Berlin surprised me, but not how I thought it would. I had the impression that Berlin was a city buzzing with energy, filled with bars and jazz clubs that stayed open to dawn and beyond. I expected a bit of wildness and certainly noise (and maybe it has that somewhere) but it seemed like a very calm and orderly place to me.
I’d expected some combination of Prague and Times Square when I arrived, but I found wide avenues lined by perfectly trimmed trees, buildings and walls spotlessly clean, and lots of canals like Venice instead.
This is not to say I didn’t enjoy it. It’s a very enjoyable place to spend a few days, leisurely walking along canals, looking at the many sights and enjoying food and drink at one of the many waterside cafés. It has a lot to see and enjoy. And it’s easy to explore.
The first full day, we took a boat ride down the canals for an hour. Jay found a tour using a classic boat that had been converted to electric power and so we booked that.
We enjoyed a lot of good food while we were there. I won’t catalog it day by day, but here’s a sample of some of the meals we had!
And we also stopped for drinks on the river/canal sides a number of times. 🙂
The second day we went to Potsdam, and took a tour of the Sanssouci castle there. It’s small for a castle but impressive, but the most interesting thing was the windmill right next door to the castle, with a long and interesting history.
We took the tram/train to Potsdam and that’s always kind of fun to figure out the transit system. The German trains are always on time and immaculately clean. People got up to offer their chairs to Jay and I since we are “elderly”.
Our third full day we walked to Checkpoint Charlie, then the Brandenburg gates, and then the Mall of Berlin as well as letting Jay explore one of the Decathlon outdoor stores that Chris and I had seen while we were in Europe the last time.
And then we went out to the top of this amazing TV tower, that used to be in East Berlin. It offers a panoramic view of the city and we spent a couple hours slowly walking 360 and reading all the information about the buildings and sites below.
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