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By May the 16th, it finally started getting a bit warmer in Berlin. Not warm enough to wear shorts, but at least to shed a few layers. The Berliners, of course, were packing the outdoor cafes, lounging on grass, strolling and enjoy the sun !!! Normally, on a Sunday, I'd go to the Tiergarten flea market, but really, bargins there are few and far between. I had planned on taking the train to Hamburg for the wonderful Sunday Fish Market, but I just wasn't up to that much travel, so decided to go see Schloss Charlottenburg which was a new city sight for me. The Palace was essentially built in the 1600/1700s by one of the early Wilhelms who named it after his wife. Hard to believe that this was to be a summer palace out in country seeing as it is so well surrounded by the city of Berlin. After the cental part had been built, wings to the left and right were constructed and formal French gardens created. Of course it was badly bombed in WW2 with only 2 rooms not ruined but the people of Berlin wanted it rebuilt. There was little of the original furniture after the
bombing so period pieces still intact from the ruins of the City Palace were put in before that building was demolished by the government on the east side.
After the Schoss/Palace it was still early so right across the street was a lovely outdoor restaurant and I still hadn't had my Bratwurst, roast potatoes and red cabbage. Ah.....a table in the sun, my guide book and a delicious leisurely lunch.
Back in the late 60s (when I was just a baby), I had taken a tour deep into East Berlin which included the official Soviet War Memorial in Treptow Park. After 40 years, lets see what it looked like. Had it been allowed to deteriorate after all the Soviet/Russian military had left the city (as did the British, French and American troops after the country was reunited ? Believe me, it is still most impressive.
Monday didn't look like it was going to be nice, so I decided to tour the Museum of German History which is housed in a former (and restored) royal palace on Unter Den Linden. Very facinating as one followed the arrows in the floor from the year 900 or so right up
to the current day. One of the highlights was Napolean's hat and sword that he left in his official carriage when he fled the battle of Waterloo!!!! I had my final Doner Kabab for 3.50 Euros (about $5.00) for lunch but wanted to save space for dinner. I had asked around where there might be a typical "meat and potatoes" type German restaurant. My friend Thorsen suggested a restaurant near the Victoria Louise subway station so I headed out for that. Come to find out, that station is probably closer to the apartment than the Nollendorfplatz station and is in a really nice neighborhood....a bit more upscale. One could not ask for a more "Germanic" type restaurant to have schnitzel, roast potatoes and asparagus w/ hollandaise sauce. The short 9 minute walk back to the apartment was certainly not enough to help digest the big food portions.
Next morning, I was bag and baggage down the elevator at 8:45 AM. The evening before, I had spotted a taxi rank much much closer than Nollendorfplatz and quickly was in a cab towards Tegel Airport. The folks at Delta were most accommodating and overlooked the fact that I was 2 kilos
over the weight limit. Right on 15 minutes before the aircraft door was closed, I was given a boarding pass for seat 6B in Business Elite. My neighbor for the 8 hour flight was a charming German/American matriach, the food and service were excellent and we arrived at JFK almost 30 minutes ahead of schedule. Immigration was a snap, there was a very short wait for luggage and before I knew it, I was being escorted to the bag drop off for my flight to Fort Lauderdale. Turns out that flight got loaded real fast, so we actually, left the gate early, had little taxiway waits and arrived at Ft. Lauderdale almost 30 minutes early.
So ends the odyssey for the spring of 2009. I still plan on being in Berlin for the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on 09 November and hope to find a ship to get me back to Ft. Lauderdale soon after that. If you want to come along on that boat ride, let me know.....and let me know if you'd like to take part in the Berlin-wide celebrations on the 9th.
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