potato pierogies.  They were small but there were 9 of them!  Our meals each came with a Bröetchen.  I had some of Mom’s soup, and despite my pierogies being filled with mashed potatoes, she only ate 1.  We shared a bottle of water.  The total bill was less than $21!  Wowee!

We returned to our hotel and were too stuffed for ice cream, but we did stop for a bottle of Berliner Weisse, which we shared when we got back to the room.

We each blogged and now it’s after 11 pm and time to go to bed.

My journey today was one of learning and absorbing knowledge and observing great art.

A Journey of Touristy Spots

Fortunately I was able to get back to sleep at 7 am after initially waking up at 5:30.  I slept about another hour before hearing Mom in the shower.  I showered when she was done, we dressed and headed out to frühstuck (breakfast).  She ordered a shakshuka style dish but the eggs were scrambled into the sauce.  I had a piece of toast with 2 eggs and arugula that came with a small jar of yogurt and Museli.  There were a few pieces of fruit on the plate and the whole meal came with a small glass of orange juice.  Mom had an iced latte and I had an iced mocha.

After eating we headed right out to finish our walk of Prinzlauer Berg.  We were guided down a street we’ve now been down several times but places were mentioned in the guidebook that we had seen but not known what their story was until now.  On one side of the street there are 2 spots where buildings should be, in the style of the block, but there are no buildings.  We learned in these spots 2 of the rare bombs that fell in Prinzlauer Berg during WWII destroyed the buildings and the structures were not rebuilt.  We passed a store that carries GDR memorabilia.

As we turned the corner we were instructed to look at the side of a building where a large image had been installed of people who came to this spot on Nov. 11, 1989 when the part of the Berlin Wall here came down and people flooded out of Prinzlauer Berg in East Germany into the other side into West Berlin.  There were metal columns showing where the Wall had been that had information on them about the construction and demolition of the Wall in this spot.  We continued across the street and up to the Stadium the Soviets built for the citizens in the East, but from inside the view was blocked by a separate Wall so when they were in the stadium they’d be unable to see into the West.  There were several artists painting over what we could see was decades and layers of paint beneath.  There were large pieces of old paint on the ground that had been peeled off to allow for new layers of paint.  I took a picture of one of the artists and he turned and said something in German to me in a sharp tone.  Mom caught a little bit of it and I got the gist that he said I needed to have asked his permission before taking a picture.  I put my hands together and bent slightly and said “I’m sorry.” and he seemed satisfied, but it was a weird interaction that’s stayed with me awhile.

We walked back down to the street and took a tram to the Berlin Wall Visitor’s Center where we viewed an animated depiction of how the area of the Wall and “No Man’s Land” in the middle was enforced by barbed wires, dogs, soldiers with guns, trip wire guns that shot like 10 rounds and buried bombs.  It led into a film in German with English subtitles that showed how the Wall was constructed, how the division of land started with painting a line in the street between East and West Berlin and how soldiers were guarding the areas and that was soon covered with barbed wire across the ground until the building of the Wall began in earnest.  We saw people trying to cross in the early days, including a woman who ran right into and through the barbed wire.  It was terrifying and horrific.  The film showed the final days leading up to and included the demolition of the Wall.  It mentioned and showed Gorbachev but not Reagan.

After debriefing what we’d seen, we decided to move on to our next activity, a boat ride on the River Spree.  We took a tram to the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) and then transferred to the U-bahn (subway) and took it to Museum Island, which is surrounded by the River Spree.  We found a spot that we thought Rick Steves had described in his tour book as the place to meet his favorite tour boat company, but we didn’t see the name he mentioned.  We looked around and didn’t see any others, so we decided to take this boat.  What looked like a husband and wife team (she was the pilot!) were kind and welcoming.  It was a fairly small boat and the 33 passengers were all offered something to drink (for a price).  Mom and I each got a bottle of still water.

The 1 hour tour was extensive, going by ALL the sights in Berlin visible from the River Spree, Museum Island, the Reichstag (the capital building, where Congress meets), the Chancellor’s building, the financial district, the House of Culture (nicknamed the Pregnant Oyster) that was built by the Americans after the war as part of the rebuilding effort.  The day was cool and overcast with a slight breeze until about 3/4 of the way through.  Then we sailed into a part of the River where there was no cloud cover and it got hot!  It really started to feel the 86 degrees it was forecasted to be today.

After the River tour we walked across the park to St. Hedwig’s, the church Mom wants to attend on Sunday, to see if they will be offering any special concerts this week.  Indeed, there will be a visiting choral group on Sat. at 8 pm.  I think that’s in our future.  We took the U-bahn back to the Hauptbahnhof and found a WC.  Now for one of the times Mom has said all along that is one of the things she was least looking forward to about being in Europe, paying to go pee.  With that task accomplished I expressed a desire for a small snack, as it was now about 3:30 pm and we hadn’t had lunch.  She chose a veggie pita sandwich and I had a slice of cheese pizza.  We ate in the food court and enjoyed the air conditioning before heading back to the U-barn (down, down, down into the land of stale air) and took it back to the place where we had found the River Boat, but went around the corner and boarded Bus #100 and took it to its terminus at the Zoo before getting on the same bus going all the way to its terminus at the other end.  Along the way each direction we passed some of the major tourist sites in Berlin, the Reichstag, the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church that was bombed during the war and has been left as a reminder of the war.  We also passed Schloss Bellevue (castle once inhabited by royalty that no longer exists), the Brandenburg Gate and the Victory Column that was commissioned for the Prussians prevailing in the Second Schleswig War and served to commemorate victories in the following wars.  I hope to go back on foot to the Brandenburg Gate and the Kaiser Wilhelm Church.  The area around both seems so much more built up than when I was here in 1994.  I’ll have to compare pictures when I get home.

We got back on the U-barn and got off a short distance from our hotel and walked back.  It was time to do my one task for work that absolutely needed doing while I’m away, run payroll.  Since I am able to access Wi-Fi and the internet, I tested being able to access our company’s software first arrived in Berlin and today was the day to pull the switch and get ‘er done!  I did it in relatively little time and we were off again in search of dinner.  We found a small hole in the wall Chinese style restaurant and between our 2 entrees (beef/broccoli with rice and noodles with chicken & veggies) plus 3 bottles of drinks, it was less than 15 euro!  And the euro is equal to the dollar now so that was a bargain!  On our way back to the hotel was meandered slowly, scoping out a spot for dinner tomorrow, then wandering through a local grocery store in search of fun flavored potato chips to take home.

We stopped at the small drinks/smoke shop next to our hotel and bought a couple of ice creams on a stick and a bottle of cherry flavored Berliner Weisse, all to serve as our dessert.

We both wrote in our blogs and as it’s 10:45 pm and finally dark outside, I think I’ll go to bed.

My journey today was one of familiar sights and relaxed time spent with my Mommy.

A Journey With Sore Feet

I am hearing way more English than I expected to.  I wasn’t aware until I got here how strong the dollar is against the Euro.  Americans are taking advantage and are in Berlin!  I’m sad to report, however, that a lot of them don’t seem to be trying to speak German at all, at least not within my earshot.  That makes me sad.  Yes, I have a near-fluent German speaker with me, but I also try German first when interacting with the people we speak to.

Today started about 6:30 am for me.  I’m happy to report I did not hear the tram through my earplugs.  Yay!  I got up and Mom was still asleep so I sat at the desk and powered up my ipad and sent a WhatsApp to Kenji.  Hmmm… it didn’t seem to go through.  So I sent a message request through Messenger and we chatted for a bit there as he and Leo were winding down their day back home.  After rebooting my phone connectivity to WhatsApp returned. Phew!  Mom got up and showered and we both got dressed and set out to find the restaurant we decided on last night for breakfast today.  Now, which direction was it?  What side of the street was it on?  Was it down the side street?  It had an A-frame chalkboard menu.  Let’s look for that.  Let’s walk and we’ll remember it when we see it.  Fat chance.  We walked up and down all the streets we thought it was on for 30 mins.  We didn’t find the fruhstuck (breakfast) place that was the one we wanted.  So we found a suitable replacement.  After waiting a while for a table outside we settled for a shared common table inside.  We found a couple of items we agreed to share.  Mom had dark bread toast with guacamole, a poached egg and alfalfa sprouts with a salad.  I had a yogurt bowl with granola and berries.  Yum!  I seriously need to start making these at home.  I eat it frequently when I’m traveling.  Too bad berries are so expensive and leave a huge carbon footprint.  We chatted with a young couple we shared a long common table with and they had been in Berlin for 4 days and were on their way to the Czech Republic for 3 days before heading back to Saudi Arabia.  She works for Price Waterhouse and he’s in a PhD program for climate studies.  She’s a native of Saudi Arabia and he’s Ecuadorian.

Returning to the hotel to put on shorts and leave our sweaters there (it was chilly when we left for breakfast) we were on the side of the street as our hotel, about a block away, when we spotted a familiar A-frame chalkboard on the other side of the street.  Was it the right one???  We crossed the still slightly sleepy street and indeed, it was!  Ok!  Mark the spot!  What’s it called?  Why didn’t we see it earlier?  Looking at the side of the street we had been on, we both noticed a statue of an elephant that had taken our attention away from looking across the street at that moment.  *sigh*. Ok.  Tomorrow.

After changing into our clothes for the day’s walking tour around Prenzlauer Berg, the neighborhood we’re staying in, we set out.  We agreed that while we were following Rick Steves’ recommended walking tour, and he suggests it’s a 90 min. walk, we didn’t have anything else on the schedule today and we’d take our time.  6 hours later… no joke.  We saw historic architecture, water towers on a hill (berg, hence the name of the neighborhood), Germany’s oldest synagogue, home and statue of Kathë Kollwitz (a local printer and sculptor), a gargoyle water hole that apparently lots of folks parking their car in front of fail to judge how far it sticks out into the slot as there is glass on the ground as evidence, and we finally made our way to the DDR (GDR to us, East Germany) Museum.  There we were instructed on how to use the free audio guide in English on our smartphones, which we did.  

We spent 2+ hours learning about life in East German after the Soviet Union occupied it after WWII.  It was a well curated glimpse into a dismal life of near-constant food insecurity, knowing you’re being watched and listened to and not daring to speak out for fear of certain death and how the citizens managed  to exist under the scrutiny of the Soviets and how every aspect of their lives were controlled and formed around what was best for the regime.  It was especially sobering to see the videos that were shown go from black & white to color and to see the women in the stores in the 1980’s with similar hairstyles to what I was wearing then and realize that this hateful way of treating people was not all that long ago.  Those who do not learn from our history are doomed to repeat it.  I’m looking at you, Critical Race Theory fear-mongerers and book banning folks!

By now my feet hurt and I was eager to return to the hotel to put them up, but as we headed that way we realized we were going to pass Rick’s suggestion of the oldest Currywurst stand in Berlin, Konnopke’s Imbiss, under the U-bahn bridge.  It was definitely time for a snack!  Mom ordered 2 currywurst and 1 small pommes (fries) with a bottle of apple-rhubarb soda, just to be fun and try.  Currywurst is street food, so we stood up and ate, as is tradition.  It was yummy, but for me, it could’ve had more curry sprinkled on top.  The pommes were tasty and well fried.  Mom got both ketchup and mayo for us to dip in.  She has decided, prior to today, perhaps in Belgium on her most recent Rick Steves tour, that she’ll not use ketchup for fries anymore, that she likes mayo on them.  I decided to try it and didn’t hate it as much as I thought I would.  Perhaps German mayo is better than American mayo.

We walked back to the hotel and I got to put my feet up finally.  About an hour later we decided to head out for dinner and had already decided to go to Prager’s Biergarten, Berlin’s oldest Biergarten. It was lively and had a large seating area, as you would expect a Biergarten to.  We investigated the walk-up counter and they were only serving sausages on a roll or meatballs on a roll.  We were wanting something else, like schnitzel.  So we went to the “formal” sit down restaurant in the garden and shared a schnitzel, which came with potato salad and a cucumber salad, as well as chilled cucumber soup.  Both were schmecked lecker (pronounced sh-meck leck-ah, definition - delicious)!  We also ordered Berliner Weisse.  This time they came in individual bottles and the server told Mom that if they were too tart she could give us some syrup, which they were and she did.  She brought us each a shot glass of syrup which improved the drink a lot!

After paying we walked back to the hotel, changed into jammies and I wrote today’s blog while Mom emailed the airport hotel we’ll be staying in the night before we fly home to ask a couple of questions then she started to write her blog.

Today was a journey of learning about uncomfortable pasts, but knowing that knowing the history of what happened and why is important, as well as learning about and celebrating our present.

A Journey Of Transition

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.

A Journey Towards Good-bye

Jet lag is not my friend this trip.  I got out of bed at 5:30 am.  There are no curtains or blinds on any of the windows, so the morning light is pervasive and not easy to ignore.  I came downstairs and scrolled through different websites until the others got up around 7:30 am.  Mom’s first thought to me after a morning greeting was to see if I could Google where the 1966 VW Bugs were made.  After looking at several sites and blogs and articles, I am 99% sure they were only made in Germany.  She will confirm with the paperwork she has when she gets home.  Then it’ll be up to Anja to arrange to get the car from Pasadena to Wermelskirchen.

Breakfast was Bröetchen, wurst, cheese, tomato, cucumber, jam and jelly, coffee and lattes and a soft boiled egg.  Yummy!

The plan today was for me to go for a ride in Herbert’s Karman Ghia today and go to an Old Timers gathering with folks and their classic cars.  However, the light rain has put the kibosh on those plans.  Perhaps later, Herbert says.  I am starting to fade, so I took a nap.

When I awoke I didn't immediately find anyone home and not finding Naila either I surmised that they were out walking her.  But with an Achilles heel injury I knew Herbert would not be with them.  I went to the bathroom and saw the office door was ajar.  I knocked and indeed he was inside.  Shortly after, Mom, Anja & Naila returned.

We all gathered around the table for more Küchen (cake) and coffee for them and water for me.  Anja began preparing the evening meal and said she would be making “folded bread”, and she started by making an herb garlic compound butter.  I watched intently and took pictures of each step so I can recreate it at home.  She has an appliance called a Thermomix that is wundershün (voon-der-shun)!  It’s a blender plus rice cooker, plus it can cook meat and veggies and she also uses it to prepare homemade yogurt.  Tonight she used the heating element to start the dough for the bread because her brick of yeast was frozen.  I looked this machine up on Amazon to get a base price for the US.  $1,000 is better than the $1,400 she says the new version costs here that she wants, but it’s still expensive.

Herbert grilled the marinated turkey breast fillets and marinated baby back ribs we bought at the meat market yesterday AM and we finished the leftover “auf lauf”, the pasta & veggie casserole Anja made for dinner on Fri. as well as the remaining carrot salad and a green salad along with the folded bread.  It was an abundant meal!

More discussion around the VW and it seems like they talked about it themselves and it seems now they are telling her to go ahead it and sell it and keep the money for herself.  My opinion is the fact that it’s not a family car, that she’s only had it 15-20 years and possibly the expense to bring it from the US may deter them from seeing this endeavor though.  We shall see.  Once Mom gets definitive information on where it was built and what it’s value is may be determining factors.

Anja, Mom and I took Naila for her final short walk to pee before bed.

Mom and went to bed early so we could pack and prepare to leave tomorrow for Berlin.

My journey today was one of rest, final time with framily, and preparation for the next chapter of our trip.