Most Fun EVER in Berlin

M left Berlin this morning to return to his internship in Belgium. That left P and me alone for our last weekend day together this trip. We'd tossed around a couple of ideas for the day, but the outdoor one had no tickets left and the indoor one was not particularly appealing because it was another sunny day. Off the top of my head I threw out "how about a Segway tour"? Tickets were available, so we booked it on line.

We still had several hours -- the tour didn't start until 3:00 p.m. -- so we went to lunch. We headed to Oranienburger Straße, where P knew there was an entire street of all kinds of restaurants. After walking by a few and checking their menus, we settled on Mirchi, which serves a mixture of Singaporese-Indian-and I'm not sure what else.

We chose two different dishes, which turned out to be pretty much the same except for the meat, and shared them. One was chicken; the other was duck. Both were served with the same vegetables in a coconut-curry-peanut sauce that wasn't too spicy/hot. The food was tasty and ample.

From there we headed towards Alexanderplatz, where the tour was to start. We still had about an hour, so we located the office we needed to find for the tour, then we settled into a nearby coffee shop to wait. There was an over-crowded Starbucks on another corner, but this little shop was an oasis of peace and quiet, nearly next door to our ultimate destination.

When we arrived for our tour, we signed away our lives and limbs, were fitted with helmets, and were given about 15 minutes of instruction and practice on the Segways. It's amazing how quickly you can go from fear to confidence on those machines. I want one! Stupid New York... last I knew they were illegal.

Not sure who the photobomber is in the background.
The company also gives tour on "Fat Tire" bikes, hence the name.

It turned out to be a private tour, as no one else had signed up. Our tour guide, Waleed, was a cool guy with a British accent. The tour itself covered some places I'd already visited, as well as some obscure corners I'd never seen.

We visited Rosenstraße, where the non-Jewish wives of Jewish men staged a successful protest to have their husbands returned to them during WW2. Around the year 2000 a movie was made with the same name; I'd previously seen it, so I was familiar with the story. There's a memorial on the site of the detention center.

We visited Sophienkirche on Große Hamburger Straße. During the cold war, Martin Luther King gave a speech at the church. The Russians were generally racist; by allowing the speech, they primarily wanted to poke a stick in the eye of the West.

In front of the church stands a building still riddled with bullet holes from WW2. According to Waleed, they were Russian bullets.

Markers in the pavement have been placed around Berlin as close as possible to the last known residence of people who were taken to the concentration camps.

Down the street is the first Jewish Cemetery in Berlin.

A bit later we found ourselves back on Oranienburger Straße, where Waleed pointed out the New Synagogue, which survived Kristallnacht, but was destroyed by Allied bombing. It was reopened in 1995, but the main sanctuary was not restored. Some history is available on their website.

He also pointed out the Telegraph Building. During our underground tour, we learned about the system of vacuum tubes under Berlin (like the tubes we use at the bank drive-through). This building was the central station for the system.

In all, our tour was about 2 hours long. Because we were the only participants, Waleed was able to make some accommodations for my knee, and we took some rests along the way. Two hours is about right. I don't think I could have done much more. But I really didn't want to give the machine back. Did I mention that I want one?

Afterwards, we went back to the same coffee shop to do a little resting (me) and warming up (P) before heading back to the apartment.

SO MUCH FUN!

Squee Time

The Zoo. In spring. Baby animals. Squee!

OK... so these babies were, for the most part, born last spring and summer. But they're still babies and still adorable.

In all my trips to Berlin, this was my first visit to the Zoologisher Garten, a mere 3 stops on the subway from P's apartment. Given a beautiful springlike day, and also given that she hopes/plans to move soon, the time seemed ripe.

The line to get in was relatively long -- though P says she's seen it longer-- but it didn't take very long to pay and gain admission. Family groups always make lines seem longer. It also helped that P noticed them open another line. 

Once inside, the crowd spread hither and thither, so the grounds never felt particularly crowded. And spring flowers were out in full force.

Crocus everywhere.

My first azalea sighting.

We opted to purchase the cheaper tickets and bypass the aquarium, since we knew we wouldn't have time to see everything and I'd recently been to SeaLife Berlin. An iguanodon would have been worth seeing, though. Just sayin'...

In the center of the park, I spotted another gray heron. Then I spotted a whole lot more of them. The treetops were littered with their nests.

We finally found some of the crowd when we visited the zoo restaurant for lunch. It was hard to find a seat, but the food was good. M had a foot-long curreywurst and P and I had schnitzel. It's humbling when a zoo canteen makes better schnitzel than you do.

I was amused by their play on the word "gastronomy". Gast means guest in German.

We found the rest of the crowd on the playground.

I wasn't too disappointed that the ground hogs were hibernating. I can see them in my backyard anytime, unfortunately.

I particularly liked the display of mountain goats. This was one of several.

And while I'm not a big fan of monkeys, the orangutans have a quiet dignity and extremely expressive faces. This old patriarch also has an impressive coat of hair.

And, of course, there's the babies.

These two are the same species. I'm guessing the darker one is younger.

This hippo IS a baby. It's much smaller than the others. Really.

Late afternoon we headed to Potsdasmer Platz and the Sony Center for an English language showing of American Hustle. 

It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. The theater is a great place to see a movie -- it's where they have the red carpet events in Berlin. But I could have waited for the DVD.

Oh well... Hakuna Matata.