Day 328: Berlin, Day 3--More Bus Touring, Block House (steak dinner)

We got off to yet ANOTHER late start today but still managed to do more bus touring, on the same bus we were on yesterday. We rode on the bus until Gendarmenmarkt, which is, according to Google," a square in Berlin and the site of an architectural ensemble including the Konzerthaus and the French and German Churches. In the centre of the square stands a monumental statue of Germany's renowned poet Friedrich Schiller." It was quite beautiful, probably the most beautiful area of Berlin we've seen so far, so we just wanted a closer look at it. There we took some pictures until we saw another bus come by, so we quickly scurried on to it because we thought it would be our last opportunity to catch a bus, since they stop service at 6 pm. on Sunday. Around 5:56 pm, there was a very calm announcement on the audio: "Service stops at 6 pm." Then the bus stopped an people immediately started getting out. Me being ever hopeful, I sat there for a minute, but we decided to head down. The driver was saying, "That's it! Finis!" to us. "Like we couldn't figure that out!" said Kerry.

Since we hadn't spent any money up to this point in the day, we decided to get a steak dinner at the steak place we noticed earlier in Frederichstrasse, called Block House. It had good reviews online. We first walked around a very touristy area: people were selling food and drinks, and there was even a man showcasing wire sculptures of a fire-breathing dragon and a horse. Both of them moved, and the horse even nudged me a bit. We struggled a bit finding the correct subway platform--the Information lady was helpful--but we bought our tickets, got on, and it was only two stops from where we were.

At the station, we kept noticing these two guys all over, one of whom had green hair. I figured out later that I think they were collecting bottles, but we saw them at least three times. It was a bit unsettling. Before going to eat, we stopped at the supermarket in the mall. Oddly enough, we were told we had to wait in line to go inside. As we were waiting, the guy with green hair came up and started loudly talking to a security guy. It was all in German, so we didn't know what was going on. But we decided to return later.

So we went to Block House. We both had steaks with salad and baked potato--both were really good! I had a T-Bone and Kerry had the "Mr. Rumpsteak." Our potatoes were excellent: they came with sour cream, and we were served a lot of herb butter, too. The salads were good, but not amazing: the staff made them at a salad bar before serving them to us. Afterwards we both had vanilla ice cream. Interestingly enough, we paid less for this nice meal than we did for cheeseburgers at a cafe in Paris!!! (85 euro vs. 90 euro)

We made another attempt at the supermarket after dinner. This time there was no line, so we just went in and got some drinks to take home. And we went home after.

Tomorrow we plan to go to Potsdam!

Interesting statue in the town square!

Steak at the Block House!

Berlin Concert House, which we saw after getting off the bus.