This post is dedicated to my brilliant mother. Despite her struggles with German class I still believe her to be the smartest woman I know and I hope this helps her.
I am also dedicating it to my father, for his relentless efforts in teaching me memory tricks instead of investing in vacations. Coincidently, he happens to be the smartest guy that I know. (Steven, no worries, you’re a close second).
This is how I survived a week in Germany with no German speaking skills:
Ich mochte = I would like, think: “I would like an icky moustache”;
Danke shcoen = thank you, think: “donkey chains” (Thank you Mark)
Bitte sehr = you’re welcome or literally very pleased, think of giving someone “bitter pears” (Thank you again, Mark)
My all time favorite! Get ready to visualize this. I came up with this little trick after many scoldings for the mispronunciation of the castle name Neuschwanstein. Think of a swan holding a stein of soy sauce. The castle is pronounced noy (rhyming with soy) shvan stein.
Hauptbahnhauf = main train station. I cleverly figured this out when we left the hauptbahnhauf in Berlin and arrived at the hauptbahnhauf in Munich via the bahn.
Strasse = street, learned that when trying to read a map in German for several days.
Platz = plaza, they have lots of platzs there.
Es tut mir leid = Sorry, learned that just because it’s fun to say, pronounced ssss toot meer lied. Can also think of as “Excuse me I lied!”
It’s amazing how much of a language is picked up by drowning in it for a week.
Off to England.
Gute nacht!
Libby

Day seven of our journey arrived with us feeling more than a little worn down. On Susi’s advice, we had decided to visit Regensburg (as opposed to Nurnburg or Rothenburg), but we decided to get a later start than usual in order to try and recover somewhat. Incredibly we made it to our train 20 minutes early and had time to leisurely find our seats. After an hour and a half ride we made it to Regensburg.
Upon arrival we hopped off the train, and felt a now familiar sensation: A total loss of what to do. Even worse, our go-to man, our source of knowledge in crunch time, our ace in the hole, was of no use to us here. Rick Steves had failed to write about Regensburg.
Seeing there was nothing else to do, we put our tourist ways aside and headed out into the city to do what we do best: wander. Making our way down the main street from the train station our first stop became apparent. Rising above the city were the two largest church spires we had ever seen, done in a fantastic gothic style. This turned out to be the 12th century St. Peter’s Cathedral. This was by far the most interesting church we had visited. It was magnificent but not overdone. Gothic carvings and gargoyles covered the exterior, and the entire church was built in white, stained stones that exuded a sense of age. (Some of this was a show, however; the towers had been added by none other than King Ludwig II in the 19th century). The inside was equally impressive, with stain glass windows that rose for what must have been 60 feet, and the highest vaulted ceiling we had yet seen. The dim interior added to the ancient feel of the place, and not even the construction work being done on the organ could take away from it. Around the interior edge of the building there were the tombs of saints and priests that had served there, set into the floor. Each was covered with a large stone plate that you could walk on (if you so chose), with life-sized images of the deceased carved into them, and grave markers on the wall above. We felt like Indiana Jones, especially while writing notes in the moleskin journal from Deborah. And no matter what we did, we couldn’t quite shake the sense that if we were to step on one of the tombs, spikes would shoot out of the wall, or a large boulder would come rumbling down the center aisle of the church.
When we were finally finished visiting St. Peter’s Cathedral, we were once again slightly at a loss as to what we should do. We felt like we had already seen the most impressive thing in the city, and didn’t have any idea where to go next.
And then Libby got Hungry, and our next destination became exceedingly obvious. We knew that the best place in town to eat was supposedly the old Wurst stand on the Danube river, so we began heading downhill, hoping that eventually we would end up on the waterfront. Sure enough, five minutes later we emerged directly next to the stand. The only problem was that it was packed, and Libby now proclaimed that she couldn’t stomach another bite of sausage anyway. With Libby’s Hunger becoming increasingly insistent, we hurried back into the city looking for a café that wasn’t too crowded. Unfortunately, everything we passed was either packed to the limits, or an ice cream shop. I thought the ice cream shop was a fabulous idea, but with my life increasingly in jeopardy, I thought it best not to mention this. A half hour later, we finally stumbled back to the main square at St. Peter’s Cathedral, where we had seen a small café that looked promising. Sure enough, there was plenty of seating. We sat down, and soon were enjoying our lunch of… currywurst? Apparently Libby’s definition of “not another bite of sausage” was flexible. She was very proud of herself though, as for the first time she managed to order her meal entirely in German by herself.
The Hunger at last satisfied, we carried on. We still didn’t have a good idea of where to go, but we now at least knew where the waterfront and the historic stone bridge across it were. What we really wanted though was a map of the interesting things in the city. Susi to the rescue! We texted her with our dilemma, and five minutes later, we knew that the Alte Rathause (old city hall) had everything we needed: maps, historic sites, English language help, and bathrooms.
Twenty minutes of wandering later, we had our maps and were ready to continue. We went back to the waterfront and crossed the stone bridge to look at the other part of the city. From there, we got some beautiful pictures of the bridge and the water, and got to see part of the park that ran along the river. After a short exploration of this new area, we decided that the final thing we had to see for the day was the castle located at the opposite edge of the city.
The trek to the castle was relatively short, and certainly scenic. Along the way we wound our way through tiny little streets with gorgeous buildings rising on either side, saw several more churches (including a pretty, but very small and obviously newer Catholic church directly next door to the cathedral), and an interesting memorial to the persecuted Jews. When we came to the area surrounding the castle, the first thing we saw were two more churches. These two were especially odd, in that they seemed to share a common wall and entry area. The first, and smaller of the two churches seemed especially old; in fact it seemed more ancient than even the Cathedral we had seen earlier in the day. There were more of the tombs set into the floor of the building, and also into the walls of the entryway outside. The interior of the church had the feel of something well-worn; the floors were cracking (and several of the flagstones were loose) and the pews were completely smooth from use. This was possibly my favorite church of the day. Aside from its age, which made it special all on its own, it was also the least overpowering building we had been in. While still beautiful, like all old Catholic churches, it didn’t have the overdone gilding, or hundreds of paintings covering the walls, or even the massive statuary and towering ceilings of the Cathedral. The church was simple, and you could imagine a small congregation from a thousand years ago worshiping together there.
The next church over was yet another beautiful medieval church. We did not get to see much of it, however, except for a few glimpses inside through the window. All day long we had been seeing men dressed in tuxedos, women in formal dresses, and in particular a girl in an all white dress wandering around the town with cameramen. It all made sense as we saw glimpses of the wedding taking place. It seemed like a pretty posh affair, with a string quartet, a couple of incredible singers, and a guest list that probably topped 500. The fact that they had apparently rented out the cathedral and the car waiting for them outside the reception area was a flower-festooned BMW 7-series was the cherry on top.
Leaving the churches behind us, we finally made our way to the castle Libby had been waiting to see all day. It became obvious that it was more of a palace than a castle, but it still looked very interesting. It also became obvious that it was more closed than open. Oopsie. It turns out that it closed at 5:00 PM, and we had arrived at precisely 5:05 PM. It looked very nice from the outside though.
The castle being closed turned out to be a good thing, as we were both by this point utterly exhausted. We therefore headed back to the train station, this time walking onto the train with a comfortable 10 minutes to spare, and settled in for an hour and a half ride and an early bedtime. The train was extremely packed, and we ended up sitting on the floor in the bike area profusely sweating, but by this point we were beyond caring.

We returned back to Munich in the early evening and walked through the city. We stopped of course for ice cream before making it back to the hotel.

Traveling question of the day: Do Germans get food poisoning more often than we do, or are the US laws perhaps overly strict? The world may never know.
(Perhaps the German intestines ‘o steel play a factor)

Signing off, on the way to England,
Me and her.

Before we left on the trip, my mom had said that this trip would be good for us; it would be a test of our relationship and how well we worked together.
She was right.
But, like a well-trained duo of super heroes, we leapt into action without the slightest bit of panic.
Perhaps there was a little panic.
We grabbed our packs and were soon sprinting full speed through the crowds of people separating us and our precious train to the majestic castle. Regulars in Munich might have wondered what two slightly scruffy looking people with backpacks and ball caps were doing dashing down the street, but we arrived at the Haptbahnhof with 6 minutes to spare despite Libby stopping to tie her shoes at least twice. We still had to get tickets and actually arrive on the train, however. We plowed through the station, bypassed the ticket lines with English speaking staff, and made it to the machine to order our tickets in German. We got what looked like what we might need, dashed to our platform, leapt into the train, and sat just as the doors closed. Giddy at our accomplishment we settled in for our train-ride.
(This is Lib taking over for the rest of the post, Steven has decided to read).
Fussen contains the summer childhood hunting home (Hohenschwangau) of King Ludwig the Mad, and his fantasy castle based on Wagner operas (Neuschwanstein). The town is very well set up to lure tourists to spend money. Once arriving in Fussen you must wait three hours before you can visit Neuschwanstien Castle but you only have to wait one hour until you can visit Hohenschwangau Castle. The idea is that one will then decide to visit both, going to the smaller castle first than the larger. Also, enough time is scheduled between the two to keep tourists in Fussen longer. Somehow, this commercialized marketing scheme took away from the majestic nature of the place, although it was still impressive. We decided to rent bikes once we arrived and forgo the tourist buses to the castles. We biked the 5 kilometers to the base of Hohenschwangau along a nice scenic path that crossed several bridges, until we reached the point where only foot travel or shuttle bus was allowed. Deciding to hike, we were soon in the courtyard of Hohenschwangau. This castle served as a summer hunting lodge for the kings of Bavaria around Ludwig II’s reign. Only a small part was open to the public. It was impressive but the rushed thirty-minute tour didn’t give the time to process much of what was seen except for swans in all forms throughout the castle. We then walked on to Neuschwanstein, on what was supposed to be a 40 minute hike, and found that we were there in 20. Waiting around we read up on the castle in our handy Rick Steve’s guide. Ludwig was a huge fan of the composer Wagner and designed the interior of the castle after Wagner’s compositions. The castle contains an original Wagner piano (which we saw!) and a small concert hall. Many of the paintings and statues reference Wagner’s operas. A theatre scene designer designed the castle and painted the backdrop for the concert hall. Disney used the castle as inspiration for the movie Sleeping Beauty. Ludwig only lived in the castle for 172 days. He was declared mentally ill and was not allowed to rule. The next day he was found dead in a pond under shady circumstances and the only witness was his doctor. (If you’re thinking about Michael Jackson, don’t worry I was too). Six weeks after he died the castle was opened for tours. It’s almost like this place was destined for tourists. On the way down from the schloss (castle) we decided to take the scenic route that Rick Steve’s mentioned. It was incredible; instead of following the road the dirt trail wandered down the backside of the mountain. We found that we were the only ones on the route. We hiked the past an incredible waterfall and flowing streams. This route also provided the best view yet of Neuschwanstein. We made it back to our bikes and realized that we had 12 minutes to bike the several miles back to bike store, return the bikes, and catch the train back. It was an eerily similar situation to this morning. I hopped on my bike to lead the way. I pushed the hardest gears while pumping my legs at incredible speeds. Steven then took over near Fussen to navigate us back to the rental store. Suddenly, I heard the screech of brakes and saw Steven’s bike skidding to a halt without warning. Panicked, I slammed on mine as well and tried to figure out what was going on. By this time Steven was already ordering his second scoop of ice cream and telling the merchant that it was “sehr gut”. Unfortunately I was too out of breath to scold him, so we hopped back on the bikes, now with Steven juggling his bowl of chocolate and cherry cake ice cream, and headed on. We made it back to the rental store, locked the bikes up, and once again hopped on the train 2 minutes before it left. Giddy again at our accomplishment we started wondering if catching a train seconds before the train leaves is something to be proud of or if maybe we should pay attention to the time. Exhausted we made it back to our pension (bed and breakfast) for a good night’s sleep.

Traveling question of the day: What type of tourists are more obnoxious than American tourists? We know.
Signing off-
Lederhosen Libby and Streusel Eating Steven
PS: You should be able to click the pictures on the blog for bigger versions.

As you all know, Steven and I are recently engaged. We are very excited about the upcoming wedding and we have decided to use our travels as inspiration for the part of the wedding theme. Tapping into our ancestry, we realized that we both have German roots and think it would be very special to incorporate those roots in our celebration. As such, we have decided to apply a Bavarian theme to our wedding party. Bridesmaids often complain that their dresses are useful only for the wedding itself but we feel that we have found something that will be practical in the future as well. The groomsmen will appreciate that their outfits will not need tailoring due to the adjustable nature of the straps.
Sincerely,
Libby

Today was our day to go visit Susi, Emily’s German roommate from Arizona. When we first mentioned that we were going to be visiting Germany, Emily immediately said, “You’ve got to visit Susi!” So we dutifully got in contact, and agreed to meet in her town near Munich for a day.
We weren’t meeting Susi until the afternoon though, so we decided to do some more touring of the city first. Libby finally convinced me to take one of the sightseeing bus tours, so we went down to the train station, bought our bus tickets (and our train tickets for later), and headed over to the bus stop. We managed to get seats on the open-air top of the bus, and set off for our tour. On the tour we were surprised to find that we had already seen many of the sights they were showing us; because Munich is so small compared to Berlin, it is very easy to walk from one location to another and we had accidentally wandered into many of the landmarks on our own. It was still worthwhile though, because it eventually took us out to the edge of town where Nymphenburg palace is located.
Nymphenburg palace is a summer residence for the Wittlebach family that was built by King Maximilian, to celebrate the birth of his first son. The palace was opulent, however, we both found the gardens more impressive than the building itself. We toured part of the interior. We decided that instead of waiting for the Tourist Tour bus we would save time and take the public tram system back to the train station. We actually did this very successfully and saved about an hour.
We were able to get train tickets to Miesbach and boarded the train. Luckily, Susi had informed us that the train separates at one of the stops. The first two cars continue to Miesbach and the latter cars go somewhere else. No one had told us that at the train station and we didn’t see any mention of it on our tickets.
Susi was there to greet us as soon as we got off the train. It was great to see a smiling, friendly face. She then drove us to Oedberg for the summer luge. Lib had been looking forward to this since we decided to go to Germany. The luge was located on a ski mountain. The carts were pulled up the side of the mountain with a cable and then released at the top. A hand brake could make the car accelerate or decelerate. It was very fun. After two runs down the mountain we headed off for a hike near Miesbach. The hike gave us plenty of time to ask Susi all of the questions about Germany we had been accumulating during the trip. She explained some of German school life to us, talked about the German government, and explained many of the Bavarian traditions to us. For example, most towns have a May pole that is put up in, well, May. A common tradition is to get the pole several weeks in advance and hide it, and then nearby villages try to steal the pole. If they succeed, they the first town has to buy the town that stole the pole beer. Susi is an English and history teacher and likewise had many questions for us. The hike was gorgeous and gave us excellent views of the valleys below. At the top of the hike we sat outside of a biergarten, drank water (sparkling of course, this is Germany), and talked for a while.
The hike made us hungry and we went to Miesbach for a Bavarian meal. Susi informed us that people in the town do wear drindles and lederhosen, but it is usually for special events. Ordering with a native German at our table made things much easier. We had roast, dumplings, and cole slaw. We have found that the Germans love their ice cream, so we did as the Germans do, and got ice cream (one thing we’ve noticed about German ice cream; it is more like Gelatto than ice cream in America). After dinner she showed us her flat (it was very nice) and helped us plan our last couple of days in Germany. We took a walk around Miesbach and had a wonderful time conversing with Susi, and of course, swapping stories about Emily (We found out some very interesting things. I think Emily may have to cook us some meals for a while, if you know what I mean).
We did miss our first train, however. We thought the last train left at 23:44. It turns out that the last train left at 22:44. Luckily Susi was kind enough to let us spend the night in Miesbach and head back to Munich the next day instead.
Signing off,
Libbenstein und Kadystein.
Traveling question of the day:
How hard will it be to convince the Pook (Emily) to come to Germany in two summers? We may have made a solemn vow to kidnap her and bring her back with us within 2 years.

We’re 2 days behind right now and counting, but the internet is as hard to to find as the restrooms are in Munchen.
We’ll try to keep you updated; hopefully we’ll have better internet in London (yes, this is a good trial for Steven).

Sleeping on the train was not exactly a restful experience but I’m glad we tried it out. We arrived in Munich exhausted and our first priority was to find the hotel. I actually navigated us from the train station to our hotel. Taking a good tip from the Rick Steve’s book (an excellent gift from Mark and Cindy) we avoided the seedier section of the city and are located in a very cute area. We dropped our backpacks off and went to Starbucks to wait until things opened. This gave us time to catch up on our travel writings and relax a bit. We then wandered around, as is typical of our travels, and actually found rain ponchos. We stopped at the Marienplatz (platz is the German word for plaza) in front of the New Town Hall (Rathouse – see picture below) to see the Glockenspiel (large clock with moving figures) and headed to the Frauen Kirche (Church). The church is Munich’s most famous church, and also one of its oldest. Interestingly, it was apparently built using money from the sales of indulgences. The interior was stunning, with high ceilings, many statues and paintings. We opted out of paying extra to go up an observation tower; after the last couple days in Berlin, we were done with stairs. We did take a small staircase below the altar to visit the crypt, where several Bavarian kings were buried. Already exhausted, and with our stomachs beginning to beg for attention, Steven insisted that we find sausage. We found an impeccably clean buffet style restaurant not far from the churches. We both got Weisswurst (white sausage), Bavarian mustard, and a pretzel. The sausage comes served in a bowl of hot water. Steven was feeling very proud for ordering exactly what we wanted. This pride was not to last. I watched Steven eat first to see how to go about eating sausage in a bowl of water. An old man sitting next to him rapidly intervened and explained he was doing it all wrong. I got a good laugh along with old man’s wife at Steven’s faux pas (Steven points out here that I was well on my way to joining him in his “faux pas”). You take the wurst out of the water, one at a time. The water is to keep it warm. Next, you cut it down the middle and remove the skin. The skin is not edible. He also mentioned that Munich has the best water in all of Europe and it is free at all restaurants. For having the best water in the world they sure do drink their share of beer. I kept this comment to myself. After getting a few more helpful hints we continued eating. We wearily made it to the hotel to FINALLY make use of my specialty, a nap. Somewhat rested, Steven decided that sleeping is for the meek so we headed off to see St. Peter church. The church contains many of the relics found in Munich. Munich has the second most number of Catholic relics in the world. (First is Rome). Munich was one of the bastions of Catholicism during the reformation, which is why the papacy gave them so many relics. The church contained fabulous frescos, stunning statuary, priceless paintings, glorious gilding, and… a mortifying mummy. The mummy lay sideways in a glass coffin. She was covered in silk and jewels covered her bones. It was extremely unsettling, but Steven enthusiastically paid for a postcard (He didn’t think it was fair that only we should be disturbed by the sight). After seeing another church and making a quick visit to the Residenz (the Wittlebach family’s palace), we made our way to the famous Haufbrauhaus. The Haufbrauhouse is the beer hall that is the center of Oktoberfest every year and where Hitler first began making speeches to large crowds of people in Germany. At the Haufbrauhouse we got to see the traditional beer maids carrying a dozen huge beer mugs at once, hear a traditional Bavarian band play polka-like drinking songs over and over again, and 15 year old boys drinking beer and trying to pick up girls. We also saw a couple of obnoxious American tourists who were drunkenly staggering in the street shouting to each other while sloshing around mugs of beer. We were both still tired at this point, so we decided to make our way back to the hotel (several times Steven got a goofy grin on his face and pointed at something; thinking he had spotted some new landmark I would look only to find he had spotted some exotic sports car. Apparently many rich Arabians come to Munich so they can drive their cars on the autobahn).
By the end of day 4 we both discovered that traditional German food (cheese, sausage, and bread) requires an intestine made of steel. We also discovered that neither of us possessed such an intestine.
Signing off,
Libby and Steven

Question of the Day:
How do they manage to make the city look so old, when eighty percent of it had to be rebuilt after World War II?

On our final day in Berlin, we decided to take it a little bit easier. With that in mind, we slept in a little later than we had before, and had a leisurely breakfast. We had a nice conversation with the hotel keeper, who told us more about the history of the hotel, Berlin, and the local weather (it apparently has been a very odd summer). We finally found an open T-mobile store, where we were able to pick up the SIM card we’d been trying to find since Day 1. We headed back to the hotel to check out, then, carrying our backpacks, navigated the train system over to the Hauptbahnhof station where we would be departing in the evening. We checked our large backpacks there, then headed to the Zoo Bahn to rent bikes. The rest of the day could be summarized as “Biking and Stair Climbing”. We ended up with Fat Tire bicycles: large, orange cruiser bikes with, as you might have guessed, very fat tires. They weren’t quite our normal style of bike, but they were well suited for the city with lights, fenders, racks, bells, and in my case, a clown shaped horn (oh yay). Vicki, if you’re reading this, thanks for the tip about Fat Tire. We biked through the large garden/park in central Berlin (Tiergarten) to the Siegessaulle (Victory Column), which is in the center of a massive roundabout and is only accessible by going through a tunnel on one of the corners. It contains a very narrow spiral staircase leading to top. Of course we had to climb it. The (for some of our party) frightening vista provided an excellent view of Berlin. Shrapnel marks covered much of the monument. WWII had not been kind to it. Interestingly, we found that the column had once stood in a completely different part of Berlin, but had been moved by Hitler when he was trying to rebuild Berlin as Germania. Climbing back down from the Column, we continued on through the Tiergarten. The Tiergarten itself is beautiful. It covers almost all of central Berlin, and is crisscrossed with wide, shaded trails, lawns, and sunny meadows. There are even several rivers and ponds with rowboats and people fishing. It is also home to several administrative buildings of the government, and the entire park is dotted with monuments and statues that appear suddenly out of the trees. We headed over to the Brandenburg gate and then down the Unter den Linden to the GendarmenMarkt. During the stroll down the street a storm trooper approached and seeing my pretty fiancé, he began talking to her. Pretty soon I could tell he was trying to impress her with tales of intergalactic adventures on a Star Destroyer. When he started talking about his blaster rifle, I knew I had to step in. I successfully defended Libby’s honor and drove him off. We continued on to the GendarmenMarkt, which is an old, beautiful square that blends German and French influences. On the south side of the plaza is a German cathedral, and directly across it to the north is the nearly identical French cathedral (apparently when they were built during the reign of Friedrich the Great, there was a very large French immigrant population). The Berlin concert hall was also on the square, and most importantly of all, the biggest chocolate shop in Europe, Fassbender and Rausch. I was in heaven. Or perhaps like a kid in a candy store. Chocolate fountains, chocolate sculptures, chocolate bars, and an elaborate display of truffles were present. After spending much time we left with a block of chocolate and box of truffles. We wandered back over to the French cathedral and decided to go inside for a tour of what promised to be a stunning interior. Unfortunately, we bought tickets to find that the only open part of the church was the observation deck. So, we climbed our way up several hundred meters, again, for a different bird’s eye view of Berlin. Making our way back down we hopped back on our Berlin cruisers and made our way back through the Tiergarten to the Zoobahn to return our bikes. The Tiergarten was by this point full of people. The ponds had dozens of small rowboats on them, children were playing on the lawns, and several rough and tumble fussball games had started up. Sunbathers were also out in force; entire families sitting on blankets, young couples talking, and… naked old men. Lots of naked old men. Certain sections of the park, at least, were full of them, appearing as suddenly as the statues out of the trees (but even more surprising).
We returned the bikes, and decided to get something to eat. Libby and I had a small argument at this point, which I ultimately won. She wanted to stick around the train station and just eat there. I wanted to take the train back to the area we’d started from this morning. We’d seen several markets there, and I thought we could get some food from a market and make ourselves a less expensive dinner. It wasn’t a long journey away, and I assured Libby we could rapidly grab some food and get back to the Hauptbahnhoff to eat. So we hopped on the S-bahn for the five-minute journey back to Savigny-platz. Here we discovered that most of the markets had by then closed. Oops. This did not go over well. We spent a half an hour wandering around in a large circle around the station before finally giving up and resigning ourselves to returning empty-handed. Fortunately, I was saved by the appearance of a fruit market, bakery, and general grocery. They happened to be right next to the train station; I had turned the wrong direction when getting off the train. Double Oops. The shops were preparing to close as we arrived, so we bought some fruit, grabbed a loaf of bread, and some cheese and juice and then headed back to the main train station. Of course, inside the station we found a plethora of bakeries, shops, and groceries, all of which were still open. Oops Oops Oops. Libby earned some major gloating points there. She assured me she would make good use of them.
We ate our hard-won dinner on one of the extremely rare public benches in the train station. This particular bench was special though. It was a T-Mobile hotspot! I had Internet, so I was happy. We used the time before our train arrived to begin writing our day’s journey, and to research our next destination, Munchen. We also took the opportunity to call Susi, Emily’s old roommate from ASU. Our train arrived at around 10:30 in the evening, and we found our car. I had gotten us a sleeper car, thinking that it would just have reclining chairs for us to sleep in. Instead, I found we had a private (if small) first class stateroom with two beds, a shower, and a water closet. All would have fit comfortably in a walk-in closet. The conductor came by and explained that we had an 8-hour journey, and would get a wake up call an hour before arrival so we could eat breakfast in the diner car. We prepared for bed and Libby decided to take a quick shower before going to sleep. As the train jerked into motion, a series of squeals and yelps began coming from the bathroom. After coming out of the bathroom, Libby explained that, due to its size, you could fall in the shower and still stay upright. The Germans as usual have good designs.

Signing off, Chagrined Steven and Gloating Libby

Question of the day: If these monuments were in the US would an elevator have been included?

Steven decided after years of yearning to go to Europe the morning should start early to make the most of the day. After a delicious breakfast of croissants, breads, cheeses, prosciutto, eggs, and coffee we headed out for an adventure. We wandered several blocks before deciding to postpone our adventure until something might actually open.
We did notice that, contrary to what we said yesterday about there being no mobile stores in Germany, there are in fact mobile phone stores on every corner. How we missed this yesterday we aren’t sure. (Likely its that we were in the posh “designer” district, where useful stores were verboten). Unfortunately they were all closed on Sunday.
The wait for things to open provided Steven with time to buy a month’s worth of internet connectivity in Germany. After waiting a while we restarted our adventure through Berlin. Our first wandering stop was the remainder of the destroyed Kaiser Wilhem church. The partial façade of the bombed structure stood out as one of the only historical buildings surviving in the area after the bombing of Berlin. I soon reached what Steven refers to as the “need food so bad anything looks good stage” and we stopped at a typical German café. It served many delicious meals in differing combinations of sausage and potatoes. Steven successfully ordered the noodles that I had unsuccessfully tried ordering the last two days. As usual, I ended up eating half his food too. Steven discovered that his cell phone could connect instantly to the WiFi there, dissolving his edgy withdrawal symptoms. Per usual, Steven spent the next ten minutes zoned out researching the sites during our morning “bumbling around Berlin” tour. Being able to spout out dates and facts to his hearts content and finding our blue spot of location on Google Maps, Steven became a fulfilled traveler.
Instead of taking the tourist friendly buses that make stops at all of the must-see sights in Berlin it was decided that we should walk to all the sites to feel “more like the locals”. After a long walk we found the Gemaldegalerie, which is Berlin’s painting gallery. (It was next to tourist bus stop). I was worried about Steven’s interest in the gallery. Being the artsy one of the duo, I quickly piqued Steven’s attention with “Hey, look there’s a painting by a ninja turtle!” The response of “Oh, which one, Michelangelo? Donatello? Leonardo? Or Raphael?” provided Steven with the confidence of being able to rapidly spout out the names of four famous artists without hesitation. (It was by Raphael). We continued onward viewing masterpieces by Titian, Caravaggio, Van Eyck, Bosch, Rembrandt and others. We followed the remains of the Berlin wall to the Topography of Terror display (Conveniently next to a tourist bus stop). The outdoor display was a graphic historical pictorial and written display of the area that had housed the SS, Gestapo, and Third Reich headquarters during WWII. The bomb-damaged buildings were quickly destroyed after the war to suppress memories of the atrocities committed there. The wall continued to the old East sector of Berlin. Partial wall fragments were on display along the way. Checkpoint Charlie, the United States guard post between the allied and soviet sectors, still stands. (Oddly, it too was directly next to a tourist bus stop). The Checkpoint Charlie museum was an incredible history museum. Devices used to aid Germans escaping illegally across the border were on display along with artifacts from both sides of the wall, and commentaries from much of the Cold War period. Here too Steven’s desire to read Every. Single. Display. In. The. Museum. became apparent. After finishing the entire first floor while he was still in the first room, I went back to grab him, and gave him a quick oral tour of the rest of the museum.
From the Checkpoint Charlie museum we decided to head to the Unter Den Linden, the “main street” of Berlin. (Huh, there was one of those tourist bus stops there too). By this point our feet were almost falling off, so instead of walking the 10 or so blocks, we had our first experience with the U-Bahn. This underground was, like everything else in Berlin, incredibly clean and modern. One of the biggest things we noticed about Berlin, in fact, was how clean the whole city is. After strolling down the Unter Den Linden, we realized that yes, everything was still closed. There were some restaurants, but nothing that looked particularly good, so we walked past the Brandenburg gate again, past the Reichstag, and then to the Hauptbahnhof station to take the exact same train we took last night (20:16 to Potsdam via ZoologischeGarten bahn) back to our hotel. (As we walked in to the hotel, we noticed yet another tourist bus stop). Once at the hotel, we realized we were still starving, still tired, and that restaurants were probably closing soon. We walked over to the first place we saw; an Italian open-air restaurant. It ended up being delicious, but if we thought ordering in German was difficult, it was nothing compared to trying to order Italian in German. Once again, our trick of “staring stupidly at the menu” produced results, as the Italian, German-speaking, English-speaking owner was kind enough to translate some for us. We ended up with Spaghetti with Lamb, Fettuccini with rabbit, and a delicious Tiramisu (here Steven said “no, I’m not hungry, I don’t need dessert”, which in Steven-speak is “Yes of course I’ll eat half your dessert, are you kidding?”).
Signing off,
Libby the Elder, Steven the Younger

Question of the day: Since we have had more people approach us and speak in German than English, on the second day are we no longer obviously tourists? (We even had a group ask us directions in German).

We decided to take over the blog from the stalker who seemed to be following our every move in Germany. The blog seemed like a good idea, but having everything written from an over-the-shoulder perspective was a little creepy.