The annual CLA European Summit in Germany this year.
Left the house Saturday around 1:30 PM, landed in Paris the next morning; from there the flight to Berlin was delayed, finally reached the hotel, worn-out about 4 PM local (hadn’t slept on either flight).
The hotel is right at the edge of the Tiergarten, Berlin’s version of Central Park. Nice park, very large and mostly un-groomed, very natural. Stopped to check out a flea market before heading into the park proper, found a few cool pieces of old silverware, three euro each, reasonable I think:
Headed into the park, found the Beer Garden - looked like all the pictures - long rows of outdoor tables (really long rows of tables) - I was already to order a selection of sausages and sourkraut but they serve pizzas, burger, salads, and pastas - bummer! Pizza seems to be taking over the entire continent. They did have some decent beers.
And the hotel bar serves Calvados (YES!) - don’t think the bartenders even know what it is, had to point out the bottle to them. Off for some long over due sleep.
Monday morning - up at 7, walked down to Victory, the obelisk in the center of a 4 lane traffic circle, couldn’t see anyway to cross over to it, then realized there were underground tunnels to avoid the traffic
Wasn’t sure what era this was from at first up, but there were pictures of the Kaiser’s soldiers from the late 1800’s so it is pretty old, I cannot read German but I think there was something about it being rebuilt (or renovated) after WWII.
Walked back on the other side of the boulevard and saw a 5 story bell tower, seems to be part of a church, although not phyically attatched to a church - I could be wrong, only saw it through the trees, but we did hear the bells the previous evening around 5:30 PM.
So that was my sight seeing for the day. T & C didn’t get up until nearly lunchtime, they went to the Porsche dealer to rent a car for the day, getting too late today for a road trip so they will pick up the car Friday morning, Now they are bicycling to the Brandenburger (the old Berlin wall); I am writing out postcards and writing this log. Tonight we meet up with a bunch of wizards for a pre-summit dinner (I don’t have very high hopes for the food … ) - tomorrow we settle into work.
… (updated) so now it is just over 24 hours, getting a little more feel of the place. Lots of police sirens kinda like NY, but many more bicycles, maybe more bikes than cars, at least that is the current impression. Asked my bartender how tipping works here - in France tips are always included in the check although you are expected to throw a few extra coins as a token. NY of course they expect around 20%, here I am told the normal gratuity is 10%. Yesterday at the park they added 18% to the check but we didn’t even notice till after the check was paid; so we tipped maybe 20% on top of that … way over-tipped them (tourist trap, maybe). Now I know and will watch the checks more. Multi-lingual seems normal around here (like much of europe). Meeting a bunch of attendees from years past, lots of familiar faces, I usually manage to fit in, and stay on the sidelines at the same time. This year should go about the same.
07 April 2016
I’m back! The conference officially ended at 6PM local time.
And … finally got to have some local sausage. All week I was thinking, bratwurst, kochwurst, weisswurst, bierwurst …
what I have been eating is goulash, roast pork, sea bass, and a tagliatelle with lamb (that was very good) and I thought - where is the sausage? Now I know where
das Meisterstück is a craft bier and sausage restaurant - they make their own sausages (you can watch) they grill as they are ordered (and they even had a German boudin noir - blood sausage) sauerkraut and pickled veggies, 3 kinds of cole slaw (one with wasabi horseradish) - tried 4 different tap biers and finished with 2 glasses of schnapps (pear - I usually get pear or plum, nobody sems to make apple). Now I am satisfied with my preconceived notions of German food.
The men’s room had a rather strange picture, sausage necklace, bacon earrings, and a fried egg on top:
Tomorrow I have the day to myself, Terry and Chrysa are heading south in the Porsche, I will wander around and eat where ever the whim takes me.
And early Saturday, back to NY, really looking forward to that.
Friday 08 April 2016
spent the day in the hotel (mostly) - acheived one of my goals around 10:30 AM (when I saw that they had a bottle of Calva on the shelf and none of the bartenders knew what it was, I had a mission - finish it off before I left) had an espresso and killed the bottle!
packed to go home, watched a movie, blah, blah, woof, woof …
dinner was at des Marjellchen - a very cool restaurant owned and run by 2 great ladies. Such food: smoke goose, venison (cured like ham), wild boar and stag stew, crispy duck, we ordered all that and more and shared, … amazing. Tried 3 different red wines; then for dessert we had vanilla ice cream with warm figs and green pepper corns (very interesting) and a poppy tart. For digesting, honey schnapps, blueberry schnapps, and finally a juniper berry schnapps (almost tasted like gin). Great meal for the last night (and of course I made them open a new Calvados at the hotel for a night cap ;-)
going to sleep and heading home ...