Hitting the Wall, Part 1
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- Thomas Gainesborough, kids from the 1700s
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- Still moving and poignant after 600 years
First full day in Berlin. I’ve never been here before and have a list as long as my arm of things to see. Good homeschool stuff, too. I try to wake Morgan up at 830am, ready to go. He rolls over and says he was out of bed last night at 1am, throwing up. Poor baby. He did say last night that he wasn’t feeling well. So I let him sleep….. and sleep…. And sleep.
I think we have both hit the wall, figuratively. I’m tired myself, but there are just two days left of my European odyssey, and I do not want to waste them. While he was sleeping, I caught up on my blog writing, photo uploading and some email. If I was home, I’d be lying on the couch all day, watching the results of Dancing with the Stars and American Idol. However, I’m in Berlin, so I feel like the last leg of a marathon, I can do this, I can do this. I could take a nap, but need to catch up on the blogs. When the blogs are caught up, I try, but I can do this keeps me from relaxing. I need to get out there. It’s 1:30pm, I’ve wasted the day so far, and need to wake the boy up. I put on “Satellite”, the song that won the Eurovision contest the other night and play it on my computer. (Google Eurovision Germany Lena to see who won the European version of American Idol – Germany! Front page material yesterday.) Morgan hates this song, so he wakes up.
After verifying that he is ok, just needs a day in, I’m out at 3pm. Hopping the bus, I go to the Gemaldegalerie, Berlin’s excellent museum on 14th through 17th century art. The audioguide comes with admission, and I am in art heaven, getting details on paintings that neither Morgan nor George care about. I love the 14th century painting of the mother smooching her son. I have intimate moments with Rembrandt and Gainesborough.
When the museum closes at 6pm, I head back to the room to see how everybody is. George has a dinner meeting and Morgan is happy lying low. Great! I head back out and buy myself a ticket for the Berlin Symphony in their amazing acoustically perfect hall. Mozart! The conductor is energetic, jumping up and down at times, and I can see the hot pink lining in the tails of his black jacket. I am thinking that one thing about the city is the incredible sheer talent that you can find when you have a larger population to work with. I have Prosecco and a little lox on a cracker to celebrate, my tiredness of the morning disappearing. Hit the wall? Me? Never!
Practicing Travel 
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