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Today was a pretty chill day. We slept in because we really didn’t have much on the agenda and I wanted to get some real sleep before the long flight home on Saturday. After we did wake up and shower we headed to have lunch at the recommended currywurst spot. Unfortunately we did not go the correct place so probably didn’t have the best example of currywurst. Currywurst is sausages in ketchup and curry powder that is it. Usually served with fries. They were good, but I am sure if we would have gone to the place under the U-bahn station they would have been great. Since both the waitress last night and now the woman at the front desk said they are the best in town.
The rest of the day we both did different things. I, unfortunately had a few hours of work I needed to catch up on, so I did that and finished yesterday’s blog. However, I also had a 90 minute massage, which I fell asleep during. It was very relaxing and refreshing. The pressure could have been harder, but it was fine. A word about the woman who gave me the massage. There was
a double communication barrier between us. While she did speak English, she was deaf so she could not hear me and I had to look at her so she could read my lips. Now, how anyone learns to speak English when they are deaf and can read lips in both German and English, she is too smart for me. But it is hard to tell someone to press harder when your face down and they can’t see your lips. It was still veryrelaxing and much needed.
After that I just returned to the room, blogged and caught up on e-mails.
Meanwhile, Jerry went to the Bauhaus Archive and Museum of Design. I didn’t really want to go as I wouldn’t understand it anyway.
Bauhaus (1919 – 1933) is the most important school of architecture, design and art in the 20
th Century (ok those are not my words because how would I know that). Hitler shut down the movement and much of the work and collection now in the museum had been scattered around the world. In 1979 the collection was moved to its present site in a building designed by Walter Gropius. Jerry spent a couple of
hours their and of course enjoyed himself very much.
After that he went to the Harrods of Berlin KaDeWe. It is the second largest department store in Europe, second only to Harrods in London. I am sure I would have enjoyed this, but it was not in the cards. He spent most of his time on the 6
th floor which is the food floor. Everything was there, butchers, eating then buying it to take home, he said it was overwhelming. He also bought some wine for tonight, German mustard to take home and a gift for Chad our kitty sitter.
Jerry did say that the West side of Berlin is strikingly different and very nice and worth another trip in the future to explore that side more. We were mostly on the former East Berlin side this trip.
That’s about it for out day. We had dinner plan changes as we decided wanted something nicer than an Old World Tavern for our last night, that and it was about 30 minutes away from us. The woman at the front desk, who has made all of our reservations for us, recommended a nice place that serves Swabian (food
from the Black Forest) fare, so it should be good and a new version of German that we have not yet had. And a note about this woman, I tried to tip her for making all of reservations (common to do right) she actually refused it, saying it’s my job no need. I almost fell over, that just would not happen at home. I really don’t see our friend Michael who works at the Vintage Plaza turning down a tip, even it if is doing his job J.
Since this blog is pretty short I thought I would do something different here. So, what follows is my 10 favorite cities before this trip and my 10 favorite cities after this trip. One big change.
Top 10 before our Trip (in order) Paris, New York, Venice Italy, Seville Spain, Aix en Provence, France, Victoria BC, Bangkok, Barcelona, Puerto Vallarta, New Orleans.
Top 10 after this Trip (in order) Paris, New York, Venice, Salzburg, Seville, Aix en Provence, Victoria BC, Bangkok, Barcelona, Prague
No change in the top three, and it will take a lot to knock Paris out of the top spot. But Salzburg, really wowed me,
the feel, the history the food, it had a bit of everything. And Prague well it knocked Puerto Vallarta off the list now didn’t it.
In case your interest, and I am sure you would have never figured this out, but here is the top 5 Countries I have visited: France, Spain, Austria, Italy, and Mexico.
Dinner It is amazing how one night can change your entire opinion of a city. Tonight was that night. Because in the end all travel is about the individual moments that you have and will remember for your entire life. Even places like Palermo (which we truly hated) had memorable moments. Our moment for Berlin occurred a dinner tonight. First, we got a great recommendation from the front desk for a place called Alpenstueck, specializing in Swabian food (The Black Forest Region of Germany). She said it was a very nice walk so we walked the 20 minutes to the restaurant and only made one wrong turn.
The walk was through some interesting neighborhoods, some fashionable, some working class some trendy. Through all a lot of construction. As I said earlier they are on a construction boom here. When we
got to the restaurant it was a bit more upscale than I imagined, but that was a good thing, it is our last night. Of course again, perfect English was spoken by everyone, not that they don’t greet you and rattle off strings of German sentences at you and then when they notice the deer in the headlights look, the switch to English.
It was a very chic minimalistic ambiance. We were seated so we had a partial view in to the Kitchen, Jerry had the better view. We started with a class of German Sparkling and surveyed the menu. They had a tasting menu, but that was a bit more modern fusion German than we were looking for so we went with the regular menu. I will describe the food in the Today’s Food section only because the interesting part of dinner was not the food (although the food was amazing)
About half way through our dinner, a four top came in and were seated next to us. I instantly new they were France as I heard them speaking, I said Bon Souis (sp French dictionary is not handy sorry) in my best French and we struck
up a conversation. One couple was from Paris the other from Marseilles. They spoke English of course. The man sitting next to me asked how the food was, so he knew if they needed to make a run for it. Jerry and I both assured them all the food was good and they had to have the Swabian Ravioli stuffed with veal. He then asked about the wine, I said well it’s not French, but it is a good German wine. He looked at me and said how is that possible? The ordered both of our suggestions. Later he ordered a second class of the wine and turned to me and said he should have trusted us and just bought the bottle.
We chatted throughout the rest of the menu. It was a delightful conversation and moment. AT one point, we talked about American’s in general and the man sitting next to me said that they were just saying in French that we were not like most Americans as we were friendly and interesting to talk to. To me it was the greatest compliment they could have given us.
Dinner was very good, and the conversation with the
French foursome just made the evening that much better. Interesting how all things lead back to France.
I need to back track just a little, because our day did not get off to a good start. When I was checking emails, there was one from our landlord. Basically we have 60 days to find a new home. Yes we have been evicted. The reason the couple that owns the house are getting a divorce the Farewell has to move in to our home. Just what I wanted to hear on my last day of vacation. I tried the best I could to put it out of my mind for the rest of the day. The massage and wonderful dinner helped a lot.
Well that wraps up the European part of this vacation. We are off to the airport early on Sunday morning. There is one last stop before we are all the way home. Our trip takes us through Newark where we have a 6 hour layover. Since there is now a train directly to Penn station from the Newark Airport our plan is to go into the City (New York City) and have lunch at my favorite restaurant in Manhattan, Restivo. A great little Italian place on 7
th Ave. between 23
rd and 22
nd street. We are hoping it is not too crowded as it is Mother’s day tomorrow.
So the only thing left is the overall wrap up, which I typically do at home, so stay tuned for the final installment in a couple of days.
Our next trip, Savannah, GA & Charleston for Jerry’s Birthday.
Today’s Food Lunch – currywurst and fires (Jerry had schnitzel) it was at the wrong place but I can understand the attraction to currywurst.
Dinner at Alpenstueck: We started with two classes of a sparkling Riesling. We both had the kalbsmaultaschen, which is a wonderful pasta stuffed with veal and I haven’t figured the rest out. Jerry had Kasespatzle, which was a cheese pasta (he had enough meat last night). I had Spargel mit Schnitzel (ok I love the white asparagus, this was with hollandaise which is nothing like what I make but very good) and its Germany of course I ate schnitzel more than once. We had a wonderful bottle of Blackprint, a red wine from northern Germany; the French thought it was good to (not French wine but good). Dessert Jerry had apple strudel and I had a chocolate torte with strawberries. Torte was great, but sorry they weren’t Oregon Strawberries. The one thing I have learned from this trip, while French and Hungarian strawberries are good, there is no better strawberry than an Oregon Strawberry.
Auf Wiedersehen.
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auspicious
Michelle Duer
The dishes in your blogs look so delicious!