022 - mon 22/05/2006 - berlin

we'd spent most of our time so far in the mitte district of berlin. berlin is not a particularly centralised city; from what we could tell (and from what we'd read and been told) its sights, attractions and various cool things are spread out amongst different parts of town. so we decided this morning to catch a train out to the charlottenberg district to visit schloss charlottenberg, a big impressive palace and gardens. so we did that. the palace itself was closed, but the gardens made for good wandering.

it began to rain. rain and grey clouds were becoming a regular theme in our trip. the rain became so heavy that we decided to leave the gardens and take refuge in the pub across the road. we ordered beers. it was at this pub that we saw something that we would possibly never have expected to see in melbourne - a table of grandmas sitting near us, chatting jovially, each of them polishing of a tall glass of beer and then following it up with ice cream sundaes. i\m not sure if we have grandmas in australia that get together on a monday afternoon to drink beer and eat sundaes, but maybe we should.

we caught a train back to the museum island, but couldn't get into the museum that we were interested in. being closed on mondays is a bit of a european thing. so back on the train - did i mention the trains were clean, efficient, regular? and so many lines that loop around each other, you can get anywhere you want. we went to potsdamerplatz, a bit of a business district with many very impressive skyscrapers with odd architecture.

but still, so cold, windy, more rain. feeling a little defeated we went back to the hostel. later we ate at a traditional german restaurant that a few of the aussie girls from the previous day's tour had recommended. i had a delicious rabbit stew with little fried potato dumplings that resembled gnocchi. suz had roast beef with red cabbage and apple, also with those yummy dumplings. then for dessert we headed to the staatsoper (state opera house), where we'd been told they had a cafe with an impressive cake range. they were luckily still open (it was late by this stage) - we had the place to ourselves to enjoy cake and coffee.

click here to see photos from this day