VELODROM, HERE I COME!

This afternoon, my husband handed me an envelope and said, “Here’s your vaccine invitation.” 

And it was!  I opened the envelope and removed a 4-page letter printed on both sides, plus a map.  I was shaking as I went online to the indicated website, clicked on the “make an appointment button,” chose the vaccination center that offered the earliest appointments for the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine (local pride thing), entered my booking code from the letter, and chose my dates.  Super easy, super efficient, super German—despite all the German bashing going on in the last few weeks, including by this household.

My first appointment date is 10:00 a.m. on April 13 and the second is at 10:45 a.m. on May 23.  I’m going to the Velodrom, an indoor track racing arena that holds 12,000 people and used to be Berlin's largest concert venue (above) until the O2 opened in 2008.  According to the Wiki article below, Janet Jackson performed there in 1998, Britney Spears in 2004, and Kylie Minogue in 2008.  Think of the history!!  I’ve never been to the Velodrom, so it will be a field trip to boot.  Here's what Wiki has to say about the award-winning building:

The building was designed by French architect Dominique Perrault who won an international design competition in 1992 and was awarded the German Award of Architecture, second prize for the Velodrome and the Olympic Swimming pool. The site chosen is at the intersection of urban elements and of different networks. In order to resolve the conjunction of these two systems, the buildings which house the velodrome and the Olympic Swimming Pool vanish from sight. The idea was to create an orchard of apple trees with two buildings set into the ground, one round and the other rectangular, covered with a wire gauze, which shimmer in the sunlight and appear to be stretches of water more than buildings.

The project includes:

 ·       a multi-use velodrome: cycling, athletics, tennis, equestrianism, sports education, concerts

·        a swimming pool: 2 Olympic pools, Olympic diving platform, pools for diving training, handicapped, children

 ·         a multisport hall

The arena is famous for its steel roof construction – with a diameter of 142 meters, it has Europe's largest steel roof.

Sounds almost as exciting as my vaccination!

The Velodrom isn't located near our apartment.  As you can see on the map I received (above), we're nearer to the Flughafen-Tempelhof than to the Velodrom.  But, no problem-o.

Note the two phone numbers in bold at the bottom of the first page (above) of the invitation letter.  Those are the numbers to call for a FREE taxi to the vaccination center—two shots, two round-trip rides.

When I opened the letter, I was so happy, so relieved, I actually cried.  Don’t let anyone tell you this hasn’t been a difficult year, a time of stress and confusion, heartache and fear.  But now this unbearable burden of living through a pandemic is lifting and the welcome lightness of being is flooding in to take its place. 

My husband’s invitation will likely follow in a week or two.  He is three years younger than I and the invitations are sent by birth date—month and year.  But it will come.

To all of our many fully-vaccinated contemporaries, we be stylin’ now! 

Keep it real!  And wear your damn mask until it’s safe to take it off!  

(No, that's not me, but it soon will be!)

Marilyn

 

 

 

PS to those who have asked:  The judge in the Swiss Air matter did issue his same-day opinion, but it won’t be announced until April 7.  Stay tuned!