I think if this trip to Europe were to have a theme, it’d be “forgetfulness”. Let’s try an enumerate all the things I forgot on the trip:
- My passport. A friend drove Amber and I from my place to the airport with plenty of time to spare. After we’d been dropped off and I was approaching the baggage claim counter, I remembered that I’d need ID for the trip, and realized I’d forgotten my passport. I told Amber, and my eyes were pleading with her to tell me it wasn’t as big a deal as I thought it was. “Are you serious?” Yes, it was a big deal. We called our friend, got her to swing back to pick me up and drive me to Kirkland and back, while Amber made her way through security. It all worked out, since I had TSA PreCheck and she did not; got to the gate with about fifteen minutes to spare before boarding began.
- My hairbrush. Had to borrow one from the Reiner family.
- My toothpaste. When we flew to Mallorca we all forgot our toothpaste, save for a minuscule travel dosage. Had to get a replacement on the island.
- My drone controller. I brought my drone from Kirkland to Berlin to Mallorca, took it for a spin one morning to catch some views, got some decent footage, and realized once I’d returned to Berlin that I’d left the controller on the cliffs where I’d been shooting. Dollars to donuts it stays un-found for a very long time, since this area is just covered in scraggy rock formations. As it happens these controllers are a pretty penny to replace, so that hurt, but it was the least-cost option to get back in the air; an upgrade would’ve cost like three times as much.
- My hairbrush, again. Well, more accurately, the Reiner family’s hairbrush I’d pressed into service. Didn’t make it with us on the ward temple trip from Berlin to Freiburg, so I had to do without for a couple days until we could head into the Freiburg town itself to go shopping.
- A female-female HDMI adapter. I brought my shiny new Chromecast along for the trip in order to be able to cast the Oculus onto their TV. Brought along an adapter just in case all I had to work with was a male HDMI end. Forgot the darn thing in their A/V cabinet, which almost meant I couldn’t reconnect it when I brought it back here; however, I spied a spare HDMI input right next to a spare USB port on the side of my TV for power, so there it sits, nice and snug.
- My hair gel. Left a nice present for them in their bathroom. Thing was basically brand new, too.
I have the strong feeling that there are others, but…
So, the play-by-play.
Actually, the tale starts a couple days before departure, when I began having hearing loss in my right ear. It felt wax-y, and I dug around with a Q-tip and other sharp instruments, because I was either going to make sure I could hear for the trip, or make sure I could never hear again.
My ill-advised rummaging failing me, I called up my local professional, Dr. Miyauchi (yes, I have the best doctor’s name). They had me in later that morning, and used a syringe of warm water to flush my ear. Out popped a glob of ear wax the size of a pea. The best part was that there was no question of what to do with it, the guy immediately knew to wrap it up safe and sound so I could take it home as a souvenir.
If you aren’t currently eating peas, feel free to check it out.
After my harrowing adventure getting through security, we boarded our long-haul flight to Paris, and from there to Berlin. Didn’t get a wink of sleep.
We arrived Sunday afternoon, just in time for dinner prep. A proper German dinner at that.
Met some family members and settled in. Lesley’s younger siblings remembered me from two and a half years ago when I visited last, so that was a nice reunion.
I’m not sure exactly how Amber managed to step gracefully into a German circadian rhythm, but I envy her. I would struggle for the next week and a half to wake up any later than 3 or 4am.
In the morning I headed off to put in a decent work day at the Berlin office. I was confused when I arrived because I remember the office I visited last time and it was much smaller than the one I now saw – they’d gotten a bit of an upgrade.
After a good day of work I headed back to home base to meet up with Lesley and Amber. We participated in the Reiner family’s FHE, and I got to bust out the Oculus for them to play with. Big hit. Lesley’s younger brother went a bit wild in Superhot and let’s just say his dad had to take a few hits to defend the piano 🙂
We all headed out from there to get an authentic German döner kebab. It did not disappoint.
From there we went off to explore “Museum Island”, saw a few monuments and other historic buildings in the rain.
The next day I decided to count my work from home as proper work time, and didn’t bother heading in to the office on my own. Instead, we lolly-gagged for a bit, then headed in to the office for lunch.
Then it was off to some monuments.
One of my favorite places in Berlin was this area with a collection of little courtyards, each with their own personality. One of the more striking ones was a place absolutely covered in street art and band stickers.
Upstairs there was a pretty edgy art gallery, attached to a book shop that seemed to specialize in books on graffiti and other alternative art styles.
I have a problem, and admitting it is usually the first step, right? Anyways, I read books, yes, but ploddingly. I buy books, though, as if I read one per week. I’ve told myself I need to stop. But they’re just so shiny!
So I bought my first of several books in Germany from this shop, a small one about a girl whose cat passed away.
On Wednesday I headed in to work and tried to do something productive, but my security key was broken. After taking up way too much of the local help desk’s time I just headed out to meet up with Amber. She’d spent the morning off at a Berlin Wall memorial while Lesley took care of other business.
I met Amber at the most amazing book store. Picked up a very nice-looking copy of Sun Tzu’s Art of War as well as The Three-Body Problem, which I’ve heard is awesome. Almost picked up a copy of this little number for Dad, but I didn’t think he’d like it very much.
Books in tow, we headed off to see some more sights, one of which was Berlin’s parliament building.
Then it was time to back and get ready for the next phase of our trip: the tropical Spanish island of Mallorca. We landed in the early afternoon in the urban center of the island, Palma, got our car rental, and drove off to our place ~45 minutes east.
During summer months, Mallorca is a party island. In February though, it’s much less crowded. We were treated to entirely deserted beaches, coastal restaurants with amazing views that looked completely abandoned, and sunset viewpoints that had hardly any competition.
Our Airbnb was a nice little place about a two-minute walk from some short cliffs on the sea. Just delightful. I continued my streak of waking up way too early, and got some fantastic sunrise shots.
Our first evening we headed off to grab groceries and had amazing pizza. Lots and lots of pizza places on Mallorca.
Since it was the off-season it felt like we were sitting down with locals. Nice vibe.
We organized our time in Mallorca into two main excursions: one to the north-west to more high mountain passes and cliffs, and one to the south-east, a bit more flat and closer to the ocean.
The first trip had us head out to Valldemossa, Sa Foradada, and Deià. Fantastic towns that we could only spend a small time in; would love to come back and stick around longer.
The roads were quite narrow, and we happened to be trying to drive up a mountain pass on a day when there was some kind of biking event going on, so we frequently found ourselves stuck behind a bicyclist powering up the road. Scenery was gorgeous though.
Incredibly clear water. Still not warm enough to swim in unfortunately.
I was also quite surprised at the number of stray cats around on the island. I took it upon myself to pet every cat I could.
After catching a delightful sunset at Torre Del Verger we tried a couple places and ended up “pre-crashing” some party at a restaurant that was ostensibly all booked out. Managed to sweet talk ourselves into a table with a pinky promise that we’d be out of there right quick.
Saturday morning didn’t start out looking like it’d be that good looking a sunrise, but it actually turned out quite nice.
Found this hide-out to chill in while the sun rose a bit higher. 
Later that morning we headed off to a local farmer’s market, in Santanyí.
More kitties! This one was nice to me but bit Amber. 🙁
Remember those rocks we played on in Grand Lake? Imagining we were on a mission for Star Fleet? I found their successor on the cliffs of Playa de Santanyí. Absolutely massive and fantastic for climbing.
Can’t really tell but that’s like a thousand foot drop just inches past my head. I think everyone should find a cliff and lie down on its edge at least once in their life.
On our way to a lighthouse lookout point we passed by a cemetery and I couldn’t resist heading in, for Mom’s sake.
The sunset we’d seen the day before was rather stark, as there were no clouds in the sky. This one though, was absolutely fantastic.
From there we jetted off to Palma to see the urban night-life and check out their cathedral. I somehow ended up falling asleep without my jacket on even though it was super cold out, woke up with what felt like some sort of mild hypothermia. Oh well.
The next morning it was Sunday, time to pack and depart. I got another stupidly early start and snapped some nice night-time shots.
We then went off to a beach that a local had told us about earlier, and it did not disappoint.
Went off to get sacrament at the local branch, back to the beach for a bit, then off to the airport.
Landed back in Berlin late at night, with some familiarly wet weather.
Thus concluded the first half of our galavanting across Europe. The next phase would take us off to Freiburg for a temple visit. But this post is getting long enough that I think I’ll continue in Part 2.
