Back to Berlin, Adventures with Cordelia

After returning from England, I had a few days until my next visitor came- so I did what we all do when returning from vacation, I ran errands. I also said goodbye to my dear friend and travel companion Marie. She headed back to California and I am down one friend, I need to make more friends! I miss her dearly.

Adventures with Cordelia were nothing but awesome, despite a few missteps, by no means on our part. The first was with a planned trip to Wolfsburg- the Volkswagon town, about 3 and 1/2 hours by the slow and cheap train with one transfer in the apparent hub of German train travel- Magdeburg. Cordelia is quite the soccer fan, and the plan was to go to a professional Bundesliga game- Wolfsburg against Schalke. We bought the tickets quite some time ago, and were very excited. However, as we slowly made our way to Wolfsburg, clouds of doom began to make their way toward us. On the train to Magdeburg, Cordelia caught the results to a game which looked remarkably like the one we were going to. Now, there are a million excuses one can make for this occurrence- and we made them all, continuing onto Wolsburg, a decidedly icky feeling developing in the pits of our stomachs. After passing the tiny and oddly named Bösdorf- literally evil village, we were almost to Wolsburg. We passed the stadium- it was fairly empty. But we were there over two hours before the game and Germany on Sundays is always empty. Best place to film any film of the world after the Apocalypse? Small towns and old industrial cities in Germany on Sundays. We passed some choice locations on the way to Wolfburg. We weren't up for admitting our possible failure to anyone, so Cordelia and I choose not to ask for help,but rather continued on our way to the stadium. At the stadium, we found ominous signs of the game having already occurred- an old press pass in the trash bin and trash around the entrance gates. A phone call to Marie fixed it for us- Wolfsburg is doing well this year, and the game was moved to that previous Friday night. I was incensed, I hadn't been informed of this change! And Cordelia was frustrated- but all in all, we had a nice day. We saw countryside and rode the train. Although the goal was a miss- the journey was splendid. In Wolfburg we even saw this terrifying advertisement for a stroller. One for multiple children, as you will no doubt notice- it seems they made good use of photoshop. Oh my, someone save that child!

So what did Cordelia and I do in Berlin? We went to the German History Museum three days in a row (school groups and tourists are everywhere!), for which I have purchased a year pass. That's right, until March of next year, whenever I'd like to go the German History Museum, it is free for me and a guest. We also went to a variety of Soviet era monuments. Monumental architecture is no stranger to Berlin, but these took it to whole new heights. It was an amazing week in Berlin, the sun shone almost everyday, and one day I even wore sandals- it may have been a bit premature, but my toes were happy. And fittingly, when Cordelia left, it rained. It rained, hailed, and even snowed a bit all day yesterday. Berlin would seem to be sad that Cordelia has left. Today has been glorious, sunny, and a bit warmer. I would have been out and about to enjoy it- except for the fact that I had two wisdom teeth pulled this morning, but I'd expect more about that later.