Berlin

Have you done this trick? Ask yourself which season you would be if you were a season then which season your significant other is. Then ask yourself which is your favorite season. Compare your significant other's season to your favorite season, does it match? Well, for Chris and I it does to a tee. I am a spring in personality, Chris is a fall. I just love the fall and he the spring. Here are a few pictures to explain why I like the fall.









We went to Berlin for a three day weekend. We left on Saturday morning real early. We got to our hotel about noon, walked around Berlin. We first went to KaDeWe, a huge department store I had a gift certificate for (thank you Beth!). It is huge, has every pillow, pan, and chinaware you could imagine. Good quality stuff. They had the whole entry room decorated for Christmas. Okay, as you know Germany doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving but celebrates St. Nickolas on December 6th, so everything starts a lot earlier for Christmas decorations here. Like every department store here there is a floor for the restaurant. This store, however, had every type of food you can think of, and you sit there and eat at the booths. It was lunch time and a Saturday, so it was packed with people. Chris and I, who both hate crowds, left the store to walk around the town more. With the historical division of Berlin there really is no longer a center. There are several pockets of plazas scattered around. We went to the Brandenburg Gate and Reichstag. My family was there in 1990. It was totally different then than what I saw now. The east and west have definitely blended together. Only a trail of bricks marks the old route of the wall, but if you didn't know what to look for, you wouldn't notice the difference. There are many new nice apartment buildings in the former east side in addition to the renovated historical buildings. In one area that used to be a no-man's-land there are now huge skyscrapers, very modern looking. It was a total different city. People were very nice and out and about. And yes, that is a snow sledding run in the middle of the plaza. What fun!



Sunday, we went to Potsdam, a town not far, well not "American far." It was about a 40 minute ride on the S-bahn (commuter train). It was/still is where the wealthy of Berlin built their palaces. It was absolutely gorgeous. Full of gardens and nice homes, and much more relaxing than the bustle of Berlin. It was pretty foresty. The colors of the trees are just amazing. We walked along a lake and saw a few palaces. We ate lunch at Movenpick restaurant. Who knew that Movenpick has more than ice cream. We were too full though to enjoy their sundays, although they were very tempting. We then took a tour of the King of Prussia's palace (actually, one of the king's palaces...). It was very impressive. We have seen many residences of different rulers throughout Europe, so at times it seemed the same old, but this place was definitely more elaborately decorated. There was a room with Grotto style decoration (cave-like with seashells and gemstones on the walls), usually they're located outside in a garden, but this was inside. The floor was just as detailed as the room. It was impressive. They also liked marble. It was quite a place. Unfortunately, the audio guide didn't really explain much. I think I understood more from the personal guide who was speaking German than from the English audioguide. The guy was better at telling tidbits about the place.

We found a movie theater that plays original version movies (aka, in English), so we saw 2012, not knowing anything about it. It turned out to be an okay movie. Good at special affects, but typical storyline. Monday, we went back to KaDeWe (lot less crowded on a monday!) and bought ourselves some pretty bowls (thanks Beth!). We then went to see the Berlin Wall mural. They had artists come from around the world to paint on a segment of the wall that is remaining. We got back to Munich that evening. It was a great trip. A great weekend to get away as well. We both needed a break.

We are now looking forward to my brother's visit this weekend and our Christmas and New Years break in 4 weeks. We are going to Arkansas for the week of Christmas and California for New Years' week.

Kochelsee and Dachau

My favorite season is here! Even though it brings the colder weather, the short days, and the colds. Everyone is sick. Chris got a cold for several weeks, actually since he got back from his retreat beginning of October and is now just getting over it. I caught his cold but it seems to be going away, hopefully for good. We have had less kids in the kindergarten due to colds. Fun stuff! But the colors of the leaves make it worth it! maybe.

We went to Kochelsee one weekend. It was also the week we had our coldest temperatures so far and our first snow of the year. So, well, maybe not the best weekend to walk around outside. The lake was beautiful. This picture shows how the weather couldn't make up its mind whether to have fall or just start winter. We ate at a Germanized-Americanized-Mexican restaurant. We shared a burrito and a cheeseburger and they were huge! It was very good, the best we have had around here. The restaurant was in a bath house that had an indoor and outdoor swimming pool. There were a lot of people there. It had a gorgeous view of the lake. We sat warm as we watched it snow outside, then went on a short hike. We ended up at an hydroelectricity plant that lies between the upper and lower lakes. The water goes down these huge tubes from the lake higher up the mountain and is be forced through water wheels to generate the electricity (the green thingy's in the other picture). We caught a picture with a Bavarian man with his traditional hat on. It was quite a place. Chris loved it. Got some science in our weekend.

On many weekends when we stay around Munich, we take a walk along the Isar River. On this day the temperature had warmed back up, becoming more fall than winter. It was quite warm. Okay, warm was like 55 degrees. It is amazing how you get used to the temperature.

We celebrated Halloween at the Kindergarten. We had decorated the room with the kids' crafts all month of jack-o-lanterns, ghosts, bats, and spiders. We even carved a real jack-o-lantern with the kids. It was a lot of fun. We made pumpkin pie, pumpkin soup, pumpkin bread, and baked pumpkin seeds. On the Friday, we had all the kids and parents come in costume where we ate the delicious food and danced. It was great to see how the parents got involved. Also interesting how every parent's costume was scary. When a kid said they wanted to be a princess or fairy I heard several parents say, what about a ghost or a witch. I had told the kids they could be anything, scary or not. We had several fairies, a couple of witches, a ghost, a black cat, a knight, etc. I went as a fairy. My co-teachers were dressed as a painter and as a cat. Chris and I were going to go to Nancy's house for a halloween party. I have mentioned Nancy in the last post. She lives in Ulm. It would have taken 3 hours to get there but we would have spent the night. Chris however felt horrible. His cold had gotten worse that weekend so we stayed home. We ended up getting three groups of about 4 or5 teenagers (14-15 year olds) come by in scary costumes to trick or treat. They said it in German. It is getting more and more popular in this age group around here.

This weekend we went to Dachau concentration camp. It's one of those things we've been putting off. Yeah, its a worthwhile experience, but... Anyway, we finally got round to seeing it. It is actually quite close; only 30 minutes from the center of Munich. We walked around. The temperature has gotten back into the low 40s. So it was really cold today as we walked around. At the exit of the train station, there is the "Path of Remembrance". It follows the route the prisoners had to walk from the station to the camp. Along the path they put up boards of information. We decided to walk it versus taking the bus. We consider ourselves pretty smart on directions and so forth, but we lost the path several times along the way. There were no markings. You had to remember the map that was on the board back at the train station, and even then it wasn't very specific. When we got there we saw many Americans there. "Arbeit Macht Frei" is written in the door to the entrance of the camp. It means "Work makes you free." It was a joke towards the prisoners. Dachau was actually more interesting than I thought it would be. We have seen so many movies this last year that has a plot based on this time period of Germany, so it was interesting to see one in person. It was an interesting weekend.

The days are getting shorter now and the weather is getting colder. I have seen some Christmas lights starting to go up and they are now putting up Tollwood, one of the larger Christmas markets/music festivals for the Christmas season. I am loving the atmosphere here, but it is strange to go home when it is already getting dark at 4:30. We are also counting down the days til the break when we return home to see everyone again. Just six weeks!