Friday, 2 October 2009 - Wandering

After breakfast Arthur and I walk down 17 June to the Brandenburg Gate.  All along the way, people are preparing for tomorrow's holiday - the reunification of Germany.  The air is full of buzz, and the lawns of the park are lined with Prussian soldaten.  We walk up Unter dem Linden and peer in at KPM and other stores, have a coffee at Einstein, and move up the street to Bebel Platz (where I remember all the books that were consigned to a Nazi fire, and meet a huge sleeping puppet soon to join another in a walk across Berlin in celebration of the holiday) and cross over to St. Hedwig's Cathedral.  Totally gutted in the war, the church is quite attractive, surrounding a crypt staircase which is presided over by the high altar, and below by the altar with Tablernacle.  There is an organ concert on Sunday night, and perhaps we'll go.  Oddly enough an organist is playing some variations of "Ein feste Burg".

We continue our walk up and over Museum Island, past the Dom and site of the Schloß, where we meet a boat and wind and wave being pulled down UdL, again a part of the holiday celebrations.  Then up to Alexanderplatz where we have lunch (unremarkable).  Then we get on the Sbahn and take the ring around the city, just to get a grip on the size and layout of things.  We get off at Tiergarten and walk over to Friederichs Gedechtnis Kirche in the Tiergarten, but they are filming there, so we can't go inside.  St. Ansgar Kirche across the street is open, however, where we see a very unsual stations of the cross.

After resting at the hotel a bit, we take the Sbahn over to Auguststraße to meet up with Günter and Franziska, with whom we have a most delightful evening at Rutz, a winebar and restaurant.  http://www.info@weinbar-rutz.de.  The meal went something like this:

1.  A tray with a warm potato-mushroom soup, a potato canape topped with smoked fish, and a potato herb pasta (Sekt)

2.  An onion tart that is served with a white wine (Riesling)

3.  Lamb chop roasted, with lamb shoulder - slow roasted, with potato cubes cooked rösti-style, topped with a chevré dumpling, fennel purée, a mince of cucumber, and a pimento jus. (Italian Red from Alba)

4.  Cheese tray (8 slections) with drei-kornen and frucht brot. (aus lese white wine)

5.  Desert degustation (roasted pineapple with quark), wineshaum eis with pepper/sugar croquant, and a warm chocolate torte (espresso)

6.  Four spoons (kiwi candied with coconut and pistachio, white chocolate praline filled with sour cherry/pepper center, pastry shell with passion fruit mousse and raspberry, and a spice cake.  (A very dry riesling)

We had a wonderful conversation, and since it was so late, and the SBahn had stopped running we cabbed home.