The Dome, a River Cruise, and Rick Steves tour begins

Jeanne and I went to Kris and Sharon's room before heading downstairs.  I called an Uber for 8:15 am. Something was not quite correct. I had said the Reichstag dome because we were going there for breakfast. We could see the where we needed to go so the driver managed to get us to the correct place. 

We got there early and had to wait outside in the wind and cold. But we did get some pictures while we waited.

A memorial to the 96 parliament members who were murdered by the Nazis between 1933 - 1945. Each slab has a different name. 

We were told to get to the Reichstag dome by 8:40 am for a 9 am breakfast reservation because we had to go through security. The security was almost worse than any airport. We had to show our passports. We were escorted by guards from one area to the next.  Sharon even had to take her money belt off. In the main building it was interesting because they opened one door and all the people wanting to get it went in.  We had to wait for that door to shut before they opened the inner door.  NO CAMERAS!!!! We were going in to the Kafer restaurant (dome Cafe) for breakfast.  Once there we could take pictures.  They had preset menus.  You could choose 1 of the 4 choices. Sharon, Kris, and I each ordered the "Feel Good Breakfast" (with champagne) and Jeanne ordered the "Dome Breakfast" (no champagne).  It was like a fancy tea.

My favorite was the scrambled eggs (on the left).  Cooked to perfection - just how I liked them.   What we called "station eggs" in India.  Very moist.

OMG!! So much food. It was amazing. 

The "W" stands for Emperor Wilhelm II  

After breakfast we went up the ramp to the top of the dome.  That was fun.  Some great photo opportunities. 

  

The EU flag

Then we walked down Unter den Linden street. Named that because there are so many Linden trees.

There seem to be these bears all over town.

Ampelmann

Frederick the Great

We got to the Spree River for a 1 hour cruise.  We were ready to sit down. We got there just in time for the 12:30 pm cruise.  We got audio guides but mine didn't work, plus it was hard to use and to take pictures.

Cool square building, it is an office building which controls itsself with artificial intellegence.  It opened in 2020. 

Lots of interesting architectures 

The cranes were out in force but not being used, since it was a Sunday.

TV station

Don't ask me what all of the buildings were.

Once we were off the boat we found a place where we could be picked up by an Uber.  I called one.  It was confusing because the Uber driver was also a taxi driver. 

He took us to the Eispatisserie Hokey Pokey Mitte where we could get ice cream. Hokey Pokey flavored ice cream was started in New Zealand.  It is vanilla with chunks of honeycomb toffee.  

We each tried some of that.

We then walked the 1/2 mile back to the hotel.  We went ahead and paid for our extra day and got that all taken care of.  The rest of the stay is covered by our Rick Steves tour.  We do not have to change rooms.

We got back to the hotel in time to rest, relax, put our feet up or whatever.  It was a much needed break.  

It 5 pm we met in the hotel lounge area for a meet and greet with the Rick Steves group. There were 28 people plus our leader, Jana. She went over all the things that we needed to know.  After "the talk" we introduced ourselves. We found out that the Kastanien part of the hotel (Kastanienhof) and the street (Kastanienallee), means chestnut.

At the end we chose our buddies.  Paul was my buddy, and Laura was Jeanne's. Kris' was Cindy and Sharon's was Cassandra.  We each got a headset that we will use for the whole tour.

Jana

Paul and beside him is Laura.  I will have to get better picture of her.   

Cassandra, Paul, Laura and Cindy

Our neighborhood "walk" was actually a practice session on how to use the public transportation.  It was very helpful.  We went on the streetcar, then the S-Bahn, then the U-Bahn, then back to the streetcar.  We had made a big circle.

We had a little rain and I saw a rainbow

We wanted U2

Jana was teaching us how to get into the train and how to validate our tickets.  I am glad that she led us through all of this.  I guess tomorrow we will get an all day ticket to use on our own after the official tour ends.  

After doing a big circle and returning to the hotel we had dinner at the hotel restaurant, Ausspanne. 

Tomato soup with tarragon. 

Most everyone had the pork medallions.  It is a local specialty.  That is what I had.  It was delicious.

Lemon whipped cream on top of raspberry compote.  

One glass of wine, beer, or pop, was included with the meal. Sharon, Kris, Jeanne, and I each had a white wine.

It was quite some beer glass.  It was definitely more than a pint. Stacy and Dave sat next to us.

After we were through eating we could just head back to the hotel.