Days 17 & 18 Monday & Tuesday 17 & 18 April 2017

I am in the bar of the Augustiner am Gendarmenmarket in Berlin, it is 6.00pm and they have just tapped a wooden keg in the traditional manner.  Just prior to that I asked the barman, ‘do you have wi fi in here?’ (although I made it sound more Germanic than that), he looked at me weirdly and said ‘nein’ which is German for no.

I am drinking Augustiner Dunkel, which is a dark beer and I have a suspicion it may be a little stronger than what I am used to.

Lets get the food stuff out of the way, last night for dinner I had wiener schnitzel with fried potatoes.  Note, that it was made from veal, not chicken, not pork but little cows. It was delicious, very, very thin veal coated with something, probably deep fried to a golden colour and served with fried potatoes with little bits of fried onion through it. Accompanied by a couple of glasses of Rhine reisling.

Flashy, the place is as Germanic as ever, then again what would you expect, it is Germany after all, the people are direct, which can come across as rudeness, but it isn’t, it is just their manner.  If you ask for assistance or advice they are only too happy assist, sometimes it just doesn’t seem like it.

Did I mention that it has been cold today, almost NYC 2008 cold but not quite. Maximum 7 or 8 degrees through the day.  It actually snowed today, would you believe snow, or sleet.  No wonder my man flu is lingering.

As an observation, every wine bottle in Europe is still sealed with a cork.  Apparently some cheap wines from Portugal or similar may use the compound cork but no way known are they using the screw tops that are being used in Australia.

I am staying at the Sofitel am Gendarmenmarket.  Great location and so far walking distance to everything I have wanted to visit.  This is in the old East Berlin, the whole focus of the city has changed since the wall came down in 1989 and since I was last here in 1986.

I did a walking tour yesterday, that was very well done, two different guides, an Englishman and a Canadian (can’t get away from em), both had lived here for a number of years and were up on their history.  I tested them early in their respective tours just to make sure.  Combined it was a 6 hour tour and cost 15 euros (if anybody at the Shrine is reading this, please note).  The beauty of these tours is that you cover a lot of territory reasonably superficially but with a wealth of information to delve into later.

The Dunkels might be kicking in so time to give it a rest and come back when making more sense.......