.
12/5/2014 Friday Google Map of Area
Intentions: In Berlin. Expand the above map to show the things we want to see. The Reichstag, the Brandenburger Gate, Checkpoint Charlie, the famous street Unter-den-Linden, the shopping area on Friedrikstrasse. We may go to the end of a tram line or two, just to see what’s there. If I haven’t found a good cold-weather hat by this date, I’lll find one here.

Actuals:
20141205 Berlin ..Link To Photos..

We woke up at 0300 (0900 at home). So we did a few computer things and tried to go back to sleep about 0400. The next thing we knew, it was 0930. We must have been really tired.

We looked out onto the courtyard and saw that the English weather has arrived here. About 37*F, cloudy, rain showers, and I could swear I saw a few snow flakes.

Breakfast was part of the room rate, so we scurried down to it. Typical good European buffet breakfast with cold cuts, herring, roll-mops, cheeses, sausages, potatoes, bacon, breads and rolls, plus eggs or omelet to order, juices and champagne. Then coffee.

We consulted the concierge, who then sold us the hop-on-hop-off (hoho) bus voucher. We hiked down to Unter den Linden (famous old boulevard) to get it at the closest stop. There are two circular routes; we took the western (yellow) first. I'll try to insert a map later, but it went to many of the points of interest like Tiergarten and Kurfürstendamm, plus Gendarmplatz and the museum island. Far to many to point out here. One that stood out was the Ka-da-we department store of seven floors, one of which holds 1300 cheeses and 2000 wursts.

At Alexanderplatz we shifted to the eastern route (purple). It went through the Hauptbanhof (main train station) and then into the former communist sector. Where the neighborhoods had not been bombed, the old buildings were there and interesting. Where the communists constructed their “worker's palaces” apartment buildings, things didn't look all that nice. They were anywhere from seven to eleven floors and drab, constructed of standard-sized concrete blocks. The Berlin Wall was there in two long segments, each now filled with art much of which is anti-war. There is a monument to the first person killed trying to escape from the Russian sector. We saw the imitation Checkpoint Charlie (the real one is in a museum) and there was much discussion of it and the wall on the headset narration – which worked in 19 different languages.

On returning to Alexanderplatz, we tried to switch back to the yellow route to complete that circuit and be close to the hotel; but the operator abruptly informed us that they stop running at 1600 (sunset here is at 1538 since we are so far north). So we grabbed a taxi back to the hotel (terrible traffic again), shed our coats and went to the bar, which favors Spanish red wines and local lagers. Once refreshed, we got our coats from the room and asked the concierge for a “normal” German restaurant. He called the Cafe Einstein and put in a reservation. We hiked to Unter del Linden (UdL henceforth) again and then west.

Cafe Einstein was busy this Friday evening, but not too bad. We settled on a small carafe of wine, wiener schnitzle for Dolores & tafenspitz for me. The main parts filled the plates and the side orders came on separate plates. Fried potatoes came with mine with two little dishes of sauce for them – apple/horseradish (good) and sour cream/chives that had something with a kick in it (very good). Dolores's came with a nice cucumber salad. We were thinking of having strudel, but it would have been too much. €57 with 10% tip.

When we exited Einstein, we looked farther west and could see the Brandenburg Gate. We walked nearly to it and took pictures of it and UdL. Then back to the hotel and the room to settle in and relax and do computer things.





12/6/2014 Saturday
Intentions: In Berlin. Play tourist. Also, we should do whatever shopping we want today.

20141206 Berlin Saturday ..Link To Photos.. ..Link To Photos..

Woke up at 0830 to a little bit of sun poking through the clouds and 37*F. Dolores didn't sleep very well, lots of coughing.

We had breakfast in the hotel, perhaps a little less of it. We went to the City Circle bus stop and boarded. Since the sun was partly visibile, it seemed warmer and the bus was warm, so we were comfortable. We got some good pictures today that we just couldn't get yesterday.

We took the yellow route around to stop 2. We walked back to the Lego store, where Dolores shopped for perhaps a half-hour. Then we walked down the block to the KaDeWe store, the largest department store in continental Europe. Seven floors, but we just inspected the ground floor. Got a picture of Dolores and St Nick. Bought a few goodies.

Then back onto the yellow bus and around to the Gendarmen Markt, where we paid our Euro each to enter. We inspected the little huts and their goodies. We had some gluhwein and bought the cups but decided to wait to do any more of that sort of purchase until we're on the river.

This market is close to the hotel so we walked back, feeling colder because the sun was about to set – it really made a difference. We got into the room and settled to warm up.

When we'd warmed a little we decided we'd better eat before we fell asleep, so we went down the block to Block House, a steak place and had steak, potato, salad, and malbec for around 50 Euro. Not bad at all. Then we hiked around Friedrickstrasse for a while, looking in stores, until we arrived back at the hotel.

Dolores likes a glass of tawny port before bedtime, thinking that it warms her up. So we had a glass of Sandeman's Tawny Port in the bar and now are back in the room settling and heading for bed.






12/7/2014 Sunday
Intentions: In Berlin. Church & museums, since they are open and most stores are not. Get ready for the train tomorrow.


20141207 Berlin Pearl Harbor Day Sunday ..Link To Photos..

Cloudy again, dismal, 32*F. Warmed after breakfast to 34* so we walked the 700 meters to St Thomas Aquinas and arrived just as it was starting. It's a very simple little church in the midst of a property with education, hotel, restaurant, and more. Very suprising thing to walk into. There were about 30 people in attendance.

We hiked back to the hotel (1 mile so far) and sat for a few minutes.

Then we hit the road again, onto the street on the south shore of the Spree. But there was a river excursion boat right there, advertising a one-hour cruise. So we took it. It was plastic- topped so the pictures take through the top aren't all that good.

After disembarking from the good ship Pergamon, we headed to the Pergamon Museum, one of great repute around here. All of a sudden I heard weird engine noises, such as a two-cycle gas engine makes, and several of them. We turned around and saw three terrible-looking cars waiting for others to catch up with them. One of them had on it a sign saying “Trabie Club”. I remembered then that the East Germans made a “workers car” back in that era named the Trabant. It was supposedly the world’s worst car. It was awful in reliability and didn’t look all that good, either. Just hearing them made me wonder why anyone was going to the trouble to keep some of them running.

We resumed treading toward the Pergamon. But getting to it is nearly impossible; you have to go three-quarters of the way around it to get to the entrance due to heavy construction in the area. It was getting cold again and the wind was picking up, and if we went in it would be after dark when we came out, so we decided to walk back to the hotel via some other places.

We crossed Unter den Linden (UdL, remember?) to the south looking for the Catholic cathedral, St Hedwig's. We had to go around a number of buildings being built or renovated, but we finally found it. It's a really unique place. It has two levels and services can be held in upper, lower, or both because the altar is visible from both through a large hole in the center of the upper level floor. Odd.

The church fronts on Bebelplatz. It was in this “platz” (place or square) that the Nazi’s burned thousands of books by communists, intellectuals, and Jews in 1933.

We stopped in a souvenir shop on UdL that mainly dealt with Berlin Wall stuff (the wall is still big news around here, since it shaped the city for so long) to get warm. Then we trudged back to the hotel again and flopped down.

All in all, we covered at least three miles, maybe four. I feel it.

I don't know what we're going to do now or later (it's 1600) but we won't go far. Also, we have to get ready to go to the train in the late morning.

Later we went down to dinner in the hotel restaurant, which was nice. We looked out over the street and marveled at the number of people running around on a Sunday night. We attributed it to the coming Christmas season. Then Dolores remembered being told by the hotel people that there were a bunch of Spanish people in town because they have a long weekend and they like to buy German crafts found at Christmas Markts.

We went back to the room. I was restless and took a neighborhood hike. It was right at 2000, when everything shuts down. In a matter of moments, the crowds went away. It was almost spooky. So I went back to the room; we read our books and partly prepared for tomorrow's trip.

A Trabant: