History shown large at the Pergamon Museum

They do things on a big scale at Berlin museums ...

Not tonight dear, I have a headache

From the Bode Museum ...

Our hotel in Berlin

We're staying at the Art'otel in Berlin-Mitte. It is next door to the Australian Embassy where we have applied for political immunity.

Berlin

Yesterday we arrived in Berlin and met up with our friends, Claire and Wally.

We are in a hotel near the centre of the city and today we set out on a 7 hour expedition on foot to start our cultural and retail programs.

Thursday was our last day in London. We had our final meal at Jak's, an organic Italian restaurant in Knightsbridge that we really liked.

Since our last post on this blog we had seen "All my sons" - terrific production demonstrating that Arthur Milller hasn't dated (except, I understand, for a brief dalliance with Marilyn Munroe) - and "War Horse" a sensational combination of life sized puppets, of horses and other animals, and human actors dealing with strategies and tragedies of WW I.

You may recall an earlier post showed some of the cars driven by and for the clients of Harrod's. After some fairly heavy showers we observed the chauffeurs of many diligently wiping the rain drops from their employers' shining vehicles - unfortunately no photos.

One of our final visits was to the Banqueting Hall, designed by Indigo Jones for Charles I with a ceiling Pinted by Rubens ... Some years later Charles was executed on tghe balcony of this building.

Today is Monday. We've been to various exhibitions and shows. "Enron" was great and tonight we see "All my sons". We've also started our program of enhancing the budgets of various retail outlets. Bronwen told the shopkeeper of one of these that she couldn't buy too much as she only had one suit case - I added that we only had one bank balance.

This morning we voted. Bronwen was concerned that you might not know which way she would swing so the above image is provided ...

I keep overhearing snippets of conversation. Yesterday we had lunch at Peter Lewis Department Store and a very proper looking gentleman of some sixty years or so said quietly to his wife: "I'm sorry that I have been a disappointment to you." And a woman who was rejoining her husband after having been separated on the Tube yelled at him "You and your stupid Blackberry!"

Ah, wonderful London ...

This is out third day in London.

Bronwen is walking everywhere to work off the 2 kg she gained on the trip over. We have started catching up with friends, relations, art galleries and theatres - last night we saw "Sweet Charity" which was great and on Saturday we have tickets for "Enron", carefully chosen to restore our faith in the free market.

We are staying in the garden flat of an apartmentr building just down the road from Harrod's where, as you can see the shoppers are not ashamed to park their old bombs while they hunt for bargains inside.