April 20, Monday

April 20, Monday

Another slow day today. We got up lazily. Luke went right to making breakfast. Now we are trying to use up our left over miscellaneous foodstuffs so we don't have to throw any food away. That just kills Luke inside. So, we had the “American style bacon” and the 2 left over eggs, 1 slice of toast w/ our crappy bread, and the remaining hollandaise sauce. Luke thought he read on the package that the hi-c style container could be microwaved. Well, that was a negative. It sparked in the microwave. Luke also made espresso with the stove top espresso pot we brought with us (and coffee too). I am so glad we did, otherwise where would we be @ 7 am. I remember we couldn't get dressed in Rome with out 3 espresso.

Today our 7 day Metro ticket was expired so we had to get a day ticket at the automated machine in the subway. I takes credit cards- or coin (but only German credit cards). We only had like 1€ in coin. We did find someone's credit card in the machine- left there. We were going to leave it, but decided we would keep it safe or destroy it so no one else could tamper with it. We did destroy it. That didn't solve our problem with no coin for our €6 one day ticket x 2. We went to the Balzac Coffee and bought a coffee and got some change. The gal who helped us was very kind and we got some change for the blessed ticket machine.

We did some compromising in regards to the itinerary. We went first to Bendlerblock Resistance Museum over by Potsdamer platz. We walked a bit to get there, it felt like we walked a good amount. And then the entrance was kind of ambiguous. We found it amid a military facility of some kind- we saw many men in uniform. The museum was located where the German soldier's office was located. It was adjacent to the location where they were executed for their treason.

It was about more than VonStauffenberg. The museum highlighted resistance from young people, people who left the country before it really got bad and decided that they needed to help, the Jewish Resistance, people of the German Military etc.

The museum was free, as was the audio guide (you secured deposit with your passport). The audio guide was not comprehensive. The museum had a lot of information that I wish I could have read German. They had binders of documents and memos. I wish I could have seen what was in those memos. Oh well. I was satisfied with the museum. I was glad we we went.

We then took a double decker city bus to Alexanderplatz. It was fun to ride in one of those. I don't think I had seen a double decker city bus yet. We did some more walking once we got off the bus.

We were headed to Karl Marx Alee. This is the parade route street that was used by Stalin. In fact it had once been called Stalin Alee. The tall uniform buildings had been destroyed and then rebuilt in the old style. I liked them because they were all straight lines and neat- everything in its place- I think I said.

We walked and walked down the grand street that was 4 lanes on each side and was not busy. The sidewalks were very wide as well. I could imagine people lined up for communist parades. We stopped at the Cafe Sybil. It is a historic cafe that has a little mini museum dedicated to the history of the Karl Marx alee. They had statue Stalin's ear and part of his moustache in a case. It was interesting to see pictures of the street.

We walked back towards a nearby metro stop, saw a little market and stopped in. I was actually hungry at this point. We bought ready made cooked meatballs that looked like big chubby hamburgers in the deli case, some bread and Luke had to have a magnum ice cream bar from the freezer section. That cost about €4.85. We then found a metro station and found our selves at home at the apartment. Luke was getting antsy in the pantsy as it is his last full day here, and he doesn't want to waste time. He told me he just wanted to eat things. Mainly he was obsessing over Turkish pizza and Doner Kebabs.

I told Luke that we had food that we needed to eat at home. He was kind of crabby to hear that, but he knew it was the truth.

We had leftovers; ham salad, liver pate, cold sandwiches, Luke had a “hamburger/meatball” sandwich, beer, ice tea, cheese, etc. We texted Paul and this time asked him to reply to our texts so we knew he was getting them. I didn't believe it but he did reply and said he'd be her in 10 minutes. He picked up the key and left. A few moments later he texted us and told us to have a safe journey home. Whatever.

We packed up a little bit and got our stuff together and throw stuff away that we did not need. Luke made bread crumbs out of the yucky bread he bought and we decided to go to a park and feed the birds.

We took the 240 bus to Rosenthaler platz. Apparently there is a nice park near there. We arrived there and were amazed at the sunbathers and picnic-ers. The locals had their blankets out and their shorts on. A little man made pond was near by with 2 ducks in it, the water was quite disgusting scummy and had garbage floating on the top.

We took the bread crumbs to a more discreet area and managed to find 2 pigeons that wanted some bread. We fed them so much they got full and left. We dumped out the bag of crumbs and left, a dog will probably have a fantastic meal.

Luke and I walked toward the sunbathers and copped a squat. We sat for a few minutes and then walked to our bus stop. We saw a decent sized grocery store, and ducked in. We bought a .5 L carton of milk, a yogurt, canned corn and a carton of cream and iced coffee.

Then, we caught our bus home. I pressed the button for our stop, but I guess I didn't press it hard or long enough and the bus drove right by our stop. The next stop was a long ways away so we caught the next bus in the other direction and got off at the right spot this time. Oh well.

Now we are home, Luke warmed up those meat patty's and made one of packages of mashed potatoes and gravy, and a can of corn. I have to pack a bit and I really want to read my book. Just read read read.

Luke is drinking the Sangria in a box that Dad was unable to drink. It is very mild, tastes like juice. Speaking of wine in a box we found the brand of wine in a box that we had on the first night were in the city. We didn't buy it though.

I will do dishes and gather more of our crap together. We'll buy our bus tickets on the bus and leave maybe around 0900 or so.