Travel, unsurprisingly
So I find myself in Berlin and wanting to write down a summary of what we did yesterday, and this seems a good a place as any to do so. Uneventful flight to Newark, then a 4+ hour layover was followed by another hour+ delay on the runway due to storms off the coast. We had a bunch of "Education First Tours" teens on our flight, but I still managed to sleep a lot. Bram, on the other hand, spent the flight watching movies. Guess who was more zonked once we got to Berlin? Once we landed, our plane drove past what looked like Air Force One with another "United States of America" jet parked behind it. I wonder who is in town? We were bussed to the terminal and ended up at the back of the line at passport control, but it moved quickly. The man who stamped our passports didn't say a word, nor did they say anything as we moved on through customs. We had no checked luggage, so that part was easy. We picked up 5-day transit passes (Berlin Welcome Card) and 3-day museum passes in the airport, then it was bus, S-bahn, S-bahn and around the block the long way to the flat we're staying in.
The flat is located just north of the Tiergarten and south of the Spree in the Hansavertiel district. There's an inner courtyard surrounded by four apartment buildings that certainly aren't new (neighboring building is about 150 years old, not sure about this one). We were welcomed by the owner of the flat, who lives in the adjoining one, and by his daughter. Our flat basically consists of three long skinny rooms - one is my bedroom, the other has a mini-kitchen and bathroom separated by a bead curtain, the third is the living/eating space with a fold-out bed for Bram. Nothing fancy, but plenty of chairs and desks and such so it should be a good home base for us in what seems like a quiet neighborhood. We took a 3-hour nap before heading out to see Berlin.
We went back to the S-Bahn station, got some Euros from an ATM and then some pastries from a local vendor, then headed for a boat tour of the Spree. Not sure it was worth the cost, actually. After that we walked around Unter den Linden, bought tickets to see "My Square Lady" on Thursday at the Komische Oper, and looked at the Brandenburg gate. We found the Russian, French, and American Embassies, and walked through the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, taking out our "spot" to send images home. The museum under the Memorial was closed, so we couldn't go through that. May have to go back if we have time.
We then took the S-Bahn out to the longest surviving stretch of the Berlin Wall, the East Side Gallery, which has been painted by a number of different artists - plus a certain number of uninvited graffitists. I liked the "Checkpoint Charlie" cartoon images and the Trabant crashing through the wall in trompe l'ohowdoyouspelloeielel style. There were a couple of sections of the "other part" of the wall so you could get a feel for the dead man's land between them. It was a bit chilly the whole day and began drizzling lightly there, so I dug out the umbrella and we mostly used it.
After returning via S-bahn to Alexanderplatz, we hopped on the 100 bus for a ride to the middle of the Tiergarten. Windows were foggy, but we got to see a lot of the highlights of Berlin on that ride (Reichstag, etc.). We then had a tasty dinner in the Teehaus at the Englisch Garten, grabbed groceries, and headed back to our flat to skype a happy birthday to my Dad, facebook Tanner, and hit the sack. Zzzzzzzzz
The flat is located just north of the Tiergarten and south of the Spree in the Hansavertiel district. There's an inner courtyard surrounded by four apartment buildings that certainly aren't new (neighboring building is about 150 years old, not sure about this one). We were welcomed by the owner of the flat, who lives in the adjoining one, and by his daughter. Our flat basically consists of three long skinny rooms - one is my bedroom, the other has a mini-kitchen and bathroom separated by a bead curtain, the third is the living/eating space with a fold-out bed for Bram. Nothing fancy, but plenty of chairs and desks and such so it should be a good home base for us in what seems like a quiet neighborhood. We took a 3-hour nap before heading out to see Berlin.
We went back to the S-Bahn station, got some Euros from an ATM and then some pastries from a local vendor, then headed for a boat tour of the Spree. Not sure it was worth the cost, actually. After that we walked around Unter den Linden, bought tickets to see "My Square Lady" on Thursday at the Komische Oper, and looked at the Brandenburg gate. We found the Russian, French, and American Embassies, and walked through the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, taking out our "spot" to send images home. The museum under the Memorial was closed, so we couldn't go through that. May have to go back if we have time.
We then took the S-Bahn out to the longest surviving stretch of the Berlin Wall, the East Side Gallery, which has been painted by a number of different artists - plus a certain number of uninvited graffitists. I liked the "Checkpoint Charlie" cartoon images and the Trabant crashing through the wall in trompe l'ohowdoyouspelloeielel style. There were a couple of sections of the "other part" of the wall so you could get a feel for the dead man's land between them. It was a bit chilly the whole day and began drizzling lightly there, so I dug out the umbrella and we mostly used it.
After returning via S-bahn to Alexanderplatz, we hopped on the 100 bus for a ride to the middle of the Tiergarten. Windows were foggy, but we got to see a lot of the highlights of Berlin on that ride (Reichstag, etc.). We then had a tasty dinner in the Teehaus at the Englisch Garten, grabbed groceries, and headed back to our flat to skype a happy birthday to my Dad, facebook Tanner, and hit the sack. Zzzzzzzzz