American in Berlin

More Cheryl and a Second Special Delivery

The challenge for day three of Cheryl's visit was finding cool and cool activities, as the temperature soared and there is not an air conditioned building in sight. The wonderful solution was the Badeschiff. What is this, you ask? It is a swimming pool made from a cargo hull that is 6 feet deep, about 15 feet wide and maybe 150 feet long. It has been sunk to almost water level in the Spree and is the closest one would ever WANT to come to actually swimming in Berlin's main river. The atmosphere is great! People shower off (the life guard is more concerned about this than guarding lives,) then jump in, grab a seat on the edge of the pool and enjoy. The most comprehensive way to describe the experience is that it is so Berlin! It is in an old industrial complex, it's arty, people look trendy-- lots of fun!



It in evening, we did an evening tour of the Reichstag and the Brandenberg Gate. Seeing the city illuminated at night was something else!








Friday morning, special delivery #2, Torsten from Cologne, arrived. After dropping his bags at my place, the three of us headed east to the Soviet memorial in Treptower Park. What can I say that I haven't said before, it still kinda creeps me out! We also walked along the Berlin Wall at the East Side Gallery, took a boat tour, walked through the Pergamon Museum and introduced Cheryl to Doener Kebabs.

The plan for the evening was to enjoy another German tradition: a beer garden. I had heard that the Cafe am Neuen See was particularly nice, but didn't exactly know where it was and got the three of us lost in the Tiergarten. Luckily, Matthias is just a phone call away and was able to navigate us out of the woods and over to the Cafe. We did indeed have a great time! Pictures to follow when Cheryl gets back from the rest of her vaca.

What's next this weekend? Who knows! I dropped Cheryl off at the train station this morning at 7:30am. She is on her way to Prague, followed by Ireland and Scotland. Torsten and I enjoyed breakfast on the balcony this morning and are now off for another day of sightseeing.

Happy Saturday
ET

random interesting people spotted at Schlesisches Tor

posted by Erin @ 6:47 AM