Sinking
The title references this hilarious commercial:
I thought it was appropriate because this post involves both Germany and (almost) sinking.
Our next adventure, which was in August and I know this is really out of date and I’m sorry but I’ve been really busy, was just a short trip to Germany, with two main phases:
2. Visiting Adie and Dick in Berlin
The triathlon took place in the southeastern part of Germany, which all used to be East Germany. There are large deposits of brown coal there, so the whole area was stripped down over the years and ravaged by pollution. Since the unification, Germany has spent a lot of money to “rehabilitate” the area, turning large parts of it into parks and lakes.
As a result, you have a great place to hold a triathlon. The lake was nice and calm and the surrounding roads were relatively flat. Fortunately, the rain held out until after our races were done.
We competed in two different races and I finished just in time for Eric to throw me his stuff and go to the start line.
Neither of us did any sinking, but Eric claims he came close.
Much to my surprise, I finished in third place for the women. I got a trophy, a bouquet of flowers, and a bottle of sparkling wine. But since everything was in German, I wasn’t at the awards ceremony because I didn’t know it was actually happening. Good thing I checked the results sheet before we left.
After the race, we threw our bikes in the Skoda and headed north to Berlin, about two hours away.
My aunt and uncle from Florida, who are probably our #1 blog readers, were in town at the end of their European trip.
We had a great time catching up with them and going to some of the museums. One of our stops was the Berlin branch of the Guggenheim. Since Gugenheim is their last name (only a minor spelling difference,) Dick managed to get us in for free.
Afterwards, we all agreed that it was a good thing we didn’t have to pay – because the museum was terrible. I understand that it is just supposed to be a small exhibit and there is only one gallery room, but the exhibition only featured three stations of video projectors showing videos about censorship in Cambodia. It was just really weird.
Undaunted, we went to another art museum, which was much better, since it had actual paintings and sculptures.
See? Actual art, not bizarro new-agey stuff.
We also saw a few of the sights from last year’s infamous 8 Hour Walking Tour. But the rainy weather put a damper on any quality sightseeing.
Thanks, Adie and Dick, for hanging out with us and we had a great time visiting!
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