Berlin

I spent Wednesday in Berlin for a work meeting (I love my new job!) and got to spend the evening exploring. 

After the meeting (and a few drinks) Heather, Lizzie and I headed to our separate hotels and arranged to meet up later.

I was staying in a little hostel like place called Arte Luise. The rooms are all different and decorated with random things and pop art. My room just had a single bed (with a shared bathroom) but I was only there a few hours and had fun (if a little creepy) decorations.

On the ceiling

Looking at me.

Random shoes on the wall

The message encouraged people to write on the walls and people had left messages from all over. (I added my own.)

Great view from the room

I really wanted to explore and as I was up a 5am that morning, sitting down was going to be a bad plan, I headed back out after dumping my things and headed down to the park.

Crossing the river.

I was staying near the Brandenburg Gate. The gate was part of the Berlin wall (1961-1969), standing between the east and west.

Brandenburg Gate

I headed through the gate and down through the park to the Soviet Memorial. 

Russian tank.

Memorial

And then round the park to the Reichstag building, which used to be the home of the Imperial Diet of the German Empire and is now the meeting place of the German Parliament. You can't see very well from the photo but there is a dome above. You can go in (well book a tour) and and walk around above, watching parliament. The idea is they want the parliament and what goes on to be completely transparent.

Reichstag building

I was a little early to meet the others so sat by the river for a bit. It was really peaceful.

After a few drinks and food finally (I skipped lunch), we had a walk around the town. Down by the river, there was a video projected on the side of a building showing the history of the Berlin wall and it coming down. 

Brandenburg Gate at night.

We ended up hopping around a few bars. The night ended with Jägermeister. :(

I got back to my hotel at 12.30am and had to be up again to get to the airport at 4.30am that morning. I went straight from the airport to work for the day but left at 2pm. I was exhausted! But it was a great trip and I really want to go back to Berlin again. :)

Los Gigantes - Day 2

On the Saturday, after a lazy morning, I booked a trip on the Flipper Uno, a Canarian made pirate sailing ship. Because why not? The boat was beautiful. And Los Gigantes is quite small so there is a limited choice.

Flipper Uno

Pirate ship

There were quite a few people on board and I really shouldn't have been so lazy that morning as most of the seat were already taken and I got there "early" or so I thought! Still I managed to grab a seat on the main deck so I was close to the water. 

This guys was staring all trip

Skull and cross bones

and cannons

Sailing

They really got into the pirate thing! (And one was very pretty - not the one in the next photo; he was just insane!)

This pirate was nuts!

The boat was bigger than the one the day before, so we headed out further and found a pod of pilot whales. It wasn't as good as the last time I went whale watching, but still fun.

Whale sighting

The pod

Coming up for air

After watching the whales for a while, we headed along the cliffs and to Masca Bay. I was looking for a boat that did a different trip, but they all do pretty much the same trip, just in different boats. 

Los Gigantes cliffs

The white boat is a reasonably big boat. 

They fed us and all drinks were free. Some people made good use of this as it included beer and wine. But we set out at 11.30am. That is just way too early for me to be drinking!

After stopping in Masca Bay, there was a chance to go swimming. I decided not to bother as I knew the water was quite cool and I was enjoying sitting in the sun. Though I did get a little pink. Whoops! 

Instead of the normal way to go swimming, they continued in the pirate theme and there was a swing to get in. I saw some people going on it several times. It was very popular.

Swinging...

... And falling

While they were getting ready to sail, they gave us what they called (and pardon the language) "piss of the shark".  The crazy one squirted it into your mouth. And just kept going. A lot of us ended up with it over us! We had no choose than to pull away or drowned! Though I think I managed to get about 3 shots out it. (I have no idea what the drink was but it tasted like a weak honey rum.)

Quick drink

And to continue the slightly nuts theme, on the way back the crazy one fed the seagulls. At first just throwing food (chips I think) to them.

Catching food

Then hand feeding them.

Hand feeding the seagulls

Then mouth feeding. It was an interesting spectacle but having had my food stolen by seagulls on several occasions, it seemed like encouraging bad habits. :)

Mouth feeding the seagulls

Got it

I spent the rest of the afternoon sleeping or chilling out with my iPad on the balcony. It was nice to to relax in the peace and quiet and warmth.
This time I check the time of the sunset and set out early. I do love the golden hour light.

Golden hour

For the evening I had booked a really nice restaurant, with ex-Michelin star chefs. My reservation wasn't until 9.30pm which was a bit late but worth it. 

As I was celebrating, I started with a glass of cava. They gave me a free starter, a cone of squid and an expresso cup of squid juice. I think something got lost in the translation. I was skeptical but it was amazing. I wish the cup had been bigger.

My main was, as again celebrating, fillet steak and truffle sauce (it was a very posh restaurant but tenerife style so still laid back, if that makes sense). For desert, I choose the mango soup because it sounded weird. But so good. If the restaurant hadn't been so nice, I might have licked the bowl! And the desert wine was perfect. 

Dessert - mango soup, coconut tapioca and sherry ice cream plus dessert wine!

Ready for a night out.

It was a lovely night and I finished with a moon lit walk on the beach which was right by my hotel. And the perfect way to celebrate!

New York - Day 4

On Thursday morning, we went to Grand Central Terminal. Very pretty and by far the nicest station I have seen in a while. There is a large astronomy scene on the ceiling.

Grand central

The famous clock in the centre of the concourse.

We headed to Hell's Kitchen again, to the Cosmic diner for breakfast. (We both have a new found love of Turkey bacon!)  Then got on the tour bus down to Greenwich Village and SoHo. I recommend the tour buses. Some of the tour guides are a bit weird (Caroline got a love declaration on this bus) and you look like a complete tourist but we learnt a lot of great stuff we wouldn't have otherwise.
We got off at Greenwich and are such wimps; within 5 mins we were in a cafe. The wind was bitter and we were so cold. But at the cafe, they did tell us the better places to go for shopping, so we headed to SoHo. This area is really cool and friendly. Most of the normal shops but there is one called The Evolution Store, which has things like skulls, shells, fossils, and links art to science. We spent ages (and lots of money) there. Caroline brought an amazing necklace. I got a spider's web which is captured in glass. It's from a spider species called the beautiful one, and was found in New Jersey.

Spider's web in glass.

I also got a stone made from Volcanic rock from Mexico which changes color when looked at in different lights.
Then we walked down to Tribeca (an area of the city near the World Trade centre). We didn't really want to go to the 911 Memorial but we had a look at the new World Trade Tower which should be finished by the beginning of next year. There will be one main tower and 6 smaller ones. Mainly we wanted to see the Miracle church. It was named this as it has survived a lot. Fires. Storms. And the Twin towers falling. Buildings further away had all their windows blown out. And the church was untouched. The trees in the grave yard saved it from the debris.
It was also where the fire men slept while digging through the ruins and inside is the story of what happened at the church during that time. It was very sad and there is a flag with all the names on of people who died.

New World Trade Centre

Miracle church 

Bell given to NYC from London outside church.

In Battery Park, which is on the southern tip of the island, there is a gold ball which was in front of the towers when the collapsed. Around it is a community garden, which feeds the homeless, and a WW2 tribute.

What is left of the ball from in front of the twin towers.

Monument of WW2

Names of fallen soldiers of WW2.

View from Battery Park of Statue of Liberty.

After that, we headed back to the Fire Zone. Before the presentation, we had a look around. The walls were covered with badges from fire departments from all over the world. There was also a poster on the wall with the names and photos of all the fire fighters who died in 9/11. I did not realize there were so many! Humbling. Anyway, the presentation was more meant for little kids but it was still fun. We also promised a photo with a firefighter. Unfortunately the fireman was a nice guy but not the cute hunk we were hoping for. ;-) So we skipped.

Mascots in the fire truck

badges.

More badges.

We ate in Hell's Kitchen again. It's an area west of Times square. The food is just as good and half the price as that in Times Square. So Caroline got her New York pizza, and we enjoyed a very nice bottle of New Zealand Riesling. Then we headed back to the hotel to pack, via Times Square. The New Years ball is a lot smaller than we expected, only 6 foot in diameter. And Times Square is not even a square! It's a triangle. But there area is full of life and lots of lights and billboards.

Times Square. 

New Years ball.

After packing, it was out to the wine bar for more Pouilly Fume for our last night. Very tasting!