Monday, October 20, 2008

Berlin Trip, 2008 - Day 12

DAY 12 - RELAXING IN MARZAHN

Day 12 already of my vacation; time is moving quickly and it will soon be time to return to the US and a new job.  

Today we had breakfast at Gerhard's apartment and Jürgen and Christa began to pack for their return to Meppen.  Around noon Gerhard and I walked Jürgen and Christa to the train station and they departed for their return home.  It had been a wonderful few days with them and we exchanged e-mail addresses and promised to stay in touch.

Gerhard and I then returned to his apartment to download photos and put them on my thumb drive; he and Jürgen had previously shared the photos each of them had taken so now I had three groups of photos of Berlin taken from different photographers.  We then viewed albums of Gerhard's family photos from years past.  It is just amazing the amount of genealogical memorabilia that Gerhard has collected; he is a very talented and creative man and his collection is well presented and preserved.

Around 1 pm Gerhard suggested that we walk a different direction in Marzahn as he wanted to show me a large store that he enjoys shopping in and in which there is an excellent restaurant.  We walked a little distance from our apartments and entered the store Domaene.  At first I wanted to characterize this store as typical of a Lowe's in the US but it was far more than that.  Furniture, household goods, lamps, cabinets, etc were all sold in this store and on an upper level was a very nice restaurant where I had - surprise - wiener schnitzel.  Gerhard just shook his head at how often I was interested in having wiener schnitzel but it was particularly good at this restaurant.

We toured through the store and some interesting things were for sale such as this item which actually I had noticed in Gerhard's apartment.  He told me that he had seen this in Domaene, told Uschi that he liked it and she bought it for him for his birthday.  Quite an interesting birthday gift, huh?


After leaving Domaene we took the train back to the Eastgate Mall as I was hoping to find a wheeled carry-on bag to buy in order to more comfortably transport my laptop home.  We did indeed find a store that had such a carry-on and then in another store I was able to buy some wonderful egg cups.  It was amazing to me the number of people in this mall who shop with their dogs and I saw a little poodle that made me miss my little Zoya back home.  These dogs walked along obediently and seemed oblivious to the people and activities around them.  

We did again decide to sit in the  mall and have some ice cream and I noticed a wonderful candy shop across the corridor where, of course, a visit was mandatory!

After this day of walking, shopping, walking some more we returned to Gerhard's apartment for supper followed by bed at 9.

Only a few more days remaining on this vacation!

Copyright 2008, Cheryl J. Schulte

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