DAY 7: (Dec27) Third Day of Christmas and leaving Peine
By the way, the Third day of Christmas does not exist. Two days plus Christmas Eve is more than sufficient for feasting!

The alarm went off at 8:00 - yes. Again, an alarm on vacation.

I suggested that Jason take a long bath and relax whilst I go shopping for certain food. I picked up picnic food for us both for the train ride for Berlin.

I got most of the stuff at PennyMarkt, including bread, ham, Pringles, cookies, etc. I got the rest, including a couple of tall beer cans, at Rewe. As

Julia was late. Again. She DOES get the excuse of having small kids.

We were supposed to leave at 11:24 am from Peine Bahnhof train station. Unfortunately, when we got to the train station, we found that there were no train seat reservations free for the desired time. She looked for the next train, an hour later, and there were some seats at 12:31. Fine. Done.

So we had a bit over an hour to walk around in the real cold. It was cold. But it was nice to walk and spend some last time with Julia and the two kids.

There were some pretty, old half timbered houses in Peine.

We made the 12:31 train on time. I watched Firefly and sucked down a couple of rather delicious Warsteiner beers.

ARRIVAL IN BERLIN

We arrived in late afternoon and snagged bus 120. The bus was a bit rough and Jason fell back on to the bag, then fell further, almost to the ground. It kind of reminded me of the "Mary Catherine Ghallager" skit on Saturday night live. A guy our age stared at him oddly and I giggled. Twas funny.

Evelyn met us at the apartment and gave me a big hug. We got settled. The room where we were to spend the next several nights was spacious and comfortable. The only bad thing were the beds: two in all.

EXPLORING THE CITY



We decided for an easy target on our first after our arrival, namely Potsdamer Platz and the Sony Center. It was already dark. We took some pictures.





We found ourselves hungry and had a nice meal at an Italian place.

Afterward, we went to H&M where we each got a new hat and scarves. My old scarf was very fashionable, but not warm at all. I got a new grey one with fringe that I later found to be effective in getting caught into the teeth of my coat zipper. In any case, it was welcomingly warm.

Jason snapped a picture of the interestingly dress H&M cashier.



Afterwards, we walked from Friedrichstraße to the Hauptbahnhoff taking pictures along the way:



Walked to the top of the Reichstag. I had done this before several years back, but I especially enjoyed it this time with in the dark.



As you walk up the ramp, you see the large Parliament room, below. The idea is that you can look down at Parliament doing its thing and ensure they are doing the best thing for its citizens. Kind of like the US "C-SPAN." But completely different in every way.


- posted by Matt @ 6:14 AM