We couldn’t afford to buy our matching German outfits but we could afford to sneak around a German department store and pretend to be traditional folk for a few minutes.

Because we only stayed in Munich for one night AND it was a Sunday evening, there really wasn’t much to do besides window shop for Alex a watch and eat eat eat. We met up with my second favorite Alex, Mr. Diamond at the Haufbrahaus. The first time I went there a few years ago drank one litter of beer. This year I outdid myself and almost made it to two. That was our night in a nutshell.

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We went to Bad Staffelstein, north of Munich, to see what a Bad(German for bath) is all about. As we expected it was a quaint town teaming with elderly retreaters looking for a calming wellness experience.

It’s a spa merged with a beach resort. It was incredible. Exercise pools, lounging tubs, and of course a waterfall hiding a granite grotto. All of this was overflowing with a soft spring salt water which was a great way to soften our toenails before cutting them and our corns off.

The best were the saunas which we sat in three different types, the hottest being 87 degrees celsius. Luckily that is only 188.6 F. Kels and I figured we needed to relate a bit to the heat at home.

Lastly Kelsey was like a kid in a candy store dancing and groovin’ along to the beats with the water aerobics class every hour.

Check out Kels’ new accessory too!

Rented a boat, took out some beers. A good time in Prague.

After walking 3 miles through Czech apartments, we arrived at the contemporary art museum, DOX. The exhibit was small, but really interesting and dense. Rain was not in our plans for the day, since we hadn’t brought an umbrella… We ducked into a warm pub/pizza place decked out in old car parts, nik naks, and quickly hand made furniture. The perfect retreat from tourists and the rain.

A fine example of a toilet not up to full flushing capacity in our hostel.
Really nice place…. Except for stolen cereal, and finger scooped peanut butter by gypsies…

Alex’s sweet new specs.

I personally could not get over the swarm of tourists that filled the streets and stared intently into the same ole crystal, marionette, or fur hat shops. If I was able to look past that I’d see the beautiful and perfectly preserved city that Prague really is. Cobblestone streets, castle on the hill, bridges, and narrow alleyways between century old cathedrals.

And while I’m complaining… The Czech people were possibly even worse than the out of control tourism. On multiple occasions, rude servers would tip themselves out, cab drivers tried to charge 10x the going rate, and lastly, the evil guards of public transportation fined us 1,400 Czech corona for not stamping our purchased tickets and threatened to call the police. My crying and Alex’s extreme niceness got it halved. Don’t worry, they gave us change using a wad of cash bigger than a large man’s fist and took extra money from the young tourists in line after us I am sure.

Phew. Well anyway, here is our first day where we explored the Jewish quarter and went wandering through a park on the hillside.

So as posted earlier, Alex desperately needed new glasses. He easily got his eyes checked and a new prescription. Finding good frames was a different story. Luckily we stumbled upon Opti King which had hundreds of vintage 1950s+ frames. Found a great pair.

I also found some fab vintage sandals and a pixilated floral skirt. Dinner consisted of Russian cabbage pasta and a full liter of beer. O yaaa. It was a good evening.

Our walkings through West Berlin. Plenty of interesting architecture. Civic buildings, libraries, museums, concert halls, and Lego giraffe. We ended our trek with Mies van der Rohe’s Neu museum. Mmm loved that collection of work. Will post fav pieces later.

We started our museuming journey with a brat from a one woman wiener stand. I loved the Pergamon museum because if how it made me really understand the types of enormous spaces that existed in ancient times. Not just artifacts in a box. Alex did get yelled at in German for getting too comfortable with those extra large columns.

The best part of the Altes Museum was definitely the ancient erotica section. There was a flying penis with penis tail and of course its own penis. Those ancient Romans loved their erect genitalia. (for once the gift store didn’t have a replica, otherwise it would have made great gifts)

We did a 180 from the traditional museum and went over to this art house/famous piss covered squatters haven. Dozens of off the grid artists and craftsmen work here and sell their “art” for on the cheap to eager tourists.

Such a collection of “seasoned” people, but why? No doubt the gardens are delightful, the children are buckets of fun to watch, but is that a reason to have half the park over 65?

Then the answer showed itself….

SLOTS!

Patterns of Berlin. Guess which ones are Alex and I.

Of course we pocked the rainiest day while we were in Berlin to go to the zoo, but it was still so worth it. They managed to get rid of the standard fence and use lots of plantings to make it feel more “natural”. When it rained we hopped on in to the aquarium. Loved the jellyfish and these weird jumpy land fish.

I drug Alex on over to the kids petting zoo where we saw my fav: MINI horse. So worth the dirty pellet slobber.

Every Sunday, thousands upon thousands of Berliners and tourists go to Mauer Park for the grungiest, funnest, biggest, foodiest flea market I have ever seen. Bartering is a must, as we consistently go prices cut in half just by asking. A floor length fur coat got down to $45 which was so tempting… If only I could lug around another 20 pounds of mink for the next three months. Obviously I love fur, and it was tempting me around every corner. Instead I held out and bought only a leather sketchbook bag, brass mug, and a twisted silver spoon.

In addition to the amazing market, an amphitheater on the hillside attracted another few thousand to watch street performers and karaoke. We had such a good time swinging, that Alex lost his glasses lens and we didn’t even notice for a few minutes. It was lost forever and he walked around winking at everyone for the next few days.

Our hostel room was themed “giraffe”, hence the decorations.

After seeing slides of this famous building in architecture school for the past three years, I really had high expectations. They were greatly let down. I didn’t find the exhibit or the architecture particularly moving, and considering we are at the heart of the holocaust it doesn’t seem like it would take much to grab ones attention. It does seem to photograph well…

The Louisiana museum of modern art was such an unexpected surprise. We decided to go on a whim, took a 30 minute train out and were so excited to find ourselves in this little town by the water. It was a drizzly Friday, and there were dozens of dainty sail boats out and about.

The museum had a nice exhibition on small scale architecture. Exploring what is a home, a community, a country and how these work in a cellular way.

My favorite part was the permanent sculptures outdoors by the water. Windy paths and long aluminum slides take you from one piece to the next. Most were hidden and it was nice to escape the old people.