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.