10 Juli-- Day 16

Another fairly relaxing day. After another hour long breakfast, at which I was the last person to wake up (why do old people think 7 is a great time to wake up on Sundays?) ( I seriously hope that they didn’t wait up for me…) We went on a little hike with the doggies, to get them tired before they had to go in the car. It was maybe an hour long in the woods near the house. I had a revelation. Poison ivy doesn’t exist in Germany. There’s this sort of burning nettle or something, but there’s no poison ivy and no poison oak. Also there were tons of wild blueberries and raspberries, so I was good.

After goodbyes, we headed back up for Berlin. On the way back, we stopped at the same little forest and walked the dogs. Also stopped at a German rest stop, where I saw a guy wearing Lederhose.

On a related note, there’s a town called that.

Not just me being foreign-- M found it funny as well

Thery’ve invensted a lot into renewable energy here. We passed hundreds of windmills and quite a few huge solar farms. Even some of the smaller farmhouses were producing their own energy with solar panels on their roofs. Of course, considering their recent ban on nuclear power, they’d better build more of them or start implementing/developing better methods.

So freaking many.

On a historical note, we passed the point where the old DDR (GDR)/BDR barrier/wall thing used to be. Also passed by Checkpoint Bravo... not as famous as Checkpoint Charlie, but just as impenetrable.

About 5 minutes by car from where I live, there’s a beer garden that’s frequented by bikers around 6 on Sundays. We drove past it, and there were like 40 or so Harleys all lined up on both sides of the street. Seemed like a pretty fun biker party—just like at Dartmouth, a surprisingly large percentage of them are over 60.