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?