An Austrian in Germany

Irma!!!  My dear friend Irma hopped the border from Austria to Germany and spent 4 days with us in Berlin.  

During her visit we went all over the place, but we were two goofs and neither of us took any pictures!  The lens of Irma's camera actually broke the first day and I was just too busy chatting and showing Berlin to my friend, that I never stopped us to take photos.  

Even though there isn't much evidence to prove it, we did have a terrific time and I was so happy to share Berlin with this lady.  We did a lot of walking around the city, we went for a few runs, saw the Berlin Wall, and cooked delicious food!  Irma is always the best at cooking the good foods.  I learn a new recipe every time I see her.  

We also spent two afternoons in the pottery shop and Irma got to make her very first pieces of pottery!  Here is a video of her making a tiny espresso mug. 

Thank you for coming and spending the week with me Irma!  It was awesome!

Becca's Berlin Birthday Party

This is the first time the three of us have been together for one of our birthdays in a very long time!  We went to this awesome store called Kochhaus (Cook House), which sells groceries organized in individually portioned recipes.  Jarrod, Becca and I each picked one recipe that we wanted to make and share with the group and these three dishes collectively created our dinner for 5!  

The birthday girl has recently gone gluten-free so we made her a flourless chocolate mousse cake made from a secret ingredient that you will never guess!

Avocados!  

6 Avocados

3 Teaspoon of Vanilla

1 Teaspoon of Salt

1 1/2 Cups of Melted Chocolate Chips (or more if you want)

3/4 Cups of Sugar (or more to taste)

Whisk it up, then refrigerate for 3 hours.  Jarrod made fresh whipped cream to top it off.  It tasted great with raspberries and apples! 

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday dear Becca.

Happy Birthday to you!

Thanks for coming all the way to Germany so we could celebrate the start of year 27 with you!

Sibs in Berlin: Potsdam

After our awesome trip to Potsdam with Frederic and Johanna, we decided to bring the sibs there too.  Here we are standing in front of the Brandenberg Gate. 

Jarrod, Becca and I stood in front of this rack of tea for about 10 minutes just cracking up.  The tea company cleverly translated commonly used German idioms to English and they had us in stitches!  Fritz and Chris eventually had to drag us away.  Some other favorites include: "you make me fix and ready," "you have no idea of tooting and blowing," and "you go me animally on the cookie."

There were some beautiful ducks hanging around the Palace Sanssouci.  

Fritz really really wanted me to take a picture of this windmill.  I didn't like the lighting as the bright sun in the middle of the day was causing the windmill to be a bit backlit and off balance with the bright sky, but I think I'll get in trouble if I don't post it.  This one is for you Fritz. 

Fritz and I have decided this is "Lover's Arch" so we put Becca and Chris under it for a photo. 

Then I took a picture of Jarrod leaping for joy...

...and another one...

...and one more for good luck!  He's just so good at that!  That's the New Palace in the background.  

These were the statues lining the roof of the New Palace which was built 20 years after the Palace Sanssouci.   

Sibs in Berlin: From Macarons to Mauerpark

More Sibs!!!  Becca and Chris arrived 3 days after Jarrod!  We collected them and brought them for a tasty Greek dinner after their rather long flight and 6-hour layover in Iceland. 

We were all refreshed by the next morning and went over to Makrönchen Manufaktur in Charlottenburg.  If you'd like to know, this little cafe belongs to our friend Laura and happens to be the home of the BEST macarons in all of Berlin.  I'm not kidding.  Laura is a baking legend!  She is even in books about the sweet spots of Berlin!  She also happens to hang out in my favorite cafe a lot so I've gotten to know her quite well.  She actually lent us extra towels so all of our visitors can use more than a dishtowel to dry off after they shower.  She's so nice!  And her macarons are sooooo yummy!  Thanks for a beautiful brunch Laura!  

From there we headed over to Mauerpark.  Fritz and I had heard about it, but this was our first time visiting so it was a new experience to the whole gang.  "Mauerpark" means Wall Park because the it is located on the border of East and West Berlin which was divided by the Berlin Wall.  We learned that on Sundays, Mauerpark becomes a destination unlike any other.  

There is a giant market that would have taken hours to walk through.  In addition to antique and "junk" vendors, there were tons of artists and crafts people with booths displaying all kinds of unique goods.  

It was packed in the market and we weaved and bobbed our way through from booth to booth. 

Fritz carried my new hula hoop that Jarrod and I got together the day before.  He bought juggling balls when I got the hoop so we could put on our own little sibling show. 

There was a separate section of the market that had a mega assortment of delicious food!  The boys each got their very own fish, which they had to de-bone before eating.  Becca and I got ice cream.  Everyone was happy. 

Outside the market there was a large stretch of lawn where people just set up whatever it was they wanted to set up, from barbecues to banjo bands.  The guy in the picture above had a microphone and some background beats and just started rapping his heart out while a crowd gathered around him.  I'm not usually that interested in rap music, but this guy had some very thoughtful lyrics.  

Beyond the lawn is a slope leading up to the old Berlin Wall which you can see in the background. 

The slope made for a perfect amphitheater.  A huge crowd packed themselves in to surround a circular stage where a man sets up karaoke every Sunday.  

This was completely unbelievable.  

I have never seen so many people just loving karaoke performances.  Brave singers from all over the world got up to share their "talents."  Some were good, most were bad, but the people loved them all the same.  My personal favorite was a shy-looking Korean girl who belted out Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You."

A man wearing a curly wig did a great job rapping in German.  He was quite animated and had the entire thing memorized!  

Sometime after him, two guys from Spain sang the Macarena.  They encouraged people to join them on the stage to dance.  As quickly as I could, I hopped up on the stage and hoop danced in front of the biggest crowd I've ever stood before in my life.  I don't know what got into me!  But it was fun! 

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.

Frankfurt Friends in Berlin!

Look who came to visit us!!!  Our old Frankfurt pals, Johanna and Frederic, came to spend the weekend.  We filled the weekend with several adventures including a to the German Historical Museum.  Johanna, Frederic and Fritz are all historians so this was quite fitting.  

We also decided to explore the charming city of Potsdam, which is just south of Berlin.  While Berlin is the capital of Germany, Potsdam is the capital of the German federal state of Brandenburg (Germany is divided into 16 federated states).  It was historically the residence of the Prussian Kings and the German Kaiser until 1918.  

There were several lovely rivers and streams around the city. 

An old communist building has been converted into a university building.

The Dutch Quarter is characterized be these quaint brick buildings.

The Brandenburg Gate is pictured above, not to be confused with the other Brandenburg Gate located in downtown Berlin. 

The Palaces of Sanssouci (pronounced San-Soo-See) is a must-see for anyone visiting Potsdam.  This is the former summer palace of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia.  He carefully sculpted the park that surrounds the palace with gardens, greenhouses, nurseries, obelisks, goddess statues, and several thematic temples.  The steps leading to the palace's front door cut through a terraced vineyard.  Sanssouci was built in the Rococo style and has been said to rival the French Palace of Versailles.  "Sanssouci" means without worries as this location was intended to be a place of relaxation for the Prussian King.  It was built in 1747, but various upgrades continued to be completed, including the New Palace built just 20 years after Sanssouci. 

We came a few months too early to see the vineyard in bloom, but you can see the terraces behind us.  All of the busts and statues were covered up for the winter as well, each hiding in its very own tiny house.  I guess we will have to come back once spring is really underway so we can see the palace in full bloom. 

It was a lovely view of the grounds and the city in the distance from the top of the palace steps. 

Next to the burial place of Frederick the Great was a puddle where someone had dropped a little white origami crane.

Here's our gang looking so cool on the steps to nowhere.  Literally nowhere.  There was a wall with a locked gate blocking our way, so we took a picture and went a different way. 

Thank you so much for coming to visit us Johanna and Frederic!  We had such a lovely adventure with you!