Berlin July 12, 2012
Traveling Internationally is one of those things that the mind has the ability to block out. The travel from LAX to Berlin was a long day! All the flights were uneventful, which is what you hope for. The long flight, from Cincinnati to Paris was actually a lot shorter than I expected it to be. It only took a little over seven hours. The bad news...Delta, small plane. I have only ever flown once internationally, but Todd and Nicole both assured me that this was the first time ever that they didn't have their own tv in the headrest in front of them. We did get to watch a couple of movies. It's funny how when you are trapped in a plane for hours movies like Journey 2 suddenly become incredibly entertaining. Despite all my best laid plans, I didn't really sleep much at all. That hit me pretty hard at about 3:30 pm in Berlin.
We were met at the airport by someone from EF tours. We made a quick stop at our hotel, an Ibis (pretty typical European chain hotel). Think Holiday Inn Express. As soon as we pulled up to our hotel the rain started. It has been quite a rainy summer in Berlin. We took the subway to the the western part of downtown. I love cities with public transportation. I like the interaction with other people and I like the puzzle of trying to figure out where we are headed and how to get there.
We had about two hours to kill while we waited for another group to join us. The area web were in was VERY commercial. Almost sadly so in my opinion. Berlin is a city under construction and I was sad to see so many typical stores, from Niketown to the Lego store, to Claire's, it all seemed so American. While we were there the rain really started coming down. Since Nicole and I don't like shopping we found a spot to sit get of the rain and people watch. Where else but a Starbucks? And that is when the fatigue set in. I really wasn't sure I was going to be able to make it through the rest of the night. I felt like I had just gotten off a boat. Things kept moving on me!
When we finally met up with the rest of the group (wow that was a wait) we took the subway to the checkpoint Charlie museum. I wish we had seen that a different day. It was a LOT of reading and did I mention things were starting to move on me? Funny how the walls in that museum seemed to ripple as I tried to read. One of the things that has always struck me about the Berlin wall is how different your life could end up with just the slightest chance. Buy a house one block west and your life would have been so different. There was a children's painting that depicted that. There were children on opposite sides of the wall who had rigged up a mail system to send letters back and forth. I imagine before the wall they must have befriends who played together.
After the museum we took the subway and walked ( a lot) to dinner. It was a typical German meat and potatoes. That is not my favorite fare, but everyone else was pleased. We were a little surprised by the jelly donuts sitting on our table when we arrived. Dessert, as it turns out, and very tasty. I also enjoyed my first beer in Germany...which was imported from the Czech republic. I got the dark one, and enjoyed it very much.
The trip home was very enjoyable. By this time I had gotten a bit of a second wind. I am in Europe ready to explore!!
