Sunday - May 24
We woke up to blue skies and such a peaceful setting at our hotel for the night, the Parkhotel Unter den Linden. It looks like a castle and even had a knight (okay, not real) at the front door.
After breakfast, we packed up and
headed off to visit Halberstadt's town square that is surrounded by
three churches. The morning services at the largest of the churches had
just ended so we were free to browse and take photos. Pretty impressive
for a town this size.
Our next stop on the
way to Berlin was Quedlinburg, a stone's from Halberstadt, where Norm's
mother was born. What a coincidence! (not really). In fact, his mom
attended school in Halberstadt. Can this be...ANOTHER coincidence!?
Once in Quedlinburg we parked the car in a lot with four tour busses
already there and another pulling in. A few steps brought us to the "old
town" which was a buzzing beehive of tourists. It being Sunday, vendors
filled the main square. Even with sidewalk cafes lining two sides of
the square, with all those tourists eating and drinking finding a seat
wasn't easy once we also got the nibblies.
A book swap-meet was going on in the square:
On our way to visit the church:
First we bought a couple of
gelato cones, which gave us the right to first locate and then sit at a
gelato seller's outdoor table. We sat and people-watched, the colorful
bistro umbrellas and vendor tents providing a festive background. A
couple of "trains", the same type that ferried visitors about at
Lourdes, crawled about the fringes of things. We didn't know what the
route is, but it couldn't be going very far. Just a fun carny ride.
We then realized after the gelato we were really ready for a beer and
for that we had to give up the gelato table. So, up with the butts for a
walk to the other side of the square to snag a beer table. And snag we
did, slipping into two seats just being vacated by another couple
practically before they had fully risen. The attached photo shows Norm's
victory smirk and it may suggest as well that we have a thing for beer
and "pommes frites". Probably right. Very uncomplicated, slimming and
tasty, too.
Pam found another photo op that she had to have:
Today traffic was practically non-existent, plus another gorgeous day. To paraphrase the famous Mel Brooks song, this really is Springtime for the Trumps in Germany.
We entered Berlin smack into the most rancid traffic imaginable. Stop and go is bliss compared to what we encountered. Oddly timed traffic lights. Cars consistently entering intersections on green when any fool knew that short light cycles meant they would be stuck, preventing cross traffic from going anywhere. It didn't help that lots of construction from the work week remained blocking curb lanes. With Norm beginning to glance at the sugar-free candies with a twitchy eye, the profoundly ignorant SatNav witch kept counting down the kilometers to go at slower and slower pace. She also made it clear that even if we ever reached our destination, the hotel would be on the opposite side of the street. That's when we cursed and found a side street to escape this traffic version of "Ground Hog Day". Once we were in a part of the city where traffic was light we brought out our trusty Garmin and she got us to a McDonalds where we sat with Cokes, using the WiFi for an hour and a half until we figured things had unplugged.
We are now settled into our hotel and Norm almost kissed the clerk when she said the parking garage was connected to the hotel with an elevator. What a change from Haarlem....and, at 22€/night to park, not as expensive for way more convenience.
Our hotel is smack in the center of things so tomorrow we're off to see some sights.
Pam found another photo op that she had to have:
Today traffic was practically non-existent, plus another gorgeous day. To paraphrase the famous Mel Brooks song, this really is Springtime for the Trumps in Germany.
We entered Berlin smack into the most rancid traffic imaginable. Stop and go is bliss compared to what we encountered. Oddly timed traffic lights. Cars consistently entering intersections on green when any fool knew that short light cycles meant they would be stuck, preventing cross traffic from going anywhere. It didn't help that lots of construction from the work week remained blocking curb lanes. With Norm beginning to glance at the sugar-free candies with a twitchy eye, the profoundly ignorant SatNav witch kept counting down the kilometers to go at slower and slower pace. She also made it clear that even if we ever reached our destination, the hotel would be on the opposite side of the street. That's when we cursed and found a side street to escape this traffic version of "Ground Hog Day". Once we were in a part of the city where traffic was light we brought out our trusty Garmin and she got us to a McDonalds where we sat with Cokes, using the WiFi for an hour and a half until we figured things had unplugged.
We are now settled into our hotel and Norm almost kissed the clerk when she said the parking garage was connected to the hotel with an elevator. What a change from Haarlem....and, at 22€/night to park, not as expensive for way more convenience.
Two photo ops:
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