Welcome to Berlin. We're outta here.

So, Carina's friend Kerstin, Martin's girlfriend, was nice enough to have us tag along to Martin's surprise birthday celebration, a weekend at a guesthouse in Cuxhaven, on the North Sea. We slept in, and got some breakfast, then they came and picked us up. Taking two cars, we found our way on to the autobahn, and made the trip in about 5 hours, with a short pitstop along the way. There we met up with some more of their friends from other parts of Germany. One came from nearby Hamburg, and 3 came from near Koln. We made pizza the first night, and played a little poker, and some trivial pursuit. They were nice enough to translate the questions so that Tina and I were at least some help. After a late night of that, I got up a little earlier than everyone, noon. Tina had been already up since 8. With no one else up, and Tina happy with her movies, I decided that the break in the rainy weather might be my only chance to be out and about, so I went for a walk on the beach.

I put my finger in the North Sea just like my mom does whenever she visits a far off body of water. I figured I had better do it now, because I might not get a chance later.

As luck would have it, the weather actually broke up quite nicely, and we all ended up with an afternoon, on the beach. We frolicked in the sand, and water. We played a little beach tennis. Mark nearly broke his finger. He's in a splint for a little while now, but none the worse for wear. In fact, now he has a valid reason for not doing the dishes.


A little later, the ladies went for a beer.

And I found where I should stay the next time I'm in Cuxhaven.

After a day at the beach, we went back to the house and had a bbq. We had lots of pasta salad and two bbqs, one for meat eaters, and one for the vegetarians. After a lovely dinner, charades became the game of choice. I opted out, and headed for a little nap before the poker game. Well, that nap ended up being until the morning. I was up to see off Andreas, who lives near Hamburg, and was cycling home. However, I had some time to kill until the others got up, sometime around noon. After some clean up, some socializing, and discussion, we headed back to Berlin. We did stop for dinner along the way, at McDonald's. It was kind of nice to see the difference between there and here, at McDonald's. Well, the burger was nicer, but more expensive. It was around 13 euro for 2 Royal Burgers, 2 potato wedge orders and two colas. That seemed like a lot for Mickey D's, but then again, I haven't gone there at all for literally years. It really seemed like a lot considering it was 18 bucks for a burger on the road. We got back late Sunday night, so we hit the hay.