Berlin, June 20-23

It's about time I finished this. I've been a bit busier on this trip than anticipated. It's fine though. Anyway, onwards...
 
I like Berlin. I noticed that last time I was there, in 2008  High time to go back. I'm not counting the drive by during my loop of Germany, though the evening was great fun. I would be staying again at Nina & Glenn (& Tom)'s place. Since Tom wasn't into going out to party, we stayed at home and polished off some of Glenn's red wine supply. Beer and Prosecco supply as well I think.

Saturday, Glenn & I set off to explore Berlin from above and below. We started with a quick visit to the Bernauer Straße, where famously the East German soldier jumped the fence. It's now a bit of a Wall memorial, with murals, posts explaining some of the history and a symbolic wall running along the street.

After that we went underground to see an air raid shelter, that's part of the subway system. There's a group of people who preserve old (mostly) underground installations. The educational tours support that endeavor. Sadly no pics allowed, but it was a fascinating look into what it was like to be in one of those shelters during the war. Another funky bit was the tube mail system running below the entire city at one point. We finished the sight seeing by driving around the city a bit more and having a requisite Curry wurst.

Saturday night was the Germany - Ghana soccer match. We had set up a projection TV in the garage and a bunch of neighbors and friends showed up to grill and cheer (and to put a dent in Glenn's Obstler supply). It stayed dry and not too cold and everyone had a grand old time. Did Germany win that match? I don't remember. I guess those braincells were wiped out by one too many glasses schnaps.

Sunday was a bit of a slow start, but we nonetheless rallied and did a boat trip on the Spree. No doubt the sights were nice, but more importantly we were able to have a beer on board, which put us back on an even keel - so to speak.

Right along the Spree is a lengthy piece of the wall, now covered in graffiti. Really more art than graffiti really.

We finished off the sightseeing on Monday by going up the TV tower and seeing Berlin from above. A visit to the famous Alexanderplatz, another quick curry wurst and it was off to the airport for me.

It was a fun weekend and the city really has a great vibe. I would love to live there for a while, but I need to figure out how to do that...