Weekend in Berlin

We took our first of what will hopefully be many trips this past weekend. Berlin would not have been our first choice of cities to visit. The original intention of the trip was to meet my brother-in-law, Brian, there. He was selected to participate in a program that would have him there for the week. Unfortunately, the plans changed and though he was in Berlin for the week, his trip went to Frankfurt for the weekend. Since our plans had already been booked, we decided to make a go of it anyway.

Unfortunately, there are no pictures to share at this point. I had a rough day of work on Friday and didn't leave the office as early as I would have liked. In the rush to get our stuff together and get to the airport, I left the camera in our apartment. We did buy a couple of disposal cameras and are in the process of getting the pictures on a CD. Once we have them, I'll post some, but we have no idea how they are going to come out. This brought back memories of when we went to Amsterdam a few years ago and I forgot to charge the camera's primary and spare battery for the day we went to see the tulips at the Keukenhof Gardens. I will say that in some ways, I feel like I learned a lot more on this trip and absorbed a lot more because I was more focused on what we were seeing rather than worrying about taking pictures of it.

Berlin is definitely a neat city. Everything is pretty new since the city was bombed in World War 2. The history of Berlin is really interesting. We took a walking tour on Saturday that was very good. We hit the high points in the city center: the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, Checkpoint Charlie, and several other spots. The guide was good, which always makes a difference, and did a nice job of giving the context of what we were seeing. He also looked and sounded like Matt Damon, so when I got bored, I just thought about the fact that Jason Bourne was guiding us around Berlin, and it made me happy. We didn't really have time to spend too much time in the multiple museums in town, but did visit the Jewish Museum, which was really good. It wasn't completely focused on the Holocaust, which was probably good. The focus was more on the history of the Jews in Germany, which was interesting and educational. Jenn put it well when she says it is good that the museum focuses on the history and the culture of the Jews, so when people visit they learn and understand that there was and is a strong Jewish presence there. It's a cool building. I'll save you my description of it and hopefully we'll have pictures soon.

Back to the Holocaust. You can't go 2 steps in the city without being reminded of it (which is a good thing). It is an eerie feeling walking around the city knowing what occurred there. You definitely get the feeling of total and complete remorse from the people that live there and that they are making every effort to remind people what happened and make sure nothing like it could ever happen again. The memorial for the Jews who were killed is nice in theory, but not sure it really serves the purpose to which it was intended. It is a whole lot of concrete blocks that if you didn't know any better would think it's just an abstract sculpture and nothing more, or a playground for kids.

There is no good transition from talking about the Holocaust, so let's move on to food. We ate at Entrecote the first night, a brasserie not far from the hotel and near Checkpoint Charlie. It was very good. We both had steaks and were really pleased. We ended up both having decent, but not great, chocolate fondants for dessert. Though our intention was only to order one, something was lost in translation. We had a really nice late lunch at Anna Blume, a cafe/florist/bakery. My chicken and mushroom crepe was delicious and Jenn enjoyed her banana and nutella crepe. After all these years, I still don't understand how Jenn can eat dessert for a meal, but I've stopped questioning it. I know there are plenty of things about me that she doesn't fully understand, but accepts. We had beers at Prater, a biergarten not far from the cafe, that Jason Bourne recommended to us. We walked around the city for a while and ended up having a late dinner at the somewhat forgettable Malatesta, which was across the street from our hotel. We had a lunch of pita, hummus, egg salad, and a couple other things at the cafe at the Jewish Museum on Sunday. It was overpriced, but everything was pretty good.

It was nice to be traveling again, just the two of us. It reminded us of our times traveling around Europe after our time in Barcelona when I was in business school, which was the best time of our lives. We're looking forward to seeing the world again.