Gendarmenmarkt

We popped to the pastry shop/bakery almost next door to the flat in order to get a quick breakfast, before heading to one of the local supermarkets to pick up some supplies. Soon afterwards, we dropped in on DA, whose flat, where we stayed in September 2016, is literally five minutes from here, for another coffee and for me to collect the bike he had promised to lend me for the duration of our stay. I used the bike to get to the Gendarmenmarkt in the centre of Berlin (literally Stadtmitte - see extra of the Deutscher Dom), where I got my blip of the Konzerthaus and the Französischer Dom waiting for DT. I hadn't realised, until I looked them up on the internet in preparation for doing this blip that while they were once churches, they no longer are, and that they were never actually cathedrals (the Dom bit does not refer to the German for cathedral, but rather to the French for domed structure, as with the ones that Carl von Gontard embellished both buildings with...). Anyway, I had an interesting lunch with DT, and then cycled back to Neukölln for the afternoon.

In the evening we met with DA and his friends (including some people I knew already) at a local restaurant to celebrate D's birthday. Many topics of conversation flowed across the table with the red wine, including the dreaded B-topic, adoption by same sex couples, and integration. We declined an offer to go for a further drink, but headed back to the flat bringing D's birthday presents, as he had omitted to take a bag with him to the restaurant. He obviously didn't want to be seen to presume that he would return with bounty! Luckily I had my small backpack with me.

Another case of collapsing into bed.