On the twenty-third of March I wrote that by the time we had arrived in Spandau I had written up most of the previous days events while my friend had dozed. Later we went to the dining car and I had had a long conversation with the man sitting across from me about the art show in the station he had gotten off in- an international event that happened only every five years.
We got off at Berlin hbf and sat at a bakery trying to figure out the train system. Eventually we established that we would have to take an S and then the U2 to Wittenburger platz. When we got off I could see some of the famous buildings a few miles down the road as we passed Dolores Burritos on our way to the hotel.
The desk clerk knew about the birds and was effusive over our room and stay. She was so thorough that we had little trouble after that with our room. After we settled in we posted some pictures and then figured out how to get to the Berliner’s place. We passed a few older buildings on the way but most of the buildings were newer.
Our host was in the kids room as we came in-they were a family of four. We got to know each other in the kitchen but went to the sitting room for lunch. We sat and got to know each other for a while. The eldest seemed well behaved and the other cute. Our hostess was in the kitchen for a while so the host had to entertain. I had a little trouble trying to connect with him but eventually made sense of it.
As the meal wound down the kids needed a walk so we took them out to the playground across the street. It was witch themed. The eldest, who was really independent and managed to climb all of the structures, needed help with the high bars. There was a witch house with a slide that the youngest went down on his stomach because he was short. I liked the rope swing because the seat was a big long and thick rope while the thing that it hung from were smaller ones.
They had given my friend a rainbow umbrella which she used as we returned to the house and I read stories while Julia made dinner. They were impressed with my skills as an English teacher. When we sat down we discovered that they had made a delicious soup a few days earlier. We got into a political discussion. It was raining when we left. We went to Potemkin afterwards to have a drink over our ongoing discussions. I went to bed around midnight.
On the twenty-second of March I was up at 930. My friend and I had breakfast at Potemkin. I wanted the french toast but ended up with the fruit and cheese instead. She had a huge breakfast. We returned to the room and prepared for fain and then walked to Schwabisher Strasse. There was a special entrance- through the building- there that we had to look for.
There was an iconic church in Shoenburg that we had to pass, which I made a photgraph of on the way to Double Eye. When we ordered we found all the baristas spoke english. Later we walked to a station and went to Mockenbrucke near Kreuzberg and walked to Potsdamer plats with a bunch of high school students. I took a picture of a magpie on the way. After that we had a somber experience at Ebertstrasse. We got lost amongst the steles and rain. I got yelled at for walking on them too.
We went to Dunkin Donuts when the rain became unbearable and then proceeded to the Brandanburg Tor where we took a photo. Then we met one of the Berliner’s at her office. She had us sit down for coffee and snacks before she received a message from her husband saying to meet her at the Museum Island.
We walked through Humboldt University and found him standing next to the Spree with the car and the kids. From there we walked on to the island and then to the Dome. Later we took photos in front of the palace which they described as being rebuilt in spite of all of the problems.
We returned to the car and we crowded into it to drive to the Berlin Wall Memorial. There I got lost and they waited for a long time in the elevator. I took photos and then we bought postcards. Then we got back into the car and past the Tiergarten to their place and had dinner.
This time my friend read book to the kids whileI played with them. At dinner I made faces at one of them and the other really liked it. They wanted us to visit their dance instructor and the hostess spent some time making calls to people. We sat with the host for a bit and when the babysitter had shown up and they walked us to the hotel. I went to bed around midnight.
In the morning of the day that I wrote this we were up at 930 and went to breakfast in the restaurant beneath our hotel that the guest house had started. The food was ok and the coffee bad. We returned to the room and then dropped the clothes for cleaning before going over to Wittenburger platz and dropping the post cards.
After that we got tickets and took the U2 to Senefelderplatz. THere was a film being made at a nearby cafe. We walked past the water tower there and went to No Fire No Glory and I spent a lot of time writing. I really liked the place- real neighborhood quality. We looked at a trike on the way out and then we went to a cafe nearby called CK where I finished writing.
This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.
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