​For a matter of time savings, I will get to the point without beating around the bed.  “Do you iron your bed sheets?”  Yes, you have read this correctly.  Your bed linens! do you iron them before putting them on your bed?  I laughed when I heard someone said they always do.  In fact, I knew I heard her wrong and I insisted she repeat herself.  When she said that she most certainly ironed her sheets before placing them on the bed, I asked another woman in the room, “do you also iron your sheets?”  She said, “I couldn’t sleep without my sheets being ironed” my mouth dropped open.  Again, in total disbelief, I asked all the women in the room, “you too?”  and they smiled and said, “of course we iron our sheets and that I shouldn’t knock it until I tried it”.

And so, my challenge alive and well – ironing my sheets.  I am passing this challenge onto you as well.  I went home, stripped my bed, washed my sheets, let them ½ dry and then, I ironed my sheets before putting them back onto the bed.  I was so excited to melt into the bed, knowing that I found the magic that so many of us had not known about.  I could not wait to hear David, his cries of pleasure about how comfortable the sheets/bed was. I could not wait to be pleasantly put in my place knowing the Brits had this secret that I was now privy to!  Unfortunately, that is not how the story unfolded.  My completely scientific data point of ONE…  my conclusion was that there is no difference.  The important part of bed linens is the high-quality thread count and being 100% cotton. 
​
So, you have heard it from me.  When you come to visit, you will be treated as a highly sought-after guest, but you will not receive ironed sheets.  This is merely to lower any standards you may have before coming. Please know, we do want you to come, but I will be spending any free time researching what fun we can have and not spending it as a Martha Steward impersonator.

We spent the day in Greenwich.  I'll start with the Royal Observatory, and how Greenwich mean time came to be.  The overall theory of how critically important time and location is ... well, conceptually, it is mind boggling.  There is a red ball on top of the observatory, it has been a working timepiece since 1833... It drops at 1pm because the astronomers were busy with their telescopes with the midday sun ...and it is currently no longer working.  The horologist who takes care of this clock has been furloughed because of COVID. I wonder how many people have the skills required to keep this bit of history going?  The museum has a fascinating collection of time pieces taking one through the process of how we got to the point we are today.  I was also interested in the fact that leaders from across the globe got together to agree to have the official time -GMT, without this respect for science and facts, would this be possible today?  Are all the great discoveries in the past? or will pockets of people still believe in the importance of science?  
​

Then we went to the Queen's House to view the art collection.   One painting was especially interesting, it was of John Byng.  He joined the navy at age 13 and became captain at age 23 and rear admiral at age 40!  The story goes that he was court martial-ed for failing to attack the French on Minorca.  He and his council decided that the attack would not stop the French and it would be a waste of British manpower.  He is the only Navy Admiral to be executed.

   "At noon Byng came out on deck in a light grey coat, white breeches and a big white wig. He had been persuaded with difficulty to be blindfolded, on the grounds that it would not be fair to the firing party to have to see his face. He was escorted out onto the quarter deck, ‘with a stately pace and a composed countenance’ according to the Evening Post, to see nine marines in their scarlet uniforms lined up in three rows. The rear row were in reserve. In front of him was a cushion and a heap of sawdust, sodden from the rain.He knelt on the cushion, tied the blindfold round his head and held up a neatly folded white handkerchief in his right hand. After a few agonizing moments he dropped the handkerchief, the six marines fired and the admiral fell gently on his side. He was fifty-two."

I think of this leader and the moral principles he held.  He sacrificed his career and life for the life of his men over a battle he knew, after scrutinizing the information he had, they didn't stand a chance in winning.  ​

​So, for those of you who have never had proper Yorkshire Pudding, I would describe it as an utterly flavorless, hollow, puff pastry. Using the word PUFF is “giving it unintended interest”.  I suppose some would say it is a vessel for one to eat gravy. AKA brown sauce.  But that argument doesn’t hold mustard for me because you can put the brown sauce on the vegetables or the meat (or veggie nut loaf in my case) … and once again, there is no need for a flavorless calorie hog like Yorkshire pudding when you might want to try your luck at an Eton Mess after the meal!

What might gain the most entertaining observation is the reaction we get when we ask a server or a British person if they “like” Yorkshire pudding.  Unanimously, their face lights up, as if we had asked them something more intimate like: “Tell me about a special family memory that gives makes you happy”.  If we had asked that question, we would understand the body language relaxing, the bright smile forming on their faces, even their eagerness to tell us all about their memory.  But instead, all those body changes happen, and they say with crazy  enthusiasm something so unfathomable such as: “Oh, yes, Yorkshire pudding is one of my favorites!  There is something about it that everyone loves.”  Then usually it is followed by some, giddy, innocent, OMG, eye roll, and then they tell us,  we "just need to try it".  And again, we order it.  I do not want to give the impression that we didn’t give it a fair shot.  We have ordered it on multiple occasions just to make sure we were eating it from an establishment that is known to have good Yorkshire pudding.  The conclusion is the same.  Please, do not take my word for it, you MUST order it, just to see why it’s so anticlimactic.

Driving on the left side of the road can’t be THAT hard.  As long as the wheel is on the inside of the road, it should feel the same, right?  

Having a USA driver’s license gives us one year of renting cars without needing a UK driver’s license.  That should give us plenty of time to rent cars and get use to it all, or so we thought, before needing to take the UK drivers test.  Then COVID happens and our countdown is now shortened to 6 months of learning.

That is OK, we’re not negative nellies!  We got this!  No time like the present.  One of our first vacations (an overnight)  Cley next the sea (highly recommend), we decided to rent a car.  We are not overachievers, we are realists.  We rented an automatic economy car to get use to the left side before having to add driving with a stick shift on the left side (that will take some getting used to).

We also pat ourselves on the back because we thought about driving out of the city and how stressful that might be for the first time, so we rented from a remote airport on our way north.  So clever, we thought of everything!  However, there are adages for a reason. Best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.  Bigger isn’t always better. Never underestimate the power of bad ideas. .  A day late and dollar short… Unfortunately, these all prove to be accurate.

We arrive at the car rental and they are full of things we didn’t really think too much about.  Here in the UK unlimited mileage isn’t as common as it is when renting in the US.  “Ok, add unlimited mileage”.  Since we don’t own a car, we don’t carry auto insurance.  “Ok, add accident insurance”.  They have a thing here where they give you an empty gas tank, so you need to gage your driving to maximize returning it as empty as you can.  This sounds brilliant.  But really it’s only a win for the car rental.  Then the kicker comes.  “We are going to upgrade your vehicle, free of charge, to a – literally- brand new , not a scratch on the car, automatic SUV”.  This sounds too good to be true.  We are so comfortable driving large cars.  Great.  On our way we go.
Today’s world of GPS’ and Google maps, we are set for our adventure.

It is true these roads are narrow,  I mean really cramped,  no, I mean restricted.  Wait, we are in a ginormous 7 seater SUV trying to navigate these poky streets with inadequate experience driving on the left side of the road.  What the hell?!*#?!  We did this to ourselves. David is driving (doing a mighty fine job) and I am in the passenger side hearing the shrubbery scrape along the side of the, what was once an unmarked car.  I turn up the radio to block out the scratching sounds and stop my wrinkled-up face that could be interpreted but not intended as critical.

In the UK your side mirrors fold in.  WHY?  because, often, when you pass a car if you both don't fold in your mirrors, both of you will regret it.  ALSO, it helps when you are fighting with the shrubbery on the side of the road.  I'm 100% guaranteed, in the states, i've never used this feature?  do we even have it?  Here it's just a button you push (fold in/ fold out) 

We pretty much survived the weekend, and, on our way home, decide to stop in scenic Cambridge for dinner.  We’ve mastered the map and drive into town only to realize we must actually park and get out of this behemoth vehicle.  The unpleasantness that passed between David and me make it apparent that we are not having an enjoyable dinner until this car is no longer our responsibility.  We immediately left Cambridge and drove back to return the rental hell, I mean car.

Enlightenment that I am issuing to you gratis. You can thank me later.  Outside of the USA, when a rental car company up-sells you on a car and is overly eager for you to accept, ask yourself, how does this benefit you?  The answer is sure to be, it does not.  When you think you want an automatic rental car to make things easier as you learn to drive in another country, ask yourself, what am I giving up by asking for this? The answer is the ability to rent a miniature car, which is what you want, trust me on this.  Rent the manual.  When you think returning the car empty is easier, meaning you do not have to worry about finding a gas station when you are trying to drop off the car! The answer is, this might be a time saver, but it is a hole in your wallet spewing money.  Remember that SUV?  It takes a lot of gas!  Remember learning about driving in a different country? Gas stations are not on every corner, you don’t want to be stuck, so you fill up the tank when you can.  This means you are returning it with money in the tank, that money WAS your money.  Remember needing insurance to rent a car?  Unlike, the USA, here they inspect that car thoroughly upon your return.  Fortunately for us, I think our attendant was not wearing his glasses.  Let me conclude, driving on the left side of the road, in the UK, on narrow roads is not for the faint-hearted.

Part II  Hanover, Bremen, Hamburg, Braunschweig, Germany -  July 29-Aug 2, 2020

If anyone has been to Hanover, then they know about the Nana’s!! I cannot help wanting to sing the song Na Na Hey Hey Goodbye.  Sarah and Michele, our niece and her husband, have lived there long enough to show us a Hanover we won’t forget.  I think it is a lost city.  Yes, it is the capital and the largest city of the German State of Lower Saxony, but with over a million residents it still often gets overlooked.  I am glad we had a reason to stop.  A super livable city!  Easy connections to east/west and north/south transportation, but mostly I think we enjoyed each stopping point as its own point of interest and having a place to regroup.  We had time to appreciate what we were seeing.  Too often, we rush through cities quickly, you rarely absorb history and then have zero time for a visit.  This trip to Germany we really felt connected to our family (Keith and Erica in Berlin and Sarah and Michele in Hanover) AND it was a bonus we were able to see so much of these cities.

Life’s tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late. – Benjamin Franklin
My Aha moment was thinking of the Bremen Town Musicians.  The Brothers Grimm fairy tale's climax is about the conflict of age and growing less useful.  Each animal has become too old to do what was once the core of its identity.  I have no unique insight, but it does make me ponder why we limit ourselves and what more could we do if only we saw ourselves through different lenses.

​Many people know Bremen for the brewing of BECK’S beer?  And maybe I would have expanded my comments to more than a mention if COVID had not closed down brewery tours.  Instead, we’ll move onto why one would come to Bremen… its City Hall (UNESCO).  It was spared by the bombings of WWII, and still standing nearby is the Statue of Roland from 1404!  It is a beautiful city with quirky medieval buildings that allow you to use your imagination as to how it once was.  I say this very loosely because the “how it once was” image, must have come with a horrific stench and dirty streets, and today’s reality has you smelling freshly roasted coffee and your eyes pinned on picturesque architecture.  

The Marienburg Castle is a gothic revival castle near Hanover.  It is exactly the sort of the thing from which fairy tales are made. King George V had it made for his wife as a gift.  They had a romance like few kings and queens do.  You will need to read all about it to find out why the castle was uninhabited for 80 years. What I found far more interesting was the fact that nobody talks about King George V being blind.  And that his father, the king at the time, changed the laws to allow a king to possess a physical handicap and only then could allow his son to be king.  The castle was, as you can imagine, stunning.  My favorite part were the carved wooden ceilings.  As with any family, there are disagreements.  Currently, there is a scandal over the ownership of the castle.  A juicy read.

Berlin being the largest city, Hamburg is the second largest city in Germany.  It is best known for being Europe’s third largest port and maybe despite its disasters and conflicts it still emerged stronger and wealthier after each set back.  You can’t miss the modern shiny glass skyscraper resembling the shapes of ships sails - A.K.A. the Opera House. It’s quite impressive and allows for 360 degree view of the city all for only 2 euros.  Most people think of Venice as the city of bridges, but they should think of Hamburg.  No other city in the world has more bridges.  Yes, there were some that were really flippin old, but none were as fun as my favorite, the public face.  Supposedly, it’s mood changes based on the facial expressions of the passers-by.  We could not tell from where they capture this data, nor did we stick around to see it change, but it did change from the first time we saw it to the next time we saw it.

Can you see the ships sails in the glass? 

 The damaged landmarks that the cities have left as-is that were bombed out and left as a memorial have really interested me.  Seeing the shrapnel damage marks on buildings, seeing the walls and windows blown out, seeing the destruction that comes from war is a constant reminder to the people in these cities. I have not met a European that doesn’t show their outward disdain for our current President and the harm he’s done in terms of increasing global tensions and civil unrest. Would we view current tensions differently if we were reminded daily of what HATE looks like?
“If wars can be started by lies, they can be stopped by truth.” – Julian Assange

 There really is no better a way to see a city than to meander by bike.  We started our honeymoon – oh, I meant our 28th anniversary – with a chocolate croissant and coffee! Then off to see the city on two wheels.  We started by the best Italian guide showing us an Italian shop full of Italian delicacies, but then it went immediately to Gin!  Yes, you read that right.  It was 10:30 am and we’re at a gin distillery.  We asked if they did tastings and the answer was clearly, “No, because of Covid”.  We went in and looked around.  So many interesting infused gins, but we were not about to buy anything if we couldn’t taste it.  The shop keeper says, “Oh, you can taste them”.  So, either I did not ask my question clearly, or she meant there were no “tours” being offered.  Either way we had fun learning about their experimentation with barrels of gin on an open sea crossings and what the sloshing, sun, and casts did to the flavor profiles.  After enough tasting we couldn't really judge the gin anymore, it was time to ride.  We saw beautiful huge green spaces welcoming bikers, walkers, and anything in between. We went through interesting eclectic graffiti artists neighborhoods where a self organized space was provided and hosts a youth center for social and cultural work (And of course, there would be cafe's, concerts and clubs if it wasn't for Covid).  It gave me goose bumps to see an area that was created by the people for the people.  We went over and under bridges, and conveniently ended at a beer garden.  It was a perfect way to celebrate 28 years with an amazing man, and lucky me, I get to claim Sarah and Michele as family!

Our last day. I had hoped to see my German relatives while I had fluent speakers to navigate the language barrier, but Covid introduced too great a risk and we must hope for another future opportunity.  Instead, we drove to Braunschweig where my niece spent the first 6 years of her years in Germany.  These towns all look like they came out of a classic story, this town is no different founded in the 9th century with oodles of interesting history.  There is an odd cartoonish building that does not seem to fit in with the cobble-stoned streets that is quite an eye catcher.  Now an office building.  Close by is the oldest known half-timbered house in Germany 1432!  The war left its scar here and they’ve taken great pains to reconstruct the buildings as close to its original.  The Braunschweig Palace was reconstructed with a new Quadriga in 2007, they did a great job making it not look a day over 1755. I understand that if you are here in November and/or early December you must come to their Christmas Market.  I have it on good report, it’s one of the better ones.

​…and there we have it… in the middle of a pandemic you would never realize Germany was going through the same thing the rest of the world was going through.  Now back to the UK , slowly things are opening more.  People are recognizing the importance of masks, and we all have a pile of masks we wash frequently.  I am grateful I was able to see my niece and nephew and spouses before they all move back to the US.  Wonderful time was had!  

Part 1 -Here we come!  Berlin, Germany  Aug 23 – Aug 28th, 2020

I’m conscience-stricken by my lack of historic knowledge when it comes to the chronicle of events surrounding the Berlin wall.  Yes, I can safely say I knew the wall separated the communists from the western world and that the wall came down in 1989, but that would conclude what I thought about.  I conveniently packaged anything to do with “the wall” going up with WWII and Nazi Germany, when in fact, that is not the complete story.  The wall has to do with the DDR, not the Nazi regime.  Then to think I was starting my family and completely unaware of the impact and narrative of the re-unification of East and West Germany, makes me a wee-embarrassed.  The resolve of human beings is amazing, and it gives me great hope in times of current political turbulence.

​Germany has handled Covid so well, that we could travel, and the best bonus was that we were able to visit our nephew and his wife, Keith and Erica, In Berlin. From there our niece and her husband, Sarah and Michele, in Hannover, before they all move back to the US.  There is nothing better than sharing a city with people who love it intimately.  As with any great tour, it is a whirlwind because there is ample to see and limited time to absorb it all.  

Berlin, with Keith and Erica, was our first stop.  It came complete with beautiful ancient buildings that survived the destruction of WWII and/or were rebuilt, but mostly, we spent time learning about recent history.  It’s crazy to think I went into East Berlin when I was 20 and didn’t recognize the impact of what was around me.  History can only monopolize your interest if you’re captivated by the events unfolding, and I can honestly say, I was too self-absorbed and  naïve to comprehend what was happening around me.  

I found it confusing thinking of Berlin as two cities when one was encapsulated by another.  I was constantly asking,  “Is this the West?  Is this the East?”  Berlin has done a remarkable job weaving the past seamlessly into one another, and it’s now a lively, thriving, successful city.  Another thing to point out is that many of these museums and points of interest are all accessible without a fee.  The importance of allowing everyone to have access to learn, so history doesn’t repeat itself, hasn’t gone unnoticed, if only the US could adopt similar views regarding history.

The Parliamentary Reichstag Building (meeting place of the Federal Arm of the Gov’t) was spectacular, but you must register in advance. (Bonus: go 1.5 hours before sunset so you get to see the sunset over the city!!)  Fascinating history along with a remarkable view! I can’t say enough about this, but I’m realizing I can’t say enough about Berlin, so I will stop … and show you pictures of Berlin…

The Berlin Wall Memorial, commemorates the division of Berlin by the Berlin Wall and the deaths that occurred there.  Going through the museum you can feel the years of tensions growing,  and one can only imagine what if must have felt like when Schabowski mistakenly improvised the immediate opening of the wall.  I never realized that Chancellor Merkel came from, what was once East Berlin!  She is a remarkable woman and a quick response to COVID!  It helped having her background, as a Chemist, and then married to a quantum Chemist, she understood what could happen and shut it down as fast as she could.

The East Side Gallery is an open-air gallery in Berlin. It consists of a series of murals painted directly on a 1,316 m long remnant of the Berlin Wall.  It has status as a heritage protected landmark.  Many of the paintings you recognize but after seeing how East and West Berliners lived for years during the cold war, you come to appreciate these expressions more.

​Mauer Park, The name translates to "Wall Park", referring to its status as a former part of the Berlin Wall and its Death Strip.  It now seems to be a lively park with part of the wall dedicated to allowing graffiti artists express themselves.  Here is a photo of a budding young artist.  I took his photo and his father was quite upset, but of course, as he is rattling off in aggressive German I couldn’t understand, I didn’t realize he was worried about the content of the photo I had taken.  He thought I took a picture of his son’s face.  After playing charades and I showed him my photo, he was immediately calm and almost happy to see I’d be sharing the nature of their art.

​The Memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe...These slabs are organized in rows, 54 of them going north–south, and 87 heading east–west at right angles but set slightly askew, very disorienting.  The ground was rolling and not flat, adding another feeling that takes your breath away.  As recently as July 2001, “the slogan The Holocaust never happened appeared in newspaper advertisements and on billboards, under the slogan and a picture of a serene mountain lake and snow-capped mountain, a smaller type said: "There are still many people who make this claim. In 20 years there could be even more. “  It is impossible to not think about the false narratives we are currently hearing in the USA because we have stopped demanding factual statements from people in powerful positions.  It’s dangerous and scary and I hope there is an end to this free-fall.

​Topography of terror is on the site of buildings, which during the Nazi regime from 1933 to 1945, was the SS Reich Main Security Office, the headquarters of the Security Police,  Secret Service, Death Squads and Secret Police aka the Gestapo.  The museum is both indoor and outdoor and is free to all.  I didn’t take photos, but as with all of these installations,  there was a ton to learn.
 
The German term, ghost stations, was coined to describe certain stations on Berlin's U-Bahn and S-Bahn metro networks that were closed during the period of Berlin's division during the Cold War because they were part of the transit line located on the other side of the Berlin Wall. You can see an old photo of armed guards in these stations that the train slowed down through but didn’t stop.

Keith works at the embassy and as one can imagine, no number of shenanigans convinced the Marines to allow me to bring in a camera.  Basically, many places were off limits, but we did see how amazing the placement of the embassy’s building truly was given the view from the outside the roof garden. An interesting story that escaped my attention, in late 2019, Berlin gets an unwanted Reagan Statue.  Reagan has already been recognized in the city and Berlin didn’t want, yet another Reagan statue, but still the US ambassador, Richard Grenell insisted on leaving his mark, and again, the city of Berlin refused to allow the placement IN their city. The only place left for the statue was in the US Embassy own rooftop garden.  Not quite the audience Grenell imagined.  Trump selected Richard Grenell as acting director of National Intelligence, but not surprisingly, he didn’t last long.  I wanted to show you the remarkable round conference room opening out to this rooftop garden, but as I stated before, I was without a camera, or mostly permission to share a photo. I was given permission to share a photo Keith had taken from the rooftop (notice how close it is to the Brandenburg Gate!!)  Impressive.  Another interesting fact regarding this embassy is that the consulate isn’t part of this building.  Most US embassies, in other cities, have both their state offices and the consulate work in the same building, this one does not.

Who’s up for a bike ride?  We always are!  And off we go.  We ride through the city out through green spaces and even tried our luck at off roading.  Let’s just say we weren’t up to the challenge.  Who knew there was a hill in Berlin? In the Grunewald forest is the Teufelsberg (Devils Mountain) which is a hill made out of debris from WWII (400,000 bombed houses) on top an old Nazi military training school that they couldn’t seem to destroy.  During the Cold War they made an intelligence-gathering secure listening post which was used by NSA that pretty much looks like 2 ginormous soccer balls perched on top of this man-made hill.  In pre-covid times, you can go tour it.  We had much more fun riding next to the tall security fences that were clearly designed to keep people out!

​And we continued to ride towards the palaces of Potsdam.  Here comes the prisoner exchange on the Glienicke Bridge!  Well sort of.  Our “prisoners" are pretty magnificent, so we ended up keeping both of them.  Clearly, we wouldn’t have made good negotiators.  Regardless, I know our exchange was not as dramatic as during the cold war exchanging an American Pilot with a convicted Soviet spy, but imagining it going down, was something to think about!

Finally we reached Potsdam.  It’s easy to sum it up and say if you were wealthy, in the day, your life was set!  The Royal Gardens and Palaces were crazy beautiful.  It’s remarkable to realize that basically one family had all that wealth.  You’ll need to see for yourself these beauties but do notice the Shell Grotto in The New Palace.  I’ve never seen anything like it.  It was pretty grand to have the Palace all to ourselves!  The only silver lining with Covid.

​We rode back through a small rain shower and grabbed a great bite to eat before taking the train back with our bikes!  Overall, I think it was about 25 miles and a great way to see Potsdam! Then I’ve posted a few photos of us drinking beer, duh it’s Germany!!  and using this really fun app called Uptapped.  Download it, and play with us, It works in the USA too!

​As we wrap up our time in Berlin, the boys pretend to work while Erica and I visit the National Gallery.  I’d say I’m usually not a museum girl, but what fun we had slowly taking in all the stories about the paintings!  My favorite was Adolph Menzel’s “Frederick the Great’s address to his generals before the battle of Leuthen”.  It is the painting with unfinished people, and this was the fascinating reason that was given for it being incomplete. “…Menzel did not finish the work, The reason is that in this work Menzel gives an intense physical sense of Frederick's generals--bear-like men, stocky, strong--standing against the cold, pulling coats and pelisses over their shoulders, listening intently to Frederick (whom Menzel did not finish; he is a blank figure). Fried argues that Menzel had sought to show the hardiness of these generals, who stand about Frederick in a semi-circle, as he wanted to highlight their physical battle against the cold and the enemy. But his efforts went in a direction he did not anticipate. He likely chose not to finish the work because the contrast between these fleshy men and the slender Frederick would not have given the impression of Frederick's centrality in this historical event…”. 

And we can’t forget the statue of the girl representing most of the people in the USA and U.K. wearing a mask to protect their chin.  We used an audio guide and spent most of the day in the museum.  I was taken away, only hunger could bring me back.  Grabbed a train that night, and onto Hanover for Part II Germany!