Happy birthday, Karl

Hey, a day late, but what's that between friends?

Mr A was feeling really ropey when we woke up this morning. A cold that has been threatening had set in overnight. So I left him in bed, and returned with J and B to the same place we had breakfast yesterday. Sunny again - and yet again we could sit outside. We've been overwhelmingly lucky with the weather this weekend.

I got a text announcing that his Alf-ship had arisen, and was now ready to sally forth, so we returned to the hotel, collected him, and checked out, before going just along the road to Rubens Coffee Lounge, where Mr A was tempted by the cakes. Well, we all were, but having had breakfast, J, B and I shared one between us.

Onwards to Platz der Luftbrücke to get the U Bahn to Friedrichstraße, where we wandered further along the Spree, past a flea market, various (good) buskers, over the river, and past this graffiti on our way to lunch in the Hackesche Höfe, which was pronounced both excellent and cool.

After that, we split up, and we headed out to Tegel to get our flight back, and J and B headed to the Hauptbahnhof for their train. They may still be en route back to the Ruhrgebiet. Our flight was on time, and only marred by an excessively chatty Finn who wanted to talk about Scotland. Bus back here, only to find that our usual wifi network is "broken", or not functioning. It's been rubbish ever since we shifted wifi providers at the beginning of the year. Luckily I've been able to get my phone onto eduroam and tether my laptop to my phone. As Mr A likes to say (animal lovers look away), there's more than one way to skin a cat.

It was cool to introduce J and B to Berlin, and definitely a good finale to their year in Germany. They return to Chicago on Thursday.