Berlin Thursday
THURSDAY FEB 23
So yesterday I got my laundry caught up, a brief trip down to the Europa Center, and a sort of walk about in the nice 20 degree weather. Today it was breakfast and then jump onto the OnOffBus. The day started with lots and lots of blue sky which, of course, made for a cold morning…..but so nice to see the sun…..esp shining on the old bombed Wilhem church.
Before I forget, Hawaii must have got its pedestrian lead from Sweden, the Volvo guy told us that for years and years they’ve had pedestrian laws, one can even get jail time. I asked, because I noted that even as you approach a ped walkay, the cars stop. Without fail all cars give benefit to pedestrians when in sight. In Germany if you show an indication to cross, the cars have a pop up sight on the hood (now I now why Mercedes have their hood ornament, and style) and they speed up. It seems worse here in berlin that in the hinterland.
The onoff is great – you are sitting up hi and it’s warm and the earphones are either telling you what is out there or music.
I find myself watching people as much as the sights – how silly. We got off first at the Brandenburg Gate
and walked all around it, taking shots and angles that we must think are unique and no one else has thought of and the funny thing, IT’S COLD. Does she look topless 
to you or is my imagination? I finally figured it out and told my sister I’d be in the Starbucks – first one since leaving America and it was a good one!. We wanted to go in the Reichstag but the line was forever! We then walked the Unter Den Linden as I mentioned briefly yesterday and had our first Berliner! The dress and décor and style and buildings of the Unter Den Linden area are still very much grey and grim compared to the Ku’damm area…where all the women are chic and the buildings nice and clean and stylish. The Sony Center, the ongoing construction and renovation going on nearly everywhere in the east as they make an almost desperate attempt to ‘catch up’ with the west Berlin aura. I felt, for example, that I was in an old communist movie when going shi shi in the Hotel Unter Den Linden – THE hotel of east Berlin. Even the Westin looked dank and dismal. I waited in the lobby of the UDL and I found myself looking around for the old informers and agents.
We got on the bus again and rode it thru the Tiergarten and past the Charlottenburg Schloss, Adenanauer Platz and back to the Sony Center. Here we took some pictures,
looked at the Sony Creativity store, some new VW's, and sat enjoyed the people watching.
Then it was the S-Bahn or the U-Bahn, our stop at Uhlanstrasse and the short few blocks to the hotel before we freeze.
So yesterday I got my laundry caught up, a brief trip down to the Europa Center, and a sort of walk about in the nice 20 degree weather. Today it was breakfast and then jump onto the OnOffBus. The day started with lots and lots of blue sky which, of course, made for a cold morning…..but so nice to see the sun…..esp shining on the old bombed Wilhem church.
Before I forget, Hawaii must have got its pedestrian lead from Sweden, the Volvo guy told us that for years and years they’ve had pedestrian laws, one can even get jail time. I asked, because I noted that even as you approach a ped walkay, the cars stop. Without fail all cars give benefit to pedestrians when in sight. In Germany if you show an indication to cross, the cars have a pop up sight on the hood (now I now why Mercedes have their hood ornament, and style) and they speed up. It seems worse here in berlin that in the hinterland.
The onoff is great – you are sitting up hi and it’s warm and the earphones are either telling you what is out there or music.
I find myself watching people as much as the sights – how silly. We got off first at the Brandenburg Gate
and walked all around it, taking shots and angles that we must think are unique and no one else has thought of and the funny thing, IT’S COLD. Does she look topless 
to you or is my imagination? I finally figured it out and told my sister I’d be in the Starbucks – first one since leaving America and it was a good one!. We wanted to go in the Reichstag but the line was forever! We then walked the Unter Den Linden as I mentioned briefly yesterday and had our first Berliner! The dress and décor and style and buildings of the Unter Den Linden area are still very much grey and grim compared to the Ku’damm area…where all the women are chic and the buildings nice and clean and stylish. The Sony Center, the ongoing construction and renovation going on nearly everywhere in the east as they make an almost desperate attempt to ‘catch up’ with the west Berlin aura. I felt, for example, that I was in an old communist movie when going shi shi in the Hotel Unter Den Linden – THE hotel of east Berlin. Even the Westin looked dank and dismal. I waited in the lobby of the UDL and I found myself looking around for the old informers and agents.We got on the bus again and rode it thru the Tiergarten and past the Charlottenburg Schloss, Adenanauer Platz and back to the Sony Center. Here we took some pictures,
looked at the Sony Creativity store, some new VW's, and sat enjoyed the people watching.Then it was the S-Bahn or the U-Bahn, our stop at Uhlanstrasse and the short few blocks to the hotel before we freeze.
posted by Drue at
9:14 AM
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