With Sondra and John in Berlin
Mit Sondra und John in Berlin, October 2009
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These are pictures and a few comments of the Berlin part of
Sondra and John's Berlin visit. Besides checking
off some of the tourist musts of the city we also met friends and had
homemade dinners at both our place and theirs. Some of it you can see on this page. A few technical remarks about the pictures can be found at the bottom of the page. [March 2010] I finally got to including some of John and Sondra's travel log that they sent us months ago. Some of it is pretty flattering :-). I included a summary of the impression Berlin made on them is versus the end of this page. The text is in italics. I didn't translate any of it. Thanks for doing the write-up! |
Hier sind Bilder und ein paar Kommentare vom Berlin-Besuch von Sondra und John
Im Oktober 2009. Neben dem üblichen Touristenprogramm haben wir
Freunde getroffen und bei uns und in ihrer Wohnung gemütlich
zu Abend gegessen. Einiges davon kann man hier sehen. Eine englische Zusammenfassung des Eindrucks, den Berlin auf Sondra und John gemacht hat, befindet sich unten auf der Seite. Einige technische Bemerkungen zu den Bildern kann man unten auf der Seite finden. |
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Sondra and John arrived on a Saturday. We picked them up from the airport
and took them to the appartment we had rented for them. It is located in
one of the IBA buildings at Fraenkelufer (there are two pictures
of the interior in the lower third of the page).
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Sondra and John kamen an einem Sonnabend an. Wir holten sie
vom Flughafen ab und brachten sie zu der Ferienwohnung am Fraenkelufer, die wir
für sie gemietet hatten, in einer der
IBA-Bauten am Fraenkelufer (es gibt zwei Bilder im unteren Drittel der Seite).
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That evening we took them
to our favourite dinner place, Jacque's Café. Jacque's was as good as always.
There are no pictures of that day,
I think we all were too excited.
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Am Abend gingen wir in Jacque's Café essen, unserem Lieblingsrestaurant.
Jacque's war prima wie immer.
Von diesem Tag gibt es keine Fotos, wir waren wohl alle zu aufgeregt.
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On sunday we had a brunch with a few friends who would be working
durnig the week. We needed some freh air after that.
The weather report hadn't been promising, but at least
it wasn't pouring.
With Gregor, Susanne and their daughter Leonie we took a
stroll to the nearby park Hasenheide where you can ride Ponies! Big fun. We were
there just in time. Somehow there are no pictures of Gregor and Susanne, but
you can see Leonie riding.
| Den Sonntag begannen wir mit einem Brunch, zu dem wir auch
einige Freunde eingeladen hatten. Danach brauchten wir frische Luft.
Die Wettervorhersage war
nicht so blendend gewesen, aber es goss wenigstens nicht in Strömen.
Mit Gregor, Susanne und Leonie spazierten
wir zur Hasenheide, wo es Ponyreiten gibt! Das hat Spaß gemacht.
Wir waren gerade noch rechtzeitig da. Aus irgendeinem Grund existiert
kein Foto von Gregor oder Susanne, aber man kann Leonie reiten sehen.
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This is Sondra's description of the brunch: It was an elaborate, very German feast with bubbly, a dozen or more kinds of cheeses, butter of course, several breads and sweet pastries, smoked fish of several kinds, raw veggies, coffee and orange juice, yoghurts, cold cuts, a quince compote, and more bubbly. | |
| Inevitably we visited the famous delicatessen department of the KaDeWe. It's an experience. It's amazing. You can get lost in it (can't you?). We needed a break and had an excellent lunch there. | Wir besuchten die unvermeidliche Delikatessenabteilung des KaDeWe. Es ist immer wieder ein Erlebnis. Man kann sich verlaufen (nicht wahr?). Wir brauchten eine Pause und hatten Lunch. |
| Sondra had come with a mission from her employer, the Houston Racquet Club, to check out their reciprocal club in Berlin, the aptly named Capital Club. It's wonderfully located at one of the architectural gems in Berlin, the elegant Gendarmenmarkt (google for a few images to get an impression!). We got a litle tour and had a cup of coffee there. The splendid interior matched the location. Sondra was quite impressed, not least because she assumed that many of the accessories and decorations would not last long in the Racquet Club. The attitude (and salaries?) of staff and members apparently are different here. | Sondra hatte aus Houston den angenehmen Arbeitsauftrag mitgebracht, den Capital Club zu besichtigen. Der Capital Club ist der Partner-Klub des Houston Racquet Clubs, bei dem sie die Mitgliederabteilung leitet. Wir bekamen eine kleine Führung und hatten einen Kaffee. Sondra war ziemlich beeindruckt von der niveauvollen Einrichtung, nicht zuletzt weil sie meinte, das viele der Einrichtungs- und Dekorationsstücke in Houston schnell verschwinden würden. Offenbar ist die innere Einstellung (und Bezahlung?) der Angestellten und Mitglieder hier anders als dort. |
While Michelle went to pick up Robin from day care, we visited the famous
Pergamon Museum with its reconstruction of the Pergamon Altar and
other monumental ancient building ensembles. Funny enough, I had never visited it before,
like so many other tourist attractions in Berlin. This was a nice opportunity.
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Während Michelle Robin vom Kindergarten abholte (eine süße Pflicht, die
sie sonst wegen ihrer Arbeit nur selten wahrnehmen kann), besichtigten wir das
Pergamon-Museum. Ich war noch nie dort gewesen und freute mich über diese Gelegenheit.
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Vor dem Pergamon-Altar
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We wanted to make the inner city boat trip which starts from a bridge close
to the central station. This was a good opportunity to take a walk along the
main attractions around Brandenburg Gate and Reichstag. The first stop
was at the
Holocaust Memorial, a remarkable
space with a remarkable project history. Check out the
history page
in order to get a glimpse at the problematic decision making process.
It's not easy to realize ideas in the German political system without
compromizing (and I think that's
by design); we don't have a President who has the power to simply decree
the construction of landmark buildings Paris style (arc, TGB, Louvre pyramid). The result of this difficult birth is amazing though. |
Wir wollten eine Bootstour durch die Innenstadt machen und nahmen die Gelegenheit
wahr, zu Fuß die Attraktionen rund ums Brandenburger Tor
und den Reichstag zu erkunden. Die erste Station war das
Holocaust-Mahnmal. Die
bemerkenswerte Geschichte diese Projektes kann man
hier nachlesen. In Deutschland gibt es ja keinen Präsidenten wie in Frankreich,
der die Macht hat, Großprojekte wie die TGB, die Louvre-Pyramide oder die
Grande Arche zu dekretieren. Das Ergebnis dieser schweren Geburt ist jedoch erstaunlich, ja bewundernswert. |
| John: This quiet, gray, apparently simple but really complex array of blocks of polished concrete covered a city block. It moved us in an unexpected way; we lingered there a long time. And Sondra said: When I look back on what impressed me the most on our trip, other than of course the amazing cathedrals and churches, it has to be the Holocaust Memorial. I wonder if the people of the Ground Zero project in Manhattan have looked at this design. It is very plain yet incredibly powerful in its simplicity. | |
On Tuesday Sondra came with us in order to bring Robin to
day care. We wanted to show off the nice breakfast setup that
the teachers prepare for the little ones, with candles and autumn decorations.
(Unfortunateley it's their policy that no pictures be taken inside in order
to prevent uncontrolled proliferation on web sites like this one.)
On the way back we stopped at a nicely decorated flower shop in Dresdener Straße.
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Am Dienstag brachten wir Robin gemeinsam zur KiTa, um Sondra (die ja mal eine
Tagesstätte geleitet hat) zu zeigen, wie schön die Kindergärtnerinnen
den Frühstückstisch dekorieren. Sondra war schwer beeindruckt.
(Leider darf man drinnen keine Bilder machen, um eine unkontrollierte
Verbreitung auf Webseiten wie dieser zu vermeiden.)
Auf dem Rückweg stoppten wir an einem herbstlich
dekorierten Blumenladen in der Dresdener Straße.
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On Oranienplatz
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Flower shop ...
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... with owner
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A view of Sondra and John's appartment in
a building from the Baller architects that was part of the IBA 1984; a picture can be found
here.
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Zwei Bilder von der Ferienwohnung, die wir für Sondra und John gemietet hatten.
Sie befindet sich in dem bekannten Gebäude am Fraenkelufer, das das damalige Architektenehepaar Inken und Hinrich Baller für die IBA 1984 entworfen hat. Ein Bild davon kann man
hier sehen.
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Sondra writes: We had a great little kitchen and wonderful view out our large picture window of the comings and goings of the neighborhood. Early in the morning it would be quiet and then Berlin would come to life and people would appear on bikes taking children to school and people walking to work. We could sit at the window and watch the city wake up. With a cup of John’s wonderful coffee, it was a great way to start the day. Finding this apartment was one of the many, many things that Missy and Peter did to make our trip so easy and so enjoyable. They planned all the details and we just tagged along, not only in Berlin but all the way through to Prague.
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Break dance on Breitscheidtplatz
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Old and new close to each other at the West
Berlin Memorial Church;-)
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Inside the new building of the Memorial Church
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John in front of the
water clock (French only)
by Bernard Gitton in the "Europa-Center". Er... I think I focused on the clock, sorry.
John vor der Wasseruhr im Europa-Center. Äh... da hab ich wohl auf die Uhr fokussiert, sorry. | |
Here is an account of a dinner at my sister's from John and Sondra's log.
We don't have pictures of it. John: Gudrun prepared rouladen, beef rolled with cabbage, and Astrid prepared a terrific dish of red cabbage. Wine flowed freely, as it did at all our evening meals.
And Sondra: What I will always remember about this meal was Astrid, Peter’s sister and newly elected member of the Berlin City Parliament, who always rides her bike everywhere actually coming to dinner in her car because she was bringing the pumpkin soup in a huge tureen. She proceeded to hop up from the table and visit each our soup bowls and put a couple of drops of Pumpkin Seed Oil from her tiny vial on top of our wonderful soup. The meal was amazingly authentic. The very vivacious Gudrun, Peter’s mom, told incredible stories about Peter’s relatives that had us all in stitches – or was it the wine? We stumbled home quite late.