A pretty lofty title huh? Okay, it was "Father's Day" in the U.S. But, ironically
that holiday is not celebrated in Germany, and other parts of Europe.
Let's face it, that day is not as important as "Mother's Day", which is quite
understandable. A very important day anywhere.
"Father's Day" is like a makeup game in Baseball. True.
It only exists to try and make things a bit even. Funny.
So on this day June 20, Gabrielle and I set out for Potsdam, a small community
from our humble flat in Neukölln section, in the heart of Berlin.
A quick breeze on the highway had us in this quaint town and the first place we
stopped was a flea market. The smell of food was at times tempting and at
times, dare I say rancid? Well, it was not exactly a good aroma.
The day was cool enough for a jacket, but when the sun popped in and out
it was warmer and very comfortable. Beautiful clouds that day.
One thing I noticed, many tables had old and rare model trains. I have
been searching for trains for my friend John Stockett from Los Angeles, who
is an avid collector. Kibler is the brand, and very hard to find. They are from
the 1930's and I believe ended in the 1950's.
I did find a cool new cap though for 5 € Gabrielle bought a package of
black socks for 4.99 €, and that was our spending.
Next, we drove into the downtown area and parked. We walked into what I
would described as kind of like Delmar, California. Lots of art shops, antiqiue
and clothing places, and many eatery's. Most of the food places had an
outside area of tables and chairs to enjoy the nice day.
We sat and enjoyed coffee. But that was after getting
rockin' hotdogs for each of us at a stand right in the middle of all
what I described above. German hotdogs are the best! Crispy on the
outside and delicious on the inside. We sat on a park bench and
was joined by the resident wandering dog begging for food. This little
guy ate bread like it was a bird.
We gave him his fill. I think he was thankful, but was hard to tell.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On the way back home, we stopped at the now closed Tempelhof Airport,
not far from our part of Berlin. Plenty of history.
Here is part of the history of the airport that will be the site of the annual
international music conference and festival Popkomm
this year from September 8-10. Last year there was no event due to
lack of advance ticket sales and interest. But, the long running showcase
for the music industry is back with a new location and interest.
Berlin Tempelhof Airport (German: Flughafen Berlin-Tempelhof) was an
airport in Berlin, Germany, situated in the south-central borough of
Tempelhof-Schöneberg. The airport ceased operating 2008 in the process to
ultimately utilize Schönefeld as the sole commercial airport for Berlin.
Designated by the Ministry of Transport on 8 October 1923, Tempelhof became
the world's first airport with an underground railway station in 1927, now called
Platz der Luftbrücke after the Berlin Airlift. While occasionally cited as the
world's oldest still-operating commercial airport, the title was disputed by several
other airports, and has in any case been moot since its closure.
Tempelhof was one of Europe's three iconic pre-World-War-II airports —
the others being London's now-defunct Croydon Airport and the old Paris -
Le Bourget Airport. One of the airport's most distinguishing
features is its large, canopy-style roof that was able to accommodate most
contemporary airliners during its heyday in the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s,
thereby protecting passengers from the elements. Tempelhof Airport's main building
was once among the top 20 largest buildings on earth. Tempelhof formerly had
the world's smallest duty-free shop.
The airport was used as a base of operations for the United States Airforce
during the war and afterwards until 1949.
Tempelhof Airport closed all operations on 30 October 2008, despite
the efforts of some protesters to prevent the closure.
Courtesy of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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