They spent most of the first two days in bed or on the phone with Lufthansa, but they went to My Gymnasium on Wednesday and went party hopping. :) None of my classes had normal instruction because it was the last day before the break, but I think it worked out pretty well. I expected the 9th graders to talk to my brother more than they did, and I was totally shocked that the 7th grade monsters crowded around my entire family to ask questions, while the more disciplined 7th grade class barely acknowledged their presence. After school, I introduced my family to Turkish food, and they walked away saying that someone needs to open a Turkish restaurant at home! We also went to the Pergamon Museum, which should be on every tourist's to-see list.
The following day was my first day of vacation (we had class through Dec. 22nd), and I spent it playing tour guide with my family. My brother whined the whole time, but we went from Alexanderplatz to Hauptbahnhof to Reichstag to Brandenburger Tor to Checkpoint Charlie... and was that everything? I think so. It took about 7 hours after we stopped to take pictures, munched at cafes, found a place for dinner, and split a Rittersport McFlurry. (The only Rittersport they offer is strawberry yogurt.)
On the 24th, I had promised to keep my family out of the way for as long as possible so Dumpling and Mama could celebrate Christmas together. It didn't quite work out the way I had envisioned, but I think everyone was satisfied with the results. My family was still a bit jetlagged, so they slept until about 10:30. My mom woke up before the others, so we went to Soluna (an AMAZING local bakery) for rolls and bread. After we ate breakfast, I dragged the others to the grocery store, where we wandered and wandered and wandered and still didn't find everything. I forget what we did in the afternoon-- probably spent it complaining to Lufthansa and Tegel-- and I think I also took a nap somewhere in there. I had assumed that I would take my family out for dinner so Dumpling and Mama could have a quiet dinner and open presents, but Dumpling wanted us to stay while he opened his presents! :) None of us were in the mood for cooking, so we agreed to get Indian and Arabic food from some local restaurants. Mmmmm. Mama also made some amazing baked apples with cream and cinnamon-- we need the recipe! After dinner, we made chocolate chip cookies with Dumpling! It was very cute; he had never seen chocolate chips before, and he spent half of the time sniffing the bag.
We slept in (again) on the 25th, and the only productive thing we did the entire morning was walking Puppy. I showed my parents the graffiti wall around the corner, and my brother slept. Dumpling and Mama left to visit friends in Brandenburg, so we kind of took over the apartment. We cooked for quite awhile, but the final result was definitely passable for having limited space: baked chicken, basmati rice, green bean casserole, potato salad, salad with feta and pears, and Turkish flatbread.
On the 26th, we rented a car and drove to Dresden. It was beautiful!!! We really only made it through the Altstadt area, but it might have been even more amazing than Munich. I also highly recommend the apple cinnamon Gluehwein.
We were supposed to leave for the Harz mountains pretty early on the 27th, but we had to clean, do laundry, and run to the store to replace the toilet paper and laundry detergent. While we waited for my dad to return with the car, I did a little photoshoot with Dumpling, Mama, and the two dogs. As we lugged our stuff to the car, Dumpling got very sad because he thought I was leaving for good. He perked up once Mama said that I would be back in three days, and he told my mom (auf Deutsch; Mama translated it for my mom): "You can go back to the US, but you have to leave K here." Hahaha. We piled into the Mercedes with bags and suitcases poking into our sides, and heard Dumpling yell from the window, "Why did you get a Mercedes? Everyone knows they're small."
The following day, we went to Mittelbau-Camp Dora, which was a forced labor camp during WWII, and which is best known for serving as a production factory for V2 rockets. I didn't realize that some of the major working camps had been demolished after the war; very little was left. At the risk of sounding crass or insensitive... don't take non-German speakers here; take them to Buchenwald. After we escaped from the tour guide, we headed to the Harz mountains! When we arrived in Schierke, we discovered that we missed the last train to Brocken (the highest point in the Harz mountains, I think) by about 10 minutes but decided to walk 1 kilometer (uphill, in the dark, with snow and ice on the trail) to the station to figure out times for the 29th.
I definitely recommend visiting Brocken during the winter, and I imagine it would also be a great hiking area during the summer. The trees were covered in snow, and some of them looked like really cool snow sculptures! The largest ones were strong enough to climb, but my mom and I both ended up waist-high in a snowdrift after taking pictures near a tree that looked like a sea serpent.
On the way to Frankfurt, we ran through Weimar to take pictures of Schiller and Goethe's houses. I meant to get a picture of their statues, but I just discovered that I took a picture of the wrong dude. Oh well, it was really late. My mom and I ate at a wonderful Italian restaurant about a block and a half from Schiller's house, and it was seriously the best food I've had in Germany so far-- barley pearls with spinach and goat cheese? Lecker! My mom's cheese ravioli was also-- forgive my cliche-- bursting with flavor. (Meanwhile, my dad and brother went to McDonalds, where my dad discovered that Roesti is a potato pancake and not a local name for bacon or beef. Should've asked me first...)
My parents flew out of Frankfurt on the 30th, and I took a train back to Berlin. All of us arrived safely but with a few minor issues: the missing suitcase still hasn't arrived in the US (!!!), and I had to stand the entire 5 hours (there were delays due to the weather) back to Berlin.
I think my parents enjoyed their visit, and I'm not sure whether my brother appreciated wandering around Berlin-- but it was definitely nice seeing them and spending a few days in an English-speaking bubble! :) I appreciated having a personality again-- I still have the personality of your average robot auf Deutsch-- and they seemed to like playing with the dogs. Considering that my brother has three snakes, two fluffy and friendly (but exhibitionist!) dogs have to be an improvement!
Sleepy Puppy says, "Einen guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr!"
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