From Europe to Africa in America - A Sisters' Expedition

[3prettyprincesses]

Welcome back! I think you did not miss too much while you were away! I think you must have been at WDW just around the same time frame as Katharina and I last year. I hope the weather was kinder to you than it was to us then!

You know, I think I would even enjoy sitting there, enjoying the atmosphere and just have a pot of tea! I don't think you have to order food. And wouldn't they be able to give you some strawberries? And the brownie Katharina had definitely was one of those prepackaged ones you can buy which are free from all kind of allergens, I think they are glutenfree as well? I would say if you go for the atmosphere, it can work out. Just bring some time, they might get confused wether eggs contain gluten!

BTW, I checked out your dining review, but forgot to subscribe, will return shortly to do that!

I think the taxi was actually taking the correct way, the busses go around in a strange way upon leaving Epcot as well. Youor experience sounds rather horrible!

I think leisurely meals are very much a European thing. Here, when you go to a restaurant, you have the table for the night if you want to. Courses are much more spaced out and once you finish eating, you just stay at your table, have another glass of wine or beer or a coffee and just enjoy the company of your table mates.

Thanks Magdalene. We were there from Jan. 30th through Feb. 7th. So very close to your exact time last year! Luckily we had great weather, only 1 day with sprinkles but not too bad overall!

I love your idea about the Grand Floridian tea room. Just a pot of tea with one of those gluten free brownies or strawberries with cream sounds perfect. I really do want to try it out and now you've given me hope! Oh boy, can you imagine if they came out to ask me if dairy has any gluten in it??

Yes, I'm doing a gluten free dining review so that others can hopefully benefit from it. When I was planning out this past trip, I was a nervous wreck about eating out but other dissers had posted their GF reviews and it helped so much!

I'm sure our taxi driver very conveniently forgot how to get to Animal Kingdom.

Oooh, your European meals sound perfect to me then! I dislike being rushed out of a restaurant, don't you? I think a good meal is definitely something to be enjoyed among family and friends, maybe I need to head over to Europe then so I can take my time eating and relaxing!

 

[All7OfUs]

wow! that is amazing! I love how they rebuilt it to be a close replica of the original.

That looked like a super huge load of food! but with the price of gold these days, I might have been tempted to keep it in a napkin and sell it later.

Glad you didn't get caught taking the pic. I can imagine the headline now:

Nuremberg judge on trial for sneaking photos of dignitary's hangout- charged with espionage.

We use the word etagere as well, but more for a stacked or layered set of shelves with varying depths of the shelves.

Lovely update! Perfect to go with the GF Tea Post!!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Very interesting update! The tea sounded lovely and I enjoyed the history lesson.

 

[marvali]

Thanks for the motivation for my 5k! I will not attempt to get a sub-21 time however!

And I thought you were competitive........

Tea was a lovely experience, and there actually is a gentlemen's version for it as well!

Maybe Tim would try that one. He already lost all of his Man Cred!!!

And I think the green drops must be pureed Kiwifruit. Nothing too mysterious.

I just found it odd because it didn't appear anywhere else on the plate.


Nice tea in Berlin, and I enjoyed the history lesson as usual!

 

[Poolrat]

Thanks for the champagne tea visit. I love all your pictures of Germany and the history of it all. Gives me a little insight into my own family's history.

 

[glennbo123]

Nice little side tour Magdalene. Thanks for sharing it!

 

[Flossbolna]

Thanks Magdalene. We were there from Jan. 30th through Feb. 7th. So very close to your exact time last year! Luckily we had great weather, only 1 day with sprinkles but not too bad overall!

I love your idea about the Grand Floridian tea room. Just a pot of tea with one of those gluten free brownies or strawberries with cream sounds perfect. I really do want to try it out and now you've given me hope! Oh boy, can you imagine if they came out to ask me if dairy has any gluten in it??

Yes, I'm doing a gluten free dining review so that others can hopefully benefit from it. When I was planning out this past trip, I was a nervous wreck about eating out but other dissers had posted their GF reviews and it helped so much!

I'm sure our taxi driver very conveniently forgot how to get to Animal Kingdom.

Oooh, your European meals sound perfect to me then! I dislike being rushed out of a restaurant, don't you? I think a good meal is definitely something to be enjoyed among family and friends, maybe I need to head over to Europe then so I can take my time eating and relaxing!

I am glad that I could encourage you to consider the GF tea room! One thing I really enjoyed last time was that it was so easy for Katharina to get suitable food. She is lucky that it is only an intolerance, not an allergy, so cross-contamination isn't an issue. But it still was great to be at a place where people were in general willing to help her. It sounds like you had a similar experience at quite a few places as well.

And you certainly should come to Europe for the leisurely meals! But there are a few other interesting things to experience here as well!

wow! that is amazing! I love how they rebuilt it to be a close replica of the original.

That looked like a super huge load of food! but with the price of gold these days, I might have been tempted to keep it in a napkin and sell it later.

Glad you didn't get caught taking the pic. I can imagine the headline now:

Nuremberg judge on trial for sneaking photos of dignitary's hangout- charged with espionage.

We use the word etagere as well, but more for a stacked or layered set of shelves with varying depths of the shelves.

Lovely update! Perfect to go with the GF Tea Post!!

I just realized that the pictures make the food look huge!! It was actually all really tiny sandwiches and cakes. Only the scones were rather large. Still, it was quite a lot of food! But I don't think the tiny gold leaf would have a great market value.

Well, I made it out of there without being prosecuted for my picture taking... And we did not see any celebrities while we were there. Actually, Berlin is a pretty good place to see famous people. Especially right now as the Berlinale, a cinema festival, is going on. Last year one of my colleagues went to a bar when Leonardo di Caprio was just leaving it...

 

[Flossbolna]

Very interesting update! The tea sounded lovely and I enjoyed the history lesson.

Thanks! The tea was a great experience!

And I thought you were competitive........
Maybe Tim would try that one. He already lost all of his Man Cred!!!
I just found it odd because it didn't appear anywhere else on the plate.
Nice tea in Berlin, and I enjoyed the history lesson as usual!

Me - comeptitive??? Where did you get this idea from???

I guess, I just know to pick my goals wisely!

Yes, I thought that the bit of history would be nice for the male readers who don't like girly things like tea - even though I think that the lobby of the Hotel Adlon looks much less girly than the GF!

Thanks for the champagne tea visit. I love all your pictures of Germany and the history of it all. Gives me a little insight into my own family's history.

Thanks Pat! I just realized that the picture of the square without any buildings is actually from 1992! The last 20 years have changed Berlin in so many ways, it's quite unbelievable.

Nice little side tour Magdalene. Thanks for sharing it!

Hi Glenn, I am glad you enjoyed it! Next update will be about WDW again!

 

[vamassey1]

What a lovely tea! I'm glad you took the pictures and posted it. I'm also glad they didn't catch you.

I really enjoy the history lessons too.

 

[lovealldisney]

For my birthday in November 2009 my colleagues gave me a gift certificate for a Champagne Tea for two at the premier hotel in Berlin - the place where foreign dignataries stay when they visit the German government. I treated Katharina to this experience and we finally managed to find a weekened when both of us were free sometime in spring 2010. When we went, I documented the experience in order to make it into a bonus update for this trip report in connection with the tea at the GF... Well, it is nearly a year later, but I though you would still enjoy the pictures!

Hotel Adlon was originally opened in 1907, it is located a square called "Pariser Platz" which is just in front of the Brandenburg gate. This was a dead zone during the cold war, since the Wall was just on the other side of the Brandenburg gate and the square was in East Berlin and not accessible for anyone besides military. Also nearly everything around the square had been destroyed during WW II.

This is an aerial view of the square after WW II:

All buildings around the square have been rebuilt now, including the hotel Adlon and the embassy of the United States of America:

This the Hotel seen from the square:

And this is the view towards the entrance from the street "Unter den Linden":

The whole building is new, but it is done very elegantly to look like it was still the original. The tea was going to be served in the lobby bar and since there was a huge sign telling the tourists that photography was not allowed, these pics are from my Iphone (my reasoning was that taking a pic with my phone was not more intrusive than writing a text message...

This is the lobby:

We had a reservation (they strongly recommended this!) and had a lovely seating area for us, which looked just like this one opposite of us:

We were than served the champagne:

This was actually quite an experience because it wasn't a normal bottle, but one of those large ones (called Magnum, double the size of a normal bottle).

Next we got our tea - without tea cosies, but in real silver tea pots and with a sleeve over the handle:

And then the food came out on a three story display (we call it Etagere from the French word for it):

These were the sandwiches:

and this was the cake course:

There was a real gold leaf on the puff pastry!

There also were two scones on the middle plate which I did not take a better picture of.

Everything was delicious and it was a lot of food! It somehow reminded me very much of the GF! Since this hotel was built in 2000 to look like it was built 100 years earlier, it is as much a "themed" hotel as the GF is - just with a different theme: city hotel instead of beach hotel, but nearly the same era!

We really enjoyed the experience and did not feel as much out of place as we thought we might. We are even thinking about repeating it on my next visit to Berlin!

And on the way out we asked where the restrooms were and the lovely waitress told us to go along one hallway, the restrooms there would be nicer than the normal lobby ones and we got to see one of their function rooms along the way:

Next time, I promise, I will take you back to WDW!

Thank you Magdalene!! I LOVE all the pictures we did see the Aldon Hotel too (just the outside) when were in Berlin! Didn't know about the tea, that would have been fun next time maybe (oh there will be a next time) And I heard a few interesting stories about our American Embassy All I have to say is nice way to spend our tax dollars........

I could look at Germany pictures all day. You know I love pictures...

 

[podsnel]

Such a great update!! I just invited our Goddaughter to tea at the Plaza in NYC for her birthday this summer- I'll have to take lots of photos to compare!

 

[englishrose47]

Loved the Berlin Tea and the History lesson !!! The Hotel looks elegant as does the Tea !!Thanks for sharing Magdalene !!

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

Thanks for the mini-trip to Berlin! Always interesting to get a glimpse of life in Germany.

Glad you didn't get caught taking the pic. I can imagine the headline now:

Nuremberg judge on trial for sneaking photos of dignitary's hangout- charged with espionage.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

Hi Magdalene--

Not to hijack your TR, but had asked me to let you know if I was writing up any other trip reports. We just took a day trip to the Statue of Liberty for my daughter's birthday, and I started writing up a TR on the DIS Dads website. So, if you (and anyone else) are interested, please come check it out!

DIS Dads web site link

 

[Sleepingbooty]

Nice bonus!!!

The hotel was beautiful - I can see how it would evoke the same feel as the Grand Floridian. Everything looked yummy - EXCEPT the sandwich with the sunny side up egg on it!

 

[manntra]

What a lovely tea and a beautiful hotel

So did you drink the whole bottle of champagne?

I have often taken pictures while pretending to text Hee-hee

Tracy

 

[brookelizabeth]

Thank you so much for sharing your tea with us!!! It looked wonderful. WHEN I make it to Germany, this will be on my list! The tower of food does look huge, but I saw your comment that it's just the angle of the picture.

I also see Liesa's "headline".

Thanks Brook, the 5k isn't until the Saturday before we depart for Paris, so I still have some time for training. Even though at the moment my training plan seems to be nearly too ambitious to me. Saturday evening I wasn't able to move anymore after my 50 minutes run and then I had to run again on Sunday!!

Ah! Hopefully the training gets easier quickly! I'm still stuck in the 10-20 minute run range. Hopefully as the weather gets warmer I'll get back out there and push myself to make 20 easily, then up it to 30 eventually. I want to enter a 5k sometime this year.

 

[3prettyprincesses]

Ugh, how did I miss the German tea update?

Thank you Magdalene for the history lesson and what a beautiful building! It's angles are so precise! The lobby is stunning and I love the seating area, looks so cozy! The food looks delicious, was there any dairy in that egg? Oh, how I love scones. I can't have them anymore but I miss them! With lots of clotted cream and jam!

Wow, what a special treat! You should absolutely should go again with Katharina! And thank you for sharing this is, I love all of your German bonus posts, keep them coming!

 

[englishrose47]

Just a friendly "HI"

 

[Kleese]

I love bonus updates!!

Just want to send a quick thank you out to you & podsnel for the info about AKL and especially tiggrbaby for posting the link to the AKL thread. I've been learning a lot. Gosh there's so much to read but I'm so excited!


How's the planning for DLP going? It's coming up really soon and then not to far after that DW Very excited for you!