Leaving Berlin ... and some randomness

---

---

MONDAY

Whew. OK, just to let you know I didn't cover EVERYTHING from the tour. I did choose to skip some stops, some photos, some info, just so I wouldn't bore you all to death. (That's really just my excuse. To be honest I can't remember enough about all the other stuff to make it worth a post. Should have been taking notes or something, right?)

But Monday finally came, and with that our train departure at 2:40 pm. We had some breakfast with two girls that live in Munich (one is originally from France and the other from Poland). Super sweet girls and we had lovely little bit of conversation. I think Berlin is a fabulous place for meeting people from ALL OVER the world!

Beth and I had a fabulous time cap shopping, and then relaxing with super-fantastic hot chocolate at a cafe near Check Point Charlie. DELICIOUS!

We wandered over to Postdamer Platz, where there was a mini, early Christmas market set up! Complete with sledding hill! Imagine growing up in a city and never getting to go sledding! (OK, or imagine living where there's never any snow... 😞 Y'all seriously need to come visit Michigan, OK?) I bought a long, licorice-like rope of sour apple sweetness at the market. Should have gotten several more, and a photo! Others laugh every time I take photos of the food, but how else am I going to share the wonderfulness of it all with other?

We made our way to the main train station where we picked up some wraps for the ride and food staples for tomorrow since the stores would be closed by the time we got back to Hofheim. (No "open late" stores here. Imagine a world without Meijer! Also, nothing's open on Sunday either. So you do double-shopping on Saturday. It's actually a nice way of life, just frustrating when you're not used to it!!!)

The 5 hour train trip was uneventful. A couple changes, and we made it back to Hassfurt where a co-worker of Beth's picked us up and took us to HOME SWEET HOME!

---

Photos

It's my name ... on a sign ... in Berlin!!!
How incredibly cool is that?

Kitchen at hostel,
where we shared good times with people from Italy, France, Poland, Germany, and the US!

Bear with Alber Einstein
The bear is the animal of Berlin ... there are lots of cultural bears all over the city.