Berlin

Berlin was supposed to be a great city and I was curious.  Berlin was a 90-minute plane flight from Paris.  The ride from the airport to Berlin’s train station (Bahnhof) was beautiful. The bus went along the river passing trees in autumn colors.  I was startled to see the size of the train station and its glass facade.  

 Its interior was modern and the signs made it easy to find places.

I arranged to meet an American friend, Donna, at the main rail station, convenient for both of us, since she had a two-hour train ride from her apartment in Chemnitz.  We chose a café which I found quickly, but she got lost - funny since she had been to Berlin many times!

We met at a cafe and then went to the tourist kiosk for a map of the city.  It was raining, so we decided to take a two-hour bus tour of the city. Berlin is large and we thought we could get our bearings before exploring on foot.  

After lunch we went to the apartment lent to us by a friend of Donna’s. It was in Kreuzberg, supposedly a bohemian neighborhood, though it looked quite nice.

We unpacked, met another friend of Donna’s who lives nearby and came to see us, and laughed a lot over tea. We had dinner at a local Italian restaurant and on the way home stopped for groceries for breakfast.