Copenhagen and back…

Tuesday turned out to be a good day despite the wind and the rain on Monday night. Sunny, cool and windy. I am writing this on the train on the way back to Berlin…Wednesday morning.

I decided I needed to cover a lot of ground to see a wide area….Copenhagen is a good town to walk about in the downtown area but I wanted to see more and my knee has been bothering me.  I couldn’t for the life of me, find a map or a website that was user friendly to get me to the Little Mermaid on public transport…..so I bought 24 hour ticket for the Hop on Hop off bus and boat….for 210 Danish Kroner….about $30 and it was well worth it. You were given earphones because the tour has an audio guide, you could plug into an outlet near your seat on any of the green buses or green boats and choose your language.  It was a good decision.

So I made may first hop off at the Rosenborg castle….(which also happened to be the site of 3 caches, wouldn’t you know!) I didn’t go on a tour of the castle but walked in the garden for a while which is free.  There were loads of families and end of year field trips enjoying the day in large grassy areas,  picnicing and playing.   I even saw the changing of the guards.

At the first cache I met a nice young family from Florida that is just starting out in caching. The cache took me to a spot where there was a cannonball protruding from the castle wall about 10 feet up…..with a sign saying 1807.….I would never have seen that had I just been walking by. Another cache, an earth cache took me outside the Geologic Museum of Copenhagen where  there is a huge meteorite on display….again something that is not on the normal tourist agenda.

  Hop back on the green bus to see the Little Mermaid (she lost her head at least once!) it is closer to shore than I thought and lots of people photographing her. The day was beautiful and this was a good place to hop on the boat (thanks Lori for the suggestion).  I was only going to stay on it for a short time but decided I liked this mode of travel that I stayed on for the full boat tour ending back at the Mermaid. The view from the water is so different, going up and down the canals with beautiful old building on either side, very low bridges…..the Black Diamond (the Royal Library), the Copenhagen Opera House, the shopping center, were among the many new buildings with amazing architecture, oh and a sand castle competition on a barge.



Copenhagen from the water

The Black Diamond



The Shopping Mall




Low Bridges



The Sandcastles

Then back on the bus to complete the tour….I got on the first stop about 10:30am and got off at just after 5:00pm,  a very good day

I did a last tour of the pedestrian street on foot, getting a few small souvenirs and another cache. I’m not doing a lot of shopping because I don’t have room in my suitcase or pack for anything else.

I had a nice meal at a little restaurant and headed back to the hotel….I needed to get up bright an early for the 7:45 train.

I was out of hotel by 6:15 and took only 20 minutes to walk to the station.  Time to have breakfast and buy a sandwich for lunch on the train.  Oh and observing young people in white hats that had been popping up all yesterday....it seems it was graduation day for the grade 12 students....all grads wear a white danish style sailor hat, the band at the bottom identifying their school.  There were a few still milling around in the station not looking too healthy and still dressed in grad attire.

The train is whizzing along at speeds up to 200km/hr. back to Berlin , we should be there by 2:30. If the line isn’t too long or I attempt using the imposing red ticket machines, I will get my train ticket to Leipzig for Friday morning…..on my way to a geocaching event on the 29^th and 30^th.

Then head back to the house for laundry and repacking!

PS going through Hamburg …it’s raining there again…kind of glad I didn’t get that first home exchange to Hamburg!



  

And a photo for Cynthia and Cesar!
The middle of the main square in Copenhagen or Lima?


 

To Sweden and back

It was not raining this morning but I had already decided that today I was going to take a little side trip to Malmo Sweden…for business!

So off I set for the train station….got my first return ticket with the machine….with a guide helping in the background. The train (and cars) go over the  Øresund bridge, about 8kms….then a tunnel, connecting Denmark to Sweden. The trouble is when you are on the train you don’t get the view of the bridge or the strait as you would if you are in a car or a bus….oh well the next time!

I spent a few hours wandering the streets around the train stations finding a couple of caches and taking some pictures….then the wind came up and some threatening clouds so I headed back to the train.



Guess what I'm doing!



Malmo



I was back in Copenhagen by about 3 and the weather was not too bad. So I started exploring the city…..outside Trivoli Gardens, the 2^nd oldest amusment park opened in 1843, the statue of Hans Christian Andersen, Strøget - Pedestrian Street, the longest pedestrian street in the world (?). The streets are narrow with many beautiful buildings and small plazas every few streets.

HCA

Stroget Street

Pay 20K for the bike,,,like a shopping cart,
drivie it, drop it off in another location,
get your money back!

Then the skies open….up until now the sun was shining, there was a wind….but all of a sudden it started to pour….people took refuge to wait it out. I was getting hungry and my feet were getting tired so I got some take out from a little shop on the pedestrian steet (Chinese food) and a couple of pastries for breakfast and headed for the hotel….a little over a kilometer away. By the time I got to H.C. Andersens Boulevard the rain

had stopped but the wind was still blowing.

I got back to the hotel ate my dinner and I was intending to explore this neighbourhood this evening….but I looked out again and it was pouring again….Vancouver weather, so now I’m planning what I’m going to do tomorrow….it’s supposed to good weather…..

PS as I'm ready to send publish this, the wind picked up and the rain came down heavier....

…..To Denmark

Well I’m on the train again….this time to Copenhagen….land of Hans Christian Anderson , spinner of fairy tales….

If you think the last train was fancy, this one is even fancier….first there are actually 5 cars on this train…until Hamburg where it looks like we drop 3 of the cars. We get complimentary drinks and a snack on this one. I am seeing speeds up to 190kms

Had elecrical plugs no internet

some had screens

I kind of like this way of travelling, by train, it forces me to relax and get things done, or not and just look out the window.


The country side has been farm land….wheat, cattle, horses….we left right on time 11:25 and are now arriving in Hamburg at 1:20.….Raining!!!
　
Then we headed north….countryside a bit more treed
Well I decided to go and get my free coffee and snack….a little snack bar in the middle of first class and second class…no one was behind the counter but a few people were waiting with me…..then a lady came from 2^nd class area with a tray and money…she headed to the door to go into the concession area….either she didn’t have the right key or the door was blocked, she came back to the the opening (see picture) promptly pushed me a little back, wedged her feet in the wall climbed the wall and onto the counter (about 1.5m tall) and over the counter and into the concession…knocking down something!! Quite a sight!
　

The wall & counter

The lady!

Then we approached Puttgarden, a town on  the tip of a peninsula. Here  our train drove on to a ferry to  go across the little strait into Denmark. It’s too bad that it’s so rainy….it would have been a pretty crossing….we were are in the Baltic sea. But trains on ferries…..

The ferry……very different….it is smaller than our ferries…..but has 5.…yes 5 restaurants, a large duty free shop (apparently Demark has high taxes on things especially alcohol and candy), a money exchange booth, slot machines (only 3). There are very few areas,  to just sit and relax, except outside and it’s raining and blowing…..they want you to buy something! It was only a 45 minute crossing and boy did they sell, I‘d say 95% of the people had a meal. We landed in Rodby, Denmark about 150 kms from Copenhagen.

I'm hoping the weather for the trip back to Berlin is better than today's so I can get some good pictures.



Written at the hotel

About 100kms from our destination the train stopped….apparently a train on the track ahead of us was blocking the track we were supposed to be on , was having major mechanical difficulties…we sat there for about ¾ hr. I chatted to the Danish family next to me and asked a few questions about my next destination.

Arrived in the station, an old station that has been upgraded I will take pictures later….because now it was past 7 when we arrived and I wanted to get to my hotel….It is walkable (about 1km from the station), although it is farther than I thought, from the downtown section……but it was pouring with rain and I grabbed the first cab in line…I will look in to public transit when I get settled.

The hotel is the Cabinn Scandinavia, one of a chain…..it is kind of like a cabin in a ship….very small, meant for up to 3 people (Hmmmm), the bathroom is the size of a shower and it IS the shower, like a bathroom in a trailer (Carol, it is about the size of the Brisbane hotel BUT this has a nice big window that you can see out of and the décor colours are white and turquoise)!

That's a bunk bed in the top right corner...the ladder is in the closet

It is still raining and it is supposed to be like this tomorrow and lightening up on Tues and Wednesday….Hmmmm what will I do tomorrow……
PS I did find a cache that was around the corner from my hotel!

Friday and Saturday

Friday I decided to go back to the Hauptbahnhof station to get my tickets to Copenhagen for Sunday and return on Wednesday…..Again a line up, but because the Eurail is first class for over 26 year olds I got to go in a shorter line (am I sounding like a broken record?), only 5 people instead of 25 people. It all went smoothly. By the way all I am paying for for these tickets is to reserve a seat 4 Euros per trip….the rest is on the Eurail pass. I’ll let you know in the end how that works out.

Then out to find a cache…but someone was sitting on it…so I will try that one another day. Then to the money exchange place to get some Danish Kroner (100DK=about $17 or 13 Euros) I don’t know how expensive it is in Denmark but it was sure hard to find a hotel and what I found was more expensive than what I usually pay and looks like it is a lot simpler. We will see….

Then I walked south and found a cache was call 'Fuehrerbunker'….here is the English description …..
Short, fast, simple cache in the center of Berlin.
It´s not the search itself that counts this time - it´s the history of the place.
In the area the cache is hidden, you can see just a harmless parking- place and a playground.
More than 60 years ago, exactly at this point the so- called "Fuehrerbunker" was located. Adolf Hitler´s last Bunker in which he lived the last days of World War II and in which he also finally shot himself.

The spot of the cache-location is merely the spot, where Hitler and Goebbels plus their two wives
have been burnt after their suicide. The Bunker itself is almost vanished, just some fragments remained some feet under the ground. Many of it was blown up by the old GDR-Government of the former East Berlin.

If you are interested in this topic, refer to the german movie "Downfall" (Oscar nominated
in 2005) or get some google-infos, there should be much to find.

This place is full of history and the caches take me to them….there was a sign on the other side of the street that told the story….but usually people would just pass by this place and not notice it..
The next cache I tried to find when I was with C & C but someone was sitting there….this time I came in to the little corner of the Tiergarten….and a family with a little girl followed me in….they were caching too….the little girl was, she was 2 or 3 years old….the family had already found it and they wanted to have her find it too….she put her mark (a drawing of a sun/cat?) under mine. I had a nice conversation with them.

Part of circle of stones







for a June21 celebration
I missed it!



 
 



I haven’t gone into the Tiergarten too much because when we were in this area last week a lot of the trails were closed because the main boulevard is part of the “fan park” area for soccer. But today I walked through….it is like our Stanley Park….Central Park, a busy place with lots of people riding bikes, walking, jogging, picnicking, playing, lazing around…maybe waiting for the evening’s festivities….Germany playing Greece, I think it‘s going to be one crazy place tonight. I tried for another cache….but again someone was sitting on it!!!

Segway tours

Travelling bar

  



They're back!





Headed back to the house to have some dinner and watch the game…Germany 4,Greece 2.…after every German goal fireworks went off around here.  I put together an itinerary for the next couple of weeks to send to Sheryl and booked one of the hotels we will stay in on the way to Paris……it looks like a very busy time!

Hermsdorf library





Friday night bookmobile







Curt's Street

Friedrichshain

Saturday I got a slow start on the day, I had decided to head over to the area that Curt lived when he was here from September 2007 to end of April of 2008, Friedrichshain, in the far eastern part of Berlin. The area is more of an area of apartments…families, young people….near a large park Volkspark Friedrichshain…seems like a busy place…a library, stores, restaurants, bakeries…..I wandered around for a while (found a cache) but then threatening rain clouds and a wind picked up so I cut my walk short.  I then hopped the Ubahn back to Alexanderplatza (found another cache as drops of rain fell). Then back on the U8 then S1 back to Hermsdorf…arrived a bit before 4:00 picked up a little dessert and a bun to build a sandwich for the train tomorrow. All the shops around here were closed down already.

Came home to an email from Curt…..now packing and getting ready for my next adventure tomorrow.







While You were Sleeping

I’m writing this on my way back to Berlin…..last night after I posted the rain came down on my skylight  window….thunder and lightning went on for about an hour. This morning it was dry and but very warm and humid again.

I had breakfast and checked out of the hotel by 9 so I could wander up to the train station, looking for a couple of caches along the way. My train left at 10:30 and I was there before 10 waiting for them to post the platform we were leaving from.

I wish I had stayed in Prague another day….but when I first booked this I was a little worried by all the warnings from the travel books about pick pockets and scams……I kept my things close and the only incident that I was suspicious about was when I was looking for a cache and a fellow thought I was wanting to go to the bank to change money (which was closed) and said that the bank was bad and gave bad deals….the “Rick Steves” warning about money changing scams clicked in and I walked away.

But Prague is a very beautiful city….I have never seen anything like this before…..the old buildings, the winding maze of streets….the large decorative churches…..very beautiful.

So now I am on my way back to Berlin….where I will freshen up and get ready for the next adventure.

By the way I forgot to wish everyone Happy First Day of Summer (or Winter if you are reading this from the southern part of the world)

On tour in Prague

So I decided to do a walking tour…..6 hours of walking, tram ride, river cruise and includes lunch. I had picked one ` last night but this morning changed my mind and went with the same kind of tour but was about $10 cheaper. $50 instead of $60

When you get to the Old Town Square where you are to meet….there is no reservations, just show up and look for the right coloured umbrella….there are a lot of tours….the one I was looking for was blue and yellow. There are a lot of “free tours” but I have learned in Berlin that these are not really free….the tour guide lives on tips that the client does or does not give the guide…..the guide though must pay a certain amount per person on the tour to the company that does the advertising for them. For instance the guides in Berlin must give the company 3Euros per person….so if you don’t give them a tip they have to pay out of their own pocket. It is the same in Prague….but the people giving these free tours are people that have landed in Prague a couple of months ago and now are experts about Prague!

The reason I chose the company I did was that the brochure was laid out well and was written in good English, so I figured the guides would be proficient in English. Simply the Best Tour of Prague

The Charles Bridge

Little Quarter Street

                                                          

At first I was the only one for this tour, but a few minutes later a couple from New Zealand came along. Our tour guide was Pavel, who we later found out was the owner of the company. He was a well informed well read fellow who told great stories about the buildings, the people and the history as we bustled along after him. We started at 10:30 walked the whole old town area and the Jewish quarter weaving in and out of the maze of streets……then lunch at a very nice little restaurant near my hotel and then off again over the Charles Bridge which I went over last night, hopped on a tram to go up to the Castle, toured the out side of the castle and the Church….then walked down the hill, through the amazing streets of the Little Quarter, back over the bridge….all by 4:30.…where he dropped us off for a River cruise which took us on a little water tour for the next 50 minutes. . So really the tour was 7 hours.

The tour was great lots of stories and lots of sites, just right for a short stay in the city, when you don’t know where to go and what is the most interesting sites. I would recommend this tour company to anyone coming to Prague.  The only draw back today was the weather, which no one can control….it was way too hot and muggy for me…..as soon as I got back to the hotel I hopped in the shower before I went out again to buy a few souvenirs .

Back at the hotel and collapsed….a lot of walking on cobblestones in the last couple of weeks. \Off to the train back to Berlin tomorrow. By the way the breakfast that comes this the room isn’t bad ,

Across the street from the Old Prague Hotel

The first train adventure

So I got up this morning at 7 and by 8 I was booked for a “business” trip to Salt Lake City and surrounding areas in September, ….(thanks Lori)!   I love retired life!

As I write this first part I am on the train to Prague….got to the station about an hour ahead of train departure (you’re on your own there…you can get there 10 minutes before departure if you want…..no security checks no gates to go through….no one checking. But I like to scope things out so I’m there early, and went to get some coffee at the McDonalds near the gate that I was leaving from….met 2 young girls from New York state (one of whom had been to Vancouver ) who had just finished university and were on a month long European adventure, also going to Prague.

My Eurail pass is a 15 trip over 2 month Flex pass and since I am over 26, I go first class…get to go into special short lines at the ticket centre and get to sit in plush cars. There is no option for travelling second class if you are over 26 and using Eurail passes.. If you are under 26 then you go second class. I’m going to keep a record of the both the first and second class pay as you go ticket prices to see if I will get my moneys worth out of my $1100 Global Flex pass.

The train left right on time and now we are travelling south through the German countryside…….

From the flat farmland the landscape turned into rolling hills and then small mountains. We travelled along the Elba River….the Geman couple across from me told me they rowed on that river. I also saw one of those Viking tour boats along here too. Villages and castles passed by…..it was beautiful everything green and lush and the river looks like it is very high.

Then Prague… we arrived right on time about 3:20...the weather is very warm, muggy even. I not only loaded the geocaches into my GPS, but Bookings.com .where I have been booking my hotels from, actually has the coordinates of the hotels on their site. Yeah!….so off I went in search of the Old Prague Hotel….The streets are teaming with people….tourists…it‘s like being at the PNE…..I must have heard 5 or 6 different languages as I passed by, The buildings are so old and architecturally beautiful……the streets are like mazes….I just kept following the GPS.


The Old Prague Hotel is a cute little hotel between two convince stores and across from an exotic dancer place (I will add a picture tomorrow, too lazy to go down now)…hope there isn’t too much partying from there tonight!!! The lift/elevator is the size of a small shower…..I am on the 4^th floor so I will use anything….it works but I don’t know how people with more luggage than my one backpack manages it….really, a metre by a metre if that. But the room is wonderful, clean and comfy. I’m happy with my choice.

Then I walked…from about 4:00 to 8:30 I wandered the maze of streets, taking pictures, window shopping and of course finding caches (I found 4)…the caching taking me to wonderful little surprises.

Istopped for a Polish/Czech hot dog and pop and a small basket of berries for dessert from the market around the corner.. Now I’m vegging out and relaxing and deciding what I’m going to do tomorrow…..

Adventures in the Train Station

Well got a little lazy again today…didn’t leave home until about 11 and it was already very warm

I had a number of things to get done today….the first being getting to Hauptbahnhof Station to get my Eurail pass activated and reserve train tickets to Prague and back. It is a beautiful building…..but intimidating when everyone is rushing about and seems to know where they are going! I found the Travel Centre one floor down from where I arrived on the S-bahn ….I don’t know if I explained this or not but Berlin has 2 systems the S-bahn and the U-Bahn ….I haven’t figured out what the difference is, I thought U for underground, but both go underground and they both go on the surface, and Cam took yet another system (same tickets) the RE and RB trains to the airport(I think they are express)…..it is a complex web of trains…..

Val just sent me this so I'm adding the link about the tain system  U.Bahn.And.S.Bahn  Thanks Val.


Then there are other trains that go to other cities the DB …Deutsche Bahn…..this is what I am going on tomorrow morning. My train leaves at 10:45 and I get there at about 3:30 in the afternoon.

Well after I managed all that, I looked around the station…very large…lots of stores, restaurants, snack bars…and trains and tracks then stopped to have an ice tea.

Next I went off in search of a specific  bookstore…..

　

Then on to the Zoo….not to go in but to catch #100 bus that I have been reading about in the tour books….a public double decker bus that goes from the Zoo to Alexanderplatz …it stops at all the major tourist sites . Some of the tour books give a written tour of each of the stops.
I went at far as Freidrichstrasse because I had seen a currency exchange office there and the Czech Republic doesn’t use Euros….they use Koruna….100Ckz is about 4 Euros or 5 Canadian Dollars.

Then I wandered into some of the shops….hmmmm the shoes here look really comfy and I’m thinking there might be a new pair of shoes in my bag before I leave.

Finally got back to Hermsdorf before all the shops closed for the day ….picked up a few groceries, had dinner, packed my backpack for my little trip, got my GPS ready for caching in the Czech Republic (another country!) and I’m ready for sleep

A neighbour

Saturday and Sunday

Saturday we woke up to rain…..We had planned on doing very little, except for making use of Cam to drive me to stock up on groceries before they leave early on Sunday morning. So we spent the day lazing, doing laundry, going grocery shopping and Cam and Cassidy figuring out where their Paris hotel (right near the Sorbonne and la Jardin du Luxembourg ) and how to get there from the Orly airport.

We had a nice dinner here of pasta and schnitzel….and they tried to get to bed…because 4:30 am comes early to catch the 5:00am train to the Berlin airport for their 7:30 flight……Cam drove Cassidy and the luggage to the station, brought the car back and the jogged to the train station…..I took the keys from him then went back to bed!!!! It looked like a nice day.

I had a great time with them this week…they are easy to travel/tour with….I’m glad that they were here at the beginning of this adventure, to share my introduction to Europe and Berlin with me and to see Berlin. In the next couple of weeks, before Sheryl gets here, I’m going to make a few little trips using my Eurail pass.

Waiting for the train


Cam emailed at about 11 to say they had arrived and were headed towards their hotel!

I woke up at about 9 and lazed around all morning.

This afternoon I went for a walk (in search of a couple of caches) This is a very pleasant neighbourhood….single family dwellings, duplexes, and small apartments. Both the narrow streets and the sidewalks are paved with cobblestones….(I’m really watching my step….you know me tripping over every twig), and lined with lots of trees….I think they are Linden tree because I keep smelling the fragerant flowers every time I leave the house.. The yards are small but very green with lots of flowers and plants.
I walked down to a nature area to find the first cache…..a great board walk with lots of cyclists and walkers….didn’t find that one but continued to the next one which I found then circled back to Hermsdorf….most things are closed on Sundays but a little bakery/cafe was open for a strawberry cake and some juice. I picked up some local strawberries from a little stand on my way back home….from a young man who was from here but had just come back from spending a year in New Zealand.

Forgot my camera so I’m going back out for a few minutes to get some pictures to add to this entry…because I don’t think I’ll be staying up too late tonight! There is another game on tonight so the flags are flying, the TVs are going out beside the dinners being set up in the yards…..they are playing Denmark tonight.

The street I'm on

Cobblestones




Ready for the game

 

Street Art Tour


Trish, our guide



Today  (Thursday) we explored a different side of Berlin….the street art/graffiti and the backstreets….we took the Real Berlin Experience run by the Alternative Berlin tour company  …..We had a really knowledgeable, passionate guide, Trish, who kept us entertained with stories and information about the “alternative & underground” neighbourhoods and art scene in in Mitte and Kruezeberg….it was actually a lot of the places that Curtis told us to visit and would have taken us to if he had been with us. The Tacheles, a large building, that houses studios with many artist, was one of the places that she took us and a place Curt wanted us to visit. The house has been threatened with eviction for the last few years. We all made purchases and hope to go back.

We stopped for lunch near by at DaDa Falafel for lunch….great food but we seemed to have lost one of our tour group…she just never came back.! Then we got on the U train and headed to the Kreuzberg area……a Turkish area of Berlin. Trish gave us a little history of the area and then we walked to park where there was squat houses or communes, that have been around since the wall came down in 1989 and  Kunstraum Kreuzberg / Bethany a beautiful old building that houses a exibit area for local artists.  

Trish showed us a tree house that had been build right near where the wall used to stand.....during the Cold War a man made it out of scrape wood that he found and was inspected every few months as they suspected him of subversive activities.  He has made a great community garden around the house and when the wall came down the mayor gave the man the land that the tree house was standing and the gardens.   Trish  left us off right down the street from the East Side Gallery where we visited the other day…..and it was right in fron of a beach bar, YAMM ….we stopped here for a much needed rest and some beverages. 　

The tour started at 12:00 and ended near 5.…and our next stop was at the Reichstag where were had an appointment at 8:00.…so we wandered towards the Brandenburg gate area where we found a nice restaurant on the river for dinner and were at the Reichstag about 7:45. It was a pleasantly warm clear evening.

The Reichstag is seat of the German government…..on the top of the old building they have built a beautiful glass dome, where the public can walk up on ramps that circle to the top. The views were beautiful and we were wishing that we had made the appointment a little later so we could stay up til dark……the attraction stays open until midnight (last appointment at 11:00!) But all of a sudden there was a large…a very large group of high school age kids arriving at the top just after we got seated and were relaxing, enjoying the views. We decided to come down and head for home. !

We arrived home, got the washing machine going and then exhaused,collapsed. Another full day.
　
Friday Wandering and Geocaching

Friday we walked into Hermsdorf for coffee and breakfast….Lots of kids on field trips this morning….two classes arrived at the ice cream store that adjoins the restaurant, at 10:30am!!!

Then back to the house to regroup and get to the train station for a day of wandering the streets that we visited yesterday on our tour. Going in and out of the stores….I found a Christmas store and bought a wonderful decoration for my tree. We stopped late in the afternoon for a great Mexican lunch…..then more walking and wandering into wonderful little  courtyards with stores, homes and gardens, and finding geocaches…we found 5 (didn’t find 3).…it’s hard to find the caches when you can’t read the German cache page and hint! Cam and Cassidy were really good about looking….they couldn’t figure out why I gave up so quickly on some…I just didn’t want to bore them….but it looks like they were enjoying….so on we went and found 5 caches....

We walked until after 9, going past places we visited earlier in the week, getting home about 10:00pm then putting the frozen pizzas for a late dinner.  Very very tired!