And So It Begins - Our Love For History, Museums, Big Cities, And Beer

 Berlin is one of those cities. It's huge. Sprawling, actually. And its attractions are spread from one end to the other - they're not all crammed into one city center like many European cities. It's just big. And dense. Buildings are squeezed together like so many books on a shelf. Old against new, mysteries against historical, business against cooking. I know. Kind of a weird metaphor, but it's true.

After a good night's sleep Wednesday, we slept in Thursday. Jet lag's a little bitch. We finally headed out to lunch at BrewDog Mitte (downtown). We'd been there before; they have good pizza. And good beer. We didn't want to spend too much time deciding what to do, so we went with a known entity. Sure enough - good pizza and good beer.

Bellies full and whistles wetted, we began to plot our course. First stop: The Biererei - our favorite tap house in Berlin (maybe the world) and our favorite barman, Cihan. He had some great stuff on, so we dove in.

It was great to be back on one of his bar stools. We had delicious beer, good conversation, and a surprise serving of pistachio baklava from a shop next door. There's a large Turkish population in this neighborhood, and Cihan had a craving...so he treated us to a specialty. 

And proving the diversity of the above-referenced hood, we had Pho for dinner after leaving the bar. (Also delicious.)

Fresh pillows and continued jet lag led us to a nice sleep, so today we set out for German food. After all, that's part of why we're here. We walked from the Brandenburg gate to a little restaurant we'd been to before, but they were having thermostat issues and were closed. Good thing we spotted the Augustiner am Gendarmmarkt. Augustiner is one of our favorite mainstream German beers. And the beer hall didn't disappoint. Edelstoff beer, Nuremburg sausages and fried potatoes, and Apple Streudel.

We then took a nice long walk - we definitely needed one. We came across a chocolate shop (didn't buy anything today, but will return with our sweet tooth in tow.

So many beautiful chocolates!

It's back to the Biereri tonight for a bit and then maybe dinner at a nearby Turkish restaurant. 

Checkpoint Charlie.

We Made It

 We reserved an Uber for 5am on Tuesday. He arrived at 4:45. Mild freak out. We got to the airport and witnessed the carnage that is Southwest Airlines and hoped that it wasn't spilling over to United. Mild freak out. There were just a couple of agents at the United counters and a pretty long line - mild freak out - but the they had a system going, and it took us mere minutes to move through bag check. Denver Airport is divided north and south. All the TSA gates are on the north side. We passed over the bridgeway and glanced towards the south side - hundreds HUNDREDS of people in line. Mild freak out. When we got to the north side and the TSA checkpoint, literally 30 people. Our flight to San Francisco was delayed (yes, we flew out via San Francisco because we flew on miles and that was our option). Mild freak out. But we finally took off. Whew!

San Francisco Airport is pretty nice. Especially since we found a craft beer bar just across from our arrival gate.

We had some really nice beers, including a Pliny the Elder on tap! 

Our flight out was delayed just a bit, but I'd had a beer or two, soooo no freak out. And because it had already been a really long day, I slept really well as we soared over Greenland and Iceland.

Once in Munich, we cruised through customs and waited a only a bit for our bags (which arrived safe and sound). We grabbed a cab to the Haptbahnhof (the main rail station) and hopped a train for the four-hour ride to Berlin. We'll spend two days in Munich on the way back home, so we didn't need to linger.  We arrived at the Berlin train station and snarfed a quick meal - so hungry - before catching yet another cab to our hotel.

Yes. I'm tired. And that shower felt so good! Tomorrow we'll get our bearings and make a bit of a plan for our stay here. Right now...it's lights out.

 

Suitcase Is Almost Packed

 I really can't believe we're leaving Tuesday. I mean, this whole trip came together so fast and came up so fast. I've barely had time to make a list. (Oh, I made a list...several, in fact...but I'm sure I've overlooked something.) 

We've been doing a little research on sightseeing opportunities in Berlin.  There are, like, 180+ museums in Berlin. We've been to maybe six. This trip we'll check out the JFK museum, the Tempelhof Airfield museum, the National Gallery, and probably back to the Pergamon. We'll take a couple of day trips: Bamburgh and maybe Hamburg, and over the border to Poznan Poland. There are several new restaurants and tap houses we'd like to explore. And then there's the KaDeWe: a department store with more than 60,000 sf of retail space, the second largest after Harrod's. Its top two floors hold an enormous food hall and restaurant. Yum! 

We're only in Munich for two days. I expect we'll spend most of the time in a biergarten. Why the hell not?

Anyhoo, I have one more load of laundry to do, gotta get out our passports, and find all those left over Euros from our last trip.  I'll post when we get there! 

Auf Wiedersehen.

Prost!

It Just Snuck Up

 While it's true we planned this trip in a hurry, I still believed I had plenty of time to get all my shit done. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA   I'm hilarious.

A quick trip to California, legal paperwork dating back to my mother that has to be resolved and notarized (deeds/heirship/probate), several household issues that need to be managed, a huge two-day winter storm (crazy negative temperatures that I refuse to go out in), Joe's birthday, the holidays...my head is spinning from the distractions.

I finally got a basic packing list done (in my head). I still need to make a Target run (but...holidays, temperatures). I need to do some sightseeing research for both Berlin and Munich (even though we've been there before, there's so much more to see). Laundry. And yet, here I am posting to this Blog. Oh well.

I DO have a load of clothes going. I DO have enough underwear and socks for the trip. I DO have the brownies made for Joe's birthday (and candles, too). I DO know what I'm making for dinner tonight. And I DO have running water and heat, despite the crazy cold. Sooooo, I'm doing pretty good!

We leave on Tuesday. YIKES!

Gotta go --

Surprise!

 Last week on Untappd - my most reliable social media app - I saw that our friend in Berlin, Cihan, was hosting an amazing beer tapping at his bar, The Biererei Bar over Christmas. How could we not go? How could we miss this historic tapping? How could we make this happen? I wondered. Would Joe - in his infinite ability to scrounge miles and make Business Class happen - be able to perform once again? On short notice? And could I - in my all powerful (and amazing) points prowess put together accommodations fit for a king (or at least two drunks)?

I think we can...just not over Christmas. How about New Years? Done and done. Pack your bags, Gladys, we're goin' to Germany!