Last day in Berlin!

Friday, 1 March, 2013

Guten Abend!  It seems like I haven’t written in so long…so, let’s remember…hmmm…

At Transit

Dinner at Transit - "Tapas" from Southeast Asia

We went back to Transit last night for dinner.  This time we went earlier – 6-ish, and we had our same table.  We made a few changes in our selections, and everything (once again!) was terrific!  Great food, great service, great fun!  Waddled back to the hotel about 7:30 p.m. and to bed early for me, as I wanted to be up early to wash clothes.

Pergamon Alter

Roman mosaic

Pergamon Museum

Pergamon Museum

Pergamon Museum

So…true confessions…everyone who reads my blog knows that I am (more than a bit) anal about doing laundry.  When I see a Laundromat, I automatically calculate what I can wash there.  This time, I had not planned on doing any wash at all in Berlin, as we have plenty of clothes – but yesterday we walked past not one but TWO nice looking Laundromats!  So!!  Up before 6 this morning, and to the Laundromat by just a few minutes after (they both open at 6 a.m.)  Really nice new Miele machines, and dryers that actually DRY!  What a concept!  We were done in less than an hour and a half (which for European machines is record time, believe me!)  And now we have totally clean clothes!  How nice!  And it was then that I realized that while I may have laundry “issues”, my wonderful husband Robert has “shipping” issues!  What a match!  Robert has decided that he really likes shipping things home from wherever we are.  We had already shipped one small box home from London, from our first week, and now he wanted to divest himself from a few more pounds.  So, on the way back from another great breakfast at Antipodes, we stopped in the post office and picked up a shipping box – one of those “if it fits, it ships” kind of things.  Then back to the hotel and a round-up of any and every extraneous book, pamphlet, present, etc. that we didn’t need.  Then, back down the street to the post office, and the box is now on its way back to Tucson!  We wonder:  who/what will get there first?!

After laundry and the post office and breakfast, I wanted to go back to the Pergamonmuseum for one final look around.  I know we had covered it thoroughly the other day, but I just wanted one more look at the Altar and the Ishtar gate … and the other Mesopotamian artifacts…spent a lovely couple of hours once again at the museum.  

New view from our window.  From Troy?

Humboldt University

Opera House

Then back to the hotel for a bit of a rest.  Robert picked up some take-out pizza slices, which was all we needed for lunch.  Then back out one last time – and this time, into actual SUNSHINE and some BLUE SKY!  How surprising!!  (Although to be honest, when the wind blows and you’re in the shade, it is still freezing cold!)  We thought we would use our transit passes to see a few sights.  So, we trammed down to Museuminsel (Museum Island) and then caught a 200 bus over to the end of the line at the Tiergarten.  (A lovely park, rather in the idea of Central Park in New York, but really heavily wooded!  I found it surprisingly so for a city park!)  Walked around a bit – took some pictures – passed the zoo and the aquarium, and some really lovely residential areas.  Then back to the hotel.

Dinner tonight was – you guessed it!  Transit again!  (To be honest, it is just too cold to spend lots of time outdoors figuring out where to eat – especially when you already have someplace that you love!)  We promise we won’t be so boring in Prague; hopefully it won’t be so cold!

We are now all packed and ready to head out tomorrow morning.  We’ll take the bus that stops just across the street from our hotel to the main train station, and get our train to Prague!  So exciting!!  

Entrance to the Berlin Zoo

Victory Column - Tiergarten

Bellevue - Presidential residence

River Spree

I did want to pass on a few thoughts on Berlin, while we’re still here.  This is truly an amazing city.  I know we hear about construction lagging in the U.S. and in other places, but here in Berlin there is new building and construction/re-construction literally EVERYWHERE!  We have never seen so many construction cranes – Robert thinks they may need an air traffic controller soon, so as not to run into each other! – but the city is literally changing, I’m sure, on a daily basis.  Obviously no recession here, at least from what we can see.  There are still some deserted buildings (Not many) – mostly in the former East Berlin side – that have been boarded up and are standing vacant, but we have no doubt that there are plans for everything here – such an incredibly dynamic city!  It will be interesting to compare it to Prague!

So, moving on tomorrow!

m

XXXX

The Reichstag

The Reichstag

Blue sky in Berlin