A Brother Comes to Town

Arrived!  My brother, Jarrod, is here!  He will be staying for a full week and will be joined by my sister and brother-in-law in a few days.  Since he got in a little early, we were able to hit some of the fun Berlin spots that Becca and Chris won't have time to see.  Mostly we just did a lot of walking around and picture taking as well as a pottery lesson for Jarrod!

Shady reflection picture. 

Jarrod brought his fancy camera and took a ton of awesome, artsy photos.  I just took pictures of him taking pictures. It's all so meta. 

We visited an outdoor market in the middle of the city and Jarrod got to try his first German bratwurst with a weißbier (wheat beer) from the tap. 

Then he ate another sausage, because, I mean, why not?  When in Germany, one must eat sausage! 

I think he actually has a headache here from being out in the sun too long, but it made for a cool picture. 

We had a beautiful walk through Victoria Park which is just a few blocks from our house. 

The monument on top of the hill made a striking silhouette against the clear blue sky. 

Victoria Park has a cascading waterfall flowing right through the middle of it. 

We took my favorite route to the pottery studio strolling from Schöneberg to Kreuzberg.  There is a pretty church around the halfway point. 

I thought this bridge crossing was worthy of a photo. 

One of the most well-known murals in Berlin is a few blocks from the pottery shop.  I have often seen tour groups standing beneath this astronaut, though I'm not sure of its significance other than that it looks really cool. 

Kreuzberg is one of the "grungier" parts of Berlin as I mentioned in a previous post.  Here, fliers are posted on top of fliers which are posted on top of fliers until one day, someone decides the light post, which was used as the base for these fliers, has gotten a bit too thick.  Then, like an onion, the layers are peeled away, revealing postings from the past in a colorful display of all the things someone once thought were important. 

I didn't take any photos of Jarrod's first pottery pieces, but I do have a short video of his first try at throwing.  (Just so you know, "throwing" is the term used when making pieces of pottery on a wheel.)  He was having some difficulty centering the clay in this particular video, but he ended up with 2 beautiful bowls!  A very successful start to his pottery career.