a little rain...

 Maybe it's some kind of strange connection... But after a day of wet feet and umbrellas out in Berlin we came home to emails and news of the flooding in Duluth. We hope everyone is okay!

Our (much less dramatic) rainy day started at the Berlin Wall Memorial. We saw a segment of the wall with guard tower and death strip, as it would have looked before 1989. After a Biergarten lunch of sausage and potato salad we went to the East Side Gallery to see the art on a remaining piece of wall.  Then we took the train to Treptower Park, and after a walk along the Spree (and I showed my parents where I swam for the triathlon), we had a break for Kaffee und Kuchen, and a Flensburger Pilsner for dad. It was a great little place on the water, with aggressive little birds trying to get our crumbs.  Then the Soviet War Memorial, a monumental piece of architecture with a huge statue of a Soviet war hero, freeing Europe from fascist oppression. Then we headed back into Kreuzberg, walked along the canal, and went to Max und Moritz for dinner (named after two mischievous boys from a children's book), an old traditional Berliner restaurant with good beer and good food.