Friday, 8 July 2016
June 27 - Home again.
We awoke before 6:00AM to make our flight. The excitement of the morning came when Bob walked down the stairs, neglecting to remember that they have a laser-driven alarm system, which set off a really loud siren. However, the children did not wake up!! But Axel brought them down to say good-by, and we were off in our taxi to the airport. Painless security, painless flight. Home by 4:00PM.
June 26 - German soccer and Italian foodie dinner.
After a restful night's sleep, we were ready for another full day of fun with our London family. Bob had become "Bobby," and Annie was constantly demanding his attention when Mark was not. They jumped on their small trampoline and played multiple rounds of soccer. Steffi and I went to a Lowe's style place, looking for flowers and new pots for their garden. Then it was time to watch Germany play Slovakia.
Germany won! Their babysitter Jane came to watch the children while Steffi, Axel, Bob, and I walked into Richmond for a chef's tasting menu dinner at the best restaurant in Richmond, according to reviews Axel had read. The restaurant did not disappoint! It was an intimate dining room with fun decor, and the owner and servers were efficient and charming.
Salad course.
Pasta course.
After our 3-hour dinner with many courses and bottles of wine, we walked back home and prepared to get up REALLY EARLY for our flight back to the USA.
June 25 - A full day with our London family.
No pictures today since every one includes the adorable children. Bob and Axel took the children to the German International School near their home while Steffi and I took our time and walked into Richmond, where she had a physical therapy appointment for her knee. I walked around Richmond until she texted me that she was finished, and then we had a great time shopping together. It started to rain, so we took Uber to the ice cream shop where we were meeting Bob and the rest of the family. Our Uber driver immediately started talking politics and then argued with Steffi about the route we were taking to the shop. (She eventually gave him a poor rating on Uber.). Anyway, we had a lovely lunch near the ice cream place before eveyone else arrived (an Oyster card fiasco because we didn't know that they were going to be using public transportation to get to the German school). The gelato was worth the craziness, though, and then we took the bus back to their home and played games with them, later watching a soccer match and eating really good sushi for dinner. We sleep on a full-size fouton at their house, but it is SO comfortable that we always sleep well -- or maybe it's that we're totally exhausted at the end of a busy day on top of a busy week....
June 24 - On to London.
We set our alarm to get up earlier than usual since we needed to be on our bus to the airport by 8:30. We checked out of our amazing hotel and walked to the bus terminal, making it to the airport with plenty of time to spare. Going through security was relatively painless, and we got to London on time. I had decided that I was not going to take the tube all the way to Axel's office this time -- a long, hot journey the last time we were there. So we took Heathrow Express, which was short and lovely (but according to our German "son" Axel the most expensive train ride anywhere). The train ride ended at Paddington Station, where we had to find the tube that had a stop near our German "son's" work. 
My lunch.
Bob's lunch
Bob and Paddington Bear
After exiting the tube, we meandered around the part of London where Axel works and finally found his office building, where we stopped to drop off our luggage, get some water, and commiserate with him about the Brexit vote the preceding day. After visiting for a while, we had lunch at a place near Axel's work.
American craft beer is everywhere.
Axel actually rode the train home with us for once -- the first time he left work early on a Friday. We ended up having pizza at a restaurant near their house later in the evening. No pictures of children on social media, so this weekend's blog is limited.
June 23 - The River Spree and craft beer.
We again had a great night's sleep and breakfast. By this time, the woman who brought our coffee every day knew our order (coffee and latte). A boat ride was definitely on the agenda for our last full day in Berlin. But first, I needed to check out the transportation situation for the next day's trip to Tegel Airport. We headed to the train station and found the exact bus we needed to get to the airport. I'm still patting myself on the back for choosing this hotel -- everything we need is nearby.
And here's a picture of the lobby.
We checked with our ever-helpful concierge to book a boat trip and to find the best place to have a doner kebap, the Turkish sandwich that Frank recommended to my nephew for his trip to Berlin. Although I had had one with Frank, Bob had not experienced this taste treat. Our concierge mentioned Mustapha, which Frank had also mentioned, but it was really far from our hotel, so he told us about a place that was closer to the hotel. We were able to do a mini-dry run on our airport bus because the place was on the same route as the airport. Once we arrived, the place really was a small kiosk right off the main street. The cashier helped us choose the type of sandwich we wanted, and then we just stood on the sidewalk and ate it. I guess that's the true definition of street food.
We then took the bus back to the hotel and got ready for our boat trip. The dock was really close to the hotel (naturally!!), so we easily walked there. We ended up sitting on the lower level because it was after 1:30, and the sun was quite fierce on this day. I had no suntan lotion, but even with lotion, an hour is too long for me to sit in direct sun. We rode down to Museum Island and back, seeing the route we walked from the water.
The beer garden where we ate the first day.
A festive boat with our hotel in the background.
The Berlin Cathedral.
Another shot.
Different types of buildings along the river.
An "island" bar.
An example of Berlin graffiti.
After this adventure, it was time to check out the big department store, KaDeWe, before our craft beer dinner. Didn't buy anything, but checked out clothing and their food floor (very similar to Harrod's).
Bob found a cute stuffed animal.
On our way, we changed trains where Hamlet supposedly went to university.
One can never have too much good German sausage, especially if it is accompanied by organic vegetables and interesting dipping sauce.
By chance, Founders beer was hosting a summer bash on this particular evening. Since we were looking for German craft beer, we didn't taste any Founders initially, but we did tell our server that we had a Michigan connection (Founders is based in Grand Rapids, and Bob is a Michigan grad), so eventually the Founders representative made his way to our table. Founders Breakfast Stout does happen to be one of Bob's favorites, so the conversation started there. We talked about beer and Michigan and family, and we ended up with three Founders beers to drink -- these came after our German beers with dinner.
Dirty Bastard, fruity beer, KBS stout (this was the limited edition beer)
But we managed to persevere, discovering later that the one beer was quite difficult to obtain. Score for us! I even talked Bob into taking a taxi back to the hotel since we would have had a long commute back using public transit.
Thursday, 7 July 2016
June 22 - Museum and concert day.
Today's adventures included Museum Island as well as a classical concert at Charlottenberg Palace. After our always delicious breakfast (complete with yummy latte for me), we bought a 48-hour transit pass, timing the purchase so that we could use it to take the express bus to the airport on Friday. It was another beautiful morning in Berlin, so we walked to Museum Island along the Spree River, passing by some of the other places we'd been during the week. Our journey began with the Pergamon, the antiquities museum. I was hoping to get some pictures related to the Epic of Gilgamesh, which I teach. However, the majority of the museum was under construction, so no Gilgamesh for me. We did see the recreation of the Palace at Ishtar, which I remembered from our previous visit to this place.
The Palace at Ishtar segments
Bob contemplated another version of Rodin's The Thinker.
We saw some impressionist paintings, but the jewels of this collection were newly restored German paintings, both of which were striking.
And one of the artists had the same obsession with the moon that I have....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humboldt_University_of_Berlin#Notable_alumni.2C_professors_and_lecturers
Our restaurant was also close to the Berlin Cathedral, which is a massive structure right on the river.
After lunch, we used public transit to return to our hotel and get ready for dinner and a concert. Because Charlottenberg Palace is also undergoing renovation (it seems never-ending in Berlin), instead of having our dinner in the palace, we were sent to the Opera Italiana, a place right across the street from the palace.
We took the bus from the nearby train station to Charlottenberg and got there early enough to go the Picasso Museum that was right down the street from the restaurant. We took a quick tour of the place, which was quite small compared to the museums we'd seen earlier in the day.
Then it was dinner time. We were seated outside and enjoyed a delicious meal served by excellent servers.
Salmon carpaccio
Delicious salad
After dinner, we walked across the street to the palace. We sat near the front and had a great view of the performers. The program included Vivaldi and Mozart, with the first half of the evening mostly Vivaldi and the second half all Mozart. The musicians were so talented; dressed in Mozart-style clothing and wigs, they performed some truly difficult string-woodwind pieces with aplomb. And there were also two singers who performed some Mozart arias, both of whom were charming as well as talented.
We took the bus back to the hotel and stopped in the bar for a nightcap.
Wednesday, 6 July 2016
June 21 -- 20,000 Steps.
We slept until around 9:00 and then made a mad dash to breakfast. Today we bought a 3-day museum pass. Our first stop was the Music Museum, which was one of the few museums not actually on the Museum Island. The day was overcast and rainy, and we chose to walk to this place -- and, again, the Google way took us through the closed park. I had figured this out, however, so we managed to get there without too many twists and turns. See that direct route? Forget about it. We had to circumvent the park totally, which made our trip much longer than it would have been.
A theorbos from Cyrano de Bergerac times.
Flutes for Alicia
A monster of an instrument
An overview of the place
Afterwards, I looked on Google and found a restaurant not too far from the museum for lunch. It was actually in the Sony Centre, a mall with a distinctive roof.
And here's Bob with yet another set of beers!
We then walked back to our hotel. I was looking for a bank, and while we searched, we came upon the last pieces of the Berlin Wall set where the wall used to be.
Then it was back to the hotel to rest for a bit before heading to the Reichstag cupola. There was an arson fire in this building in 1933, and Hitler never used it during his regime. After World War II ended, it sat untouched until the early 1960's when it was weatherized in a very basic way. After German reunification in 1990, work began on the place and was finished in 1999.
Our tour time finally arrived. Poor Bob had to throw away his newly acquired flag -- guess they didn't want rabid soccer fans spoiling the view, which was spectacular. Andy had recommended this building as the best place to see Berlin rather than the Tower (which cost) because the city wasn't full of tall buildings. And, of course, he was right! 
The top of the Brandenberg Gate.
Walking down the ramp.
We tried for an arty shot of Bob, who was standing at the bottom of the ramp, while I took pictures of the curved mirror interior of the cupola. He's reflected in the right center part, we think.
Such a unique way to see the city. 
We walked back to the hotel, which was relatively close, and decided that we would go back to the beer garden we'd stumbled upon the day before. Of course, we knew we couldn't sit outside because the place had a big screen TV with loads of fans watching the soccer game there. We were content to sit inside and guess the names of the German chancellors post-World War II, whose portraits were on the wall near our table. Funny moment -- one of the other patrons of the restaurant made the manager move two portraits because they were out of order! After enjoying more Bavarian-style food, we checked out the bar in our hotel for some Bailey's and vino, and then it was off to bed.
Anyway, we arrived at the museum and walked around from earliest to most recent instrument collections. It was a lovely space, but it could have used some actual music playing somewhere.
What an interesting keyboard.
A very small traveling piano
We also got a decent shot of the back of the Brandenberg Gate.
We had made reservations a couple of months back -- it's free to visit, but if you don't make reservations ahead of time, you have to wait in a really long line to get in. That tip was thanks to my former student and current German teacher. Thanks, Andy! We got there 1/2 hour early and watched the show since our tour started at the same time as the Germany-Northern Ireland game, and soccer fans were everywhere. Bob even got a flag from a some random teenager.
The obligatory selfie.
Oh, Germany won 1-0.
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