November 30th

Herr Schmidt rules the house, he gets to go every morning to the dog park for a long walk!

After the dog walk we had a huge breakfast with breads and liverwurst. 

The Scholdei’s planned a day trip to Wiesbaden, only about 25 minutes from Frankfurt.  Below is the Russian church up above Wiesbaden. 

Ropes course in the trees.

Normally there is a train that goes up to this area, but it was closed for the winter. It is powered by a water system. 

This is inside the casino building, they had a casino starting in the 1700’s. 

A large version of the traffic light guy. 

There are underground hot springs in Wiesbaden, so there are several places where you can see this and drink the water. Below are pictures from their Christmas Market. 

A bit of mulled wine. 

Inside the Catholic Church. 

Dinner at the Katoffelstubb, really good schnitzel with feta on top. (Greek style) It was Vincent’s
favorite.

November 29th

Moving Day!

But first, we revisited the Brandenburg Gate. We thought that it would be a good thing to go back without the tractors. There was another demonstration for Friday for Future, a demonstration day for climate. 

We walked down that Main Street and through the Tiergarten Park. 

Tiergarten Park

Russian Memorial Above

Taken from the Victory Column. 

We then got on a train to Frankfurt where Victor and his family, including Schmidty. We came back to the house and had dinner using a Raclette Table.  Very good food and a fun way to cook! 

November 28th

Happy Thanksgiving!  

The sun was bright this morning as we made it to the strip of remaining Berlin Wall. I’m thankful for the freedom that we have to travel to just about anywhere. One of the East Berliners said that he took for granted that he could go back and forth into the west until one morning it was taken away.

Moving through Berlin on the transit systems changed too. Many stations became “ghost stations” because the tracks crossed into the opposite side of the wall. 

Checkpoint Charlie, the famous border crossing from East Berlin to West Berlin’s American sector. 

Potsdamer Platz is one of the largest shopping areas. 

 Above is the Sony Center. 

Charlottenburg Palace was built in the 1700’s by Fredrick the Great. All of the rooms are very different, some rich gold and others silver. Most of it was damaged during the war, but it has been gradually redone. 

Outside the Palace is the Christmas Market. It is so much nicer than the markets that are in the downtown areas. We browsed around and had our Thanksgiving Dinner.