Back in Berlin

After I returned from the workshop with Jan and Jean, I spent a total of 14 hours at home before setting off again, for a one-and-a-half-day bike trip with friends from New  Zealand, close to Lake Constance. (That's where the found art came from.) I returned Wednesday night, and on the next day my husband and I took advantage of the fact that our son was away on a boys' camp for a week, offering us a full day of sailing, just the two of us. We hadn't had that in years.
And the next day we went to the theatre, really making the most of it before our son came back home.

Amidst all this back and fro, unpacking, putting things back in order, it wasn't easy to put in a bit of work too.
And yesterday I loaded the boxes of fabric into the car so that today I could set off to Berlin. I will again be selling fabrics at the textile art berlin, on Saturday and Sunday.
Supporting quilter husband had made sure that in moments of hesitation, when I even thought I might cancel my participation and stay home, I did not do that, but instead extended my visit by two days of sightseeing and enjoying ahead of time.
So here I am, staying in a hostel close to the center, because the Hotel Bogota, which I fell so in love with last year, was closed in December,

All you need is ... a bed, a chair, separate facilities...

and looking forward to two days of total hedonism in my favorite German (big) city - second only to Freiburg...
For starters, I went to "Kulturkaufhaus Dussmann", browsing the shelves, and stacking up on books and CDs.

Then I decided to walk back to my hostel, instead of taking the underground.
Suddenly I found myself in front of Checkpoint Charlie - schocked that now the golden arches are located right across from it. But I guess that's the walks of the world.

If they didn't have these maps around, today you would
not notice anymore where the wall once divided the city.

The American checkpoint Charlie replica

Reading the documentation on the building fence that surrounds the 'public viewing' area for soccer games, I started getting a bit philosopic about choice of words and how they shape our thinking.

 "Defending western democracy" against the communism of the Soviet Union - isn't that a pre-stage to 'war on terrorism' and 'definding out interests in the Hindukush'? And where has this all led us to - is that what we wanted it to be like?
But as there wasn't anybody there to discuss these things with, I just bought a helping of chicken curry from a small Indian food stand located right next to the line of the former wall, and then came back.

International food not to be found anywhere
near where I live... delicious!

And now I will go to bed.

In Berlin

On Wednesday, I packed up the car,

and yesterday I took off for Berlin, where I will be a vendor at the textile art Berlin for the first time on Saturday and Sunday. I had never been to the textile art before, but this year it is organized in conjunction with the German Patchwork Guild’s AGM and Festival, which I had been to for the first time selling fabrics last year.

Parts of southern Germany are flooded badly, and some more northern parts are preparing for floods that are rolling north, and long stretches of the autobahn where marked off for make-shift dams, leaving a number of reduced lanes only, especially north of Leipzig. Quite a sight and feeling, to be driving along walls of sand bags which are holding back the muddy waters that would be covering the highway otherwise...

But except for slowing down the drive it did not really pose a problem, and although I do not have a GPS-guid in the car I managed to find my hotel easily with the help of the printout from the route planner and checked in at four o’clock in the afternoon. An old building, squeaky wooden floors, a very simple room with shower and toilet across the hall, but quite a character. They fear invading make-look-alike-investors and are collecting signatures to save it...

Installation in the interiour courtyard of the hotel

Information about the history of the the house
which now is the hotel

I was born in Berlin, and have been back a few times, before and after the fall of the Wall. But just not enough! I love the feel of the city and took some time to walk along Kurfürstendamm. 

More the tourist hang-out, really, than the real city, but it felt good to be there. A lot of people are complaining that Berlin is not what it used to be, and that it is turning into a place like every other big city in the world, losing its unique charm.

On my way to meeting a friend in the evening I got off the train at Brandenburger Tor, too. Even more of a tourist-site than Kurfürstendamm, but a must-go nevertheless. When I came to Berlin in 1982 with my school, we still looked across the Wall at this walled-in gate that was shut. At that point we couldn’t imagine what would be happening there seven years later.

It still feels very special to be able to walk through the gate, even after 24 years.