Berlin trip report - Berlin links

I've been to Berlin 3 previous times before but always in the
fall/winter, but there are a few things that I hadn't done, so that's my
mission. I met some friends at a party a few weeks ago and they told me
that they were going to Berlin on August 5th for a bus tour. They
planned on spending a few days in Berlin before the bus trip to explore
the city. A few days later I found a very good online last-minute deal
that got me in town a day before they arrived so I told them that I'd
meet them there and off I went. In the past I've stayed in East Berlin
at the Unter Den Linden Hotel and the Radisson SAS. This time I stayed
in West Berlin - at the Intercontinental Hotel on Budapester Strasse :
down the street from the zoo. (Here's some local photos if you want
to check them out)

http://www.btm.de/english/sightseein...rdigkeiten.php

Here's a link to 360 degree panoramas of just about anything in town:

http://www.panorama-cities.net/berlin/berlin.html (need high-speed)

Click on Enlarge - then Full Screen if you like. Also while panning
left/right if a circle appears, you can click in the circle and it will
then open THAT panorama.



Really more a daily diary than a trip report: URL's noted are links for
photos/info on the topic.



Thursday (black font = getting to/from there)

Flight scheduled for 17:30 departure from Logan Airport. I got there
about 16:00 and see a DELAYED message on the gate message board, but in
the 2 hours we waited, Air France never did announce WHY we were
delayed. The gate agents had no idea how to communicate/ take charge of
a crowd. There were about 500 passengers milling about and maybe 100
seated folks (that's all the seats they have) wondering "what's going
on?" 16:30, 17:00, 17:30, and only - "we'll update you when we know
something".

Meanwhile, the British Air flight at the adjacent gate starts boarding -
to London. The London passengers start boarding by row and it's going
fine. Finally Air France announces - "we are now boarding - rows 48-45
please". There are 500 people standing in the way - and no one makes a
path for folks to board. Just "excuse me , excuse me" as the people in
rows 45-48 TRY to get to the gate agent. No leadership from AF to say "please,
everyone else move to the side. "- nothing. And THEN as these passengers
do get through to the gate, they are now using the same door, and in the
way of, the BA passengers that are boarding. So it's a total mess. As I
get checked in I ask about connection in Paris. I had only 1 hour
between flights and we are now more than an hour late taking off. I'm
told "we're gonna land on time. We'll make up the late departure by
flying quicker to Paris." Really? Why don't they just fly faster
normally? We finish loading and take off about 19:00 rather than 17:30.



Friday:

I asked the flight attendant as we were getting close if I can get from
the arrival gate to my departure gate in time and I'm told that " it's a
ten minute walk - you'll have no trouble" Really ? Well, we didn't
arrive on time. We were about 60 minutes late. We landed, taxied to the
gate AREA - but not AT a gate. We walk down stairs onto the tarmac and
they have BUSSES waiting for us. I again mention that "I only have a few
minutes to make a connection. I'm heading to Berlin and any special bus
to take?" I'm told "No - they're all the same". I get on a bus and take
a 15 minute bus ride to the OTHER end of the airport. I can see that the
bus is driving by the terminal that I want to go to, but their 'terminal
area is undergoing renovations and the connectors between some terminals
are closed' and the only point of entry to their area is via this bus to
one certain doorway. Great! They drop us off and I ask directions
/confirm where I'm going. One passageway is blocked , so I have to go
about 300 degrees around their 5 terminals to get to the next one over.
I go as fast as I can and when I get to the general area I don't see my
flight on a departure terminal - it's gone. Let's see - so far we took
off late. We landed late. We landed on the OTHER side of the airport
from where I need to be. I'm told that the hallways are closed, yet I go
thru all but one of them to form almost a loop thru their entire area:
I must be in France! I (and a lot of others) head to the AF Customer
Assistance desk where I'm told the next flight out is a 3 hour wait and
they give me a boarding pass and a breakfast coupon. I'm not hungry -
but I am sleepy since it's now 3am body time. I mill about for 3 hrs
then off to Berlin.



We land at Tegel Airport and I grab a cab to the Intercontinental Hotel.
Traffic is a mess but the cab driver knows his way around town and we
parallel all the stuck traffic by taking back roads through town and get
to the hotel fairly quickly. Although I had expected the cab fare to be
~30 Euros it was actually 14 Euros. I had emailed the hotel previously
asking for an early check-in (expecting to be there about 09:00), so
they have a room waiting for me and I check in at about 11:30. Hmmm - a
driver that got me there quickly - for less than I expected and a hotel
that expected me / has a very nice room waiting for me and a pleasant
porter to carry my bag. Oh yeah - I am no longer in France - welcome to
Germany!



I'm really beat and I napped a few hours then walked a few blocks to a
restaurant in the Europa Center to get wiener schnitzel on the lower
level.

http://www.europa-center-berlin.de/?lang=en#

I haven't eaten in a while - because I want to eat he

http://www.bavarium-berlin.de/index.php?target=locator

I was there years ago and it IS still there. Everything else on the menu
was 6,7,8 ? but the schnitzel cost me ~20?, but it was excellent: more
than I could eat and it did bother me to NOT eat it all but it was as
big as the dinner plate it was served on. I then walked down to KaDeWe
and browsed in there for a few hours. Lots of neat stuff but a lot of
it wouldn't work for me back in the states ( wrong voltage or DVD =
wrong format etc ). Nothing there is cheap, but the food floor was even
more impressive than I remembered - anything you could possibly imagine:
fish, meat, snacks - how about calf brains ? - they've got 'em. Le
Notre (the same bakery that's at the Paris Hotel/casino in Vegas) has a
good area on this floor - one section is bread/pastries and its other
area has sit-down lunches - sandwiches/soups etc.

http://www.kadewe-berlin.de/feinschmecker/index2.php and

http://www.kadewe-berlin.de/feinschm...lan.php?lang=2

By now I was getting really tired so I walked back to the hotel to get
some sleep / get acclimated to the time shift.



Saturday:

My friends would be arriving tonight and staying in East Berlin, so I
figure I'll spend the day there. I took the bus over to Unter den Linden
in the early AM and headed to the Brandenberg Gate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unter_den_Linden ( Lots of links/photos)

While walking up the street I see that the Unter Den Linden Hotel is now
demolished. Last year I thought that they were refurbishing, but now it
and all the buildings to the Friedrichstraße corner are gone - just dirt
there surrounded by a fence. While walking toward the Gate, I was
thinking "I'd really like a coffee, too bad there's only a Starbucks
nearby". JUST as I'm thinking that, I walk by a new Dunkin' Donuts !!!
Three doors down from Starbucks there's now a Dunkin' Donuts - Perfect !
I grabbed a coffee to go and walked around a bit. They are still
building the US Embassy in the corner near the Gate. I walked thru the
Brandenberg Gate, took a left and around the block to the Jewish
Memorial ( the wavy granite blocks) and 30 minutes later I'm on the
back of the Embassy when it starts raining - as I'm walking by - another
Dunkin' Donuts ! Got in from the rain - grabbed another coffee and then
walked down to Friedrichstrasse to see what's new, now that they've
finally finished construction.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrichstrasse

I spent a few hours there and then headed to the Hotel Adlon. I've never
stayed there ,but was scouting it for breakfast/lunch and they open
early and we could sit outside - that's a plan. I still have some time
before they arrive so I headed to the Spree River. There was a flea
market along the river road and I followed it along: everything from 30
year old LP records for sale to homemade crafts, paintings etc. I walked
up the street to meet the others at their hotel and called up to the
room at 17:00 and woke my friend up - he was not happy. Apparently they
got in about 15:30 and he left a message at my hotel for me to meet them
at 18:30. He then went to bed since none of them had slept on the plane:
they had been up for ~30 hours straight. Mine was the fourth phone call
he'd gotten since he tried to get some sleep. I apologized and told him
that I hadn't been at my hotel all day. I took a walk and met up with
the others who had gone out for a snack. At 18:30 we all met in the
lobby and went to dinner across from their hotel - next to another
Dunkin' Donuts! A sociable dinner and then we walked to Brandenberg
Gate and they were all ready for bed, so we discussed our plan for the
next few days and the verdict is: I'm the tour guide! In the morning
they want to go to a certain church for Sunday mass and I had checked
the schedule and it is 08:00, 10:00, 12:00. We decided that 8AM service
is best - then breakfast - then sightseeing. I'm not sure of the bus
schedule so I told them, if I'm not here by 07:30 start walking - either
follow the river OR go 6 blocks - turn left and it's at the end of the
street ( this Church is behind the Opera House) I took the bus back to
my hotel not knowing exactly where it would drop me off, but I saw its
route on map to know which one to take and bus #200 stopped DIRECTLY in
front of my hotel. Perfect. I'm still not acclimated to the time shift
so I didn't sleep too well. I woke up about 02:30 and watched CNN until
about 06:00.



Sunday:

The busses don't run too often in the early morning on a Sunday so when
I got to the bus stop across the street at about 07:00 , I see that I
just missed one and the next bus will arrive at my stop at 07:23. By the
time I got to Unter Den Linden (near the Gate), it was 07:33. I start
walking toward their hotel and after 5-10 minutes I'm thinking - I
should have seen them by now (I told them to start walking at 07:30): so
I suspect that they must have gone the other way - following the river
to the square. I turned around and headed down that way and after about
20 minutes they showed up. They had waited at the hotel until 07:45 for
me.

We went into the old church and afterward we walked down to the
Radisson SAS.

http://www.btm.de/cgi-bin/sehenswert...prache=english

I showed them the aquarium in the center of the hotel and then we ate in
a small cafe near the hotel. (I had wanted to take them to the
Opernpalais Café but when we walked by it didn't look to be open. I
later found out that it WAS) By then the fog was lifting and the sun
looked like it was gonna come out for the first time since we'd gotten
there , so we headed over to the TV tower.

http://www.berlinerfernsehturm.de/engl/05home_e.html

(It's the tower that looks like the Vegas Stratosphere - with a
revolving restaurant near the top. If you like desserts - skip the main
course and have some of their awesome desserts. As we were going around
, we'd go by the food servers' station and saw the best looking
desserts - but we had already ordered "regular food")

We ate there - enjoyed the view and then spent the rest of the day
walking back/stopping along the way. I told my friends that at the rate
they were going " it's gonna take about 8 weeks to see the city". They
chuckled and said "this is the first time you've gone on vacation with
us, huh? You're not used to this, but this is typical pace for us."
Walked around there

http://www.berlin-tourist-informatio...irk-mitte.html

and then along Unter den Linden back to their hotel ( Hotel Jolly
Vivaldi)

http://www.berlin-tourist-informatio...prache=english



Monday

Today I'm playing tour guide for West Berlin. They met me at my hotel

http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/ic/.../BERHA/welcome

about 10:30 and we headed down toward the Europa Center. On the way the
girls decide that they'd rather visit the zoo (to see the pandas - and
maybe to just have some time to themselves), so we agree that they'll
call us when they're done and we can meet along the way. The rest of us
then walked to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. It's an old church
that was bombed during WWII and left as a reminder of the results of
war.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiser_...emorial_Church

From there we walked down to KaDeWe so I could show them the 6th floor -
and all that food! They were amazed with the assortment of available
items and after a few hours, we wanted to eat there but when it came
time to "order a sandwich", we couldn't find a counter where you could
get a customized sandwich - like ham AND cheese with mustard or lettuce
and tomato. At the ham counter they had ham and in the cheese section
they had a wide array of cheeses, but we couldn't mix and match. They
only had pre-made sandwiches and they had been out for a while. We COULD
have bought baguettes and a knife and some mustard and some lettuce .
and MADE a sandwich but it was quickly getting very frustrating so
rather than do that and make a scene, we got irritated and just left.
Also by then it was getting warm in the store - all week I found that
the AC isn't that great - anywhere. If you get there EARLY the temp is
fine but once it gets crowded - it warms up quickly. The girls then
called and we met up with them and headed for the Kudamm to have lunch
outside. The first place we stopped, we sat and sat and watched our
waitress go by but got no service. (Tipping vs. no-tipping is a topic
for another day) Then the waitress took our drink orders and then
disappeared. We found our own menus. The folks at the table next to us
had drinks and were upset - waiting for their check. The waitress
ignored them too until they got up to leave. She then presented them
with a check - and waited in their face for them to pay. Meanwhile she
is 6 feet from us but not even pretending to care about taking our
order. Someone else delivered the drinks. We kept asking for her
attention: she'd look at us and then look away. One of the group makes
a comment that it's like a Seinfeld episode with "the soup Nazi". I gave
him a look and he realized what he had just said - and where we are !
Ok - we've had it - we're outta here too. We get up to leave and she
THEN comes to our table. We paid for our drinks and left. Onto the Hard
Rock! Yeah it's not what any of us had in mind but I know there we can
get food and drinks and it's only around the corner. Took a left onto
Mienekestrasse - down the street and got a GREAT waiter from Puerto
Vallarta, Mexico. We had a fun time there and although it wasn't German
food, it was good. After that we headed down the street to "The Story of
Berlin".

http://www.story-of-berlin.de/downlo..._of_berlin.pdf

Got there about 16:00 and had only about an hour to allow for the visit
as the group needed to be back in East Berlin to meet up with their tour
group for orientation dinner at 18:30. We had to skip the bunker tour as
not enough time.



Tuesday

Fellow travelers have now started their escorted tour so this is my day
to head to the Pergamon Museum. Normally I'm not one for museums but
this one has stuff from all over the world and from what I've read it's
really something to see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pergamon_Museum. I spent about 3.5 hours
there and it was getting really warm and stuffy in the Museum (about
1pm), so I headed across the street to the Opernpalais. As I start
walking there the sun came out and the wind died down a bit - a PERFECT
day! This is EXACTLY what I wanted to do - just sit outside and enjoy
it. ( One thing that I do find funny there. if you go in and turn LEFT
to the restaurant rather than right into the pastry section.. along the
staircase .. on the right there are photos of famous visitors that have
been there . entertainers, politicians such as Henry Kissinger and
others. Now look on the left side of the stairs: they have photos of the
winners of past gay festivals - all in drag . some men wearing nothing
but G-strings. I just find it strange to have Henry Kissinger opposite
the drag queens.) I walked through the pastry section and checked out
the display case. There are so many pastries there it's tough - but I
opt for coffee and an "Apfeltarte". It is a flaky pastry shaped like a
boat/bathtub with sliced apples and raisins inside. I grabbed a table
outside - told the waitress my order - sat back and enjoyed it. For the
first time since I'd been there the weather was perfect so I got another
coffee / people-watched and just read the paper for a while. I then
walked up to Freidrichstrasse and went thru the stores - #205, #206,
Lafayette Galleries etc. Lots of neat stuff but I don't want to carry it
home. I got to their hotel about 16:15 and they showed up at 16:30 from
their tour to Potsdam. They dropped off their stuff and we headed to
dinner and drinks and then a neighborhood walk. We say goodbye as they
will leave Berlin tomorrow to continue their bus tour. I headed back to
my hotel. It took about an hour but a lovely walk thru the Tiergarten to
the Victory column and over to Budapesterstrasse about 20:45

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stra%C3%9Fe_des_17._Juni





Wednesday:

I have a free day. They have an escorted charter and then leaving town
and I've done/seen everything that I wanted to see so this day I'll
spend wandering in West Berlin. In my head I had memories of bits and
pieces that seem out of whack, so I'm gonna take a walk and see if I can
make them all fit together to know the area better. First thing - I
headed for the train station that I used when I first came here in 1995.
I walked thru the train station out to the other side and THAT'S the
view I remember - a giraffe on a building pointing me to the Zoo. So
now I walk over that way and there's a walkway behind the zoo - along
the river. A nice day for the walk and a lot of strollers are there as
well as folks just lying along the river enjoying the sun (it's mostly
been raining for the past few weeks). I take the path around and I'm now
on the other side on my hotel. I turn right and right and there's my
hotel - got it. Next: over toward the big dept store - KaDeWe to link
all those streets in my head. Up and down a few of them and by now it's
time for some lunch so I stopped at a Schlemmermeyer for a bratwurst and
some blaukraut. When I ask for blaukraut, she asks me "Red Cabbage?" I
wondered why and I just checked and blaukraut is what they call it in
SOUTHERN Germany (as in Munich - where I last ordered it). In northern
Germany it's called rotkohl ! Whatever they call it, although she
seemed surprised that it's all I want on a plate, she knew what I wanted
and weighs the empty plate then scoops some on there and reweighs the
plate to charge me for it by the weight. EXCELLENT! If I lived near
here I would have no need to ever buy any groceries: if really hungry
schnitzel across the street in the Europa Center and if not that
hungry - here I'd get bratwurst and red cabbage with a Coke. Finished
the meal and walked up and down the side streets in the area looking for
local drugstores. Eventually I came across a DM and it had exactly what
I wanted - suntan lotion. In Europe the sunscreens have more protection
than here in the US ( although the FDA did just approve most of the
stuff that Europe already uses, it's gonna still be a few years before
you can buy it in the states). I bought a high SPF 50+, a moderate SPF
12, and an après-sun lotion that replenishes the skins' vitamins after
sunburn. While near the Europa Center I saw the "Apollo city sauna"
across the street and I was thinking - "a massage would be great: I
wonder if they have it there." I crossed the street to check it out and
as I neared the door I saw a brass plate displaying that they are a
member of the International Gay Association and other things written on
the plaque in other languages - all containing the word 'Gay'. No
associations listed that did not specify 'Gay' in the title, so I
elected to skip the massage. I slowly worked my back toward the
hotel - and packed my bag to leave in the morning.



Thursday

Up in the morning, turn on the news and I see that there's a big to-do
in London's Heathrow about terrorist plot to blow up planes. Great - and
I'm heading to the airport!



I head out early to allow enough time for all of the baggage checking
that I see on the TV and get there a few hours early. Things went fine
out of Berlin: on to Paris. Same thing this time with the bus drive
around the airport. This time I kinda know where I'm going and realize
that getting to Customs quickly will mean the difference between making
my flight and being 500th in line to get my passport checked. I hurry to
the customs area and there are only about 30 people in line for non-EU
passport control. However there is ONE guy checking passports. AND it
seems that everyone that goes to the window has a story/problem and it's
taking minutes for him to check each person through. At this rate I
figure that I'm gonna miss my return flight too. I eventually get
through and onto my gate. I check the board and it's a 15:55 flight and
hasn't left yet. I make it to the gate and see that it is full of
people. As in Boston, there is no communication. The gate board flashes
BOARDING yet no one is moving . 15:30, 15:45, 16:00 no update - still
flashing BOARDING. I'm chatting with the guy next to me in line. He's a
school teacher and has been camping out around Europe for 4 weeks.
Having a fun chat about common places/experiences and while looking over
his shoulder toward the agent desk I ask "Isn't that John Kerry up
there?" Yeah Senator John Kerry is on my flight - great! If security
wasn't holding us up before - it is now. . 16:15, 16:30 no update from
anyone - the sign still says BOARDING. 17:00, 18:00 and they announce
that we have to go through security again for all carry-on baggage. No
water, no mouthwash, no toothpaste, nothing liquid allowed etc. If they
had supplied trash barrels it would have been quicker but I'm figuring
that they probably want to remove and document the items from each
person to track who had what etc. Instead they have two ~19 yr old kids
going thru each carryon and removing mouthwash, toothpaste etc and
tossing it into a big bucket. They're not tracking it at all. Just
throwing it into a barrel and hope it doesn't explode - how stupid is
that! They ARE expecting/looking for explosives, right? Why not take a
copy of each person's boarding pass and put it into a baggie with the
"stuff from that person's possession". At least that way if you DO find
an explosive you can track where it came from.

Well eventually we got thru the gate check onto a bus and head to the
plane. (and yes - they took Kerry's toothpaste too. ) In my seat is
sitting a French boy - maybe 4 yrs old. I explain in French (that I
haven't used since high school) that it's my seat and he then goes to
the seat behind me. Had I known where he sat I should have just hopped
in there. Now the kids are talking over my head and they've put
headphones on so now they're yelling. I ask them to please be quieter
and of course the 4 year old has no idea that with headphones on he's
now screaming to talk to his sister 3 feet away. After a few minutes
the guy behind me is speaking English - calling home to say that we
haven't taken off yet etc and I'm thinking "Great - the father speaks
English". I wait for him to get off the phone and suggest that if he
doesn't mind the 2 kids can sit together and I'll take the boys seat
behind me. That way they can chat all the way to the US - quietly. The
man says that it's fine with him. We all agree and swap seats. Great -
NOW I'll have a peaceful flight. Turns out the guy next to me isn't
their father - he's returning from a solo trip to Athens. Time goes by
and eventually others arrive via bus and then we're getting ready to go.
By now it's about 19:15 and a stewardess is going up the aisle with
water and glasses for us to have a drink. When she gets to the row with
the 2 kids she looks at me/the guy next to me and asks "which if you
moved from here?" I explain that it is me and WHY I did what I did -
the kids are now quiet and much more convenient. She then explains that
this cannot be done because these unescorted children need to have an
adult next to them in case of emergency (to apply their air mask etc).
I'm thinking - since when did this become MY responsibility??? If AF
signed up for it - fine - but I certainly didn't! OK, swap seats again.
Except this time I have the child take the window seat behind Kerry and
I sit behind his assistant. The kids start yelling to each other
again . the AF folks don't deal with it - take my advice - don't ever
fly Air France. I know it's a bad travel day but a LOT of what happened
should not have happened if they managed their business better. Normally
I have no problem sleeping on the flight, but on this one I got to sleep
for about an hour. We got to Boston about 02:30 Friday (resetting the
clock would be 22:30 Thursday EDT) and it took a long time for my
baggage to appear. I got home about midnight (6am body time for me).



Berlin was great: Air France - never again.

- Bobb - wrote:

I've been to Berlin 3 previous times before but always in the
fall/winter, but there are a few things that I hadn't done, so that's my
mission.


Nice trip report, thanks!

--
Best
Greg

"Gregory Morrow" wrote:

Nice trip report, thanks!

My thanks, too.

--
PB
The return address has been MUNGED
My travel writing: http://www.iol.ie/~draoi/

Enjoyed reading your report, Thanks

"marcus88" wrote in message
ups.com...
Enjoyed reading your report, Thanks


Excellent report.

Gummo

(Here’s some local photos/guides if you want to check them out)
http://www.btm.de/english/sightseein...rdigkeiten.php and
http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel...de-Berlin.html
Here’s a link to 360 degree panoramas of just about anything in town:
http://www.panorama-cities.net/berlin/berlin.html (need high-speed)
Click on Enlarge – then Full Screen if you like. Also while panning
left/right if a circle appears, you can click in the circle and it will
then open THAT panorama.
(URL’s noted are links for photos/info on the topic. Right-click on it -
open in new window)

Friday:
The flight to Paris was a mess: total incompetence from Air France. The
flight was late arriving in Boston – no communication from the gate
crew. We waited and waited. In Paris it arrived late – not at a gate but
on the tarmac – we took a bunch of busses to the OTHER end of the
airport – driving by my terminal - missed the connection to Berlin. A 3
hour wait for next flight: I’ll save 5 paragraphs of detail by simply
stating - Awful in Boston AND in Paris.

From Paris we flew into Tegel Airport (Berlin has 3 airports) and I
grabbed a cab to the Intercontinental Hotel. Traffic is a mess but the
cab driver knows his way around town and we parallel all the stuck
traffic by taking back roads through town and get to the hotel fairly
quickly. Although the normal cab fare is about 30 Euros- today it was 14
Euros. I had emailed the hotel previously asking for an early check-in
(expecting to be there about 09:00), so they have a room waiting for me
and I check in at about 11:45. Hmmm – a driver that got me there
quickly – for less than I expected and a hotel that expected me / has a
very nice room waiting for me and a pleasant porter to carry my bag. Oh
yeah – I am no longer in France: welcome to Germany!

I’m really beat and I napped a few hours then walked a few blocks to the
Europa Center to get wiener schnitzel at a restaurant in the lower
level.
http://www.europa-center-berlin.de/?lang=en#
I hadn’t eaten today – because I wanted to eat he
http://www.bavarium-berlin.de/index....f5 ddc76c47b3
I was there years ago the food was very good. Everything else on the
menu was €6, 7, 8 but the schnitzel cost me ~20€ : it was excellent !
It was more than I could eat and it did bother me to NOT eat it all but
it was as big as the dinner plate it was served on. I then walked down
to KaDeWe (big fancy dept store) and browsed in there for a few hours.
(Link below) Lots of neat stuff but a lot of it wouldn’t work for me
back in the states ( wrong voltage or DVD = wrong format etc ). Nothing
there is cheap, but the sixth floor was even more impressive than I
remembered – spotless- and any food you could possibly imagine: fish,
meat, entire cases of just salamis, another entire area of different
cheeses, etc – how about calf brains? – they’ve got ‘em: right over
there next to all the other body parts. Le Notre (the same bakery that’s
at the Paris Hotel/casino in Vegas) has a good area on this floor – one
section is bread/pastries and its other area has sit-down lunches –
sandwiches/soups etc. Picture the deli dept in your grocery store
chain - now picture that it takes the entire footprint of that
supermarket. That's how much stuff they have here - a sample:
http://flickr.com/photos/renaat/218739357/
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:KaDeWe_Deli.JPG
http://flickr.com/photos/tags/kadewe/
http://www.kadewe-berlin.de/index2_engl.php And then pick the floor #
along the top. ( in top left can choose German/English)
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=kadewe+deli will get you lots of
pointers. As you might tell - I was very impressed.
I was enjoying just browsing but I was getting really tired so I walked
back to the hotel to get some sleep / get acclimated to the time shift.

Saturday:
My friends would be arriving tonight and staying in East Berlin, so I
figure I’ll spend the day there. I took the bus over to Unter den Linden
in the early AM and headed to the Brandenberg Gate.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unter_den_Linden (Lots of links/photos)
While walking up the street I see that the Unter Den Linden Hotel is now
demolished. Last year I thought that they were refurbishing, but now it
and all the buildings to the Friedrichstraße corner are gone – just dirt
there surrounded by a fence. (Looks like Vegas!) While walking toward
the Gate, I was thinking “I’d really like a coffee, too bad there's only
a Starbucks nearby". JUST as I'm thinking that (no kidding), I walk by
the counter of a new Dunkin' Donuts! Three doors down from Starbucks
there’s now a Dunkin’ Donuts - Perfect ! I grabbed a coffee to go and
walked around a bit and then to the Hotel Adlon. (If you remember it,
this is where Michael Jackson held his son out the window)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adlon_Hotel
I’d never stayed there, (too much $$) but was scouting it for
breakfast/lunch and they do open early … we could sit outside – that’s a
plan.
I walked thru the Brandenberg Gate, took a left and around the block to
the Jewish Memorial (the wavy granite blocks) and 30 minutes later I'm
on the back of the in-progress US Embassy when it starts raining as I'm
walking by - another Dunkin' Donuts ! Got in from the rain - grabbed
another coffee and then walked down to Friedrichstrasse to see what’s
new, now that they’ve finally finished construction.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrichstrasse
I spent a few hours there and I still have some time before my friends
arrive, so I headed down to the Spree river. There was a flea market
along the river road and I followed it along: everything from 30 year
old LP records for sale to homemade crafts, paintings etc. I took my
time and walked up the street along the river to their hotel and called
up to the room at 17:00 and woke my friend up - he was not happy.
Apparently they got in about 15:30 and he left a message at my hotel for
me to meet them at 18:30. He then went to bed since none of them had
slept on the plane: they had been up for ~20 hours. Mine was the fourth
phone call he'd gotten since he tried to get some sleep. I apologized
and told him that I hadn’t been at my hotel all day. I took a walk and
met up with the others who had gone out for a snack. At 18:30 we all met
in the lobby and went to dinner across from their hotel - next to
another Dunkin' Donuts! A sociable dinner and we discussed our plan for
the next few days and the verdict is: I'm the tour guide! In the
morning they want to go to a certain church for Sunday mass and I had
checked the schedule online and we decided that 8AM service is best -
then breakfast - then sightseeing. I'm not sure of the bus schedule so
I told them, if I'm not here by 07:30 start walking - either follow the
river OR go left 6 blocks - turn left and it's at the end of the street
( this Church is behind the Opera House) I took the bus back to my hotel
not knowing exactly where it would drop me off, but I saw its route on
map to know which one to take and bus #200 stopped DIRECTLY in front of
my hotel. Perfect. I’m still not acclimated to the time shift so I didn’t
sleep too well. I woke up about 02:30 and watched CNN until about 06:00.

Sunday:
The busses don't run too often in the early morning on a Sunday so when
I got to the bus stop across the street at about 07:00 , I see that I
just missed one and the next bus will arrive at my stop at 07:23. (Sorry
can’t read my scribbling too well,) But … on the way there, on EbertStr
near LeipzeigerStr on WilhelmStr – old section of wall is still there.
By the time I got to Unter Den Linden (near the Gate), it was 07:33. I
start walking toward their hotel and after 5-10 minutes I'm thinking - I
should have seen them by now (I told them to start walking at 07:30): so
I suspect that they must have gone the other way - following the river
to the square. I turned around and headed down that way and after about
20 minutes they showed up. They had waited at the hotel until 07:45 for
me. We went into the old church and afterward we walked down to the
Radisson SAS to see the aquarium.
http://www.btm.de/cgi-bin/sehenswert...prache=english
I showed them the aquarium in the center of the hotel and then we ate in
a small cafe near the hotel.( NOT the Adlon, nor the Operapalais !)
http://www.arcspace.com/travel/radis...on_berlin.html
(I had wanted to take them to the Opernpalais Café but when we walked by
it didn’t look to be open. I later found out that it WAS) By then the
fog was lifting and the sun looked like it was gonna come out for the
first time since we’d gotten there , so we headed over to the TV tower.
http://www.berlinerfernsehturm.de/engl/05home_e.html
It's a tower that looks like the Vegas Stratosphere - with a revolving
restaurant near the top. I hadn’t been there before, since whenever I’ve
been in town it’s been overcast or got dark early or I just didn;t have
the time. We did have to wait about 20 minutes to get up there. Then
about a 20 minute wait for a table for 7 - which I thought was pretty
good. If you like desserts – skip the main course. As we were going
around, we’d go by the food servers’ station and saw the best looking
desserts – but we had already ordered “regular food�. What we had was
good: the prices were reasonable and the view was great. On the level
below the rotating section there is a non-moving windowed level with all
the landmarks marked along the appropriate window with a write up on it:
very useful. When done there, we then spent the rest of the day walking
back/stopping along the way. I told my friends that at the rate they
were going " it's gonna take about 8 weeks to see the city". They
chuckled and said “this is the first time you’ve gone on vacation with
us, huh? You’re not used to this, but this is typical pace for us.�
Luckily I know what else I want to see and have allowed enough time on
my own to do it.
We walked around the Gendarmenmarkt area a bit and then took a
scenic/tourist boat ride on the river.
http://www.berlin-tourist-informatio...irk-mitte.html
and then along Unter den Linden back to their hotel ( Hotel Jolly
Vivaldi)
http://www.berlin-tourist-informatio...prache=english
this guy's website has a LOT of photos:
http://flickr.com/photos/p_friedmann...nterdenlinden/

Monday
Today I’m playing tour guide for West Berlin, so they all met me at my
hotel
http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/ic/.../BERHA/welcome
and we headed down toward the Europa Center. On the way the girls decide
that they’d rather visit the zoo (to see the pandas – and maybe to just
have some time to themselves), so we agree that they’ll call us when
they’re done and we can meet along the way. The 5 of us then walked to
the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. It’s an old church that was bombed
during WWII and left as a reminder of the results of war.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiser_...emorial_Church
From there we walked down to KaDeWe to see the 6th floor – and all that
food! They were amazed with the assortment of available items and after
a few hours, we wanted to eat there but when it came time to “order a
sandwich�, we couldn’t find a counter where you could get a customized
sandwich – like ham AND cheese with mustard or lettuce and tomato. At
the ham counter they had ham and in the cheese section they had a wide
array of cheeses, but we couldn’t mix and match. They only had pre-made
sandwiches and they had been out for a while. We COULD have bought
baguettes and a knife and some mustard and some lettuce … and MADE a
sandwich but it was quickly getting very frustrating so rather than do
that and make a scene, we got irritated and just left. Also by then it
was getting warm in the store – all week I found that the AC isn’t that
great – anywhere. If you get there EARLY the temp is fine but once it
gets crowded – it warms up quickly. The girls then called and we met up
with them and headed for the Kudamm to have lunch outside. The first
place we stopped, we sat and sat and watched our waitress go by but got
no service. (Tipping vs. no-tipping is a topic for another day) Then the
waitress took our drink orders and then disappeared. We found our own
menus. The folks at the table next to us had drinks and were upset –
waiting for their check. The waitress ignored them too until they got up
to leave. She then presented them with a check – and waited in their
face for them to pay. Meanwhile she is 6 feet from us but not even
pretending to care about taking our order. Someone else delivered the
drinks. We kept asking for her attention: she’d look at us and then look
away. One of the group makes a comment that it’s like a Seinfeld
episode with “the soup Nazi�. I gave him a look and he realized what he
had just said – and where we are! Ok – we’ve had it – we’re outta here
too. We get up to leave and she THEN comes to our table. We paid for
our drinks and left. Onto the Hard Rock! Yeah it’s not what any of us
had in mind but I know there we can get food and drinks and it’s only
around the corner. Took a left onto Mienekestrasse – down the street
and got a GREAT waiter from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. We had a fun time
there and although it wasn’t German food, it was good. After that we
headed down the street to “The Story of Berlin�.
http://www.story-of-berlin.de/downlo..._of_berlin.pdf
Got there about 16:00 and had only about an hour to allow for the visit
as the group needed to be back in East Berlin to meet up with their tour
group for orientation dinner at 18:30. We had to skip the bunker tour as
not enough time. I offered to take them to dinner at the restaurant on
top of the Reichstag, ( to avoid the lines) but they’ll be getting in
too late.
http://www.feinkost-kaefer.de/ht_de/...lin/berlin.php
I hop on the bus with them and get off in Potsdamer Platz to wander
around. Played tourist a bit then got a coffee at a sidewalk café and
people-watched a bit. If you go there – look in the street and in the
grass and you’ll see the bricks marking where the wall used to be. It
starts on one lawn – diagonally across the street onto the other lawn.
A few streets down turn left and you’ll see a piece of the Wall that’s
on display ( sorry I lost my paper that had the street name ( locals –
a little help ?? )

Tuesday
Fellow travelers have now started their escorted tour so this is my day
to head to the Pergamon Museum. Normally I’m not one for museums but
this one has stuff from all over the world and from what I’ve read it’s
really something to see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pergamon_Museum
I spent about 3.5 hours there and wasn’t disappointed. By the time I
finished, it was getting really warm and stuffy in the Museum (about
1pm). Browsed the other museums and then I headed across the street to
the Opernpalais.
http://www.opernpalais.de/subs/fr_haupt.htm
As I start walking there the sun came out and the wind died down a bit –
a PERFECT day! This is EXACTLY what I wanted to do – just sit outside
and enjoy it. ( One thing that I do find funny there… if you go in and
turn LEFT to the restaurant rather than right into the pastry section..
along the staircase .. on the right there are photos of famous visitors
that have been there … entertainers, politicians such as Henry Kissinger
and others. Now look on the left side of the stairs: they have photos of
the winners of past gay festivals – all in drag … some men wearing
nothing but G-strings. I just find it strange to have Henry Kissinger
opposite the drag queens.) I walked through the pastry section and
checked out the display case. There are so many pastries there it’s
tough – but I opt for coffee and an “Apfeltarte“. It is a flaky pastry
shaped like a boat/bathtub with freshly sliced apples and raisins
inside. I grabbed a table outside – told the waitress my order – sat
back and enjoyed it.
http://www.opernpalais.de/gfxnew/terrasse1.jpg and
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/p/m/2d4c1a/
For the first time since I’d been there the weather was perfect so I got
another coffee / people-watched and just read the paper for a while. I
then walked up to Freidrichstrasse and went thru the stores: #205,
#206, Galleries Lafayette etc. Those shops are in the lower level of the
new building “with all the glass� at the corner of Freidrich and Jager
Strasses. Lots of neat stuff, but I don’t want to carry it home. I got
to their hotel about 16:15 and they showed up at 16:30 from their tour
to Potsdam. They dropped off their stuff and we headed to dinner and
drinks and then a neighborhood walk. We said goodbye as they will leave
Berlin tomorrow to continue their bus tour. I headed back to my hotel.
It took about an hour but a lovely walk thru the Tiergarten to the
Victory column / Bellevue Palace and to my hotel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stra%C3%9Fe_des_17._Juni

Wednesday:
I have a free day. They have an escorted charter and then leaving town
and I’ve done/seen everything that I wanted to see so this day I’ll
spend wandering in West Berlin. In my head I had memories of bits and
pieces that seem out of whack, so I’m gonna take a walk and see if I can
make them all fit together to know the area better. First thing – I
headed for the train station that I used when I first came here in 1995.
I walked thru the train station and a lot of shops in there to grab a
coffee, train schedules etc. One strange thing is that THIS same
building (along the sides) contains “the Erotik Museum� and other sex
shops/ seems strange to have it so public. Convenient, but I would think
the public would want it not so obvious. Anyway, through the train
station, out to the other side and THAT’S the view I remember – a
giraffe on a building pointing me to the Zoo. So I walked over that way
and there’s a walkway behind the zoo – along the river. A nice day for
the walk and a lot of strollers are there as well as folks just lying
along the river enjoying the sun (it’s mostly been raining for the past
few weeks). From here you can see the elephants, llamas and a few others
as you stroll along. I take the path around and I’m now on the other
side on my hotel. I turn right and right and there’s my hotel – got it.
Next: over toward the big dept store – KaDeWe to link all those streets
in my head. Up and down a few of them and by now it’s time for some
lunch so I stopped at a Schlemmermeyer for a bratwurst and some
blaukraut. When I ask for blaukraut, she asks me “red cabbage?� I
wondered why and I just checked and blaukraut is what they call it in
SOUTHERN Germany (where I last ordered it). In northern Germany it’s
called rotkohl ! Whatever they call it, although she seemed surprised
that it’s all I want on a plate, she knew what I wanted and weighs the
empty plate then scoops some on there and reweighs the plate to charge
me for it by the weight. EXCELLENT! If I lived near here I would have
no need to ever buy any groceries: if really hungry schnitzel across the
street in the Europa Center and if not that hungry - here I’d get
bratwurst and red cabbage with a Coke. Finished the meal and walked up
and down the side streets in the area looking for local drugstores.
Eventually I came across a DM and it had exactly what I wanted – suntan
lotion. In Europe the sunscreens have more protection than here in the
US ( although the FDA did just approve most of the stuff that Europe
already uses, it’s gonna still be a few years before you can buy it in
the states). I bought a high SPF 50+, an SPF 20, an SPF 10 and an
après-sun lotion that replenishes the skins’ vitamins after sunburn.
While near the Europa Center I saw the “Apollo city sauna� across the
street and I was thinking – “a massage would be great: I wonder if they
have it there.� I crossed the street to check it out and as I neared
the door I saw a brass plate displaying that they are a member of the
International Gay Association and other things written on the plaque in
other languages – all containing the word ‘Gay’. No associations listed
that did not specify ‘Gay’ in the title, so I elected to skip the
massage. I slowly worked my back toward the hotel – and packed my bag
to leave in the morning.

Thursday
Up in the morning, turn on the news and I see that there’s a big to-do
in London’s Heathrow about terrorist plot to blow up planes. Great – and
I’m heading to the airport! I head out early to allow enough time for
all of the baggage checking that I see on the TV and get there a few
hours early. Things went fine out of Berlin: on to Paris. Same thing
this time with the bus drive around the airport. This time I kinda know
where I’m going and realize that getting to Customs quickly will mean
the difference between making my flight and being 500th in line to get
my passport checked. I hurry to the customs area and there are only
about 30 people in line for non-EU passport control. However there is
ONE guy checking passports AND it seems that everyone that goes to the
window has a story/problem and it’s taking minutes for him to check each
person through. At this rate I figure that I’m gonna miss my return
flight too. I eventually get through and onto my gate. I check the board
and it’s a 15:55 flight and hasn’t left yet. I make it to the gate and
see that it is full of people. As in Boston, there is no communication.
The gate board flashes BOARDING yet no one is moving … 15:30, 15:45,
16:00 no update – still flashing BOARDING. I’m chatting with the guy
next to me in line. He’s a school teacher and has been camping out
around Europe for 4 weeks. Having a fun chat about common
places/experiences and while looking over his shoulder toward the agent
desk I ask “Isn’t that John Kerry up there?� Yeah Senator John Kerry is
on my flight – great! If security wasn’t holding us up before – it is
now. … 16:15, 16:30 no update from anyone – the sign still says
BOARDING. 17:00, 18:00 and they announce that we have to go through
security again for all carry-on baggage. No water, no mouthwash, no
toothpaste, nothing liquid allowed etc. If they had supplied trash
barrels it would have been quicker but I’m figuring that they probably
want to remove and document the items from each person to track who had
what etc. Instead they have two ~19 yr old kids going thru each carryon
and removing mouthwash, toothpaste etc and tossing it into a big bucket.
They’re not tracking it at all. Just throwing it into a barrel and hope
it doesn’t explode – how stupid is that! They ARE expecting/looking for
explosives, right? Why not take a copy of each person’s boarding pass
and put it into a baggie with the “stuff from that person’s possession�.
At least that way if you DO find an explosive you can track where it
came from. Oh that’s right– I’m in France - nevermind! So they
confiscate my “hotel supplied hand creams and shampoos� and my
toothpaste and little bottle of Scope. Just so you don’t get the wrong
impression – although they pick up and moved them, they did not notice
those 4 full-size plastic bottles of suntan lotion that I bought! Oh
that’s right; they WERE camouflaged in the plastic bags from the
drugstore! Great security.

On the way over here from the US, I saw on the monitor that the outside
temp was -65c so I carried the lotions on, figuring that they would
freeze/explode in my checked bag and make a mess. Worst case I’d have to
toss them – but as it turned out they made it through. Maybe the last
time I’ll ever get a chance to get them to US again, but on this flight
it wasn’t a problem. So flying Air France did have its advantages: on
other airlines they would have noticed and tossed them.

Eventually we get thru the gate check onto a bus and head to the plane.
(and yes - they took Kerry’s toothpaste too. ) I head to my window seat
and guess who is sitting in front of me with his seat fully reclined
wearing his Bose headphones – yessiree it’s Sen. John Kerry – in front
of lowly me – in coach. In my seat is sitting a French boy – maybe 4
yrs old. I explain in French (that I haven’t used since high school)
that it’s my seat and he then goes to the seat behind me. Had I known
where he sat I should have just hopped in there. Now the French kids are
talking over my head and they’ve put headphones on so now they’re
yelling. I ask them to please be quieter and of course the 4 year old
has no idea that with headphones on he’s now screaming to talk to his
sister 3 feet away. After a few minutes the guy behind me is speaking
English – calling home to say that WE haven’t taken off yet etc and I’m
thinking “Great - the father speaks English�. I wait for him to get off
the phone and suggest that if he doesn’t mind: the 2 kids can sit
together and I’ll take the boy’s seat behind me. That way they can chat
all the way to the US – quietly AND I won’t have to deal with Kerry’s
fully-reclined seat. He’s only 4 and the reclined seat won’t impact the
boy at all. The man says that it’s fine with him. We all agree and swap
seats. Great – NOW I’ll have a peaceful flight. After chatting a bit, it
turns out the guy next to me isn’t their father - he’s returning from a
solo trip to Athens. Oh well … Time goes by and eventually the rest of
the passengers arrive via bus and then we’re getting ready to go. By
now it’s about 19:15 and a stewardess is going up the aisle with water
and glasses for us to have a drink. When she gets to the row with the 2
kids she looks at me/the guy next to me and asks “which of you moved
from here?� I explain that it is me and WHY I did what I did – the
kids are now quiet and much more convenient. She then explains that this
cannot be done because these unescorted children need to have an adult
next to them in case of emergency (to apply their air mask etc). I’m
thinking - since when did this become MY responsibility??? If AF signed
up for it – fine - but I certainly didn’t! OK, swap seats again. Except
this time I have the child take the window seat behind Kerry and I sit
behind his assistant. The kids start yelling to each other again … the
AF folks don’t deal with it - take my advice - don’t ever fly Air
France. I know it’s a bad travel day but a LOT of what happened should
not have happened if they managed their business better. A barrel in the
middle of the waiting area with instructions to toss it all in there
would have saved hours. Normally I have no problem sleeping on the
flight, but on this one I got to sleep for about an hour. Rather than
Thursday at 17:30, we got to Boston about 02:30 Friday (resetting the
clock made it 22:30 Thursday) and it took a long time for my baggage to
appear. I got home about midnight (6am body time for me).

Berlin was great: Air France – never again.