"Well," Roderick begins. "It was interesting."
"Yes," adds Molly. "Interesting indeed."
Anna says nothing, as is her habit. Today she's wearing a pretty floral dress and is quite the lady.
"First, we went to see the Schloss," says Roderick.
"Only there was no Schloss," Molly giggles.
"What's a Schloss?" asks Natasha. Anna leans over and whispers an explanation.
"Then we went to see the Hall of the Hohenzollerns at the Berliner Dom, but it seems they never built it."
"And we never did find the Hohenzollerns," adds Molly, helpfully.
Natasha also requires an explanation of who the Hohenzollerns are, which Anna provides. Anna is less successful providing an explanation of why Natasha should care who the Hohenzollerns are, or where they are located.
"So then we went to see the Siegsallee."
Roderick tells the story of how they spent yesterday afternoon. Just finding the Siegsallee was an adventure. They hailed a taxi on the Schlossstrasse and piled into the back seat. The driver, who wore a turban, inquired where they wanted to go.
"Siegsallee, bitte." Roderick feels smug because he knows a German word, though in this case it's unnecessary as the driver learned to speak perfect English at the University of Mumbai, where he studied Civil Engineering and Gender Studies with a Minor in Bioethics.
The taxi driver looked at them blankly. Roderick pointed to a picture in the Baedeker.
The driver scowled and shook his head, so Roderick showed him another picture.
Squinting, the driver examined the picture, shook his head and returned the book to Roderick. Roderick tried one more time:
This time, the driver pointed to the Victory Column in the background. "Chick on a stick!" he exclaimed, and accelerated west on Unter Den Linden.
Molly whispered: "What's chickonastick?"
"German for 'spoils of war', I think" said Roderick.
The taxi driver dropped them on Strasse Des 17 Juni just west of the Victory Column. Roderick scanned the area in vain, looking for the statuary shown in the pictures.
Molly shrugged. "I guess that was fake, too."
Roderick was exasperated. "Berlin is stupid. Nothing's what the travel guide says."
Anna tried to be helpful. "Perhaps a more up-to-date travel guide would help...?"
Next, they went to see the Kaiser Wilhelm Church, shown here:
But all they could find were some ruins and ugly new buildings.
"Okay" said Roderick. "One more sight to see before dinner. Let's go to see the grandest train station in Berlin, the Anhalter Bahnhof. Here's a picture." He held up the Baedeker.
About thirty minutes later, as they gazed at the broken facade, Molly sighed. "I guess nobody rides the train anymore."
Natasha pretends to be interested in this detail as she listens, but she's thinking about Eduardo. She has an itch and needs to be serviced.
