Cam Arrives

Hello everyone.  This is Kylie, and I am happy to say that Family Afar is back!  This morning, at 10:30, I finally got up out of bed and drowsily followed everyone out of our hotel room.  Since we are back in a big European city, we are able to travel almost everywhere using the underground.  This is one of the most efficient ways of touring a city that I know of.  I love that it is always a surprise when you leave the station to find out where you are.  Here in Berlin, the underground is fast, easy to get to, and buying tickets is optional, which means the system is based on trust (Dad's note: not really optional, but there are no pesky turnstiles to slow you down).

Every time we go through the underground station near our hotel, Dex and I pass a doughnut shop, and we always ask if we can have one.  The answer is always no!  That's why Mom and Dad finally relented and decided to take us to a bakery shop this morning that they heard served doughnuts.  Unfortunately, the doughnuts were dry and didn't taste good, so back to the hotel we went, unsatisfied.

At around 11:30, our really good friend, Cam (who we stayed with near Oslo three summers ago), met us at the hotel.  Cam will be biking with us for the first three days of our trip.  It was wonderful to see him again.  He and I helped Dad unpack the bike suitcases and start to put the bikes together again.  Later, Cam invited us to dinner at the house where he was staying with friends.  Their names are Markus, Reinar, and Ahmad (a Syrian refugee).  To get to their flat, which was on the top floor and used to be a printing business, you first enter a courtyard that you wouldn't know was there if you were just walking along the street.  You then ring them using an intercom so they can come down a service elevator and take you up.  Their apartment was huge, as large as our house, and they even had a small balcony looking into the courtyard.  Ahmad and Reinar cooked a great dinner of chicken, sausage, steak, and vegetables.

Once we were finished with dinner, Markus took us on a walk to an old airport (Tempelhof) that is no longer being used.  Even though it was late, it was still light out and there were lots of people running, walking, and biking.  Dex and I had lots of fun racing along and between the runways, which is good because I need to practice my running.  On our way back to the flat, we got ice cream.  Finally, to top off a great day, we got to watch a huge thunderstorm from the big windows of our hotel room until late into the night.