We had the pleasure of hosting a few members of Dave’s family the past several weeks: First his cousin Catherine and second his sister Cara and her Husband Will. We had a great time during both visits and thought we would share a few photos and write up the experiences (maybe to inspire some future visits???)

Catherine showed up a few weeks ago in the beginning of November .. just in time for the cold weather! We warned her to bring some warm clothes and she was lucky she did, because once she arrived the temperature in Berlin dropped at least 10 degrees. Pretty depressing!

We should mention that Catherine is spending the semester studying abroad in the UK in a small town just outside of London. She was loving her time there and was really looking forward to checking out Germany and trying some German food and beer. We did our best to show her a good time!

Once she showed up, Dave met her at the subway station and they headed down to the center of Berlin for a free walking tour. It was the same tour that we had been on before: a three hour stroll through the center of Berlin tourist district that gives a great overview of the city’s intriguing history, including the Nazi period and the Berlin wall among other cool things. The tour was really fun, but got cold very fast. Dave and Catherine were both looking forward to the break inside a cafe that came halfway through tour!

Next, Dave and Catherine met up with Adrian back at our apartment in Prenzlauer Berg and then the whole group headed to HB for dinner and drinks. We had been to HB before but it’s a great place to bring tourists because they have very traditional southern German food and, of course, Mass Beers which everyone loves. We have a great time at HB and Catherine seemed to enjoy her German food!

The next couple days we spent with Catherine traveling around the CIty, seeing sites and sampling some local fare. She loved the CHristmas markets, but wasn’t so sure about the Currywurst. Overall it was a great time!

Next, about a week later Cara and Will came for Thanksgiving! We worked hard to find all of the necessary ingredients for a real American thanksgiving, including a (small) turkey but were missing a few things and Cara and WIll came up big and brought it over from the states. We were very excited to have them here and to show them around Berlin and our neighborhood of Prenzlauer Berg.

Thanksgiving dinner turned out great! We had two additional friend come over, Maxime from France and Sachi from Japan. The food was great and we had quite a few bottles of wine, but since Cara and Will had flown over that morning and were feeling quite tired at that point and decided to head back to their hotel.

The next day we took the two of them on a tour of downtown Berlin. We went to the top of the Reichstag building, but unfortunately it was a little to cloudy to get a real good view of the city. From there we walked to the Holocaust Memorial then to Potsdamer Platz for some lunch: Wurst with mustard and a beer. Will said he finally felt like he was really in Germany.

After some more touristing, we split up for an hour before meeting for dinner. We took them to a traditional German Brewpub right on the river down the street from the Berlin Cathedral. We sat down at a big table only to notice that we were completely surrounded by Chinese people. Cara and Will both speak Mandarin Chinese and the tempation to surprise the Chinese tourists with their skills was too much so they struck up a conversation. It was pretty fun to see the reaction from the 30 or so Chinese people to hear Cara and Will speaking with them. The brewpub food was just okay, but the beer was delicious so we made sure to drink plenty of it.

The next day we headed to a German history to take in some culture and then went to checkpoint charlie to look at some of the Berlin Wall and learn a bit more about the cold war. Then we headed back to Prenzlauer Berg to try some street food at the local market. That night we went to an Italian restaurant that is right downstair from our apartment. We had been their a few times before and they treated like regulars (as Italians like to do). It was pretty fun and Will and Cara were pretty impressed!

The next day, they had to fly away in the morning. It was a quick trip but we were so glad to have some family here for Thanksgiving. Will, Cara and Catherine, Thanks so much for coming!!