Richard Pepper's Trip to Germany
December 6 - 19/2002

Large, uncropped, unrotated versions of my Berlin pictures (along with other Berlin pix from Google Earth etc.).

Note re. spelling: Rather than use the umlaut over certain vowels in some of the German words, I have followed what I believe is the acceptable practice of adding an e after the vowel.

Note re. links: Lower case links are to on-site pictures. Upper case links lead to other websites.

A big thank you to each of the following:
My father, Alan Pepper, for his airmile sponsorship of the trip;
Al, Annette, Patrick, Andy and Joshua Drinkwalter for hosting me for most of the two weeks and for help with my itinerary;
Paul Rogers for hosting me for three nights and two days (one of which was his birthday) in Berlin, despite his being under the weather at the time.

Evening: Flew (First Class!) out of Toronto c. 17:35. Watched "My Big Fat Greek Wedding".

Bread, meat and cheese there for breakfast, served by Al's wife, Annette.

Afternoon: With Al to the "IBO" in nearby town of Giessen, shopping for a shower door.

Evening: With eldest son, Patrick's, Fussball team to "Harry Potter: Der Kammer des Schrecken." "Schrecken" means "horrors" not "secrets". I think I know where Shrek got his name. Dozed off frequently. Noted that the Harry's "Diagon Alley/diagonally" mistake doesn't work in German. Someone was smoking in the theatre despite its being verboten.

Then Al and I went out to one of the neighbouring villages whose turn it was for a twice-yearly Sperrmuell (bulky garbage) night, looking for useful objects not already taken by the professional garbage pickers from Poland and Lithuania (seriously!).

Street name (hee hee)

Afternoon: Local Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market) to hear Andy's school choir. Weihnachtsmann/Sankt Nikolaus

Evening: With Al to take apart church's booth at the Weihnachtsmarkt and then more Sperrmuell.

Afternoon: With Al to Josh's eye appointment. Read children's books in the waiting room and hoped no one would talk to me. Then to the post office to buy stamps to mail a Christmas card. I relied mostly on grunting and pointing for communicating, but this was complicated by the card's being slightly oversized, requiring extra postage and extra grunting.

Evening: More Sperrmuell with Al.

Afternoon: Walked alone around Dorf-Guell. Pferde in a back yard.

Evening: Josh's school play. Bought a bratwurst. Read German storybook to Josh, with little expression, since I understood little of what I was saying.

Afternoon:
Lunch in Ruedesheim;
Wine-tasting in Assmannshausen;
Rhein boat trip.
Most passengers stayed in the boat, but the young man from our group and I stood out on the deck in the cold photographing the castles. Perhaps people thought we were both Canadian. No, he was Australian! (At one point he mystified me by saying there was a "Fido" everywhere we looked. A dog? No. Click here.)

Evening: Weihnachtsmarkt in Ruedesheim. Train back to Giessen. Talked with a man who eventually whispered to me "I'm born again. Are you?"

Back to top

Afternoon/Evening: Read to Josh again. With Annette, Andy and Josh to Annette's parents' near Siegen. The Autobahn above Siegen Bought a bread board and had it "engraved" "Die Bart die!" That's German, you know, for "The Bart the". Back to Dorf-Guell.

Back to top

More pix of this.

Evening: Patrick's school (Liebig-Schule Giessen) concert with Annette and Andy. Very high quality music, but unfortunately some students who had finished their part sat beside us and made noise. Andy fell asleep.

More pix of Schloss Imbshausen

Afternoon: Al and I toured Goslar, notably the Kaiserpflaz, including the Ulrich Chapel, another Weihnachtsmarkt. Bought my first Gluehwein. Al bought an RC car for Patrick from salesgirl, Melanie Borntrink. (Just throwing her name in there in case she ever goes ego-surfing. She had a nametag.) Then Rammelberg Mine tour. When it closed as a mine in 1988, it had been open for 1000 years.

Back to top

Afternoon: Lunch back at Imbshausen castle. Discussion with Bill and the German staff re. American and German use of table utensils. Train from Northeim to BERLIN with transfer made in Goettingen.

Evening: In U-Bahn (subway) station I had to figure out the ticket machine. The man ahead of me asked me for help and I said I didn't know how to operate it. He worked it out and left me there. Later an attractive young lady asked me for help with it. She was German, but not from Berlin. She figured it out and then helped me. Then we got on trains going the opposite directions.

On the bus to my host's place, I offered a Fisherman's Friend from an unopened package to the mother of a girl who was coughing a lot. The mother accepted it, but the girl didn't want it. But this enabled me to ask them questions about when and how to get off the bus.

Arrived at Zuericher Strasse 6 the apartment of my host, Paul Rogers, worship pastor of INTERNATIONAL BERLIN CHURCH. Supper with Paul and his fellow worship team member, Karen, at KFC (sorry!) at Kurfuerstendamm.

U & S Bahn Map of Berlin

More pix of my time in Berlin.

Afternoon: To Ostkreuz station. Looked for remains of the Berlin Wall. Two "drunks"(?) offered me help, but their directions bore no fruit. Lost in East Berlin. (It was Ostbahnhof station I wanted.) Back to Kochstrasse station to visit Checkpoint Charlie and see the remains of the Wall there.
Profile of the Wall
Famous Sign
Bought bratwurst for only 1.35 Euro from a man wearing his own grill.

Evening: To Kurfuerstendamm station. Attended brief service in the new sanctuary of the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedaechniskirche with Dr. Kirschstein (friend of Al). Ceiling of the old tower. Supper at Moevenpick (pronounced approximately as if it's spelled "mervenpik".)

To Zoologischer Garten station ("Zoo Station") to photograph U-Bahn 2 sign ("U2"). Didn't turn out. Back to Paul's.

Afternoon: American guard at the door gave me directions to the Neue Synagog. American man on the subway teased me about my Canadian regalia, joking that I was probably really an American wanting people to think I was Canadian.

Then walked around outside the Berlin Dom. To Alexanderplatz station. Walked to the big Berliner Weihnachtsmarkt. Supper was yummy mushrooms, steak in a bun and Gluehwein bought from various booths as I wandered.
Little Red Riding Cap?

Evening: To Ostbahnhof station. Still couldn't find remains of the wall. Then rode the U-Bahn to a couple of stations just to explore.

On the bus back to Paul's the next-stop-sign wasn't working. When do I get off? Finally, I asked a man about the Zuericher Strasse stop and he seemed to have trouble understanding the street name. "Do you mean Zuerich as in Switzerland?" "Yes!" (Thinks to self: "Isn't that what I was saying!!??") As far as I was concerned, I was saying "Tsew-rikh-er-shtras-uh", but I guess it wasn't good enough for him. As it turned out, I asked this only just in time. It was the next stop!

Gustav and I talked a bit, but my conversation with Corin and Karol? was limited to my saying "Canadians!" when the BNL came over the stereo.

Back to top

Wine with Al & Annette and their friends Kristof and Enis (sp.?).

More pix by Al of this.

Entertained by German (?) toddler who wandered around visiting the many Turkish (?) passengers (and me). Left c. an hour late.

First Class again. Champagne. Watched "Insomnia" (murder mystery) on a private video player, while others laughed aloud at "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" on the main screen.

Connection in Toronto. Asked security for a prohibited items list.
She told me to look for it at WWW.TRANSPORTCANADA.CA.
After you've tried there, you might wish to check WWW.TRANSPORTCANADA.COM.

Arrived in Thunder Bay c. 18:00 local time a bit ahead of schedule. Driven home by my Mum. It was midnight for my body.

As we say in English, "Bon Voyage".
The "Get Rid Of Slimey girlS" Club?
They are everywhere.
So are they.
"I need 5 seconds to reach the door. And you?"
An interesting street name Its location
Memories of Hogan's Heroes
He sells jewellery?