DAY 10 - FUN DAY IN BERLIN
Time has been flying on this vacation. I have done many things, saw many sites and had restful and peaceful walks. Today would be a combination day of visiting, talking and touring.
The day started off with breakfast at Uschi and Harald's apartment and then Uschi, Gerhard, Jürgen, Christa and I were off in the car to the main area of Berlin. First we stopped at Alexander Platz and visited the Alexis Mall. Gerhard and I had already been here before and it is a magnificent mall with many stores to visit. In the mall was an ice cream parlor where we stopped for ice cream cones:
After this walk we got back in the car and headed for downtown Berlin. I had wanted to visit the large department store in Berlin "KaDeWe" and had mentioned that to Gerhard before I came to Berlin. Today would be the day. I had been to KaDeWe in 1993 when I visited my brother and his family but at that time we only cruised through the store, went to the top level and had some lunch at the multitude of concession areas available. Today, though, we three women would do a woman's visit of the store!
First, though, we had a bit of "dinner" at a Curry Wurst concession stand outside of KaDeWe. I had not heard of curry wurst but evidently it is a delicacy in Germany. Gerhard even told me that my nephew, Jay, when visiting Gerhard last year, had requested a visit to a curry wurst stand.
Following our meal off to KaDeWe we went. The two men went their own way to visit the computer area of the store. Then they would return home to Marzahn by bus. They certainly didn't want to tag along with three women in a major department store.
In the US we have many large department stores. I grew up in the Detroit area with the JL Hudson Department store and my mother worked there for 25 years. It is a nice department store with quality labels. Over the years Hudson's was sold to Marshall Fields and now has become part of the Macy's family. In St. Joseph where I live now there are no Macy's stores available. The closest store is the large Macy's on State Street in Chicago and I have taken the Amtrak train there on occasion to spend a day shopping.
However, there is NO comparison between KaDeWe and Macy's. KaDeWe is 1,000 times larger and much more exclusive than any store I have visited in the US. Christa, Uschi and I spent most of the day walking through all the floors and departments in this store buying nothing. Unusual for women!
We did visit the cosmetics counters and there, front and center, was the Estee Lauder display. I faithfully use Estee Lauder cosmetics in the ReNutriv line and they are very difficult to find. I have to send to Chicago when I need to replenish my supply. The costs of the ReNutriv line have risen over the years and I was curious to see if KaDeWe carried the same lines. Sure enough, they did, and I posed for a picture holding my particular jar of ReNutriv cream. A sales associate approached me and I told her that I would like to know the price of this jar. I nearly choked when I heard the price was almost 2/3 MORE at KaDeWe than in Chicago at Macy's. Needless to say I did not buy it but I was amused by their display of Estee Lauder. Felt like home!
We then headed to the home furnishings floor where I was gifted by Uschi and Christa with some specialty dessert forks and a wonderful cake server utensil. Both of these items I had seen Uschi using in her home. Being a tea lover and lover of all things "tea" related, I wanted to visit the area where tea pots and tea sets were displayed. It had been my dream to purchase a really nice German tea set with teapot, sugar, creamer, tea cups, saucers, etc. There were so many styles and colors to study in the store that it was hard to decide just which set I liked the best. When all was said and done, though, the prices determined that I would have to forego this dream. It would have been way too big of a bite in exchange rates, and with the added costs of shipping, it would be impossible to afford. I was disappointed but I certainly enjoyed looking at all the sets.
At the end of the afternoon we did visit the top floor where the view over Berlin is breathtaking. There we sat and had some drinks before heading back to Uschi's car and back to Marzahn.
After returning home to the apartments we again spent time viewing family video tapes and had supper of rouladen, potates and red cabbage.
It had been a long day but a very enjoyable one. I was ready for bed earlier than usual, undoubtedly due to all the walking.
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