Berlin

We've been doing lots of cooking and baking today. I started by making the stuffing and cranberry sauce for tomorrow's turkey, both based on recipes from Gary Rhodes. When I was finished, I passed the baton to Birgit and Liam who baked Bratapfelkuchen.

In between we've been decorating the Christmas tree and listening to Jethro Tull's "The Christmas Album".

The Christmas spirit is rising! Merry Christmas!

buntklicker.de: "Die Berliner sind mal wieder von der schnellen Truppe: Berlin ist das erste Bundesland, in dem ab heute der Ladenschluß an Werktagen vollständig aufgehoben ist."

Great to see Berlin leading on opening up the archaic German shop opening laws. Hopefully the next step will be movement on Sunday opening.

I travelled back home on Friday night with easyJet from Luton to Berlin Schoenefeld. New restrictions on hand luggage were in force due to the increased security level. I came prepared with just my ID, glasses and money.

Checkin took a lot longer than normal although this seemed to be due to the inexperience of the additional staff that easyJet had brought in rather than anything intrinsic about the new regulations.

The security staff were very efficient and seemed to be coping well with the increased workload (everyone had to remove their shoes and be hand searched).

In departures there were large signs stating that all items purchased in Departures could be taken onboard aircraft. This could include electronic items from Dixons, cosmetics, toiletries and razor blades from Boots etc. If electronic devices brought through security present a risk as potential detonators, surely this is also true of items purchased in Departures? Are we seeing the intent of the initial regulations diluted by the lobbying of the retail outlets in Departures?

We watched the Germany Sweden match on Saturday at a public viewing area in Berlin. Fantastic atmosphere and Germany deserved their 2:0 win. Afterwards, it seemed like the whole of Berlin came out on the streets to celebrate!

Not content with seeing only three quarters of Pink Floyd playing together in London the week before, we went to see Roger Waters and band play in Berlin! (actually, the Gilmour concert was a last minute thing but I applied for Waters tickets months ago).

The first half of the show included songs from Pink Floyd (highlights included Have a Cigar and Sheep) and a little from Roger's solo repertoire

The second half of the show included the Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety. This was an excellent performance and the band seemed to really enjoy playing it.

The contrast with David Gilmour's concert was interesting but ultimately both were very enjoyable. Roger's performance was more polished and the sound more perfect than David's but contained less emotion, and was therefore for me less musical. There were exceptions though - the main one being the performance of DSOM which was very musical.

Saturday was Liam's first day of school. On arriving at the school gates, we were surrounded by representatives from two political parties (SPD and CDU). The goodies from the SPD (Social Democrats) were definitely more imaginative than those from the CDU (Conservatives). Starting promptly at 09:00, the school director made a speech and then introduced the first of four presentations by class 3 children.

After the presentations, the children's names were called out and they had to go on the stage with their teacher. They then marched off to their classrooms for half an hour while the school director spoke to the parents.

Today, after picking Liam up from his kindergarten, we spent a couple of hours at the Britzer Garten. We took the sledge and had great fun going down an enourmous hill. Plenty of snow still.

Liam and I feel off - a few bumps and no doubt a bruíse or two tomorrow but nothing serious.

We're planning to go tomorrow as well - photos and maybe some video clips then.