Speaking of very good meals and other new friends, today I met Couch Surfer Elisabeth for lunch at the famous Theodor’s Schlemmer & Schmoker GmbH just around the corner from the Brandenburg Tower. I had contacted her about staying at her place, but she was away, so I made plans with Annette. Instead Elisabeth and I planned to meet for lunch today. We both selected the lunch special which was a mashed potato terrine with small tossed (Rocket) salad with two slices of radishes, a portion of beef (two delicious very rare pieces) with parsley and mashed (green from the parsley) potatoes, and a piece of snapper with risotto. They served this with fresh bread and black olive tapenade. Each of the three selections was served in its own dipping bowl, which was a perfect size! The dessert was like a small brownie with fruit sauce of berries and currants on top!!
Elisabeth is a civil engineer, and now she works more as a project manager on a contract basis, so she makes her own schedule. In addition she does a lot of photography.www.fotografie-einsichten.de She just returned from 28 day hiking trip from Munich to Venice. The group of ten agreed unanimously that the hustle and bustle of Venice in late July after the mountain quiet was not good! She is looking to either move from her present large flat to a room which is common in Berlin and other European cities, where the rent is only €200 per month, or
she may start a Band B. You can find these flats in communities in Germany called WG or Wohngemeinschaft at www.wohngemeinschaft.de
She also told me about two dictionary websites: www.dict.cc and www.dict.leo.org Both of them give you the option to find a word quickly in another language, as well as hearing it spoken!
After our interesting lunch, I went over to the train station to see if I could leave for Paris earlier on Thursday, but I had no luck. Unfortunately errands like that DO kill so much time AND energy…trying to get to the right place AND find someone who answers in the affirmative to “Sprechen Sie Englisch?” (Do you speak English?) is most challenging! (NO! Everyone does not speak English.) Then there was the woman sitting at the SBAhn booth (similar to our MBTA) who didn’t understand me when I was trying to find the busses!:)) The woman then who did speak English well, asked me if I wanted to walk, which was the perfect and easiest solution to get to the Reichstag.
I arrived there at 4:30, but I had a 5:45 appointment. Luckily they let me in then, as there were no big crowds on the rainy gray day. I had emailed several weeks ago to get this appointment, as that is the only way you can see it. It is a very interesting building. Tourists walk around the outside of the Plenary Hall, which is where the parliament members sit. It really looks like a large-no HUGE-ice cream cone made of mirror.I cannot fathom how this looks like internally; thee must be some actual shots on-line somewhere. Pictures in this case are really worth a thousand words….
Hi Debbie..
ReplyDeleteHow was your trip to Berlin?
Just checking in to make sure that you are okay!
Miss reading your postings.
Kathy