04.30.09
Bringing this up to date 4/16/09
Here we are!
We arrived in Berlin at 7:30 am Berlin time, which is around 1:30 am our time. Das wetter ist schon und alles gut. Berlin is one of the most impressive cities I’ve seen. The architecture is a spectacular mix of old and new. We took lots of photos, but can’t upload today. We have been up for over 48 hours and are starting to fade. We will have dinner soon and probably be in bed soon after that. I only have a short time here, so I will make this quick. The trees are all blooming, cherry blossoms everywhere. We’ve seen tulips and daffodils. The blackbirds are actually white and black. I came expecting to feel a little lost because of the language, but for some reason, it didn’t occur to me that everything would also be written in German. it hit me when we got off the plane and i couldn’t understand the signs. Thank goodness for Dick who lived here for 2 1/2 years in the 60s as part of the military. I am picking it up fairly quickly, though. A lot of the words are so similar to English, it makes it much easier than some other languages. We walked for hours today through East Berlin from the Potsdam Platz through Brandenberg Tor, then through der Tiergarten and back to mid-West Berlin. There was an awesome Global Stone Project in the Tiergarten. For some reason, this program will not let me include the link, so you will have to Google it yourself. There is an English option. There is also the Wilhelm Kaiser Church in central Berlin that is a monument to peace. It was destroyed during WWII, and the Germans decided to leave the ruins as a reminder of the horrors of war. After an hour nap for me, we went to dinner and another long walk through West Berlin. We just finished some kuchen and hot chocolate and are soon off to bed. Our big Berlin concert is tomorrow night, then we go to Ravenbruck concentration camp on Saturday afternoon. I will post photos as soon as I can, but maybe not until we get home. Guten Nacht!
Deb