Bob complained again about not being able to sleep so he got up and took a sleeping pill. Tired, I crawled into bed, an hour later I was wide awake, unable to sleep. All night long I was up and down, unable to breathe, unable to sleep. I think I tossed and turned and slept intermittedly. Eventually, the maid tapped on the door asking if she could clean. I asked her to come back later; Bob continued to snore for another two hours. While Bob showered, I did my leg and other exercises, part of the reason I am so stiff and sore now, at the end of the day.
Today's plans went off without a hitch--we knew where we were going and went there; it was, afterall, just one more stop past the Deutch Opera stop we'd been to on my birthday.
We reached the Charlottenburg Palace, Berlin, Germany, after walking down the road three blocks past some apartment buildings and restaurants.
The center of the road contained a walkway through trees, but the sidewalk we were on had all the pretty gardens.
Since we skipped breakfast, we stopped at the Orangerie Cafe . The house sparrows stood patiently waiting for a crumb or two and when I cast a single little crumb to a sole female, I immediately attracted a crowd and I simply didn't have enough crumbs to offer. They wanted to climb onto the table and eat the crumbs off my plate, but we dissuaded them.
Then we went for a walk, down to the end of the palace then off through the trees, past fields and flowers and found a pond and a creek and eventually went as far as we could go, almost to the railroad tracks. It turned out to be an excellent day for babies, starting with a Wood Duck, his preening and either wood duck babies or mallard babies.
I'd seen a red and black and white bird fly and catch onto a tree so I suspected we'd find a woodpecker. Nothing was there. I could here it's cry, peep peep peep peep. I was turning all around looking for him when Bob cried, "Grab your camera Sheri, I got him, you're going to want it." Without even knowing what I'd find, I lifted my camera and pointed in the direction he had his binoculars and it was lucky I did, the woodpecker parent landed on the tree right beside the hole baby had his head stuck out.
Most the property is open to walkers and there were many who rode their bikes into the grass or ran their normal laps then plunked down to sunbathe.
Later we came to Belvedere Palace and there bought tickets for the palace sights and saw Sophie Charlotte's collection of porcelain (part of it). I was delighted by the many fabulous pieces featuring nature--flowers, birds.
After we returned to the Palace, we took the tour. The audio guide was really interesting but tended to go on and on while we stood helplessly waiting to move on. It's a fabulous place, especially the upper floor central mirror room that overlooks the garden (maybe in my next home, hahhaha).
I found the connection between Germany and China via all those porcelains and Chinoisie furnishings interesting. The large painting showing the troops on parade at the palace with all the flag bearers was strangely reminiscent of the troops presenting before the Chinese Emperor; maybe it's just a thing that militaristic regime's do for fun.
Tired by the completion of the tour and ready to sit down, we went off for lunch at Schloss Garden restaurant.
We returned home via the U6 and ended up finding a grocery store near the hotel so we splurged on peanuts and a chocolate covered mix and I found an apple I was craving.
Finally got in touch with everyone and found I was late with my poem. This led me to work on my poetry rather fruitlessly.
Birds: Eurasian Nuthatch, Wood Duck, Mallard, Common Blackbird, Common Starling, Pied Wagtail, Great Tit, Long-tailed Tit*?, Blackcap, European Blue Tit, Great Spotted Woodpecker*, Hooded Crow, Mute Swan, Coal Tit*, Canada Goose, House Sparrow
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