Arrival in Munich & sightseeing in Berlin

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I had a good flight. It was a very long travel day. I got up at 5am,
got to the airport and found there were no lines at all, so I had 2
hours to kill before my first flight. Then flew to Chicago (about 4
hour flight), and then had 4 more hours to kill at the airport there.
I had lunch and sat on a bar stool and talked to random people who
came and went. Then the 8 hour flight to Munich (and I still can't
sleep on planes or anywhere that I'm sitting upright). Once in Munich
it was the next morning and I had a little trouble figuring out how to
buy a subway ticket to get to the main train station. Everyone speaks
english if you speak to them, except the machine for buying tickets
was all in german 😉. But I got someone to help me eventually, and I
then had a 6 hour train ride to Berlin, where I finally met one of my
friends. We got our hotel and went out for dinner and stayed out at
some pubs until around 1am local time (I had been awake for 36 hours
straight, except for a few cat naps that I was able to get on the
plane and the train).
The next day (yesterday), my friend and 1 other guy (his friend) and I
saw some sights in Berlin, including the parliament, the remains of
the Berlin wall, and a big palace. Now I'm at a town about 100km away
from Berlin (called Braunschweig), at the first University I'm visiting. I've spent the
last hour or so talking with different students here, seeing demos of
what they do. Soon it is lunch time and then I will give my talk
after lunch. Tomorrow I'll be off to the next town and the next
University.
Some interesting things so far:
- Germany is very efficient at certain things. One example is in
hotels, in order to make the lights work you have to put your room key
card into a special slot in the wall. That way, when you leave and
take your key, it forces all the lights to go out, saving energy.
- transportation is also very efficient, with lots of subways,
above-ground trains, trams, buses and many inter-city trains. It
seems like railway is the best way to travel.

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Photos

Germany Countryside
I thought the countryside was much like Ontario, mostly farm land everywhere. The one difference is that the small towns have houses clumped VERY close together (as you see here), and they seem to really like white buildings with red roofs a lot.

The Berlin Wall
Here I'm standing in front of what remains of the famous Berlin wall.

Brandenburg Gate
This was the main gate for crossing between East Berlin and West Berlin. Its very famous and is featured on some German coins.