Sunday after a trip: I did a load of laundry, stripped and made our bed, went grocery shopping and read most of my book. Anders drove Karin to work, emptied the dishwasher and is putting the winter tires on my car. We talked to Martin, who is in Arequipa, for awhile…all’s well and he’s having a great time. He still hasn’t sorted out his return ticket though, so I admonished him, as I am his mother and that is my job.
We got home after 11 pm last night and I was so tired. We made it to the ferry with minutes to spare, thanks to pouring rain, pitch blackness, a missed turn and having to stop a couple of times. Anders drove as fast as he possibly could thanks to the autobahn, but still managed to get flashed by speed cameras TWICE. DOH!!
Our trip to Berlin was great fun, despite missing Martin, and we made the most of our time there. We lucked out with the weather, too, as it didn’t rain until the very last hour of our last day! We did lots of things:
- Checkpoint Charlie Museum
- Holocaust Memorial
- Brandenburg Gate
- Reichstag Dome
- Hop-on/Hop-off Bus Tour
- Kurfurstendamm for shopping (more times that I would have liked)
- KaDeWe and the Mall of Berlin
- Berlin Wall Memorial
- East Side Gallery Berlin Wall Memorial
- Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church
- ate fantastic sushi at Sweet Coco’s
- took the subway EVERYWHERE
We rounded off the end of our visit with family: lunch with one of my cousins (actually second cousin once removed) and her daughter and their lovely dog Captain.
I think all the rest of the photos of the trip I went on to Berlin with my choir during my sophomore year in high school are at my mom’s but I found this one:
I am in the front row, next to the guy with the red letterman jacket with white sleeves. The wall was still up for another 8-9 years and we went through East Germany on a train and then through the actual Checkpoint Charlie when it was still a military checkpoint. NOTHING in Berlin was as I remembered it, to be honest. Potsdamer Platz is full of huge new buildings and it was a wasteland before. We went into East Berlin and at some point into a department store but I don’t remember which one. I bought a stuffed bear with a red plastic crown. The only thing that was the same was the Brandenburg Gate, but even that was different since all the buildings are new and you can walk through it nowadays 🙂
It’s November. November! That’s just crazy talk. Almost all the leaves have blown off the trees and it really LOOKS like November. I have to get cracking on Christmas-related stuff pretty soon. I have a cookie exchange to organize and wreathmaking coming up and presents to purchase and others to wrap and get mailed. Anders leaves for another 2 week trip to Italy tomorrow morning, and Karin and I are going to see Elton John on Thursday (which means I’m missing choir for the 3rd week in a row! *sadface*)
Everyone else in Sweden has snow already but here it’s just cold and grey and rainy. It’s very Novembery.
While we were in Berlin, we were dragged to stores and malls every day by Karin, who was determined to spend all her money. She actually didn’t even buy anything until the very last day, despite ditching us one night and hitting the Kurfurstendamm for an hour and a half with a school friend who was also in town. Anders bought a winter hat, and I finally bought some new shoes. I’ve had the same pair of Ecco shoes for years…they are so comfortable that I wore them into rags. And before them I had the exact same pair, also for years. But this year, I was up in the air about buying a new pair of shoes even though I desperately needed them…Ecco has changed all their styles and didn’t have anything I liked here or in the US. We went to several shoe stores and at one huge sports store, I finally dithered between three different pairs of walking shoes. My feet are SUPER wimpy so I really need a soft, bouncy sole, especially since I wear them pretty much every day and stand in them a lot at work. There was a pair of black Eccos that were okay, but not great, and a pair of Reeboks that were clunky and a bit heavy but very nice in the sole, and then Karin made me try on these, and that’s what I bought: Adidas Pure Boost X. They are a little sportier than I wanted and I don’t really like the white sole but MAN are they soft and bouncy and comfortable!
In other news, I may need an Instragramtervention.