Woke up feeling better already. I only blew my nose twice last night. Luke made eggs bene for breakfast. I also had some chocolate flavored muslix. We of course had some espresso as well.
Mom and Dad pugged in lots of stuff today because of all the days they missed out of sightseeing because of our housing switches. Poor Mom. They left a bit before 1000.
I showered and we left about 1030 or so. We went first to the Ka DeWe. Kah Dah Vay is how it is pronounced. It is a 7 floor gigantic department store. Gigantic. We looked at a few kitchen things. It was very expensive.
I found some knife guards that Luke thought were overpiced. They were Whustoff brand and about 5.5 € each. I thought they were OK. We went on and did not buy them. The department store was very very high class. Very expensive. I heard someone compare it to Harrod's.
We went to the 6th floor. What a 6th floor. The entire floor was a grocery or market, it was organized according to type of food. One area was a giant fish counter that was as large as an entire grocery store cold case. One thing that was also interesting is that there were little eating areas around a bar where you could order a select few items in each area. For instance, if you were sitting in the seafood section, you had 6 seafood menu choices. They served wine and food at a hightop bar setting, you watched the cooks make your food in front of you. These little stands were very popular. They must have had 12 + of these little stands. Each had fridge, dishwasher, stove, etc.
I'll try to remember the sections; cheese, fresh meat, fish, smoked meat, preserved meat- sausages, caviar, eggs, cheese, to go salad, fresh salad, wine, chocolate, shellfish, cold pasta and salads, pasta bar, oyster bar, bread, pastries, home made chocolates, spices, mustards, oil/ vinegar, vegetables, fruits, american foods, chineese food, mexican.
We were walking around to all the sections and were waiting to find the cheese section. I said discreetly to Luke, “Oh, it smells like somebody pooped their pants,” I found the odor quite offensive. Then in about 8 paces we saw the cheese counter. We were closest to the soft cheeses. ISH. I am kind of cheesed out by now. I know it is sad to admit, but I am.
I was torn between taking pictures and trying to blend in. But there were so many people on that floor it was just CRAZY. No one noticed that I was
taking pictures. It probably took us at least an hour to walk by everything.
Did we buy anything you ask? Well, yes we did. We bought 3 types of salad. 1.) Kartoffel salad – potato salad with bacon and tiny cut up pickles 2.) Berliner Kartoffel salad -potato salad with slices of onion, green/red peppers, turkey 3.) tomaten salat – mozzarella balls with halved cherry tomatoes and basil in olive oil. We had to wait in line and got small containers. I want to say it cost like 12€.
Then we went up to the 7th floor where it was a caffeteria. We thought maybe it would be low key and we could find a table to sit at. We read from Rick that it was kind of expensive. We went in with an open mind and got a tray so we looked serious about buying something. It was expensive. EXPENSIVE. It was like 11€ for an entree, and like 7€ for pasta salad portion, fountain pop was expensive I want to say 4€. Crazy. The food looked really good and obviously took some time to prepare. Needless to say, we didn't buy anything. I put the tray down on our way out. We were just so outclassed in this place.
We took the elevator down to ground. That is where all the big names were, Gucci, Prada, fancy jewellers. We walked ½ block away and found some benches around a grassy spot. Saw some dogs and little sparrows. We picked up some bread at a nearby shop. A hardroll was .20€/ At the dept store they were like 1€. So, no way. We also shared a cafe macchiato. We even were smart enough to bring our own sugar free sugar. Splenda and Equal doesn't exist here.
It was kind of cool out. We broke down and put on our jackets. Our red and orange jackets. Once we put them on, and looked around, we stuck out like a sore thumb. I promised Luke that he wouldn't have to wear an orange jacket on our next trip. I'd get him a black or a grey one. My red one isn't so bad by itself, but with Luke's orange one next to me is just awful. We put them on because we were chilled.
We ate our salads, fed the little sparrows some bread, people watched, drank our coffee, discussed the economy, you know things like that. We watched the birdies and we have a special facination with Crigeons. Crigeons are a the superior evolutionary species that resulted from a pigeon- crow cross. They are so smart and hold self preservation actions high. We haven't ever been able to photograph one up close until today. Luke compared Crigoen and Pigeon as T-rex to all the other inferior dinosaurs. The crigeon is the boss of all the birds. He flys in to a group of pigoens on the grass and the pigeons all run away. The Crigeon is large and smart, he doesn't hop delicately he does the Easter bunny hop. You must think we are bird watchers.
We were enjoying ourself when a (I assume) homeless man sat on the next bench. He was talking loudly to himeslf and laughing(he was not on a hands free device). He unpacked his little sachel and there was a box of wine, some chips, some beer etc. As soon as we heard him talking to himself, Luke suggested we go. We did.
Actually we saw another guy 5 benches over and across from us, enjoying a beer. We didn't really notice him so much. Luke saw him drinking vodka out of a little 2 oz or so bottle. Then we saw him w/ a beer a bit later....then he got up to throw away his “lunch” and it was 6 bottles of beer and liquor. No wonder he looked haggard. Poor guy.
We went to go do the only other thing on our list for today, Tiergarten. Tiergarten is the equivalent to Central Park in NY. We didn't see much of it, but walked along the Berlin Zoo perimeter along a cobbled path. We had opportunity to look through the fence at the zoo animals. We saw cows, camels, rhino, goats etc. Then we arrived at our desination, a beer garden, Schleusen Krug.
We stopped in, were unsure as to the ordering process. We saw a menu and some beer, but the menu looked weird and incomplete. Then a bike tour group came through. We waited for them all to get through and order. We also learned from them that you order your beer at that counter or salads then you go in the beer garten futher and then you ordered your grill food down there. I got a beer .5 L. Luke got a beer, a Berliner Weiss that is served with a shot of syrup or shuss because it is a “young” beer and is still kind of sour.
We eventually got some food, even though we didn't really need any. Luke got 2 weiners on a bed of cold cous cous with a little salad of vinegar kraut and cucumber vinegar salad. Luke ordered me a ham meat loaf, vinegar kraut/cucumber salad. The total for the food was 12€. I wasn't that hungry, Luke finished my plate. Luke also finished his small beer, and we had enough Euro change to buy another .5 L beer to split. It was good enough.
We had a good time watching the little sparrows. They were trained sparrows, they would wait for people to leave their dishes and they would flock and clean up the leftover morsels. We baited some to come to the edge of our table. We put out cous cous for them. We also pushed our “done” dishes to the edge of the table and we got a few more. The sparrows are much better to have around then those darn pigeons, which I haven't seen so many of.
We walked back to the Zoo Station. And decided to get going home. It was about 1530. We arrived home and Luke bought some more beer at the little oriental food cafe right outside our door. He pays 1.50€ for each Berliner beer.
Luke was shopping while I wrote this. He bought some purple kraut in a jar, milk, some bread, Haribou gummy bears, yogurt, a cheap beer, Fanta, ham salad, and several goulash sauce mixes to take home.
I may be able to read my book a little before Mom and Dad get home. They fly out tomorrow. Luke and I have another quite quiet day tomorrow.
Luke made his dinner of Sauerbraten, red cabbage and buttered spaetzle, beef roast with cooked carrots. It was a slow cooked braised meat. Luke started it yesterday evening, letting it cook until we went to bed. Then it was warmed up for dinner. It was real tasty. Dad opened up a tall boy can of Danish lager, it was probably 500 ml. It was kind of strong, but pale and good enough. The spaezele was very good. 
Mom and Dad are packing now. Luke is falling asleep in front of the TV.
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