Berlin again

From Weimar, Tuesday morning, we returned to Berlin by early afternoon. It occurred to both of us that this could be another angle to our experience (and one we could have another time, another place): pleasure of returning to a city barely known but strongly familiar. It's the type of thing hard to explain immediately after it happens; I suppose I will be able to write about it when it sinks in and settles, clarifies.
Add it to the list of things that time will ripen before full comprehension sets in!

Whatever was going on in our nervous systems, one thing was certain and that was how glad we were to come back, even for a day and a half. I never expected to like Berlin so much, but I do and I'm not alone. I'd stay here another week or two in a flash - at the expense of cities I have yet to see!
We walked from our funky hotel - more about that another time - down to "our old neighborhood" in Mitte, around Friedrichstrasse. We shopped just a little, quite worn out in that regard, and ate an early supper. It reminded us how we long for our own kitchen, eating our own food. It's fun to travel and dine out, but there is an inherent stress in straying from tried and true meals. After a while, it's not a treat but an ordeal to take those chances (the cost of having someone else do the work). We're ready to do the work ourselves again.
That readiness to go home side, I'm sad to be leaving Germany. I will be thinking about it and our amazing experiences here for a long, long time.

Funky hotel's courtyard

Please check in, especially in the next few weeks, as I reflect on some events I skipped or merely glanced at in this blog while away. I also intend to assemble more photos by theme, review a wonderful book I'm reading - Alone in Berlin, by Hans Falluda - and summarize some of my German lessons after the fact.