Headed Back to US

The flights out of Berlin are looking good today.  Only the flight to Dublin was canceled.   We change planes in Paris.  We've been eating a lot the last two days. 

	Flight	from	to	Term./ Counter	Plan	expected	state
	Monday 17.05.2010
	AB 2212	Tegel	Fuerteventura	C48-C57	12:00 pm
	LH  183	Tegel	Frankfurt	A09	12:05 pm
	AY  912	Tegel	Helsinki	D71-D73	12:15 pm
	EZY4613	Schönefeld	Athen	B20-B27	12:20 pm
	BA  983	Tegel	London LHR	A04	12:20 pm
	AB 8484	Tegel	StPetersburg	C61-C63	12:30 pm
	IB 3551	Tegel	Madrid	A13	12:30 pm
	KL 1824	Tegel	Amsterdam	A14	12:35 pm
	AB 8268	Tegel	Wien	C48-C57	12:40 pm
	AB 8102	Tegel	Stockholm	C48-C57	12:45 pm
	DY 1161	Schönefeld	Bergen	A13/A14	12:45 pm
	AF 1735	Tegel	Paris CDG	A15	12:45 pm
		add. flights: AZ 2617, DL 8419
	EZY4685	Schönefeld	Rom CIA	B20-B27	12:45 pm
	AB 8550	Tegel	Graz	C48-C57	12:45 pm
	FR 8559	Schönefeld	Dublin		12:50 pm		cancelled
	AB 8300	Tegel	Goeteborg	C48-C57	12:50 pm
	AB 8242	Tegel	Oslo	C48-C57	12:50 pm
	AB 6445	Tegel	Düsseldorf	A06	12:55 pm
	AB 6555	Tegel	Frankfurt	A02	12:55 pm
	AB 6191	Tegel	München	A03	12:55 pm
	LH  223	Tegel	München	A11	12:55 pm
	AB 6531	Tegel	Stuttgart	C48-C57	12:55 pm
	AB 8120	Tegel	Zürich	A12	12:55 pm
	LH 4312	Tegel	Paris CDG	D86/D87	1:00 pm
	AB 6635	Tegel	Karlsruhe BAD	C48-C57	1:05 pm
	AB 6411	Tegel	Nürnberg	C48-C57	1:05 pm
	AB 6499	Tegel	Köln Bonn	A07	1:10 pm
	BD  844	Tegel	London LHR	A05	1:10 pm
	EZY4527	Schönefeld	Barcelona	B20-B27	1:15 pm
	OV  157	Tegel	Tallinn	D75-D77	1:25 pm
		via: Hamburg

Berlin Football Fans - Bayern Munich v. Werder Bremen

When we got to Berlin today, there were also a lot of football fans out as well.  It seems today was the German Cup.  Bayern Munchen fans in red and Werder Bremen fans in green. 




The video shows a few fans doing some team spirit.


And after feasting  on Spargel (fresh white asparagus) with M and her roommate and some of her friends, A went to watch the end of the on television. He told us Bayern Munich won 4-0.

Back in Berlin

We had our last breakfast with our friends and then got a ride to the airport.

The train was very clean and very comfortable in 2nd Class.  They even had some sections where people could be in enclosures where kids could sit on the floor with their parents. 

There's lots of graffiti in Berlin. 

It's hard to tell if and when graffiti turns into art. 

The train is now in central Berlin, almost at the station.

We're off the train.  Here's the connection between two cars.

The Hauptbanhof (main train station).

Then our daughter (who met us at the station) wanted to show us the famous department store in Berlin. 

It had an incredible array of things including Alaska salmon.  

It's cold - 7˚C  (44˚F) was the high today and it's wet.  

Instead of a real post - here's Mimas tiliae

At least that's what we think it is.  We spent way too much time talking today to do any serious blogging.  I did get some Monitor pictures and will post them, but with a little bit of information that isn't ready yet.

In the meantime, here's a moth that seems to have just emerged from its cocoon, and A is a serious butterfly person, which led to me finding butterfly pictures in my photo files and then getting them to her computer. 

Being with Good Old Friends

When I was a student in Göttingen as a student in 1964-65 I lived in an independent student housing building.  There were about 30 private rooms on three floors with bathrooms and little kitchens down the halls.  It was a bit of a strange situation.  Residents had to be approved by the people already there and there were occasional get-togethers, but it wasn't anything like a fraternity and not as restrictive as a dormitory. 

Upstairs in a small apartment lived a married couple and before long I found myself invited for Abendbrot ("evening bread") several times a week.  HG would get his doctorate in Chemistry that year and we would become very good friends.  I have visited them maybe five or six times since then.  Over that time HG took an interest in monitor lizards and has since become one of the world's experts on the giant reptiles.  He and his growing family moved out of the town where he was teaching into an old farmhouse so they could keep the monitors in the basement.

Last time we were here I think he had about 30.  In fact, I was able to find his email before this trip through a Monitor Lizard journal.  We have been here a little over 24 hours and so far we haven't gone down to the basement.  I'm saving that.  Maybe this evening.  I think he said he was down to about ten animals now, but there are other creatures that populate the house. 

HG is retired from his chemistry professorship at the university, but he continues to write and research on monitors.  The life he leads would be impossible without his wife I who with incredibly good humor does all the administrative work necessary to run a household - especially one in a 100 year plus old farmhouse - and keep connected with the rest of the world.  Here's a still life she prepared last night. 

It was after nine when we took the dogs out of a walk.  The family is truly lucky to live in crowded Germany in such a beautiful little pocket of green open space. 

This house just feels so comfortable to me. 

Part of the household includes this hedgehog their daughter rescued last winter.  It should be release out into the wild already, but the spring has been so cold that they are waiting a little longer for the insects the hedgehog eats come out. 

Here's HG in his office with these great windows looking out into the woods.  And the view, with the birch trees, reminds me of home. 


We've been discussing everything under the sun from Yiddish folk songs to Muslims in Europe to raising children and, of course, monitor lizards. 

Another member of the household, who keeps checking on me now that I've connected to the internet in the computer room. 

Back in the kitchen for lunch where I has prepared a sort of quiche/pizza combination. 

Bark, Bug, and Branches

This is from a plane tree in a park called The Vines in Rochester, Kent.  One guide book said that Charles Dickens was seen leaning against the wall in this park two days before he died.  (I didn't lean against any walls there.)

Jack seemed to think the trunk needed an embellishment.

This oak bark has the added attraction of this interesting looking fly-like insect.

I come from a big-tree-deprived part of the world, so these dramatic large oak trees grab my attention.  

You can double click on this picture to read other Dicken tidbits and The Vines.

The oak pictures are from Thorndon Country Park, Essex.

Thanks again, Doug, for showing us these places!