Sunday 24th November, 2019
HAPPY 50th BIRTHDAY PAUL. Hope you have a lovely dinner XXX

What an amazing day. We set out early and caught the 9.45am bus from Chemnitz. A 3.5 hour bus ride to Berlin. This was a relaxing tie on the road, no comparison to the stress levels when driving the autobahn yourself. I am feeling quite comfortable on the wrong side of the road now, even crossing the street has become quite natural. We arrived at Berlin at about 1.15pm and caught an SBahn and a UBahn to get to the Japanese Restaurant Benny wanted to take me too. Unfortunately it wasn’t taking anymore patrons for today. So on to the next one up the street. We enjoyed a lovely Japanese meal of Gyozi – vegetable and chicken, Yakitori, Seared Beef and Tuna, with a little salad. It was a very enjoyable meal. Not to dally, as soon as we were finished we headed off and caught another SBahn to the Theatre.

Friedrichstadt Palast was a beautiful building inside and out, it was elegantly appointed and very sophisticated. The lights and stairwell were beautiful. Benny picked up our tickets and then organised our interval drinks all in his very good German. He is communicating so well now. He prefers to still do it in person but is also managing quite well on the telephone as well now. In we go to the theatre, our seats were amazing, 6th row from the front on the side. Fantastic. It was a full house and the show was spectacular. Apparently it changes every two years and costs about 1,000,000 euro to set up each time. The costumes, the performances of acrobatic, singing, dancing, acting, rope hanging/twirling was an extravaganza to say the least. I would go again in a blink. Thank you to my wonderful children and their families for the birthday present and thank you to Benny for sharing this joy with me for a change.

After the Vivid show we then headed on another train to the Berlin Botanical Gardens to see the Christmas Lights. This was beautiful. You follow a trail through the gardens looking at many different light displays. It would have been lovely if we had a little more time to enjoy the stroll through the park instead of the double time we walked through. But all in all it was a very lovely experience.

Next two more trains back to the bus stop for our 9pm train home. The day was a day of timing, getting on the many forms of transport, walking and scheduling everything with precision to enable us to see everything. Well done Benny, you did a fantastic job. I just followed your lead. We had a pleasant trip home on the bus and arrived home at 1.15am. Straight off to bed as Benny has to go to work tomorrow.