Saturday 16th April was when the sun finally came out and boy, did it make a difference.
I took my camera with me on my morning dog walk. This is a statue we pass on the way to the lake - Hubertussee.
There are some great bird-watching opportunities around the lake but I don't have my binoculars yet. I have recognised Black Redstarts, Wrens, Blackcaps, Greater Spotted Woodpeckers, all the tits, sparrows and general garden birds. But there are many others I can't quite identify.
Rhiannon phoned her new best friend while I was out and on my return I was informed she had been invited for a sleepover. We've only been here less than a week and already the hand of friendship is reaching out.
Thankfully, our new car has a rather excellent Sat Nav system so we were able to find her friend's house in Potsdam.
On the way there, we drove through some gorgeous forests and marvelled at the lake views. One of the bridges we crossed made Tim hoot with excitement. It was the "Bridge of Spies" - Glienicke Bridge.
From Wikipedia: During the Cold War, Glienicke Bridge was one of the few places in the world where the Soviet Union and the United States stood directly opposite each other. Thus, “deals” could be made here without any of their allies having any say in the matter. The bridge lies at an isolated joint where US-occupied West Berlin met Soviet-occupied Potsdam, which was in East Germany.
We arrived at our destination where we met a lovely couple and were introduced to a German custom I could certainly get used to, kaffee und kuchen - coffee and cake. Similar to afternoon tea (or elevenses), everyone stops at 3pm or 4pm for kaffee und kuchen. Yum!
After a lovely and informative chat, we left Rhiannon happily playing in the garden with her friend and headed off to do some shopping without a demanding child in tow. We'd had it confirmed that yes, ALL shops close on Sundays and public holidays, without exception. Some shopping malls may open on a few Sundays in the year, but in general, that's it. So I'm now quite worried about just how much planning needs to be done on the shopping front, groceries especially.
We found a duvet and cover, a microwave and a toaster. For some reason the toaster has blue LED lights around the base that flash when it's toasting. It looks like a space-toaster. Unfortunately, that's where our shopping had to stop as none of the stores took credit cards - EC debit cards or cash only. Oh dear.
A huge DIY store was tempting, but we only had enough cash left for a long length of rope so we can tether Kita in the garden so she can enjoy the outside while being safe from escape.
In the evening I insisted on us taking the opportunity to go out to dinner as it was our 5th wedding anniversary on 15th April and, as usual, nothing was done to celebrate it.
We collected Rhiannon the following afternoon and agreed to bring her friend back for a reciprocal playdate / sleepover - to be collected at about 4pm on the Monday.
Before collecting them, we discovered that a mall near Potsdam was open on that Sunday. Thank goodness, because I'd run out of cat food.
It was OK. There was an amazing amount of Easter stuff on display. I've never seen anything like it! I'd noticed garden trees decorated with coloured eggs around here, but Easter isn't something I've ever celebrated. And of course Japan doesn't "do" Easter at all, being a non-Christian country. I was taken aback at the sheer amount of bunnies, chicks, eggs and all manner of flower arrangements incorporating these items.
We found a large supermarket, a bit like a cross between Tesco and Wal-mart, and got a few items there.
The cat can eat tonight.