The Rhodes family visits Berlin

Christy's parents came to visit for Easter weekend. The Germans have figured out how to celebrate--Good Friday and Easter Monday are both national holidays as well.

Easter dinner--ham, salad, and pieroghis on our wedding china
overlooking the gardens of Schloss Sanssouci in Potsdam
Schloss Cecilienhof, where Truman, Stalin, and Churchill signed the Potsdam agreement. The star-shaped landscaping was put in to honor their conference.
David has a thing for doors
Russian colony housing in Potsdam--originally build for Russian prisoners of war (I think dating back to Napoleon) and some descendants of the families still live there today.

The Gates of Babylon at the Pergamon Museum
Moe Cat and Mom hit it off pretty well
goofing around at the Pergamon
scary looking statue
Easter display at Fassbender and Rauch. Some chocolate Easter bunny!

breakfast at Einstein's--a popular restaurant near the current embassy location. That's a poster of Marilyn Monroe on the wall.
the chocolate rabbit is a popular picture backdrop
it rained on our Berlin walking tour. That's a section of the Berlin wall in the background.
Easter Sunday brunch at the Fischer Huette. Don't let this picture deceive you--it snowed on Easter in Berlin.

a few more pics from Mike's visit

the roof of Potsdamer Platz at night
enjoying a meter of beer

Mike's visit part II

Mikey likes the Bunnies
Beautiful Day in Berlin
Traubi tours.....
Mike liked the Bears too...
We went to the East side Gallery

Happy St. Patty's Day!!

Well, nothing can beat Irish Times but we did emerge from our apartment in the 'burbs in spite of the SNOW to celebrate in style at Oscar Wilde's


Prost!
The Fenster!!!

Mike's visit part I

David's looking sexy with his mohawk and popped collar (ok this was before Mike arrived)
Mike on Friday working hard for the man



Saturday we decided to take a quick trip to Sanssouci Park in Potsdam...
The Chinese tea house

The Northface twins in front of the steps leading up to the Orangerie
The Neues Palais (with a fake brick facade)

in love in front of a statue
close up of the Neues Palais. The baby angel statues were a little bit disturbing
aren't we cute?

windmill
Me with Friedrich
Mike having deep thoughts
agreeing to disagree in front of the orangerie

David and Mike in front of Schloss Sanssouci
the sun garden???
Courtyard of Schloss Sanssouci


David next to a head on a pole

Mike exploring the park

Dinner with friends Saturday night at Meo Thai in the Prenzlauer district

Girl's pic

another week has flown by

Well we thought it was almost spring but then it snowed again early last week...only Berlin's second snowfall this season. It was soon erased by warmer weather--in the 50's and sunny yesterday--which I hope is here to stay.

No travels or playing tourist over the last week but at least we managed to go out last weekend. Friday night we started to ring St. Pattie's Day in a little early, hitting up a popular Irish pub for a happy hour with work colleagues. Saturday we enjoyed dinner with a friend from DC who was in town on business. Sunday we had our first Mexican restaurant experience in Germany. The enchildadas were so-so: the meat was a slightly different texture than we are used to at home so that was a little suspicious but neither of us died or got sick so I guess it was ok.

We are getting ready for embassy league softball season--David is going to coach a team and I have a new pink mitt that we started to break in a bit on Sunday afternoon.

Well the chicken is almost done in the crockpot so that is all for now but we are looking forward to Mike's visit starting Friday!

Lazy Sunday

Well, lazy week and a half, really. It's been quiet since we got back from London. We've been "nesting" I suppose. And laundry and taxes just aren't that interesting to write about. Last weekend we did get a chance to enjoy our first bike ride together since David got his new Trek mountain bike at the base. We discovered another lake and a restaurant called "Fischerhuette." Oh and we hosted a board game night, which turned out to be a lot of fun. Scattegories and Balderdash.

We were disappointed to find out that construction is behind on our new apartment complex and we won't be able to move until April now (original plan was March 13th). So, we are making due in Am Hegewinkel and at least enjoying the Gruenewald for a little bit longer. Despite being unable to move downtown we are still looking forward to our first few visitors in March--we will be able to see two friends who are coming through Berlin on business plus Christy's parents are coming for Easter weekend so we are looking foward to that.

Yesterday we saw Charlie Wilson's War--great movie. Today we broke out another base purchase--the football--and got out to play some catch. The weather this weekend was cold, rainy, and very windy most of the time but it did ease up for a little bit this afternoon. (It had actually warmed up the past few weeks so this was just a reminder that winter is not quite over yet). We had grand plans of making raspberry sorbet with our new KitchenAid mixer and accessories but we were too cold (ok Christy was too cold) so that will have to wait for another weekend.

That's all for now--back to catching up on the Economist magazines that are stacking up and starting dinner soon. The Moe cat is doing well--currently curled up on Christy's lap.

We miss everyone and hope you are all doing well!