[Today’s walk – at least 3 miles]
After breakfast at the hotel today, we did some computer work and schedule planning. Then at 11 we met an internet friend for lunch and had a nice in-person conversation.
After that we took the U-train up to near Museum Island. We visited three of the 5 national museum buildings. One was ancient greek stuff, one was 1700’s-1800’s paintings, and one was Mediterranean bronze-age stuff.
We had heard about a chocolate shop between the museums and the hotel, so we walked that way. About 2 blocks from the chocolate shop we saw smoke coming from the basement of an office-type building, about half a block on a cross street from where we were heading. People came streaming out and fire trucks arrived. There were a few people gathered at the corner, well away from the fire. But we could see flames coming out. One man in a small cluster of bystanders was calling out names and checking them off a list. I suspect it was a roll-call of employees.
The firemen had the smokey part knocked down really quickly. We continued on to the chocolate shop.
After delivering our chocolates to the hotel we took off again to visit the Octoberfest. That involved a long U-train ride and a short bus ride. The transfer from train to bus was a bit exciting. All over town there are cigarette/ash-tray stations. They look like covered plastic trash cans mounted on telephone poles. Anyway, at the bus stop one of them was smoldering and then got pretty smokey. We got on the bus and left.
Octoberfest was kind of like a smaller version of the Iowa State Fair midway with a couple of large beer tents. It was pleasant enough. We were there before dusk, so it was not terribly busy. I ate a brat and some french fries. They were good. I’m not much of a beer drinker but I guess I had about half of a “small” stein. Then we had a sweet at another stand, got on the bus again and took the U-train back home.
Today’s German word is “Brandfall”, which is that situation where firetrucks need to be called and the elevator is not to be used.
