Well, after eating a lot of scampi and fish, fish salad, fish and chips, baked fish, fried fish, all local fish of which the fishing people of Travemünde are very proud, we headed to Berlin.
In the rain.
Heads down, we walked to the train station in yet another shower.
Once we got half way to Berlin, however, the rains quit, and while it wasn't sunny, it wasn't cold either. As the day wore on we got hit by the occasional misty shower, but we managed to explore our area (West Berlin).
We are staying in Pension Funk, a guesthouse that used to be the home of a movie starlette, Asta Nielsen, from the silent film era. Never heard of her? Me neither, but her house is great!
It is really a unique place, with high (16 foot?) ceilings, antique furnishings, and all the old details you would expect from the early 1900s.
We spent the day walking Berlin. I mean walking about 10 miles. We saw the remains of the Berlin wall, followed it's route for a couple miles exploring neighborhoods, saw the Reichstag, several churches and buildings, Checkpoint Charlie (a big dud) and the Brandenburg Gate.
The second day we walked past big buildings, to the Brandenburg gate, then over to the somber Jewish memorial with its giant, gray blocks. We passed the US embassy, under heavily armed guard (we didn't even bother to try and stop in) and did some shopping.
It is a bit interesting, the general difference between West Berlin and East Berlin. Overall, Berlin does not seem as "European" to me as some other cities, like Rome, Paris or Amsterdam. Sounds funny to say it, but there is a kind of different vibe here. It is very interesting, however. We had an interesting time following the path of the wall, as I said, and we got to see a lot of local neighborhoods, including what looked like an encampment of Gypsies and/or homeless people.
One of the entertaining things for me is to sit in a square, while Gail shops, and watch the Gypsies try to rip off people. Today, in one half hour, I was approached by four people... But I had seen them earlier when they met to plot before splitting up. So when they came by and started, "speak English?" I looked right at them and said "je parlais Francais!" and shook my finger at them and they were gone.
We ended up at a little cafe eating pizza after walking about six miles, and saw a blue heron in the weeds by the lagoon, and watched the blonde-haired secretary come over to the park, strip and lay out to suntan on the grass in front of us. She was soon joined by many others.
Later we decided to eat in the room, so we got two good bottles of red wine, chocolates, food from the markt, where they have stuff like olives, shrimp cocktails, herring, cheeses, and so on, and we spent a dry and warm evening in, just relaxing and eating whatever.
The third day we woke to rain again, and it just kept raining all day. This was Saturday, July 2 and I noted this was three years now we have been out of country for the Fourth of July.
So once again we made the best of it; did laundry, put on the coat and grabbed the umbrella and headed out into Berlin. We just slowed down and hung out in our neighborhood, then took the S-Bahn and then the U- Bahn (U is underground, S is above ground local trains) over to Gendarmenmarkt, one of the most beautiful of the many local Markts, or Town Squares, in Berlin. Anyway we found a great little cafe and sat and ate lunch, drank wine, read local magazines and watched people walk through the square as their umbrellas turned inside out. What a great way to spend an afternoon.
We found a local kind of mall, which had the French store Galeries Lafayette in it, which reminded us of Paris. So in we went, and spent an hour in the basement food store (in many places in Europe the grocery stores are in the basements of train stations or the local department stores) and don't you know, after slurping a fresh oyster at the bar, we walked out with a bag full of chocolates, foie gras, cheese and a bottle of wine for dinner. Sigh* Heaven in a bag.