Another day, another Prosecco!

One truth about travelling is, despite how much planning you do, plans will always get turned upside down. It's how adept you are at recovering that's the test. After standing in line for well over an hour Monday to book a time slot to visit the Reichstag (the German equivalent to the Canadian Parliament), yesterday we dutifully showed up precisely on time only to be informed there were no tours that day because the government was in session.  Ironically, the glass dome on the Reichstag is meant to symbolize government transparency. I guess that doesn't apply when actual "governing" is going on. I'd waited a year for this opportunity and now it was gone. What is a reasonable girl to do?  Go shopping, of course. So, we hopped on the S-Bahn (or maybe it was the U-Bahn - I'll never get the two straight) over to the former West Berlin to do some serious shopping, at least of the window variety, on Ku'damm, that famous street. Unfortunately for the German economy, Nawal bought nothing and I only bought sandals. The most important thing, however, was that we felt better. Then, for the second time this trip, we chose a French restaurant for a meal. This time it was a funky little place called Paris Bar. While the portions continued to be Germanic in size, the flavours were more subtle and simply delicious. My lunch special for €12.50 was watercress soup and chicken in a creamy mushroom sauce accompanied by slices of crusty baguette and a glass of rosé. It was a bit surreal speaking French to the waiter, not to mention unexpected. Now, you may wonder when that glass of Prosecco, which now seems a daily occurrence, comes in. Well, later in the day I did manage to check one thing off my Berlin 'to do' list when we took the 40 second elevator ride up to the bar at the Fernsehturm (TV Tower).  Sipping a glass of Prosecco, which in this case was a bit over-priced but still cheaper than at home), we could enjoy all of Berlin spread out before us. In one of the pictures below, our apartment can be seen clearly as close to the train tracks as they sound from our bedrooms!  We are staying on the 10th floor of the tall building on the left.

Later, we headed to a very casual pizza restaurant near the apartment where a cute young waiter more than made up for the German bureaucracy screw-up earlier in the day - like why did they assign us to a time when the Reichstag was closed?  Instead, Carlos was funny and charming; our meal with wine for me was only €17; AND he brought us complimentary shots!  What a contrast to the way the day
had begun!