So, in May sometime, these adorable little strawberry-shaped kiosks popped up all over Berlin overnight. In the morning, the one down the block from me propped open its awning (even though mine is not strawberry-shaped, alas), and a friendly lady in a strawberry-printed apron started dealing out several really delicious regional varieties, in 500g packagesContinue reading “Berlin is Awesome, Exhibit F: Karl’s Erdbeerhof”
Author Archives: mourningdove
German Pflasterstein (Cobblestone) Rating System
This cracks my friend Birgit up, so I thought I’d share it. As I’ve mentioned before, cobblestones are tough on Lucky, my Bike Friday, with his 20-inch wheels. And cobblestones (pflastersteine or kopfsteinpflaster) are actually getting increasingly common in Berlin as the city tries to find ways to limit rain run-off and recharge its failingContinue reading “German Pflasterstein (Cobblestone) Rating System”
Rear Window, Berlin Edition: Update
Breaking news, everybody. The stubbornly vacant-seeming 4th-floor apartment behind my building has cropped up with a pot of purple flowers on the patio, and the door that was previously cracked open from the top, Euro-style–to permit the circulation of that all-important (yea, even magical) German substance, Frische Luft–is now open open, as in someone couldContinue reading “Rear Window, Berlin Edition: Update”
Treptower Park
Of course you have to spend the 4th of July picnicking in a park, right? Even if you’re not in the States and the park in question was built by socialists and features a enormous Soviet monument…. You know, close enough for government work. The weather was blessedly sunny and cool today for a change,Continue reading “Treptower Park”
Easy Summer Gazpacho with Cucumber Kimchi
It’s been hot and muggy here in Berlin. And no one has air conditioning (well, some of the hotels do, but no one I know who lives here does). So, I’ve been deeply enmeshed in the German summer OCD of opening and closing windows at magical times, sitting in front of the fan, taking coldContinue reading “Easy Summer Gazpacho with Cucumber Kimchi”
Aikido and Rhetoric: Refining
Iron is full of impurities that weaken it; through forging, it becomes steel and is transformed into a razor-sharp sword. Human beings develop in the same fashion. Morihei Ueshiba, The Art of Peace But can the man who does not know what abstinence is, claim to be truly abstinent? or brave, if he has never purgedContinue reading “Aikido and Rhetoric: Refining”
Berlin is Awesome, Exhibit E: Schöneberg and Friedenau
I did one of my long errand-running bike rides this week, and though I didn’t find most of what I was looking for, as usual I gained some serendipities I wasn’t expecting–mostly, a tour of the lovely 19th-century West Berlin neighborhood of Schöneberg (and a bit of Friedenau). Schöneberg immediately struck me as quite differentContinue reading “Berlin is Awesome, Exhibit E: Schöneberg and Friedenau”
Berlin is Awesome, Exhibit D: The Berlin Wall Memorial Museum
Germany as a nation has gone through traumatic and horrible times, and the people in charge have at times done traumatic and horrible things to their own citizens and others’. In this way Germany is exactly like every other nation state I know of. But as I’ve mentioned before, what sets it apart from manyContinue reading “Berlin is Awesome, Exhibit D: The Berlin Wall Memorial Museum”
Freiburg
Pictured here: the Ludwig XV breakfast on the lovely terrace at Schlosscafe Lorettoberg (everything big in Germany is named after a prince or an emperor). Not pictured: pistachio ice cream, long walks on the Dreisam, beers at Forest Restaurant St Ottilien, and a generally awesome couple of days hanging out with my friends Jennifer &Continue reading “Freiburg”
Normandy Bike Tour: Fin
On our last day of riding we covered nearly as many miles as the previous one (about 40), but the riding was much easier due to the mostly flat coastal profile and the blessed lack of headwind. Mont Saint-Michel accompanied us for much of the day, growing more distant until we finally lost him aroundContinue reading “Normandy Bike Tour: Fin”
The Rookery 