Berlin

1spending yesterday in Berlin was great. We went on a bike tour of the city, 16km, 4.5 hours... we were able to see all of the touristy stuff - parliament, the brandenburg gate, the TV tower, victory tower, the tiergarden, the house of the president, checkpoint charlie, part of the wall, the "memorial for the murdered jews of wwii" (yes, that is the name and by far it was my favorite thing we saw), ate lunch in a biergarden, and of coursei several old buildings and cathedrals. for only being here for such a short amount of time it was perfect for showing us the necessities and the guide was super knowledgeable about so many things about the city. and it was in english (yay!)
too bad it was 45 degrees. i was FREEZING. i dont do well in cold weather... so i really need to learn how to keep myself warm in England. Elke was having a grand old time on her bike while i was peddling along with this slight breeze pushing my hood off my head, with my fingers wrapped in my sleeves so i couldnt really control the brakes. quite funny to picture im sure....
after that tour we went on a little shopping excursion in search of a new coat. we first went to this KaDeWe place and had a little snack at the restaurant that overlooked berlin, then browsed around there for a while. too bad they didn't sell an article of clothing for less than 200euro, which is about $300... pass! Found a great coat at united colors of benneton, its red :-) and wool :-) and has a hood :-) and did i mention that its red :-)?

throughout this entire leg in berlin all that we have wanted was something freshly made for a meal - SALAD. but that doesnt exist here. its like, lettuce? what is lettuce? you dont want a cup of milk fat, i mean dressing with that? So we ended up searching online for a place, and found one in the middle of town that we thought would suit our needs. but of course, it didnt. we ended up wandering down the street and found this little place called "good choices" and they had salad :-) so we sat down, and the food was great! exactly what we wanted! and i was thoroughly entertained by the gay bar atmosphere that was brewing 20 feet away... i was watching these guys through a mirror on the wall the whole time. im such a people watcher.... oh, and then there was the prostitute standing outside the restaurant. i wanted to see her get picked up, just to be able to say that i had and i was curious about the way the transaction would go down, but no takers....

and as for today, beautiful sunny skies! and we've got a plan to go into the parliament building because they have this glass globe thing that you can walk through and have great views of the city (and its free), and then elke wants to go and see this "hof" thing and some art galleries. we'll be leaving for hannover as late as possible, and we'll be on our merry ways to london and la in the morning.

can't wait to finally be settled in england....

tata!!