Another Labor Day departure this year. Once again traffic to Boston was not backed up, and the check-in line at the airport was not longer than usual, which is to say there was still a wait, but not anything out of the ordinary. Security check went a little faster than normal, as the first line examiners figured out I was not a terrorist and sent me through a priority line to the scanners. From there it was straight to the departure gate to wait for my flight to Amsterdam. Having upgraded to economy plus, I was merited the priority boarding line—not a big deal—and more importantly had some extra legroom on the 767, which had 2-3-2 seating. What can I say about the flight? It was a red-eye, and I can’t sleep on a plane. The movie wss Casablanca, though the earbuds provided didn’t really eliminate enough of the background noise, and a lot of the dialog went unheard. Still, there was enough to savor this old friend. After arriving at Schiphol, my first stop was a rest room, which proved a mistake as just before I arrived at passport control a flight from Mexico had come in and there was a long line to the examiners. I finally got through, generated a boarding pass for my gate, and waited for my flight to Berlin. The flight was uneventful, but after picking up my luggage there was no sign of my scheduled pickup into the city. Not sure I had enough local currency for a cab, but having been to Berlin once before and having at least a rudimentary idea of how to get around, I purchased a transit ticket, checked at an information desk which bus to take to Hauptbahnhof, and waited for it to arrive. At the train station I transferred to an S-bahn to Alexanderplatz, then to a U-bahn to the Märkisches Museum stop, and walked a block or so to the hotel (the Park Plaza Wallstreet Berlin Mitte), schlepping my luggage all the way on a warm day while enjoying jet lag. I was quite the unglückler Camper. After checking into my room, I got a call from the lobby by the VBT guide for Berlin. I went down to give him a piece of my mind, but it turned out he had nothing to do with the missing taxi, so he gave me a couple suggestions on places to visit, and I returned to my room to relax a little. (Another arrival that day—Brita—also suffered a missing transfer.) Then it was off to see the Reichstag dome, for which I had gotten a ticket. Took the U-bahn to Potsdamer Platz and walked up Ebertstrasse to the Brandenburger Tor and thence to the Reichstag. After passing through security it was a short walk to the entrance where a matron insisted that instead of getting a few pictures on the outside I enter immediately for the elevator ride to the roof. To keep the peace I obeyed her, and after another security point at the entrance, got on the elevator, grabbed an audio guide at the roof, and walked up the ramp to the top of the dome. Interesting, and certainly worth the price (free). When the Reichstag is in session—it wasn’t on the day I was there—you can look down into the legeslative chamber. After reaching the top, there is another ramp that leads down. Although the glass dome is impressive in its own way, my contrarian opinion is that it doesn’t harmonize with the rest of the building. I turned in the audio guide, took the elevator down, exited the building and took a couple pictures without further hassle. I intended to take the U-bahn from there to Pariser Platz, but the entrance was closed, so I walked back to the Brandenburger Tor and Potsdamer Platz, caught the U-bahn from there back to the Spittelmarkt stop, and walked to the hotel. After resting a little more, it was on to supper at Zur Letzen Instanz on Waisenstrasse near the Nikolaiviertel. It specialized in German cuisine—I had rouladen—and it was good. Then it was back to the hotel to sleep off the jet lag.
My first stop on Wednesday was back to Alexanderplatz to replenish my funds from a Deutschebank ATM. Then the S-bahn to Hackescher Markt, and a short walk to Museum Island. I wanted to visit the Alte National Galerie first, but there was a long line, and I went instead to the Berliner Dom. The ticket kiosk was glacially slow, and I thought it had swallowed my debit card, but after several minutes (!) it did spit it out again. I toured the church and went back to the museum, but the line was still long. After checking with the overseer at the head of the line, it became apparent he was only letting people in a couple every two or three minutes, and I didn’t have all day, so I returned to Alexanderplatz, got a Coke, and sat briefly. By then it was lunchtime, and I decided to go to KaDeWe for a currywurst as I had on my earlier visit. When I got there the whole food court had been rearranged, and there was no longer a currywurst option. There was however an extensive pastry selection, which I thought would justify a later trip. Leaving the store I found a lunch stand and had my wurst. Hopping on the U-bahn again brought me to Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Platz for a visit to a mockup of the Führerbunker that the VBT agent had suggested the day before. It was quite an extensive display of Weimar and Nazi history, and though photos were not permitted, it was certainly worth it. Then it was back to the hotel to recover before finally heading out to dinner. A couple different U-bahn lines brought me to the Prinzenstrasse stop, and then a modest walk to Altes Zollhaus, a former canal tollhouse, now a restaurant serving modern German cuisine, and my best meal in Berlin. I had duck, which was very good. It was a busy day, retiring after dinner to the hotel and bed.
Thursday started with a trip to the Olympic stadium. Once again to Alexanderplatz where I got on an S-bahn to the Olympic stop. A short walk brought me to the stadium, but there was some kind of music festival setting up, and I had to walk around on local streets until I found the right entrance. I got my ticket for a tour, and we went in and saw the field, the VIP area, the cafeteria, the dressing and warm-up rooms, and some of the ancillary fields and pools surrounding the stadium proper. The stadium itself had been modernized from the 1936 Olympics, and the local football team now calls it home. When I was done, I decided to return on the U-bahn instead of the S-bahn. This allowed me to stop at KaDeWe, browse some more, and pick up a slice of the Schwarzwaldkirschtorte that I had coveted the previous day. Returning to the Spittelmarkt stop, I tried a deli between the U-bahn stop and the hoteI that I had spied on Wednesday, which proved ideal for a late lunch. Returned to the hotel to store my pastry in the refrigerator and relax. Not being energetic, I used the hotel restaurant for dinner, then took a postprandial stroll past the Märkisches Museum to the Spree ufer. There were a couple segments of the Berlin wall on display outside the museum, and the Spree looked lovely at sunset. Returning to the hotel, I had my cake, did a little reading, and went to bed.