Thursday, August 2, 2012
We are currently in the airport in Riga, Latvia !!!  Who even thought we would ever be in this country?  We left Berlin this morning and are on our way to Tallinn, Estonia, to meet up with our cruise ship.

Yesterday in Berlin was fabulous .... we had breakfast in our hotel.  It was an interesting buffet with lots of different cheeses, breads, etc.  I particularly enjoyed the brie cheese,  Then we took the bus into the historical area of Berlin.  It was quite a warm day and we needn't have brought our jackets.
We walked by the Berlin Dom, which is a church built in the 1454 as a Roman Catholic chapel ... only has a small congregation to keep it maintained, so they charge admission to see the interior. It is now a Protestant (Evangelical) church.

Berliner DOM

Walking by the DOM, we bought tickets for the museums.  First,we went to the Neues Museum which had a huge Egyptian collection, including the bust of Nefertidi.

Nefertiti

The collection was unbelievably huge, with first objects brought to Berlin in 1828.  There are many objects dating from 4000 BC, including sarcophagus, jewelry and figures.

 After a couple of hours in the Neues Museum, we walked further along towards the Pergamon Museum.  Stopped for lunch at a quaint Thai restaurant, called the Jolly Restaurant Bar.  I had beef and vegetables and Craig had chicken and pan fried noodles.  It was very comparable to what we get at home, of course.  But, a Coke costs more than beer !
On to the Pergamon Museum, which houses original-sized, reconstructed monumental buildings such as the Pergamon Altar and the Market Gate of Miletus, all consisting of parts transported from Turkey.

Pergamon Altar

Detail of Pergamon Altar

The reconstructed Market Gates ...

The reconstructed Ishtar Gate is also in the Pergamon ....

Closeup of Ishtar Gate

 Well, after a hot, stuffy afternoon in museums .... and walking lots .... we took the bus back to our hotel to rest for about an hour before dinner.  We wanted  to try an "authentic" German meal at a place we read about in our book on Berlin.  We found it on the map, but it wasn't clear about how to get there.  So, about 8 PM, we asked the gal at the desk.  She printed out directions for us and we started our adventure !
We took the hotel shuttle to the airport and got on bus 109 to the U bahn station at Kaufurstendamm, where we got on U9 as directed.  A very nice young man informed us about 10 stops later that we were going in the wrong direction and on the wrong subway !  But, we followed the directions religiously !  So,  back to the Kaufurstendamm station to  look for U1,  Craig noticed the sign for the bus M29, which was the bus we were to take later,  so we just jumped on it right away.  Of course, all the street signs were in a foreign language !  We recognized one of the signs and got off the bus, where we then asked directions from a coffee shop keeper.  He told us that we needed to go down about 5 more stops to Max & Moritz's.  Luckily, the buses run about every 10 - 15 minutes.  We arrived at our destination about 10 PM !!!!!!!!!!
We had a fabulous dinner ... Craig had Very Special Sausages with boiled potatoes and I had Sauerbraten with Red Cabbage.  Yes, it  was well worth the trip !

Sauerbraten, red cabbage and potato dumplings

A very nice young couple from Israel was sitting at a table next to us and started talking to us.  Really enjoyed that.
There is never any rush in Berlin, but we finally got our check and headed back out to the bus stop.  Took the first bus, but missed our second bus by 5 minutes ... and it was the last one for the night for that particular route.  So, had to take a taxi back to our hotel.
What a great adventure, and Craig was such a good sport through out the whole thing !