Corinne:
So Rick Steves didn’t have a section on Berlin (which is understandable since he was only about Eastern Europe). And even if he did, he is currently cheating on me with Maria. Which leaves me without an all-in-one reference source. Which can be slightly traumatic for me.
This morning started with me and some other girl in the nearly full 32-bed room coughing a call and repeat. (I’ve been sick but thankfully nearly recovered.) It took longer than normal to get up and out, and I’m not quite sure why. Trying to be quiet? Anyway, we had planned to meet for a tips-based bike tour at 11, but got on the first U at 10:50. My plan for the day was to go on the tour, then circle back afterward to any sites we wanted to re-see or go into. So I was stranded, and Sarah and Rosie could probably tell by the desperate way I was pleading with one of the 4 tourist maps I picked up to offer answers.
We went back to the hostel so Rosie could get proper footwear on for the bike tour (that also took place at 3, so all was not lost). But now the problem was what to do for 4 hours. We took the U-bahn into the city center and wandered toward the DDR museum (sadly not what you think) but ended up leaving because it didn’t look attractive. We ended up in the Lustgarten outside the Berliner Dom and ate our lunch. (And watched little children play with balloons and accuse each other while playing Red Light Green Light.) We had nothing left to do but walk toward the place where the bike tours met.
We got to the corner an hour before it was supposed to start, and began a long, slow wander through the neighborhood. We got to a large building, and on the side was a face with a quote: “How long is now?” It looked to me like a squatter’s place, with graffiti all over this half bombed out building. When Rosie and Sarah wandered in, I was forced to follow. And we found the coolest little urban art gallery with metal scupltures and fish tanks and textile art… That is when the day started looking up.
We circled the block and got back to the tour just before the sprinkles started. But everyone on the tour was ok with getting wet, so the 3 of us and 10 others got our bikes and set off to see the list of typical sites in downtown Berlin. We each had a brush with death, as Sarah decided not to stop for an ambulance and was in a fender bender, and I couldn’t make it up a curb and nearly slid off and got left behind at a stoplight. And Rosie…survived as well.
Among the things we saw were (giant list that I am really only listing so I can look back on it later) Museum Island and the Berliner Dom; Pariser Platz by the Tiergarten, the Reichstag, and the Brandenburger Gate; Bebelplatz with the Book Burning Memorial, the State Opera and Humbolt University; the Holocaust Memorial and Hitler’s final bunkers; and a lot of angry drivers. Our tour guide was very animated (and from Maine, so ani-Maine-ted, har har) and had some very enlightening tidbits. Such as the fact that Hilter was addicted to cocaine (but we already knew that from “High Hilter” on the History channel). While we were at the Memorial, Rosie, Sarah, and I got a crepe (“banana pancake”, Frank) with banana and Nutella, a slushie, and a “zucker and zimt” crepe respectively. And, despite the fact that Sarah warned her, Rosie still got Nutella on herself. (“That is a bad idea. I think it started when you didn’t take the fork.”)
All in all a good orientation (probably would have been better if I was paying attention to where the sites actually were). And the rain practically stopped after 5 minutes (and did stop after 30).
In the middle of the tour, we were attempting to bike through the Tiergarten but were stopped by the large barricades surrounding the giant screen and the already hundreds of fans jockeying for a spot for the Germany-Turkey quarterfinals tonight. So after the tour, when the three of us went up in the Riechstag, we tried to see the huge crowd, but the trees were blocking it. But what we could hear were the chants.
While we were up in the Reichstag, Sarah needed to go to the bathroom. We were too busy relaxing on this giant, stopper-shaped bench in the middle of the round, glass dome, so we kept delaying the inevitable. Eventually, it reached a peak, and this conversation resulted:
Sarah: “I would go in a corner, but this thing is round and made of glass.”
Rosie: “Well, you know what they say about people who live in glass houses.”
Sarah: “They shouldn’t take off their pants?”
I”m so glad we’ve matured so much on this trip.
When we left the Reichstag at about 8:30, they were turning people away from the FanZone. We tried counting abandoned liquor bottles, but were soon overwhelmed. There was a very smart lady with a cart full of them to turn in for money.
We check a couple U-bahn stations before we found one that was open, then made our way back to the hostel. (We just forgot to pay attention for part and had to take it a stop backward.) Maybe our lack of attention was due to the fact that I was convinced that Rosie’s tap “flap” was toe-heel-toe instead of toe-toe. We took a video of it and slo-moed it to check. I was wrong, but I kept hearing three hits! And then the rest: Dinner of salad and chicken. Watching the end of the game. Now just prepping for tomorrow. Cross your fingers that there might be a plan and it will work.