Final day in Berlin

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Well, time marches on and this is my last day in Berlin. On to Stuart's house in Southampton, England tomorrow....which means out of the apartment around 6:45 AM cause I sure don't want to miss my cheap EasyJet flight from Schoenefeld Airport...a good hour from here.

The other night I went to dinner at a place called White Trash Fast Food. It is in what was a Chinese restaurant that has been added to enough to make it an alternative, Punk, Country Music, Rock, club that is also a restaurant serving the best American food in Berlin !!!! It is an experience, so put it on your places to see in Berlin.

Germans have a reputation of being very law abiding, and this is true in Berlin. As I was waiting for the green light to cross the street, some scufflaw got caught jaywalking and got fined 10 Euro (about $13.00). Then, on the rapid transit systems, they have altogether innocuous people standing in your car who suddenly become ticket checkers once the door closes. I dont know what the fine is, but did see a couple tickets written.

Well, I still haven't gotten to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp.....having missed the 10:15 tour departure 2 days in a row. Looks like it will have to wait for another trip. So....instead of that, I went to see the Olympic Stadium, built for the 1936 Olympics, renovated a few times, and lastly renovated for the World Cup finals last summer. Even though it was a grandiose Nazi project, the allies decided to keep it because it was simply too expensive to tear down.....fortunately for later generations. There was a students championship soccer game between Germany and France so tours were not available, but I was able to talk my way onto the grounds and into the stadium itself to take a few photos.

After the stadium and seeing as it was time for lunch, I realized I still hadn't been to the 6th floor food court at the KaDeWe. Located right at the Wittenbergplatz U-bahn station, it is the largest department store in continental Europe and the food court has to be seen to be believed.....much like the one at Harrods in London....but here you can actually sit and eat all the goodies that are for sale! I have this thing for the potatoes counter every time I'm here, so I sat and had the best baked fried potatoe/mushroom/sausage/cheese/spices dish you can ever imagine. This is another place to put on your list of Berlin places to see !!!!!

Today was a WW2 day in that I got to take 2 tours......one that takes folks thru an old WW2 bunker that could hold about 1,000 people and then thru the remains of one of 3 flack towers that each held about 15,000 people the last few weeks of the war. The first tour had artifacts from the folks who hid from the bombings and the second from the towers that only managed to shoot down about 30 planes. After the war, two of the towers were eventually destroyed by the allies after 2 or 3 attempts at blowing them up. The one I went into was only partially destroyed by the French then became so expensive to destroy that the locals simply filled it with rubble, piled more rubble around it to create an immense and high hill and hoped that time and history would soon forget about it. (FYI, Hitler's bunker has been totally destroyed and a small part of that area above ground is now a parking lot. Goebbels bunker lies under a corner of the Holocaust Memorial!). So....another tour for you to take if you are in Berlin for a couple days.

I'm proud to say that I have bought very little, but packing tonight is still going to be a pain! I do hope it is a bit warmer in England cause the last 4 or 5 days here been even a bit more than cool!!!!!

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Photos

the apt bldg
my studio was on the back side.

Stasi memorial
In front of the building where I might have a Stasi file.

Bunker door
enter the subterranean world

the Olympic Stadium
The marathon gate

Guess who?
At the Olympic Stadium

at the KaDeWe
you can have champagne w/ your potatoes!