Friday in Berlin

Today was a lazy day...all the walking had finally caught up with us. We left the apartment at 10:00 am under dark and menacing cloud cover - because of this cloud layer it was a little warmer than yesterday which made up for the depressing platinum skies (reminded me a little of Seattle!). We walked up to Heidelberger Platz S-Bahn station and alighted at Hallensee station (only two stops). We then walked the entire length of the KuDamm with a stop to see where my mother worked after the war. She worked at Photo Leisner, 26 Joachim-Friedrich Strasse from 1st November 1945 until 30th June, 1948 shortly after which she was whisked off her feet to England....from the rubble of Berlin to the desolation of Dungeness, Kent ---what a trade off! It was a good feeling to see and be at that address today! It's a small thing but so important. All these years where my mother or father worked etc wasn't important to me at all...but as you get older it's surprising how the smallest detail about your parents becomes mega important which then produces an incredible motivational force to revisit these, some would say obscure, details! After the sentimenal start to the day we stopped at a Cafe so that Sally could eat a bite as she was feeling a little poorly and I think was tired. I didn't partake except to enjoy a coffee. I didn't want any food as I was saving myself for lunch at the Bristol Kempinski Hotel. I did manage to sneak in some Bienenstich in a U-Bahn station enroute.... We went first to an internet cafe to make the final arrangements for our apartment in Paris tomorrow (this last minute stuff gets my blood pressure elevated in a hurry). Sally wanted to stay in an apartment and not a hotel in Paris and by golly that's what we will be doing! The apartment is on Rue Mazarine in the 6th arrondisment, nearest Metro is Odeon. A really fabulous location and in a 200 year old building with exposed ceiling beams and with it's own courtyard etc. Pictures and more detail from Paris. Once we get on a broadband system in Paris, I'll upload the photos to date. We then went to the Kempinski for lunch at Reinhard's. We both had the buffet (I don't normally do buffets at all I but this was Kempinski style and I decided that I was going for it!) The buffet food was presented in a special section of the dining room that was built to look like a fabulous country kitchen with the food beautifully displayed on the kitchen counters. So, we started off with two glasses of Sancerre and Pumpkin soup followed by salads (all different types) and then beef in horseradish sauce (which I had) and Sally had both the fish and the beef dishes. Sally did not have dessert but I had a blueberry parfait and coffee. We loved our lunch at the Kempinski! Then we went on our way to KaDeWe, again, and then on back home to the apartment. We have to pack and polish the taps now in the apartment because we leave early tomorrow morning for Paris. Inge's brother, Dietmar, is picking us up tomorrow at 6AM to take us to the train station. We will then take the train to the airport! Time to fire off this blog and get busy!
Good night.....
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OK, for those keeping track on pedometer stats here are todays:
11,099 steps
Calories 306
Walked 5.2 miles
The weather co-operated for the most part - it did rain a little today but all in all better weather than expected.