By the second week of their stay in Pariser Hof time was ticking down on finding a new apartment. This time they had money to last them till after Christmas & New Year but actually securing a place at a reasonable price was becoming increasingly difficult. They had prepared well, enquiring about lots of apartments the previous week, but most of them were coming back fully booked or out of their price-range. It was looking as if they might have to stay in a mix of apartments and hotels over that period but even the hotel rates were often triple over the festive days.
One day walking by the musical instrument shop Dave noticed the Shure logo in the window. He'd seen it before but this time it seemed to jump out at him.
The following day they were seriously running out of apartment offers when Kate just happened to check her junk mail. A reply from an apartment she'd enquired about the previous week had slipped in there. The woman was saying she'd had a last minute cancellation and her apartment was now available for almost a month at a great rate including Christmas & New Year. Dave knew it was the right one when she confirmed it for them, her otherwise word-perfect email containing the mistake "you can be shure the apartment is yours".
It was a close-call again, the apartment not being finalised until Saturday afternoon due to the owner being on holiday in America, with Dave & Kate due to check out of Pariser Hof 3 days later on the morning of Tuesday 21st December 2010.
That Saturday afternoon they paid a visit to Einstein's coffee place at Checkpoint Charlie. Looking at the chocolate cake they decided it was a bit too much to pay and ordered two coffees only. As they were about to sit down with their coffee the woman behind the counter handed them two pieces of chocolate cake, insisting they were free. Madonna's 'Like A Prayer' provided the soundtrack.
