Wednesday in Berlin

Amsterdam to Berlin was not a good option because of the lack of low fare airlines. There is one such airline but it only operated a late afternoon flight which would do us no good. So we were forced to train it over to Berlin which necessitated a 5 hour ride. The trains were nice; it was relaxing and it allowed us to catch up on some Zzzzz's. And one leg included the famous German ICE train which at one point was running over 180 miles per hour!

Upon arrival we took the S-Bahn elevated train to the stop closest our hotel and upon arrival learned that the hotel had experienced a fire the previous weekend and many rooms were destroyed. But they called us a taxi and moved us to the much more expensive Crowne Plaza and only charged us their cheaper rate. So we could complain about that.

Northern Germany in winter, especially this far east in the time zone, means it gets dark around 4pm. So we had to move quickly but we only got to experience the Victory Column, Reichstag and Brandenburg Gate before it got pitch black. Like London, we purchased a Day Ticket (Tageskarte) for the local transit system which goes literally everywhere. The largest department store on the European continent is in Berlin....Ka De We....and stopped there before they closed to buy a couple items. My friend had a mission and that was to experience a real German meal. We both had Wiener Schniztels (Breaded Veal Cutlets, Vienna Style) which is actually Austrian, not German. But they were delicious. We both agreed the German girls were the best of the 3 cities; beautiful. And we couldn't get enough of the skinny jeans tucked into tall black boots look seen everywhere. We just don't get enough of that look here in Florida!