Brrrlin

The bad weather from London followed us to Berlin, and it was quite cold and wet when we got here yesterday. However, the weather in Berlin is as inconsistent as it is in London - we got brilliant sunshine from 1 to 4 this afternoon and it started pouring just when we got back to our hotel room for our afternoon break. The weather is not the only thing that's inconsistent in Berlin - the whole city is still trying to figure itself out. The parliament building has a facade from the late 19th Century, but a dome built 10 years ago. The building is stone and the dome is all glass and mirrors (symbolizing transparency in government). The rest of the city is no different. On the eastern side especially, one can see old ugly boxy buildings with cute cafes and restaurants on the bottom floor. Old churches (some desperately in need of renovation) with modern H&M stores nearby. The inconsistencies make the city beautiful - and remind us that the Berlin wall fell only a couple of decades ago. The city has probably changed a lot since then, and will be quite a different city in 5 years' time.

Bricks marking location of Wall	Parliament facade	Parliament dome

As Berlin shapes up, my guess is that it will be more American than other cities in Europe. Already, we see Starbucks, McDonalds, Burger Kings and Dunkin' Donuts everywhere - far more American food chains than I have seen anywhere else so far. Of course, there are wurst stands everywhere too - yet another example of multiple cultures living together to form Berlin's own unique flavor :)

We've had a lot of fun in Berlin. It's a big enough city - quite lively and well connected by public transportation - but with far fewer crowds (and toursits) than London. Of course, since we were in Germany, we had to try out a Mexican (bad) and an Asian fusion (good) place for dinner ;) We also pretended to be students and had lunch at the Technical University Mensa (it was the Mensa that attracted me of course ... and then the extremely cheap food in the cafeteria!). Coffee seems to be a way of life here, and we joined the locals at the Einstein Kaffee (Einstein taught in the Eastern part of Berlin before heading to Princeton in 1932). And we discovered a sale going on at H&M :)

Tomorrow we head off to Bacharach, a small town on the Rhine. I'm sad to leave Berlin - not least because we have a wonderful hotel room here. We will spend the next few days exploring what is preserved of medieval Germany and hiking in the Alps. Internet access will probably be spotty, if it exists at all - so the next blog post may not happen until we are in Salzburg next Saturday.