Rainy as shit today, and way cold. So on meeting with the Aussie couple for breakfast we decided to nix our plans from the night before to go on a four hour bicycle tour and instead went for a bus tour, our first of this entire trip. It wasn’t bad considering how much of Berlin we got to see in the pouring rain, wind and shivering cold, but they passed by Checkpoint Charlie and the Berlin Wall without even a pause for pictures, so once the tour was over Dad went back to the hotel and I went out exploring Berlin. Checkpoint Charlie was closed due to rain, so I couldn’t get my passport stamped but I got tons of pictures, and with my long arm even managed to get a few with me in them! Then I headed off to the Berlin Wall, which turned out to be the relocated artistic version, but it was the legitimate wall, just placed where it could be more easily and conveniently viewed. The actual pieces that remain in their original location happen to be out of the roads, but the rest of where the wall used to be can be seen in a brick line, that is usually crossing roads, parking areas, and other inconvenient places for viewing. While walking along the wall I even found a place with all the stamps for Checkpoint Charlie, the wall jumper, DDR and all that other fancy business that makes my Passport look sweet. Then I realized it was almost six o’clock, and that it would be approaching four hours since I had left my surely antsy Dad, so I found a post office and a bank and headed back to the hotel. Lo and behold, Dad was sitting nervously in the lobby, having realized once we separated that I not only didn’t have a cellphone to call him, but I didn’t even have the business card to our hotel in case something went wrong. Nothing did though and all was well, so we headed up to the bar drank some beer, played cards, drank more beer at happy hour, watched the news (the only channel in English, looping the bombing incident in Norway) and then eventually passed out.
23 Jul
