Trip 4 - Berlin

This weekend, I was able to convince my co-worker to take a trip to Berlin. Even though I had been there before, it was good to go back with another set of eyes.
Without a GPS, it is easy to get turned around in a big city. We were following the signs to the Zentrum (center of the city), but I guess I missed one of them. We ended up taking a driving tour of the city, but eventually ended up at the Brandenberg Gate - but not where I had intended. We started our tour by walking north to the Brandenberg Gate. On the way, we passed the holocaust memorial, which consists over 2700 pillars of different heights.
We went to the Reichstag, only to find the line was still long (were all those people still in line from the last trip?). We (again) didn't want to wait, so we passed through the gate. I was tempted to stop at the US Embassy and say Hi. Perhaps next time.

On both sides of the gate were people protesting against fur, animals, or something. They were self-controlled, and stayed behind their own barricade. There was apparently an agriculture ministers' conference that day. It seems there is always someone protesting something there. They can protest now - 20 years before they would have been arrested.

We decided to take the hike to Checkpoint Charlie. It was much easier to find this time, since we didn't take a short cut (hah). Another big line at the museum, so we pressed onward. This time we were watching the time, since we had only paid for 4 hours of parking (6 Euro!) on the street. By the way, if you park on the street, you are supposed to go to a kiosk and pay for parking, then put the slip on your dash. I'm not sure what happens if you don't pay, but we didn't want to find out.
On the way, we passed an interesting building (?) that seemed to be made completely of scaffolding. I couldn't see anything solid inside it - no concrete forms - just scaffolding. See if you can figure it out.

We drove to the East Side Gallery (where the section of the wall remains). Much easier than the train, and no walking back.

Remember what I said about not having a GPS? Leaving the city with the Avis map (and not much else) was, shall I say, difficult. The key was to watch for signs that gave us a direction to follow. The first such sign pointed us toward Dresden. Knowing that Dresden is in the same general direction as Leipzig, and that there are highways that circle the city, we should run into one of the rings. Eventually? Adventurers that we were, when we stopped seeing signs for familiar places, and convinced that the outer circle was still expanding as we drove, I saw a sign for Dresden that turned down a different road. After several kilometers on a dark road, we decided that this was not such a good idea, so we turned back. Eventually, we saw the elusive Dresden sign. It took us over an hour to reach the outer ring. We didn't stop until we reached the correct highway.
We did stop for dinner at Sam Kullman's diner. I guess we were missing food from home. Good hamburgers and Ben and Jerry's ice cream. Yum.

Trip 4 - Snow

The first week of this trip, it snowed. I don't mean flurries. It got really cold on Friday, and we had a really interesting ice fog. It was so humid that we could watch the ice crystals forming on the trees and handrails.

It started snowing Friday night, and snowed continuously through Sunday. By the time it was over, we had probably 12 inches of snow. Little did we know that they don't plow the autobahn until the snow stops (or so it seemed), and don't plow the secondary roads until after that (spring?).

As a result, we didn't even try to do any touristing. (My co-worker would rather relax in his room anyway.) We did go downtown (Leipzig) for dinner Saturday at the Italian restaurant next to Thomaskirche (St. Thomas Church). The snow was deeply piled on the roads, and some of the locals were sledding down the walkways. Good food, but kind of treacherous.

So - not much to report, except some pictures of the snow.

Trip 4 - A long trip

This trip is probably going to be the longest yet. I left on January 5th for Germany, and won't return home until January 30th. Some things are worth stretching a bit for, I guess. Since this trip is so long, it should allow me to meet some personal dates. More on this as they develop.

This time, I chose to take a different route to Germany, and use Gold status on American Airlines. I took Iberia Airlines from Chicago to Madrid, Spain, for the overwater leg of the trip. As luck would have it, Iberia chose to upgrade me to Business class. Ah, yes. Sitting in row 2 in my lounger (the seat fully reclines) watching movies and trying to sleep. Sounds luxurious, but the "bed" was not comfortable, so I didn't sleep. Well, at least they had lots of movies. The food and wine were OK too.

Maneuvering through Madrid was kind of difficult. Twice I had to stop and ask where to go (you know how much I hate that!). From the nice new terminal, I had to take a train to another terminal, then leave the terminal and get on a bus to the next terminal. I was getting a bit worried when the bus went out of the airport, and I could not see any terminal at all. It finally ended up at an older terminal, where the Lufthansa flights were located.

I also took this opportunity to leave my carry on bag at security. I was sitting there calmly eating lunch (breakfast?) when I realized I didn't have everything. So I backtracked to security, and they let me have the bag (after several questions).

Once I got to Germany, I spent over 6 hours in the Frankfort airport. Taking the less expensive route sure does take a long time. I took this opportunity to leave the security zone to go shopping. I had realized in the St. Louis airport that I had not packed my belts. (I seem kind of scattered on this trip, huh?) So - I shopped in St. Louis, and didn't find one I liked for a price I liked. Then I shopped in Frankfort and bought one. Going back through security, I made sure that I had my carry on.

I finally arrived in Leipzig after 11 pm. Tired - and work the next day...