Guten Tag, Berlin!

We had a wonderful and busy week in Berlin and have now been quietly recovering in our apartment for over a week. No, not because we indulged too heavily in Berlin's famed nightlife, but because the unwanted souvenir we returned to Bucharest with was a cold we have been sharing. We are finally starting to feel more like ourselves and anxious to relive our fantastic vacation.

We left Bucharest on Thursday morning and had our second experience with the local budget airport, Baneasa. Using the lessons we learned from our trip to Milan, we paid ahead for our luggage and seats and did not arrive as early and therefore limited our wait time. In just a short couple of hours, we were in sunny (if a bit chilly and windy) Berlin. Immediately upon arrival, we could sense that we were in Western and not Eastern Europe. Things were much cleaner, more organized and easier to navigate. Our friend, Elizabeth, met us at the airport where we took the S-bahn (train) back into town to her apartment (about a 45 min ride) and later the three of us met her friends for dinner at an Indian restaurant she enjoys. The dinner, especially the company, was pleasant, but the German dislike for spice of any kind was quite obvious in the dishes. After staying up far too late chatting and catching up, we got some shut eye and got ready to see Berlin in the morning.

On Friday morning, we got going as early as we could given our late bedtime and took advantage of the partly sunny day by going to the Berlin zoo, which has several interesting exhibits. We were especially keen to see Knut, a baby Polar bear, who had some Internet fame a few years ago when he was born at the zoo. B and I were fond of seeing the YouTube videos from time to time of his progress as a baby- they may still be available online- they are awfully cute and worth checking out if you can. Though Knut is older and less cute now, he was still quite an attraction, as were the baby elephant, monkey house, and Big Cat exhibit. After the zoo, we walked over to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, which was a church built by Kaiser Wilhelm and subsequently destroyed during WW II. In the postwar period, the church was restored and a museum to its history was also erected next to it. The actual church remains in its original style, however, the museum has a very 1960s look and the combination is quite a site to see. Following the church, we realized we were getting quite hungry, so we headed back to Potsdamer Platz, which would become our home base for the first several days, and decided to try a restaurant called Haus des 100 Biere (House of 100 Beers--and B drank every one! Just kidding.). The food was quite good and the restaurant had several large floor to ceiling windows shining sun into the dining room. It was a very nice place to rest and make further plans. After the restaurant, we walked around the Potsdamer Platz area more and noticed markers indicating where the Berlin Wall had stood, which was quite interesting. It was difficult now, almost 20 years later, to see any separation in the central area of the city. A few sections of the wall remain at Potsdamer Platz, commemorating the very real symbol of Cold War division of West and East Berlin. Also in the area is the Sony Center, which houses several restaurants and shops, as well as the Legoland Discovery Center and a movie theatre that showed original version (non-subtitled/non-dubbed) and IMAX movies. After exploring this area for a while, we met our friends for another Indian dinner and then some drinks. We had a nice, albeit long, evening and soon headed to bed.

Saturday was another sunny, though slightly chilly day, that allowed us to do more outdoor sightseeing. We had a nice lunch at an Australian themed restaurant in the Sony Center and then took a tour of the Legoland Discovery Center. The Legoland Center has a 4-D movie with a knight theme in which all the characters are made of Legos. There was also a short ride called Drachengurg, which took folks past several medieval scenes, in which the scenery and actors are all made of Legos. However, by far the coolest thing in the Legoland Center is a room called MiniLand, in which Berlin was recreated to scale entirely in Legos and a timer was set to create day and night scenes and sounds of Berlin every few minutes. It was truly fantastic! After the Legoland Discover Center, we walked down to the Brandenburg gate, erected to celebrate Prussia's military victories. Inside the gate area are several embassies, including the American and French Embassies, as well as a surprising museum to the Kennedy family (apparently that is what you get for declaring "I am a jelly doughnut!" to the world). We were able to find some nice souvenirs in a shop in the courtyard and then walked towards the Bundestag, the German Parliamentary building. Here we took a small break and sat under a tree for a bit of rest and then walked around a bit more. We visited a memorial to Soviet soldiers who died during WW II and then made our way to the memorial for Jews murdered during the Holocaust, which is a unique outdoor memorial that is potentially vertigo-inducing due to its intentional dips and peaks and slate slabs of varying sizes. Though the architect of the memorial, who B has heard speak in the past, insists the slabs are not meant to represent specific victims of the war, its hard not to relate to them as graves. Therefore, the several groups of visitors playing hide 'n seek among the slabs shortened our visit as neither of us were able to visit the memorial as we would have liked. At this point, we found ourselves pretty hungry and tried a Mexican restaurant opposite Potsamer Platz we had noticed earlier called Cancun. The food was pretty decent and we were once again pleased to notice such affordable prices. After our dinner, we decided to visit the movie theatre we had noticed in the Sony Center and bought tickets for "The Reader" starring Kate Winslet. The theatre was quite nice, with plush large seats and a large screen. We both very much enjoyed the movie and then headed back to Elizabeth's apartment for some shut eye.

Sunday was yet another sunny day, though even chillier, so we bundled up and visited Checkpoint Charlie. Checkpoint Charlie was one of the most famous Checkpoints along the Berlin Wall, separating the Soviet from the American zone. Now there is a memorial to the wall with a replica of the sign that was posted notifying visitors "You are now leaving the American Sector", as well as a Wall Info Point, giving the history of the Wall as well as stories about successful and unsuccessful attempts to escape from East Berlin. After a short coffee break, we visited a very haphazard museum to the Wall, Haus am Checkpoint Charlie. Though some of the stories of escape were interesting, the disorganization of the place made it quite difficult to really focus on the exhibits, so we decided to get a quick snack. We had some nice spring rolls at "Asia Snacks" and then headed back to the Sony Center, where we purchased tickets for "Slumdog Millionaire". We had about an hour before the movie started and so we went to a Dunkin Donuts around the corner and bought some time at their Internet cafe. We then headed back to the theatre and found our assigned seats for the movie and settled in. We thoroughly enjoyed the movie and were so excited to have seen it in a theatre with no subtitles. We are now so happy that we had not seen the movie on the Internet as we had thought of doing. It is clear why this movie is an Oscar winner. When we left the theatre, we walked for a bit in the drizzle until we found an Asian fusion restaurant we decided to try to dinner. The idea is that you choose from a variety of sauces and then take a bowl to an enormous buffet of options for your stir fry. Once you choose all the fillings you would like, you leave your bowl with the chef who prepares your meal with your chosen sauce. The idea is interesting and B's choice of sauce was better than mine, but the experience was diminished by the less than friendly wait staff. Full and tired, we headed back to our friend's apartment and finally relaxed before getting some sleep and readying for another busy day of sight seeing.

To be continued ....