The coolest cities in Europe

I have to admit that I am rather partial to Berlin and Paris, so I was so happy to go to both of those cities last week to work on some baroque dancing!

I went to Berlin to work with Klaus Abromeit on the grotesque style of the 18th c. Grotesque dance can be described as "extreme exaggeration and contortion, acrobatic"-- like what ballet is today!

To get to Berlin, I took what they call here "mitfahrengelegenheit" or organized hitchhiking. There is an internet site where you can see who is driving from a certain city to another city, and then you call the person to pay for a spot in their car. It is soooo much cheaper than the train, especially to a popular place like Berlin. I was in a car with 3 college-age boys, one of whom was Belgian and just got back from a trip to China. He was there doing some work for an Agricultural Engineering degree, but the bureaucracy in China was so horrible that he didn't get anything done. The trip was fine, except it took us 6 hours to get there (compared with 4 hours on the train).

In Berlin, I was sleeping in Klaus's artist studio-- that was a blast. You had to wash the dishes in the bathroom sink, crouch in the bath tub to take a shower, and the kitchen had a fabulous red 50's refrigerator and a hot plate for making coffee. My baroque dance friends took me to the most adorable old bar near the studio (Chuckie and Elaina watch out!), and the whole night the bartender called me the "amerikanerin" and decorated our table with an American flag stuck in an old beer bottle. People of a certain age in Berlin really and truly love the Americans. We also went to a fish restaurant where you can eat tiny deep-fried sardines like french fries.

After all that, I came back to Cologne early on the train, watered the plants, and left the same evening for Paris. Now, to go to Paris, you take the Thalys train (not Die Bahn) which always makes me so happy. This time, the 1st class tickets were cheaper than the 2nd class, so I traveled in style. They served dinner, too-- Salade Niçoise!

I went to Paris to work on elements of the late 18th c. style... In Paris I was staying at a friend of a friend's house in Montematre. I ate dinner in the neighborhood a couple of nights-- the most fabulous Rabbit in Fig Sauce and Duck in Blackberry Sauce (fruit sauce season!) at this tiny local restaurant that was not expensive. I didn't see any monuments this time, except for the Sacre Cour, but mostly walked around getting lost and seeing neighborhoods far off the tourist track.