May 10, Musee d'Orsay

   Michael and Barbara went for the morning's pastry at La Parisienne and got a bit lost en route, but found the bakery. 

Ile St. Louis

   We got on the Metro at the St. Michael stop and went to the Musee d'Orsay where we had tickets for 11:30.

What a wonderful museum. But, it was crowded which was a little alarming with Covid worries not behind us. We all kept our masks on, but lots of people did not.

   The couples split up and met for lunch at the Cafe on the fifth floor where we had a decent meal - Caesar salads, quiche for one of us and pasta for another. 

    We all enjoyed the Van Gogh exhibit a lot as well as all the Impressionists. So many Manets, Monets, Renoirs, Cezannes. Too many to list, but just wonderful and made better with the audio guide.

   We left at 4:30, so it was a very full day. Then we too the Metro back and walked over to the Ile St Louis and sat down at a cafe for some famous Bertillon ice cream. We had - salted carmel, dark chocolate and pistachio.  Then, we took our weary, but happy, bodies back to the flat around 7 p.m. 

Berthillon Ice Creams!

First full day in Paris, May 9

    

Salad at P'tit Bistro

Nancy, Michael and Barbara at Le P'tit Bistro

What a gorgeous and warm day today was! Mark and I went out to a bakery for pastries and baguettes in the morning. Michael and Nancy slept later because they are recovering from their journey. 

View from our room! 

    We had a leisurely day to get our bearings and let them acclimate. We walked to the other end of the Ile de la Cité and, from there, walked to a restaurant that Mark found, Le P'tit Bistro in the Marais area. The waiter moved tables and chairs so that we didn't have to sit in the sun. Nancy and Barbara had Salade Parisienne; Mark and Michael had hamburgers. From there, we strolled on the Rue de Rivoli past the Hotel de Ville and then sat for quite a while in a square by the Hotel de Nice and had coffee. (Expensive coffees, but we sat there for a long time and it was very relaxing.) Then we strolled back. We walked over 3 miles.

  Then - back for a rest!

  Mike and Nancy went out to catch the sunset; Mark and Barbara stayed in and got to bed early to read. Mike and Nancy got some French onion soup before coming back to the

Notre Dame under reconstruction

On our Balcony! 21 Quai aux Fleurs

Inside the apartment

Reflections on our week in Berlin

 

 We have been surprised by Berlin. I don't know what we expected as we had read that it is a youthful and hip city and that seems to be true.

  It is certainly English language friendly with most people in retail speaking it. And, many of the immigrants that we have met, speak at least 3 languages - always impressive.

     We are most impressed with the concerted effort by the Germans to confront their history, especially that of the Nazi era. There are many reminders in the most mundane of places, not all huge memorials, but many small ones, such as the "stumble stones."

    I wish that the U.S.A. would put memorials/reminders everywhere about those who have been victims - 

    We are also impressed that news is NOT entertainment in Germany and there is no equivalent of Fox News. That does not mean that there is not disinformation on social media, but there is a concerted effort to keep the news factual.

    The emphasis on transparency in government and true democracy is also very evident, even though we were here only for a week.

    

 

May 8 - Berlin to Paris! Happy Mother's Day!

Today we took an Uber (which is still new and somewhat stressful to us old folk) to Berlin's airport and took an Air France flight of 90 minutes to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. It was another smooth and easy flight and all on time.

We also took an Uber into Paris where we are at 21 Quai aux Fleurs right on the Seine on the Ile de la Cité. Wow! The view out of the bedroom is amazing. Michael and Nancy arrived about an hour and a half before we did, but as they flew from Boston, they are really tired.

This is a public holiday- VE Day. (Victory in Europe) This means that most grocery stores are closed, but we all walked over to the Ile St. Louis to a small grocery store, a Boulangerie and a Fromagerie. We went back to the apartment and feasted on baguettes, Brie, Camembert, ham and grapes. What could be better?

We had a Facetime back to Bridgewater with the family as it is Mother's Day. I think they were relieved to see us. Grandpa was not very happy about us going to Europe with the war in Ukraine. I think it helped him to see us having fun.

The apartment is old and quirky with lovely large windows and high ceilings. Both bedrooms look out over the Seine. The kitchen is adequate for our needs for sure. As it is also lived in by the owners, there are knick knacks and things on every surface and locked closets and bureaus. So, we are all going to live out of our suitcases. There is one room with a shower and a sink, and at the other end of the apartment by the door, there is a room with a toilet. Good thing we are all family.

May 7 - Last full day in Berlin

    Alas - our last full day in Berlin.

    We decided not to get any more transportation tickets as it has been easy for us to walk to where we want. So, we walked up Charlottenstrasse to Unter den Linden and to the German History Museum. It was disappointing that the major exhibits about. German history are closed for several years. There were only 3 exhibits and we went to two of them. 

     One was about Karl Marx and his impact on socialism and economic theory. 

    The other was a photographic history of former Chancellor Angela Merkel. It was excellent with photos of her chronologically, all with quotations from her. It was very thought provoking. It really showed her growth as a politician and a very personal glimpse of her. She said, for example, that sleep, meditation and cooking helped her to relax. And, on holidays, she enjoys the mountains as a way to revive.

    From there, we strolled down the Unter den Linden and went to Gaffel Haus, a German restaurant not far from the Unter den Linden. We both started with "spargel" soup - asparagus. We had been craving asparagus since we arrived as we remember eating it a lot when we were in Germany and Austria several years ago. Mark had a very German meal - a brat sausage, sauerkraut, fried potatoes with onions and bacon and a salad. Barbara stuck to the soup. We met a lovely Swiss family and had a nice chat. It was the parents' first trip to Berlin. They had traveled once to the U.S. - Orlando, the Keys, Washington, D.C. and. Cape May before flying out of NYC

   Then we walked back to our flat, stopping at the Rewe store for some ice cream. We also came across a "Global March for the Legalization of Marijuana." It was a pretty small affair.

May 6 - Reichstag Dome and more

  Today was another beautiful day with perfect weather to wander a city.

   We started on the M29 bus to meet Riley Linebaugh, Peter's daughter. She is a Post Doctorate student living with her partner in Berlin. We met at La Maison where we had croissants and cinnamon buns and chatted. Riley is lovely. We walked a bit with her along the canal and then we took the bus back 'home.'

    We ate lunch in our neighborhood at Otito, a Vietnamese restaurant. We each had soup and a summer roll. Mark's slightly hot coconut cream soup was especially tasty.

    Next we took a subway and a bus to the Reichstag where we went up to the fantastic dome. The symbolism that the Germans have used to show their unity and commitment to the democratic process is impressive.To represent the importance of transparency, the legislature meets in front of see-through glass doors so that all can be seen. And, even from the dome, the public can see down. The Reichstag looks old from the facade, but it is just a facade. It had been left stranded in the no-man's land when Berlin was split. The building itself is very modern, green and self-sustaining. It does not use fossil fuels, has many many solar panels and uses the heat generated by the glass dome, too. We walked easily up a gently sloping ramp with an headphones as a guide.  

     We could see in all directions as the day was clear. We could even see 'our' neighborhood because of a landmark building as well as a stationary hot air balloon that goes up by us. 

     There are memorials to the victims of the Nazis in the Tiergarten area. We went into one in memory of the Roma people who were murdered. 

    Then we crossed the street to the very moving Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. It is a labyrinth of 2,700 irregularly shaped pillars in rows. Plaques remind people to keep hushed tones and respect the place. A running soundtrack, which we could not hear as there were a lot of people there, recites the names. It takes a staggering six and a half YEARS to read them all. 

    From there we walked to the Mall of Berlin where Mark got 2 lighter shirts since the weather has been so warm.

    Then we walked back to Friedrichstrasse and at at Seaside, an upscale seafood restaurant where we ate outside. Barbara had delicious fish soup and a green salad with grilled chevre. Mark had fabulous cod from Norway with rosemary potatoes. It was a special meal and our first splurge. (51 Euros, so not as expensive as home)

Every day we have walked about 4 miles, but today we walked 5!

    

May 5, Pergamon Museum

 Today was supposed to be a rainy day, but it was actually rather hot with a lot of blue sky.

  We took a subway and a bus to Museum Island and used the timed tickets that we got yesterday to get in. It is referred to as similar to the British r Museum, but it is far smaller and much less daunting. It was very enjoyable. We had a coffee on the terrace first as we waited for our time to enter.

    Highlights:

The Processional Way of Babylon - 609-539 BCE under the rule of King Nebuchadnezzar. This is a representation of a processional that was originally 200 yards long and 30 yards wide.

Ishtar Gate. At the end of the Processional is Ishtar Gate. This particular gate is from the smaller gate from the smaller outer wall, but still very very impressive. (The Museum owns a larger gate, but it is too big to install.) 

The tiles at the bottom of the gate/processional way are originals that were brought back in thousands of crates as fragments and then pieced together. In itself, that is amazing. 

Facade of Nebuchadnezzar's Throne Room - two flank the Gate. Again, this is just a slice of the original.

Statue of Weather God, Hadad - Assyrian (775 BCE) It is 10 feet high

The Market Gate of Miletus, Rome 100-200 CE Miletus was a Roman city on the coast of what is now Turkey. This is the largest recreation of any ancient artifact in the world and stands a huge 2 stories tall.

Orpheus Mosaic, also from Miletus

The second floor is devoted to Islamic Art. It includes beautiful carpets, pottery, jewelry, decorated niches with beautiful tiles and calligraphy. There is also a wooden cupola from the Alhambra in Spain. There is a beautiful room from Aleppo decorated with Christian, Arabic, Persian and Jewish traditional designs.

From there we walked back to Friedrichstrasse and ate under the Galeries Lafayette. We also picked up some cheese, bread and blueberries at the ReWe Market. Then - home for a nap.

After a rest, we strolled "our" neighborhood. We can see Checkpoint Charlie from our flat. It is sobering to see photos of the wall and the no-man's land between East and West Berlin. 

May 4, 2nd day in Berlin

   Today we ventured into the UBahn station near our apartment where we bought a 3-day travel pass combined with a Museum Pass for the 5 museums on Museum Island. We went one stop on the underground to the Unter den Linden stop and then walked toward Museum Island. 

  Our first choice was to go to the German History Museum, but it is not covered by the pass, so we decided to try on Museum Island as we are limited to the three days. We tried to go to the Pergamon Museum, Berlin's equivalent to the British Museum, but the passes were sold for the day. But, there was a slot for the Neues (new) Museum, so we went there.While it may be called "new," it has the oldest collection.

   We went on all 4 levels of the gorgeous building which had been left in ruins for 40 years due to bombing. 

   Highlights: 

-Neanderthal skull of an 11-year old boy who lived in France over 45,000 years ago.

-A "golden hat", one of only 4 in existence. They were probably worn by Celtic priests who worshipped the sun. A pound of gold was pounded into the conical hat, over 30 inches tall and less than millimeter thick. The intricate designs on the hat amazingly predicted full moons and solstices five years in advance. It included both a lunar and a solar calendar and took account of leap years. Amazing!

-Bust of Nefertiti, Queen to the Pharoah Akhenaton  - the most famous piece of Egyptian art in Europe. It is incredibly beautiful. 

Afterwards we walked along the river Spree a bit and found a restaurant where we ate our first curry wurst at Cafe Wilhelm, formerly known as Gesellschaft for which we were looking. 

Then we strolled back along the Unter den Linden where we found the Bebelplatz, Square of the Books, where the Nazis burned thousands of books across from the Humboldt University where Marx and Engels studied and where Einstein taught until he fled. There is a hard-to-find glass window embedded in the pavement where you peer down into empty bookshelves, symbolizing the burned books.  The Germans make a point of teaching their history despite discomfort.

See the glass square where you peer down to where there are empty book shelves. Humboldt University is in background. Einstein taught there till he fled.

One of the other sobering things installed by the Germans are called Stolpersteines or stumbling stones. They are in the pavement where victims of the Nazis lived. They are raised slightly in order to call attention to them. There are tens of thousands of them. Each plaque lists the name and dates of the victim and how and where they died. They are also made of brass to stay polished as you walk over them.

I wish that our country would do more things like this to highlight the victims of our country - Indians, enslaved peoples, immigrants, exploited workers. Having the stolpersteines so evident makes it impossible to ignore the magnitude of the atrocities.

  We stopped into the VW showroom of futuristic and older model cars.

    Then we went to the ReWe store and got some groceries and then went home via Charlottenstrasse where we popped into the expensive chocolate store, Rausch where there is chocolate made into

landmarks such as Brandenberg Gate as well as fanciful animals and objects. We only looked.

   We came home and had a dinner of cheese, bread, ham and tomatoes on our outside deck.

   

First full day in Berlin, May 3, 2022

     We both had a great night's sleep and feel less jet lagged than ever. We think it is because we did get chunks of sleep and because of the napping pods. 

     We did our first wash, always an adventure when you can't read the directions. Thank Heavens for Google Translate! 

    We took a morning walk up Friederichstrasse and were able to extricate Euros from the ATM, something that we had not been able to do at the airport ATM. So, that was a huge relief. We went into the underground to read about the multi-day tickets. We walked to Gendarmenmarkt Square, called Berlin's finest square. There are two churches - The German Cathedral and the French Cathedral. And the Concert Hall (Konzerthaus) is also there. From there, we found a Lidl supermarket with a much wider selection of food and got more food for the apartment. Then, we went home and ate a baguette, cheese, ham and tomatoes.

    After lunch and some reading, we walked up Friederichstrasse to Unter den Linden (Under the Linden Trees) which we walked along. It includes a futuristic VW showroom which we dropped into briefly. We strolled along the middle of the boulevarde where there are coffeeshops, little kiosks and many nice benches to sit on.  We walked to the iconic Brandenburg Gate which sat neglected for over 25 years when it was stranded in the no-man's land between East and West Berlin. We saw the American embassy as well as a empty huge building for Aeroflot. The area around it was off limits. (The Russians invaded Ukraine two months ago.)

    From there, we strolled back to our neighborhood where we ate at a nice Vietnamese restaurant - Hua Long. Mark had a

Our apartment on Schultzenstrasse

duck and mango dish and Barbara had a yellow curry chicken dish.