An American in the American Sector: The Last day of Summer

Ok, so really the official last day of summer was over a month ago, but for one week in October, we had a resurgence of warmer weather. It was especially welcome after the week before has been unseasonably chilly, and we had already submitted ourselves to the winter months ahead. And by "we," I mean me.

The sun was out and the birds were chirping. We saw that from there on out, temperatures were all downhill and getting chilly. So, we figured we'd take advantage of the beautiful day.

YUM.

We started out with brunch at a neighborhood cafe where we could sit outside enjoy the warmer temps, just perfect with the light fleece blanket draped over my legs.

We then walked it of in the park which was at its height of autumn splendor. At the top, the view of the city was complete with the spectrum of leaves and the clear blue sky above. I would have felt silly if not for all the others that were also there taking it in. The stroll wouldn't have been complete without some tossing of the fall leaves in the air. Yep, I'm 5.

Panoramic of the Park (and Berlin) from the top.

Taking off from Tegel

Backtrack: for my birthday Bosse had gotten me a book of 111 things one must see/do in Berlin. One of the things that interested us both, and we were limited on time was checking out the best place to watch the planes come in and take off at the-soon-to-be-no-longer Tegel Airport (and we certainly weren't going to go come winter!) although the spot wasn't as close to the action as we had hoped, it was interesting in another way: the lookout was a on a hill straddling a neighborhood and the autobahn. Onlookers could sit on the partition between the two, watching the flights take off and the cars zoom by (many even honking their hellos).

We finished the evening by "celebrating" the last evening of the Festival of Lights. For the previous 10 days, buildings around the city had been artistically lit up. Some weren't anything spectacular. Others sites were incredible: with moving projections that completely converted them - into apartments, machines, or would tell a story. One of my favorites was the Brandenburg Gate that went from a rainbow, to a summer sky, to apartments - each window a vignette.

Now, it's been over a week of highs in the low 40s. But our wonderful last day of Summer should help to keep me warm through the winter.