AFA - March 2008 #6 The Hostel

We tried a hostel. I was struggling to find a reasonably priced place to stay in Berlin when I stumbled across a listing for a hostel. I figured we'd try it once. As expected, many young people there, but also older couples and families.
It was clean, quiet, and very modest. Our rooms had bathrooms, but not all did. The breakfast (included) was very simple. But all in all, something we'd do again. And of course the price was really good.
The first two pictures are the triple room, Mom, Amanda and Brittany. The bottom is the double for the men of the family.

AFA - March 2008 #5 The Wall

me


Much to my surprise, sections of the Berlin wall still stand. Of course they no longer separate the city, but they still exist. We saw stores selling pieces of the wall and wondered how they could still have them, but the answer to the question became obvious when our taxi driver pointed it out. So we bought our own little piece of the wall, not realizing we could have bought ourselves a hammer, whacked off our own little piece, and saved money.

AFA - March 2008 #4 Brandenburg Gate

The Brandenburg gate was build in the 1790's and has an amazing history. It was built as a sign of peace. The statue on top is of the goddess of peace driving a chariot pulled by a team of horses. The chariot is called the Quadriga.
When Napoleon conquered the Prussians in the early 1800's, he took the Quadriga to Paris. When Napoleon was defeated, they took it back and reinstalled it only they replaced the olive wreath she was holding with an iron cross and she became, Nike, the goddess of Victory.
When the Nazis came into power, the gate was their symbol. Somehow it did not get blown up in the bombing and was restored to its glory.
But then the Berlin wall was built and it was no longer accessible as it was right on the border. JFK visited in 1963 and the East Germans hung banners so he couldn't see East Germany.
When the wall came down, the mayors of East and West ceremonially walked through the gates and shook hands to mark the end of the separation.

AFA - March 2008 #3 Puppet

While waiting in line to visit the Reichstag a roving band of puppeteers came by. They were great! The puppeteers were a team of five men and women. They wore white masks over their lower faces and never spoke, but worked together beautifully. When the performance ended - you guessed it - they passed the hat.

AFA - March 2008 #2 Berlin

When we got off the plane, we picked up our car and headed for West Berlin. There is a major thoroughfare that goes much of the way through the town which we jumped on.
The first eye catcher was that giant billboard that crossed the road. It was so unique, we had to take a picture. It is women tugging on opposite ends of that long red piece of material. Not sure what they are selling, so it was cool, but not very effective.
The next picture shows us getting out of our "too big" van that we later replaced. Behind us is the Victory Column, also nicknamed "The Chick on the Stick." It was erected to celebrate the victory in the Franco-Prussian war back in the 1800's. It is huge and surrounded on the opposite side of the street by other military looking statues.
When looking for parking we almost got that van stuck under a low roof in a parking lot. It scraped badly (according to the sound) but happily didn't look bad. Scary.
The last is The Reichstag, where the German parliament meets. The building was built in 1890's but the interior was completely redone in the 1990's retaining only the exterior walls. A wonderful concept saving the stately magnificence of the exterior while adding all of the comforts in the modern interior. You can go in the building and climb the dome, which of course we did. The dome is glass. The sun light reflects off the upside down pyramid of mirrors in the center of the dome and lights the parliament floor below. There is a giant sun shield that follows the sun around the inside of the dome so that no one below is blinded.

AFA - March 2008 #1 Bear-Lin

Allen Family Adventure - Germany, Switzerland, Amsterdam

We are off again! We launched this adventure flying into Berlin. Or perhaps I should say "Bear-lin", there are bears like this all over the place.

"Flirt Divert"

Clever thing done by a local UK radio station - They call it the "Flirt Divert" line.
If you, the listener, are out partying and a guy or girl approaches you and wants your phone number and you have a hard time saying no, you give them this phone number (provided by the radio station) rather than your own. That way you are rid of the annoyance without having an uncomfortable experience.
Apparently the phone message is generic, so they don't know that it isn't you. But the really funny part is, the radio station monitors the messages it gets and plays some of them on the air. Some of them are hilarious. Example, "Hey baby, it's me. Are you missing a sock?"

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Britain is Repossessing the USA

To: The citizens of the United States of America:

In light of your failure to nominate competent candidates for President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately.

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except Kansas, which she does not fancy).

Your new prime minister, Gordon Brown, will appoint a governor for America without the need for further elections.

The House of Representatives and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire will be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed.

To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

1. You should look up 'revocation' in the Oxford English Dictionary. Then look up 'aluminium', and check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it.

2. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'favour' and 'neighbour.' Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters, and the suffix -ize will be replaced by the suffix -ise. The letter "z" is generally not in favour. You will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up 'vocabulary').

3. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as 'like' and 'you know' is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication.

There is no such thing as US English. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell- checker will be adjusted to take account of the reinstated letter 'u' and the elimination of -ize.

4. You will relearn your original national anthem, God Save The Queen.

5. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday. It will be substituted with a proper holiday, "Boxing Day." Look that up too.

6. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not adult enough to be independent. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. A permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

7. All American cars are hereby banned. They are rubbish and this is for your own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what we mean and thank us. Holden Monaro's are also approved.

8. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric without the benefit of conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrification will help you understand the British sense of humour.

9. The Former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol, which you have been calling gasoline, at roughly $8.00/US gallon. Get used to it.

10. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you insist on calling chips are properly called crisps.Those things you call French fries are closer, but not real chips either. (pronounced "eye-ther") Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.

11. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters. Watching Andie Macdowell attempt English dialogue in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one's ears removed with a vegetable peeler .

12. You will cease playing American football. There is only one kind of proper football; you call it soccer. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies).

13. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware that there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. As an acceptable substitute you may learn cricket. Proper cricket bats will be distributed.

14. You must tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us mad.

15. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).

16. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 pm with proper cups - never mugs - with high quality biscuits (you call them cookies) and cakes; strawberries when in season.

God save the Queen..

John Cleese

Creativity - Baking

Amanda decided to bake a Mother's Day chocolate cake. The only flaw was she was a little bit premature in taking it out of the cake pan. But, being the chocolate loving family that we are, we didn't let a small aesthetic issue get between us and a cake.
It was goooooooood!

Creativity - Clay / Ceramics

Mom's being creative again! Here's her latest work in progress, a ceramic clown.
NO, IT IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE ME!!! (well, maybe my nose)

March Madness

Number 15 is our own high school superstar, Amanda. She plays center for the ACS-Egham Jaguars.
Great game Thursday!! When we arrived, the score was 20-3 with our team on the short end of the score. That was about half way through the first half. The Allens must have been lucky for the Jaguars that day because from that point on they proceeded to score 22 points, and allowed only 4 by the other team the rest of the game, winning in the final seconds by 25-24. Very exciting.
Their tournament included teams from Germany, Spain, Sweden and France. Former NBA star Vlade Divac (LA Lakers, Sacramento Kings, Charlotte Hornets) was in attendance to watch his son's Spanish team play.
Sadly their season ended with a loss this morning.
This is Amanda's first year playing and she did well, looking forward to watching her next year.

Mother's Day in the UK

Well, for starters, we missed it. Who knew they had their own day?

It is always three weeks before Easter and dates back to the 1500s when it was traditional to visit your mother church once a year. Doing that was called "going mothering" and the day was called 'Mothering Day.' It wasn't about mothers back then. Since your mum probably went back to the mother church too, you visited your mother that day. Children traditionally made gifts at church and gave them to their mothers.
The British holiday was the inspiration for the American holiday which Julia Ward Howe brought to the US around the time of the Civil War, if I remember right. Today they are very similar in focusing on Mother's, and both have become heavily commercialized.
In our family, the US Mother's Day has the distinct advantage of being a week or so away from Shirleen's birthday, so we get to celebrate her twice close together.
And just a few weeks after that is the highlight of the year, Father's Day!

Gas Prices

I have read the concerns about rising gas prices in the US.
To make you feel better, lets do a little math.

Gas is sold by the liter in England.
A gallon is equal to 3.785 liters.
A liter of gas costs £1.04.
Applying today's currency conversion factor - that works out to $7.81 per gallon.
We put 15 gallons in our Accord the other day, it cost $117.15.
Every week! In both cars!!!
Feel better?