Susan's Stories

The day began warm and continued warming to be the warmest day of the year for Germany.  We sat outside at our favorite breakfast place and drank iced lattes.  I had my final couscous salad and Karin her muesli and sweet pastry, today plum cake.  We sat and watched people and their dogs and children and the postal delivery person on a bike. His bike carried three covered vinyl pouches.  From one he picked up mail for one dwelling with several apartments.  He used one of his keys to open the outside door to reach the individual boxes inside. He repeated that delivery method at the building next door. Later, on the other side of the street, we saw another postal delivery person . He was riding a bicycle on the sidewalk also and had several yellow covered thick vinyl pouches.  Fascinating.  We returned to our room for the last time and checked in for our flights to Munich and LA tomorrow morning. Karin has been very gentle in her manner of encouraging me ...

We knew the temperature would be 10 degrees warmer, and tomorrow will be even 10 degrees warmer than today. We sat outside at our now favorite breakfast place. Along with coffee milk Karin had milch rice with berries and a delicious pastry with almond paste and I ate a pasta salad with veggies. Satisfied we began our journey to a local post office to mail our book of family photos to Manfred. We discovered a new part of Prenzlauerberg in the process, and walking back to the U Bahn we discovered a post office located closer to our hotel than we knew. We found these two post offices located in the back of small stores. They sell snacks and breakfast beverages in the front of the store. Nevertheless, the book is on its way to Manfred from a city much closer than Pasadena. We felt relieved that this disappointing chapter was behind us. We walked our usual walk to the nearby U Bahn. This trip was to the Zoo station. Across the street stands the remains of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church....

Although it was cool the sun was out, and it was dry. We had breakfast in a neighborhood Cafe which we like. Along with coffee milk I had a lentil and couscous and vegetable salad, and Karin had a Spiegelei and muesli. This is a great way to begin the day. The food and environment, and company were perfect. We walked to the Senenfelder U Bahn station to Alexanderplatz, and we had difficulty locating the bus stop for bus #100 to bring us to the Dom for the 10 AM service.  Road work as well as construction continues in this city.  After asking directions and few times we found the correct stop and bus and made it to the Dom on time. We stated we were international visitors and were ushered a special seating area slightly above the congregation where we were given headphones and an audio device to receive live translation.  The choir was the Swiss chorus which we heard last evening. Throughout the service they sang the Bach Lutheran mass which we enjoyed last evening. It was...

Saturday began chilly, windy, and rainy.  I dressed for the weather.  It served me well at our usual breakfast place; we ate indoors. We both had coffee milk; Karin had muesli and an apple pastry and I had a Spiegelei, poached egg and veggies on bread, which was cold. We were both satisfied.  We walked ten minutes to our nearest U Bahn station, Senenfelder, and took it longer than usual, to Wittenberg Platz. When we came up the stairs we saw our day's destination, Ka De We, Kaufhof des Westens. This seven storey department store was at one time the largest in Europe.  What we discovered was an upscale store; the ground floor sold expensive watches jewelry, and perfumes.  Staff stood in front of the Rolex and Tiffany, Chanel, Swarovski, Bulgari, and other rooms to welcome serious buyers and discourage picture takes like us.  Up to 70% off still meant that a $130 blouse was still out of our price range. Nevertheless we visited every floor and found some good ...

Breakfast at our usual nearby location was coffee milk and couscous, yes again, and a zucchini quiche and muesli. It was cool and windy, and we ate indoors. We then made our way to the hotel where Manfred was staying, we believe. When we arrived at Alexanderplatz Karin turned on her Google maps for directions to Manfred's nearby hotel. Intersections were large, and trams and traffic heavy. At the hotel I requested to wrote a note to Manfred suggesting that we meet this afternoon at 3 PM by a large world clock. I requested that someone place the note under Manfred's hotel room door. The person at the desk agreed. I even offered money to have it delivered, but it was refused. We then left by tram, agreeing we had done what we could to meet Manfred.  Although this was the day we had planned to spend at the very large department store, Ka De We, we postponed our shopping plans in order to meet Manfred. Until that time we returned to the Museumsinsel U Bahn station and visited the G...

We sat outside in the crisp air drinking iced lattes. Karin had cherry cake and muesli, and I ate couscous.  We were ready to take the tram to the U Bahn to the museums island, Museumsinsel. Herbert had helped us purchase a one-day ticket - to vist any or all five museums. The most popular and heavily visited museum, the Pergamon requires one sign up for a specific time to visit. The other museums suggest signing up for a specific  time. Here is where Karin's computer skills and persistence come in. Not only did she find the museum website and arranged a time for us to enter the Pergamon Museum but also she was able to find the appointment time in an email attachment to me when we arrived at the museum. After I got onto the museum's free wifi she said she located the attachment quite easily.  Additionally, her positive attitude played a critical role in her persistence with my Handy. Karin and I knew we did not have specific entrance times for two other museums we hoped t...

The day began at an outdoor Cafe. Karin had two eggs on bread with muesli and Brötchen and fruit with ice mocca. I had two eggs Turkish style with onions, peppers, olives,and feta with an ice latte. That was a lot. We finished Rick Steves Prenzlauerberg walk at the wall park where we saw a wall erected in 1951 by a sport stadium. It's purpose was to prevent the residents of East Berlin from seeing the West. Additionally, in order to impress the residents of East Berlin, the Soviets installed very, very tall lights to light the stadium. We watched a woman and a group of men paint over what was already painted on this stadium wall and we saw another person pull off what looked like a small block of paint several layers thick. We understand that wall painting continues also at the large section of the wall. I wonder how thick the layers of paint must be.  We followed Rick Steves suggestion and took the tram to the wall visitors center and watched several films with footage of events l...