Day 3: Family Day

Berlin, Germany:  Our only child, the Lovely Lisa, has been in Europe for several weeks on business/vacation. Today she flew from Paris to join us - overnight - in Berlin. It was a great treat for DT and I and we really made the most of her 18 hours in Berlin!

Lisa arrived to our hotel about 11a and we immediately headed out to explore the city.

Lisa and her Dad walking in the Tier Garden


Lisa and her Mom at the Brandenburg Gate

Time for breakfast/lunch!

The brat had bratwurst


DT had veal sausage...


and a pretzel


Hmmmm... wonder what I ordered?

After refueling, we continued walking to the Reichstag (German Parliament Building).

Just in case you can't find the Reichstag - DT is pointing it out to you


Dave & Lisa in Berlin


We found a nice RV at the Reichstag! (That gray disk above the RV is not a satellite dish -
it is a street lamp... the RV did have a satellite dish stowed on the top though.)

We continued walking to Checkpoint Charlie:

Not to be confused with "Snack Point Charlie"

This area of Berlin is very crowded and touristy. From here it was decided we would not have enough time to see everything Lisa wanted to see, so we hopped on one of the double-decker tourist buses and had a drive-by tour of Berlin. The tour was quite concise and hit all the high points of the city. I took many photos, but will not bore you with them now.

My view of Berlin


The Triumph Column, built to celebrate the Prusso-Danish War victory in 1864.
The figure on top is known as "Goldelse", but American GI's referred to her as "chick on a stick".
Barak Obama gave a speech here during his presidential campaign.

We were getting tired and hungry again, so headed back to the hotel for a quick rest and organized ourselves for an evening at the Olympic Stadium - and had a snack on the way to the track.

Lisa had the cheese plate


I ordered Caprese Bruschetta


Would you believe tuna pizza? Delicious!


Next stop - Olympic Stadium


Dave and Lisa at the Stadium


Usain Bolt receiving his gold medal (he had a good time)


Nightly panorama

Everyone in our little group was anxiously awaiting the men's 10,000m final tonight. Thirty men had entered, including just-graduated Oregon Duck, Galen Rupp. It was one of the best 10,000m races I have ever witnessed - the big guys went out hard from the start - with Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele winning in an amazing 26:46.31. (If you are not a trackie, the race is a grueling 25 laps around the track.) Even more amazing, Bekele ran his last lap in 51 seconds. 51 seconds. American Datham Ritzenhein ran the race of his life, finishing 6th in 27:22.28 - the fourth-fastest ever run by an American. Rupp finished 8th in 27:37.99, after having a very difficult last few laps. Galen seemed to stagger a bit, actually tripped once and had to be helped off the track by the medical staff.

First lap of the 10,000m


Medical staff was right on Galen as he crossed the finish line

Wow - another great day at the track! Keeping with the family theme today, we met old family friends for drinks on our way back to our hotel. Lisa crashed on a roll-away at the foot of our bed for four hours and headed back to Paris. Whirlwind tour of Berlin!

We had a blast!

Until my next update, I remain, you motherly correspondent.

See meet results here.
I also recommend www.letsrun.com.