Steps today: 25 519 / 16.8 km
Last vacation day and I was officially sick with a head cold. Better on the last day I suppose, and I was not going to let it slow me down.
Yesterday we stayed West of the Gate, today we started in the East. The plan was to take public transportation to the spot where we would start our daily walks down Kurfürstendamm Avenue when we here in 2006 (locally called Ku'damm and is the "Champs-Élysées" of Berlin).
We got to the intersection and started walking. It was not quite what we remembered, but it has been 18 years. I had also remembered that the U-Bahn entrance was a straight walk in from the sidewalk, but now it was on a angle so you had to go around it to get in. Ah well, so much for memory.
Things were really not familiar, and after about 15 minutes we reached a railway bridge... what??? Sure enough, we were walking in the wrong direction! We hopped on a bus back to the starting place and started again. (Once we were on the right track, I saw the U-Bahn entrance that was facing the right way!)
It was a nice walk, and we recognized a few sites - like these bears! We recreated the pose, but I wonder why I was crouching last time? 2006 vs 2024
We stopped for a coffee and I didn't take any pictures! Blame it on my cold.
The first stop I really wanted to make was to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. In 2006 it was covered in advertising that was impossible to crop out! I had forgotten about the mosaics inside, they were spectacular!
Next was the Victory Column in the Park. The goal was to see it with a blue sky this time.
We wanted to stop for a drink somewhere at this point, but couldn't find a place anywhere! All the little fork and knife and coffee cup logos on the park map lead to nothing! Still, it was a nice walk.
Just after the gate, Frank spotted a nice place for lunch that was about to open in 5 minutes. Perfect!
For dessert, I had my last Lillet Wild Berry Spritz of the trip and it was delicious. My streak ended on a high note (although more berries would have been appreciated!)
After lunch, we took a stroll through Bebelplatz and Schinkelplatz
And then remembered a café near the Cathedral so we headed there for a drink-with-a-view.
Next on my list was Hackesche Höfe, a complex of 8 interconnected courtyards which we missed on our last trip because we made a series of wrong turns. I think I was more curious about how we could have missed it than I was about the actual courtyards this time! We found it and strolled around, but it didn't blow my mind. I am not much of a shopper, and the nice architecture didn't follow throughout. I went into a Christmas Shop and browsed the ornaments - they had one of weißwusts!! but it was 20€ so I choked.
The last area on my list of things to do/visit/explore was the Nikolaivietel, an old quarter in the city.
We wandered around, then stopped for our last drink. Cheers to a great vacation!
And then, the last meal. This place looked promising and it wasn't that bad - just way too fast! We barely waited 5 minutes for our food so you can imagine it was not the freshest. Still, it was enjoyable as a final vacation meal.
Great vacation overall, Frank said it was definitely in the top tier of all time.
By bed time, my cold was just awful. I was completely congested, my ears were ringing and had a killer headache. The flight from Berlin to Frankfurt the next day was terrible because my ears never popped and it was painful! I see now why babies cry on planes.
The flight from Frankfurt to Montreal was marginally better, but my cold just got worse in the following days after getting home. Sucks, but I am thankful that if I had to get sick at all, it was not during the trip!
No comments:
Post a Comment