Thelin Travel: Day Three

This morning, Alicia and I met up with the Hansens and went to a local bakery to get some breakfast. We had some fantastic pastries and some open-faced scrambled egg sandwiches. Before we were all finished, the rain started coming down, so we quickly finished our food and went next door do the Aldi grocery store.

I know Aldi from my mission in Chicago and I didn't like it very much. Mom really likes it in Kansas. Jody said that Aldi is a German company. This one wasn't bad. It isn't a frilly store by any means. But it had the basics and prices were reasonable. We picked up some good food supplements as well as some items to help us get through if we get to busy to stop for dinner, or we can't find any place reasonable.

Jody, Erik, and the kids then went over to a friend's house and then on to the eBay company summer solstice (mid-summer) party. Later, they said they had a good time, staying until 7:00 pm and even though it rained, the kids rode horses and enjoyed themselves.

We started exploring in another area. This time we found the area that still had a portion of "The Wall" up along with a timeline of pre-war through the end of the Soviet occupation. It was absolutely fascinating. Knowing that when Alicia and I met, the wall was still up everywhere and enforced with the threat of death was sobering. It was also interesting to think of my father dancing along the top of a section of this wall.

We had more great food finds, including some pretty authentic Italian pizza. We were heading down the street when we heard some Italian customers talking to an Italian shop owner in this small walk-up window that was identified as a Focacceria. The pizza looked amazing and didn't look anything like pizza at Pizza Hut. That along with the owner only speaking Italian to us made us think that this could be authentic Italian pizza. So we took a chance and it was well worth it. The pizza was amazing. It was prosciutto and tomato. We'll be coming back for more.

On the way home we picked up some more groceries. More milk for me, more drinks, and a new favorite mustard. I had it on the Brautwurst in Tiergarten park. I took a picture of the packet so I could find it again later. Bautz'ner Senf Mittelscharf is a Dijon style mustard, but with only a light horseradish taste and great flavor. At the store, cups of it were about $0.50, so I bought a bunch of them to bring home. After I'm out I'll have to get Jody to send me more.

We also saw some pastries we wanted to show the kids. One is a Kiwi cake that looks delicious and some creme puffs that would surely be worth the calories.