Week 12 – April 13th – April 19th Udaipur, Berlin

Saturday April 13 & Sunday 14 Udaipur to Berlin

The lost weekend of transit.

We take advantage of our last morning in India to enjoy the pool and catch up on homeschooling and other correspondence. We get bumped out of our super cushy room at normal checkout time but are given an almost equally cushy room as our “wash and change” room.

We have a long trek to make it from Udaipur to Berlin. A one-hour drive to the Udaipur airport, a short flight from Udaipur to Delhi, a long layover late at night in Delhi, a flight from Delhi to Frankfurt and then a flight from Frankfurt to Berlin. As is unfortunately very common, our late-night flight from Delhi is delayed and is further lengthened as India is no longer flying over Pakistani airspace. I booked us into the Holiday in that is inside of security at the Delhi airport so we can get a bit of sleep before an early morning flight, With all of this, we leave Udaipur at 4PM on Saturday IST and arrive Berlin about 3PM, with the time change, more than 26 hours of travel.

For the Germany leg of the trip, McKenna is joining us, and I have carefully choreographed our collective flights so that she would meet us in Frankfurt, and we can fly to Berlin together. With our late flight out of Delhi she now arrives a couple hours ahead of us. McKenna and I have been texting back and forth plans and decide it is still simplest to meet at airport and go into town and to our AirBNB together. McKenna is neighbor, friend, babysitter and almost sister to Max. She started babysitting for Max when she was 14 and he was 4 and now almost a decade later, post-college, starting

Week 12 – April 13th – April 19th Udaipur, Berlin

her own path in life is part of our family.

We arrive at our AirBNB later in the afternoon. On paper it looked like a great place in a great location – the Yes Wow Museum with a wonderful and eclectic collection of original art. Perhaps this quote from Mikki’s (owner) website captures the feel of the place:

After the wall came down I decided in 1993 to move to Berlin to study ART and to explore this "newborn" city. My Art Professor inspired me to get a studio space instead of a regular apartment. He used to say: "If you don't have a studio, you can't be an Artist!"

The place is perfect for the now four of us, giving McKenna a nice private space on one end the flat and Max, Lori and I space on the other end with lots of comfortable shared space in between. It is in a bit of a new neighborhood for me, still close to Teagarden. Our apartment is on the 3rd floor, the 2nd floor is another AirBNB/studio, the first two floors are apartments converted into a mosque and cultural center and just out the front door is very active red-light district. For me it is this melding of so many things with a tremendous sense of live and let live that defines Berlin culture.

One of the charming (and annoying) features of Berlin is that everything is closed on Sunday, so no chance to get groceries for the week. Instead we find an open and very mediocre Italian restaurant and have a quick dinner and then call it an early night to give everybody a chance to recover from their flights.

Monday April 15 Berlin

For our time in Germany, we have a week in Berlin, then Saturday morning we are off to Quedlinburg in the Harz Mountains, then back to Berlin late Thursday for two nights sandwiched around a final day and then an early Saturday morning flight to the US, Tucson for us and NYC for McKenna.

We decided we would take a bit of German language instruction for our week in Berlin – Monday – Thursday we have a private class for the four of us from 8:30AM to 11:00AM at Inlingua near the Zoo. It is clearly hard to figure out with beginning speakers for such a short time – course is fun, provides a bit of structure for each of our mornings, but unfortunately for me it does show it is hard to teach an old dog new tricks. Max is

Week 12 – April 13th – April 19th Udaipur, Berlin

clearly picking up the language much faster than any of us older folks, I fear with increasing advantage relative to age. I pick up a bit of German, improving my ability to read, say a few words, hear a few things but it does increase my interest in the language.

After German we do a bit of wandering around the Tiergarten then head to KaDeWe for lunch and a bit of shopping. We have mixed our trip up staying at both hotels and rental places taking advantage of the rental places to cook our own meals. Since my first visit to Berlin in October of 2017 to begin planing for the 2018 Berlin Grand Challenge meeting I have wanted to be able to shop at the KaDeWe fancy food court for supplies for my own cooking. We spent the early afternoon as a four person assault on many of the wonderful options on the 6th floor food court – the cheese counter alone resulted in almost 20 chunks of various treats from around the world – sausages, fresh fish, veggies, salamis and more. Much like Whole Foods at home in Seattle, it is a very fun to shop at KaDeWe and only slightly more expensive to buy the raw groceries and cook for yourself than go out to a restaurant where they buy, cook, serve and clean.

For the late afternoon, Lori, Max and McKenna head off for a few of tourist adventures and I stay behind to do a bit of work and to do three conference calls – no quite on sabbatical for Monday. I do get to do these calls at a little table facing what is an extraordinary portrait of Nelson Mandela that is part of the original artwork of our Berlin

Week 12 – April 13th – April 19th Udaipur, Berlin

flat.

For Monday evening we relax at the WoW Museum, have a cheese party, cook wonderful fish and give ourselves another early evening.

Tuesday April 16 Berlin

Tuesday is a simple Berlin day for us, morning of German, visit to the Arminius Market Halle, a two hour walk across town and then an afternoon of renting bikes and riding about the Tiergarten and taking in some of the sights.

A real treat for me was the “I have a question” part of our walk. This is a game Max and

Week 12 – April 13th – April 19th Udaipur, Berlin

I have been playing since he was a small child but is now part of our homeschooling where he asks me all sorts of questions about various areas of science. As a scientist, I am now shallow, but extremely broad and can for a 12-year-old answer almost any question. Today’s “I have a question” is about laser fusion, tokamak fusion and reversed field pinch fusion devices – both basic physics and then engineering issues.

For the evening I have organized a bit of a treat that I have been looking forward to sharing. When the Grand Challenges team was in Berlin for meeting planning and partnership work last year we tried to get into Fes Turkish BBQ with little luck only getting a table on one of our last nights where we ended up meeting the owner. For this visit, I made a reservation for the four of us a couple of months in advance and also reached out to the owner – Cem – who is now an email buddy. Fes does not disappoint with everybody loving the food and atmosphere and Max discovering a few new favorite foods.

Wednesday April 17 Berlin

Our Wednesday morning begins with German and then a quick stop again at the KaDeWe which is around the corner from our school and becoming our grocery store of choice to pick up a few items and sample their oysters – a first for McKenna. The small, delicate Kumamoto oysters were a hit, but the somewhat larger variety that our server recommended as her favorite choice, not so much …

Week 12 – April 13th – April 19th Udaipur, Berlin

One of the wonderful parts about my role leading the Grand Challenges program is that I have a chance to meet interesting people doing interesting things in interesting places. As part of our working in Berlin, I met Dennis who works for Angela Merkel at the German Chancellery. It fell to Kedest and I to sort out a good deal of the fine details and choreography of Bill’s meeting with and public appearance with Angela Merkel (and WHO Director Tedros and PM Solberg of Norway). I had shared with Dennis my plans for the coming year included the trip we are now on and he offered to organize a tour of the Chancellery for my family.

The timing could not have been better as Merkel left for an early Easter Holiday and by Wednesday afternoon the Chancellery was quiet and Dennis had the rare bit of free

Week 12 – April 13th – April 19th Udaipur, Berlin

time. He generously spent some 90 minutes with us show us around the building, but more sharing his knowledge of German government and politics as part of Max’s civics home schooling program.

For the evening, McKenna has a friend in town that she is meeting and Max, Lori and I decide to do a quiet pasta dinner night and watch a Berlin spy movie – The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. Lori and Max were fast asleep by 30 minutes into the movie, apparently only about 20 minutes after me. Looks like we will have to revisit this one at a future time.

Thursday April 18 Berlin

Today was the last day of our German crash course. I am not sure we made great progress in our German fluency, but it was great to have some early morning structure to our day, it was fun to actually do a bit of schooling as a family (including McKenna) and then have the rest of the day to adventure. Who knows what the future holds, but for now, I am thinking I will spend some “free” time in the next year doing an online German course and find some time to return for a few weeks to take German in a bit more formal setting.

For this afternoon, I am again taking advantage of a contact from our Berlin meeting work, Sonya who did wonderful historical tours for various team members and guests

Week 12 – April 13th – April 19th Udaipur, Berlin

for the Grand Challenge meeting. Sonya offers to meet us at our German course and spend lunch and the afternoon with us. We start our tour at Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, the site of the 2016 Christmas market terrorist attack in Berlin. On my first visit to Berlin in late 2017 as we began our work laying the foundation for the 2018 Berlin Grand Challenges meeting, II spent quite a bit of time in this market square but did not connect the dots to this unfortunate event.

Sonya has planned a wonderful day of walking, bus and metro riding and learning about Berlin. As a guide, she combines a uniquely wonderful set of attributes that are hard to exactly pin down – but after an afternoon you feel both more knowledgeable about and have gained a bit of her deep love for the city of Berlin.

Week 12 – April 13th – April 19th Udaipur, Berlin

Germans have a very powerful way of reflecting upon a complicated history. The monuments to both things to be celebrated and historical events with lessons for today are direct, honest though in many times quite subtle. With a guide like Sonya you realize there is so much to see and learn in a city like Berlin that a quick bike ride through the park misses.

Week 12 – April 13th – April 19th Udaipur, Berlin

Sonya has arraigned a reservation at the rooftop restaurant at Reichstag – Käfer.

Week 12 – April 13th – April 19th Udaipur, Berlin

As I get up on the roof area, I realize I have been here before – 2005 – with Stefan Kaufman and his TB Biomarker team for a kickoff celebration for one of the first grants I managed for the foundation.

Week 12 – April 13th – April 19th Udaipur, Berlin

Week 12 – April 13th – April 19th Udaipur, Berlin

For the evening, McKenna and Lori are having a girl’s night out and Max and I are

Week 12 – April 13th – April 19th Udaipur, Berlin

having a boy’s night inn – steak and chicken, pasta, milk and red-wine, chocolate and a bad movie – what more could two boys possibly want from life.

Friday April 19 Berlin

Friday is Good Friday – a holiday in Germany – with almost everything being closed. One of Max’s favorite things from his summer visit to Berlin was his visit to the Grunewald with Lori while I was working and he wanted to take us all back to repeat the experience. We make an early start with a 30 minute Uber drive to the banks of the Kuhhorn Badestrand – the bank of a swimming lake and then a 2 hike back to the S Bhan and a return to Berlin by early afternoon.

Week 12 – April 13th – April 19th Udaipur, Berlin

Today is the perfect day for a visit to a beer garden and we are the perfect group to visit – a bit shorter visit than I would have liked, a bit longer than Max wanted.

Week 12 – April 13th – April 19th Udaipur, Berlin

On the way home we split up and Lori and McKenna head off in search of bikes again (without any luck given the holiday lockdown) and Max and I walk and metro home. We do stop at my favorite CurryWurst stand for a small order of CurryWurst and Fries and a long and lovely conversation on the virtues of the perfect French Fry – it is these simple times with Max that are one of the most delightful rewards of taking this much time away from work (or at least partially away).

Upon arriving home to our super trendy WoW Art Museum flat in the reddest of red-light districts of Berlin we are greeted by a big event for the mosque that occupies the bottom two floors of our building. They have taken over the courtyard for some sort of event and small food fair. I can’t help myself but line up with the faithful to buy some of the home cooked foods. Max is a bit intimidated by the whole scene, not liking his quiet safe space in Berlin to be turned into yet another bustling space of strange people, but our fellow building tenants could not be more welcoming or matter of fact in making way for us to pass through their party to our flat or for letting me queue up along with their members and purchase some treats to add to our feasts.

Friday evening is a quiet evening in our flat with wonderful fish dinner and a bit of blogging, reading and relaxing.