Sunday, May 16, 2010

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   
codeshare add. flights: AZ 2617, DL 8419
 EZY4685 Schönefeld Rom CIA B20-B27 12:45 pm   
 AB 8550 Tegel Graz C48-C57 12:45 pm   
cancelled 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

Saturday, May 15, 2010

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.  

Friday, May 14, 2010

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. 

Thursday, May 13, 2010

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.