In Berlin

Our studio apartment is on Chausseestrasse, about a mile from Berlin ground zero, right at the Naturkundemuseum stop on both the tram and the underground. Our first few days were given to neighborhood explorations, shopping for groceries and staples, and also jet-lag recovery, but since then we have undertaken a few more adventurous trips, to a couple markets and to a museum of art nouveau and art deco decorative arts. And the obligatory walk to the Tiergarten Park, via Unter den Linden and the Brandenburg Gate. We are enjoying Berlin's very extensive public transportation system...trams, buses, both underground and surface trains...not as cheap as some cities, but certainly accessible, clean, efficient, etc., and they take you where you want to go.

Chausseestrasse looking up-town

And down-town; Chausseestrasse merges with Friedrichsstrasse
after a few blocks, crosses the river Spree, and then intersects with
Unter den Linden, Berlin's Champs-Elysees

Our apartment building...we're on the first floor, just above the
coffee shop; elevator to the underground is just across the street;
this is the former east Berlin, so everything, apart from a few
historic sites, is new, neat and shiny; and very up to date; except
our air conditioner, which will figure in the out-takes

The apartment complex is call Living 106

The complex consists of several buildings, and 78 units;
our building is the street frontage, but opens onto this
courtyard (auto parking in under the complex)

And then this one, surrounded by other complex buildings

The studio is reasonably large but just a long room divided by
furniture and a screen; here is the dining/office from the living
area

Kitchen, reception (even has a dishwasher)

Living area/media room

Bedroom; the bathroom beyond even has a combination washer/
dryer: luxury! With euro/dollar parity, $87/night

An older-looking building a block away

A few doors down the street is the Ballhaus Berlin, a
former cabaret of some note (I watched Cabaret on the flight
over); featured flirting via table telephone, as in the movie

Thus; famous regulars have included Bertold Brecht,
David Bowie, and Quentin Tarantino

Interim Update #1,270

In the course of selling and unloading Le Sport, we managed to pack also for our two-month trip back to Europe, which will include three 3-week-long stays in Berlin, then Prague, and then Vienna. It helped that we are really into a minimalist mode for travel, 2 small backpacks and two roller-boards. Period. Anyhow, we are now in our central Berlin apartment, a studio, jet-lagged, but happy to be back.

Coincidentally, our departure occurred on the 14th anniversary of our original retirement departure, from Missoula, August 31st, 2008. A day later, we were en route from San Francisco to Tokyo and then Beijing. 5,110 days on the road now as we arrived in Berlin. We were a bit better organized and prepared this time.

BTW, this is our third visit to Berlin since retiring...for our 2009 and 2012 posts, just enter "Berlin" in the search box at the right.

Traditional departure shot

Departing from Nerk

Our Berlin apartment, pretty central, walkable to most of the
things we like

Deep Creek, 2; and Cary

More tubing pix follow, and then the scene shifts to Cary, NC, a suburb of Raleigh, where Rebecca, Jeremy, and Penelope have relocated. Part of the California diaspora. Daughter Rachel took the Amtrak down from her home in DC for a five day family reunion. It all got more complicated, as will be explained in due course, but we had a good time getting back together in Rebecca's new digs.

Helping Grandma get unstuck

"Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily..."

Headed back for another run

We showed her our video from running the Lochsa way back in
the late 90s, Vicki, Rebecca, Rachel, and I, on a big guided raft
run; 24 class IVs in 23 miles...just for perspective

White water!

Deep Creek, BTW, is an excellent NPS campground,
especially for smaller units; even has wifi (Bryson
City is just a couple miles away)

Now in Raleigh, examining/documenting the rent car; artsy shot

Dinner at Catalan Tapas in Cary with daughter Rachel, just arrived
from DC

Rachel, Penelope, Rebecca

On a hike in one of Cary's natural reserves

Another day, Rachel at Cary's huge"Lazy Daze" arts and crafts fair 

Lady on stilts; something I'll never understand; nor do

Moi, weathering the 90+ degree heat and humidity

Our new storage unit in Cary; in addition to the 
20-some bins and boxes from California, it contains
all our stuff from Le Sport, which we sold on 
August 29th; long story short is that our travels
planned for the next year did not involve it for more
than two months,; and our desire to downsize
generally...farewell, Le Sport, it was great these
six years...

Deep Creek, 1

We were at the Deep Creek area and campground in the Smokies most of August 1-20. There were brief respites back in Knoxville to get Le Sport's alternator/regulator replaced, briefly in the World Capital of Tawdriness (Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge/Sevierville), and then in Waynesville, NC, to meet Rebecca and Penelope, who had driven over from Cary, NC, where they'd moved in April. Penelope was with us the last six days at Deep Creek, where we enjoyed hiking, tubing on the creek, campfires, camp cuisine, and playing the Paris art/architecture card game. Grandma and Grandpa did the creek tubing once each, the mild zone, but Penelope did the mild and moderate zones quite a few times, becoming expert at getting unstuck and at navigating the white water. The older (and heavier) river-runners in our party judged Deep Creek to be quite shallow--one local veteran said he'd never seen it so shallow--but not too shallow for an 11-year-old.

En route from Knoxville to Bryson City, after a big storm

Locals cutting the tree into manageable pieces, then moving it

A pretty waterfall contributing to Deep Creek

Another; no tubing beyond this point

Rhododendrons all around the creeks and hillsides; blooming
in May/June, we were told

Curious orange flowers...

"Mushrooms!"

Busy weekend day on the creek

Not our first visit to Deep Creek...Vicki in 1976

Losing but not big at the Cherokee/Caesar's casino

In Gatlinburg; tawdriness can be amusing in small
doses; in Tennessee, the world's longest such stretch
runs ten miles from Sevierville through Pigeon Forge
to Gatlinburg

We used to think the place worth a visit and an amusing blog post;
not anymore; it's just repulsive, in so many ways

With Rebecca and Penelope, at the estimable Frog Level Brewing
Company in Waynesville, NC

Penelope viewing the big waterfall

On a reconnaissance of the creek

Our campsite at Deep Creek; we didn't know it, but it would be
our last such outing in Le Sport...[cue ominous foreshadowing music...]

Penelope has befriended a butterfly

Embarking on their first run

Grandma tubing the big waters

And Penelope, eddied-out

To be continued...

Interim Update #1,269

So, as some will have surmised, we have been back in the States since July 5, dividing our time between visiting and apartment-sitting for Marie and Norm in Knoxville, the nearby Escapees' Raccoon Valley campground, and, currently, Deep Creek campground in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, near Bryson City, NC. It has been good, doing nothing, and then resting, as the saying goes. The camper was in good shape on our return, and, after a brief visit with Mercedes of Knoxville, required no further special attention. The weather, on the other hand, has not been good, hot and humid, with almost daily thunderstorms. It is a Golden Age for insects hereabouts too. The good news is that a) grand-daughter Penelope soon will join us for a week at Deep Creek and environs, b) there will be a family reunion of sorts toward the end of August, in North Carolina, and c) we will return to Europe August 31st, for two months, visiting Berlin, Prague, and Vienna.

At least the humidity doesn't get much higher during
the thundershowers