1st Place!

Tonight Kate and I went to see Josh Beckett pitch against Tampa Bay. It was a great game, despite the relentless fear of getting rained out. The few pictures I snapped came out blurry, I suspect I had the wrong setting. Here are a couple of the better ones.

The Germany highlights will continue tomorrow!

Germany Part II: Day 4 Arrival in Nürnberg, & Beer Festival!

Day 4: The second ICE trip, arrival in Nürnberg, meeting up with Jens & Marija, & Erlangen Beer Festival

We got on our train at the Berlin Hauptbahnhoff (main train depot) without issue after having breakfast at "Kamps" a German chain that seems to specialize in coffee, pretzels (brezeln) and light fare. Our ride was pleasant and we arrived at the Nürnberg Hauptbahnhoff early. We wandered around the shopping complex for an hour. Kate snapped some photos of the outside of the station and some buildings near by. Once (If) I get a copy I'll add them on in an appendix. I tried using Flickr to find some pictures to complement this narrative, but I found the variations in crediting people for the photos were a bit to complicated to make it worth my while.

We were scheduled to meet Jens and Marija around 16:30, and when the time approached we headed to the train platform where we were expected to arrive. Jens and Marija were there to greet us.

It is a strange feeling to see someone for the first time in 8 years. If I did stop and think about it, when I spent time with Jens, on some level it felt like it had been weeks since I saw him last, rather than years. I like to think that it is a testament to the quality of the friendship, that it could span long periods of time, and just sort of pick up where it left off.

Jens helped Kate carry her suitcase and we walked to Jens and Marija's apartment which was in a great old building. (If I recall correctly, 150 yrs old?) Jens explained that it was one of the few that survived WWII bombing with little damage. Apparently a bomb had fallen through the building however, it never detonated. The apartment was very nice, very stylish, spacious, furnished entirely with IKEA items. They treated us very well, setting us up in the master bedroom. When we arrived Jens offered us all "Children's Beer" as he called them. Jens calls them children's beer because they are Beck's with low alcohol content (2.5%) that essentially taste like lemonade with a hint of beer. Even Kate, who typically does not drink had a Beck's Lemon beer. I can see why Jens & Marija get them, and I find myself wishing they had something similar here. We lounged around a bit which was nice before heading out. A day on the train can tire you out, even if they are comfortable and you remain sitting down all day.

I was pleasantly surprised by what Jens and Marija had planned for us. We took a short car trip to the nearby city of Erlangen. Erlangen is a college town and is very picturesque. I regret that I do not have more photos to show. The point of going to Erlangen was (drum roll) a beer festival! Kate and I got to have one of the quintessential German experiences, one which we never expected we would get to partake in.

The town was absolutely mobbed with people, many of whom were drunk college kids. Kate and I were amused by Jens complaining about the "Idiots" wearing traditional Bavarian clothes which may have been appropriate for Oktoberfest, but not Erlangen. Of course without Jens telling us we wouldn't have known any different.

I wish I could have captured some photos of the food booths

everywhere. At the time I was too busy drooling over what type of meat or brezel I wanted to sample. I settled on a grilled knackwurst of some sort. I was hungry and the food hit the spot. We walked around for a bit, and Jens treated us for a ride on an enormous Ferris wheel. It was a fun ride and the views were spectacular. As we were commiserating about the various things about Ferris wheel motion that made us ill, the wheel operator thought it would be funny to spin our cart as we went by. At first some of us were wide-eyed in horror, and this quickly gave way to

some cringing. Eventually Jens got his wits and asked me to help him break the cart using the big wheel (they are like teacup ride carts). I wasn't firing on all pistons, and had he not thought of it I'm not certain I would have.

Next we headed into the extensive beer gardens set up on a steep hillside. We ordered a couple beers which come in huge ceramic mugs that you put down a 5 euro deposit on. When you return the mugs you get the money back. The beer was a Tucher lager, which is the main brewer out of the Nürnberg region. We sat down, talked, drank, and took in the atmosphere. A couple of bands were set up loudly performing American pop standards. They weren't particularly good, but they effectively performed songs that everyone could sing along to, and many of them did. Jens shook his head pointing out that very few people actually knew what they were singing. I responded saying people in the U.S. aren't really aware of what they sing either.

Jens and Marija ordered a sampler plate of traditional German food for us. On the plate was Blutwurst, or blood sausage, a pickle, some white radish, a type of smoked sausage (Which Kate wasn't a big fan of), Smoked Ham (Nussschinken), a type of sausage which resembled salami, some cheese, and a brown (wheat) bread which is traditional to the region. I tried everything on the plate. I think the ham was probably my favorite item, but I enjoyed trying all of it and really appreciated the opportunity to sample different things.

I tried to snap a couple of photos as we were leaving Erlangen. We stopped at an ice cream shoppe and got some cones before heading to the parking garage where Marija's VW Polo was located. Ice cream is always a welcome treat!

The Erlanger Bergkirchweih was a great beginning to our time together with Jens and Marija. Kate and I had a great day, but we were eager to head to bed and get rest for an eventful day of sightsing on Tuesday.

Day 3: Berlin, Lunch and beyond

Have it Your Way... Right Away...

Yeah, Burger King... Pathetic right? But this is where Kate and I decided to have lunch. It was delicious too, so I think we have no regrets. Anyway I think eating at an American Chain restaurant in a foreign country is really a necessary experience. Of all of the places we went, this was the first that actually let us attempt to communicate with them in German. Of course it is easy when the menu is numbered. I of course had a Whopper, and Kate one of those fried chicken sandwiches.

It was pretty nice outside so we sat on sidewalk cafe tables. The birds were very feisty and were constantly looking for handouts. I decided to feed one a french fry so I could attempt to take a picture of it. Unfortunately all of my snapshots came out a bit blurry, this being the best of the lot. We had one french fry left which neither Kate or I would eat. It looked like it was from the "eye" of the potato, and it was a little burnt and shriveled too. I put it out, convinced the bird would eat it. The bird came over, looked at the piece of french fry, and apparently like us, decided against eating it. Go figure.

After lunch we got on the U-bahn and went to go see Schloss Charlottenburg, located in the Charlottenburg (of course) section of Berlin. The inside of this palace was unbelievably beautiful. The ceilings adorned with various cherub carvings and frescoes that had an attention to detail in the craftsmanship that is unmatched compared to anything I've seen here in the United States. We were given translating headsets just like the Pergamon Museum. The tour went into a lot of detail about the Queen "Charlotte" that really helped humanize the experience. Her interests (the arts, music, science) helped us understand what she desired her living space (the palace) to be like.

The wikipedia link above actually was quite good, providing some information that we did not learn in the palace's main hall tour.

If people aren't amazed by the interior, surely the elaborate grounds will take their breath away. The lush, beautifully manicured yard is an expansive park that locals as well as tourists use.

Next we headed back to the center of Berlin to explore the Tiergarten, a large public park which also contains an extensive zoo. We just walked around the perimeter of the zoo. The Buffalo statue inspired me to strike a pose. I have a past experience where I almost walked into a real Buffalo. We decided to walk to the Victory column or Seigessaule and climb up to get a view of the city. Because we were in a rush (it was around 5:00 PM) to climb it before it closed I didn't manage to snap a picture of the tower from its base. Check out the wikipedia link for a photo.

The tower is situated in the center of a busy rotary in the middle of the Tiergarten. After searching we found tunnels leading under the traffic. The insides of these tunnels were covered with graffiti. The woman operating the desk at the tower told us we had to get up and down the tower in twenty minutes. We nodded our heads at her, paid 2.50 euros and she gave us the evil eye as we set off on our way. The hike to the top traverses an extensive circular staircase that makes Bunker Hill in Charlestown seem tiny. Kate and I pretty much ran up the thing, even avoiding to stop long at the first overlook which is midway up. The stairs at the top are too narrow for more than one person to pass through. We needed to frequently stop at landings to let people down. Once at the top we enjoyed several minutes of rest and photo snapping.

At the top of the tower we decided to head back towards the city center. We looked for the Reichstag dome and chose a park path that traveled in that direction. On the ground the path seemed much longer than it appeared high up on the tower. As we walked, there were many people having family picnics and barbecuing in various picnic grounds scattered through the park.

When we made it back to civilization we walked by the Soviet War Memorial which is apparently constructed from the remnants of a former Nazi building. A tank was on display as part of the memorial. I snapped a couple photos as this, however we didn't dedicate any time to really exploring it.

We decided to walk down Unter der Linden towards East Berlin. Kate suggested that we look at Nikolaiviertel, an area of East Berlin that was said to contain a lot of restored buildings. The copper plated statue seen in a picture below was in a small garden located next to The Nikolaikirche or "St. Nicholas Church". This was a nice area, but since it was Sunday night the streets and squares were pretty vacant. Kate and I located the German equivalent of an Applebees or Chili's which was called "Maredo". I think it was supposed to have a Tex-Mex flare. I had some pork tenderloins, and Kate (If I recall correctly) had a chicken dish. I washed my meal down with 0.5 L of Beck's Pilsner, which was the only brand of beer that this particular classy establishment carried.

After our meal we headed back through Alexanderplatz and stopped at "Janny's Eis" for some ice cream. I had some tiramisu ice cream on a sugar cone. Small cones were only 0.70 euros, which was nice.

And so then we headed back to the hotel for a good night's sleep, for the next day we would be getting up to board the Inter City Express trains to Nurnberg. Although at this point we were seasoned Deutch Bahn travelers, so it would be old-hat ;).