50 degrees in February

We had a beautiful weekend--50 degrees and sunny. Not bad for Febraury. We miss the sunshine.

Friday night was Quiz night at the embassy.... this was actually a very well-attended event. We joined the FAST team (first and second tour officers), and did respectably, finishing about in the middle of the group.

Saturday we made our way into Potsdamer Platz to get tickets for the Berlinale Film Festival. After an hour and a half wait, a desperate "do you have anything in English for Sunday?" landed us some tickets to a documentary about Singapore called Invisible City. More on that later. Since we were down town early we decided to be spontaneous and have our Valentine's Day dinner a little early. We went to a Japanese tempura restaurant recommended by a friend of ours, and it was delicious! We sat at a bar watching the tempera chef make each piece, which he did one at a time and served them to us. Christy's favorite was the 5 inch long shrimp, David favored the okra and baby corn.

Sunday was a busy one. After a quick run to the gym, we joined our neighbor for brunch at a nearby French restaurant. mmmm crepes. Then we saw Invisible City at a theater near Alexander Platz. It was part of a collection of films on memories. We decided we weren't that impressed--while the topic was really interesting, the story lines didn't thread together well so if you didn't know a lot about Singapore's history coming into it, the film didn't make that much sense. And the filming itself was pretty amateur. Oh, well. Next year we'll get to the ticket line early and try to see a regular movie.

After the movie we wandered around Alexander Platz, where the famous radio tower is. We made our way over to Museum Insel for some flee market shopping and grabbed some coffee before heading to the Marien Kirche for church. We are trying out the different English-speaking churches in Berlin and this one has a regular service Sunday morning somewhere else, and then an evening one downtown. It was kind of cool to go to church in a gorgeous, historic building.

Below are some pics of the afternoon:

Above: The Marienkirche where we went to church.

Below: The theater where we saw the Berlinale film (that's the poster in red that is all over town right now)

Below: The Rathaus on Alexander Platz

Below: A statue of Neptune in Alexander Platz.