Fairy Tales Can Come True

 Prague

One Last Look, Or Lost In Time

Better Bear & Bye Bye Berlin

Off to Prague tomorrow   (Me, not the bear.)

Still At The Zoo

At The Zoo

Today I went to the zoo. I saw the famous panda who was not doing anything cute when I was there. The zoo was fun and busy. After that I went to yet another museum and saw The National gallery which has a few French Impressionists but mostly German painters that I never heard of.

I then went to a famous restaurant which is closed on Sundays.  However I did find a substitute place and had the knuckle with sauerkraut that I would have had at the other place. I have met many people in Berlin. It's kind of like speed dating. You talk, have a nice conversation and go your separate ways.

Goin' To The Palace

I went to Charlottenburg Palace home to some of the German Royals in the 1800's.  I snuck a few pictures because after I was already walking around I found that it was 3 euros extra to use a camera and I didn't feel like going back and paying.

Across the street I went to Museum Berggruen, a Jewish Art Dealer who returned to Berlin and left a museum which houses some wonderful Matisses, Giacomettis, Braques and Picassos along with Paul Klee.

I went to the Judisches Museum designed by Daniel Libeskind. It traces the high and low points of German Jewish history from the end of the Roman age to the present.   I am finding that Budapest, Berlin and Prague (next stop) have strong Jewish historical sights and quarters.

I guess almost any European city has a Jewish quarter in their history with equal amounts of savage acts against us at different times in our history.  The Jews were blamed for the Bubonic plague in the 1300's.  I don' think I knew that.

I did not get any pictures of the museum because it was already dark when I arrived. Between that museum and Yad Vashem in Jerusalem I have gotten an eyeful of the worst atrocities.

Ich Bin Ein Berliner

Brandenberg Gate

Berlin. Where shall I begin?  My hotel, which I found online, has over 500 rooms.  It is a little outside the city but there is a tram directly across the street which goes to Alexanderplatz a very large stop with all kinds of connections. The room is first class and really new and clean. Breakfasts are the most sumptuous so far on this trip. 

Definitley no need for lunch. The bed and pillow are also the best I have encountered thus far since I left NYC.

Reichstag

Berlin is multicultural and multiethnic city of three and a half million.  Maybe not as big as NYC but far more mixed than any other place I have been.  It's also full of tourists, and like NYC when I see people walking with their maps out.  I've taken the hop-on-and-off tour three times. The ticket is good for 24 hours but someone who was leaving the next day gave me hers so I had more hours.

Railway Station

In both Budapest and Berlin there seems to be an honor system with public transportation tickets. They interminably check and if you don't have the proper ticket there is a big fine.  I have not yet been asked for a ticket but have validated my ticket so that if I am asked I am in compliance.

Sculpture Representing 
the uniting of the four sectors

There is a tram stop across the street. The time is always shown on an electric board at the station when the train will arrive. It always arrives on time and very often. There are also buses, trains and subway.  I am still a little confused about the trains versus the subway.

Alexanderplatz

My feet are aching and I have shin splint. This is a museum city.  There is more Turkish antiquity here than in Turkey.   The Pergamon Museum has more ruins from Pergamon where I was in Turkey than Pergamon.  I would say that Germany seems to have successfully raided the best relics from all of antiquity. Nefertiti warrants a room of her own. She is quite exquisite, yet you can see lines around her eyes. I also saw Babylonian ruins, Greek ruins, Roman ruins, Mesopotamian ruins etc. It all gets a little mixed up in my mind.

Hello Berlin

I am sitting in my couchette on the train to Berlin.  I was lucky to be the only one in the compartment.  I didn't sleep very much. I watched the movie The Social Network last night before I tried to sleep.  That was great and I think I will rent a few more movies for the train.   We should arrive in an hour and a half.  I didn't sleep very much but c'est la vie.

Arrived.  Took a shower.  Getting ready to go out.

Judy

Goodbye Budapest...

I went to the largest Synagogue in Europe, the second largest in the world after Temple Emanuel in NYC. It is called the Dohany Street Synagogue and is on the tours as well as the castles and churches. The courtyard is full of headstones. During the war, in the ghetto when there was no way to bury their dead in twenty four hours they opted to break the law not to bury the dead at the synagogue.

The Synagogue is awesome in size and elegance. I walked my legs off going around the city by foot. I spent the last day on a hop on hop off bus with headphones with 27 different languages. It is actually a fairly small city with 2 million people. it was restful to sit on the double decker and just look. I may do that on my next stop first so I get an idea of the lay of the land.

Meanwhile, Back At The Ranch

Judy's skimmia in the Garden yesterday.

And Now For Some Things Civic

It looks like an Opera House.  BINGO.  Give the man a prize.

And a detal.  In the niche just to the left of the main entrance.

It looks like City Hall.  BINGO AGAIN.  Another prize.

Upstairs

There is prepared food, food to eat on stools, little bars with schnapps, a self service restaurants with tables and chairs where I bumped into two South Africans I met at the spa yesterday.

There are also hats, gloves, pocket books, Hungarian tschotskes and just lots of stuff.

Easy For You; You Live Near The Food Hall

Walked a whole lot today.  This is the central covered market.  This lower floor is where produce, cured meats, pickles, olives, cheese and butchers are located.

 Wait,

 Wait,

 Wait for it