Reciprocating a Birthday Event

By Friday it was the end of August, and the weekend of Manjas Birthday. As she’d taken such great care of me during my trip and especially on my Birthday, I arranged a few things for her, and even baked her a cake…
Benefit of friends on holidays I guess 😉

We met for Dinner on Friday afternoon, at a swanky place called “Restaurant Provocateur”, which was Asian-French fusion Restaurant. Odd but delicious food – and particularly fantastic desert. Following dinner I took her home in a convertible I had arranged for the weekend trip – she was VERY excited by that one 🙂

Saturday Morning we headed off to Rheinsberg, where I’d arranged for us to stay in a seaside spa/hotel. We arrived and Manja went off to a massage while I checked into the room. Nicely relaxed, we headed over to find some lunch in town – deciding on an excellent vegetarian burger place.

With food in our belly we decided to explore the palace grounds. The palace itself was nice enough, but the grounds were amazing to we walked around for a few hours.

On our way back we passed through the town and checked out some local craft shops, including the famous pottery.

Eventually it got a bit later and we headed to an ‘all-you-can-eat’ dinner buffet. It was pretty good food, especially for a buffet. We both ate a little bit (read: A LOT) too much, so we felt the need to move a bit. We headed down the pier and were rewarded with a really pretty sunset at the lake.

With darkness upon us we couldn’t do much else outside, so we headed into the spa area for a Swim and Sauna. We had thought about hitting the gym for a bit (not sure what possessed us!) but it was “unfortunately” closed…. Not locked, but you couldn’t turn on the lights. With that plan spoiled we went back to our room with a view and played a few games before dropping into bed.

Sunday was unfortunately already time to check-out.  I’d arranged a late check-out though, so we took it easy and spent a bunch of time sampling everything at the all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet. I also managed to squeeze in a massage to try and set my various muscles back into place – many were still hurting after the Italy trip almost a month ago. It was A-Mazing.

Feeling much better, we headed back into town for a short coffee and stroll along a different part of the lake, before starting the tour back to Berlin where Ilka had invited us to a birthday dinner in the garden. As always, it was excellent food with even better company and we chatted until way too late.

By the time we left it was too cold to drive with an open roof….  but we did anyway, because why the hell not?

The following weekdays were back onto a secret mission for the family, but Friday I helped Manja arrange a small birthday get-together at her place with friends. We were lucky with the weather – it was a bit drizzly but not too cold, so we spent most of the evening on the balcony. A really lovely night.

The following weekdays were back onto a secret mission for the family, but Friday I helped Manja arrange a small birthday get-together at her place with friends, even getting around to baking a nice plum-strudel!
We were lucky with the weather – it was a bit drizzly but not too cold, so we spent most of the evening on the balcony. A really lovely night.

Saturday night Manja and her brother shared a birthday get-together by meeting the whole family at the “Lübbener Museumsnacht”. We rode up by motorbike in the late afternoon and had dinner with her family before spending the evening exploring various parts of the old town-hall and museum. There was even a local blacksmith plying his trade, and at night the whole area was lit up! 

Exploring the town hall, we found a place passing out free mulled wine, in a old-school (like 1800’s) style underground bar, with a bit of a almost-horror-theme.  NO idea why, but it really was free!

It really is a pretty little township, and the museum may have had a photo-booth style dress-up option….

We also found this….  Which I somehow think is amusing to my Aussie readers, no?

Eventually we even managed to come along for a tour of the buildings, they’re really old and pretty inside!

We left around midnight, freezing all the way home on the motorbike. Turns out that riding a bike when the weather isn’t overwhelmingly warm isn’t so much fun, and based on how frozen Manja looked, even less fun for a pillion.

Winter, as they say, is coming.