Or “Good morning from Germany! Simeon and I are having a fabulous time. We keep reminding ourselves we are on no one’s schedule but our own and just trying to enjoy our vacation. We arrived yesterday (after layovers in Chicago and London) and managed to find our way out of Tegel airport, caught a bus to the subway and found our hotel. We took much needed showers (after 22 hours of traveling it was quite necessary!). Normally when we stay in hotels we have two concerns: the shower and the bed. The bed was heavenly (literally. We are staying in the Westin and the have the “Heavenly” beds.) and the shower was amazing. Its one of those rain shower heads and Simeon and I have to practically force ourselves out of the shower otherwise all we would see in Berlin would be our hotel’s bathroom!

Then we wandered out to find dinner in an authentic German restaurant. Sim ventured out of his comfort zone and ordered a leg of rabbit served with pickled onions, cabbage and bread dumplings (or, as the menu read, “Zart geschmorte Kaninchenkeule mit Spitzkohl und Serviettenknodel”). I veered to the safe side and decided upon the grilled “Nurnberger” sausages with sauerkraut and mashed potatoes (Nurnberger Wurstchen mit Sauerkraut und Kartoffelpuree). Sim tried some beer while I enjoyed a wine that went straight to my head! We rounded out the dinner by sharing two desserts: A mousse of Berliner Weisse beer with chocolate crunch and raspberry sauce and luke-warm cream strudel with vanilla sauce, vanilla ice cream and cranberries (I will spare you the translation). Then we walked back to our hotel and went to bed at a very civilized 10pm (Berlin time- or 1pm our time).

We slept in this morning til 9:30am and only woke up then because the sun was streaming in our window. But I was officially woken up when I realized I was leaking and desperately needed to pump! (My body misses Ana as much as I do!) Then we got ready and went to this lovely little cafe and enjoyed a yummy pastry, a “Hawaiian” sandwich (it had ham and pineapple on it, thus the Hawaiian name) and some much needed espresso. So far we have really adjusted well to the time change and aren’t experiencing any jet lag which has been wonderful. I think the fact that we only manged to sleep for an hour or two on the planes really helped in that area! Then we wandered around for a couple hours checking out the beautiful buildings and marveling in the architecture.

We came back to the hotel to rest for a bit, check email and sunscreen up before we head out this afternoon. We have plans to take an English walking tour of the major sights of the city. We figured we should have someone telling us what things are and their historical significance rather than just admiring the beauty of the buildings. A little learning never hurt anyone, right? So I will post more pictures and document our adventures more later. I am uploading all my pictures of the trip to Flickr until I am back stateside and can upload them to my gallery, so check my Flickr for all the pictures!

Auf Wiedersehen! (Good bye!)