Non-Berlin Explorations

Jen and I have been here in Germany for the past three weeks. Most of our time was spent in Berlin, a hybrid city of LA and New York's Brooklyn with a fresh coat of spray paint and deep historical roots. Serendipitously, we also got to accompany Mr. "Nevgren" on two of his business trips and saw more of Germany via the autoban. THE AUTOBAN! I got to drive on it! Nevgren's Ford Focus Turnier got us up to 180 kph.

Our first stop was Wurzburg. They have wineries, a huge Residenz, and a even huger (?) fortress.

View of Wurzburg from Fortress Marienberg. Our server at dinner said Wurzburg was too boring....we disagreed.

View of Fortess Marienburg. The second oldest bridge in Germany is in the foreground.

The Prince-Bishop's Residenz. Sun is setting at 3pm!

A perfect Jennifer smile.

Statues at the Residenz.

After Wurzburg we headed to Leipzig. Unfortunately for us we arrived at Leipzig on a freiertag (holiday) and walked around a deserted town center.

Monument to Battle of the Nations. Celebrating the defeat of Napoleon.

Our last non-Berlin town was Bremen. Bremen is a major port for Germany and most Germans who migrated to the Americas went through here. Bremen has a famous statue...we didn't find it.

We did find this sweet child lounging on a panther above a tropical aquarium though.

Street Art and FOOD

There are murals all over the city. Some seem to commissioned

and some seem to not be.

This banker is all over the city with different texts.

This was our first apartment we rented. The entrance is quite inviting.

Brandon took this picture in the men's bathroom. At first I thought it meant "no peeing with sticks." 

And now for food. This really is the reason for all of this traveling after all, finding new and exciting foods.

Our Happy Berlin Thanksgiving in our apartment for a week.

Three Americans, three Germans, and one American-German

Turkeys aren't common, but chickens are obtainable.

Fabian, Jen's exchange in High School, brought the ultimate desert, Black Forest cake.

Yum, German breakfast

Blood and liver sausage from Rogacki's

Tea in Bremen at a cute little tearoom filled with older ladies.

And this made Brandon very happy: Eggs sold at room temperature! Eggs have a protective antibiotic coating on them when they are laid, which is systematically washed off in the USA before they are refrigerated and sold. Here in Deutschland eggs are sold next to cartons of non-refrigerated UHT(ultra high temperature pasteurized) milk. And when you open the egg carton they have little pieces of feathers and saw dust and chicken poop on them! Oh how lovely.

Begin in Berlin

Hours within touching down in Berlin we walked across town to see our friend Jerry Joseph play at Dachkammer. After sleeping most of the day away to combat jet lag, it was a good good way to start

our adventure and a good way to chase away the question: what will we do here in Berlin for three weeks?! That, of course is more of a Jennifer question than a Brandon question and as of yet we have not had time to think much on that. The second day here, our friend Matt came to swoop us up and give us a driving tour of the sights of Berlin. First though we ate the Southern German breakfast  Rachel had given to us upon our arrival. The breakfast care package included pretzels, two bottles of beer, sweet mustard and weisswurst. The pretzels were meant to be baked, so without an oven in our tiny apartment, Brandon made them in a pan. Just like a pioneer! With a harty German breakfast in our bellies we were able to brave the cold. It is freezing cold here.

Below are some pictures from the Holocaust Memorial, which was amazing, somber, thought provoking and beautiful. It was also a little too much fun. The memorial is made up of around 200 hollow concrete pillars that range in height and depth. It seemed as though most people there were trying not to get caught up in having a good time getting lost from their pals. We walked around the downtown part of Berlin for a while and here are a few things of interest we saw: Lots of English speaking tourists,  parts of the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, a few drunken Pedal Pubs and folks dressed as statues bronzed statues.   

The next day we were whisked off to see some proper German Palaces in Potsdam. I was more interested in the terraced fig windows than the palace....We harvested a few to take home. Many were un-ripe so I set them up on our bedside table to ripen. I tried to fry them later, but it seems unripe fried figs are no so good.

 

Many German cities have large community gardens that look more like little neighborhoods. You can buy a plot, build a little house and spend your summers drinking beer in your garden. They are very strict though and overnighting is not allowed. These gardens are near the Mariendorf harness race track.

I'm not much of a better so Brandon did all of the betting. Betting on the long shots didn't prove to be so successful, however and we lost all of our money. It's a good thing the minimum bet was 1 Euro. So not such a big loss.  We somehow always chose the old, big jockeys who ended up way last. Most of the spectators were older folks bundled up, smoking, drinking and looking sad. Brandon got yelled at by an old man to CLOSE the DOOR! It is freezing here.

Goodnight New York

It was the night before Europe

And all through the house

Last minute preparations

Were making us grumpy but we refused to grouse

Soon to the plane

Berlin and Bier

But first there was New York

Here are memories we share

Inwood! Here's a shout out to all of our peeps in Inwood. Holla!

Baby Isabelle and Sarah, we will miss you

Oh my! John finished the NYC Marathon. Our brother is famous.

Post Fette Sau and pre yummy MIlk desserts. We love to eat.