The next morning (Sunday, August 7th) we got up at 6:00, had a nice but very quick buffet breakfast in the hotel restaurant (included), and walked across to the airport to check in with EasyJet. Hardly anyone was in line, so we had time to kill and Mary Joy, who had brought the wrong makeup (don’t ask me!) had a consultation at the Clinique shop, which led to a very satisfactory (again, don’t ask me) purchase.
Our plane left at 8:50 and arrived early (a little after 11:30 local time) at Berlin Schoenefeld Airport. There we were met by our friend Marika, who drove us into the city, where we are staying in a guest apartment in the building where she lives. After a very nice lunch (Marika had made roast pork medallions in an onion-cream sauce) and a little rest, we went to the church where Marika played the organ for Mass, accompanied on the flute by her friend Christine. I couldn’t understand any of the homily, and even Mary Joy had trouble with it, due, apparently, to a combination of the church’s acoustic and the homily’s depth of thought. But the music was wonderful. In particular, as a postlude Marika played a “Rumba Toccata” by Planyavsky—a very unusual and delightful piece.
Afterwards, we stayed for this congregation’s version of the coffee and doughnuts after mass at St. Mary’s—except that here it was wine and pretzels. We sat at a table with Marika, Christine (a native Berliner) and Marika’s older friend Erika, who had been in Berlin since 1967, after having lived in England for three years. After several hours of pleasant conversation, we left around 9 p.m. and drove back to Marika’s apartment. We then walked across the park to a “rustic” restaurant, where we had a very light supper (I had a nice salad with thinly-sliced sausage). And so to bed.
The next morning (Monday, August 8th), after Marika provided us with a great breakfast (bread, pastries, ham, cheese, fruit), we took public transit downtown and walked over to the bus stop for one of the hop-on hop-off bus tours. We bought our tickets, then made a quick visit to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.
The wrecked tower and shell of the original late 19th-century church had been left unrestored as a memorial to the victims of World War II. Currently, the tower is
surrounded by an outer building shell while it is being worked on, but we visited the new, very modern church next door, also memorializing the victims of the war and of the Nazis. It is sort of a box, made of deep blue glass, so that the sanctuary is bathed in blue light, with a large crucifix-like figure of Christ hanging over the altar. Very impressive.
After this, it felt almost like an anticlimax to get onto the bus. Since we were the first on, we got the seats at the very front of the open top deck,, right by the guide (named Stephanie). When we had gotten up that morning, the sun was shining and the sky was bright blue. By the time we left Marika’s, it was clouding over. Just after we sat down on the bus, raindrops started to fall on us. Stephanie rolled the removable top back over us, just in time. We watched the streets below as people rushed around in a heavy downpour, their umbrellas being blown inside-out, while lightning flashed and thunder rumbled. But not long into the tour, the rain tapered off, then stopped altogether. By the time we got to the City Hall, the sun was out again, and Stephanie could roll back the canopy again.
She was very good, giving quick commentary on the major sights in both German and English. As I said, it was a hop-on, hop-off tour, so you could get off at one of the 16 stops, do some more intensive sight-seeing, then pick up where you’d left off with one of the other buses that came along every 15 minutes. But we were feeling lazy in the bright, pleasant sunshine, and we wouldn’t be able to get the same perfect seats on following buses. So we stayed on for the whole thing,
getting off where we had gotten on. We walked to a café, “Zimt und Zucker” (“Cinnamon and Sugar”) with tables outside, across the street, overlooking the River Spree. We had coffee and various wonderful concoctions of fruit, sugar and cream, which, unfortunately, we had to share, since we were joined by first one, then several, then a dozen or so yellow jacket wasps.
We walked over to the Brandenburg Gate, as it started to sprinkle again, and then, just as suddenly, stopped. Weather in Berlin is, as they say, wechselhaft (changeable). The new American Embassy is right next to the Gate--that seems vaguely hubristic.
At 5:00, we met Marion, a day-job colleague of the flutist, Christine—they both
work for the federal government. Then Christine herself showed up, and they gave us a tour of the Reichstag building.
Our plane left at 8:50 and arrived early (a little after 11:30 local time) at Berlin Schoenefeld Airport. There we were met by our friend Marika, who drove us into the city, where we are staying in a guest apartment in the building where she lives. After a very nice lunch (Marika had made roast pork medallions in an onion-cream sauce) and a little rest, we went to the church where Marika played the organ for Mass, accompanied on the flute by her friend Christine. I couldn’t understand any of the homily, and even Mary Joy had trouble with it, due, apparently, to a combination of the church’s acoustic and the homily’s depth of thought. But the music was wonderful. In particular, as a postlude Marika played a “Rumba Toccata” by Planyavsky—a very unusual and delightful piece.
Afterwards, we stayed for this congregation’s version of the coffee and doughnuts after mass at St. Mary’s—except that here it was wine and pretzels. We sat at a table with Marika, Christine (a native Berliner) and Marika’s older friend Erika, who had been in Berlin since 1967, after having lived in England for three years. After several hours of pleasant conversation, we left around 9 p.m. and drove back to Marika’s apartment. We then walked across the park to a “rustic” restaurant, where we had a very light supper (I had a nice salad with thinly-sliced sausage). And so to bed.
The next morning (Monday, August 8th), after Marika provided us with a great breakfast (bread, pastries, ham, cheese, fruit), we took public transit downtown and walked over to the bus stop for one of the hop-on hop-off bus tours. We bought our tickets, then made a quick visit to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.
The wrecked tower and shell of the original late 19th-century church had been left unrestored as a memorial to the victims of World War II. Currently, the tower is
surrounded by an outer building shell while it is being worked on, but we visited the new, very modern church next door, also memorializing the victims of the war and of the Nazis. It is sort of a box, made of deep blue glass, so that the sanctuary is bathed in blue light, with a large crucifix-like figure of Christ hanging over the altar. Very impressive.
After this, it felt almost like an anticlimax to get onto the bus. Since we were the first on, we got the seats at the very front of the open top deck,, right by the guide (named Stephanie). When we had gotten up that morning, the sun was shining and the sky was bright blue. By the time we left Marika’s, it was clouding over. Just after we sat down on the bus, raindrops started to fall on us. Stephanie rolled the removable top back over us, just in time. We watched the streets below as people rushed around in a heavy downpour, their umbrellas being blown inside-out, while lightning flashed and thunder rumbled. But not long into the tour, the rain tapered off, then stopped altogether. By the time we got to the City Hall, the sun was out again, and Stephanie could roll back the canopy again.
She was very good, giving quick commentary on the major sights in both German and English. As I said, it was a hop-on, hop-off tour, so you could get off at one of the 16 stops, do some more intensive sight-seeing, then pick up where you’d left off with one of the other buses that came along every 15 minutes. But we were feeling lazy in the bright, pleasant sunshine, and we wouldn’t be able to get the same perfect seats on following buses. So we stayed on for the whole thing,
getting off where we had gotten on. We walked to a café, “Zimt und Zucker” (“Cinnamon and Sugar”) with tables outside, across the street, overlooking the River Spree. We had coffee and various wonderful concoctions of fruit, sugar and cream, which, unfortunately, we had to share, since we were joined by first one, then several, then a dozen or so yellow jacket wasps.
We walked over to the Brandenburg Gate, as it started to sprinkle again, and then, just as suddenly, stopped. Weather in Berlin is, as they say, wechselhaft (changeable). The new American Embassy is right next to the Gate--that seems vaguely hubristic.
At 5:00, we met Marion, a day-job colleague of the flutist, Christine—they both
work for the federal government. Then Christine herself showed up, and they gave us a tour of the Reichstag building. This was originally built for the German Imperial legislature in the 1890s, and was the seat of the parliament of the Weimar Republic of the 1920s and early 30s. After Hitler took over as Chancellor, in early 1933, one night the building caught fire, and became a burnt-out shell. The Nazis blamed the Communists, and used this as an excuse to consolidate power and completely eliminate democracy in Germany. The building suffered more damage during the war. During the Cold War, it was right next to the border with East Berlin and, after 1961, practically up against the Berlin Wall. There were various ideas for reusing the Reichstag, but it wasn’t until the reunification of Germany and the decision to make Berlin the capital again, that the British architect Lord Norman Foster was awarded the job of designing the building’s restoration for use as the seat of the federal legislature, the Bundestag.
The original building had had a small glass dome, but Foster designed a huge glass
cupola, with a ramp the people could use to walk up to the top, symbolically looking down into the open chamber as their legislators carried on the nation’s business. The views over Berlin were spectacular and our guides were informative and delightful (Marion was very funny). We got to see some of the areas used by the political parties. Mary Joy even got to have her picture taken with Chancellor Angela Merkel (or a reasonable facsimile thereof)! The building is impressive not only in itself, but because of what it stands for: democratic Germany, destroyed at the beginning of 1933, reunified and renewed in the 1990s. 
Afterwards, Marika, Mary Joy, Christine and I went across the river to an Italian restaurant, Cinque, where we shared good food and good conversation.
The original building had had a small glass dome, but Foster designed a huge glass
cupola, with a ramp the people could use to walk up to the top, symbolically looking down into the open chamber as their legislators carried on the nation’s business. The views over Berlin were spectacular and our guides were informative and delightful (Marion was very funny). We got to see some of the areas used by the political parties. Mary Joy even got to have her picture taken with Chancellor Angela Merkel (or a reasonable facsimile thereof)! The building is impressive not only in itself, but because of what it stands for: democratic Germany, destroyed at the beginning of 1933, reunified and renewed in the 1990s. 
Afterwards, Marika, Mary Joy, Christine and I went across the river to an Italian restaurant, Cinque, where we shared good food and good conversation.
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