Greetings from Berlin (Day 7)

So, maybe we shouldn't have stayed up so late. David got home very late from his meeting in Windsor last night but then we ended up staying up chit-chatting even later. Not such a good idea when (a) we lost an hour today because England had their "Spring ahead" Daylight savings Time change and (b) we jumped a time zone in traveling to Berlin. Anyway, our "plan" to get up early didn't quite go as planned. We slept in a little bit and therefore did not do a tour of the Tower of London. We did take a quick walk to view the Tower of London from the exterior as well as the Tower Bridge......basically what I have been calling our "touch & go landings" of the sightseeing highlights. I really enjoyed our stay in London and both David and I were sad to leave. I would love to get back there some day (ummmm......Tammy, our 40th birthday trip????). The only thing I regret is that I only took one picture of inside our London flat. (This picture of the former moat area around the Tower of London is facing where our flat was. We were located just on the other side of the tall building in the center of the photo.)

The flight from London to Berlin was uneventful....a *good* thing, of course! Madeline was extremely well behaved....yeah! The thing that struck me as we were starting to land in Berlin was the Soviet style architecture. At the airport, we met back up with David's co-worker, Carolyn, and her husband, Jeff, who were traveling to Munich and other parts of Germany while we were in London. It was a treat trying to find a taxi large enough to hold the 5 of us along with all of our luggage - but we did. We found our way to our flat. So far, I am not so impressed with Berlin but I think the fact that it is much more eastern has something to do with it. I will try to reserve my complete judgment, however, because we haven't really seen much of Berlin at all. I will give you a better idea of things during the next week.

Our location of the Berlin flat seems in more of a residential area rather than a tourist area but I also don't completely have my bearings either. We are at least right across from a subway station. The flat situation is actually great. It is sort of like an adjoining room situation in a hotel but instead it is adjoining flats. David and I have a two bedroom flat and Carolyn and Jeff have an adjoining one bedroom flat. After the five of us went out to dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant (Madeline's good behavior from earlier in the day had worn off by this time). We came back, put Madeline to bed and were able to open up the adjoining door and socialize with Carolyn and Jeff.

Tomorrow, Carolyn and David will be off to their trade show early in the AM. While they are working, Jeff, Madeline and I will explore Berlin. The nice thing is that David and Carolyn were in Berlin in September so they were already able to see much of the city's major sites and therefore they won't be missing out on what Madeline and I will do during the day.

Other than the morning's stop at the London Bridge we really didn't do any other sight seeing. So, I will leave you of some photo's of the flat in Berlin. By the way, the Internet here was hit or miss when we first arrived. It seems as though the problem has been solved but if, by chance, you do not get my daily post, it is probably due to internet issues.

Mama & Papa's room



















Madeline's room



















Kitchen



















Dining Area



















Living Room (The door in the center is the adjoining room to Carolyn & Jeff's Flat)