A few weeks ago I met an important man in his office on Unter Den Linden.
LSB dives into the chocolate Reichstag
The same evening, the new German president Joachim Gauck was being sworn in. The surrounding area was awash with media types clutching furry microphones, adjusting broadcast platforms, parking vans.
I didn’t know the man I was meeting. He was a Spiegel-employee friend of my boss and I was doing him a favour. He was planning a holiday in Ireland and was overwhelmed by the detailed itinerary his travel companion had compiled weeks in advance. He wanted me to amend it.
He made me a latté and we sat down and poured over the meticulous plan.
“You won’t manage all that,” I said. “Not if you want to sleep.”
For the next few hours we teased out the relative merits of Longford and Louth, Killarney and Kilkeel.
“You can give Derry a miss,” I said finally. “Just go to the Giant’s Causeway instead.”
“Is it Derry or Londonderry?” he wondered.
“Oh, that depends on with what foot you dig,” I said.
Joachim Guauck was being sworn in on the television in the background.
“I’m sorry for keeping you so long,” he said as I was making a leave. “Do you drink wine?”
“Yes I do.”
I have a very expensive bottle here.”
“Oh?”
“Alternatively, do you like chocolate?”
“Oh yes, very much so.”
“Well then I have just the right thing for you.”
Out of nowhere he pulled out a metre long stick of Rittersport chcocolate. 
“For you!” he beamed, wielding it at me. “As a thank you.”
Loyal readers will know how much of a chocolate advocate I am, but even I was stunned at the scale of my killing. If you are sceptical, examine the chocolate in relation to the medium-sized cat.
Last Saturday, LSB and I went on a chocolate tour of Berlin. We started off at Fassbender and Hausch, where we could afford a single truffle each.
Then we went around the corner to the Rittersport museum and shop. We learnt about the cocoa been, and about Klara Ritter, who invented Ritter Sport because she wanted football supporters to be able to fit a 100 gram bar of chocolate into their pocket when they went to matches.
Choco stack
If you become a fan of the katekatharina facebook page, and correctly guess two of the three flavours we picked, I will have a bar of Rittersport personally designed for you and post it to you, wherever in the world you may be. If you can get ten friends to become fans of the page, I will design a chocolate bar for you too.
Entries must be received by midnight Easter Sunday. Just leave a comment on the page with your suggestion. One entry per person. Check out the page for clues until then.
Me at the chocolate Reichstag
Kate Ferguson 
I’m so jealous. I LOVE Ritter chocolate (personal favorite dark with hazelnuts, or maybe the dark with marzipan). It’s fairly expensive here but it’s the closest to my favorite dark Verkade with hazelnuts which I can’t get anymore anywhere. I can’t imagine being able to get any flavor you choose!
LikeLike
It is excellent chocolate! My favourite is rum, nut and grape on dark chocolate. Simply heavenly!! I hope I am not offending your country, but chocolate in America just isn’t the same. If you can guess some of the flavours I chose, I’ll get you a dark chocolate bar with fillings of your choice made 🙂
LikeLike
I enjoyed this entry a lot – the poring over the itinerary and trying hard to eliminate of the activities. It must have been tough work!!! And I am still wondering why I had not visited the museum before during my last visit in 2003, unbelievable!!
On a side note, I received a huge number of hits on 6 Apr about – a person of extensive learning. Wanted to share this with you as you were the source inspiration 🙂 Though I did wonder what was the cause of it….
LikeLike
It was tough work! I have never seen such a well-organised holiday in my life! But the whole thing was rather amusing all the same. Maybe it wasn’t there in 2003?It seems relatively new to me. You will have to come back and then we can meet for a lovely melted rittersport hot chocolate there 🙂
Interesting! Sometimes I get peeks like that (not 400 though!). Maybe a celebrity mentioned savants in an interview and people googled it to see what it meant.. My biggest hits were one day when I wrote a short piece about a flashmob in a shopping centre. I was a little faster than the news networks so I could a huge number of hits! The Internet is a funny place.
xx
LikeLike
Where had the cocoa been?
Chocolate Reichstag, I think I saw that on a walking tour of Berlin once, but only through the window!
I can’t believe I missed the chocolate competition!!!! booooooo. I can’t gget 10 people to like my own facebook page so my chances of the personalised chocolate are pretty slim. I heart ritter sport too, and always wondered why it had the word sport in the title seeing as chocolate and physical fitness so rarely go together. Glad you’re having fun! love the medium sized cat comparison, hope that makes a reappearance every time there is a size judgement to be made (no rude jokes there)
Dave xx
LikeLike
Ha, thanks for that Dave! The cocoa had been in its wrapper but now it is in my belly. You should do a chocolate walking tour of Berlin! Also, where is your facebook page? I would like to like it. I might as well use the cat for all my size comparisons. It owes me for all the sleepless nights it’s caused.
Hope you’re having a lovely Wochenende! xx
LikeLike
I deleted my fb page when I realised it was poop. I’m also gonna delete my flickr profile I think, focus on my wordpress which is a year old next week!! Happy Wochenende! is that easter?
LikeLike
Aw, a birthday! How nice, I hope you’ll celebrate! Hmm Wochende is weekend but I look forward to that already, so thank you 🙂 Happpy Dienstag! )Tuesday, but literally “day od duty”!) xx
LikeLike
Pingback: Wilkommen in Wien! « katekatharina.com