Standing In The Cold For Kyrgyzstan

Our first day in Berlin we did't venture further than the grocery store across the street from Dear Daughter and Boyfriend's apartment. After arriving in the city quite late in the evening, hauling our gear by public transit, and still being under the weather, we felt a day "resting" was in order. Tuesday, however, we ventured out while DD and BF were at work.

Our first stop was the iconic Siegesauele monument in Grosse Sterne.

It was much prettier the last time I saw it in February 2008 when there was blue sky in the background.

After walking back to the S-bahn, we continued on to the Hauptbahnhof to try to track down the missing (and now found, but not yet returned) camera. Who would think the central lost and found would be at a different station?

Our next stop was the Brandenburg Tor (Gate). Unfortunately, they've chosen to put a huge Christmas tree blocking view of the Tor. What statue on top?

The close-up view was obstructed by a menorah.

Then any view was obstructed by the police officers who were moving everyone off the center of the plaza to the sidewalks along either side. That can only mean one thing... visiting dignitaries. So we hung around waiting to see who might arrive. Unfortunately we made the fateful decision to walk through the gate (still possible on the very edges) while we were waiting. The police line on the other side was wider, so once there we couldn't walk back.

So we stood in the cold waiting until the motorcade finally arrived.

A police officer told someone near me it was the president of Kazakhstan, but the flag is actually Kyrgyzstan (I looked it up later).

I don't usually get cold, but I was frozen. I've never been so happy to walk into a warm Starbucks in my life.

An interesting note about the flag... as soon as the motorcade left, the flag came down. There are two flag poles. One has the Berlin flag and the other was flying this flag. So, apparently when a flag is flying on this pole, someone is coming. You may not know when, but there WILL be a disruption to the normal flow of life around the Tor.

So, now I'm two for two at the Brandenberg Gate. The last time I was there, so was the Prince of Monaco.

Because of the cold, we abandoned our plan to visit the East Side Gallery, which is a remnant of the Berlin Wall, deciding that a Christmas Market would be at least a little warmer. We chose the market at Alexander Platz so that we'd get a little flavor of East Germany while visiting a market.

Under the shadow of the Fernsehnturm...

... we found the Alexanderplatz Markt.

The market has an interesting variety in both styles of huts...

... and offerings. Angry Birds hats anyone?

Some interesting features of this market included an ice rink built around a statue (like skating on a race track),

pony rides,

and traditional ornamentation on the ferris wheel cars.

We sampled the specialty of a cheese vendor from Austria.

The big wheel of cheese was put under a warming device until it was hot and bubbly on the surface.

Then the melted cheese was scraped onto a baguette and topped with pineapple. An unusual combination, but very yummy. Of course, while the cheese was melting he kept cutting off samples of various cheeses and sausages, so he managed to upsell me to buy both items. Good salesmanship.

Having had enough cold for one day, we decided to return to the apartment before the onslaught of rush-hour traffic, stopping en route to check the status of the camera in the correct train station. It's still sitting in Garmish-Partenkirchen waiting for us to pick it up. Penni will help us call tomorrow to try to get on it's way home. We've had no luck trying to arrange it on our own, as it seems fewer people in the south of Germany speak English.