From Raleigh to Berlin

To Kathy and I it seems like it's only been a day since I updated our blog; in fact, right now it is Wednesday night and the last update was on Sunday night. Here's what we've been doing since then.

Monday - Raleigh, North Carolina

On Monday morning we got up early and started packing. Hosanna came by between classes around 10:00 and gave us our final hug. By 11:00, we had checked out of the B&B and were on our way to the airport.

On the way, we stopped for lunch and gas. Lunch was at Bojangles; a pulled-pork sandwich for Kathy and a cajun-fried chicken sandwich for me. The food was surprisingly good.

The gas was also amazingly cheap (for someone from Southern California). Finally, we couldn't help but notice; there's no drought here in North Carolina.

Since our plane didn't leave until 8:00 pm, we didn't want to sit around the airport all afternoon so instead, we took the off-ramp for downtown Raleigh to visit the old historic North Carolina Capital.

The Capital has a statue of George Washington in the rotunda by the Italian artist Canova. Apparently he had no idea how American generals dressed, so he put him in the uniform of a Roman Centurion. If you didn't read the brochure, you wouldn't know it was George Washington.

Most of the official government work has moved to modern offices a few blocks away. The original legislature (House of Commons) and Senate chambers have been restored as well as the library and the geologist's office.

Across the street from the Capitol, there are the museums of History and Science. Between them are planters with different kinds of local plants. One of the most important, in North Carolina, of course, was tobacco.

We wandered through museums, glad for the air conditioning (although the weather was much more temperate than when we first arrived.) I was drawn to the extreme mammals exhibit, while Kathy found an affinity for an early Indian maiden.

Flying to Berlin

After leaving Raleigh, we got to the RDU airport around 4:30 and checked in our car. That was painless; we hopped on a shuttle and were at the airport by 5:30, when our plane didn't leave until 8:30 pm. I wanted to make sure that we had enough time for security, etc.

Guess what? For some reason, our tickets were marked TSA-Pre Screened. There were no pat-downs, shoes or belt removals. Our passports were scanned and we were sent through in less than 5 minutes. Way to go TSA!

We had a little food at the airport. Kathy read her book, but I was too nervous to read. We ate a pizza at the California Pizza Kitchen. I kept looking for some kind of misspelling, because the food was entirely tasteless. Someone needs to do some franchise-quality control.

Before boarding the plane, I took a Costco Sleep-aid pill, so I was nodding off before our plane even took off. The boarding on American Airlines wasn't as organized as that of United on our flight out to Raleigh. However, as everyone surged forward to get in the line, Kathy and I hung back. Just then, one of the flight attendants decided to open a second line just where we were standing!

The flight to Heathrow (where we had an hour layover before our flight to Berlin) was 7.5 hours long. The plane wasn't bad, or at least as not-bad as economy-class can be. Unlike the domestic flights we were fed dinner and breakfast and were shown a free movie. I slept almost the whole time (but fitfully; because of my size, I can't really lean back in the seat, so I have to sleep doubled-over.) Kathy wasn't able to sleep at all!

We got into Heathrow about 9:30 am, and our connecting flight was set to board at 11:00 am. Unfortunately, unlike the States, connecting flights have to go through security all over again. Also, unlike the States, they make you put all of your liquids in a single small sandwich bag. Kathy, like hundreds of other people in the airport, had to throw out half of her liquids. It was so disturbing that both of us vowed never to connect through Heathrow again (although we have to coming back on this trip). In the future, we'll make sure we fly non-stop.

Despite the delay, we still made our Berlin flight (15 minutes after the boarding time). By 3:30 pm we had landed at Tegel airport, purchased a 5-day public transit pass and picked up the TXL bus into the center of town. We got off on Unter den Linden and made our way to the Hotel Augustinenhof, which looks out on the courtyard of the old Imperial Post Office.

 After getting settled in our room, we went out looking for food, picked up a German iPhone chip, and replaced some of the items that Kathy had lost to the British Security Service. Both of us felt like zombies, going through the motions. We were successful, though, and finished up with a nice meal. The area we are in is so lively after dark, with a lot of clubs and art galleries. Really different from what we're used to.

Wednesday in Berlin

Tuesday night, both of us slept without moving until 9:00 in the morning. Those of you who know Kathy, know how unusual this is. We sure felt a lot better than the night before though. Our hotel stopped serving breakfast at 10, so we had a little rush to get downstairs, but we were glad we did. Sometimes, having breakfast in your hotel can be a surprise. This surprise was entirely pleasant.

At the end of our street is the old artist's collective Kunsthaus Tacheles. This was a condemned building taken over by a community of squatters in 1990 before it was scheduled for demolition. They secured landmark status for it and converted it into a living and studio space for artists. After a 5-year battle with the bank that wants to turn this into a hotel, the collective finally left in 2012. Still no hotel in 2015, though.

Our first stop was the Brandenburg Gate, the symbol of this now re-united city. Here's our required tourist snapshot in front of the gate. (If you don't take a picture like this, you can't say you've been to Berlin).

Next up was the restored Riechstag, where the last 1500 of Hitler's troops fought the Soviet Army, two days after WWII was officially over. Climbing the dome is another of the must-do sights, but Kathy and I were feeling a little rebellious, so we didn't make reservations; thus we were relegated to looking in from the outside.

Back behind the Brandenburg Gate and the Aldon Hotel, where Phillip Kerr's fictional detective Bernie Gunther plied his trade during the War, stands the Holocaust Memorial: a field of large symbolic undulating gravestones.

Across a different street is the memorial to the Roma (Gypsies) who were killed by the Nazis in the war as well.

From the Brandenburg Gate we walked up Unter den Linden, the main street in pre-war Germany and in the DDR East-German city. Now, some say it's coming back to its pre-war glory. One neat store is Drive, where all of the different VW brands are showcased. We don't have anything like this in the States. Here's a cool concept car; the VW of the future.

Further on we came to Bebelplatz, the square across from Humbolt University where, in 1933, the students and staff burned over 20,000 "forbidden" books, like those from Einstein. In the center of the square is a glass window (in the ground), looking down into an "empty" library.

Across the square is the former State Library where Lenin studied while he was in exile. On the second floor, the library has a stained-glass window depicting his life. (Remember that this is in the former East Germany, where Lenin was a "saint").

I stopped by to see the stained glass. They wouldn't let me check out any books on my OCC ID card. We really need to think about reciprocal privileges here. They did let us eat at Tim's on the first floor, though, where the sandwiches are "as good as they are back home in Canada." I don't know what that means.

After BebelPlatz comes the Museum Island. We're going to put that off seeing the museums until tomorrow or Friday. We did, though, stop at the Neue Wache (the emperor's new guardhouse) which is now the monument to the unknown soldier and the unknown concentration-camp victim. The statue in the middle of the empty room is Kathe Kollwitz' Mother with Her Dead Son.

Crossing the River Spree (a must boat ride one of these evenings), we saw a few "love locks" but nothing like Paris. Either the German police are more diligent removing the locks, or there are fewer sentimental lovers who want to return to Berlin. (I'd guess the former.)

Across the river, we looked around the Berlin Cathedral, a Lutheran, not Roman Catholic basilica. Kathy was especially taken with one of the ornamental mosaics on the entrance.

At Alexanderplatz, the end of our day's sightseeing, we did a little shopping (since I had forgotten to bring my sunscreen, and was now the color of Sebastian the crab in the Little Mermaid). We also looked into the Marien Church from 1270 which is just to the base of the 1,200 foot tall TV tower that dominated East Berlin for years. The organist was playing the giant pipe organ, so we sat and rested as we had an impromptu concert.

The smart thing to do at this point would be to head for home (3:45 pm) and have a little nap before dinner. We didn't do the smart thing, but got on the #100 bus to head over to the zoo. This public bus is known as the cheapskates tour bus because it hits all of the major tourist sights. As we passed through the Tiergarten, Kathy got a picture of the Victory Column (Seigessaule) which was moved by Hitler into its present position in the 1930s.

At the Berlin Zoo stop we walked through the remains of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, kept as a reminder (along with a cross from Coventry Cathedral in England) of the horrors of war.

Kathy also got a few pictures of the little East-German traffic signals that were adopted all over Berlin after reunification.

Finally, at 6:30, we caught the S-Bahn back to our hotel (with only one "oops-we're-going-the-wrong-way" moment). After cleaning up, we headed out for dinner a couple of blocks from the hotel. Here's what we had:

As you can tell, this put me in my "happy place".