From: Rainer Subject: Rainer's Europe Trip 1998 -- part 16 Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 04:31:43 EDT Friday, 10/9 -- part 16 It was raining again this morning; really more of a drizzle. Vera and I got up somewhat early to go walking around the neighborhood in Bohnsdorf. I didn't recognize anything except the woods at the end of the street. I knew they were there, and they still were. But, the train and the main highway that criss-crossed the woods were all new. We found a trail that led into the forest and followed it for a while. It's a mixed deciduous/conifer forest. I took my binoculars along in case a bird might be found, but nothing turned up. After about 20 minutes we stopped, you could hear the highway, train, and airport noises all around you from within the forest, and we turned around. We wanted to send postcards and all of the brochures and Pasewalk info back to the States and had been on the lookout for a post office. Vera, on one of her earlier walks during the week, had spotted what she described as a "posterei" with a mailbox across the street. I'd never heard of that term. Maybe it was a small post office. Thomas didn't know about it either. Since it was just around the corner from the little house in Bohnsdorf, we walked past it on the way back. The sign really read "polsterei", meaning "upholsterer." We laughed about that for a while, and filed away in our list of insignificant but cute stories that make memories later. Today was going to be "nature" day rather than "city" or "history" day. We were going to go start in Koepenik with a boat tour on some of the many rivers and lakes that surround Berlin. Thomas was going to pick us up, but I was convinced that we could find the place, especially since it was relatively (10 minutes?) close to where we already were. It took 30 minutes to navigate the short distance -- most of the time being stuck in a one-lane detour due to the ever present road construction in former East Berlin. I did remember the GPS this time (so the way back would be easier). We made it to the Rathaus in time. The Rathaus in Koepenik is famous for the story about the Hauptman from Koepenik. The story, which has become a move and a play, takes place in the early 1900s and deals with a shoemaker who, unable to get papers to travel, gets himself a uniform and hires some scraggly soldiers and takes over city hall (the Rathaus) after he finds out there's not even an agency in city hall that could issue him the travel papers. He throws out the mayor, appropriates the city's funds, and although taken quite seriously by the citizens of Koepenik, cause quite a humorous uproar abroad when the story got out. There's a bronze statue of the Hauptman in front of the Rathaus. We stood next to him while we waited. Two weddings also took place while we waited. The Rathaus is just across the street from the cruise boat dock. There was no boat, however. Thomas and Hanelore showed up shortly before the boat was supposed to leave. Apparently the direction they'd come had even worse construction delays. Close to departure time we called the number from the dock only to find out that the boat was not leaving after all. Thomas said that this was typical "Eastern" behavior. We didn't want to wait for the 3 hour cruise later and agree to go the the Mueggleturm -- a tower on a forested hill nearby. We stopped at temporary (under construction, what else) post office along the way, stood in line to get stamps and mail a package, and then had to stand in line again to mail the postcards. There's no mailbox in the post office! The clerk behind the window mails them. Just a little bit further we parked the cars and walked through the groomed forests surrounding Berlin. Thomas showed us traces of wild pigs along the paths. He said that they are so numerous here that they've become a pest. We kept our eyes and ears open, but found no other sign of one. Bird life was pretty absent, too. The path led to a long series of stairs that led to the Mueggleturm or Mueggle tower. Thomas bought tickets and we all climbed the 9 levels of 14 steps each to the top. The view was very nice from up there. We think we may even have seen the tour boat on the 3-hour cruise. We saw several of tits, chickadees in our minds. The Great Tit and the Blue Tit were pretty easy to identify because of their yellow and blue coloring. The other ones were tougher. I'm still not sure whether it was a Willow or a Marsh Tit. We walked back to the car and beyond to the Ruebezahl restaurant on the edge of the Muegglesee (lake). Some of us had a late lunch while some of us had dessert. We were going to meet for dinner at 1830 so we parted ways. The GPS worked like a charm in helping us get back to Bohnsdorf without a wrong turn. I wasn't going to forget it anymore. The drive into Berlin for dinner was uneventful. We'd left ourselves plenty of time, even allowing for several wrong turns. The GPS tracked our progress away from Bohnsdorf, ensuring we'd not have the problems navigating at night like we did the first time. However, we still had never yet completed a successful trip to Thomas' apartment. This time was to be no different. Later inspection of the GPS traced route proved to be quite amusing. We arrived on time, but I had to drop Vera and Monika off at the apartment and continue cruising the streets on this Friday evening since there were no parking spots to be found. I was concerned about going too far away from the apartment because I might not find it (or if I did, I might not find the car later). So, I kept looping past the apartment in my ever-widening search circles. Thomas, Vera, and Monika appeared in the street on one of my passes and got in the car. We drove towards the restaurant, Landauer's, which was really just short walk away, and parked the car along a street close to the restaurant than to the apartment. So why have a car in Berlin if you can't park it? Thomas is fortunate enough to have secured a parking space under his apartment building. Dinner at Landauer's was quite good, which is good, since it was our treat. Steffie, Thomas' younger daughter, and Tommy, her husband for just a few months, also joined us. The menu was quite large and it took a while for me to explain what stuff was as Vera and Monika pointed things out asking, "What's this? What's that?" We ordered, they men all drinking Schwarzbier, the women Rotwein, and Monika the by-now-standard Sprite. Bread was accompanied with schmalz rather than butter. Schmalz is really congealed bacon drippings. You spread it on the bread like butter and apply liberal doses of salt. Sounds strange, I know, but it's actually quite good. Dinner itself was good, too. And there was enough of it. Conversation was limited, reminiscent of the visit in Hollad -- when everybody doesn't speak the same language it really does make a difference. After dinner we returned to the apartment, gave Steffie and Tommy their late wedding present, had another bier and wein, and headed back "home". Tommy was going to show me where we'd parked the car and point me in the direction to get to the inner city autobahn. Once there, the GPS took us all the way back without incident. Yay. Turns out the Steffie and Tommy, driving a new Eurovan VW bus, practically drove the same way back that we did. When they took a short cut, I followed the GPS. We ended up again right next to each other 30 minutes later. Not sure if it was really a shortcut. Thomas had asked me to call him when we got to Bohnsdorf. He was getting a bit concerned, I think, about the number of times we got lost. It does seem like a lot of times. And it was. But, man, until you've driven here with the maps available, don't criticize. Maps are funny here. Streets are drawn wide enough to have names printed between the borders of the street. Few streets run in any regular grids like newer cities. And, besides streets, buildings and parks and their names and bus stops and subway stops and a jillion other things all make their appearance on the maps making them very unreadable. Anyway, I called when we got back, and he was surprised by the time we'd made. Hooray GPS. It also helped that traffic wasn't at a standstill. There was a message to call my Dad. I did, and got the bad news that things were not going well with the Mother. She was back in the hospital after the great recovery she'd managed from her recent surgery. I called her at the hospital, too. We talked for a while about Bohnsdorf and the trip and I had the feeling that I may have cheered her up. But it wasn't good news. I didn't write much in the journal that night.