Notes from a vacation: August 27
Sep. 19th, 2007 01:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madbakerOut and About in Berlin
We lazed about for a bit, debating what we wanted to do.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bonacorsi had mapped out lots of options; we thought about taking a river cruise, but decided that while it would be nice and relaxing, it would also eat into too much of our limited time there. We compromised by walking over to the Berlin Zoo. There we saw Knut,, the (not so) baby polar bear born at the zoo. He's a gangly adolescent now and was more beige than white when we saw him, but still fun to watch. We got callistotoni a Knut for her bear collection.
I was vastly amused at the crowds watching the California sea lions. Of course – in Berlin, they are exotic rather than a smelly nuisance. Also the California quail exhibit...
Then we took the bus to Museum Island. One advantage of doing it that way was that the bus route is basically what you get with a tour bus: past the Reichstag and Brandenburg Gate. The Altes museum was open, so we got to see Ishtar’s Gate and the Nefertiti bust. Both were amazing.
Changing culture radically, we then went on the Underground to Checkpoint Charlie. One enterprising guy was sitting right on the former border in an East German uniform – he'd stamp your passport (with an unofficial stamp, of course) for one Euro. That was the day we left our passports at the hotel, naturally. We still got a couple postcards stamped for our parents, as well as buying an alleged piece of the Wall. It’s probably genuine; it's not like there was a shortage of the stuff, but there's no way to tell if it’s any more genuine than a piece of the True Cross.
By this time it was lateish and we'd been on our feet all day, so we headed back to the hotel. We decided to try their German specialties restaurant since it was open. Bad choice – a party of 32 had taken up the majority of the small place, so we sat at a bar table. Then a "kitchen problem" delayed our dinner an hour after we'd ordered. After all that the food was passable but I wouldn’t go back or recommend that anyone go there. The wife's sausages tasted like decent but uninspired breakfast links, for example. Oh well. It was the worst meal we had in Germany, and was still probably better than anything we had in England.
We lazed about for a bit, debating what we wanted to do.
bonacorsi had mapped out lots of options; we thought about taking a river cruise, but decided that while it would be nice and relaxing, it would also eat into too much of our limited time there. We compromised by walking over to the Berlin Zoo. There we saw Knut,, the (not so) baby polar bear born at the zoo. He's a gangly adolescent now and was more beige than white when we saw him, but still fun to watch. We got callistotoni a Knut for her bear collection.I was vastly amused at the crowds watching the California sea lions. Of course – in Berlin, they are exotic rather than a smelly nuisance. Also the California quail exhibit...
Then we took the bus to Museum Island. One advantage of doing it that way was that the bus route is basically what you get with a tour bus: past the Reichstag and Brandenburg Gate. The Altes museum was open, so we got to see Ishtar’s Gate and the Nefertiti bust. Both were amazing.
Changing culture radically, we then went on the Underground to Checkpoint Charlie. One enterprising guy was sitting right on the former border in an East German uniform – he'd stamp your passport (with an unofficial stamp, of course) for one Euro. That was the day we left our passports at the hotel, naturally. We still got a couple postcards stamped for our parents, as well as buying an alleged piece of the Wall. It’s probably genuine; it's not like there was a shortage of the stuff, but there's no way to tell if it’s any more genuine than a piece of the True Cross.
By this time it was lateish and we'd been on our feet all day, so we headed back to the hotel. We decided to try their German specialties restaurant since it was open. Bad choice – a party of 32 had taken up the majority of the small place, so we sat at a bar table. Then a "kitchen problem" delayed our dinner an hour after we'd ordered. After all that the food was passable but I wouldn’t go back or recommend that anyone go there. The wife's sausages tasted like decent but uninspired breakfast links, for example. Oh well. It was the worst meal we had in Germany, and was still probably better than anything we had in England.
