Easter etc.

Well, Easter was lovely. We walked around Park Sanssouci in the sun, played lots of trivial pursuit, had some lovely Ethiopian food as well as some Thai specialities, drank way too much and had some good conversation. On Easter Sunday, we had a little Easter brunch at our house, where Olaf's parents introduced my family to their age-old tradition of hitting each other on the head with boilt eggs in order to break them. I had been made aware of this funny tradition before, fortunately, but I must admit it left my mother and her boyfriend flabbergasted...

On Easter Monday, after our respective family members had left, we decided to start something we had been planning for a while, which is cycling the Berliner Mauerweg (Berlin Wall Trail). This is a road consisting of mainly old patrol roads and paths through forests following the former Berlin Wall. It is a good 160 kms in total and we are doing it in a couple of legs. On Easter Monday, we cycled North to Mauerpark and then followed the northern perimeter to Staaken (the most western part of West Berlin). Here are some pictures:

 In Park Sanssouci

The Friedenskirche (Church of Peace) in Park Sanssouci

 At the actual Schloss Sanssouci

 Somewhere North of Berlin along the Berliner Mauerweg

 Pretty pink trees along the Berliner Mauerweg

A former GDR watchtower from the death strip

For more pictures, click here.

The weekend after that, our Portuguese friend Marta came over from Porto with her sister. It was great to see Marta again! We always spent a lot of time together in Milan, but we have not seen her enough since she moved back to Porto and we moved to Berlin a bit later. It was great to catch up!

The weekend after that, Jaap came over to Berlin with his new German girlfriend Nicole, whose Dutch turned out to be excellent. She even helped me kick some serious ass at the Dutch game of 30 Seconds!!! We also went to the C/O gallery to look at a photo exhibit about Berlin just after the war and had some lovely drinks at Oststrand. The time for Schöfferhofer Grapefruit-weizen has returned!!!

They left quite early on Sunday morning, which enabled us to do the second leg of the Berliner Mauerweg. This time, we went back to Staaken and followed the Mauer South along some of the lovely lakes in the Havel, such as the Grosser Glienickersee and the Wannsee. It was very strange to imagine that a number of these picturesque lakes were off limits back then because they actually formed part of the border and border fortifications flanked the parts which are now quiet parks on their banks! Also, we discovered some very nice biergartens along the way, which might be one of the reasons we did not actually cycle that far that day...

May, by the way, has arrived in all its glory. The weather is lovely, a steady 20-25 degrees depending on the day and it is great to be outside, to cycle, lie in the park and sit in the biergarten enjoying a cold hefe. Life is good, why can't Berlin always be like this?

This weekend, my mum is taking me to Madrid for my birthday (though neither of us knows which one) and I cannot wait. I have got two more classes today and one tomorrow morning and then it is time for an overkill of architecture and museums, sangria, Spanish tapas and lots and lots of Spanish wine!! See you when I get back!