Berlin Highlights
May. 19th, 2007 08:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prosodicGot back from Berlin yesterday, 2 and a half pounds heavier (despite the fact that we walked so much that I literally almost collapsed in the Pergamon Museum...but vertigo had something to do with that too).
I'll write a trip report later (much much later). In the meantime, highlights:
- Seeing Berlin at night from the glass cupola of the Reichstag
- Seeing Knut at the Berlin Zoo (*points to icon*)...and the crowds that came to see him. Criminy, you would think that Elvis had entered the building!
- The Wintergarten Cabaret...the performance was UNBELIEVABLE! It was a Russian company with contortionists, jugglers, and various other performers. They were all amazing. My cousins said that was the "Wow factor" for them. I also drank a beer there (I hate beer)...it was a Berliner Kindl Weisse with a shot of raspberry syrup in it. It was actually pretty decent.
- cake at the Operncafe (Opera Palace)...they have a huge buffet of cakes. We each got something different and tried each other's. I got the Sacher Torte. Mine was deemed to be the best.
- The Pergamon Museum with all its antiquities...especially the Ishtar Gate, and I also really loved the Islamic Art section.
We didn't have any terribly memorable meals. Our first meal in Berlin was at this hole in the wall place...a German pub that was obviously undiscovered by tourists (the desk clerk at our hostel recommended it). It was good. I had meatballs with German potato salad and pickles. We had dinner at Maredo the second night - a chain restaurant that is basically Latin-influenced food. It was fine...I had Chicken Fuego, french fries, and sangria...but it wasn't spectacular. Our last day in Berlin, we tried to eat lunch at the Potsdamer Platz Arkaden (the mall) at a place called Pomme de Terre, which specializes in potato pancakes. We sat at the table, waiting to be served. The woman who sat down after us was nearly done eating by the time the waitress even came to take our order. Then they forgot my food, and Lori, Lindsey, and Sue were almost done eating by the time my food came out. Then, they forgot to give us the check, so we threw 20 euros down on the table and left. We shouldn't have paid at all, but we're all too honest for our own good. Anyway, it was ridiculous. But a nice woman who was sitting there watching us not get served went up to the waitress and chewed her out on our behalf. Dinner on our last night was at an Italian place where people smoked hookahs. We all had pizza. We did not, however, smoke a hookah.
We spent part of the day yesterday in Duesseldorf, and that is where the girls tried doner kebap for the first time, and that is also where they tried Spaghetti Eis.
Today is Cologne. Everyone's up now, so we'll hopefully leave here by 10.
I cannot possibly keep up with all your news, so if anything earth-shattering happened since Tuesday, please let me know in comments.
Miss you guys.
I'll write a trip report later (much much later). In the meantime, highlights:
- Seeing Berlin at night from the glass cupola of the Reichstag
- Seeing Knut at the Berlin Zoo (*points to icon*)...and the crowds that came to see him. Criminy, you would think that Elvis had entered the building!
- The Wintergarten Cabaret...the performance was UNBELIEVABLE! It was a Russian company with contortionists, jugglers, and various other performers. They were all amazing. My cousins said that was the "Wow factor" for them. I also drank a beer there (I hate beer)...it was a Berliner Kindl Weisse with a shot of raspberry syrup in it. It was actually pretty decent.
- cake at the Operncafe (Opera Palace)...they have a huge buffet of cakes. We each got something different and tried each other's. I got the Sacher Torte. Mine was deemed to be the best.
- The Pergamon Museum with all its antiquities...especially the Ishtar Gate, and I also really loved the Islamic Art section.
We didn't have any terribly memorable meals. Our first meal in Berlin was at this hole in the wall place...a German pub that was obviously undiscovered by tourists (the desk clerk at our hostel recommended it). It was good. I had meatballs with German potato salad and pickles. We had dinner at Maredo the second night - a chain restaurant that is basically Latin-influenced food. It was fine...I had Chicken Fuego, french fries, and sangria...but it wasn't spectacular. Our last day in Berlin, we tried to eat lunch at the Potsdamer Platz Arkaden (the mall) at a place called Pomme de Terre, which specializes in potato pancakes. We sat at the table, waiting to be served. The woman who sat down after us was nearly done eating by the time the waitress even came to take our order. Then they forgot my food, and Lori, Lindsey, and Sue were almost done eating by the time my food came out. Then, they forgot to give us the check, so we threw 20 euros down on the table and left. We shouldn't have paid at all, but we're all too honest for our own good. Anyway, it was ridiculous. But a nice woman who was sitting there watching us not get served went up to the waitress and chewed her out on our behalf. Dinner on our last night was at an Italian place where people smoked hookahs. We all had pizza. We did not, however, smoke a hookah.
We spent part of the day yesterday in Duesseldorf, and that is where the girls tried doner kebap for the first time, and that is also where they tried Spaghetti Eis.
Today is Cologne. Everyone's up now, so we'll hopefully leave here by 10.
I cannot possibly keep up with all your news, so if anything earth-shattering happened since Tuesday, please let me know in comments.
Miss you guys.
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no subject
Date: 2007-05-19 12:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-19 08:40 pm (UTC)I had a few minutes where I could get really close-up photos (we weren't standing with the crowds...we were at the nearby playground standing on a park bench where we could see his enclosure)...I used the highest zoom on my camera, and I think I got some good shots. I'll have to look at them when I can get to it. We've been doing so much traveling that I'm exhausted and I don't have a lot of free time right now.
no subject
Date: 2007-05-19 03:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-19 08:42 pm (UTC)Brussels on Monday...and you know what that means...chocolate shops!