There's No Place Like Home!

We got in about 7:30pm EST last night. It was really nice sleeping in our own bed. Now, about the trip....

On my last post I stated that we got on the plane Sunday morning April 5. It was a long flight with a 4-5 hour layover in Newark. When we arrived in Berlin it was 8am Berlin time. That was fun, since they are 6 hours ahead of us. We stayed at the Holiday Inn East Berlin. Our hotel room wasn't ready yet so we rested in my in-laws room while they were out. They called a few hours later to let us know our rooms were ready. We went and rested for awhile. Monday was pretty uneventful until we went to dinner at the oldest restaurant in Berlin, the 'Letzte Instantz'. It was a very traditional German fare, my meal was comprised pretty much of pot roast and veggies with a side of potato puffs, which were like fried mashed potato balls. For desert they brought out these little cakes that were quite tasty. After that we walked around for a little bit and then went back to the hotel and to bed. The beds were very firm but the pillows were extremely flimsy (?). It is difficult to come up with a word to describe them. We had to ask the front desk for extra pillows. Tuesday we got up and had breakfast at the hotel buffet, which was extremely overpriced. they had alot of different things, but not much that appealed to me or my wife. I really don't remember if we had lunch or not. At 2pm all the women went to one of the women's flats for a bachelorette party, and all the guys went bowling. One of the guys asked me how I was at bowling and I said I tend to average 120-140. I found out that things were vastly different in Germany. First off, a size 11.5 shoe in Germany is a size 46. I thought that was really funny. Well, there were about 7-8 of us bowling. The first game I bowled a 70. Now, unlike the shoe sizes, bowling scores are the same. So, yeah, my first game sucked. the second game I got 166. By the 3rd game I was getting my groove on and bowled 188. I was doing awesome until the 9th frame and I blew it. Still, 188 isn't bad. Game 4 I was back to normal with a score of 119. My scores of 166 and 188 were the highest of the night so that was nice. :-)

After bowling we went to a bar and sat and drank (well, everyone else drank, I had Coke Light). It wasn't the best time at the bar for me, A. because I don't really drink, and B. EVERYONE else smoked. I think 98% of the population of Berlin smoked. I have never seen anything like it. I was starving and the bar had no food menu. I think we sat at that bar for 5 hours, at least, that is what it felt like. After we left we decided to stop and get some food for myself and brother-in-law. I think everyone else filled up on "liquid bread", AKA beer. We went to Burger King. Luckily quite a bit, but not all, of the people in Berlin spoke English so it was nice when we were ordering. I also ordered dinner for my wife, since I wasn't sure if they ate and I had no way of reaching her. I got us each a Whopper and fries. I also ordered chicken wings. yes. I said I ordered chicken wings at Burger King. How cool is that? They were quite delicious. They had alot of different things on the menu there in Berlin BK that we do not have here in the States. I tell you, that burger and fries were better than any Whopper I have had here in the states. That was a VERY long day. A decent one, but just long.

Wednesday was the wedding. I got up and walked down to the bakery and got some bread, donuts and stuff for breakfast. We learned our lesson the day before and passed on the buffet at the hotel. The bread there is just incredible. We got dressed and got our ride to the courthouse. I got the impression that weddings are done very different in Germany than here. It was neat to see. There was a lady who officiated the wedding. It was not a traditional wedding. The best way I can describe it was as if the couple who went to the court house to get married. Now, the reception, on the other hand, was one heck of a party. There was a nice sit down dinner, which consisted of a small beef steak, potatoes and some veggies. Then the newlyweds cut the wedding cake, which was very beautiful. Then they handed out the cake. One of the grandmothers made some traditional German cakes that were quite good. Then they danced, and did the garter and bouquet tossing. After all this, the restaurant set up a buffet for a dinner for us. That was an incredible meal. German spatzle, cheeses, goulash, soups, deviled eggs and some other stuff I am sure I am forgetting. Again, that was another long day but it was fun.

Thursday was the one day my wife and I had free. Nothing planned, no agenda. So we got breakfast (bread and donuts) and then we took the tram to some touristy type stuff. I really wanted to find some German comic books, but it wasn't looking very promising. Then we looked up on a street sign and there was a green hand written sign that said 'Comics, posters, toys- 220 meters) So we walked awhile and didn't see it. We turned around since my in-laws were waiting for us. My father-in-law said lets go look again so we started the trek again. We found it, about 20 yards from where my wife and I stopped looking. There weren't any German comics that were anything like American. No thriller, action, horror, or super-hero stuff. They had biography type things. Sure they had translated American comics, so I grabbed a couple things.

We had lunch at a little pizza place. It was really good, but again quite different than what i was used to.

My in-laws went back to the hotel and my wife and I went to alot more places. We bought a few little things as souvenirs.

For dinner we went to a place called Andy's American Grill or something similar to that. We had cheeseburgers and fries. It was really good. We walked around a market near a section of town called Alexanderplatz. It was really neat. We bought a potato pancake, a currywurst, and a waffle. After the market we headed back to the hotel. We were beat. I bet we walked 25 miles that day.

Friday I got up and went to the bakery and bought a couple sandwiches for breakfast. They eat alot of breads, cheeses, and meats for breakfast. I had a turkey sandwich with egg, cheese and a spread. It was really good. My wife had an egg sandwich with cheese and spread. At 10am we were meeting up with everyone to go on a boat tour through Berlin. It was a 3 hour tour. It was really nice. We really didn't have lunch that day but I went to the grocery across the street from the hotel and got some things. I actually made several trips to the store through out the week for stuff like snacks and drinks. That night my wife and I watched her brother so her parents could go to the pub with everyone else. He put on a show for us and I recorded him. It was pretty entertaining. We went down the street and got donors (pronounced duna) and fries for dinner. Her parents got back around 12:30am and got her brother.

Saturday morning I got up and went to the bakery for more sandwiches for breakfast. I also got a couple baguettes as snacks for the trip home on Sunday. We had to meet everyone at 11am to drive to lunch, which was at the Reichstag, which is the Parliament building. there is a really fancy restaurant on the top floor. Normally there is a huge waiting line and you could wait 4-5 hours to get inside the building. They made reservations for us so we got to go right in. The restaurant was called Kaefer Dachgarten. We had beef cheeks, vegetables, soup, bread, and a strudel with ice cream. It was a decent meal. The building was exquisite though. After lunch my wife and I did more sight seeing and had dinner at a place called The Block House which was a terrific steakhouse. the price seemed a little high, but it included a salad, a good sized steak, baked potato and garlic bread. It was the best meal we had all week. After dinner we went back to the hotel and began packing.

Sunday morning we had to get up and check out at 7am as our flight was at 9:30. The flight was about 8 hours from Berlin to Newark. When we got to Newark it was about 1:15pm EST. We had about 2-3 hours to wait for our flight. As I mentioned way up above our flight time from Newark to Cincinnati kept changing. Good times.

Things I wasn't particularly fond of in Berlin:

1. No Mountain Dew. I later found out that it is illegal in Germany. Not sure if that is true or not.

2. No refills on drinks at restaurants.

3. No ice in drinks at restaurants.

4. All the smoking.

5. It seemed like there was litter everywhere.

Things that I thoroughly enjoyed:

1. The transportation systems. There were so many options to get where you needed to go: The tram, the train, bus, taxi, subway, and you could even rent bikes around the city.

People rode bicycles everywhere. It was really neat to see that. Now I know why there were so many thin people around!

2. The diversity of restaurants. There were all types of restaurants. German (duh), Thai, Chinese, Italian, American, Irish, etc. Lots of options.

3. Convenience of location. On the street where our hotel was, there were 2 grocery stores, 4 bakeries, and several other handy shops. I walked to most of these places throughout the trip in the mornings.

4. The architecture. Most of the city had to be rebuilt after the war, and some of the buildings are just incredible. There is also a huge memorial for the murdered Jewish that is quite a sight to see.

5. The styles. The style was really interesting. My wife kept using a term to describe it but right now neither of us can think of that term. LOL! It reminded me of seeing things on TV of New York or LA.

6. The weather. The weather there was perfect. It may have been just the time we were there but every day was beautiful.

7. The food. The bread and meats and cheeses were delicious. I love bread, meat and cheese, so I was set!

I'll be posting some videos and pictures off and on. Overall I did enjoy the trip and I would like to go back one day.