Berlin - Day one.

By some amount of crazy luck I made it to Berlin this morning on time. Amazing when you consider the airports I flew through. The flights were good and I ended up with some interesting company on the plane to Berlin. A group of Canadians were heading over for a film festival in which their film will be shown. I don't know the title, but I do know it contains sex and violence. Not bad for a three minute film.

In any event, today was a blast. I got in, stowed my luggage at the train station and set off in search of the Berlin Wall Memorial. It took some U-turns on my part, but I eventually found it. It was closed.

Not one to be discouraged, I then headed out in search of Sophien-Kirche. It's supposed to be one of the best churches in Berlin, but I can't say I would know that. I got sort of lost looking for it and ended up wandering up and down Grosse Hamburger Strasse. If that really turns out to mean Big Hamburger Street, then I'll consider getting lost well worth it.

One good thing about getting lost was that I stumbled upon my next destination by accident. I figured I'd pay a tribute to my Jewish friends and visit the Neue Synagogue (New Synagogue). It was the largest synagogue in Berlin until it was turned into a warehouse by the Nazis. Most of it was destroyed by Allied bombs shortly thereafter, but now it is being restored.

Once I was done with that, I walked back over to the central part of what was East Berlin and grabbed some lunch. I only had a hotdog with sauerkraut, but it was by far the best hotdog I have ever had. I even tried a local beer called Berlinerweisse. The beer comes in your choice of color, red or green. I got red which is the beer mixed with sort of a raspberry tasting syrup. It was surprisingly good.

After lunch, I headed down to Checkpoint Charlie, which was the US checkpoint at the Berlin Wall. They had a pretty cool museum there and I checked that out too. Continuing on the cold war theme I headed to the Brandenburg Gate when I finished up there. On the West Berlin side of the gate is where Ronald Reagan made his famous demand for Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall. On a side note, I also got to see the hotel where Michael Jackson dangled his baby out of a bedroom window. (I listened in on a tour group to find that out.)

When I was done with that, it was time to get my bags and check in to the hotel. It is really nice, with the possible exception of the picture of Andy Warhol in my room. I didn't realize how creepy he was.

Once that was done I went to check out the Museum fur Fotographie. It was definitely not what I had in mind. Next time I'll make sure to read the description in the guide book before heading out.

All in all though, it's been a great first day in Berlin. Time to head out and grab dinner and some great German beer.