Aah, had to happen eventually: my first post-dated entry. We got back from dinner last night and crashed into bed.
The morning had involved a solo-mission on my part, while Cath solidified the plan for the afternoon. I had been disappointed that the camera battery that I’d used the day before had expired so soon, so I determined to acquire a new replacement. Reading web articles I decoded the date-of-production stamp to be 2017, so it was quite old as batteries go. Unfortunately, Fujifilm NP-W126S batteries appear to be near-unobtanium at the moment, which is why I hadn’t bought a few new spares in Sydney before we left. Even the third-party alternatives would have to be shipped from not-Berlin and with that the risk of missing us at our hotel. I did eventually track one (but only one) down, in a shop here in Berlin, about half an hour (by tram) North of our hotel. The shop didn’t open until 10:00, and the buy-online-and-collect pickup time was 10:30, so that’s how I timed my trip. The “ready” email with the attached QR code for the service person to scan arrived the second I reached the head of the queue, which was as close to perfect timing as you can get, I think. Got back to the hotel just after 11:00 and we were dressed and on our way by 12:00.
The plan for the day involved gentle strolls around and between two local cemeteries: Dreifaltigkeitskirchhof and Dreifaltigkeitskirchhof II. These are the location of the grandiose mausoleums of many wealthy Berlin families, as well as the grave of composer Felix Mendelssohn. I don’t think that we found Mendelssohn, but did find another composer Carl Tausig who studied with Franz Liszt, and who’s gravestone had both a carving of his head and an elegy attributed to Richard Wagner. Quite a few squirrels.
We stopped for lunch around 2:30 on our walk to the second cemetery, having spotted a ramen shop on a corner. It was warm and the ramen decent (if a bit bland, but the gyoza were good). By the time we reached the second cemetery Cath’s knee was bothering her a lot, so we cut that short to head for our dinner reservation at Madame Ngo’s for Pho. We would be early, but perhaps we could find a bar nearby to sit out the wait. At street-level at the exit from the U-bahn station there was an Apothetek which stocked both Tiger Balm and knee braces, so we’re going to try those on Cath today. Caught the bus the couple of blocks to Madame Ngo’s, and then looked around for a bar. Over the road was Chance Cafe and Bar, mostly empty, that turned out to be a very strange place indeed. All-American beers, cash-only, urban rap (doof) music, three young proprietors of middle-eastern appearance and a small but colourful and frequently changing clientele (but no-one using Shisha/Hooka per the sign). Very odd.
The restaurant was packed even before we arrived, early for our reservation: clearly a popular spot. I didn’t mind my pho, but Cath thought it bland. Perhaps my taste buds are adapting to the Germanic sensibilities. Anyway, spring rolls and pho totally filled us up, so we headed home and crashed for the evening.
Disappointed in most of the photos I took today. Here are a couple of the more interesting ones:
Leave a Reply