A Little History, A Little Trivia

The famous Brandenburg Gate which used to be the main welcoming gateway to Berlin, but during the time of the Cold War became a symbol of the division of East and West. Checkpoint Charlie is near by. This view is from the GDR or East German side. Apparently Katerina Witt, lived in the GDR with other elite athletes in somewhat fancy apartments right on the border. The apartments blocked the view of the gray, box-like housing of most East Germans so that the West Germans would think that things weren't so bad in the East. The Berlin Wall surrounded West Berlin from 1961 to 1989. The Stasi Officers had more informers per capita than the Nazis had during the war....something like one informer for every 84 East Germans.

The memorial to the Murdered Jews is quite moving. It is placed near the Reichstag or seat of government for Germany so that the leaders never forget. It is difficult to walk through the higher structures in the middle...you get a real sense of loss, confusion and no way out. The stones are 15 meters high at that point. Interestingly, they treated the stones with an anti-graffiti coating. Part way through the processit was discovered that this coating was supplied by the sister company of the business that provided the gas for the gas chambers in the concentration camps! Of course there was a big stink and the company ended up donating the coating!

This is the famous Aldon Hotel that hosts many dignitaries since it is located near the main governement center and the embassies. It's also become famous as the place where Michael Jackson hung his baby out over the railing! (I didn't know that was in Berlin!) The penthouse goes for $20,000 a night.

Finally, a fun place called the Voom Fahs, where you can go to bring your empty wine,m whiskey or olive oil bottles to have them refilled! What a concept...Patrick and Erin are good customers, as are their friends and they have come to know the owners well.

The Sun, The Sun!

Yes, it finally came out for a day yesterday. Check out Patrick's blog for a blow by blow description: http://erinpatrickadventures.blogspot.com/patrickadventures.blogspot.com/

We're waiting for the big man to arrive tonight. We'll send him your way next. Merry Christmas!

Gray Christmastime in Berlin

Patrick and Erin's apartment is very European (duh), nice big rooms but lots of things I had to figure out how to work! From the 2" square light switches to the toilet to the hard to remove plastic top on the bottled water. It's such an experience being a foreigner! I've gotten good at saying "Spreckenzie English?" to store clerks and waitresses via Patrick's lead. And mostly they do. You can't get a plain old glass of water in the restaurants...it has to be bottled mineral water or sparkling water. Apparently after the war (which WAS 60 years ago!) the water system was rusting and tainted so no one trusted tap water...and apparently they still don't.

We have ridden on hundreds of trains (S-bhan) and subways (U-bahn) all of which are ALWAYS on time. During the day they run every 10 minutes, you jump on and suddenly you pop-up at the Brandenburg Gate or you are streaming by the Olympic Stadium. It's very cool. One thing is, the Germans make very little eye contact and you could hear a pin drop on the trains if it wasn't for the loud Americans. They don't talk! Also, don't say hello on the street...however the Polish-German couple across the hall with their three young boys have become good friends.

Did you know they sell beer over here in ONLY one liter or larger sizes?? I saw Heinekin in a large champagne-size bottle in the airport! Kids can drink at 16 and even learn the chemistry behind brewing beer, making wine and distilling whiskey in school.

Erin's 5th grade class is filled with exceptional young kids. To get into the John F. Kennedy public school they must know both English and German. Plus many are Embassy kids or kids who have parents from different countries. Patrick and I took their Xmas presents into them on Friday which was fun.

And everywhere I go in the subway or train station I see Patrick Dempsey's FACE on a German poster advertising a new movie.

Oh, did I mention that it is gray here? Very GRAY. There's a dense cloud cover and has been for a very long time. I think the kids and their friends are really feeling the effect. Erin says when the sun does come out it doesn't exactly rise in the sky; it just goes up a little and proceeds in a straight line across the sky. We're that much closer to the Arctic Circle.

I am totally enjoying my time here...we went to a party hosted by some teacher friends Friday right after school was out; ended up singing carols around the piano played by the music teacher from school (a great guy from Atlanta!). And today we went with six of their friends, including two precious 18 month old girls to the BrauHaus to have a Weinacht (Christmas) brew.

Merry Christmas to all and don't forget to email me!

Pat

22 1/2 hours later...

Dateline 06:30 Birmingham, AL: The alarm goes off and it's time to get myself ready for Corey to pick me up and take me to the airport! It's been quite a long time since I spent an entire flight talking with my seat mate, but I met a woman who is a researcher at UAB (school of medicine, nephrology) and she made the trip to Detroit really fun, especially since she had lived in Berlin and Dresden!

I found myself sitting next to a young man from Portugal on the Detroit to Amsterdam leg (7 - 1/2 hours) of the journey. Turns out he goes to college in Michigan and represented Portugal in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens and will be going to Beijing in 2008 to swim the 1500 meter for his country! So look for Fernando Costa next summer at the games. He was a very nice guy. And cute too!

I watched a great movie for all you Shambhala movie night fans...The Darjeeling Limited. Check it out.

You can see how excited I was to be in Europe by the fact that I took photos of the Amsterdam airport! Actually it was one of the glitziest airports I've been in with all kinds of sleek European shops and somewhat gaudy Christmas decorations. But not a Euro did I spend...perhaps on the way back, for all those of you expecting Swiss or Dutch chocolate or wooden shoes from Holland.

So 22 1/2 hours later Patrick had picked me up at the airport; we took two buses and arrived at 83 Hampstead Strasse and I was ready for a nap. It was 3 am Birmingham time!

We're off to a Christmas Market tonight and an old church...

Tschuss (good-bye),

Pat