Visit to Berlin

How much can one do in only four days in the capital of Germany? We arrived August 17 from Scotland and departed on the 21st. In that limited time, we had two dinners with our very special friends, the Friedrichs, two lunches with my godson Jasper, 14, and his sister Florentine, 17;  serious hours at the Neues Museum (not really “new” because it features antiquities) and the Historische Museum and its blockbuster exhibit on WW I; an early-morning walk around the Brandenburg Gate and Unter den Linden; a visit to the tower at Potsdamer Platz; and an afternoon at Cecilienhof and Sans Souci in Potsdam! We stayed in the central city to reduce commuting time. We paced ourselves and we didn’t even get tired!

Best of all was spending time with these far-away friends. It had been 6 years since I had seen my godson. I got to be Jasper’s godmother when he was born in DC on July 20, 2000. In April 2001, Lilli and I visited the family in Dubai, where they lived until 2007. In 2003 I met them in Chiemsee, Germany. Steve and I joined them at a hotel in Berlin in 2005, when Juergen arranged amazing special tours of the Reichstag and the Chancellery. In 2008 I visited their new house in Kleinmachnow. We’ve seen Juergen a couple of times when he was here with his agency, Germany Trade and Invest. Beatrice came with him in 2010. This year it was all six of us together and it was gemutlich. Jasper and Florentine, like their parents, are marvelous hosts and have many interests. Seeing Berlin through their eyes was wunderbar! Here are my photos.