Walking on Water

Dear Gran,
after Julie's market visit on Saturday we went for a walk in the sun and admired this frozen canal near our house.

This afternoon we visited Teufelberg in Grunewald Forest with Josh and Emily. It is a mountain made of rubble from Berlin's WWII ruins, which the Americans took advantage of by erecting a spy radar on its peak. The facility is now in disrepair, but that didn't stop us re-enacting the cold war with snow balls.

We saw lots of kids were careering down the hill on elegant timber sleds and we also saw a black wild boar rummaging amongst some long grass that was still sticking out of the snow.

We then visited a nearby frozen lake where we saw people playing soccer wearing ice-skates and a family pushing their baby in a pram over the ice. Yet, we were all pretty nervous when we first stepped out onto it!
love from
Brendan

UPDATE by Julie on Monday morning: This morning on the S-Bahn, the back of the newspaper the woman opposite me was reading had a photo of people on ice and the title "Beautifully dangerous". On the U-Bahn, the in-carriage TV was carrying a warning from the Water Police about walking on thin ice...

Food from the market

Dear Gran,
Exciting stuff- the weekly food shopping.

The wedge is a fruit-yeast cake. This one had a bready base, like a pizza, with a sweet rhubarby top, and some streusel on top of that. The little plug is a goat cheese covered in hazelnuts.
Much love,
Julie.

Journey to the Harz

Dear Gran,
Even though its still been snowing on and off in Berlin, we caught the train to the Harz Mountains for 4 days to see some really deep icing sugar stuff as well as the highest hills in northern Germany.

Today the Harz region is very proud of its historic connection to witchcraft - with every rock, hill, valley, drink, dish and pension including the word Hexen.

Here I stand laughing in the face of Toten Weg (not sure if the name Deadly Way is a reference to witchcraft or just the steep descent). Of course, it was Julie who got all the laughs at my expense on our way down.

It was a lovely sunny morning when we started out to walk and ski up through the forest to the highest hill, Brocken Berg (1140m), but by the time we got there the clouds, snow and wind had set in taking the views away.

This old steam train was an impressive sight coming through through the forest on its way to the top of Brocken Berg. The train easily beat us up there, but Julie was only a few minutes slower than it skiing back down.
love from
Julie and Brendan